By Citius Mag Staff
February 4, 2025
We caught up with UNC’s Coach Chris Miltenberg just minutes after Ethan shattered the NCAA mile record at the Boston University Terrier Classic over the weekend. His 3:48.32 mile marks his second collegiate record of the season, following his 7:30.15 performance in the 3000m at the Boston University Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener in December. Miltenberg also coaches Parker Wolfe, who ran 7:30.23 in that same race—also dipping under the previous collegiate record, just behind Ethan.
In our interview, Coach Miltenberg breaks down the race plan heading into the mile, Ethan’s mindset and training progression since December, upcoming races for both athletes, and why he believes Ethan and Parker are “the next two great American distance runners.”
The following interview with Coach Miltenberg has been edited lightly for clarity:
Coach Miltenberg’s race plan for Ethan heading into the mile at the BU Terrier Classic:
That’s our biggest thing: just come in here and compete. The time will take care of itself. If it slows up, just run to win. If it’s really fast, just hang on and see what you can do. Even with qualifying for NCAAs, we only loosely talk about that. We’ve got plenty of chances to do that. He hasn’t raced since December, he hasn’t done much. It was just: go run hard and see where we’re at. I just think he loves to compete. Doesn’t matter what time of year it is, [competing] is when he’s at his best.
Ethan’s training between his 3000m collegiate record in December and his mile collegiate record last weekend:
Him and Parker both took a significant break after that 3K. Ethan, even more than Parker, had such a great cross country season. Then he had that big emotional 3K, and these guys want to continue racing well into the summer. So we took a big break in December. These guys are just getting going.
Honestly, I was nervous today. I knew in December we hadn’t done a lot of specificity, but I knew they were at least rested. For this, we had not done specificity and he’s trained really hard the last three weeks and was definitely a little tired. Clearly I was wrong! I feel like I’m learning so much from these guys.
We don’t overdo it. It’s just steady and consistent. Ethan—just like Grant Fisher—has this incredible ability that when you say, ‘This is what we need to get out of this workout,’ he doesn’t try to do anything more than that… Grant was the best at that too. I think if you’re going to be great, that’s that skill more than overdoing it all the time. He’s really good at that.
Why Ethan and Parker aren’t racing at the Millrose Games:
When we left [Boston] in December, obviously there were a lot of opportunities coming their way—him and Parker both. I think one of the things he and Parker do well is keeping the main thing the main thing. These guys want to have ten-year pro careers. Ethan and I talked about Millrose in December and said, ‘If you’re going to retire this year, you’ve got to take every chance you’re going to get.’ But if we’re on a ten-year plan, we don’t need to react to every single thing that comes up.
I think that’s an easy cycle to get in: reacting. He’s so mature about that. Most people his age would be like, ‘No, I want to go do that.’ He’s like, ‘That sounds fun, but I’d really rather beat those guys in June. If you think I can beat those guys in June by staying lowkey, let’s go do that.’ Him and Parker, that’s the way they think. They want to beat them when it matters most.
What his and Ethan’s one-on-one meetings are like:
We just talk about the long term plan. Both the long term for the rest of this year, but also where they want to go over the next eight to ten years. I do think everyday that I’m looking at the next two great American distance runners. I say that not just because they’re my guys, but I’ve seen enough now that I’m like, ‘Yeah. These are the next two great American distance runners.’ I feel such a personal obligation to only think in ten-year terms with them and talk in ten-year terms. We talk about that and how late we want to go into the summer.
These guys take a lot of pride in, ‘Hey, we may only be 22 and in college, but we can mix it up with any of the pros.’ They fire each other up that way everyday. Truthfully, I'm just having an enormous amount of fun with them. I'm learning from them. We’re just figuring out more and more as we go.
How he thinks Grant Fisher will react to him calling Ethan and Parker “the next two great American distance runners”:
Grant has got several years on them! By the time Ethan and Parker are there, he’ll be retired. I think it’s good context. I remember when Grant was at their age—and they’re different—but I see a lot of similarities in personality of what makes Grant great. I see it in these two guys for sure too.
What’s next for Ethan and Parker:
Ethan’s going to go lowkey for the next three weeks, go dark. We’ll run a DMR in three weeks, just to get qualified for the NCAA meet. Then we’ll go to the conference meet. I don’t know what he’s going to run at the NCAA meet. He’s talked a lot about wanting to run the DMR and the 3000m, but we’ll talk more about it and see what he’s going to do.
Parker is getting back going. He got crushed by the norovirus last week and was down for a few days, so we’re just getting him back going right now and we’ll play the back half of the season for him and get him going.
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Citius Mag Staff
