Flagpole reminds me of Squidward from Sponge Bob. What a snob.
I don't see any problem with the pacing since it is not against the rules in Washington. The guy who paced him must have been able to run a 2:02 800m from the front, right? That's a pretty good time. It works well for a 4:20 miler late in the season to get an opportunity to run an appropriate 800 for himself while being a great help to his teammate who needed a 2:02 opener to have a shot at a difficult record.
Buckley is a small school. This guy probably never had any competition other than Andy Maris' 20+ year old school record. I'm very impressed that he took this down in a dual meet. If I recall, Maris ran his time at a national level invitational.
At this time of year, Washington schools are entering the post-season. The guy who paced him undoubtedly has a League, District, and State championship coming up in the next few weeks. With his level of talent, he will be competitive all the way up to the state level. I don't think he needed to burn himself up in a dual meet.
I also paced someone in my last home dual meet. One of my teammates was ready to break 4:45 but could never get the pacing right. I hung back and helped him through 2:24 at the half. Then I took off and ran under 4:40 (for 2nd behind another teammate). The guy I paced broke 4:45 and went on to improve 2 days later at our conference meet. Oh yeah, I in that same meet I defended my conference 1600m title with a 9 second PR and set a record that stood for 22 years. Probably none of those things would have happened had I been selfish and needed to be a hero in my last dual meet.
Dual meets are rarely useful for anything other than a workout if you are running at a high level. The guy who paced this 4:05 probably thinks dual meets are a joke and was happy to help his teammate out, not to mention generating interest in the sport. I am going up to WA in a couple weeks and I will probably try to make the state meet now, just to see this guy run. I'm also curious to see how his teammate does because he will probably do great at the state level as well.