All time US 11th grade and under mile list:
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[B]Conner Burns - 3:58.83[B]
Jim Ryun - 3:59
[B]Simeon Birnbaum - 3:59.51[B]
[B]Devan Kipyego - 4:00.64[B]
[B]Rocky Hansen - 4:00.76[B]
[B]Leo Young - 4:00.77[B]
Bernie Montoya - 4:01.32
Rheinhardt Harrison - 4:01.34 (10th)
[B]Aaron Sahlman - 4:01.34[B]
[B]Lex Young - 4:01.52[B]
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This list discludes Webb's junior year 1600 DMR split of 3:59 his junior year for obvious reasons.
wtf is going on??? Obviously the shoes play some part, whether it be during the race or during training, but even if these modern trainers/racers take multiple seconds off per mile '23 is still head and toe above any other class... is this an anomaly, or is this just the logical conclusion to the growing online highschool running culture? To the increasingly competitive standards one must meet to win championship races? Are these guys all simultaneously blasting tren????
Keep in mind, this has happened before. 3 guys did it in back to back years in the 60s, then everything quieted down for 3 decades. 5 guys all went under 4:01 in 2017, after back to back years of 2 guys both breaking it. Still though, both of those historical periods saw these accomplishments being set by seniors, never has a junior class exploded the way '23 has. And we're not even mentioning the 32 or xc 5k.
All 7 of these guys are faster this year than Sahlman, Martin, and Sherry were last year. Sahlman went on to run 3:56. Are all of these guys going to be better than Colin and Martin next year? They had just as much access to modern racing spikes and trainers, yet they were all slower than the current juniors (with maybe the exception of Harrison, who was clearly at or near sub 4 shape before his injury last year) But then again if this were one big coincidence would it explain the massive times we've been seeing from the 800, or from the freshman milers?