George Kusche, the redshirt freshman on the Nebraska track team with an ambitious but attainable goal of being the first Nebraska runner to accomplish one of the revered milestones in the sport by running a four-minute mile, isn’t easing into his first attempt at doing so as a Husker. Kusche is kind of calling his shot, and is doing so in just his fourth meet as a Husker.
For a few weeks the program has been promoting that Kusche will attempt to break the four-minute mile Saturday. It will come during the second day of Nebraska’s biggest home meet of the indoor season, the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational at the Deavney Sports Center. High school teams have been invited, and they’ve lined up a pace setter to try and push Kusche to a great race.
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The mile is scheduled for about 2:50 p.m. and the coaches are hoping for a large crowd. Kusche wants that, too. Where he’s from, track is a big deal, with maybe 10,000 fans for a big meet.
“I prefer running in front of big crowds because it gives you purpose so you just don’t run for the birds, you actually run for something. It motivates you to run faster," Kusche said.
The school record in the mile is 4:00.64, set in 1986 by another South African, Jean Verster. It wasn’t long after Kusche came to Nebraska that he started to think about the record.
