Two high school sub-4:00 miles today...and the reaction is "meh"

He was a 3:59 miler. It's rare to drop to 3:53 in one race. He may get there in time. 3:58 ain't bad.

Putting the two sub tour high school runners up against each other would have been great. But no one wants to be second. Destroys their marketing value.

Why the difference? wrote:

No $hit a-hole wrote:

Back to the topic. American HS and Collegiate Distance running is a perfect recipe for never winning Olympic Gold or setting a WR.

It sure doesn't seem to hurt 100, 200, 400, 110H, 400H, LJ, etc. athletes.

That's because real American sports prep for these endevours. Our best athletes play football, basketball, baseball et al. We don't celebrate those who prance around in their underwear and run in circles for a long time.

Americans celebrate SPEED, POWER, and ATHLETICISM.

It is know "coincidence" where the $ is at in sport.

Hint: it ain't going to the boys running around in panties.

*no*

...coincidence

In my opinion we soured the whole thing when we counted a 19 year old as a "high school kid." We should never have counted a college kid that just happens to still attend a high school. What happens when a 21 year old "high school kid" runs 3:59?

Larry83 wrote:

In my opinion we soured the whole thing when we counted a 19 year old as a "high school kid." We should never have counted a college kid that just happens to still attend a high school. What happens when a 21 year old "high school kid" runs 3:59?

He was in high school, therefore he was a highschool kid. There are multiple people in the NCAA that are 23 and are counted as NCAA athletes still.

Does anyone have a video of the B race, besides the link on the runnerspace website? I can't view it cause I'm in the UK right now.

Yo guys wrote:

Does anyone have a video of the B race, besides the link on the runnerspace website? I can't view it cause I'm in the UK right now.

BBC iPlayer

Yo Metric, you still think Slagowski is going to run 1:46 this season?

Hellogi wrote:

Yo Metric, you still think Slagowski is going to run 1:46 this season?

I think he could break 1:47 if he gets in the right race.

My gut feeling is the mile isn't for him. He looks so much better running the 800. 1:48.3 solo is very impressive. 3:59.8 hanging on to an international field is not so impressive.

Look. More than likely Hunter is a 3:57 miler. Mabye he can run a little faster.

But 3:53 is light years faster than 3:57/3:58 and on a way different (higher) level of talent. Just because Alan Webb did it doesn't mean Hunter should've done it. We all know now that Webb went on to become the fastest miler in the history of our country. That type of freak talent was why he ran 3:53 in HS.

Hunter's coach talks waay too much. He appears to be an egocentric guy who happens to be enjoying his 15 minutes of fame. He put a boatload of unneeded additional pressure on Hunter prior to this race with his boastful comments of possibly being WELL BELOW Webb's mark as well as his confidence Drew will smash Verzbicas's two mile record and Rupp's 5000 records.

Hope he doesn't try to sabotage Andy Powell's efforts next year at the first hint of a freshman slump.

My gut feeling is the mile isn't for him. He looks so much better running the 800, and 1:48.3 solo against high school kids is very impressive. But 3:59 finishing 4th in an international field and beating most of them is not so impressive. By the way I'm retarded.

There is too much hype about "all the sub 4 minute milers in the 60s" In fact there weren't many:Alan Webb (Reston, Va.): 3:53.43 (2001)Jim Ryun (Wichita, Kan.): 3:55.3 (1965)Matthew Maton (Bend, Ore.): 3:59.38 (2015)Tim Danielson (Chula Vista, Calif.): 3:59.4 (1966)Lukas Verzbicas (Orland Park, Ill.): 3:59.71 (2011)Marty Liquori (Cedar Grove, N.J.): 3:59.8 (1967)6 total and 3 in three years 65 (Ryun), 66 Danielson and 67 (Liquori). So to say two sub-4s in the same day is not very noteworthy is insane.2015 and 2016 can now be considered the golden age of high school milers as there have been 3 sub 4s in 2 years. Hunter has done it both indoors and outdoors this year. Hunter is also the 3rd fastest all time. Hunter and Slagowski doing it on the same day is unprecedented.

Old news wrote:

The coach of one of those kids said basically that he reaction should be "meh."

We are the best country in the world, yet we can only get 1-2 kids a year to run as fast as runners in the 60s did on slower tracks with terrible shoes?

TAI wrote:

Other countries do not waste time with HS Track Gibberish. Kiprop was an Olympic Champion at 19. Our absolute best HS Athletes aren't even Kenya's K Squad. Kenya's Jr. Squad is as good if not better than 99.99% of the pro's in the USA 1500 and up.

And Kenya's K-squad would be better than America's best junior distance runners even if they did "waste time with HS Track Gibberish," whatever that is. Kenya and Ethiopia will always be faster and deeper than the U.S. distance corps no matter what America tries to do about it short of somehow infecting all of Iten's and Addis Ababa's mosquitoes with the causative agent malaria. The U.S. can hope for more imports like Lagat and Abdi and Meb and Khannouchi so it can grab the occasional championship medal but beyond that, sorry. No American-born man not of direct African heritage will run under 3:27 in the next 50 years, dutto 12:45, ditto 26:30.

Michael Itriss wrote:

No American-born man not of direct African heritage will run under 3:27 in the next 50 years, dutto 12:45, ditto 26:30.

Are those supposed to be your benchmarks for competitiveness on the world stage? Each of those times has been run only 7 times in history, by just three different men. Until Kiprop last year, it had been a decade or more since anyone hit those times.

So I guess we should just give up? Despite the fact that distance running by US born non-Africans is better than ever, especially at the HS level if you look at the numbers of kids running solid times? Dang, what a defeatist you are.

It was "meh" for me because both the kids had already broken the barrier. It would of been a lot more exciting if they were hovering around the 4:01-2 range and had a breakthrough.

I think you missed the point...

Ryun, Danielson, Liquori ran sub-4 on dirt tracks in heavy shoes.

40-50 years later, just the speed of the tracks should allow for more HSers to break 4.