After Saturday’s heroic effort, University of Washington runner Luke Houser secured his place in history.
Houser, the defending NCAA mile champion, set a UW record at the inaugural “Mile City” event with a mile time of 3 minutes, 51.73 seconds, breaking teammate Joe Waskom’s previous best of 3:51.90, and finishing first among five UW runners who broke the illustrious four-minute mark.
Houser’s finish is the fourth-fastest mile in collegiate history.
“It looked effortless,” teammate Nathan Green said. “It looked like something that he could do right now all over again. I mean, the guy’s flawless. It’s just really cool.”
What once seemed like an impossible feat before British runner Roger Bannister broke the four-minute barrier in 1954 has become routine inside Dempsey Indoor Center. Fifteen runners ran sub-four minutes on Saturday, bringing the number who have accomplished the feat inside the building to 288.
Mile City, indeed.
Waskom was UW’s second-fastest runner Saturday in 3:53.64, which was good for third place. Unattached runner Brannon Kidder was the runner-up at 3:53:09. Green and Ronan McMahon-Staggs finished fourth and fifth with respective finishes of 3:53.74 and 3:54.61, while Leo Daschbach finished 10th at 3:58.18 for his first sub-four minute finish since high school.
Daschbach became the 20th Husky to finish with a sub four-minute mile. Of those 20, 14 of them have happened since Andy Powell was hired as the coach before the 2019 season.
“I mean, we’re thrilled,” Powell said. “… Having four guys under 3:55 is big, especially for our NCAA [championship] team. I think those should be qualifiers or close to it.”
It was a heck of a way for UW to kick off the Mile City event, which the team created after last year’s showing where a record eight Huskies broke the four-minute mark in the same race at UW’s annual Husky Classic. That accomplishment drew attention from around the running world, and made Powell want to put an event together that would draw runners of all skill levels to run the mile at one of the sport’s premier venues.
It worked as 546 ran in the event Saturday — with everyone from community members, local high-school runners and an Olympic gold medalist taking part in Nike runner Matthew Centrowitz (2016), who ran in the second-fastest heat and finished at 3:59.34.
As a venue that has seen so many historic track and field moments, the Dempsey seemed like the obvious place to host a thing like “Mile City.”
“Maybe it’s not everyone’s, like, premier event, but we’re just trying to figure out a way to maybe include not only pros and our college athletes, but also high-school athletes and middle-school athletes and recreational runners and just people that were interested in maybe giving the mile a try,” Powell said. “… I’ve seen a lot of good meets and I’ve seen a lot of bad meets and I thought maybe I could, at least this initial year of the event, put together something special.”
The name “Mile City” came from a brainstorming session Powell had with some of his runners. After having so much success in the mile event last year, the program wanted to pack the Dempsey for 2024 for the new event, and just had to come up with a snappy moniker. After cycling through several ideas such as “Trial of Miles” and “Knight of Miles,” Powell went into the team room and asked his runners for their thoughts.
Appropriately enough, it was Houser who came up with the name “Mile City,” which considering the large amount of elite mile runners who call the Seattle area home, seemed appropriate.
Name the event, win it and set a program record while doing it. It doesn’t get much more dominant than that.
“Hopefully this is something that becomes a tradition here and the meet is held here and there’s mile races at this meet for a long time to come,” Houser said. “So that’d be super cool to win the first one.”
The UW mile squad features three NCAA champions, with Houser winning the indoor national title in 2023, and Waskom and Green winning the outdoor 1,500 meter crown in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Powell was convinced that any of them could’ve won Saturday’s race, but as he rounded the corner and headed down the final straightaway, it became clear that it was Houser’s turn. When he walked off the track, Houser was mobbed by teammates, coaches, friends and fans who all wanted a moment with the newest Husky legend.
“It’s awesome to have those guys in there with you, because they’re with me every day in training,” Houser said. “… It’s just like a practice out there when I’ve got all my boys behind me.”
Houser and his teammates are going to be talked about for a long time.
“It’s just really cool to start the legacy of something that’s probably gonna be around for the next 20, 30, 40 years of just excellence even more,” Green said. “I mean, I’m sure there’ll be a day where we hit the 100-year mark and look back and see Luke Houser, the first man to do it. … I think it’s really cool to be a part of it.”
Notes
- UW senior Carley Thomas set a UW and Dempsey Indoor record of 2:00.95 in the 800, breaking the facility record of 2:01.14 that Hannah Green set back in 2021, and the meet record set by Shelby Houlihan in 2020.
- Hana Moll tied for first place in the pole vault with Olympic gold medalist Katerina Stefanidi, as both finished at 15 feet, 2 inches. Mol’s finish is the second-best in program history behind Olivia Gruver and gives her the fifth-best indoor mark in NCAA history.
- On Friday, Olympia’s Beatrice Asomaning set a UW program record with a 70-feet, 1-inch heave in the women’s weight throw.
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