Sport Today

by **hoffma** » Mon, 28 Sep 1998 04:00:00

I seem to remember some discussion months ago
about high school milers. Not sure, but I think I remember
somebody saying that no high schooler ever broke a
4 minute mile. What about Jim Ryun? Didn't he get
3:59/mile while he was still a junior in high school and
was accepted onto the olympic team in 64 while still
in high scool.

Does anyone know of a good web page which deals specifically
with high schoolers and domestic (USA) records?

by **Miles Laki** » Tue, 29 Sep 1998 04:00:00

Quote:

> Not sure, but I think I remember
> somebody saying that no high schooler ever broke a
> 4 minute mile.

I don't recall anyone making that statement. You can be sure it would
have generated a lot of response.

Perhaps you're confusing it with a *recent* sub 4:00 HS'er.

Quote:

> Does anyone know of a good web page which deals specifically
> with high schoolers and domestic (USA) records?

Try:

http://www.runnersworld.com/stats/

Miles

by **Miles Laki** » Tue, 29 Sep 1998 04:00:00

Quote:

> > Not sure, but I think I remember
> > somebody saying that no high schooler ever broke a
> > 4 minute mile.

Ooops, nearly forgot, try your namesake's HS running stats pages.

Here is Patrick Hoffman's All Time US High School Milers page:

http://www.cs.uml.edu/~phoffman/nats/milers1.htm

Miles

by **Steve Bezodi** » Wed, 30 Sep 1998 04:00:00

Quote:

> I seem to remember some discussion months ago
> about high school milers. Not sure, but I think I remember
> somebody saying that no high schooler ever broke a
> 4 minute mile. What about Jim Ryun? Didn't he get
> 3:59/mile while he was still a junior in high school and
> was accepted onto the olympic team in 64 while still
> in high scool.

> Does anyone know of a good web page which deals specifically
> with high schoolers and domestic (USA) records?

Three high school milers have broken 4 minutes:
1. Jim Ryun
2. Marty Liquori
3. Tim Danielson

by **Steve Isha** » Fri, 02 Oct 1998 04:00:00

Quote:

> I seem to remember some discussion months ago
> about high school milers. Not sure, but I think I remember
> somebody saying that no high schooler ever broke a
> 4 minute mile. What about Jim Ryun? Didn't he get
> 3:59/mile while he was still a junior in high school and
> was accepted onto the olympic team in 64 while still
> in high scool.

On June 6, 1964, Jim Ryun did run a 3:59.0 as a jr. in HS at the Compton
(Calif.) Invitational Open Mile (NOTE: This was not a HS-only race). Jim
placed 8th in 3:59.0. His splits were:
59.2 - 62.3 (2:01.5) - 61.3 (3:02.8) - 56.2 (3:59.0)

On May 15, 1965 Jim Ryun ran a 3:58.3 mile during the Kansas State High
School Track Championships against purely high school competition (on a
dirt track, nonetheless).

Jim Ryun and Gerry Lindgren made the 1964 Olympic team as HSers.
Jim made placed 3rd in the Oly. Trials in LA. In the Oly. Games
in Tokyo, he advanced to the semi-finals in the 1500m, were he placed 9th
& didn't qualify for the finals.

On June 27, 1965 eigh*** year-old high school senior Jim Ryun ran a
3:55.3 mile to beat Olympic champion, Peter Snell. This became the HS
mile record has stood for more than 33 years, is still standing & one has
even come close to it!

Here is a list of the top 10 all-time HS mile performances ever run (by US
HSers):
1. 3:55.3 - Jim Ryun, 1965
2. 3:56.8 - Jim Ryun, 1965
3. 3:58.1 - Jim Ryun, 1965
4. 3:58.3 - Jim Ryun, 1965
5. 3:59.0 - Jim Ryun, 1964
6. 3:59.4 - Tim Danielson, 1966
7. 3:59.8 - Marty Liquori, 1967
8. 4:00.1 - Marty Liquori, 1967
9. 4:01.1 - Marty Liquori, 1967
10. 4:01.5 - Gerry Lindgren, 1964

I thought that Gerry Lingdren also made the 1964 Olympic Team in the 5000
meters, but I can't find anything to verify this, so I could be wrong
about Gerry. I do know that Gerry still holds the US Jr. 3000 meter
record of 7:58.0, set while he was a freshman at Washington Stat on July
5, 1965. He can still run a 16:00 5K at the age of 51. He frequently
wins the overall division of road races in Hawaii.