* Rocky Hansen clocked 3:59.56 for the full mile on Sunday evening at the Virginia High Performance meet. Two days earlier, he helped Christ School to a DMR win at Penn Relays.
Photo Credit: Kyle Brazeil/MileSplit New York
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Welcome to the sub-4 club, Rocky.
After clocking 4:00.84 in the mile during the indoor season, senior Rocky Hansen out of Christ School (NC) finally broke the elusive barrier on Sunday evening at the Virginia High Performance meet in Charlottesville with a 3:59.56 winning performance against collegians.
Hansen becomes just the 18th high schooler to ever clock a mile under four minutes and joins Connor Burns as the only other miler to surpass the mark in 2023. It ranks as the 15th-best time ever posted outdoors in the event.
The historic run comes just two days after anchoring a Christ School DMR team to a Penn Relays wheel in the pouring rain in a US No. 12 all-time 9:58.15. On the final 1,600m leg, Hansen split 4:05 and helped the relay team to a win by over 17 seconds.
* Christ School (NC) wins the DMR at the 2023 Penn Relays on Friday with a US No. 13 all-time 9:58.15 mark.
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Hansen, a Wake Forest signee and a New Balance Outdoor Nationals champion at two miles, had previously gone 4:00.76 outdoors in a title-winning race at RunningLane Track Nationals in 2022 and 4:00.84 at the Millrose Games in February.
Now, Hansen, Burns and Rapid City Stevens' (SD) Simeon Birnbaum are the only high school milers who have broken four minutes and are currently competing.
And Hansen's season has only just begun. He opened up with a US No. 5 all-time 8:34.78 3,200m showing at Arcadia before a couple tune-ups leading into the end of April.
Now, he can leave the weekend with both a Penn Relays wheel and one of distance running's most storied accomplishments in hand.
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