Jim Ryun’s 53-year-old indoor mile record was beaten by Fort Hays State coach
It’s hard to imagine now, but Allen Fieldhouse once was home to a six-lane, 220-yard dirt track.
It was on that track that Kansas’ Jim Ryun ran an indoor mile in 3 minutes, 58.8 seconds at the Kansas Federation meet on March 3, 1967, per Mile Split.
Mile Split said that remained the fastest any Kansas native had run the indoor mile on Kansas soil until Feb. 13, when it was bested by Fort Hays State assistant track coach Brett Meyer at Washburn’s Ichabod Invitational in Topeka.
This is from the Fort Hays State website: “Running unattached, graduate assistant coach and former All-American Brett Meyer won the mile run with a sub-four time of 3:58.39.”
Meyer was born in Scott City, Kansas, and attended Scott Community High School. But Mile Split notes Meyer didn’t only run track and cross country in high school. He’s in his first year as a graduate assistant at Fort Hays.
“I really believe doing multiple sports in high school laid the background,” Meyer told Mile Split. “I had some injuries in high school in football and basketball, but I realized when I got to college that I was just stronger and more athletic than some of the guys who focused on running a lot earlier than I did.
“As a result, I didn’t really have any injury issues in college which helped me handle the higher training volume and training loads to be able to run this fast.”
Ryun, who was born in Wichita and attended Wichita East High School, became the first high school athlete to run the mile in under four minutes. He accomplished the feat at the the Compton Invitational in California in 1964 by finishing in 3:59.
A year later, Ryun won a state track meet in Wichita with a time of 3:58.3 in the mile.
This story was originally published February 24, 2021 at 8:46 AM with the headline "Jim Ryun’s 53-year-old indoor mile record was beaten by Fort Hays State coach."
