As both a Long Islander and a runner, I was intrigued when I saw Northport's Mike Brannigan as a link on letsrun. I knew he was good, but the high school junior must have done something unbelievable and/or unusual to land his name on a national running site.

Then, I read that Long Island's Runner of the Year for the fall cross country season had autism, and that running maybe helped him handle its detrimental effects and brought out its positive sides, according to an article on Dye Stat.

With his team consistently ranked among Long Island's top ten (regardless of sport) in Newsday, it was surprising to read the newspaper never mentioned Brannigan's condition before. Newsday probably covers high school sports better than maybe any major newspaper in the United States (so much so that it has its own smaller publication for high school, MSG Varsity). Even if running is a fairly neglected sport in most regions, a story such as that would have likely been picked up.

But, according to Dye Stat, Brannigan's parents kept their son's condition quiet (though obviously his coach and teammates knew), fearing it would scare off the many college coaches clamoring for his services. They were wrong. The coaches are still there; only they've added links to support programs to suit Brannigan's needs.

It's unclear how much Brannigan's autism helps his running and how much running helps his autism, or if he is simply an elite runner who happens to have autism. His his first running coach and parents support believe they feed off each other, and that too often youth with Brannigan's condition are overlooked in athletics, according to Dye Stat.

That might make sense for certain sports, at least in Brannigan's case. Though he demonstrated athleticism at an early age, he wasn't comfortable with contact sports like lacrosse and basketball. When he discovered running, however, he took to it immediately.

"Mikey is not the abnorm as an athlete with autism," Cuomo told Dye Stat. "The reason you haven't seen it before is that we never gave anyone (with autism) a chance."

"This is the sport for (autistic kids)," Cuomo said. "Think about it. Running is repetitive. It's left-right, left-right. All you have to do is breathe. And it's a compulsion. All of those things fit with autism."

Brannigan earned Runner of the Year honors by winning the Suffolk County Championships (16:12), finishing second by a few tenths of a second at the state championships (15:16), and winning the New York regional meet (15:29) to help his team qualify for nationals, where he finished 50th individually (15:40). As you can imagine just from the places, those are some quick times for a high schooler, especially one who's just a junior.

"The gap was far and wide between Mikey and the peers in his age group," Edie Brannigan said. "I wish I could (scientifically) prove it, but within two years he was age-appropriate with his typical peers. We knew right then that whatever he was doing with the running was doing something in his brain at a pronounced rate. It was a miracle."