Oh, so close!
Cruz Culpepper almost - ALMOST - became the third high schooler ever to break 4 minutes for the full mile indoors at the Husky Classic Saturday afternoon at the University of Washington's Dempsey Track, which measures as an oversized track roughly 307 meters.
The Niwot senior came agonizingly close, diving for the line to run 4:00.10 among collegians to become the fourth fastest high school indoor miler ever -- though the performance won't be in the high school record books based that it was on an oversized track.
Culpepper's 4:00.10 is only behind Drew Hunter's 3:57.81, Alan Webb's 3:59.86, and Brodey Hasty's 4:00.05. All three previous high schoolers achieved those feats on standard 200 meter tracks.
That's the second time in two weeks that Culpepper has come within striking distance of the barrier. Two weeks ago he ran 4:01.66 at the UW Invite, the fastest high school indoor mile time ever recorded on an oversized track. He's currently a full nine seconds ahead of everyone in the country.
The Dempsey has made a history of being the home of fast performances, especially so for high school performances. In 2014, Alexa Efraimson ran the fastest 3K ever recorded for a high school girl, going 9:00.16.
Clearly, he's inching his way down to the magical sub-4 barrier.
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