Blogs : NCAA Division III Blog

The Sub-4 Club

Letsrun message board poster "diii fan" asks about the fastest mile time ever run in DIII.  Here is a collection of the four DIII runners to break four minutes for the mile:

May 14, 1997: Karl Paranya (Haverford '97) became the first (and to date only) Division III runner to break four minutes for the full mile while still in college.  He ran 3:57.6 on his home track while placing second to Villanova University men’s head coach Marcus O'Sullivan.  He became the 216th American to break four minutes for the mile and would end his career with a personal best of 3:54.83.  The full race video can be viewed here.  Paranya is now a math teacher at a private girls school.  He runs to stay in shape and has finished the New York City Marathon in recent years.  Below, a picture from that race taken with one lap to go.

January 28, 2006: Ryan Kleimenhagen (Wisconsin-Platteville '05) ran 3:59.00 at the Boston Indoor Games to place eleventh overall and become the 275th American (and second DIII runner) to dip under the four-minute barrier.  He was running for Team USA Minnesota at the time.  That race had the distinction of containing the most ever sub-4 performances in one race indoors as 11 of 12 finishers beat the mark.  Reached recently for comment, Kleimenhagen said: "My training has been going very well. This summer, I decided to move back to WI and train under my collegiate coach, Tom Antczak. Even though the team and the support in Minnesota was awesome, the training there wasn't for me. I'm finally feeling good again and gearing up to make a run at the trials."  Below, a picture from that race with one lap to go:

(Photo courtesy of mensracing.com)

January 13, 2007: Nick Symmonds (Willamette '06) went decidedly under four minutes in his first career race indoors as he won at the University of Washington in 3:56.72.  Running for the Oregon Track Club under coach Frank Gagliano, Nick became the 283rd American under four minutes: "The first picture is of me running in the old Nike gear (one of only two races I would run in this uniform). I'm following the two rabbits I had for the race.  They are my teammates Sean O'Brien (lead) and Eliott Blount (2nd)."

(Photo courtesy of Nick Symmonds)

"The other pic is of me and two of my good friends right after running my 3:56. The tall guy on the left is Coach Jimmy Bean who coached me at Willamette and is now the assistant coach at U of Washington and the other guy is Carlos Ruiz who ran with me at Willamette and was my roommate when we moved down to Toluca, Mexico to train before my senior year."

(Photo courtesy of Nick Symmonds)

January 19, 2008: Will Leer (Pomona '07) followed in the footsteps of Nick Symmonds in more ways than one: first by graduating DIII on the heels of two outdoor National Championships his senior year; then by turning professional and joining OTC Elite in Oregon; and finally by breaking four minutes (3:59.83) in a winning effort at his season-opening race at the University of Washington in mid-January.  Leer is the 296th American to do so.  The full race video can be seen here.  Below, a picture of the finish of the race:

(Photo courtesy of RunnerSpace.com)

Who will be #5?  Possibilities include Ryan Bak (Trinity '03), now a teammate of Symmonds and Leer at OTC Elite, and the owner of a 4:01.95 best from his senior year; Matt Groose (Wisconsin-Oshkosh '03), who ran 4:00.11 in June of 2005; and Anthony Gallo (SUNY-Geneseo '02), who ran 4:03.86 in the same race as Leer last month.  Any others?