GREENSBORO, N.C. — Jonathan Hallman, a rising senior at Pickens High School, took second place at the New Balance High School Outdoor National Championships in Greensboro with a time of 7:17 in the mile race walk on Friday, June 18.

Hallman, 16, was the second-highest finisher among the 20 South Carolinians in the meet.

University of Texas bound-sprinter Briana Nelson of J.L. Mann High School in Greenville won the 400-meter dash championship a 53.14

Seven girls and 13 boys from South Carolina high schools entered the meet, which requires athletes to meet a national qualifying standard.

Hallman entered the national meet having set a new state record in the event the previous week. At the USATF Junior Olympics in Myrtle Beach on June 21, he posted a 16:08 in the 3000-meter race walk, taking more than six minutes off the previous state record.

Hallman, who also runs cross country and track at Pickens, is a member of the school’s 4x800-meter relay team, which also took fourth place in the state 3-A championships in Columbia this spring.

He said that his father, a race walker himself, taught Jonathan the sport when he was around eight years old — and he’s been race walking ever since.

During the 2010 race walk season, he has earned a berth at the 116th Penn Relays, the World Youth Olympic Trials and the U.S. National Race Walk Championships, all 10-kilometer events.

Race walking is a distance competition. It differs from running in that one foot must be in contact with the ground at all times.

In the Olympics, it is the longest of the distance events. The men’s 50-kilometer race walk covers more than 31 miles — five miles longer than the marathon.

Training for a race walk is done on flat surfaces or tracks, Hallman said.

“Race walkers don’t like hills,” he said.

The longest distance that Hallman has raced is 10 kilometers, or 6.2 miles.

But he’ll double that distance when he competes in a 20k this August — race walking 12.4 miles.

Hallman’s goal is to earn a spot on the Junior Olympic team, and eventually the U.S. Olympic team.

“The Junior National team is for kids 19 and under,” he said. “It’s one step below the Olympic team. When they turn 20 that’s when they start shooting for the goal of the actual Olympic team.”

Of the three sports he races in — race walking, cross country and track — race walking is his favorite to compete in, Hallman said.