Alumni Report: Jon Davis Becomes 498th America To Run Sub 4:00 Mile

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois sophomore Jon Davis became just the 498^th American to run a mile in under four minutes, doing so in three minutes, 58.46 seconds on Saturday inside the armory. The time ranks first in NCAA Division I and sets a new Illinois program record and a new Armory facility record that stood for 44 years. 

"That's what we should be trying to do in all of our meets," head coach Mike Turk regarding the energy that Jon Davis brought to the meet. I really like what happened, it was a great result. More importantly, it really energized the entire facility. People from the other teams, fans from the other teams, really got into it. And, it shows that there's a lot of excitement in our sport, and, if we do things the right way, we can bring that to the surface and draw more interest to what we're doing. How anyone could watch that performance and not get excited about athletics is beyond me. It was a tremendous effort by Jon, and he got a tremendous result."

In addition to Davis' record-setting performance in the mile, the Fighting Illini tallied six other event titles and seven personal-record performances at the Illini Classic. The Orange and Blue finished with 139 team points, second to Louisville's 144. Full results from the meet can be found here.

"It's been a tough week with people that are sick, and we had a couple that had to go home for funerals, and this is what I talked about last week in going to Nebraska and trying to get a team to build up some resiliency because things don't always go as well as you want them to," said head coach Mike Turk. "That said, I couldn't be more pleased with the performances across the board. Maybe, as a coaching staff, we could have set ourselves up better to win a meet, but we also have to keep an eye on what's coming up in the next couple weeks. We've got to keep trying to get better, but today will be another stepping stone for us for sure."

A sophomore out of Oakwood High School in Fithian, Illinois, Davis finished the eight laps around the Armory track nearly a second faster than the facility record of 3:59.30 by Rick Wohlhuter in 1974. Paced by teammates Luke Brahm and Denis O'Callaghan, Davis' time also reset the Illinois varsity record of 4:00.17, doing so in front of the previous record-holder Graham Morris who was in attendance for Davis' race.

"Coming into the meet, [coach] Jake Stewart and I had our target at running it under four minutes," said Davis. "We had two of our guys, Luke Brahm and Denis O'Callaghan, pacing me to make sure that happened. We executed the plan perfectly, I think. Once the pacers pulled out of the race, I realized [the Armory] got pretty loud and they carried me through the last 600 meters."

Setting quarter-mile splits between 58 seconds, his opening two laps, and 61.6 seconds, his fifth and six trips around the track, Davis maintained a steady pace throughout. Davis finished the final two laps of the race in 59.66 seconds.

"He did it front of friends and family, and he did it on a track he's been running on since high school," said distance coach Jake Stewart. "This is as much a home track for anyone as it is for Jon. There aren't a lot of guys doing what he did on a flat track with no one around them, so I think that speaks to his determination. It was as cool of an environment as I've been in at track meet in a long time. This place was loud, the crowd was into it, our guys were pumped and it was so fun. I'm really glad we were able to do that for him here."