A trip to visit the first great prep miler.

[Lancermania]

Jim Ryun first broke 4:00 as a high school junior in 3:59 in s stacked race where all competitors had times under 4:00.

At the AAU championships in 1965, he set what was the high school record in the mile at 3:55.3 and which lasted for 36 years.
Then on July 17, 1966, he set the world record in the mile at 3:51.3.
To anyone who questions if he ever broke the 4:00 mile in high school only competition, the answer is yes. He ran 3:58.3 at the 1965 Kansas high school state championship.

 

[Mr. Slippery]

Were you a victim of autocorrect? It's Ryun, not Ryan.

 

[Lancermania]

Thanks for the correction.

 

[JAVMAN83]

As a follow-up, I note the following performances by Ryun from his incredible HS career. NOBODY has come close to the depth & quality. Also, these performances were all on either cinder or natural surfaces, not today's advanced synthetic tracks.

May 1964 - HS junior - Mile (1st) - 4:01.7 HSR, World age-17 best, finished by a 55.7 last lap
6/5/64 - HS junior - Mile (8th) - 3:59.0 HSR, World age-17 best @ the Compton Mile Invite - 56.2 last lap
6/8/64 - HS junior - 1500m (4th) - 3:39.0 HSR, World age-17 best @ AAU final
9/13/64 - HS senior - 1500m (3rd) - 3:41.9 - Olympic Trials final
5/15/65 - HS senior - Mile (1st) - 3:58.3 HSR, World age-18 best @ Kansas State meet -

June 1965 - HS senior - Mile (3rd) - 3:56.8 HSR, World age-18 best
6/27/65 - HS senior (1st) - 3:55.4 HSR, new American Record, World age-18 best in defeating defending Tokyo Olympic Champion Peter Sell - last lap of 53.9 with last 220 of 26.6 -

5 times under 4:00 as a HSer
3:55.3 (sr)
3:56.8 (sr)
3:58.1 (sr)
3:58.3 (sr)
3:59.0 (jr)