Two Milers Offer a Rare Matchup of the Best

It’s being billed as the Dream Mile.

A clash between the two best high school milers in the nation.

Yet seniors Alan Webb of South Lakes High in Reston, Va., and Ryan Hall of Big Bear are downplaying the boys’ mile race at the Arcadia Invitational Saturday night.

Webb was the No. 3-ranked prep miler in the nation last year and became the first U.S. high school runner to break four minutes in the mile indoors when he clocked 3 minutes 59.86 seconds in the New Balance Games in New York City on Jan. 20. The time made Webb only the fourth U.S. prep runner to break four minutes, the first since Marty Liquori in 1967.

Hall ranked second in the nation last year and his 1,500-meter best of 3:45.12 converts to a mile in 4:03.13.

Webb and Hall will race for the first time Saturday, but neither regards it as a do-or-die proposition.

“I see it as a real good opportunity to run a fast time early in the season,” said Hall, who has committed to Stanford. “I think he knows and I know that neither one of us is peaking for this race.”

The Michigan-bound Webb expressed similar sentiments.

“It’s a regular-season meet,” he said. “It’s not a championship race, but I want to win and hopefully run a fast time.”

Track fans are excited at the thought of two U.S. high school runners breaking four minutes in the mile in the same race, something that has never been done. But Mickey Hall, Ryan’s father and the coach at Big Bear, refrains from making bold predictions.

“A [career best] is a possibility,” he said. “But we’re not going in there with a set time in mind. Our attitude is, ‘Let’s go out, race hard and see where we end up.’ ”

Scott Raczko, Webb’s coach, also has tried to downplay the matchup.

“We’re not going out there just to race him,” he said. “We’re going out there to run in a great meet and hopefully run some fast times.”

Webb, scheduled to run the 1,600-meter leg on South Lakes’ distance-medley relay team after the mile, started running competitively as a freshman.

He started swimming when he was 5 and was an accomplished breaststroker by the time he enrolled at South Lakes.

He swam during his first year there but decided to focus on running after finishing second in the state cross-country championships and winning the 3,200 meters in 9:30 in the state track championships as a freshman.

It was a wise decision.

He set a national sophomore record of 4:06.94 in the mile--breaking the previous mark of 4:07.8 set by the legendary Jim Ryun in 1963--and ran 4:03.33 last year before an injury ended his season prematurely.

He placed second to Dathan Ritzenhein of Rockford, Mich., in the national cross-country championships in December and made national headlines six weeks later when he joined Ryun, who set a then-American record of 3:55.3 in 1965, Tim Danielson (3:59.4 in ‘66) and Liquori (3:59.8 in ‘67) as the only U.S. high school runners to break four minutes in the mile.

Hall, who also started running as a freshman, had his breakthrough season last year.

He won the state title in the 3,200 meters in 8:55.12 and lowered his career best from 4:22.97 in the 1,600 to 4:06.15 in the mile, which is about 15 yards longer.

He finished third in the national cross-country championships and clocked 4:09.46 to win the mile in the L.A. Invitational indoor meet at the Sports Arena the same day Webb broke four minutes.

He has had some superb workouts since then, including a 10-mile run in 49:32 and a 1,200-meter time trial in 2:57.

“That does a lot for my confidence,” he said of the time trial. “It lets me know that I can pretty much run with anyone for the first three laps right now.”

The question is how will he fare against Webb on the fourth--and final--lap at Arcadia?