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PROVO — If you look closely in one of the dozen or so videos online, you can see Carter Cutting is a bit confused as his BYU track and field teammates, coaches and athletic trainers pick him up and scream in celebration.
"Honestly, I had no clue. My head was kind of pounding," he recalled a couple of days later to KSL.com. "I don't think it really sunk in for 10-15 minutes, and then I realized I did it."
What was it that he didn't quite realize?
The BYU sophomore had just joined an exclusive club.
Cutting set a personal record Friday a 3-minute, 59.39-second mile at the Robison Invitational, he became just the fifth runner in Utah history to break the four-minute mile in an outdoor race.
The sophomore joined an exclusive group of former BYU standouts, including legendary former Olympian Doug Padilla, former teammate Casey Clinger, and current BYU standouts Lucas Bons and Aidan Troutner, who finished second and fourth respectively in the race in 00.24 and 4:02.60.
"It's been a goal for over a year, since I attempted it last year and missed it by a couple of seconds," Cutting said. "But this year was different, with a massive crowd of teammates, parents and high schools (at the BYU Invitational). Having that home crowd and all the excitement, I was stoked for it.
"It didn't kick in for a little bit, but it was a pretty cool moment."
THAT. WAS. CRAZY.
— BYU Track & Field/Cross Country (@BYUTFXC) May 2, 2025
Cutting becomes the 5th ever to run a sub-4 mile in the state of Utah with a time of 3.59.39! pic.twitter.com/4Prc7R1pCQ
Cutting has already had a breakout career, and he's only a sophomore with the Cougars. He burst to a 3:42.81 1,500-meter finish at the Big 12 outdoor championships last season, the a 3:57.25 blitz at the Big 12 indoor championships earlier this year.
But Friday's conditions were perfect for a personal-record kind of day, with a home track, no headwind, a loud crowd buoyed by the largest annual high school invitational in the state, and what Cutting called a "perfect pacing" from BYU teammate and U.S. Olympic steeplechaser James Corrigan.
Even then, he wasn't sure he'd eclipse the four-minute mile, before an attempted late challenge by Salt Lake Community College's Jayden Holdsworth, who finished third in 4:01.09, propelled him across the finish line.
"Honestly, I have to give all credit and glory to God," Cutting said. "I wasn't feeling good going into the race; it's a long week of training, and we weren't peaking going into this race. So I just trusted the plan, and trusted what coach drew up."
More than 2,000 elite-level men have broken the four-minute mile since Roger Bannister first broke the tape in 1954, according to the New York Times. But fewer have done it at higher elevations such as Provo, which sits 4,549 feet above sea level.
Cutting is just two years into his BYU career, a collegiate career that surprised him as much as anyone.
The native of Wilsonville, Oregon, didn't grow up wanting to attend BYU, the flagship university of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Cutting isn't even a member of the church.
But his family moved to Draper during the COVID-19 pandemic in part so he could have a relatively normal high school experience at Corner Canyon before moving back home to Wilsonville and finishing school.
Two years with the Chargers put Cutting on head coach Ed Eyestone's radar, and when distance coach returned to BYU from Delaware in 2022, he immediately began recruiting the two-time Oregon cross country state champion and Nike Cross All-American.
"I knew as soon as I came on my visit that I wanted to run here," Cutting said.
He found early success, too, including the No. 5 mark in program history in the indoor mile and first-team All-American honors with the indoor distance medley relay team after a school-record performance of 9:13.31 before Friday's four-minute mile.
From one dream to another, things seemed to work out fine for Carter Cutting.
"A kid from Oregon always dreams of running for the Ducks, and that's what I wanted for a while," he said. "But I think God shut that door and opened this one here at BYU.
"It just all worked out, and I'm very grateful. I couldn't have dreamed of going anywhere else. This is home now. … I wouldn't have expected it, but I'm very glad I came here."
