After winning 5K national title, Hatboro-Horsham’s Brian DiCola will chase history in the mile
The Penn State-bound senior has come close to breaking the storied four-minute-mile mark. But on Sunday, fatigue may be a factor.
Ahead of the final event of his decorated high school track career, Brian DiCola wonders how much he has left in the tank.
Competing at the New Balance Nationals Outdoor at Franklin Field, the senior from Hatboro-Horsham captured a national championship Thursday in the 5,000-meter run. DiCola’s time of 14 minutes, 26.72 seconds was the fifth-fastest in the nation this season and a personal best by over 17 seconds.
On Saturday night, DiCola will cap his high school career in the highly anticipated mile with a chance to make history. The last time DiCola competed in the mile, he flirted with the fabled four-minute mark, posting a personal-best time of 4 minutes, 4.14 seconds at the HOKA Festival of Miles in St. Louis. But for his encore, DiCola expects that fatigue might put a historic performance out of reach.
“I think that [the four-minute mile is] obviously an amazing barrier to cross, but I don’t really think that I’m going to be able to do that [Saturday],” DiCola said.
“I’m pretty exhausted from [the 5K], but if I can just put up a good fight … and maybe tie my [personal record], or something like that, I’ll be super happy with that. So the goal is really just to put up a good fight after that 5K took a lot out of me.”
England’s Roger Bannister famously was the first person known to run the mile in less than four minutes, in what for decades was regarded as a mythical achievement in sports history.
But in recent years, a number of runners have eclipsed the four-minute mark, including at the high school level. In last year’s spring season, Archbishop Wood’s Gary Martin did so twice, first at the Philadelphia Catholic League championships and then at the Festival of Miles. Now a distance runner at the University of Virginia, Martin became the first Pennsylvania high schooler to break four minutes in the mile and remains the state record holder in the event.
» READ MORE: Archbishop Wood’s Gary Martin is chasing high school history. His run at Penn Relays lore started almost by accident.
While DiCola thinks that achieving a four-minute mile on Saturday will be a tall order, it remains a goal for when he continues his track career this fall at Penn State.
“Even though maybe [the four-minute mile is] not that few and far between, it still means a lot and holds a lot of value,” DiCola said. “So to me personally, I’d say that it’s everything I’ve been working toward for eight years of running. Obviously, I haven’t hit that yet, but that’s a goal that I’ve had since I was younger.”
Hatboro-Horsham head coach Michael Harmon believes the historic mark is realistic for DiCola.
“I think eventually he’ll get it,” Harmon said. “I think coming off a 5K, it’s going to be tough for him to be able to do that [on Saturday]. But I think eventually he will get it. I know it’s a goal of his.”
In addition to the 5,000-meter national title he earned Thursday, DiCola captured state championships this year in cross-country, the 3,000-meter indoor event and the 3,200-meter outdoor event. The recent high school graduate also won the mile run at the Penn Relays.
“We’ve had some really good distance runners go through this school district, and I’m pretty confident saying that he’s probably the best distance runner to come through here,” Harmon said. “It’s going to be sad to see him go.”