Fifteen-year-old Jason Bennett, a freshman member of the Wheeling Park High School track team, led the Ogden Mile for only 50 meters Friday night in downtown Wheeling.

But it was the right 50 meters.

Bennett outkicked 50-year-old veteran runner Mark Courtney along with 45 other participants, as he broke the tape in a time of 4:36.05, winning the event in his first ever attempt. Fourteen-year-old Wheeling resident Kyle Gramlich finished third overall at 4:38.35.

That Bennett was near the front shouldn’t have been a huge surprise — he runs the 3200 meter for the Patriots in the spring and was a cross country participant in the fall— but even he was alarmed about the fact that he was actually in the front.

‘‘That shocked me to tell you the truth,’’ Bennett said.

Perhaps the heavy rains that fell up to 40 minutes before the race slowed the course a bit. Known as one of the fastest one-mile strips in America because it’s run all-downhill, the run was added to the Ogden Race weekend in the early 1990s and the winner had broken the 4-minute mark every year until Friday.

Last year’s winner, Romania’s Ovidiu Olteanu, broke the tape in 3 minutes, 59.20 seconds. The course record was set in 2003 at a blistering 3:39.82.

None of that really mattered Friday, however, and Bennett can keep the fastest-person-in-Wheeling claim for at least a year.

‘‘I just kinda flew the last stages,’’ Bennett said. ‘‘I wanted to win bad. I just took off as hard as I could and I beat him.’’

Courtney took the lead roughly halfway through the race, but couldn’t hang on down the stretch.

There were a couple of reasons for that.

‘‘My calf was really tight, my shoes weren’t the ones I’m normally wearing,’’ he said. ‘‘I tried to hang on, but when he started coming, I couldn’t compete with those young legs. There’s no comparison in a kick for 50 meters.’’

That’s right. Courtney, who owns the ChampionChip timing business that is used as the official timer for race weekend not only in Wheeling but around the country, blew out the heel of one of his running shoes prior to the race and had to call down and get a backup pair.

He was holding them after the race, showing how the sole had nearly completely separated itself from the rest of the shoe.

The Odgen Mile is actually the last mile of the Ogden Newspapers 20K Classic, which is set for this morning at 8 a.m. Bennett said he’d never competed in the event either, something that will change today.

‘‘That’s my debut in that, too,’’ Bennett said. ‘‘I’m shooting to get under an hour and 20 minutes.’’

Courtney, one of the most decorated runners in the country at his age, wanted his time to count only in the Men’s Open Division, opening the door for Triadelphia’s Lew McGrath to pick up a trophy after a first-place finish of 5:02.35 in the Men’s Masters. He finished 11th overall.

Shepherdsville, Ky., resident Roberta Meyer won the Open Women’s Division with a time of 5:36.65. Gwen Baer, of Fort Hill, Pa., won the Women’s Masters Division in a time of 7:23.80.

Note:

Bennett and the rest of the members of the Wheeling Park track team will be presenting the colors for the playing of the National Anthem once again prior to the race and will be pulling the chips from the runners’ shoes upon their completion of the event.