BY ROGER SAUERHAFT
Daily Sports Writer
Published February 8, 2009
The sub four-minute mile has long been the measuring stick of great long-distance runners, and Justin Switzer joined the elite club Saturday.
More like this
Switzer’s 3:58.86 mile, although just good for second place behind Michigan State's Shane Knoll, gave the senior the fifth-fastest mile time in school history. Switzer also earned the first NCAA automatic bid of the season for the No. 18 Michigan men’s track and field team.
“It’s a big deal to break four minutes in the mile,” Michigan coach Fred LaPlante said. “You break four minutes — that’s every miler’s dream.”
Nate Brannen's 3:55.11 time in 2005 remains the fastest time in school history.
LaPlante wasn’t surprised by his distance runner’s stellar time at this weekend's non-scoring Meyo Invitational at Notre Dame. Switzer also won the 1,500-meter run in the 2007 Outdoor Big Ten Championships as a sophomore, and his coach said more top marks might be on the way.
As Switzer and the Michigan distance runners ran in South Bend, the sprinters, hurdlers and field athletes competed in the Nebraska Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb.
Michigan’s 4x400-meter relay (3:14:45) finished less than a second behind No. 16 Nebraska, a team LaPlante described as a very formidable opponent. The time was the team's fastest of the season and aided by senior All-American Andre Barnes, who returned from an ankle injury that was bothering him for six weeks.
Although Barnes ran in last week’s Indiana Relays, Barnes’s 48.3-second split in the 4x400 marked more of a return to form.
“He’s not where he’s going to be three weeks from now, but this week for him was great,” LaPlante said. “It’s been a pretty tough time for him … but the other guys know if he’s running well, they get excited.”
Barnes and senior distance runner Lex Williams are getting healthy just in time for the Big Ten Championship meet in three weeks. And senior Dan Harmsen, another member of the 4x400-meter relay team, said this weekend's meet also helped as a confidence booster for next weekend's Akron Open.
"We really needed to get a good time," Harmsen said of his relay team. "It started some momentum for us, and hopefully we can push that time down for next week at Akron."
