Four Milers Dip Under 4 Minutes In St. Louis

Jordan McNamara leads the way with a 3:54.27 at the Nike Festival of Miles.

Four runners broke 4 minutes in the elite men’s race at the Nike Festival of Miles in St. Louis, Mo. Thursday night.

Led by Jordan McNamara and his blistering time of 3:54.27, Duncan Phillips (3:56.10), Tommy Schmitz (3:56.45) and Chris Gowell (3:58.90) dipped under the mark as well. More than 2,000 spectators turned out to watch the 2.5-hour meet, which featured high school races, elite races and everything in between.

“These guys all want to break four and I want to go 3:54,” McNamara told the crowd before the race. “We’re going to need you to be going absolutely crazy the whole entire time to do it.”

The high school boys race was also exciting, with seven runners finishing in under 4:10. Spencer Haik, a senior at Glendale (Mo.) High School, finished first in 4:05.98 after running the final lap in 59.14 seconds.

The other standout performance of the evening came courtesy of Asics runner Heather Kampf, who broke the meet record in the women’s 800m to win in 2:01:48 over Lauren Wallace and Erica Moore. Stephanie Jenks won the high school girls mile race in 4:46.67.