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UCLA’s Jon Rankin begins his celebration after becoming the first Bruin in a quarter centur

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Senior Jon Rankin hugs UCLA distance coach Eric Peterson after the race.

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Jon Rankin’s feet pounded toward the finish line in the mile on Saturday afternoon, but his eyes were riveted to the scoreboard.

He didn’t need to look.

The roar of the Drake Stadium crowd was enough to confirm that the UCLA fifth-year senior was approaching a milestone.

Rankin became the first Bruin in a quarter century to break the 4-minute mark in the mile on Saturday afternoon at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational, crossing the finish line with his right arm raised in triumph in 3 minutes, 57.89 seconds.

“There was such a great field with such a great group of guys, my biggest goal was to go out there and win it,” Rankin said.

“Of course in the back of your head, you’re like ‘I hope its there, I would love to break four minutes.’ But winning it was the most important part. I feel so honored and so blessed. I honestly still can’t believe this has happened. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet.”

Rankin’s performance in the mile was the fastest in the world so far this year and the third fastest in school history. The last time a Bruin ran a faster mile was Ron Cornell in 1980, but Bob Day, who was in attendance on Saturday, still holds the UCLA record at 3:56.40.

“It’s a magical barrier since it’s an even minute,” said Day, who set his record in 1965. “It’s mostly a mental thing. If you break four minutes, you have to be very well prepared physically, but probably you have to be more prepared mentally and not be afraid of it. These guys are not afraid of it.”

It was Peterson who first raised the possibility that Rankin could accomplish the feat, after the fifth-year senior’s impressive performance in the 1500 meters last month at the Stanford Invitational when he ran a lifetime-best 3:44.87.

This weekend’s meet provided a rare opportunity to run the mile. And Rankin, who had never come close to the 4-minute mark before, took full advantage.

Rankin pushed to the front of the pack early in the race, and increased his lead over the course of the race. He finished more than one second in front of BYU’s Brian Lindsay, who also broke the 4-minute mark, and almost five seconds ahead of teammate Ben Aragon (4:02.69), who finished third.

“I had a feeling two weeks ago after Stanford,” Peterson said. “He had raced well, but he just left himself a little short. So because of that I positioned myself (on the field) where there was 200 meters left, so I could see his face, and I could tell he had a lot of run left in him.

“That was a pretty good field he ran against today. It was probably the highest level of field he’s beaten ever.”

After Saturday’s performance, Rankin joins a select group of athletes who have broken the barrier. However part of the mystique of the sub-4-minute mile may lie in the fact that the event is such a rarity now.

The 1500 meters – a more popular event at a distance less than a mile – is contested at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, so most collegiate programs like UCLA have shied away from the event entirely.

“If they run the mile weekend after weekend, (my record) would have been broken a long time ago,” Day said. “I was actually hoping it would be broken. I was really rooting for Jon or Ben because it’s time for the record to be done and Jon has it in him.”

Peterson said that because of the recent transition to the Regionals format, schools could start putting more emphasis on the mile. Both he and UCLA men’s track and field coach Art Venegas said that the publicity from Rankin’s achievement might also convince other meets to include the mile.

“The performance of the meet for me was Rankin,” Venegas said. “It was well deserved and such a long time coming.”