Virginia’s Gary Martin ran second-fastest indoor collegiate mile at the Millrose Games: ‘An incredible accomplishment’

In less than four minutes, you might be able to solve the Wordle of the day.

Virginia’s junior Gary Martin can run an entire mile.

On Feb. 8 at the men’s Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in New York, Martin finished fifth with a time of 3 minutes, 48.82 seconds. His time marks the second-best indoor mile in collegiate history and sits 45th on the world all-time list, making him one of seven Americans on that list.

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“[This record] is not just a year,” Virginia track and field coach Vin Lanana said. “This is all time. So [Martin] sits in the same sentence of Hicham El Guerrouj, the current world record holder in the mile … It’s an impressive performance for him. And of course, it means the world to the UVA program, but for the most part, it’s an incredible accomplishment by Gary.”

Martin is no stranger to accolades.

With his run at the Millrose Games, Martin became one of two men in the NCAA to run a sub-3:50 for the mile this year, with Ethan Strand of North Carolina coming in at 3:48.32 just one week prior.

“I think it’s super exciting,” Martin said. “[I’m] super grateful to be a part of that conversation … I’m running a time that’s two seconds … three seconds just off the indoor world record. When I put it that way, that’s where it really becomes pretty surreal.”

Martin was named the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Athlete of the Week on Feb. 10, as well as the Atlantic Coastal Conference cross country scholar athlete of the year.

During the 2024 season, Martin was a three-time All-American in cross country, honorable mention in the outdoor 1,500 meters, and selected to the first team in the indoor mile.

That’s in addition to his 2024 All-ACC honors in cross country, first-team in the outdoor 1,500 meters, indoor 3,000, and the indoor mile.

Last season, Martin was also named the ACC cross country performer of the year after winning the conference cross-country championships in the fall. He finished 13th at the NCAA Championships, dropping nearly a minute off his 10k personal best (29:02.3).

“Winning the ACC cross country championship, I think that was a huge personal feat, because that was my first big cross country win,” Martin said. “But, I mean this is right up there with that. To be No. 2 in the NCAA … I feel like it’s just pretty incredible to be able to do that while I’m in college.”

Running the second fastest indoor mile in collegiate history wasn’t the only good thing to happen to Martin that weekend.

The Eagles won the Super Bowl the following day, and for a Philly boy, those were both personal victories.

“Nobody’s happier than he is that the Eagles won,” Lanana said. “ … Somebody even asked him if he’s climbed any goal posts lately. He has not.”

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Martin grew up in Warminster and attended Archbishop Wood High School, where he ran the fourth-fastest outdoor high school mile in U.S. history, racked up three Pennsylvania state records, won four state championships, two New Balance championships, and was the Penn Relays 1-mile champion.

But when it came to deciding where to run at the collegiate level, leaving home was easy since Martin had the right support system.

“One of the things I looked at most when I was visiting schools was just the people on the team and how I thought I would get along with them,” Martin said. “I feel like I picked UVA because I really fell in love with the team culture, and I felt like the guys on the team would be a good fit for me. And it’s funny because we have quite a handful of people on our team from the Philadelphia area, so I think it’s nice around the year to have a little bit of a fallback, [and] connection … to talk about Philadelphia with.”

And Martin makes sure to hold true to his roots even from a few states away.

“I think I might be the only guy in Charlottesville climbing poles,” Martin said. “But I could go up one.”

While Martin is training to reach new feats on the track, he is equally focused on the student aspect of being a student-athlete.

“I think my parents would kill me if I decided not to finish my degree,” Martin said. “I made it this far.”

So now, it’s all about time management for Martin, who has put himself in the conversation with professional runners.

“I think time management is big,” Martin said. “As someone who is trying to do well in the classroom and compete at the highest level running, I think both giving yourself time to get everything done and also giving yourself time to just do nothing and decompress mentally so that you can go as hard as you can whenever you need to accomplish stuff in the classroom, accomplish stuff on the track, that’s equally important. So I try to find a good balance.”

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With the rest of the indoor campaign ahead, as well as his senior year, Martin will continue to find the balance in representing the Cavaliers on the track and proving himself in the classroom.

Martin and the Cavaliers will compete again this weekend as the team divides into three meets at the Arkansas Qualifier in Fayetteville, Ark., the Virginia Tech Challenge in Blacksburg, Va., and the Terrier DMR Challenge in Boston, on Friday and Saturday.