Gary Martin goes 3:57.98 (third fastest high schooler ever behind only Alan Webb and Jim Ryun) to win today's Philadelphia Catholic League Championsips

Another day, another milestone for Gary Martin. And this one was a biggie.

The Archbishop Wood High School senior ran a sub-four minute mile Saturday at the Catholic League championships at Cardinal O'Hara.

After just missing the milestone at the Penn Relays, he ran Saturday's race at 3:57.98. It was the 20th time a high school runner accomplished the feat, and his time was the sixth fastest ever for a high school student. Overall, he was the 14th runner to break the four-minute mark and it was the fastest time in state history. It was the first in the state to break the 4-minute mark.

Martin has been breaking records all year, beginning in cross country, and continuing during the indoor and outdoor seasons.

Last week Martin broke the state record in the 3,200-meter run, posting a 8:41.57 mark to break Robert DiDonato’s record of 8:44.98 set at this meet last year.

The University of Virginia signee will have more chances to smash records at the state meet.

The Archbishop Wood senior has been on a quest to become the first Pennsylvania high school athlete ever to run a sub-four-minute mile.

Running with a purpose and leading from the start, Martin made history with a sizzling time of 3:57.98.

Martin raised his hands in triumph as he crossed the finish line. His time was the fastest in the county by nearly 10 seconds.

“I’ve had a couple of really good workouts this week and I felt I was in shape to do it,” Martin said. “Looking at the weather, I thought it was going to be a good day and it’s one of my last opportunities to really just run an all-out mile before we get into postseason stuff. I just wanted to go for it, see how I was feeling through two laps. I felt good. I was right on so I kept going.”

Martin found the warm conditions with a light rain to his liking as he took the lead in the first 50 meters and kept his foot on the gas. He ran the first quarter in 59.67 seconds, the second in 58.79, the third in 59.87 and the final in 59.62 to obliterate the meet record of 4:14.08 set by O’Hara’s Steve Hallinan and take his place in history.

“For me, I like to run even splits,” Martin said. “I like to settle into a pace, find a pace I need to run and then hold on throughout, which is what I did today. That’s kind of the goal going in. You just have to stay mentally tough.”

Martin wasn’t done for the day. He also won the 800 in a meet-record time of 1:51.29, to break the mark of 1:52.95 set by O’Hara’s Pat Nash in 2000. And Martin anchored Wood’s 4 x 400-meter relay team to a silver medal by two-tenths of a second to take home the outstanding boys track performer of the meet away.

posted Saturday May 14th