Senior distance star breaks state record for mile at 3:59 at HOKA Festival of Miles in Missouri

Oregon finally has another sub-four-minute mile in an outdoor race.

On Thursday night, Crater senior Josiah Tostenson finished second at the HOKA Festival of Miles in St. Louis, Missouri. He finished in three minutes, 59 seconds.

It’s a new state record for the mile, breaking the 3:59.38 that Summit’s Matthew Maton ran at the 2015 Oregon Relays.

Tostenson is a five-time track and field state champion in Oregon, winning the 1,500-meter title as a freshman, the 1,500 and the 3,000 as a junior, and the 800 and the 1,500 as a senior.

He also holds the Oregon high school record in the 1,500 (3:40.06).

Tayvon Kitchen, Tostenson’s longtime Crater teammate, finished in seventh place in 4:02.56.

Kitchen won the Class 5A 3,000-meter state championship last week, and is a two-time cross country state champion. He also holds the state record in the 3,000 (7:58.92) and the 5K cross country record (14:23.7).

Tostenson and Kitchen both ran sub-four-minute miles at the Terrier DMR Challenge in Boston in February.

Thursday’s race was won by Quentin Nauman of Iowa, who finished in 3:58.65.

In the girls’ race, Lakeridge senior Chloe Huyler finished fifth in 4:39.54. It’s a new personal best for Huyler, less that two-tenths of a second off Lincoln’s Ellery Lincoln, who ran a 4:39.37 at the Twilight Relays for the No. 2 time in state history.

The state record is 4:36.09 set by former Olympic gold medalist Maria Mutola in 1991.

Huyler is a three-time Class 6A state champion, winning the 3,000 as a junior and sweeping the 1,500 and the 3,000 as a senior. She also won the Class 6A cross country state championship in the fall.

She holds the Oregon high school record in the 3,000 with a 9:17.85 this spring.