As 2015 draws to a close, MileSplit revisits the Top 10 Upsets of the Year... Stayed tuned to this page as the countdown continues every day this week.
3. The Rail Over Grant Fisher's Indoor Sub-4 Attempt
Grant Fisher won the New Balance Nationals Indoor Mile as a junior in 2014. For the 2015 championship, he was not worried about the competition so much as the clock.
The gun would fire twice for the eight-lap event, with the first false start charged to the field. Upon the gun's second fire, Grand Blanc, Mich. senior Fisher set a hot pace from the start: 59.2, 1:59.7.
Could he break the Meet Record of 4:05? Could he become the second prep ever to break four indoors?
The third quarter was slowest: 3:03 split for 1200m, but he switched to another gear and the crowd became electric.
3:33 with just 200m to go... but then the unthinkable happened: Fisher tripped on the rail and took three steps into the infield. He recovered and still raced first to the line, crossing in a new New Balance Nationals Indoor meet record of 4:03.54.
The time ranks No. 5 on the U.S. All-Time List. Fisher would go on to break four minutes in the spring; his time of 3:59.38 ranks No. 4 All-Time and makes him the seventh prep to break four.
Alan Webb, the national high school record holder for the indoor (3:59.86) and outdoor mile (3:53.43), is the only prep to run sub-four indoors.
Watch the race here:
Immediate post-race interview - we couldn't believe what we had just witnessed:
In-depth post-race interview:
Fisher, now a freshman at Stanford, had this to say on social media after the race: