The Bobcat Nation

Montana State sophomore Patrick Casey ran a lightning-fast time in the mile of 3:59.17 (alititude adjusted) to gain a provisional bid to the NCAA National Track and Field Championship in March, and break the all-time record in the event in the Big Sky Conference. The previous Big Sky record was 3:59.99 by Jeremy Tolman at Weber State in 2001. Casey's mark also breaks the MSU school record. He lapped two runners in the race at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse in Bozeman Friday night. He missed an NCAA automatic qualifying time by .04. Casey becomes the only collegiate runner in Montana history to run a sub four-minute mile on Montana soil.

This is an edit of the original post we put up as there was some confusion about what the NCAA auto time was. Sorry for the confusion, but this is a HUGE story anyway.

msusportsinfo wrote:Sophomore Patrick Casey (Laurel) ran a lightning fast mile at tonight's MSU Open with a time of 4:04.44 (non-altitude adjusted). The time is an automatic qualifying time for the NCAA meet--auto qualifying time is 4:04.78. The kid is fast!

wow. good for him. that is ridiculous.

Wow, that is impressive!!

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articl ... 0casey.txt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Coach Kennedy says it's the first sub-4 minute mile by a college runner on Montana soil.

Dale Kennedy said. “But what we don’t realize is that this is the first collegiate runner to run this time on Montana soil."

That is a truly amazing accomplishment, Mr. Casey!!!

There have been many amazing runners in the Great State of Montana, and being the first collegiant to run a sub 4 minute mile is the true definition of Historic! A historic accomplishment such as this takes many things. The two biggest are God given talent, and incredibly hard work. Each alone has the ability to take you very far. But for something such as this, one needs the perfect, and rare, combination of both.

On behalf of all alumni of Montana State University and all past and present Montanans....Congratulations Sir.

So nice to see a few replies in here. Casey is currently ranked #3 on the NCAA indoor list. He's actually a freshman, since he redshirted last year.
This wasn't the fastest mile run in Montana however, or the first to break 4:00 with altitude adjustment. Feb 16, 2001 MSU-USU-UM double dual. Notable Weber State milers entered. These are not altitude adjusted. They were run with full automatic timing on a certified track.

1. Joel Atwater (WSU) 4:02.99
2. Jeremy Tolman (WSU) 4:03.72

After the meet Atwater referred to the "dream track". In fact, our banked 4-lane track is very fast, and carefully surveyed before every meet.

In the Sports Center off campus in Missoula, on the track that we use now, Clint Morrison of UM ran 4:02.7 hand time. Paul Anderson of MSU ran 4:12.7 hand for second. I don't believe that this track was ever certified officially, or could be since it was built in a tunnel. We had fun carrying out all 18 tons through a fire escape, 178 pieces in all. It still goes together OK in spite of being set up over 50 times in our arena. It was not designed to be portable.

Interesting that Patrick Casey believes he can take off another five seconds. A sub 4:00 without altitude adjustment at 4900' will be a very big deal. Maybe we'll draw some fans and finally fill the house Feb. 12. It takes a very special athlete, and the right day to produce a performance like this. Stay tuned for more history.

Thanks for the history lesson and putting this in perspective mchammer. It's fun when there's a performer like this to give the casual fan a reason to keep tabs on the track team and other teams at MSU. I'll follow anything when something like this is going on.

Will Chris Wilson get a chance to run with the track team this year?

Chris Wilson is most welcome to compete for our track team, but has decided not to do so. He did run unattached in our meet friday.

As it turns out, Casey didn't officially break the BSC record, but his race was no less impressive. It turns out the Big Sky does not altitude adjust their records which really hampers anyone from a high altitude school from ever setting a distance record, but oh well...a sub 4-minute mile is a fantastic accompishment. Technically, the mark puts him seventh on the all-time list. My bad--but his run was totally awesome.

I guess I am confused. According to the Chronicle, Casey ran a 4:04.44 before any altitude adjustment and 3:59.17 adjusted
http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articl ... 0casey.txt

The Big Sky Indoor Record (according to their 2009 record book) was 4:04.67 ran by Kim White, NAU, 1991, non altitude adjusted

http://www.bigskyconf.com/documents/201 ... pdf?id=999

The MSU Indoor Record was 4:01.86 Miguel Galena, 1998, altitude adjusted

http://www.msubobcats.com/documents/201 ... ecords.pdf

Looks to me like he did break the school and conference record.

MY BAD

The Big Sky Conference Record is 3.59.99 real time . I referenced the Conference MEET record.