M. track: Bruins vie for tough mark

It’s something no Bruin has done in almost a quarter
century, but UCLA’s Jon Rankin and Ben Aragon believe they
can be the ones to end that streak. Rankin and Aragon, UCLA’s
two most accomplished middle-distance runners, will be looking to
break the fabled 4-minute mark in the mile at the Rafer
Johnson-Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational on Saturday at Drake
Stadium. “It’s a hard mark to get,” Rankin said.
“It takes not just a physical but mental balance. I think Ben
and I have a really good opportunity because we have trained so
hard. We have to do it; we’ve done it (outside of
competition). “There aren’t too many opportunities to
run a full mile race since we run the metric mile. We don’t
use a full mile, so its rare to have this.” Only two UCLA
athletes have ever broken the 4-minute mark, the last being Bruin
great Ron Cornell back in 1980. Still, there is reason to believe
Rankin and Aragon might be able to accomplish the feat. Rankin is
coming off an impressive performance in the Stanford Invitational,
where he took second place in the 1500 meters with a new lifetime
best of 3:42.82. Aragon finished sixth, two seconds behind his
teammate. Convert those marks to the mile by adding 17.5 seconds,
and Rankin would have finished just under four minutes, with Aragon
less than two seconds off the pace. “Jon’s absolutely
ready to do it. For him, it’s a matter of race management,
not of fitness,” UCLA distance coach Eric Peterson said.
“It’s his time. He’s a fifth-year senior. This is
the best opportunity he’s had to be a factor at the NCAA
meet. “As a coach, when you’re developing a kid, you
know he’s really on top of his game when he can start a
season where he was in the middle of the season the year
before.” The key to a 4-minute mile for Rankin, Peterson
said, is his race management. Rankin has a tendency to start his
final kick too early in races, leaving him too exhausted to be
competitive in the last 100 meters. If he could curb that tendency
to push into the final kick too early, Peterson is convinced a
4-minute mile is an attainable goal. “That’s going to
be the ultimate test for him is learning when to spend that final
amount of energy,” Peterson said. “He has the ability
to run really fast, but he’s still guilty of spending that
too soon. When he gets that, he will be as effective as anyone in
America.”

THE OREGON TRAIL: Peterson said he would be “very
surprised” if he were contacted about the vacant head
coaching job at Oregon, but the former Oregon All-American did not
rule out the possibility that he might be interested.
“It’s not something I think about at this point in time
at all,” said Peterson, now in his 11th year at UCLA.
“I’ve been in Los Angeles a long time and done a lot of
work to build this program. I’ve never been contacted, and
I’d be very surprised if I was.” Oregon coach Martin
Smith resigned last month after leading the Ducks to their
best-ever finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships. It is believed
Oregon would like to hire a coach who could help restore the luster
of its once-dominant middle-distance program.

With contributions by Jeff Eisenberg, Bruin Sports senior
staff.