Examining Whether Anyone Will Break 4 In The Mile In 2019

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Video: Cole Sprout and Cruz Culpepper battled to the line for 4:04 miles a few weeks ago in Nashville

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Breaking 4-minutes in the mile seemed impossible for any high school boy for a long time, and then it happened in succession for three straight years in the mid 60s. 

That breakthrough, however, didn't last. 

It would take over three decades for it to happen again at the high school level before Alan Webb came along in 2001. But again, the Virginia native's singular success wasn't a broader theme. 

Another decade came before we witnessed it again with Lukas Verzbicas in 2011. Then the high school running community saw three straight years of sub-4s by the likes of Grant Fisher, Matthew Maton, Drew Hunter, Michael Slagowski and Reed Brown in 2015, 2016 and 2017. 

Those successes over a three period period seemed to indicate that the barrier was coming down on a more regular occasion. But history still proves that breaking 4-minutes in the mile is still an exclusionary cause for high sch...