Stoney Prowell, a senior at John Marshall, does a few warmup jumps before easily winning the boy’s 400 meter run, at Arsenal Tech High School, Indianapolis, Friday, May 8, 2015.

Update: Stoney Prowell won the state 400-meter title on June 5. This story was published earlier in the spring.

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People are talking about Marshall High School sprinter Stoney Prowell and what he did at the IPS conference track meet, but I can’t listen anymore. Need to see it for myself. Because what they’re talking about, what they’re saying Stoney Prowell did at the IPSAC meet at Broad Ripple, is unbelievable.

As in, I can’t believe it.

But everyone’s talking about it. The track coach at Marshall, Christopher Fields. The athletics director at Broad Ripple, Tom Starnes. Prowell’s mother. His brother. His sister. Even a fan in attendance that day, an Indy Star reader named Jeff DeBolt. He sent me the email that triggered what you’re about to read.

And what he wrote in that email, what others backed up as fact, sounds absurd. That in the 1,600-meter relay that day at Broad Ripple, Prowell was running the anchor lap for Marshall and received the baton in last place, nearly 100 meters behind the leader from Tech. And that over the next 400 meters Prowell reeled in one runner after another until he passed Tech at the tape to win.

“People at the track were in awe,” DeBolt wrote in that email.

Understand, as I do, that Stoney Prowell is a fantastic athlete – a senior who rushed for 654 yards on just 71 carries last fall for Marshall, with three interceptions and with long gains of 94 yards (interception return), 79 (rushing), 75 (kickoff return) and 65 (punt return).

Oh, and he’s the defending state champion in the 400 meters. Last season he became Marshall’s first state champ in 32 years. This kid can run. Nobody’s questioning that.

But the story they’re telling me. About the anchor lap he ran at IPSAC. Come on.

So here’s what I did. I went to Marshall’s next meet, the Rocket Relays – also at Broad Ripple – to watch Stoney Prowell for myself. Almost nobody was in attendance last week, more people on the track than in the stands. I’m standing next to the only fans in the bleachers, a woman and her two kids leaning against the fence, when they start yelling Stoney’s name.

Stoney Prowell (front), a senior at John Marshall, easily wins the boy’s 400 meter run, at Arsenal Tech High School, Indianapolis, Friday, May 8, 2015.

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Angie Gonzales is Stoney’s mom, and she works three jobs but always finds a way to get free for her son’s meet. Angie Prowell is Stoney’s sister, a sophomore at Marshall. DeShawn Gonzales is Stoney’s brother, 21 years old and visiting from New York.

As we’re waiting for the 1,600 relay to start, Stoney’s family is telling me about that ridiculous anchor lap he’d run a week earlier. Up in the stadium press box, Starnes had already told me the same thing. Here I am, standing in a mostly empty stadium, staring at Stoney Prowell and feeling stupid. Like it’ll happen again? You dummy.

That’s what I’m telling myself as the relay starts. We have about 3 minutes to kill before Stoney – running anchor – gets the baton, and Stoney’s coach strolls over to the fence carrying four pictures. They’re from the IPSAC meet the week before, four photos of Stoney’s epic anchor lap.

All are taken in the final 150 meters, after Stoney has made up most of the distance. The alleged distance, I should say. Anyhow, here’s what the photos show: Stoney, maybe 150 meters from the finish line, roughly 30 meters behind Tech. Then it’s Stoney, 20 meters back. Then 10. Here he is in the final photo, on Tech’s heels.

Fields hands the pictures to Stoney’s mom and starts to walk away. I stop him, tell him who I am, tell him why I’m here. Not just to see Stoney run, or even to see Stoney win. I want to see another epic performance, something like that cartoonish lap he ran a week ago. Fields tells me that what I’ve heard is true, that Stoney made up anywhere from 80 to 100 meters in one lap.

But that’s crazy, I tell Fields. Stoney’s sister pipes up.

“He’s crazy fast,” Angie Prowell says.

What everyone’s saying, I tell Stoney’s coach – what you’re saying – is hard to believe. I wish I’d seen it with my own eyes.

Fields looks out on the track. Nearly 3 minutes have passed. Marshall’s relay team is in dead last when Stoney gets the baton.

“You’re about to get your wish,” Fields tells me.

Stoney is at least 40 meters behind the leader. I ask Fields for a prediction.

“Oh, he’s got this,” Fields says, and walks away.

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On the other side of the fence, running away from us around the first turn, Stoney Prowell is gobbling up track. He’s 5-11 and 165 pounds but he looks bigger – maybe because everyone he’s chasing is so far away, and therefore looking smaller – and he’s chewing into the deficit with fast feet and enormous strides.

Halfway around the track, he’s already caught everyone. Down 40 meters at the start, he’s made up that ground with 200 meters to spare. It can’t happen – those were other anchor runners he was chasing, the best of the best – but it has.

And then Stoney is showing off. Not intentionally, no. This is a humble kid – I called him that night, and he was fabulous – but he just kept gobbling up the track, kept using those fast feet and long strides to open up a lead. By the time he breaks the tape he’s 30 or 40 meters ahead of the field. That’s a 75-meter differential in one lap.

Stoney Prowell, a senior at John Marshall, gets a hand up after catching his breath after easily winning the boy’s 400 meter run, at Arsenal Tech High School, Indianapolis, Friday, May 8, 2015.

The legend of Stoney Prowell is no legend. It’s real.

Indiana State is talking to him about running there. So is Vincennes University. Letters come every day from all over the country, not huge track schools but track schools nonetheless. Stoney tells me he’ll run track and try to play football. The family moved to Indianapolis from Lansing, Mich., five years ago, and his mom tells me his dream is to play for the Detroit Lions.

That’s the future, and who knows the future? But this is the present, and I came to Broad Ripple to watch Marshall’s Stoney Prowell do something incredible, and I saw it. And here comes his coach, Christopher Fields, strolling over to the fence and smiling.

“Stoney’s running three more relays today, and he’s a smart kid,” Fields tells me. “That was him conserving energy.”

Fields walks off with a smirk. Maybe he’s kidding. Maybe I believe him anyway.

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel