A Ranking Of The US Father-Son Sub-4 Mile Combos: Alan And Cruz Culpepper Join The List At #3

By Robert Johnson
February 4, 2021

Last weekend, the list of father-son sub-4 mile combos in US history went from four to five as University of Washington freshman Cruz Culpepper broke 4:00 for the first time at the UW Indoor Preview in Seattle. While Cruz’s dad, Alan, was an Olympian in both the 10,000 and marathon, he also was a sub-4 miler, with a 3:55.12 personal best.

I thought it would be fun to add up the mile pbs for the US father-son combos to see who comes out on top. The Gregoreks — John and Johnny — are the clear winners, ahead of the Centrowitzes, Matt and Matthew.

Ranking of Father-Son Sub-4 US Combos
7:41.32 – John (3:51.34 in 1982) and Johnny (3:49.98 in 2019) Gregorek
7:45.47 – Matt (3:54.94 in 1981) and Matthew (3:50.53 in 2014) Centrowitz
7:54.65 – Cruz (3:59.53 in 2021) and Alan (3:55.12 in 1998) Culpepper
7:56.56 – Sam Jr (3:56.7h in 1969) and Sam Bair III (3:59.72 in 2010)
7:57.29 – Barry (3:58.8h in 1973) and Darren (3:58.35 in 2008) Brown

LetsRun.com recognized Cruz’s talent a long time ago. We snapped a photo of him at the 2003 USA XC meet, where he watched dad take home the crown. More 2003 USA XC photos.

Note: For hand times, we added .14 to to the time.

To see the full list of 13 international father-son sub-4 mile combos, check out this piece from Bring Back The Mile.

Talk about Culpepper’s sub-4 and the father-son sub-4 milers on our messagebard. Here are some father-son related messageboard threads over the years on LetsRun.com.