TRACK & FIELD

• Mitch Modin, Dakota Keys in top four after first day of Pac-12 combined event championships
• Portland-based sprinter Joe Morris shines at the Oregon Twilight: Oregon track & field rundown
• Prep star Matthew Maton delights the Oregon Twilight crowd with a sub-four mile
• The Ducks have turned the Oregon Twilight into a good show: Oregon track & field rundown
• Oregon sprinter Jenna Prandini remains on the women's watch list for The Bowerman

By LetsRun.com
May 8, 2015

Jim Ryun. Tim Danielson. Marty Liquori. Alan Webb. Lukas Verzbicas. Matthew Maton.

Matthew Maton of Bend, Ore., wrote his name into the history books on Friday night at Hayward Field, running 3:59.38 for the mile to become just the sixth U.S. high schooler (5th American) to break 4:00. Despite windy conditions, the University of Oregon recruit closed hard (we had him at 57.5 on the final lap) to break the barrier on his future home track. He finished third in the race behind current Duck stars Eric Jenkins (3:57.09) and Will Geoghegan (3:57.53).

Maton reacts to history

Maton competed in the meet unattached after parting ways with his high school team, Summit High School, in March (check out this Oregonian article for details on the split). Maton, who was 19th at Foot Lockers last fall after taking third as a junior, is now self-trained according to the Oregonian article, working out at Mountain View High School, though he runs his workouts by his mother, Michelle Dekkers, the 1988 NCAA XC champion at Indiana. Maton, who turned 19 on March 28, is older than most high school seniors.

The Race (video of race below results)

The race was not set up for Maton, but rather for Jenkins and Geoghegan, with former Ducks Mac Fleet and Matt Miner scheduled to take the duo through 1000 meters in 2:27 and 1200 in 2:58. The field strung out immediately and Maton settled into sixth place, leading the second pack behind the front five of Fleet, Miner, Jenkins, Geoghegan and Isaac Presson. He hit 409 meters in 61.4 (we got splits off the webstream and they did not always show Maton crossing the line so they may not be 100% accurate) and the pack continued to string out.

Recognizing that it would take a big effort to bridge the gap to the leaders, Maton decided to move back slightly and allow Sam Prakel and an Oregon runner to lead the chase pack and break the wind for him. He did this for the next two laps (2:00.6 at 809 after a 59.2 lap, 3:01.6 at 1209 after a 61.0 lap) and by the time he hit the bell was well back of Jenkins and Geoghegan up front.

Maton (black singlet) still had work to do on the final turn

Maton would need to close in approximately 58 seconds or faster to get under 4:00. Did he have anything in the tank? Yes. With 400 to go, Maton surged and immediately broke away from the chasers. The strain on his face was evident as he streaked down the back stretch, but he was moving quickly, picking up ground on the leaders with every stride. With 200 to go, he had overhauled Presson and the gap to Jenkins and Geoghegan was shrinking significantly. Sub-4:00 seemed a distinct possibility.

Entering the home stretch, Jenkins and Geoghegan began to pull away — they were kicking now too — but Maton was focused on another foe: the clock. With the crowd cheering him on, he threw himself across the line and awaited his time on the scoreboard. When 3:59.38 flashed on the screen, the crowd erupted and Maton fell to his knees, bringing his head to the track in a display of raw emotion. Unofficially, we had his last lap in 57.5 seconds.

After the race, Dave Ross spoke to Maton for LetsRun.com. Maton said (video below) that he was focused on going sub-four here, as he had run 3:42.54 for 1,500m at the Oregon Relays last month (equivalent to a 4:00-flat mile give or take a few tenths) and this was the last race of the year where he was going to focus on time versus winning the race.

“I knew you’re not supposed to fixate on running sub four if you’re going to do it as you’re going to put too much pressure on yourself, but I would have been disappointed if I didn’t (do it),” he said. He said that after a gap opened up to the lead group at the end of the second lap he thought, “Oh gosh I lost it,” but his future Oregon teammates (Chris Brewer and Trent Warren we believe) helped keep him in it.

Once he hit the bell he said, “I was a little behind time where I liked to be, so I knew I really had to work the last lap. I just put it all on the line the last lap and it worked out.”

America, Meet Your Latest Sub-4:

Results and quick take analysis appear below.

Results

  1 Jenkins, Eric             SR Oregon                 3:57.09    
  2 Geoghegan, Will           SR Oregon                 3:57.53    
  3 Maton, Matthew            SR Unattached             3:59.38    
  4 Presson, Isaac               Furman Elite           4:00.65    
  5 Kincaid, William          JR Portland               4:00.76    
  6 Brewer, Chris             JR Oregon                 4:06.57    
  7 Warren, Trent             JR Oregon                 4:07.16    
  8 Prakel, Sam               SO Unattached             4:11.99    
  9 Watson, Cole              SR Oregon                 4:15.15    
 -- Fleet, Mac                   Nike OTC Elite             DNF    
 -- Miner, Matt                  Hoka One One               DNF

A half-century after a Kansas high schooler ran the mile in under 4:00, precious few runners have caught up

ENLARGE

Fifty years ago on Friday, Jim Ryun ran the mile in 3:58.3 at the Kansas state high-school meet. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

By 

KEVIN HELLIKER

May 14, 2015 6:37 p.m. ET

16 COMMENTS

On Monday I called Jim Ryun, thinking it would be cool to tell the greatest miler in American history something he might not know about the mile: Last weekend, a high-school student named Matthew Maton ran it in 3:59.38.

But Ryun was way ahead of me, having heard that news within minutes of it happening. “That makes six of us,” Ryun said, referring to the number of American high-school students who have run the mile under four minutes.

It was 50 years ago Friday that Ryun broke the tape in 3:58.3 at a Kansas high-school track meet in Wichita, his hometown. Yet it does Ryun little justice to note that only five other high-school runners have reached that goal in a half-century. Of those five, four did so at non-high-school events, meaning they benefited from older and often-faster competition. In breaking four minutes last Friday night, for instance, Maton finished third behind two University of Oregon runners. The fifth student to break four, Lukas Verzbicas, ran 3:59.71 at the 2011 Adidas Dream Mile, an annual competition between the nation’s fastest high-school milers.

The six U.S. high schoolers who have run sub-4-minute miles:

·         Alan Webb (Reston, Va.): 3:53.43 (2001)

·         Jim Ryun (Wichita, Kan.): 3:55.3 (1965)

·         Matthew Maton (Bend, Ore.): 3:59.38 (2015)

·         Tim Danielson (Chula Vista, Calif.): 3:59.4 (1966)

·         Lukas Verzbicas (Orland Park, Ill.): 3:59.71 (2011)

·         Marty Liquori (Cedar Grove, N.J.): 3:59.8 (1967)

By contrast, Ryun’s run came against narrower and slower competition: his fellow Kansas high-school runners. Even so, his time that day stood as the high-school mile record for 36 years until Virginia’s Alan Webb ran the mile in 3:53.43 at the Prefontaine Classic in 2001, finishing fifth behind some world-class stars.

“When someone is setting the pace, it just makes it easier,” said Robert Johnson, a founding editor of the website LetsRun.com, noting that pursuing faster runners provides not only a psychological push but potential wind protection.

Let me be clear that this argument doesn’t come from Ryun, a 68-year-old former U.S. Congressman now living in Lawrence, Kan. In our conversation this week, Ryun insisted he received a big push 50 years ago at that meet from a Wichita East teammate, Mike Petterson, who managed for half the race to keep pace with Ryun. “Thank you, Mike Petterson,” said Ryun.

Ryun’s 50-year-old finish still stands as the fastest time in a race between high-school milers. Yet there’s another measure by which he stands above the other high schoolers who have broken 4:00. A year before that state meet, Ryun became the first high-school student to break four minutes, finishing eighth behind some international stars with a time of 3:59 at the Compton (Calif.) Relays, a non-high-school event.

At that time, Ryun was 17 years old and 38 days, according to LetsRun—making him by far the youngest high-school runner ever to break four minutes. By contrast, when Maton achieved that feat last weekend, he was 19 years old and 41 days—two years older than Ryun was. Age matters, given that milers tend to peak in their mid-20s.

Here, too, Ryun sounded no competitive notes, choosing instead to praise young runners who participate in the true mile, as opposed to the metric equivalent—the 1,500 meters—that is run these days in international events and most high-school meets. A big supporter of a campaign called Bring Back the Mile, Ryun says that that distance resonates more deeply with the American public. “We drive our cars using miles. We measure our walks by miles,” he said. “We lose some of the public when we don’t keep a standard they can identify with.”

Ryun’s legacy is built around the traditional mile, at which he twice held world records, though he also won a silver medal in the 1,500 meters at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Four years later in Munich he was favored to win gold until a competitor tripped him in a qualifying heat, ending his Olympic career.

Nostalgic fans of the mile may want to focus their attention on the Adidas Grand Prix in New York on June 13. Along with pro stars such as Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, who will race the 200, the meet will feature the high-school Dream Mile, an annual fixture since 2010, this year pitting Oregon’s Maton against Michigan’s Grant Fisher, who last year beat Maton and took first in 4:02.

“Now the question is whether Fisher can join Maton—and whether we can have two sub-4:00 high schoolers in the same year for the first time in history,” says a LetsRun preview of the Dream Mile.

Write to Kevin Helliker at kevin.helliker@wsj.com

Race Video From PAC-12 Network Broadcast:

Discuss Maton’s historic achievement on our messageboards:
OFFICIAL MATTHEW MATON SUB-4 THREAD!! HSer runs 3:59.38!!

Quick Take #1: Breaking 4:00 as a high schooler is never easy, and Maton had to run a near-perfect race to do it

It was Maton vs. the clock on the home stretch

This race was far from an ideal setup for Maton to break 4:00. He had no pacers himself and it was windy, which resulted in him running his first and fourth laps with no one to break the wind for him. Yet he didn’t panic, settling into the chase pack for the middle two laps with the confidence that he would have something left for the final 400. Though it certainly helped having Presson, Geoghegan and Jenkins to chase over the final lap, he still had to run into the wind for half of it, which made his 57.5 last lap extremely impressive. Realistically, this race and the adidas Dream Mile were Maton’s only two chances to get sub-4:00 this year and he got it done. Congratulations. Now, we wonder if he’ll get a spot at the Pre Classic.

Quick Take #2: The new all-time U.S. high school mile list

1. Alan Webb 3:53.43 (2001)
2. Jim Ryun 3:55.3 (1965)
3. Matthew Maton 3:59.38 (2015)
4. Tim Danielson 3:59.4 (1966)
5. Lukas Verzbicas 3:59.71 (2011)*
6. Marty Liquori 3:59.8 (1967)

This was the fastest high school mile since Webb’s 3:53 at the 2001 Pre Classic.

*Verzbicas broke 4:00 while a US HS student, but not an American citizen.

Quick Take #3: The adidas Dream Mile just became a must-watch event for all fans of American running

Jenkins congratulated Maton after the race

The Dream Mile, scheduled for June 13 at the adidas Grand Prix in New York, has been attracting the top high school milers for several years now, but few will have the anticipation accompanying this year’s edition.

“Wait,” you might be saying, “didn’t Maton just break 4:00? What is there to be excited about?”

Well, Maton may not even be the best miler in his high school class. Last year’s Dream Mile champ/two-time Foot Locker champion, Grant Fisher (4:02.02 PR), ran 3:42.89 last weekend at Payton Jordan (for comparison, Maton ran 3:42.54 at the Oregon Relays on April 17). Fisher has been unbeatable against high school competition the last two years, and he beat Maton at the Dream Mile last year, 4:02.02 to 4:03.23. Both will be running the Dream Mile this year.

A two-time Foot Locker champ against a sub-4:00 guy in a high school race? Yeah, we’re pretty excited for that one. Now the question is whether Fisher can join Maton — and whether we can have two sub-4:00 high schoolers in the same year for the first time in history.

Quick Take #4: Age does matter

Maton’s performance is incredibly impressive, but it is worth pointing out that he is 19 years old — the age of a typical college freshman. For comparison, Syracuse’s super frosh Justyn Knight has run 3:39.66 for 1,500 this year (equivalent to 3:57-3:58) and he is 113 days younger than Maton. Runners generally improve in college due to maturity and better coaching — Maton clearly has a bright future and will be in good hands with Andy Powell — but it does help Maton that he’s a year older than most high seniors.(Editot’s note: Maton isn’t a year old than most high school seniors, but most people with his birthdate are college freshman).

The LesRun.com singlet (far left) was there when Webb first broke 4:00.

Age when they first broke 4 in HS:

Matthew Maton – 19 and 41 days
Tim Danielson – 18 and 190 days
Lukas Verzbicas – 18 and 156 days
Marty Liquori -18 and 19 days
Alan Webb – 18 and 7 days
Jim Ryun – 17 and 38 days