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It's been a busy couple of weeks for Boston College Athletics and the ACC - the campus has hardly had an opportunity to catch its breath. With two close calls in Conte, College Gameday's live broadcast, and Dick Vitale signing Superfan shirts, students could not help but turn their attention to the basketball team's arduous run. But, unfortunately, another ACC event may have gone unnoticed. Not because it was insignificant; it just happened too fast.
It happened in a time of 4:03.26, to be exact. That's how long it took Patrick Mellea, CSOM '08, to run the mile on Feb. 9 at the BU Invitational. And that's a new BC record.
"I didn't have any set times in my head and I didn't think about setting the school record. I just went out and tried to get to the finish line before anyone else did," says Mellea. But don't let the mid-distance runner's humble attitude fool you: This is a big deal.
Mellea's mark beats the 4:04.60 time from the 1980 New England Championships by Tom Horton. In doing so, Mellea now ranks first in school history in the mile run - a spot held by Horton for 27 years. But what is even more remarkable is that Mellea outdid his own previous best, 4:11.24, set when he was a freshman, by 8 seconds. Since then, Mellea has been running close to that marker, making this a huge jump for him.
Mellea credits this improvement to the past three years of hard work since first coming to BC, saying, "It's not as dramatic of an improvement as it seems, and still more needs to be done. It just takes time to build up the strength needed to run a fast mile."
And to top it all off, last year, Mellea's time would have won the ACC Championship in the one-mile run. With the BC men's track team heading to the ACC Championship this weekend in South Carolina, this little piece of knowledge certainly cannot hurt.
"Everyone is very confident and excited," commented Mellea.
Historically, BC does not do particularly well in conference meets because, with the exception of three pole vaulters and one thrower, it does not really have a field team. Despite this, Mellea looks forward to the ACC Championship with confidence.
"I think we could score the most amount of points [for a BC team] in the past 15 to 20 years," says Mellea. In fact, Mellea is looking to finish in the top seven, attributing a lot of that goal to the team's impressive middle distance, distance, and 400 meter runners.
Also, this year, the BC team has enough athletes to put four or five guys in each event. Mellea comments that this calms nerves and adds a whole new level of confidence, saying "Even though track seems to be an individual sport, in the end we are all one team going after the same goal - place as high as possible."
But Mellea will not be running the one-mile run this weekend; rather, in an effort for the team to accumulate points, he'll compete in the distance medley relay and the 3000-meter run. Mellea will compete in the one-mile run on March 3 at the ICAAAA Championship.
Looking forward, Mellea has high hopes for improvement in his time. "I hope to go under four minutes as soon as possible. I'm in shape to do it now, but it is just a matter of getting into an ideal race that will go out in two minutes or better for the first half-mile."
Recently, during the off-season, Mellea has been consistently running 70 miles per week and plans on getting this number up to 90 during the summer. Mellea humbly added, "It'll be another year under my belt."
The way he's going, running a mile under four minutes is certainly more than feasible. The junior from Arlington, Mass., insists on keeping his feet close to the ground, or, rather, the track.
When asked about his success and the thoughts going through his head after breaking the record, Mellea commented, "I didn't realize breaking a school record is as big as everyone is making it out to be. It's just a time, and there's still more that needs to be done." n
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