More Sub-Four Fun

Kyle Merber, the news-making sophomore from Columbia, is at the center of an emerging mile revolution in the United States. In fact, already this year a record 18 Americans have recorded their first sub-4 mile and, at least here in Indianapolis, we have remnants of snow still on the ground.

Track & Field News has updated its list of U.S. sub-fours and it turns out that Merber became the 343rd American to do it and, from our preliminary research, the 11th 17th such Ivy Leaguer Heps athlete (thanks to Nathan Taylor and Greg Page). Review this list and let me know if you spot others.

Merber’s 3:58.52 on Friday is the fastest first sub-four among Heps runners as a collegian since April 27, 1974, when Denis Fikes of Penn was faster at the Penn Relays! That’s Denis, now known as D. Elton Cochran-Fikes, pictured.

Also, a little praise of Bill Burke’s Heps indoor record which lasted more than 19 years. Burke won the Millrose Games by going sub-four on the small wooden track in Madison Square Garden… without a rabbit. Princeton Coach Fred Samara still calls it “one of the all time great collegiate miles.”

Here is the Ivy sub-four roster as I know it:

68. Denis Fikes (Penn), 3:55.0 [Philadelphia: April 27, 1974]
69. Karl Thornton (Penn^), 3:57.9 [Philadelphia: April 27, 1974]
90. Craig Masback (Princeton^), 3:59.6 [Oxford: June 17, 1978]
133. Adam Dixon (Harvard), 3:59.39 [Luxembourg: July 20, 1983]
139. Cliff Sheehan (Harvard), 3:59.2 [Philadelphia: April 27, 1985]
167. Greg Whiteley (Brown), 3:59.15 [Westwood: June 10, 1989]
173. Bill Burke (Princeton), 3:58.70 i [New York: Feb. 1, 1991]
177. Bill Rathbun (Cornell^), 3:59.94 i [Boston: Feb. 16, 1991]
191. Ronnie Harris (Navy^), 3:58.03 [Eugene: June 5, 1993]
192. Bob Lesko (Yale^), 3:58.23 [Eugene: June 5, 1993]
212. Dan Browne (Army), 3:59.37 i [Annapolis: Feb. 1, 1997]
219. Darin Shearer (Harvard^), 3:59.76 [Falmouth: Aug. 16, 1997]
227. Scott Anderson (Princeton^), 3:59.80 [Brunswick: July 4, 1998]
261. Aaron Lanzel (Navy^), 3:59.88 [Eugene: June 19, 2004]
296. Ben True (Dartmouth), 3:59.99 [Cambridge: June 17, 2007]
315. Liam Boylan-Pett (Columbia^), 3:59.40 i [University Park: Jan. 31, 2009]
343. Kyle Merber (Columbia), 3:58.52 i [New York: March 5, 2010]

^ Indicates that they managed their first sub-four after college. The ‘i’ following the time indicates that the debut sub-four was achieved indoors.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 12:30 pm. It is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.