By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp
Qualifying for the Millrose Games High School mile is a badge of honor for any young distance runner. At the Millrose Games Trials meet on Wednesday night at The Armory in New York a come from behind win by Newtown’s Soheib Dissa earned him a spot for the meet on Sunday February 11th.
At the 1500m mark, Dissa found himself in 4th place, 1.39 seconds out of first. But the junior, who was All American in the 2000m steeplechase, found another gear as he finished in a time of 4:13.83. A step before the finish line he edged Tennessee state mile champion Keegan Smith of Knoxville Catholic by .03 seconds and the New Jersey 800m runner-up Luke Schagelin of Morris Knolls by less than a tenth of a second. These are now the top three mile times in the nation this season.
Dissa didn’t just take over the national lead, he broke All America Joe Mohn’s (Immaculate) 22-year old SWC record of 4:16.44 set when Mohn was 4th at the National Scholastic Indoor Championship. He also moved ahead of Christian Alvarado of Fairfield Prep and bumped him out of the top ten of all time milers in CT history. Alvarado, currently the Prep coach, went on to win nationals in the mile later than spring in 2014.
The last Connecticut representative at the Millrose Games HS 1-mile was Conard’s Gavin Sherry who won with a meet record time of 4:06.58 in 2022 in an event that dates back to 1974. The only previous state Games mile winner was Xavier’s J.T. Burke with his 4:11.94 effort in 1989.
Notes about the mile:
When I first started developing the CT all time lists, I used George O’Loughlin as the cut off point for the mile. He was the first All American I coached and he was ranked about 12th when I made up the list. Well thanks to Dissa and many other runners, O’Loughlin has been bumped back to #24 All Time. There are now ten CT runners in the post Covid era alone that have gone under 4:17 for the mile and three are still in high school. At what point do I bump a great runner like George off the All Time List? When is he out of the top 30? 40? 50? At this rate, he will be out of the top 40 by the end of the decade.
This is one indicator of the advancement of our sport. While shoes play a small factor and the greater availability of fast tracks are part of the equation, you can’t discount the dedication of our athletes and their coaches. Following many athletes on Strava, it is amazing the work so…
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