Jon Rankin’s feet pounded toward the finish line in the
mile on Saturday afternoon, but his eyes were riveted to the
scoreboard.
He didn’t need to look.
The roar of the Drake Stadium crowd was enough to confirm that
the UCLA fifth-year senior was approaching a milestone.
Rankin became the first Bruin in a quarter century to break the
4-minute mark in the mile on Saturday afternoon at the Rafer
Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational, crossing the finish line
with his right arm raised in triumph in 3 minutes, 57.89
seconds.
“There was such a great field with such a great group of
guys, my biggest goal was to go out there and win it,” Rankin
said.
“Of course in the back of your head, you’re like
“˜I hope its there, I would love to break four minutes.’
But winning it was the most important part. I feel so honored and
so blessed. I honestly still can’t believe this has happened.
I don’t think it’s sunk in yet.”
Rankin’s performance in the mile was the fastest in the
world so far this year and the third fastest in school history. The
last time a Bruin ran a faster mile was Ron Cornell in 1980, but
Bob Day, who was in attendance on Saturday, still holds the UCLA
record at 3:56.40.
“It’s a magical barrier since it’s an even
minute,” said Day, who set his record in 1965.
“It’s mostly a mental thing. If you break four minutes,
you have to be very well prepared physically, but probably you have
to be more prepared mentally and not be afraid of it. These guys
are not afraid of it.”
It was Peterson who first raised the possibility that Rankin
could accomplish the feat, after the fifth-year senior’s
impressive performance in the 1500 meters last month at the
Stanford Invitational when he ran a lifetime-best 3:44.87.
This weekend’s meet provided a rare opportunity to run the
mile. And Rankin, who had never come close to the 4-minute mark
before, took full advantage.
Rankin pushed to the front of the pack early in the race, and
increased his lead over the course of the race. He finished more
than one second in front of BYU’s Brian Lindsay, who also
broke the 4-minute mark, and almost five seconds ahead of teammate
Ben Aragon (4:02.69), who finished third.
“I had a feeling two weeks ago after Stanford,”
Peterson said. “He had raced well, but he just left himself a
little short. So because of that I positioned myself (on the field)
where there was 200 meters left, so I could see his face, and I
could tell he had a lot of run left in him.
“That was a pretty good field he ran against today. It was
probably the highest level of field he’s beaten
ever.”
After Saturday’s performance, Rankin joins a select group
of athletes who have broken the barrier. However part of the
mystique of the sub-4-minute mile may lie in the fact that the
event is such a rarity now.
The 1500 meters ““ a more popular event at a distance less
than a mile ““ is contested at the NCAA Outdoor Championships,
so most collegiate programs like UCLA have shied away from the
event entirely.
“If they run the mile weekend after weekend, (my record)
would have been broken a long time ago,” Day said. “I
was actually hoping it would be broken. I was really rooting for
Jon or Ben because it’s time for the record to be done and
Jon has it in him.”
Peterson said that because of the recent transition to the
Regionals format, schools could start putting more emphasis on the
mile. Both he and UCLA men’s track and field coach Art
Venegas said that the publicity from Rankin’s achievement
might also convince other meets to include the mile.
“The performance of the meet for me was Rankin,”
Venegas said. “It was well deserved and such a long time
coming.”