At least 46 runners recorded a sub-four-minute mile at seven indoor meets across the United States this weekend.
David Monti of Race Results Weekly compiled a list of each meet’s sub-four count in a Tweet Monday morning.
Most of those times were by NCAA runners, displaying collegiate runners’ prowess in the historic discipline.
A dozen athletes ran sub-four for the first time ever, including Boston College’s Steven Jackson, TinMan Elite’s Austin Miller and Iowa State’s Chad Johnson.
All eight sub-fours at the UW Invite were recorded in the same race by Washington teammates. The Huskies were led by NCAA 1500m champion Joe Waskom’s 3:51 — the third-fastest indoor mile in collegiate history.
The weekend’s results were welcomed by retired Olympian Ben Blankenship’s Endless Mileage Project, which plants a new tree every time a U.S. female athlete runs sub-4:30 or a male athlete runs sub-4:00 in the mile for the first time. On top of the dozen men, three new women also hit the barrier, meaning the project will plant 15 new trees at Dorris Ranch outside of Eugene, OR.
One of the new sub-4:30s — Alicia Monson’s 4:23.55 win at the Dr. Sander Invitational — was the eighth-fastest U.S. mile of all time. In the same race, Katelyn Tuohy (also a new sub-4:30 athlete) broke the NCAA mile record in 4:24.
And Northern Arizona Elite star Krissy Gear (the third new 4:30 athlete) continued her 2023 unbeaten streak (at three different distances from 800m to the mile) with a 4:29 at Boston University’s Terrier Classic.
Two more women — Whittni Morgan (4:23.97, U.S. #9 all-time) and Sinta Vissa (4:28) — also dipped under the 4:30 mark this weekend.
The mile is the only non-metric measurement that USATF and World Athletics recognize as a record distance. More U.S. runners broke four minutes in 2022 than any other year ever, with a whopping 63 athletes going under the barrier for the first time. The next-best year, in terms of first-time sub-fours, was 2021 with 35 athletes.
These numbers indicate that as training methods and footwear technology become more advanced, the four-minute-mile barrier will continue to become less and less elusive.
