Up at Yale, the men’s distance runners demonstrated their depth and showed that they will be major competitors at the Big East Championship. Barely short of the NCAA provisional qualifying time of 4:03.5 on a banked track, three Hoyas timed in at 4:04 in the mile. Though they came into this past weekend with high hopes of breaking the storied 4-minute barrier, the pacing was a little off and the middle 600m was too slow.
While senior Alex Bean’s and graduate student Alex Mason’s domination of the middle distance events this season has earned them the title of the “Bash Brothers,” senior Sandy Roberts nearly crashed the party, coming up just short down the final stretch to place third with a time of 4:04.75. Bean positioned himself right behind the pacer from the beginning, and once again took control of the race, battling it out with Mason. Both runners finished with new personal records. Edging out Mason, who came in at 4:04.71, Bean won the race with a time of 4:04.54.
