Dylan Ferris, formerly of East Forsyth, was a stud while in high school and yesterday at the Husky Classic on the University of Washington campus, he threw down a sub-4:00 mile.
Dylan, now running for Stanford, is more known as an 800m runner although we all knew he could race the mile as evident by his high school career.
Dylan won the 2nd fastest heat with a time of 3:58.90, getting an automatic qualifying time for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
I asked Dylan a few questions after his run and here is what I received back from him. Looks like Dylan has a good head on his shoulders, is veyr proud of his team, and is excited about his future.
Race: Well, at the line the rabbit introduced himself so I know the pace would be taken care of at the begining. Coach told me just get in and race and be smooth. So about 800, when that 3rd 400 usually lags, I started moving up through the pack and tucked into second. Then with 400 to go I just went hard to the finish and turned up a little more coming off the last corner when a guy got beside me.
Goal: Coach (Jason Dunn) told me to compete and go for the win and not worry about the elusive 4 minute mile aspect of the race. He told me all week not to get caught up in chasing the clock and just compete at the front and it would take care of itself. So the goal just boils down to running to win.
Breakthrough: This is definely a huge breakthrough for me. I mean everyone knows about the 4 minute mile barrier. I did run a 8:49 time trial back in the fall for 3200 that got me pretty excited about my new strength that I would be able to work with this season. Two weeks ago, I ran 1:48.67 800 so that was the begining of the breakthrough and made me pretty confident about what this season would hold. But this is probably the biggest because it has such prestige and a lot of our guys ran great in the mile. Justin Marpole-Bird was 3:58.79, JT Sullivan was in my heat and ran 4:00.02 and Mile Unterreiner was 4:03.21 so that was two autos and two provisionals.
Horizon: I just want to stay level headed about the race and continue to train and keep getting better. We have MPSF in two weeks and I want to be ready to run there. Then get ready for NCAAs. Just stay healthy and keep taking steps forward to get better is my main focus.
Emotions: It is definitely a great thing to be able to say. As I said everyone knows what it is. If you say you run 1:48 not many people know what that means but 3:anything they know what that is all about. I have to take away from the race that it was still a race and there are still more of them to come so I have to keep focused and take my training just as serious. It is a confidence booster and does have its prestige though, so I will not forget about.
Jack Bolas, Wisconisn (fomerly Chapel Hill): 3k race (7:58)
Stephen Haas, Indiana Elite (formerly North Meck: 5k race (13:46), interview