By Lincoln Shryack

Up until this past Sunday, a sub-4:00 indoor mile had eluded all of NCAA Division III for the classification’s entire history. The names at the top of DIII’s middle-distance record boards make for a murderer’s row of talent—including Nick Symmonds, Will Leer, and Karl Paranya, all of whom went on to successful pro careers—and yet not one of those studs ran under four minutes in the mile indoors during college. Many such accomplished DIII legends have tried and failed to go sub-4, with Coby Horowitz’s 4:00.41 from 2014 the closest anyone had ever come.

But the drought is finally over.

On Sunday at the BU Last Chance Meet in Boston, Ramapo College senior Jeremy Hernandez ran 3:59.01 to shatter the 4:00.41 DIII record, a crowning achievement not only for himself but for the blue collar Division III that he represents. A congratulatory email from another DIII great—former University of Rochester national champion Tom Tuori—really put that into perspective for Hernandez after his historic run.

“He made a good point that there’s a very large group of very talented runners 10-20 years ago like Karl Paranya, Will Leer, and Nick Symmonds that never broke the barrier [indoors],” Hernandez told FloTrack. “To break this barrier, to be placed on top of these type of runners, it’s amazing.”

Now that Hernandez has finally broke the levee for DIII and established himself as one of the all-time greats, the Clifton, New Jersey, native is completely focused on joining the legends around him as a national champion, a distinction that they currently hold over him.

“I still have to win nationals,” Hernandez said. “What’s a national record without a national championship?”

Before breaking four minutes became a reality for him—and before Hernandez became laser-focused on winning the NCAA mile title this season—the seeds of determination were sown for the Ramapo senior after a disastrous finish to his cross country career last November.

In position to finish top-10 at the NCAA DIII cross country championships in Elsah, Illinois, Hernandez fell apart in the last 600m, fading from ninth to 38th as he hit a wall that left him reeling in the most critical part of the race. The fall had already been frustrating enough for Hernandez—he failed to win his conference meet after winning it the previous two years, and he only barely made it out of regionals—and now the brutal conclusion at NCAAs was the bitter cherry on top.

But instead of letting a rough season sour him to running, Hernandez used the disappointment as fuel for the fire for his upcoming track season.

Senior Jeremy Hernandez earns @ustfccca National Athlete of the Week for his record breaking mile run time last weekend. Hernandez set the @ncaad3 record in the mile (3:59.01) and is the first #ncaad3 athlete to run a sub 4-minute mile. @rcnjxctf @ramapocollegenj pic.twitter.com/fRGZ8PPl5v

— RCNJ Athletics (@RCNJAthletics) February 27, 2018

“I’ll never forget that race and what it felt like finishing like that,” Hernandez said. “I feel like that moment right there, I can’t forget that moment. For indoor season, it was just a big motivator.”

Of course, Hernandez isn’t the first athlete to declare himself more motivated than ever after a bad season, but the senior has delivered on his promise by training harder than ever and keeping his eyes narrowed toward nationals. For his Ramapo coach, Justina Cassavell, the difference has been noticeable.

“I think he realized how close he was to being great in that cross country NCAA championship,” Cassavell said. “I think it did motivate him because he’s starting to realize mentally how you need to be right on. He’s learned a lot from that.”

Hernandez has stuck on his mission to elevate his game this winter even when harsh New Jersey training conditions have made it hard to keep his goals in view. Division III’s first indoor sub-4 mile likely wouldn’t have been possible this year without Hernandez refusing to cut any run short, with the steadfast belief that it would pay off.

“I’ve had a lot of persistence this season too, especially when it was like -10 degrees out and we had to do a 14-15 mile long run in the streets of Clifton,” Hernandez said. “It can be very daunting to do something like that.

“Previous years I would think to cut it short and do 10 miles, but this year it was all or nothing. I did everything right… I just want to win everything now. That just drives everything—all the workouts, all the runs. I’ve been hitting workouts that I’ve never done before.”

The new-and-improved Hernandez found himself on the BU starting line on February 25 knowing that the mile ahead likely represented his last real shot at breaking four minutes in college. With championship season rapidly approaching, Hernandez wasn’t going to have another chance at a fast-paced attempt, and yet his 4:01 near-miss two weeks prior had him confident that this would be his moment.

Hernandez had made tactical errors in that 4:01—also run at BU—as he ran too much of the race in lane two. With multiple sub-4 milers in his race on Sunday, and with the lessons of a close-call fresh in his mind, Hernandez felt everything coming together this time.

“Once I realized that it was a good heat, a very solid heat, I knew I had a shot,” he said. “Because at BU (Valentine), I won my heat and it was very competitive as well, but I had no one to chase the last 400m. That was the difference in this race.”

Hernandez and Cassavell were thrilled to have a heat that could truly challenge his fitness, as they felt he was often overlooked in the faster sections of meets, whether because he was a DIII runner or otherwise. But none of that mattered once the gun went this time, as Hernandez used his previous shortcomings and failures to rid Division III—and himself—of a tremendous burden.

Hernandez clicked off perfect splits—59 seconds at 400m, 1:59 at 800m—with Ghana’s 3:58 man Sampson Laari perfectly placed ahead of him. By the time Hernandez hit 1200m, both coach and pupil knew that a moment they had worked so hard for was rapidly approaching.

“When he got through 1200m and I saw him moving up and looking really great, I was like, ‘This is going to happen,’” Cassavell said. “I kind of lost myself a little bit because it was so exciting.”

Hernandez felt similarly.

“We got to 1200 and I realized, just 400 to go,” the runner siad. “It’s all yours, just basically what you got. So I went out and did it. Really, I still can’t believe I did it.”

Turning into the final straightaway, Hernandez checked the clock as it read 3:52, final proof that Division III history was imminent. As the finish line drew ever closer—3:56, 3:57—it occurred to Hernandez that the national record and membership to an exclusive club was his. He relished it.

“I won’t forget it,” he said. “There was a brief moment where the clock was around 3:56-3:57 and I kind of just knew that it was locked because the line was right there. It just kind of dawned on me that this is going to happen. I didn’t run through the finish, I didn’t lean or anything like that. It was just a moment of accomplishment.

“I think I could’ve broke 3:59 had I run through the whole entire finish line, but I’d trade that one-tenth of a second for anything because it was a great feeling.”

Messages of congratulations from nearly everyone in Hernandez’s life lit up his phone, with the entire three and a half hour car ride back to Ramapo needed to answer the nearly 300 texts and snaps he received. The response that his 3:59 produced in its immediate wake reminded Hernandez that his running success isn’t his alone — a reminder that he likely will never forget.

“The most surprising thing to me is—that I don’t realize—is people are still watching what I’m doing,” he said. “No matter what, they’re supporting me all the way. I realized that this past weekend.”

With DIII history in the rearview mirror, Hernandez is hungrier than ever to win his first national title next weekend. He’s been close in the past—he was third in the NCAA 1500 last spring and fourth in the mile in 2016—but the man who stands above all other DIII milers has never felt more confident or prepared than now. He’s used motivation from failure to raise his game higher than ever before, and now he feels ready to validate his remarkable 3:59 by standing on top of the NCAA podium.

“I still have one last thing to do,” he said.