Portland Track Festival 2023: full broadcast transcript & event recap

Full broadcast transcript

Auto-generated and hand-corrected against the official roster and results.

[MUSIC] - All right, we're getting right into it here. We've got the 2023 Portland Track Festival kicked off. And I'm sitting here with Will Leer and Shannon Rowbury. And the 2000 meter steeple chase has just begun. High school girls, junior, master's race combined. We have a little over two hours until the steeple chase, men's steeple chase starts. And then we'll roll into the women's steeple chase, Biden supports women's steeple chase. And then the Rose City PT, 10,000 meters tonight. And the incubator 10,000 meters this evening. But down on the track, we have the high school girls, junior, master's, women combined 2000 meter steeple chase.

So good to have everybody here in the booth. - Yeah, if I'm being honest, not seeing a lot of masters out there, Jeff. - Yeah, I was going to say, I think it's just high schoolers or very youthful masters. - Yeah, I got to get a glimpse of that skin routine. If any of these girls are masters, the invitation was put out there. The meet record, 6:46.22, as you mentioned, it's a 2K steeple for these youngins. So it's just under five laps at this track with the steeple barrier being on the outside. So they've got, when they come around the final, or this turn and hit the finish line, they'll have three laps to go.

- This will be an interesting, as we see more and more steeple chase tonight, I think the outside steeple barrier might throw some people for a loop. We could push so much towards competing on what they call a World Athletics certified track and all those require an inside barrier. So a little bit different for the guys and the gals out there looking for a particular split. - Yeah, especially because they're starting in the 3K later, they'll be starting closer to the first barrier that they have to cover, so we'll watch for that. But in the meantime, three laps to go, almost for Anna Grunauer from Sherwood Track Club,

as she approaches the start finish. - Hope Bridge in this race from Slaton Running Club, as well as Moa Seager Holt and Hayley Hooten showing. - And a fifth that we're not, that isn't on the list for us, late entry, I guess. - I think it appears, if I'm judging by singlets, I think Hayley would be currently running in fifth, and so we maybe have a bandit runner out there. Someone's ghosted this. How do you feel about that, Jeff? - I mean, we'll see how it plays out. - Yeah, you know what? I read that it's free entry for anyone under the age 18, so these girls should be good to go. - That is admission.

Admission is at the stadium, free entry. - Tell me to represent. - Out here, though, kicking it off this evening, tomorrow is gonna be a hot one Sunday evening with a lot of great races, especially kicking off that Hot Window from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. - Yeah. With the championship 800s, 5,000 meters, and 1,500s, but a little bit of the early races tonight, just to get things moving. - And there's a great water jump. - It's interesting what this meet, as I look through the entries, and what you were talking about this earlier, but we have a lot of high school-aged kids competing in some of the races that are just for younger athletes,

but also mixed into the open fields with the pros. It's interesting to see them out there really chasing these fast times, and these fields with other elite athletes. - Yeah, it's the end of the high school season, so state meets are finished, and athletes looking to capitalize on that fitness a little bit more with the opportunities out there, and maybe mix it up with the pros who are just kind of getting their season going, or it's been going for a month and a half right now, but this is that transition point in the year, too. And you both know this, where you're getting out of that securing times mode,

and starting to look towards championship season, and honing your racing skills. So this meet has been known as a miler's meet, I would say, and a racer's meet, and a chance for 1,500 meter runners, and 800 meter runners and 5K runners alike to test their chops, and see what their competition's gonna be like as they get to the USA's. Yeah, USAs is just four and a half weeks away from now, so the NCAA athletes, they kick off NCAAs next week, but the pro athletes, excuse me, the pro athletes are getting towards the, they're in that peak to go to championships, and so when I was competing, we would come here,

and we would usually do either a double, or like an off-event, trying to sharpen up, really fine-tune those last little bits before going into the championship. - One of the things I just noticed looking at the entry sheet was that the meet record holder here is Anna Markazik from 2019, running 6:46, I think her record is very safe, but Olivia went out to win the ACC steeple chase title in the time of 9:40, which would be a US championship qualifying time on the women's side, and so, you know, Portland Track Festival, the birthplace of absolute NCAA studs, (laughing) birthplace of champions. - Yes.

- Start here, continue it, wherever you choose to obtain a higher education. There we go. - That's great, great sleuthing, good research. - Yeah, well, you know, I was just curious to see how, you know, our lead runner here, Anna is so far out in front of the rest of the field that it's an impressive performance. - Yeah. - And I just wanted to see how it historically ranked up against some of the other US steeple chances that we've had, 'cause 2K steeple's not a very off-competed event. - Mm-mm. - Right. - It's a good opportunity to take a shot at it here, in a bright future ahead of Anna Grunauer.

- Yeah, I feel like most athletes, you know, it's like the first day of track practice in college, coaches are like, "Can you jump over that thing?" - Right, exactly. And if you can't, well, now you become a steeplechaser, and if you can't, you'll find a flat event of your choice. - But if you started in high school, you have a much higher likelihood of then, you know, integrating that kind of mindset and training and into your later competition, you know? So I think you'll make a great point about these high schoolers who have adopted it early. I think they set themselves up for a really great opportunity later.

- College coaches take note, Anna Grunauer here, winning the Portland Track Fest, 2,000 steeplechase. - Here she comes down the home stretch, the home stretch, Anna Grunauer. - I like the stretch. Straight and true, Sherwood Track Club. Down the stretch she comes, breaks the tape. - Breaking the tape. Ooh. - And 7:33.68 for Anna Grunauer. - Big finish for Hope Bridge. - Hope Bridge coming across there. Slaton Running Club, 7:43. - It appears the next two runners across the line have been running together side by side since the first early stage of this race, and very content to finish together as well.

- And here they come. Looks like Moa Seager Holt and Hayley Hooten, shown, if our-- - I think this is like this, Hailey. I think one of those athletes was the athlete we weren't, whose name we don't have. - Well, we got some big hugs at the finish line. People are very proud of their accomplishment. Steeple chase, one of the most challenging events in all track and field. - Yeah. - Good way to kick it off the early stages of the Portland track festival here at Mount Hood Community College this year. Lewis and Clark, known as the Electric Forest, to those who love it, is getting a bit of a facelift to their grandstand

and their press box. So we are here on the east side of Portland in a storied venue as well. It's this year's Electric Forest, surrounded by trees. Beautiful setting. From our press box, we can see the mountain ridges ahead of us. - I wanted to point out, I think Anna Grunauer is only 16 years of age, so she was up against the field of high school athletes, but she's on the young side, even in that field. So pretty an even more impressive performance coming out of her. - And now we're gonna move on to the boys 2000 meter steeple chase. And it is billed as another combination race. So high school boys, Junior, as well as Masters Runners.

We'll see if there are any Masters Runners in here, or if it's just an all boys affair. - You know, props to these boys. I would have never had the gumption and guts in high school to wear a speed suit. You know, it's just testament to a new era of distance running where these guys, you know, they're the cool kids. - The times are changing. - Times they are changing, yeah. I guess, you know, the Ingebrigtsens and Boulodha Azmeron, way ahead of his time. - Yes. - Right, championing the speed suit for distance events and the Ingebrigtsen twins, or they're not twins. All the brothers, they love a good speed suit

and it's really starting to trickle down. Styles trickle on down. - Boulodha Azmeron used to see him at the Cal Allcomers meets rocking that. - Training buddy, he was my training partner leading up to the 2021-ish, 2020-21 Olympics. - Love that guy, he never, he doesn't seem to age, so. - Great 5,000 meter guy. Every time I see him, I'm like, Boulodha, I look terrible and you look incredible. Again, gotta learn, gotta learn some of those skincare tips. - Hit the chat, anybody who has tips. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And, yeah, we're kind of, what kind of retinol cream are you using, bud? - Now, our steeple guys are heading that direction

when the women started over there, but they're both doing 2K, so I'm curious to see how this plays out. - I think maybe they're just stretching their legs a bit before the race. - They're staying cool, staying in the shade. - I never like to get too close to the starting line before the race, I'm getting a little nervous. - Okay. - I wanna get as far away as I could right up until the race started. - I was driving a lot of weight to that start line. - Yeah, I was a nervous guy. - You know who's not a nervous guy? - Who's that? - Eli, that guy just ran right over the top of the long jump pit, didn't even care.

- Oh, man. Lived to the fans, Eli. - Here we go, we've got, yeah, we do have some speed suits out here, I think that is an OTC speed suit. I'm not mistaken. - Yeah, yeah, shout out to Bell app Track and Field. - Okay, and we do have the wave lights out here as well, so on the screen you can see them float by, green light just goes by the living room. We have the living room set up tonight, so the winners are gonna take a seat on that couch below and talk to Deanna and Jillian. Let us know how they feel about their victories. The living room is a fan favorite here at Portland Track Festival. Originally, pioneered by Andy Weeding and myself in 2019.

- Yeah. - Shannon, you-- - I gotta sit on that couch once-- - On that-- - This one. - Sweat soaked couch cushion. - Yeah. - Playin' your prize. - You're so euphoric after a win, you couldn't care less. - It seems a heavy dose of Febreze between days one and two. - It does. - And we're gonna send it down to Deanna and Jillian now. And then, yeah, feel free, ladies. - Okay, good. - Okay. Hello, welcome everybody to the Track Festival. We are here with our first winner of the day, Anna. - Anna did amazing, by the way, in the women's, I'm sorry, the girls' 2,000 meter steeplechase. So Anna, how are you feeling?

- I'm good, but really tired. - It's so hot out, and you basically ran the whole race by yourself, so how did that steeple water feel? The steeple water felt good, at least. - That's not what my face is really nice. - Okay, good. And you said this was your second time ever running a steeplechase. So do you think that this is like a new goal for you in future seasons? You're gonna keep trying to do this? - I think so. I think I'm gonna do it at Nationals. - Oh, okay, very cool. - Probably hopefully next year, too. - That's awesome. - Yeah, there's not a lot of, like, choices, chances to do it. - Yeah, it's tough to find.

- Yeah, especially. - Are you planning to do any other events in the future? - I also do the season, it might come to be good. I also do the, like, the 1500, 800. - Great, this dinn's triple. So thank you so much for talking to us today. We're having all of the athletes sign this finish line right here. And then if you wanna hold up the champion wood block right here, give everyone a nice smile. - You might, if you're 14, you could just-- - Okay. - Are we gonna like done? - Oh, okay, nevermind, that's the one that's working. - Okay, okay. - All good. (laughs) And now you can sign this right now.

- Thank you. - Thank you so much, Anna. - Congratulations. - Thank you. - Have a good one. - Yeah. (laughs) - Okay, so we do, this is gonna be fun. It's shaken out, 2,000 meters steeplechase. Ready to go, they found the starting line. - Thank goodness, much bigger field this time as well. We've got 14 athletes entered. All between the ages of 15 to 18, our youngest athlete, Grady Fornier, that's how I'm gonna pronounce it, age 15. And yeah, gotta gonna see how this field lines up tonight. - A lot of local high schoolers in here, unattached athletes on the sheet, but some great uniforms there. Stark Street Athletics Club is represented,

and that is the pseudonym for Central Catholic in downtown Portland. But here we go, they're off and running. 2,000 meters over barriers here at the Portland Track Festival. And it's a thick pack. It was interesting hearing Anna talk down there, say that that was her first steeple chase that she's ever run. - Oh, even more impressive. - I think she may have said second. - Second. - Second, but either way, she looked smooth as silicone over those barriers. They posed her no problem. - Yeah. - Can't say the same, but some of these boys go over that water pit. They are coming to a pretty abrupt halt, yeah.

- Two feet first. - Honestly, it's knowing a lot of people who compete in this steeple chase. The water jump is a thing that people don't really practice. And so it's that first one of the year is always quite a shock to the system. - Or they practice it into a sand pit, but then they're, you know, competing into a water pit, which different, much different dynamics when you're landing into that slant. - And that's Garrett Mackie up front of the Stark Street Athletics Club. - Having never run a steeple chase myself, I have no idea what that feels like. And honestly, I'm okay with that. I think at this point,

if I attempted to jump over the water barrier, I would probably break a hip. We do have some 1500 runners turned steepler. Some guys cropping up in the path. - Well, many on the women's side, I would say. - Yeah, well, you know, 1500 meter runners, they call us the best athletes of all the distance runners. - Oh, do this. - Oh, yes, yeah. My college coach, Kevin Jermaine used to say for the steeple, it was someone who could be good at the 800 and also good at the 5K, so that you could have the endurance, but also the lactate flushing. And that combination of traits would then marry really well into the steeple,

assuming you had like the agility and the durability to handle the wear and tear of the steeple. Having done one steeple in my life, the thing I noticed in prepping for it is you never know what's gonna be sore afterwards. Like it's pretty predictable in a flat running event where you'll be sore, but in the steeple, each time you do it, there's something else that's a little bit achy afterwards. - We got a tale of two horses here. - Yeah. - With Garrett and Ethan out front, these guys are trading this lead back and forth. - Yeah. - Trading punches. - Ethan Bothwell and Garrett Mackie up front.

- Meet record is, where is our meet record here? 5:52 from 2022, Benjamin Belaz- Leppe, University of Oregon. Didn't go deep enough to see any of his stats of how many Pac-12 titles he's won, but I imagine innumerable at this point. - Wait, the freshman this year? - Yes. - What I've heard is talk of town in Eugene that they're big high expectations. - Last year, he did win the 2000 meter steeple chase and he also won the high school boys mile that'll take place tomorrow. - What did I say about milers in steeplechasing? - They go hand in hand. - Combination, strength and speed. - This evening, we'll be seeing a 1500 meter runner

turned steepler as well. David Ribich jumping back, testing himself again over barriers. - A barrier in trade to see how that goes. - We saw, well, Geordie Beamish earlier this season too, he's run a couple of steeples and nipped Hillary Bor down at the Track Fest. So a great, great first season steepling for Geordie Beamish. - Now Mackie looks incredible going over the hurdles. Like he looks like he's running a 400 meter hurdle race as mechanics are that good. I see a little bit of a breakdown in Bothwell's mechanics. Like the barrier right past the finish line, he had to step on it to get over it.

Looks like maybe the pace is catching up to him as Johnson appears to be trying to come and pass him as they go into about 600 ish meters to go. - Yeah, Mackie looks great right now. - Yeah. - He's cresting that barrier very nicely. - No wasted space, not going too high. And he's dipping that foot in. - And the separation between himself and Bothwell really happened on the water barrier, the lap prior. They were side by side, but then when Mackie cleared that water barrier, he got two or three steps on Bothwell and, you know, he continues to build that gap. - The rest is history, as they might say.

Again, I think the meet record is probably safe here today, but Garrett Mackie has really shown himself to be the class of the field. And my God, is he good over those barriers? - There's the bell lap, we're inside a lap to go. And now he's picking it up a little bit, still looking smooth. Getting that lead leg out there nicely over that barrier, barreling down the back straight, past the Portland track sign. Making light work of these barriers. You know, honestly, he's getting a little close for my liking, guys, easy as a... - This guy knows what he's doing. - Clearly, yeah. - And we'll see how he handles

this final water jump here. - Ooh, little rocky, but he kept it together. Smooth sailing for Garrett Mackie around that last jump. And onto the home straight here, this year's Electric Forest at Mount Hood Community College. - Ooh. - And he's laying it on now. Driving to the tape, this is Garrett Mackie coming in, 2,000 meter steeplechase, breaks the tape in style. - Ooh, just missed going sub-6. But what an effort, what an effort. - That was a 67 last lap. - Yeah, five minutes and 60 seconds there. (laughing) - That's like way. - We're hearing that from the in stadium announcers. You know, always gives you a chuckle

because we'll just read about anything that's on a teleprompter in front of us. (laughing) - Could be the end of us. (laughing) - Oh gosh, this is a brutal event. Also, if that is a high school kid with a full beard, bravo sir, bravo. (laughing) I can't, I can't grow a beard like that. Still. (laughing) - Well that Garrett Anderson. - There it is. - Hats off to you Garrett, that's impressive. - Noah Baumgartner coming in and Grady Fornier. - Noah unattached, but clearly a fan - Noah unattached, but clearly a fan of the Oregon Track Club Elite - They'll be. - And lookin' good doin' it. - There'll be some Oregon Track Club athletes

out here competing this evening, I believe, and tomorrow we got Jackson Messler in the men's steeplechase this evening. And then tomorrow evening in the men's 1500, Cole Hocker, in a nice little rematch with Matthew Centrowitz from the 2021 trials. 2020 trials, what do we call them? - Your guess is as good as mine, Jeff. - Okay, the 2020.5, we'll split the difference. - 2020 plus one. - We'll throw Craig Engels in there too. The first, second, and fourth place finishers from the 2020.5 Olympic trials will be reconvening here in the electric forest. - Very exciting. It's been great to see Centro finding his form again.

Very positive result for him in LA last weekend. - You could never count him out, ever. - It's like he's like the Tiger Woods. - All right, we're gonna send it back down to Deanna and Jillian in the living room. - Hey everyone, we are here with Garrett Mackie, the winner of the boys steeplechase 2K. How are you feeling, Garrett? - I'm pretty good. I mean, I was chasing the sub six barrier, I raced to be honest, and I saw a six flat point zero zero. I don't know if that was official, but I was close, obviously. I would have liked to just get under that, but I'm happy with it. - Honestly, great effort considering how hot it is.

Did that affect your race at all? - I mean, I definitely felt pretty tired warming up, just, you know, warming up in the heat. But I've had, it's been a hot spring, I feel like, and I've had a couple races in the heat like this, so I feel like I've kind of prepped for it. Well, yeah. - Well, great job. If you want to sign this finish line right here and then hold up the plaque. Oh my gosh, the cap has gone away. Okay, great job, Garrett, and here we go. - Yes. Congratulations. - Yeah, it's yeah. - I got the cap for you. - Yeah, go cool down, go get the pops of gold. She's okay. - Okay, thank you, Deanna and Jillian.

We're looking at the women's open 5,000 meter run here, so a lot of local Portland runners jumping into this race and celebrating the Portland Track Festival as the city comes together and celebrates the sport that they love in the grove. So we've got groups represented here, the Jacuzzi Boys Athletic Club, Team Red Lizards, and we even have some out of town teams in here, so Peninsula Distance Club from down in the Bay Area, Central Park Track Club. I assume that's in New York. - That safe assumption. - We've got the Vancouver Thunderbirds coming down from Canada here, Discovery Canyon in this race as well.

- Or are they just across the river? - I think Thunderbirds are up north. That's John Gay-- - That's the Thunderbirds? - The Thunderbirds, yeah. Yeah, they're from Canada. John Gay is a Vancouver Thunderbird. - Yes. - Steeplechaser, knows this meet well. - Spreading the gospel of Portland Track Fest, far and wide. - It's a big field for this women's 5K. We have, see about 22 athletes initially, oh no, yeah. There's a real road race on the track here, but that's what most of these women do year-round. They compete against each other on the road scene here in the Shamrock Run in Portland, as well as the Red Lizard

Stumptown Cross Country Series that takes place every fall. - This is our first appearance of the wave lights this evening. Jeff, the wave light here is paced for 17 minutes. There's two athletes who have entry times that are sub-17, but the entire pack seems intent to get after it tonight. Everyone is almost right on that pace light. - Yeah, you know, I think it's a strong motivator for these athletes, those barriers. 17 minutes to try to break that is something I'm sure that they're striving for. And to have the pace lights sort of establish, visually establish where that pace is and falls is helpful for them.

You know, the first lap, as we all know, is a little kind of everybody's getting the jitters out and figuring out where to place yourself, but we should be seeing it settle in as it is right now, kind of strung out altogether. So we'll watch this pack formation to be able to tell if the athletes are going out of it or if they're going out after it or kind of if they're bunching up that they've slowed down so far, they've gotten out. - Pace lights here brought to you by Pre-Classic. Getting ready for the Diamond League final this year, September 16th and 17th. TrackTown USA has brought them up the I-5

to their friends up here in Portland. - This, I wonder how visible the wave light is on the back stretch in the bright bath of sunlight. - It's a great point. - You know, again, showing my age, never had the joys of running with the wave light, but they are clearly a competitive advantage to athletes chasing fast times. Oh yeah. - It's a great tool for fans to understand just kind of what pace athletes are running on the track too. It helps tell the story. I mean, I'm quite partial to racing as opposed to standard chasing when it comes to that, but I think the wave lights do a good job in helping narrate that story of a race

and show how fast somebody is going. - I think they also helped tell a story of success, right? You know, we had this field of 20-odd women out here running the 5K and very easy for us to say, you know, this is what their goal is. This race, their goal is to come out here, compete against each other, but also, you know, chase a personal best time. And otherwise from the 400 meter check-ins on Pace, which I don't know what the pace is for 17 minute 5K, but I can see where the wave light is and they are ahead of schedule. - Yeah, exactly. Well, and for athletes like Tyrone Gorze that is coming in later tonight in the 10K,

trying to go after a fast time, he spoke of breaking his, the high school collegiate record indoor or high school record indoors in the 5K. He spoke of seeing those wave lights at the end of the race and motivating, feeling motivated to go that much faster to then try to break that record. So, you know, for an athlete, who has kind of put themselves out there to do something groundbreaking, it really can help motivate them later on in the race if they're all by themselves. - And the women on the local scene here too, there are many great clubs in Portland and they compete against each other and it's nice to know your rivals

and be able to pick somebody off from race to race or target somebody and say, okay, I want to beat that person this time because they beat me last time. But when it comes down to it too, it's a celebration of just everybody sharpening each other, iron sharpens iron out there. So it is a competition, it's a race amongst the athletes in here, but when it all comes down to it, everybody's raising a glass in each other, especially at the beer garden tomorrow night. - Oh yeah, watch for that. - Hopefully we have some rowdy competitors and fans alike, toasting each other's accomplishments and celebrating all the joy

of a beautiful evening of track and field. - And they're ahead of the 17 minute pace here. Katrina Allison of the Vancouver Thunderbirds is leading this Sage Brooks in second place, Faith Reynolds of the Peninsula Distance Club in third and then her teammate Sarah Johnson in fourth. So that was a 79 second lap. I wanted to talk about the weather. It's 77 degrees, it says outside, real feel 79. So for a 5K, probably a little on the warm side for these women, I know in the races that I've done in the past in hotter weather, one of the things that they're gonna be potentially dealing with later in the race is some chafing or friction,

maybe their shoes are rubbing on the balls of their feet or their toes, I know I've definitely come away with some blisters. So I think it'll really play into how the last mile of the race unfolds, the athletes that are kind of better hydrated or better acclimated to the heat. We already have one athlete who's dropped off so we're now down to three at the lead pack. I believe it's Allison, Brooks, and Reynolds and it's Sarah Johnson that has fallen off but will confirm. - Yeah, Katrina Allison has really taken control of this race from the very beginning, content to be out front, content to drive to pace,

they're sort of inching down and distancing themselves from the wave light with every proceeding lap. So she's doing a great job up there, just cranking along. - Yeah, this is maybe reminiscent of Faith Kipyegon's run, actually. They started out at 82 second lap, then down to 80.9 and then down to 79.8. Through 1,800 meters here, that was a 80 second lap. So they were at 6:02. But still well ahead of that 17 minute goal pace that the wave lights are indicating on the back stretch. And it is a bright green light. You could see it in the daylight out here. So kudos to the wave light creators figuring that out.

- Yeah, shout out to wave light. They've done something, they've created something that has fundamentally changed the sport of track and field. And when used appropriately, I think for the better. Yeah. If we start playing with these lights at a championship, I think that's a massive mistake. - I agree with you there. - But for purposes of what the goal is for these athletes today, I mean, look, the wave light is not giving any assistance to Katrina Allison out front. She is running purely based on guts and emotion and fitness. - She'd probably be angry to see those wave lights creep up and after that, but right now they don't stand a chance.

So 2,200 meters crossed there. That was an 82 second lap. So Allison now slowing slightly after clicking off 80 second laps, back to 82. - We're in that middle stage of the 5K that's tough. Like you're tired from the first mile, but you're not yet at the last mile. And the 3,200 meter mark is usually where you start to see who's kind of paced themselves well early. We still have a little ways till that 3,200 meter marker. But we do see a lit, for the first time, it not be completely strung out. Gosh, I think maybe Sage Brooks trying to come up on Allison, although Allison matched that surge and is back to the lead.

- Yeah, it appeared that Katrina Allison moved out for a moment and said, "Do a little help." - Yeah, yeah. A little asking for some of these other ladies to step up. And no one was too keen on that. Got a little ogy-bodgy out there. The wave light got a little bit closer when it slowed down on the back stretch, but... - I'll point out that they were at 8:25 at halfway, at 2,500 meters. So right about 16:50. So they're still ahead of the lights. And now it looks like Sage Brooks is... - Message received. Message received or Sage, I get it. I wasn't so sure what she was talking about in the back stretch, but now I get it.

- That was another 82 second lap through 2,600. But yeah, Sage Brooks up front now. And Katrina Allison sitting in that armchair position in front of Faith Reynolds with the Peninsula Distance Club. I don't know where Sage Brooks is from, but we have the West Coast represented. Yeah, she's a citizen of the globe. We have Katrina Allison from Vancouver in Canada and Faith Reynolds from the Bay Area Peninsula Distance Club. Sage Brooks out front right now. - We have in fourth, I think, our Carrie Heineck is our masters athlete, age 41. I'm not sure, I don't have to look up her personal best, but she is our master's athlete in this field.

And we also have some young teenagers, Kate Morrow, 15 years of age and Sydney Moore, 17 years of age from Discovery, California. They are sitting a little further back, Kate Morrow in 15th place currently, but that's our 15 year old and 15th place in the field of mature, mature young women. So pretty impressive. - Yeah, I think Carrie Heineck, her entry time lists a PB of 17:27. So judging by where the wave lights are relative to her position on the track, she's, I don't know if it's gonna be a personal best, but a season's best at the very least, according to that entry time. - Exciting. - Sage Brooks out there rocking that Kinney singlet too.

Old school. - I loved it. I was gonna make a comment on that, but before we started diving a little bit deeper into the roster of athletes that are out here competing, but that vintage look, it's put a smile on my face every time. (laughing) Also, super into all the boys' steeple chasers, you know, dangling their toes on this hot summer's day into the pit, it really enjoying themselves and showing that there's a lot of camaraderie in the sport of track and field. - Very nice. - Yeah, we have Brooks and Allison breaking away right now. So it's a duel to the finish. They passed 3,000 meters in 10:07.

And now they're coming up to 3,400 meters. - A mile to go. - So that was an 80 second lap. Brooks is pulling away now. So Brooks, feeling strong here. Every step she takes gets her closer under a mile to go. And she's distancing herself down the back straight. Katrina Allison in tow trying to keep up. But Brooks is looking bouncy right now. - Yeah, for my money, I thought when she went to the front that they were gonna start, you know, clicking off some sub 80 second laps. She just looked like she picked up the pace ever so slightly. But I think when they lagged back down to that 82-83 range, she's just really taking it back.

Back in that wheelhouse where they were comfortably cruising along at the beginning. But, you know, nice to see her taking an opportunity, receiving the message from Katrina and saying, and stepping up to the plate and enforcing her will on this field. So she's coming up to three laps remaining in this open 5,000 meter race. - Shannon, what do you think is the hardest part of the 5K? Three laps to go or a mile to go? - I think it's, to me, it was always getting through that middle of the race and hitting that like, I would say like five laps to go until three laps to go, getting through that hump.

'Cause that's really when the fatigue could start to settle in, but you're not quite at the finish. You're not feeling like you can think about finishing fully yet. So now I think that, you know, all of these athletes and my guess would be, you know, at this point now on their third lap to go, the next time they cross a finish line, they're thinking about, okay, either 800 or the final 600. I know how to kick for that. I know how to push at each 100 meters or 200 meters. But yeah, five laps to go is a tough spot, which was exactly when Sage Brooks took the lead, I wouldn't be surprised if that was a strategy that she had

of like two K to go, I'm gonna start trying to drop it down. - Is it always the toughest athlete to make the hardest moves in the worst parts of the races? - I refuse to comment on that. - I sometimes think it's the dumbest athletes. - Well, it's paying off for Sage Brooks. - Absolutely, no, she, when she went to the front, it was decisive, you know, they started to dawdle and that's not what she's out here to do today. So, you know, again, tip of the cap to Sage Brooks for really taking control of this race. - Two laps to go. - And Katrina Allison, that wave light is-- - Creeping up. - Creeping, preying on her, getting closer on just--

- Oh, and she just stepped off. - Oof, two laps to go. Tough time to step. I would argue that 800 meters to go in a 5K is about as hard as anything that I've ever physically done. I was never a part of a 5K where I was stretched that deep in the early stages. And so, you know, when we'd start to really get rolling was four laps to go, and I always just hated seeing a mile 'cause I'm like, that's my normal event. And I've already been out here for so long. - And I'm tired. Now I'm starting. - I've run over two miles already, don't show me that. - Well, I think for Katrina Allison, we see, you know,

she had been running 80s all the way up until about, you know, a mile to go. And then it was an 83, and then an 84. And, you know, it may have just been her knowing herself that, you know, this is not gonna trend in a direction that's quicker. In fact, I'm just getting slower. And so she made the choice to stop with just under 800 meters left in the race. But it's Sage Brooks at the front. - Out of her effort, no less though, you know, without that early front running from Katrina Allison, we wouldn't be where we are in this race. So, Sage Brooks capitalizing on a great opportunity here today at Mount Hood Community College Track.

- That's right. Inside a lap to go for Sage Brooks at the Portland Track Festival. And now she's opening it up. Looked like she was saving a little bit for this last lap. And she'll have the last laugh over the lights. And there she goes, powering down the back stretch. She goes by the banners from all of our partners who support the Portland Track Festival. Here in the beautiful city of Portland, Oregon. - Portland has shown up today. It is a stunningly beautiful day. Perfect day for some fast action track. The weather clearly having no effect on Sage Brooks and her ability to decisively handle this field.

- 150 to go here. - And we've got Sage Brooks coming in. Down the home stretch, Sage Brooks, wearing the Kinney singlet. And powering home, her penultimate lap was an 81 second lap. We'll see what she can get here. On the clock, 16:50. So even splits first and second half of that 5K. They came through in 8:25. And then with a 78 second final lap, Sage Brooks takes the open 5K, 16:50. - Happy. - In the battle for the ages here, as people are streaming in to the finish, you just love to see the competitiveness out of all these athletes. - And I think we're gonna have a season's best for Heineck,

like you had mentioned Will as a possibility. - Looks like 17:19, and you'd said 17:21 before was her season's best. - Yeah, yeah, over 17:20 was her entry time. And yeah, watch her chunk off the season's best. - Team Red Lizard athlete. - A regular on the local scene. - I'm gonna say it. I wish everyone on the track wore spikes. I don't like to see the combination of spikes and super shoes, because we were talking about this before the broadcast, but it's not in a level playing field at that point. It makes the shoes enter the discussion versus everyone just picking your favorite super spike and going with it.

- Well, in the championship races, later this evening and tomorrow evening, there will not be-- - Your wishes will be granted. - The spike of Stoppa will be out. - Yeah. - But for these early races, they're letting it slide. - Which is fine. I'm just being, is it politically correct to call myself a Karen? - I don't know. - I don't know. - Made a Karen about it. - What's the male version of a Karen? - Carl? - Carl, I'm being a Carl. - I'll tell you Carl. - All right. - If I start, if I start going off about choosing and to say, okay, Carl. - Okay, Carl. - I think it's like the old man shaking fist at cloud.

- Jack, how are you? - Right? - Here we have some more athletes crossing the line here. Victoria Endurance Track Club, that's Samara Cockburn there, 18:52. And after this, we have three heats of open men's 5Ks on the track. - Having conversations with Emma Coburn's family about the morphing of their last name when they early emigrated to the US, Cockburn. - Cockburn? - Oh. - So, you know, Samara Cockburn over there. Maybe distant relative to Emma. Does it get a 23 and me on that? - Well, there you go. Thank you for tuning in, Emma. - Celebrating your ancestry? - 23 and me, if you know anyone in--

- That's our 15-year-old. - The relationships that just finished. - Oh, Kate Morrow on the track. Discovery Canyon, 19:53 there. It's under the 20-minute mark. - I think it had said the entry time was, it listed at 19 minutes. I'm not sure how that all correlates to what she's run before if that was a projected time. But strong, I mean, did most of that racing, you know, a race within a race? This is her teammate, Sydney Moore, covering, coming up with a header. - It's not. That was not Katrina Allison as the in-stadium announcer was confidently proclaiming. - That was our second Discovery Canyon.

You don't want any fighting with the in-stadium announcer here. - It's difficult not to. I mean, neither of us know, well, only one of us knows that they're fighting with the other. That's a fun battle 'cause you can feel pretty confident you'll win it, right? - Yeah, Carl's feeling pretty confident over here. - Carl. - So like we said, three heats of the men's open 5K coming up right after this. And then tomorrow evening will be the championship 5,000 meters. Inside the Hot Window, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Get your tickets now. If you're listening to this, you have your tickets already. - Lucky ducks.

- Yeah, if you're a Denver Nuggets fan, enter nugget at checkout for no percent off. - You. - But go nugs. - You could try that, I suppose. - If you try it and it doesn't work, you can write to will and complain. - For every person that writes to me and complains, I will donate $1 to the Portland Track Festival. - Oh. - Ooh. - I heard it here. - Oh, come on people. - Nuggets fans only. - Build the purse. - Okay. - That money will go straight to the athletes. - So we're starting with the, we start with the, which heat are we beginning with? Third? - So we have the heat one. - Heat one. - Fastest first.

- Next finals. - We have a little switcheroo on the schedule from the original heat sheets. - Before we get to the men's race, we're gonna send it back down to Deanna and Jillian in the living room. - Hello and welcome. We're here in the living room couch with the winner of the 5K Sage Brooks. Tell us, you look pretty excited after winning. Are you happy with the time? Tell us about that. - Yeah, I'm really excited. I came into it not really knowing what to expect, especially time-wise, 'cause I've never run a track 5K before. But I had the plan of going out in front and then taking the lead at some point.

I definitely wasn't expecting to take it that early, but I kept clipping the girls' heels in front of me and I felt really bad. And she even told me, like, take the lead. And so I thought about it for a second and I was like, I guess I got to do it. - Thank you. - Okay, I got the men lining up for this first of three 5Ks tonight. - Yep, and a lot of local athletes in this one again. Another large field, 22 athletes, I think, are entered. - The Bowerman Track Club Elite is represented in this race, as well as the Jacuzzi Boys. We got some Portland State athletes in here, Roots Running out of Colorado.

Team Boulder in here too, some Adams State athletes, U of O running club. This is a well-rounded field here and a big one. Like you said, Shannon, 22 athletes. - 22 athletes, there's wave lights for heat one. The pace is at 14:10, so watch for that. - So here we go, we're off. Section three. - So maybe section three. - We will see what the pace is set for here and we'll give that information to you as we get going. But it very well could be 15:20 pace. - I have to proclaim an announcer's bias here, running in third place, rocking a very beautiful, that's fine track club, singlet is, Charlie Enzko.

- Graduate of none other than Pomona College. - Oh, hey. - A fine man and a better runner. - Fine man and a better runner. - Oh. - And that's fine. - That's just fine. - Yeah, sorry about Jeff. - We have, like I said, a lot of local athletes in here. It looks like Emmett Solnier out front in the UO at running club, University of Oregon, the local school just down I-5, about an hour and 40 minutes from here. Spencer right behind him, there in the headband. - Emmett giving me some Matt Wilkinson vibes from the University of Minnesota, their steeplechase standout, but obviously no barriers in this event,

the only barrier being fitness. And whether you can maintain this hot pace up front, but again, you know, it says though, these competitors don't care about the wave light, they're... - I think it's such a new thing, especially for races at this level too, on the open track scene that, I'm not sure how many are aware of it at this point, but I believe that they will be, or I know that they will be for the hot races. - They may be aware, but just completely inexperienced with kind of how to leverage it to their advantage. So, you know, and at the start of any race, you've got the jitters and the nerves,

and so it takes a bit to settle into it. - So we have Emmett, Solnier out front as they get to 800 meters here, about 2:25, so 4:50 pace. - Alejandro Martinez-Ambrocio with a big move to the front to take the lead. - That's those big altitude lungs coming to play there. I've had the pleasure of watching Alejandro compete at a variety of different road races in Boulder. Always competitive, always keen to make the race honest. - As he does right now. - So 4:50, they came through 2:25, 800 meters, that is a 15 minute pace, so it looks like the pace light for this race is set for 15:20. - 15:20, or 14:10?

- 15:20. - 15:20. Got it. - Yeah, the pace light is roughly rocking 74 second laps. - So that means that these races will be going faster each of the three sections. So 15:20, the first one here, and then 14:40 for heat two, and then 14:10 for heat one. But Spencer had taken the lead now in the orange singlet as they come through 1200 meters, and 3:37. - One of the things I love about some of these more community oriented fields, you know, when you're talking, many people years beyond their collegiate bests, but just love the sport of track and field, and fit in very rigorous training around family life work.

And these are the men and women, the people that you see down at the track on the cold, rainy days in Portland, Oregon. - Super early, super late, - Super early, super late. - Headlamps. - They're getting it in. And yeah, these are the true lovers of the sport. - These are the men and women who take out your trash. They wash your clothes. They do things in your city. They work in shops, in grocery stores, and then they go out and they train on the track. That's what this is. That's why we call this place Tracklandia. They're all over. Spencer Head's still out front here, and he's got a quick stride there.

Behind him you can see, Solnier has more of a long loping stride, but Spencer Head's just chugging away out front. - They're a nice little pack of five out at the front, all strung out, working together, with Ambrocio setting the pace. - Yeah, I'm sorry, that is not Spencer Head. It was Alejandro Martinez-Ambrocio. - And for the various Pomona Pitzer fans who keep texting me about this, Chuck is back running with the wave light right now, so he's right on about 15:20 pace. - At a boy, Chuck. - Keep it going, Chuck. Don't let that wave light out of your sights. - Wave light owes you a drink if you beat it.

- Now wouldn't that be something special? We can maybe negotiate that in the beer garden tomorrow. - Ooh, I like that. - You should eat the wave light. Ooh, here's on us. - Yeah, that would be a nice, yeah. - Who wants to sponsor that? - Coming to you from Athletic Brewing. - Yeah. (laughs) - Actual terms and conditions vary. (laughs) - Ambrocio out front, driving a hard pace. Well in front of the wave light right now. And this is coming up to 2,000 meters, 6:04. - For reference, this 15:20 wave light is about 74s per lap, 4:54 per 1600 meters. They've been running 72s pretty consistently. There was a 73 in there when,

around when Ambrocio took the lead, I'm looking at his 72, 73 then 72, 72. I'm assuming that maybe he came in with that as a pace he had intended to run. And he is just checking him off lap after lap. - Yeah, his entry time, Shannon, is 14:08. So again, that's quite superior to what the wave light was being set at. But I think maybe for some of these early races the wave light is being set a little bit conservatively to help out more athletes than just the athletes at the front, which would put us into debt. Yeah. (laughs) - That's true. - Honey, I'm getting a second mortgage on the house by buying beers for all these men and women.

- We will need a brewery to step up for this thing. - Yeah, absolutely. - In a good pack up there, right behind Ambrocio, he's got, all right, he's got like three meters on Solnier, but then-- - Building it too though. Seems like he's trying to grow that gap. - And the wave lights are clawing back right now as that was a 74 second lap from start to finish line, not through 2,400 meters there. But this is the halfway point as they come up to 2,500 meters, 7:37. So now, yeah, 15:14 would be if they're even paced so they got out a little hot and the wave lights coming back at 'em. - Back in seventh place, Jackson Kuchar,

Kuchar had been putting in some pretty serious surges on the last two or three laps to claw back distance to that lead group. But you know, maybe this heat is coming back to bite some of these athletes, it's-- - It's tough. - It's not cold today. It's not, these are not optimal 5K temperatures. But we can't change that, can we? - No. - We can, we just support. We're here to support. - It has come down a couple degrees from where we were just half an hour before and you know, fortunately for these athletes on the finishing stretch, they get the, on the finishing stretch, they get the shade from the overhang.

So that is now-- - And 74 second lap. The last lap. - Yeah, you know, to me, it's looking like that wave light has been pacing itself perfectly to, to pounce on these athletes. It was biding its time. - Out of here, here. - Drink here, Ham, close to 20. - And this is Trent Abraham to the lead here. (indistinct chatter) - So 9:11, the 3,000 meter split reached. - It's still ahead of schedule, and we'll see what, what any of these men have in their legs over the last five laps. You know, during their previous race, Shannon had mentioned that this is where she thought the, the real meat and potatoes of the 5K was.

These are the hard yards from, from 2K to 1200 out. So these are, you know, we're watching these guys just grind it out, thanking themselves or cursing themselves for the preparation that they did for this race. - So 73.7 for that lap. And 9:49 through two miles of this race. So a little more than a mile to go and they're racing the wave light side by side right now. - You got Brian Comer there in second place getting track side coaching. Don't know who his coach is, but he's doing a great job. Shuffle on across the field. - Back and forth. - Oh, and I love this. We got a guy in the hat who is this?

Look into the crowd for support. Come on people, support your fans, support your friends. Trent Abraham driving the train here in the purple singlet up front still. And then Brian Comer, Christopher Mugrage. So nine laps covered here. And a 73 second lap there. And now a battle up front here. Abraham and Comer, Comer, and then Mugrage there. And it's a tight pack of four here. - No one giving an inch. Hit us in the comments if you're having a difficult time hearing Shannon or having some technical difficulties here a little bit. Yeah, three laps to go. Comer leaning into the 5K really embracing

what these last three laps mean, which from my experience is a great amount of discomfort and elation in about 1,000 meters from now. - And this is a great pack here because you see now some smokes being thrown around. Each guy's trying to test out what - We got inside passing, Jeff. - Here we go, the stripes on the inside. - Oh my goodness. - They're so mean. - They're seeing what everybody has to play with, stacking themselves up for the couple laps remaining. And now the war is on in this heat one of the men's open 5K. And this is racing at its finest. I don't care what level you like to watch.

These are just guys out there who are dishing it at each other. And each one of them wants to take the win. Wave lights be darned. - I see your bet and I raise you an inside pass. And here we go. Two laps to go up to the line here. - Well, we got a little of that Euro techno distance music going on in the, and he takes me back to Houston's older, KBC knocked. When you can't hear yourself breathe, but you can hear the boots and cats. Oh, there's a tale of three cities here. - And it's Mugrage and Allen up front. And they're getting a little daylight on Leaf McQuillan up there from Mount Tabor Track Club.

The tiny volcano in the middle of Portland, Mount Tabor. Mugrage and Allen though, waging an epic duel up here. As they climb onto the home straight, 500 meters remaining in this race. - I'm feeling a little Joe Klecker vibes from the guy running a second. Joe sometimes has that little, this slight lean to the left. - Oh yeah. - And this is the battle right here. - Mugrage and Allen going into the bell lap. - Oh, they hear the bell. It's like nos in Fast and the Furious. - 14:02 and they're going. - Injection of speed as we hit the back stretch. - They're moving now. - Ooh, uh-oh. - You're gonna die by the clubhouse.

- Here's Allen. - Here we go. - He takes the front. He does not want to see the back of Mugrage's jersey again. - Ooh, wipe the sweat off his brow and another push. - Heading into 200 meters remaining, he's got about 10 meters on Mugrage now. Mugrage did the work for the penultimate lap. And there he is. And we'll see Allen cruise around the bend. We even threw traffic inside there, outside there. - Inside, outside, outside, inside, one, two. - And now he's on the final straight. - But for him not deteriorating at all, this has been a fantastic run to watch. - Biding his time appropriately. Come away with a W.

- This is Allen coming in. - Strong close. - Two, six. - Strong close for third. - Leaf McQuillan. - Leaf McQuillan, of Mount Tabor Track Club. - More big kicks. - Oh, in front of it. - Oh, in front of it. - That's what you love to see. - Woo, way through the line. - Let's get a shot on the finish line here. See them all coming in. - You got Mike Allen taking this thing in 15:06. Then Christopher Mugrage, 15:10.98. And Trent Abraham, 15:14. - Now remember we had the wave light for this at 15:20. So our winners, our top three all under that 15:20 mark, in our fourth, Leaf McQuillan. Just barely missed breaking 15:20, it was 15:20.01.

But our top three closing fast. We had a 63 last lap from Mike Allen, a 68 from Christopher Mugrage and then Trent Abraham with a 66. - So I've just been told that the Sage Brooks who won the women's Open 5K was wearing her Kinney singlet. That was her dad's Kinney championship singlet from high school cross country, David Brooks. - Ooh, I love. - I love that. - That's all. - I just love that. - Back in the day. - Tying together generations through a singlet. And my mom tried to always tell me to get rid of my old clothes. - You kept every single one. - You kept every one. (laughs) - You feel validated in that choice right now.

- You got a room Brooks. - You got a room Brooks. Thank you. - Yeah. - Those eight dressers in your room are all good. - Good thing you got rid of the split shorts. You have space. - These shorts had to go singlets. It's kept them. Oh, and there's absolute carnage at the finish line. - We see the carnage. It looks like a decathlon after the 1500 down there. - Unbeknownst to these athletes, they were running on a Casper mattress. How comfortable some of them look laying down. - Leave me here. Come get me in an hour. I gotta take a nap. All we need is the few inside lanes there for heat two of the five K I think.

- Yeah, honestly, like if you were a competitor looking over at that finish line, everything myself. Do I really want to do this? - Do this. Like if there were two heats of the 1500 in the decathlon, what do you think the guys would be thinking when they were walking? They're like, oh, shoot, this is going to be rough. - I'm going to sit this one out, big guy. - Yeah, I made it nine of 10 events. I'm good. I'm good. So we see the results on the bottom of the screen there for the first heat as we look to across the track. Oh, there's the winner there. Mike Allen. Regaling his fans with tales of his victory.

- And just to clarify for the viewers who may have been confused like I was, it was the slowest heat of the 5Ks that went first. We are now on heat two and we will end with the fastest heats of the men's 5K. That will be the third heat contested, but the fastest one that we will see. And so we got the just more excitement to look forward to. - Apologies to those at home. We're getting started here. - Buyers are getting lit. And if you're in Portland, getting your car, or an Uber or on your bike, make your way out to Mount Hood Community College. The stands are starting to fill up here. Standing room only left at the track,

but we have the excitement is palpable. - And I would say it's a good turnout for night one right now because. - Oh, we're crushing. Night one has been added in the past few years, but typically the Portland track festival, historically was a one day event. And the big day, the traditional day will be tomorrow, Sunday, capped off by our hot window from eight to nine p.m. But I think the size of the fields, three men's 5Ks, each with over 20 athletes entered. I think it speaks to the desire for great racing opportunities for these individuals. And so it's exciting to see each of these contestants

have a chance to compete at a great facility with access to the wave lights, with a live stream broadcast, to have their friends and family wherever they may be, see them run wonderfully. - So speaking of friends and family watching, to all the Sagehen family out there who have tuned in to watch Chuck Enzko, he finished in 15:57, breaking the 16 minute mark, which is Bravo, that's fine. - There we go, Chuck. Okay, heat two, lining up right now, getting their instructions from Bruce Davis there. Longtime Oregon USATF official. The man knows what he's doing. He's been around the block a few times.

- One step back from the line, gentlemen, let's go. - Is this like the flight attendants and they're giving you your pre-flight? You're like, I've heard it 300 times. Listen, any more to shoot the damn gun, let's go. - Bruce Davis knows where all the exits are. - And yet every time someone seems to stand on the line or not quite the right place, so they say it again and again. - Behind the line, not on the line. - Not exactly. - That's a track, country song, I think. - Okay. (laughs) How does it go again? - Behind the line, not on the line. (laughs) - Oh, I think I heard that actually when we were driving over.

- Yeah. - All right, well. - I'm watching a young man right now do invisible hurdle drills, which is awesome. Also, you know, he's got a future in maiming. - Oh yeah, he does. - So in this second heat here, we have Bowerman Track Club Elite athletes, Victoria Endurance, Distance North Track Club, Verde Track Club, and they're off right now. Mount Tabor Track Club represented here too, as well as Portland State, University of Portland, Spokane, Western Oregon University, the Jacuzzi Boys Athletic Club. They're all in here. - Pace for this heat is 14:40. That's 70 second laps and 4:42 per 1600. So, you can see it visually with the wave lights,

but we'll also keep track of the splits for you as they come through. - So we're getting a little spicier in this distance here, in this heat, and we're getting our bearings here too, so. - Grab that thermostat and turn it to the right. It's getting hot. - It is, it's getting... Yeah? Getting hot here in this year's Electric Forest, Mount Hood Community College. We got the barbecue food truck rolled up too. - We got Nelly blasting, barbecue food truck. - There's no place I'd rather be. - Absolutely not, but you know, I think this heat was a little bit more cognizant of what the wave light meant.

They watched the other heat get out a little hot, and then have the wave light, you know, challenge them for a victory. Again, I think we owe a couple of drinks for that last heat, or maybe we start that tomorrow because it wasn't previously announced. But this group of men, you know, they were patient enough to wait for the wave light to catch them, and now it does seem as though it's like the racing is on. - And you know, with the 5K, you don't necessarily need to be on pace from the gun. You can make up a lot of time in the last K of a 5K if you still have some running left in your legs. And so, you know, as you're watching,

if you see these athletes, you know, a little behind the green lights, maybe even a few meters back. It's not the end of the world because you really can in the last, you know, we saw in the heat before a 66 second last lap or 63 second last lap from our winners when the, you know, the wave light pace would have been 10 seconds slower, 74 per lap, so. - Did you just say old Mike Allen shut her down in 63 seconds for that final lap? - I thought that's what I read, but, you know, maybe I misread. - That's great. - I thought that's what I saw. It definitely was sub 70. - 15:06 closing in 63, that's a good day.

- 2:23 here for the first 800 meters for Kyle Spencer out there. He looks to be the only man in the field attempting to latch himself to the wave lights at the moment, then Chad Behrens out there in the blue and red singlet leading that second pack. I think they're all thinking that they can pull Kyle Spencer back eventually, but we'll see if that's possible further into the race. - Shannon's memory serves are correct. - Mike Allen, 63.4. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, that's smoking. Well, this breeds an interesting question because when you're in this circumstance where you're the only one willing to commit to a pace,

if the wave light was in front of you, is that stressful? Does that make you, in terms of the mental fortitude or mental preparation you have for this event? Oh, the pace is getting ahead of me, or am I confident that I'm running exactly what I need to do? And then I know that the lightest change of the race is all my intention is to pick up the pace and I can go claw back distance to the light. I'm not sure, in a workout it would be one thing, but in a race, if I just saw those lights getting away and away and away, maybe I think I'm failing. - I have had limited experience racing with wave lights,

but in the race I was in, I had that experience where I was right at the tail end of the wave light, so one step I would be in the green, and one step I would maybe be out of the green, and I think the best athletes use it to their advantage, the ones who struggle, it gets in their head, and I can't say it didn't get into my head a little bit, it was a bit of a distraction in my first time using it, but so far for Spencer, he's kind of right nestled in the middle of it, seeming to be at a good pace, and I think that it also depends on the way that athletes are wired. Some athletes just wanna get out on pace

and grind it out, other athletes like to be in the pack, sitting on someone, closing strong, maybe the Klecker vs. Kincaid type of athlete and what serves them well. - Everybody's a little different, Will. - No, we're all the same. - I think the purpose of the wave light is to shut your mind off, so if it's not doing that for you. - Yeah, I mean, the other thing that I'm thinking in this is like, we always used to say in college, eyes up, you know, like if you see someone looking down at the ground, you're closing your windpipe. Well, and maybe now this is the strategy that Kyle Spencer is utilizing,

it's let me run towards the back of this wave light where it's still in my periphery, but I'm not looking down and craning my head and closing off my air path. Kyle Spencer looks great, he looks like he's just out here chillin' on a maybe slightly up-tempo run. - He looks good. - He looks great. - And I think we've got some shuffling in that second pack too with Colby Spink of Western Oregon University, leading that second pack, trying to claw back some distance. - Yeah, he's tiptoeing back there. - And we'll see what, so, Kyle Spencer's roughly running 70s because that's what the wave light is set for.

And Colby Spink is clickin' off 71s, so not gaining ground on Spencer just yet, but we're early days. - Not still two miles to go. - We get into the 2K right here as he crosses this start line. And 2K reached in 5:53. And he's still got a significant gap there on Colby Spink, but some shuffling in that pack is the guys trying to figure out who's gonna do the work and when. - Kyle Spencer's entry is 14:45, so if you were to hit that 14:40 wave light pace, I'm guessing he would be pretty pleased. - Chad Behrens back to the front of that second pack now too, so they are shuffling and taking turns

either willingly or unwillingly sharing the load. Which of the Portland schools is the most beloved? - Wow, I think it depends on who you ask and where they went. You've got the-- - As someone who didn't go to either of them. - Oh, are you a pilot or a poet? - A pilot or a poet. Well, the Vikings, Portland State Vikings. - Is that what it is? - For some reason, I think it's the pilots and the poets, but-- - Oh, what about Reed? - Oh, Reed is in there too. I don't think Reed actually has a team, but I could be wrong. - They would be poet, they probably were poetical. - Reed College, that doesn't participate in sports.

- They were abstaining. - No offense, Reed, sorry. - Give me a big joke. - Give me a big joke. - And laugh at the Reed kids. - Oh, I've not laughed at the kids. - I don't know, yeah, the pilots have definitely seen a lot of success in cross-country, especially, and their coach Rob Conner is a legend in the city and coach many greats too. - Okay, we know where Jeff's allegiance lies. - Well, but I would say the Portland, the Vikings too are, they've had a lot of greats here too. We're gonna see Jordan McIntosh in the men's 3,000-meter steeple chase later this evening. - Kyle Spencer slowed down significantly in that last lap.

He had been running 70s and 71s. That was a 76, he still has quite a gap on the rest of the field, but the chase pack is continuing to have some struggling, clumping up a little bit as they try to decide who's willing to take it so that they don't lose the pace and the effort that they've put in thus far. - Let's go to the pilots to step up. - There it is. The man's got his pilots license there. - When the going gets tough, put the race in the hands of a pilot. He'll fly you to victory. - So we're talking about the second pack right now, which is just off screen. Maybe we'll get a glimpse of that,

but right now we can see them coming around the curve in that shot, and it's just a shuffle there of the guys kind of figuring out what they want to do exactly, and they're rolling about 75s. That's what the last lap was, so. - Nine in the chase pack, and they're closing in now on Spencer, trying to make up some of that distance as they hit five laps to go. - This is still Kyle Spencer's race here as they reached 3,000 meters, that was 9:03. That was a 77, and then Antonio Judson, who's now at the front, is 73, and Spencer is well in his sights. - Yeah, that was quite a shift in pace from the leader to the chase,

and they've closed practically all of the distance that Spencer had on them. - So Judson rocking an old-school Lightning BTC singlet. Obviously a fan of the Red Lightning Express, and now he's hitched himself to Kyle Spencer, and will he sit or will he go around? Let's see. - Should I stay, or should I go now? You did all that work to catch up, man. Keep the legs movin'. - Oh, look at Behrens. Chad Behrens. - He's not afraid. - He's jumpin' right out to the front now, so now it is Behrens leading the whole thing. - Yeah, I mean, Antonio Judson, to me, he's treatin' this track like it's lava, he's poppin' off that thing with a lot of speed and energy

as they come into a mile to go in this second heat of the 5K. - Yeah, he looks like he wants to go, but he's just not quite ready to do it with four laps left. Like he looks like he could take it, but he doesn't have the confidence yet to do so and put himself out there and have it, knowing that everyone will sit on him. - That was a 72.9 for that lap, and it looks like there is a lot of decision-making to be done in that front pack. Nobody is looking incredibly decisive at the moment and like they wanna take this thing inside of a mile to go. But Behrens, Behrens up front at the moment. - You love to see the accordion in races like this

where things get stretched out and they bunch back up and they stretch out and they bunch back up. This is the purity of racing. Wave light has been turned off, ladies and gentlemen. Pace be damned, we are in the purity of this sport. Just mano a mano. - And what this is telling me to there, they're off the 72-second prescribed pace at the moment. They're running 72-73, but this is gonna be another blistering last lap. - Yeah. - Reminiscent of Mike Allen's 63. - Mike Allen's at the stage. The goal has been laid down of who can run the fastest last lap, inspired by the first 5K. - That's right.

And here it is. So that was 3800 meters, 74 for that lap, 11:35. - We're going for a win now. That's all that matters on the track at this moment. Behrens out in front. Jacob Webster there, Victoria Endurance Track Club, Kanoa Blake, Antonio Judson in the all red and the red headband. Tiptoeing at the back of the pack. I think they could, they still know he's there. He's trying his best to tiptoe around it. Good shot there, Behrens swinging around the curve. And we'll see when the move is gonna be made. - Someone here has to be getting antsy. - They got antsy two laps ago. They just, no one have the kind of confidence

to go to the front. - That's a little, we call that one a little premature. One of these four has a hard kick in them. Let's see. We've got two laps to go coming up. - My guess is probably around the back stretch. We'll get someone that finally takes it and thinks they've got that 600 push. - Jacob Webster at the front now. That was a 72.7, so slightly faster than the previous lap. - When you've made the trek all the way down from Victoria, you're not here to mess around. - You take the ferry across the sound. That's a, that's a great thing to do. - Here we go. We have it. - Behrens back to the front.

So Webster went to the front but didn't really want to do anything with it. And now Behrens takes it back. And Kanoa Blake it looks like. - Shannon, do you have an earpiece to those guys down there? They're listening to you? - You know, you stick around the track long enough. You start to know how it's probably going to play out. (laughing) - And there he goes. - The track is lava. - Now he's got the confidence. - He's ready. He sees that 400 meters left. - Judson back to the front inside 500 meters to go. And Blake trying to go with him. - Over/under 63.4. - Oh. - Rolling down the home straight here is Antonio Judson.

And he's got a good distance on the pack at the moment but nobody's out of the picture. - I think over 63, I think he's going to, oh no, look at him go. - That was a 70-second lap. - I'm taking your over. - Yeah, if you got me. - That was a 70-second lap for Judson. 71 for the rest of the time. - Chad Behrens is not done yet. - Oh, look at him go. - Tiptoeing as Antonio is doing on the front. - Chad is grinding behind him. - Behrens, head down, gnashing his teeth. Can he get there? I don't look at Judson opening it up a little bit more though. - Oh, here he goes. - Those long legs under 200 meters ago.

- Now he's fully confident in his ability to close. - That is a beautiful sight here. I wish he did that earlier. I wanted to see that more throughout the race. - Here comes Judson though, to the delight of the crowd down the home stretch. He's grinning and looking at the tape. Chad Behrens giving chase. There it is, hands to the air. - It was like a 60. - Is that a 60-ish? - Yeah. - 6.1. - Quick. - Shannon's got her eyes on tonight, folks. - 60.3 for Chad Behrens for the closing lap. 14:58. Judson just dips under that 15-minute mark. - You got to think when they're closing in a 60 that they were feeling pretty good

with a few laps to go. - And with laps to go, he could have gone and pushed it. He just didn't want to bring everyone along behind him. - Look at Spencer. - This might be the fastest last 100. - Kyle Spencer trying to fight off. Oh! - Nipped the line. - That was James Stadler. I think, no, that was Lev Michael. Sorry from Mount Tabor Track Club that fought off Kyle Spencer there, our early leader. Michael with a 65 last lap for ninth place. We're getting the results populating here. - You know, maybe it's just the simple fact of a lot of these guys and having a ton of opportunities to race track 5Ks.

On the road, you probably feel a little more confident or maybe you can trick yourself to thinking that a mile to go, you're not that far from the finish line. When you have four full laps, it does seem like a Herculean task. - It absolutely does. - Take over. - It absolutely does. - And we're gonna send it down to the living room right now. We got Antonio Judson on the couch. - Looking couch. - Hello everybody and welcome. We're here with the winner of the second heat of the men's 5K Antonio Judson. Tell us, so that was one heck of a last lap. You went really fast. So like, how do you feel? - Oh, I feel actually really good.

Like most of the race is like, it felt like a jog. - Really? Yeah, it didn't hurt until I came down the home stretch. - Well, I'm sure your coach is gonna be happy to hear that. - Yeah. - So that's how all this felt. You have the glasses, the bandana. What is it for? - It just kind of describes who I am. It's just kind of my own signature look, I guess. - So you always run it with sunglasses. - Not always, but for races, I've switched to the aviators. I was like, I feel fast in them. - It's kind of like top gun energy, you know, yeah. - Yeah, it's a lot of people who have said... - Okay, well, congratulations for your winning.

Have a good one. - All right, we got a write-in ballot for Antonio Judson for Mayor of Portland. - Oh, man, favorite interview so far. That's a tough one to top. Felt like I was watching Anchorman or something. - That's just my signature. This is my look, this is my look. - That's who I am. - Absolutely dripping with swagger. And we're turning our attention now to the hot heat of the Open 5K. Men's 5,000 meters on the track. So this one, as Shannon alluded to earlier, is slated for 14:10 on the wave lights. - That's 68 seconds per lap, 4:34 per 1,600 meters. We'll see how the athletes get out.

- And it's a good field here. Got some Adams State runners in here. I think some local guys as well, as they get their instructions from Bruce Davis. There's the whistle. - You know, I'll add this before this race goes off. Antonio, not just a fantastic competitor on the track, but off the track, given high fives to all the guys that he just competed against. - So, clearly just as loving this experience at the Portland Track Festival. Everyone, get down here. You're in Portland, you could be watching people like Antonio just light up the track. - Not just watching, get a high five from people like Antonio.

- A lot of graph. - And an autograph. Maybe I'll let you try his aviators. - So here we go, we have Adams State in here. There's a Bowerman Track Club Elite athlete. Andrew Kuzmano, Michael Goff in there. Local BTC elite guys. Cameron Cruz in there, with the Jacuzzi Boys. - And Carlos Fernandez for Roots Running. Portland State in here too. You have a running club. - You're looking at the results site like us. I think there was a little kerfuffle about which heat was up, so you might be seeing some conflicting splits, but we'll do our best to keep you updated on who is where and when. - A 69 second first lap for Michael Goff up there in front.

Goff, a local hero, wearing that Red Lightning Express Elite singlet. - Jonas Hylie giving me some big Sydney Gidabuday vibes from Adams State. - He does. - He's got that silky smooth stride. Sydney always looks so good out there. I love their colorway too. I love that, like, the gold on the green. - It's nice, it looks good in the forest. - So 600 meters into the race here and they're latching themselves to the wave light. Michael Goff not afraid to take the lead here. Drive them through at 14:10 pace. We'll see if anybody can dip under the magical barrier here, 14 minutes. That would be a nice little treat to start out the evening.

So 14 in an open 5,000 meters is a pretty nice result. Goff here, 2:17 through 800 meters. So that was a 68 second lap. We're seeing splits through the finish line right now. So that was the 600 split. But right on 4:34 pace. - Yeah, Jonas content to take his turn, pulling these guys through. You'd love to see some of those runners back behind the leaders find their way to the rail. It's a long way to go. And not losing sight of those wave lights though. - How good are the last miles of these last couple of races though? - Tasty. - Tasty. - You just got hard working guys out there mixing it up, wanting to take the win,

doing whatever they can to make it happen and doing it in style too. - I don't know what more you want from a sporting event, personally. For my money, it doesn't get any better than this. - And through 1200 meters here, 3:25. So another 68 second lap there. So we've had 69, 68, 68. And they're on pace just slightly off the wave lights, but I think that's the wave lights are programmed that way. So the back of the light is the pace that you want to be on. - Bang on. Easy to identify the University of Oregon running club athlete out there, and then the vintage-looking Duck singlet. - Jonas Hylie already getting himself

a little bit of distance. Okay, 67.6 for that lap. - The athletes will be approaching one mile into the third heat of these men's open 5Ks. Was a very slight gap opening between Jonas and the BTC Express. - And this is in like hip number two out there on the outside. Alejandro Martinez-Ambrocio from Team Boulder. Hylie still out front, but it looks like Ambrocio wants to, he wants to inch up there closer, as Goff maybe lets a little distance grow between himself and Ambrocio, or Hylie, excuse me. - The two are viewers that were watching earlier. We may have misrepresented in heat one that we thought Alejandro was in there.

If I'm being perfectly honest, I didn't see that athlete in the BTC singlet, but now we are, we're bang on, we're back. Our ship has righted itself. - This is it. - You will hear no more errors from us for the rest of the night. I cannot guarantee you. - Yeah, I was about to say. And we got a little bit of changing of the guard going on right now. - Ambrocio takes the lead here as they get to 2,000 meters. 2,000 meters reached in 5:42. So a 69 second lap through five laps. - Still early days, but a big crew strung out on the rail. Wave lights are a bit in front of them. Once again, the wave light pace of 1410,

but we're seeing the green lights flying ahead. - Ambrocio and Hylie. And then I believe that is Alex Foote in third. - When it's strung out like this, it'll be a lap or two and we'll start to see just bodies falling off. Usually it becomes a war of attrition. You'll start to see separations from one huge pack of nine-ish athletes to maybe two or three packs as it whittles down to the kind of, you know, the contenders. - And coming up to 2,400 meters, six laps. Ambrocio has got a five-meter gap on the field. Second place still Hylie, but 6:51. There's another 68 second lap, 68 high. - That's right at the pace that they had said

they wanted with the wave light. - And it looks like Ambrocio has got his eyes set on the wave lights here. - Hylie slowing down and the chasers, now a new lead to the chase pack as they try to not let that gap get any larger than it has become between Ambrocio and the best and the rest of the race. - I think that's Abdi Ibrahim taking second place over right now trying to claw back to Ambrocio. - Six laps to go in this race, so we're getting to the interesting part pretty soon. - Ibrahim, a Portland State athlete, the Vikings. - They are not the poets. - Some of them could be. - Poetic, is there justice?

Ruthless, are they as Vikings? - If you go back to AthleticLIVE, you should be able to see the live splits right now as they come up. I think that those have been updated, so you can see the lap splits and the lead as it changes throughout, but Ambrocio continues to be in the lead. His gap has lengthened, maybe 30 meters or so, and our chase pack is Ibrahim now. - Yeah, so we've got the split cam for you on screen here so that you can see the second pack and the leader, Ambrocio, and then, yeah, 25 to 30 meters back. - Do you have Ibrahim? (crowd chattering) - And this is not a cross-country battle

in that chase pack, that purple singlet, is not a Portland Pilot, just another great purple singlet. - And 8:36 for 3,000 there, that was a 69 second lap for Ambrocio and a 69.5 for Ibrahim. So we'll see, this is always the question. Can he stay out there? Can they get to him? And when will that happen? - You know, he looks good. Ambrocio looks good, you know, once again, five laps to go, so there's still a good amount of racing left. As Will pointed out, he is a Boulder athlete. He's used to that thinner air. That usually can really help to the athletes' advantage in those later stages of the race,

their ability to operate under low oxygen. - This grove is saturated with oxygen. - Exactly, I'm drowning in it, drowning in it. But we see Ibrahim wanting to close a little bit, but can't quite do it yet. - Yeah, it does seem like the gap has shrunk ever so slowly on this lap with some of the other competitors feeling itchy here with four laps to go. - And we'll see, so that was a 69.0 for Ambrocio and a 68.2, and it's Josh Jarpey now. - JJ. - We're in the perfect. - Fans. - JJ, to his many fans. - So it did close, probably by about a second or so, because Ambrocio was about a second slower, just under a second slower than Jarpey who is,

trying to see if he can close some of the gap. - And we've got our characters cut out right now, so Ambrocio up front, and then Jarpey and Ibrahim in that second and third spot, and then a distance. Back to Paul Bevan and Emmett Solnier, it looks like. So Ibrahim and Jarpey dueling it out, and will their duel bring them up to Ambrocio over these next few laps? - Ambrocio looks good, he looks smooth, he looks, his cadence hasn't changed, and his mechanics have stayed strong. - He looks powerful up front. Jarpey not giving Ibrahim the lead here or not giving him second place. - But when you're talking about pure competitiveness

of a race, those trailing athletes know exactly what they need to do to win, whereas Alejandro is sort of out in that desert island by himself, just seemingly content to look within for that inspiration. - He's chewing glass and staring into the abyss right now. - I'm not sure I exactly know what that means, but I agree. - Inside three laps to go, 10:53 at 3800 meters, and that was a 68 for Ambrocio and a 69 for Jarpey and Ibrahim. So still not gaining on him just yet, and time's ticking. - It actually looks like he has maybe gained a little bit more ground. - He's got a K to go, and you gotta think that he's starting to claw back

distance on those wave lights. He's every lap, if he's running 68 and those wave lights are at 70, he's getting closer and closer with every lap that goes by. Those wave lights are gone, right? - They look like they're shut off, right? Or are they still there? - We're just having a difficult time seeing them on the home stretch. It's a funny angle when you're looking at them from above, but we'll see here as they approach 800 meters to go, if they were just on, and then they have turned off. - So Ambrocio, 12:02, 69 second lap with 800 meters to go, and Jarpey and Ibrahim 69.5. So not gaining on him, still.

Time's running out from Jarpey in front, leading Ibrahim, but Ambrocio's still out there in the first position, driving into the abyss. - I think the wave lights got tired and dropped out. - Yeah, Ambrocio was running too fast for them. - So Jarpey looks like he's going for it right now, he's working. - You know, unless Ambrocio slows down, I can't imagine that either of these guys are gonna run the three or four seconds quicker in this final lap to pass him. - Unless Ibrahim's secretly got a pocket aces. - That's true, that is true. - As we've said time and again today, that if you've got a big last lap,

you can make up a lot of ground in a 5K. - It's not often that you see the guy getting out there, staying out there, but Ambrocio doing it as he heads into the bell lap, they bring the bell. - And that was a 68 second lap for Ambrocio, 13:11 on the clock at the bell. And Ibrahim giving Chase, dragging Jarpey along. - Okay, this is the do or die. Can they close enough ground on the back stretch to have a shot on the finishing stretch? - Offscreen, Jarpey has just gone by, Ibrahim again, there you go, you can see it down the back straight. - And Ambrocio now, got his pain face on. - He's showing the end.

- Jarpey's trying heads bobbin, trying to dig deep to see if he can close that gap. It hasn't really shrunk much. - Ibrahim still looks like he's out for a Sunday jog, but it's all under him up front, grinding his way through this 5K to the finish. - It looks like too much to overcome, as Ambrocio still looks fantastic coming down the home straight. Still looking smooth and powerful, as he's driving towards the finishing tape, and it's coming out right now for him to break it. And there it is, arms raised, 14:15. Oh, as he collapses to the track. - And you get a Casper, and you get a Casper. - Look at that, between Ibrahim and Jarpey

just hugging it out after that effort. - It was a 64 last lap for Ambrocio. Ibrahim was a 62 and Jarpey a 63. Jabba is a little further back. Also ran a 62 last lap, but it was 14:15 for Ambrocio for the win. And he took the lead. I think he was in second place at the 1800 meter split, and then from 2,200 meters onward, he was the leader. And as you said, Jeff, you know, to be able to take the lead that far out, and really understand what pace you're capable of, and your ability to maintain it, is a sign of an athlete who knows their fitness and knows how to execute. - A great effort for him out here

in the electric forest this evening. And we inch ever closer to the championship events for the first night of the Portland Track Festival here at Mount Hood Community College. As you get the results on the screen here, we're gonna get to the first heat of the men's steeple chase before we get to the Track Town Kids Club men's championship steeplechase race. And you can see the prize purses calculating up at tracklnd.com right now. - It's been going up. It was 44,000 yesterday, and each, it keeps going up and up and up and it was, I mean, it was 45,000 just 30 minutes ago, so. - We're going to the moon.

- Yep. - With every ticket purchased, $3 goes straight into the purse to be split evenly across the 10 championship events. So tell all your friends, tune in. There's some great racing to be had this evening, and tomorrow night. - Do you love your athletes, and you want more of them to stick around, to do great things? Think about buying a pay-per-view, telling your friends to buy one too, rather than sharing that login, so you can support the athletes that are out here doing impressive things. - Before we get to the steeplechase, we're going to send it down to the living room, with Deanna and Jillian.

- Hey everyone, we are here in the living room, with Alejandro Martinez, who is the winner of the men's Open 5K. Alejandro, how are you feeling? - Feeling good, just recently joined Team Boulder, and it has been like, just getting into rhythm back again, and getting into training, so I'm really happy today. - How did you feel in the last 100 meters? I saw you just kind of like, trying to get it done. How was that feeling? - Yeah, I tried to close my eyes, to just forget the pain, but it was good. It was good, I felt really tired, it was just on myself, but gave it a good effort. - Awesome, well we're gonna get you to sign the race time,

and then take a little picture with the championship trophy. - Perfect. - Okay. - Thank you. - Your friends are right here. You can sign your name, sign the time that you ran, a message if you want, whatever you want. Lovely, and just give a big grin to all the audience members at home. Great job on your win, go get a cool down, go get some water, go relax. - Yeah, thank you so much for seeing such a great event. - Thanks for joining us. - Car, congratulations. - Thanks, Deanna and Jillian, and that is just a placeholder there, champion's log round, but each of the winners get to take home a little one,

for the championship races. - A delightful takeaway. - Special. - Will, you know, grace their shelves, along with, for these athletes, multitudes of other awards and accolades that they've earned over the years. - The wins, taking a win in the electric forest is something to write home about, and we like to celebrate that, giving out trophies like that, as well as some hefty prize purses for the big races this evening and tomorrow evening. But we are getting the 3,000 meter steeplechase men set up on the line right now for heat one, and it's a different start. - Yeah, I was looking around the track,

trying to figure out exactly where this thing was gonna kick off. - Because the pit is on the outside of the track. The starting line is at the top of the straight here, on the home stretch. - Sure is. - Yeah, the outside water barrier does make things interesting in that about 100 meters into this race, your field of what appears to be about 12 athletes have to negotiate their first barrier. - Yep, and yeah, it's a bit different from your standard steeple chase race. - Yeah, usually you've got at least another 100 meters to settle in before you have to negotiate clearance. - But it looks like, well, it looks like

the first barrier is taken off for the first go round here. The one closest to the start line. - Yeah, with this, so yes, 28 barriers, seven water jumps, and first barrier comes after the start finish line, or, well, the finish line in this scenario. - I'm excited to see this because we don't, we don't offer, as we said earlier in the broadcast, don't get to see outside water, pit steeple chase is all that often, and I do think it changes the dynamic of the race. - Especially just how hard these athletes are gonna get out the first 100 meters. You know, do you pull a Mo Farah, just sort of hang back to successfully navigate

that barrier without having to fight with 13 other grizzled athletes, hardened by years of steepling. - And there we go, we're off here in the first heat of the men's steeple chase this evening at the Portland Track Festival. - And a good Saturday night crowd here. - And Sonic the Hedgehog. - Out here with absolutely dynamic blue hair. - So everybody can pick their, pick their favorite here in the race, looks like Will's picked his. - Without a doubt. - So this wave light, white pace here is set for 8:40. mark for the steeplechase. - It'll be tough. We'll try our best to give you splits, but with steeples and the track length

being outside of the regular 400 meters, it'll be a little tough to tell, and the wave light will probably be our best indicator. - 8:40 is the wave light pace. 8:29 is the USA qualifying standard, USA Championships that will be held in Eugene on July 6th and 9th. So field is strung out right now, navigating barriers well. And we're getting more shade in the electric forest here as the sun starts to creep down a little further. - We've got good mechanics on these athletes. I'm pretty impressed by the performance of the field. - Yeah, you know, I don't think that you just willy-nilly sign up for a steeplechase.

I'm just gonna go down to Mount Hood Community College and it's like crank out steeple now. What are you guys doing? Catch your free beer afterwards. - So now we're told that the green light out front is 8:29 pace and the white light is 8:40. - With 8:29 being the USA qualifying time that these athletes will likely be wanting. - So they're trying to latch onto that green light as long as they can here. And there's a good, good little crowd assembled outside of that water pit that is on the outside of the track. So they get to get right up close and personal to them. - It's like a Gallagher show.

If you're lucky, maybe you get splashed a little bit. Wear your ponchos, people. There's always a crew that gathers around that water pit. A favorite of the fans and the photographers alike. - Yes. - I think there's about 50 lenses out there right now. - It's the new gen media camp going on right now. Here we are. So it is Alex Drover out front of the Horizon Track Club. They're out of Canada. And they're running roughly 70 second lap pace here. - Or a lap that we should realistically, we could Google and know, but I like to believe that it's impossible to know how long this lap is. - Why should you?

We're watching the race play out right now. - Yeah, I have some splits. More concerned that, you know, if they stay bang on those roughly 70 second circuits, which, you know, of indeterminate length, they will accomplish their goal of running roughly 8:29 for the steeplechase. - Yeah, it's a sport pretty easy to understand. - It's not that hard. That wave light really takes the thinking out of it. - So, Erwin Ledesma Fuentes is in second. Israel Reina up there as well. And Christopher Colette. - Fascinating to watch the wave light stay on the inside while the athletes go out to the steeple barrier and the kind of calculations

involved with- - Yeah, someone smarter than us figured that out. - Someone probably was out there with the wheel measuring the true distance. - Alex Drover giving love to the fans at the finish line there, coming by with five laps to go. - That was a 70.4 for Drover. And Fuentes, 70.7. So, Drover's getting a little bit of daylight between himself and second place, staying on those green lights. And this back straight cam is great. The head's on over the barrier. Look at this, Drover, Fuentes, oh, that's Reina, excuse me. - Yeah, so Alex Drover came in with an entry time of 8:41.8. I'm not gonna confidently say that it's a PR

or a season's best, but either way, if he stays anywhere near this wave light, looking at a big one of both. - A big one of both. - Yeah, Drover making the rounds here. And that is, yeah, Reina in second place now. So, slightly off of 8:29 pace at the moment. - We have an athlete that likes to run with his shirt in his mouth. - Yeah, I noticed that early, I was caught there or something. - 71 seconds on the clock there, the last circuit covered by Alex Drover. So, letting the 70s go a little bit, but you could still close very hard in the steeple chase, even though there's barriers in place. We've seen that done many times.

And as I've been told, in order to make a team, you have to be able to run under 60 seconds for that final circuit in a steeple chase. Sub-60 over barriers, no joke. - Yeah, especially when fatigued. I mean, anyone who's race knows how hard it is to close a race, the last lap just running, let alone jumping over barriers and water jumps. So, here we go, Drover still leading. There's no position change, Drover out front. Reina in second. Reina just ahead of that 8:40 white light. The green lights are getting away from them. But this is just a, this is a race right now, Drover out in front. And we'll see if Reina can catch him,

or if Drover can stay away. And we're seeing the athletes for the championship race warm up on the track right now. David Ribich in that beautiful Union Athletics Club uniform. - Shout out, it is good looking. - Speed speed too. But here we go, Reina closing down on Drover there on the back straight. Reina going for the side leg approach. - This event is hard. - Yeah. - Reina now takes the lead as they go into the water pit. And as they get to the finish line up here, they'll have one lap remaining. - You know, Colette looked good in third. He looked good going into that water jump. You can always, I feel like that's the first indicator

of how an athlete is feeling in the steeple chase. The way that they kind of approach and handle the, and as I say, this Colette is now moving into second place with his eyes on Drover. - We'll watch him over this last lap if you can make up the ground that Drover has gained on him throughout this race. - So Reina out front and Colette in that orange singlet now in second place. Reina chasing the white lights of 840 and Colette chasing Reina. We'll see if Colette can pull it off. - A little more stutter from Reina going into that last steeple barrier. Let's watch them as they approach to see the fatigue that they've got in the legs

and their efficiency getting over the hurdle. So we see Reina slow down a little bit whereas really Colette is charging into these barriers. - Charging into the barriers. It does seem as though momentum is on his side and with this final water barrier, the only thing that might separate the two of them will see how they negotiate. Oh, let's start having both athletes. - Yeah. - So now it's mano a mano, Colette and Reina coming onto the straight who wants it more. Colette takes the lead and a beautiful. - Ooh, and he's trying to get that wave light. He's got it. - And Reina swings wide, but does he have enough to catch Colette here

heading into the finish line? No, he doesn't, he breaks the tape, 8:38. What a run there. Barrier right after the finish line. - It's cruel, it's cruel and unusual. Although, you know, that's just the headboard to your Casper mattress. That's been laying perfectly for you on the track. - 8:47 was Colette's entry time. He ran 8:38 with a 65 second last lap. So it closed really strong. Went from third to first in the last 500 meters or so of the race. - So a great race here from Christopher Colette. Wartburg College. - Shout out to D3. I wasn't looking at the team affiliations for that race 'cause the track action was just too exciting,

but Christopher Colette putting a big one up on the board for D3. - Oh yeah. - And we're gonna get to the Track Town Kids Club. Men's steeple chase, but before we do that. - There's a world that will send you away. Be right back. (upbeat music) - All right, and you can sign up at tracktownkidsclub.com. Get in on all the action there. Big thank you to our friends at TrackTown USA. And look at this beautiful scene here. You've got the wood overhang that graces so many of our stadiums here in the Northwest and the lush green forest backing it. But we have the Track Town Kids Club, Men's steeple chase up next.

And that'll kick off at 7:05. - Well, we have potentially some incredibly exciting news that Christopher Colette, if our math is correct, just ran the Division III all-time record of 8:38, breaking Colin Kirkpatrick's season record, which was run earlier this year, from Pomona-Pitzer. But if that is, if you have other information, put it in the chat. But if not, then we are going to pop bottles here for Christopher Colette as he obliterated the former Division III national record. So congratulations. - Yeah, we see Colin Kirkpatrick with the 8:41 from this season, and Jim Gasay from St. John's.

Back in 1985 ran 8:39.80 in the steeplechase. So this would be a second quicker. - So Will is very happy over here. - I'm loving it. - So a great kickoff for the championship steeple chase that we're going to see coming up next here, Track Town Kids Club, and a stellar field assembled as the men are being called to the line on the home straight right now. We got some Tinman in there. We got Benard Keter in there, the 2020-2021 Olympian. And he's won this race in the past. - Now did you know that the steeple originated in Ireland when people raced their horses from a town steeple to another town steeple?

And it usually included jumping over streams and low stones. And then we just decided, let's, who needs horses? We just have humans. - And let's put it on a track. - And let's put it on a track. And I think there was cross country in the mix in there before we put it on the track. But now here we are on the track. The 28 barriers and seven water jumps over the course of a little over seven laps. - And there you're betting favorites. You got Benard Keter getting the most votes here then Brian Barraza, Tinman Elite. - Brian's been having a great year, but I cannot let this die without just moving on to the next steeplechase.

Christopher Colette officially just ran the fastest steeple chase ever in history for a Division III athlete. And this is one of the things that I love. Division III Nationals was less than a week ago. Gets second place, he's come in fired up. And this is the beauty of post season competition events being able to take place. And super pumped for that guy. Like what an affirmation of all the hard work that he did this year. And hopefully that time will maybe even earn him a berth into the US championships. - So we're getting a look at the starting line here. We saw Jordan McIntosh, Portland State there,

David Ribich kicked us off. There's Jackson Messler, Dan McCalsky there. Benard Keter, there's the man, the Olympian, and Brian Barraza, the 8:19 runner for the Tinman Elite. Everybody's ready to go. It looks relatively still out there. There's some movement in the trees, but if last heat has anything to say about how this race is going to go it's going to be a barn burner here in the electric forest. - About 73 degrees out now, so the temperature has dropped a bit and, you know, conditions, as you said, seem pretty great for this Hot Window tonight. The high performance section of these races.

- We have entered the Saturday night Hot Window. - This Saturday night Hot Window. - This is it, got your tickets in the prize purse we saw on the screen is loading up. So that'll continue to calculate throughout tomorrow as well. So what you saw on the screen is not what the athletes will be winning, they'll be winning more than that. It's more tickets are purchased, headed into Sunday. So Keter, the Tokyo Olympian, 8:17 runner, is at the front, Barraza on his outside shoulder and McCalsky on the inside as they head over the barrier right now. You know, we're about four and a half weeks out to the US Outdoor Championships, which is also

the National Championships weekend globally now that the schedule has been kind of consolidated and 10 and a half weeks till world champs. I was looking at some of the top contenders and, you know, if you look at Barraza and Couture and Bastion, all of them have had about three ish steeple chases by now. So they've all pretty much got a sense of like, where they're at for the season, now it's the fine tuning. And so I think as opposed to, you know, four to six weeks ago where there were a bit of, maybe there's some surprises, people who ran faster than we expected, some who fell apart. Now these athletes should be pretty dialed in.

And so, you know, from everything with the pace they set all the way till the end, and they're all gonna be gearing up for these big championships ahead, trying to be there. - So 69 seconds, the pace they're running right now and you can see they're on the green lights, which is set at 8.29 pace. Keter out front, looking very comfortable. Then Barraza, and I like to see David Ribich in there too. We're in that blue uniform. He's a 1500 meter man, a 3:35 guy who's decided to test out, dip his toe into the steeple chase this year. And he's run 8:54, but we'll see what he can do tonight. But already Keter, not wanting to shy away

from stepping on the gas early is doing so right now. It's as though he just took a look behind him to see where the wave light was, like, am I on pace? Am I not on pace? Hey, light, help me out a little bit. Yeah, Benard Keter out there in front. Again, he's taking these little glances down just to see where the light is. Brian Barraza content to let Benard Keter take the lead out front. One of my favorite things about the steeple chase, again, never ran it. Well, from what I heard from the competitors is, you don't always need a rabbit. Like rabbits, now that you have wave lights, you're just always focused on get to the next barrier,

get to the next barrier, get to the next barrier. So the event naturally breaks itself up mentally, but really great to see some of the best of the best of American steeple chasers out here tonight in the electric forest. Well, and I think to your point also with the steeple chase, generally in a distance event, over 800 meters, you can be at a disadvantage to be leading, except when it's the steeple chase. And when you need that visual clearance to be able to get over the barrier without tripping and falling, and so there can be an advantage, as you mentioned, will to being out in front and leading

and having that clear path throughout so you can pick your course in the race. So Keter taking matters into his own hands. He's got an 8:25 season best right now, but he's-- oh, sorry, he has an 8:30 season best, but an 8:17 overall PB. And he's ranked 38th in the world currently. The steeple chase for the men with the unfortunate news of Hillary Bor having a broken foot, the steeplechase becomes probably the most wide-open distance event becomes probably the most wide open distance event on the men's side in the US. And so I think Benard Keter right now is trying to put his name firmly in one of those positions

and fear into the hearts of his competitors. We watched a great steeple chase in Los Angeles this past weekend with Ahmed Jaziri and Isaac Updike both running 8:17. And so the gauntlet and, you know, hot on the heels of Hillary Bor's, I forget what he had run in Rabat, but very quick. And then to hear that he's out for four to six weeks with a broken foot, it's gut-wrenching. You hate to see it, but it opens things wide up. And we haven't seen Jager run a steeple this year. So you've got a lot of guys who are looking, looking their chops, thinking this is our year, like this is wide open, this is ours for the taking.

I love the story of Dan McCalsky, guy from went to IU, a Hoosier historic track and field program with the likes of Bob Kennedy and the Jefferson brothers being also graduates of that university. And a couple of years ago, you know, sort of recognizing that he had a great opportunity as well in this event and dropping huge personal best, but doing all of it at domestic meets and really elevating the event and the other competitors that were racing with him to new heights. - And both of these athletes being part of the WCAP program for the United States, representing coming off Memorial Day weekend,

especially poignant, having these athletes, you know, represent our country in many ways. - Yeah, you know, it's always Army Navy in the football game. That's the big one, but we got Army Air Force out here. We're our veterans. Chip into the pot. Who's your favorite athlete? - Yeah, there you go. - Pump the money in. - That's it. - We do the pot climbing as the race progresses, too. And Keter with two laps to go. He's right on the green lights. - And he looks good. - He does. - He looks very good. In 2021, he waged an epic battle with Mason Ferlic in the electric forest. And Ferlic came out on top there,

but it was for Benard. It wasn't without Benard Keter's heavy pacing in the middle and through some hard moves in the latter stages of that race that made the race and they both came away with personal bests, 8:18 and 8:19, I believe. - For the fans wondering again what that wave light pace is at for this race, the green wave lights are paced at 8:15, which is the world championship qualifying standard. Benard Keter firmly placing himself right smack dab in the middle of those lights. And what we are told is that the back light is paced at exactly 8:15.0. So as long as he's ahead of that last green light,

he will be in contention to run a world championship qualifying standard. I think he's lost a little bit of ground going over that barrier. He's getting a little tired here, but come on fans. Let's cheer Benard Keter on. Go get that world standard, bud. - Yeah, he was aware of it. - He was right on it going into the last water jump. And I think that took a little bit out of him. He is looking a little bit fatigued. Does he try to clear these barriers? But, you know, hopefully for him over this last lap, maybe he can kind of accelerate through each one of them. - Yeah, he was, you know, firmly running those 68, 67s.

The last four or five laps. And that was a 69.9. So obviously the effort creeping up on Benard Keter, he's going to run an enormous season's best. And what can he muster over the last 250 meters here as he negotiates his way down the back stretch in all of these last few barriers? - And just for, in the race for second, McCalsky had a slower last lap at 73. And Craig Huff is really coming on strong. He ran a 68, the last lap, he's just now coming up, trying to pass and take that second place spot. McCalsky is fighting him as Keter is up ahead, cleared his last water jump. He's fallen quite behind the world standard,

but still clearly has to win for this race. - Huff was maybe a little bit too big for his britches there, passing McCalsky and then struggling over that water barrier. But Huff looking for a US qualifying time. Come on, Craig Huff, do it for the Aggies. - Straight as well, he's finishing up. We'll see what the time is on the clock, 8:22.9. So that is a great time for Keter this season and qualifies him for USAs, which I don't believe he had the time previously. But McCalsky coming in second, 8:28, and Craig Huff. - I think just possibly missing that USA qualifier by 0.03 of a second. Oh gosh, that's rough, that's gutting.

- So McCalsky's storming back after Craig Huff passed him over the water barrier and coming up for that second place spot. - Don't mess with army or Air Force. - Air Force. - Don't mess with Air Force. - Don't mess with anybody, these people, these people just are tough. - And with that win by Benard Keter, he has taken two Portland Track Festival steeples, or steeplechase crowns. So he's in rare company, I believe he is the only man to have taken two at this meet. - That was awesome. - That was a great way to kick this thing off in the hot window here on Saturday night. - I mean, you saw the wheels get a little bit flat there

for all the athletes at the end, but you got to love stories like Craig Huff who's running for the Hoka Aggies running club. Most of those athletes live sort of in the Northern California region. But again, an unsponsored athlete with a support of a brand like Hoka who supports these group runners, age group runners, local guys who are making their name out here and narrowly missing that US qualifying time of 8:29 for that. - I'm looking third too in the race. - Yeah, I have to correct myself. - Keter joins the great Andy Beyer as the only two men to have won this race twice in the Portland Track Festival men's steeple chase.

Beyer won it back-to-back years in 2014 and 2015 for the BTC. But now it's Keter. - Beyer, storm back into form. - Izzy now. - Yeah, oh. - Gave Mason Ferlic a run for his money in Nashville. Yesterday or Thursday, whatever day of the race was taking place. I think they both ran the low 8:20s. So they would have been in contention with Benard Keter here today. But love to see the coast to coast track and feel action that we got going on in the US right now. - Wasn't that the world record for the U.S. record I should say for the pole vault? Was that in Nashville? - Yes. - We've had a good weekend, haven't we?

- And last weekend, a world record for Ryan Crouser with breaking records left and right. Right, love it. - So great turnout here for this evening's races on Saturday here at the Portland Track Festival. Be sure to tune in tomorrow evening. 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. is the Hot Window. 800's, 5,000 meters and 1,500 meters. Some of the fastest men and women in the United States and the world, capped off by that. the Nike Running men's 1,500 meters that features the first, second and fourth place finishers of the last Olympic trials. You've got Cole Hocker, Matthew Centrowitz and Craig Engels amongst a great field.

- Yeah, usually I look forward to the women's races the most but this weekend that men's 1,500 is stacked. - And though Cole Hocker and Matthew Centrowitz may have gotten the best of Craig Engels in that night in 2021 at the trials, neither of them has ever won a 1,500 in Portland which Craig has done twice. So we'll see if he can defend his crown here. - Come at me, Doug. - 'Cause I'm off a win in the second heat down in LA last weekend so, you know, he's coming in hot. - Looking like vintage Craig Engels just having a really fun time out there in the track and racing everything that comes with racing.

- And Centrowitz looking like close to vintage Centrowitz as well, rounding into form, off his 3:36. - I mean, his haircut was tight, I'll tell you that. High and tight. - Right here, we're getting a glimpse of the Bynum women's steeplechase field is there shaking out and getting ready to toe the line and the prize purse keeps climbing here at the Portland track festival. You can see it at tracklnd.com. Bynum Sports is there, the partners for this race, the naming partners and a great, great company here in the Northwest that builds track. So before we have this amazing meet here at Mount Hood Community College,

Bynum came out and restriped and painted the track and made it all, or looked nice and pretty. So these bright white lines are brand new just for this year's Portland track festival. Thanks to Bynum. - I was going to remark on that. The track does look pretty dang good. - Really nice. Even the steeple, the old dash line for the steeple and stuff. I mean, this is, I want to get out there and run. - This is, this is not a steeple. - Not a steeple now. - This is perfect running weather here. This is a great evening. - Yeah, for those curious, if you're looking across the track, the trees are a bit blustery.

And so I've been hearing from some of the competitors via text message sent with love, of course, that the wind on the back stretch is maybe slightly less than formidable, but it's noticeable. So we'll try and watch that and take a key note as the competitors make their way down the back stretch of this women's steeple chase. As the night goes on, we expect the wind to die down and it just gets absolutely perfect for the remaining events in this hot window. But this women's steeple is shaping up to be something special. - Yeah, we've got the women assembling on the line right there as Pete Castro

brings them up there, the official. So we've got Colleen Quigley jumping back in here. - The first quigs? - Yeah, the first steeple chase of the season for her. - Yeah, she's had quite adventurous year with the triathlon and road mile, which she looked great at in Des Moines, the Grand Blue Mile, I think she came in third there. And now stepping into her steeple chase, the, you know, her event of choice for so many years. - And this is the first heat of the women's steeple chase here. So not the championship heat just yet, but they'll get us, get us going. Lindsay Morrison there, Bowerman Track Club Elite athlete,

coached by Elliot Heath. - What does that guy know about steeple chase? Never raced a steeplechase in his life. Knows how to get him fit though. - That's right. - This event is mostly running after all. - So we've got Lindsay Morrison there, as I said, and Jamie Hennessy we saw on the line. Hannah Hedgerman-Barrons, Jessica Sheriff. - Maybe Dixon in there too. - Are we going with Maddie or Maddie? - Let's go with Maddie. That's probably it. - I mean, you tell me. You've read a lot more names than I have. It's Maddie, Maddie. - All right. - This field quick to stretch out down the back stretch with our mate Maddie Dixon out there in the front.

Again, paying little mind to these wave lights. She has her own goals that she wants to achieve today. - The wave light pace is set for 10 minutes in this race. So everybody in here wants a three digit time coming out of this thing. - Fun, like we said before, it was like fun barriers, the races within races and the thing I love about running is the opportunity. You could in theory have a race where everybody stepped off the line feeling a sense of accomplishment from winning or personal best or breaking a barrier. And so what makes our sport so exciting and fun? - And yeah, it's about racing here.

It's about attacking those barriers and getting into those time goals. In the U.S. standard in this race, the qualifying mark is 9:35. So a bit outside or under that 10 minute mark. But Dixon chasing the lights out there in front. - Testament to how grueling this event is. We routinely see athletes getting admitted to the U.S. championships in the women's steeple chase with season's best qualifying times just under that 10 minute mark. Because it's not a lot of people want to put themselves through the rigors of what it takes to execute a steeple chase. The training involved and then the burden

and the wear and tear that it does to the body. - And rounds at the championships as well. Back to back, 3k steeples. - And Dixon's still out in front here. Leading the group. Jessica Sheriff in second. - And Sheriff is in front of the green lights as well. And that's Stavlova from Portland State. A Viking in third place. - Shout out to the poets. - Yeah, they could be the poets. You could be whatever you want in Portland. - Oh, we see. - But Keter seems to have run off with the large piece of wood that would... - That's... - We'll need that back. We'll get that back. - He's taking his round. We've got one on the table over here.

- Oh, okay. I thought it maybe went with him from the table. - No, that, he gets to go home with that. - Oh, when you said smaller, I thought you meant like significantly smaller. Like maybe, you know, soda can size. - No, of course not. We don't give out medal-sized trophies here in Portland. - Soda can't. - We give out trophy size trophies. - Yeah. - There's blocks of wood and beers. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something that you definitely won't be able to check on your way home. - Dixon over the water barrier there. - That was a little rough one. - And it's Dixon, Sheriff, and Stavlova. - Dixon's last lap was 84.

She had been running. 81, slowed down to an 84, and the second and third place athletes have now come up on her. - So tightening up the pack here in the first seat of the women's steeple chase, it's still Dixon in front. She's been up there for the entirety of the race. Sheriff in second, Stavlova in third, and they're navigating the barrier as well, running about 84 second pace for their laps. - This is an honest question. Is it steeple braid Saturday? Oh. - I think so. - Well, we will see. - We will see. - Maddie Dixon thinks so. - We will see for the next race here, if it is steeple braid Saturday.

- I think it's just braid every day. Kind of a vibe. - Again, you know, as I'm inclined towards the Portland State poets, big fan of alliteration. - Ah, yeah. - So Dixon out in front, but Sheriff looking to go around as they approach the water pit again. - Well, Sheriff, I believe already got past Dixon Dixon who had been leading is now in second, if my eyes serve me correctly. - They're right up there. - Oh, okay. - Side by side. - No, they're side by side going into the barrier, trying to have clearance. - Sheriff looks like she has a good amount of running left in her legs. I mean, the way that she's holding her shoulders

down away from her ears and not riding up, that like sign of tension being held through the neck and shoulders. I think she's done a good job pacing herself, running well within her abilities. She's hurdling pretty efficiently. This is, you know, those are the signs I'm looking for in a steeple of how the athlete's gonna fare in the later stages of the race. - Yeah. - And Sheriff in front of Dixon now, but as we talk about the women's steeple chase, are we going to see a bit of a changing of the guard this year at the top of the ranks? - We have Coburn, who has been up there for so long and Courtney Frerichs, too, who has yet to run

a steeple this year, I believe. But we have Courtney Wayment, who ran 9:11 in Florence yesterday and Emma Coburn 9:18 in that race. But Coburn is always a gamer when it comes to the championship racing. - Right. Yeah, you know, one of my favorite quotes ever from her coach and husband, Joe Bosshart, is there are three sure things in his life. Death, taxes, and Emma Coburn winning USA's. And I don't think that, you know, if you're a betting person, I don't see that changing this year. Really excited though to see Courtney Wayment run that 9:11 and show that she's in great form because, you know, we saw Courtney run at the On Track Fest

and get out-kicked by Krissy Gear who's having an incredible season as well, a breakout season for her, in fact, which is, it's exciting to see there be some challenge, right? For years, it was just, those were your top three. And they were so far beyond the rest of the field that, you know, what do we like to see? We like to see competitive races. I like to see compelling storylines. I'm not sure that any of those women are necessarily ready to take over from doing back-to-back steeplechase races and doing it as well as Emma Coburn can do. - Yeah. - But, you know, it's also testament to the race

when Emma finishes and she's, her, I think, reposting, I think it was, that was an annoying race. (laughing) Like, not, not I'm upset, not that, oh, I got work to do and I got, you know, it'll be better next time 'cause that was just annoying. And so, she's a competitor, she's a gamer and, yeah, I'm not betting against Emma Coburn anytime soon. I also am privy to getting to watch her workout. (laughing) - That's an insight scoop. - So, I know how, I know how extraordinarily fit she is and when, you know, it gets put together, eventually these, the puzzle pieces will fit together. - And someone who was up there for a number of years

with Coburn and Frerichs, who was Colleen Quigley. Past couple of years, she's been struggling with some injuries, but we'll see her tonight on the track, she raced to the Portland track festival last year and qualified for the USA's. Through that race, a 4:10 effort in the 1500 down in LA has her in good form. So, we'll see what's in store for her tonight in the steeple chase, but that's another storyline to look for, too, to climb back to the top of the mountain. Going into the bell lap in this women's steeple. And we have now, it looks like-- - Oh, baby. - It's coming back to the lead, passes on the inside, actually.

Sheriff went wide to clear that hurdle. And now, Dixon is pushing hard over this last lap, trying to see if she can get that win that she had set up for herself. - Perplexingly, I've been seeing Sheriff go wide on a lot of the barriers. And I don't know if it's just a discomfort with hurdling or a lack of experience, but, you know, when you keep running wide, those are all extra meters that add up at the end of a race and can't get those back at the finish line. - It's back and forth here now, though. We've got Dixon on the inside and Sheriff on the outside. Sheriff navigated that barrier well

and got herself some space, but is still on the outside of lane one as they head into the final water jump here. - How bad do you want it? That's what this comes down to. How bad do you want it? What are you willing, how bad are you willing to hurt? Your legs are telling you no, but your heart is telling you yes. - Bit of a stutter step for both of them and dousing the legs, but now still attached at the hip. Dixon takes the lead again. Did she get over this barrier safely? - Oh. - And now it's all to the arms, Dixon. She's staring down the finishing tape, eyes up. And she gets to the line first, 10:11.69

for Maddie Dixon there. - That was a fascinating last 500. We had back and forth and back and forth. Dixon going wide and Sheriff taking it as an opportunity to pass and, I mean, the lead changed at least three or four times just over the last 500 meters. That was great. - I'll start scratching the cave wall up here, lead changes for the races. - Yeah. - But that was, that's exciting. - Yeah. - Also one of my favorite features of the Portland Track Festival is that there is a finishing tape for every single race. Whether you're heat one, if you're in the Hot Window, if you're the first race of the day and the juniors

and masters, 2K steeplechase, doesn't matter. You get a finishing tape and what a unique and fun way to celebrate all of these athletes and their accomplishments. - And a block of wood as well. - And a block of wood. - And a couch to sit on and be interviewed. - Is that oiled, can you, is that food safe? Food safe in the living room? - Yeah, no, is the block of wood, is it food safe? Can you turn it over and use it as a cutting board of the back? - Oh yeah, of course. Yeah. You can put a nice little charcuterie spread on there. - That's what I'm wondering. That's what I'm wondering. Well, we see a glass of Pinot, of Oregon Pinot Noir

and some cheese and cured meats. - You never know what you might see in the Hot Window. - Coming up some surprises to me. - Coming to a board near you. I would love to see all of these athletes with their wood blocks coming out tomorrow, decorated as they would like. (laughing) - On giant chains, just around their neck. - Yeah, it was a Flavor Flav of track and field. (laughing) So there we go. The first heat of the women's steeplechase competitors, stepping to the infield here, greeted by their teammates. And now we have the Bynum Sports 3000 meter steeplechase championship event, the Portland Track Festival here.

Women are assembling on the starting line at the top of the straight. And it's gonna be a battle for the ages. Amy Cashin is in this race. She is the defending champion. Last year, she ran 9:27.9 in a driving rainstorm. Hard to believe that happens here in Portland. - Never rains in Portland. - Never rains. No traffic and no rain. (laughing) - Cashin, an Australian. She made the Olympics in 2021, I believe, by notching her time at Stumptown. And that was a 15-second PR when she did that to be able to make it to the Olympics there. So we have the favorites on the screen. Fans at home believe that Colleen Quigley

is gonna take this one tonight over the defending champ, Amy Cashin. And then Alicia Butterworth rounds out the top three there. We'll see how that plays out. But here we are, here are your competitors on the line. M&G, Lindsey Adams, Maddy Strandimo, Meredith Rizzo, Katie Rainsberger in there too. There's Amy Cashin and Colleen Quigley on the outside. - Steeple braid Saturday. - Here we got Amy Cashin and Alicia Butterworth as, for example, that have run. two steeples already this season versus Quigley, who's in her debut steeple, but who's been running really well in the shorter flat distances.

So it'll be exciting to see how that matches up over the last couple laps of this race. - And here we go. The Bynum women's steeplechase is off here at the Portland Track Festival. One of these women will notch their name into history here and take home a log round tonight. But who's it gonna be? The fans think it'll be Colleen Quigley. Amy Cashin is the defending champ from last year. There's the prize purse on the screen as it sits currently. And the top six places are paid out here at the Portland Track Festival. The top three are shown on the screen. Steeple Quigs straight to the front. - Waste not, want not, Colleen.

Go get it, girl. - We got the, so the wave light, world, let's see, the white pace is 9:35, which is 5:08 per 1600 meters, which is tough to gauge on this steeple course, but 77-ish per lap and 5:02 pace at 75s per, or 5:02 mile, 75 per lap for that 9:23 world standard, which will be our green pace light. - So as you said, 9:23 green lights for the world standard and 9:35 USA standard, white lights there. And Colleen Quigley out to the front, now wanting to navigate that pack over the barriers of the water jump safely in the lead. And outside of her. - You gotta think Colleen Quigley has about a 34-inch inseam.

Watching her go over these hurdles is like watching someone do sprint drills on the track. I mean, she's just, she's so smooth. Stepping over them. - We've got Butterworth out in front of her right now too. And then Amy Cashin in third. (indistinct chatter) - This is a, I say this with all due respect. This is a different level in athlete than we've really seen tonight so far. With athletes who have like been there and done that. And some of the best steeple chasers ever in the history of the U.S., and then Colleen's PB is 9:10. - 9:10. - That she ran in Berlin four or five years ago. But, you know, I like to see her getting aggressive.

I like to see her attacking these paces and attaching early on with commitment. That to me shows a belief in her fitness. - Yeah, I mean, she's coming off of doing triathlons which is so aerobically taxing. And then, you know, matching that with some great, shorter distance, some great mile performances and 1,500 performances. So, you know, I think the big question mark is, it's her first steeple of the season, but she's got such experience with a steeple. - You mentioned her personal best. That came from Berlin in 2018. So, five years ago, she ran 9:10. And it'll be exciting to see how she does

with such a different build-up than when she was with our men in years past. - Quickly, a fierce competitor on the track too. Fantastic across multiple distances as the top in the United States and the steeple chaser Emma Coburn is great over 1,500 and so is Colleen. - Having a low, I believe, a 4:03 best in that. - Yeah, I'll just say 4:02, 4:03. You know, what's interesting in this, at least for the American athletes, right, is Colleen can be chasing that world standard all she wants, but the reality is, on the day of the final USA's, you basically have to be able to run under that, that was a 9:22,

that time to qualify for our team. And so, tonight's really a test of, you know, where she is, getting one under her belt before she goes to USA's, getting a qualifying time which she might even have from last summer, but pushing herself. And as you see, she is growing daylight between her and the rest of the competitors in the steeple chase, so she's obviously feeling good. And as I've been watching her negotiate the water pit, she's doing it very smoothly. I mean, she's powerful off that push, only ever landing one foot in the water. So she's, she's doing great. - And this, what we're seeing here tonight too,

is testament to just how far she's come. Last year, coming into this race, she hadn't run a steeple chase. And she narrowly made it under that US mark to make it into US championships. But this year, coming in to take the win in this, or to attempt to take the win in this field, is a totally different level of fitness than she's been in over the last couple of years. And this is a really great thing to see. When you have this type of athlete, somebody like Colleen that is fierce on the track and has that kind of mindset that is just not afraid to go for competitors' throats in racing situations, it elevates the sport

and makes it so much more exciting to watch. - You know, I doubt that Colleen thought she was gonna be the one out front with this very accomplished group of female steeplers that she's working against. But, you know, the wave lights, pace don't lie. And she sort of lost sight of the green lights, and the white lights are nipping at her heels. So, we'll be interesting to see how this race unfolds over the last few laps, whether some of these early moves pay off or where they come back and make the last couple laps quite a challenge. - And now it looks like Amy Cashin is coming up and is gonna give her some company.

Cashin, the defending champ, the Australian Hoka athlete. She ran 9:27 here last year to take the victory over Courtney Frerichs when she did that. And she's run 9:21, that's her best. But right now, she's staring down, Colleen Quigley's shoulder blades. As they head through another lap here. - Yeah, Amy again in third looks very, very smooth. All of these runners are sort of, they're sort of making ground and losing ground, making ground and losing ground. So, very curious to see, you know, for some of these athletes who have more than one steeplechase under their belt is, how are they, they've been here before this year.

They remember what this feels like, but Colleen keeps driving on the back stretch. I mean, she, her form looks fantastic. She still does to me look like she has a lot of running left. And I think she's feeling the company, that pressure being applied from behind by Amy Cashin. - Well, you know, Amy, it's interesting 'cause she has a lot of races that are on her, kind of results for the season. A few DNFs, which tells me, I think that she's been doing some pacing as well as some racing, some doubles. She was third at the Australian Championship, so she's gonna be like more specifically sharp for the steeple.

And we're seeing her now trying to close in if she can on Colleen. As we go into two laps to go, can, you know, does Colleen break down and can Cashin pick it up and close the gap on her? - And the white light's firmly on the left of Colleen. She's sitting on the tail end of them. - Cashin is ever so slightly closing the gap on Quigley up front, but it's been Quigley from the early goings of this race. - Strandimo just moved up into third with Guy right behind her. - Strandimo, the former Golden Gopher of Minnesota. Big Ten athlete. - Sky Uma. - Is it Sky Uma or Sky Uma? - Sky. I mean, it's spelled like ski, but very confusing.

- Colleen looks like she's picking up her cadence a bit. - Yeah, there's still that gap there. It hasn't really changed. Colleen holding strong at the front of this race. - She's getting back into the white wave lights. So about 600 meters to go, can she maintain good form coming out of this water jump with only one water jump left now? - And Cashin trying to close the gap with all her might here. As they come up, they've got 500 meters to go here as they come to the bell. That'll be it, one lap remaining, and it'll be what can Cashin do to get close to Colleen Quigley, who has led this thing from the beginning.

- You know, again, I'm not gonna claim to know anything about this steeple chase here, but all I've ever heard coaches say is attack the barrier, and the best steeplers that you see are one to accelerate into and over that steeple chase barrier. What I'm seeing Colleen do, it's like her former self is saying, attack the barrier, accelerate in, and then there's like a, oh no, the barrier's right there, no more. She seems to be slowing down ever so slightly as she like the last few strides approaching the barrier. And I think that's something that she'll iron out as she gets into USA's, but this is a great season opener for Colleen.

As she powers down the back stretch, opening up that long, long stride and putting distance between herself and Amy Cashin. - Yeah, the gap looks to be growing at the moment here as Cashin tries to stay close, but Colleen Quigley looks too strong here. It might be fast-braid Saturday tonight in the electric forest. We'll see. - She was in front of the wave lights going into the water jump. We'll see if she's able to maintain an equivalency with them as she comes off this turn. - And there she is. - Driving onto the home straight. Going to the arms again, over this final barrier for Colleen Quigley here at the Portland Track Festival.

- Get going, Col. - Lift in the knees, driving to the tape. She's trying to get under that 9:35 there. And she will do it, 9:32.40 for the best steeplechase we've seen Colleen Quigley run in years as she heads into the USA Championships next month. But she gets the win tonight in the electric forest and will take home the trophy, the prize money. As we see the other competitors coming across, Amy Cashin, 9:38, Strandimo, 9:42, Cohaut Jackson, 9:48. - Another Golden Gopher. - Golden Gophers everywhere here. - And Quigley, her first Portland Track Festival victory. - She'll notch her name into the Hall of Champions here.

That includes Amy Cashin, Courtney Frerichs. And other greats like Chalaya Kip, Bridget Franek, Aisha Praught-Leer. - I don't know where that is. - The Champion in 2013. - How's that Casper mattress? Looks pretty comfy. There, Colleen Quigley and Emma G taking a picture there. And there it is as the prize purse keeps calculating. Right now, Colleen Quigley takes home $1,311, but that'll grow throughout the weekend as more people purchase and tune in for tomorrow. - Yeah, Colleen did a big block in Flagstaff. I don't wonder if she and Emma G ever linked up for sessions. Something that all the visiting athletes

are wanting to do in Flagstaff, look for training partners. - We see her final stretch here on the screen. Looking strong down the straight here. Colleen Quigley, not afraid of the cross training. And as you said, Shannon, she's been hitting the triathlon scene too, but she's always been swimmer and a biker. Dealing with some of the injuries she's had in the past. But this could be a sign of good things to come. She's back. It's steeplechase Saturday or steeple squeak Saturday. - It's steeple season, baby. - Yeah. - Fast braid Saturday. - How do we pronounce that word S-Z-N? - S-Z-N. - Steeple season.

- Yeah, I think. I don't know. You've mistaken me for a cool guy, Will. - No mistakes, man. You are cool. Not as cool as Justin Bretton, but very cool. - I see him out there taking some photos. So we've got the women walking back here on the track. Steeple pit is now out of commission for the evening, so they can soak their legs in it. Turn the jets on. Take that temperature up to 104. - Yeah, we'll see how many come back tomorrow. In the past, we've seen the double done by steeplechasers and 1500 runners here at Portland Track Festival. On Saturday night, they'll run the steeple, and then Sunday they'll come back and run the 1500,

either the top heat or the other ones. But famously done by Mason Ferlic in 2021, he ran 8:18 on Saturday night, and then came back and ran 3:35 on Sunday. - Only to be beaten by a high schooler. - Yeah, I mean, when all is said and done, I think getting beat by Hobbs Kessler will be an okay thing to just talk about. - Yeah, Hobbs put a lot of people into retirement. - Yeah, well, yeah, Nick Willis was in that race too. - Pat Casey, famously. Said when he got beat by Hobbs, that's about it, I think. - It's time for me to hang it up. - Yeah, and I think Pat ran like 3:37 in that race, you know, for like the races of your two nuts before USA's.

That would usually be an okay time, and you'd be pretty happy with that, and when Hobbs goes out and runs 3:34, all right, the game has changed. - So here we have the women's 10,000 meters here, brought to you by Rose City Physical Therapy. Here in Portland, Rose City is out here providing service to the athletes in their races on the tent, on the infield there. But this is a smaller field assembled here. And one that looks to be about, well, they're looking to go 32-mid, I would say. Before we get to that, we're gonna send it back down to the Hayward Magic living room. - We should be on air. It's been like hot two years ago.

- Hi everyone, we are here on, on grandma's couch in the living room with the one and only Colleen Quigley with your fast braids. - That's right. - So how did the race go? I mean, you had an amazing finish. I'm sure you're pretty excited, so give us a little race debrief. - Okay, well, sneak peek into my preparation is that I have started doing threshold work up from 5:20 per mile to 5:50 per mile. So I've slowed down a lot of my workouts. And I did a hard workout for the first time on Tuesday this week. So that's why I'm out right now. So giving it all that and just coming back from four years of injuries,

I'm like, I raised this steeple and then I walked away and jogged over here and I'm fine, like that's amazing. So I'm like, I'm smiling for sure. - That's awesome. Do you know that USA's like time? - Yeah, I have to admit, I'm so embarrassed. I have never run with the wave light thing before. And they told us before, I asked and they told us green, it's world standard, white is US standard. - And we'll call our blind. - Whoa, we got out so fast. Everyone got the line so fast 'cause I think with an outside steeple pit, like the first barrier comes up in 100 meters. So I felt like everyone was like sprinting off line.

And so I got really fast. And then the first one came up and then I was following the green. So I thought that was the standard. Anyway, I went way too fast in the beginning and that probably cost me a little bit, but yeah, lessons learned and overall just like super happy with the day. - Do the awesome. So congratulations. - Thank you. - Thank you. - We're gonna get to sign this. - Yeah, this is our finishing line tape for having everyone sign it. Write a message, write whatever you want. - I'll give you a message as you want to. - Yes. - All right. You caught us standing up there. But we are here for the Rose City Physical Therapy

10,000 meter women's race here. And it is off tonight. So 25 laps here on the track. - It's a small field for this women's 10K. The men's field is larger with 14, but the women's field has about seven or eight athletes. We had a later entry with Sam Natal. But some of the athletes to think about in this race as you go into it, we have Alessia Zarbo. It's her season debut. She's a French athlete. She was bronze at the European Under-20 Championships. Interestingly born September 11th, 2001. What a birthday to have. But Sam Natal is another athlete. Later entry into the race. but a personal best of 32:28 in March

at the Raleigh Relays. Both Alessia Zarbo and Natal U of O athletes. So two of the eight to maybe keep your eye on. But as the race gets out, what we really have our eye on is Wayne Shet Ansa. I've got to get her last name on here. It's not on my heat sheets, but she is out to the front, her first lap in 78 seconds. - I believe it's well distorted. - Well distorted. - So right now she is out here coming up to the two-lap mark, 800 meters. And slightly over five minute pace. So 2:33, 5:06 pace. For this 10,000 meters. These 10,000 meter races cap off the night here at the Portland Track Festival.

First, first night. Sunday night, like we said, we'll be back here for the Hot Window from 8 PM to 9 PM. And then all day before that. All day before eight PM, we're going to have open heats, high school races, master's races. It is a festival in every sense of the word here in Portland. Some great high school races lined up as well for tomorrow. The high school miles are always a special viewing experience. - A lot of, you know, we mentioned this at the start of the broadcast, but as I looked through the entries and the age of the entries, I saw a lot of teenagers, 17, 18, 19, we had a 15 year old in the five K earlier.

So, you know, great opportunity as we've been saying for these athletes to, you know, after the competition season, which maybe is going to be more tactical to get into a fast race and to take advantage of the wave lights, if that helps you to maybe get that personal best that you know you have in you, but you just haven't had the race come together. - You know, 76 for Wayne Chet there, 3:51 through 1200. - The green pace 31:50 would be a 76 second per lap. That's about a 5:06 1600. The white pace slightly slower at 79 per lap, 5:17 per 1600 meters. And for the so far going about a mile into this race,

it has been, you know, just winged, winged at it, weld shaded all by yourself. - Yeah, and we see the fan favorites on the screen there. They do interestingly do not have Wayne Chet in there and the fan favorites, so. - I think she was also a late entry into the field. I don't see her on my heat sheets from what I had printed earlier. - A late add here, seeing the prize money up for grabs, jumping into this race, take a stab at it, and looks like we're gonna be treated to a good effort here this evening, cap off the night. But yeah, we talked about, we have those hot high school miles tomorrow,

but also high school athletes have chosen to place themselves in different races throughout the day too, jump into some of the high performance sections of the 800s and 1500s. Both Leo and Lex Young will be racing tomorrow in 1500s. Sadie Engelhardt will be running in heat two of the women's 1500, which will be an awesome thing to watch. She just ran 4:33 to win the California state meet, so I've been told that she's looking to try and get under that 4:10 barrier in the 1500. And then tonight, special treat following this race in the men's 10,000 meters, we have Tyrone Gorze from Crater, and he's gonna take a stab at Rudy Chapa's

10,000 meter high school record from 1976, 28:32. Last year, Gorze as a junior ran 29:29 here at the Portland Track Festival, and earlier this year at the track fest, he ran 13:45 in that same race that Connor Burns ran 13:37. So he wants to get a little history for himself there. But back to the 10,000 meters here, we have Weynshet still out front, and then San Giovanni Jadaov in second place there. So Weynshet running 76s, Jadhav running 78s to 77s, and Weynshet's got about nine seconds on Jadhav right now. Marybeth Chelanga in this race in third place. - Yeah, that's what I wanted to highlight.

I think that it's a super heartwarming story. Marybeth Chelanga, the wife of Sam Chelanga, who's at any distance runner in the US, knows that it's just a storied career, a lot of highs, a lot of national championships, all the NCAA championships, one of the most formidable NCAA athletes during his time. - Marybeth Chelanga very recently ran a Olympic qualifying time in the marathon. And so, fun to see her out, challenging herself over 10K. This is speed work for a marathoner, the 10K. - Short too, seems short. - Yeah, now, so now she can't make that climb and she hasn't done speed work. So it's fun to see these athletes out here

putting in the work for the love of the game, as we say. - And I want to say, well, she ran the 10 earlier this year as well down in San Juan, Capistrano. And her first 10K on the track, she just cracked 34 minutes, 33:59. So, yeah, making the Olympic trials in that marathon and then coming back and wanting a little bit more for the 10K on the track, it's pretty cool to see. - Yeah, a little fire. - We do have, we do have some Hansons-Brooks athletes in the field too. Katherine Monks, Stephanie Sherman and Angelia Rafter in there. And then, a local favorite here, she's from Washington. Amelia Kaiser Gibson is in the field,

she comes and runs this race every year. You'll actually see her tomorrow too in the Portland versus Seattle 3000 meter race, which is a spectacle that everybody has to tune in for. Portland versus Seattle 3000 meter is going to, is going to kick off our Hot Window tomorrow. And it is a race where 14 men and women from Portland and 14 men and women from Seattle square off against each other in a scored competition 3000 meter, where the women start 70 seconds ahead of the men and then it's scored outright. And the winning team takes home the Cascadia Axe. Last year, there was a bit of controversy

where the axe initially went to Portland. - And upon further review. - Upon further review, we went back to the tape and one of the Seattle runners had obscured his teammate in the finish line shot. So after counting that other Seattle athlete, the axe was given to Seattle and has been up there for 365 days now. But Portland wants it back bitterly. - Yeah, I travel here for work a couple of times a year and every time I come, you know, I hear in hushed tones in dark corners of dive bars throughout Portland, how badly they want that axe back. - Yep, the city hasn't been the same ever since. - It really hasn't, no, there's something missing.

- So we'll get to see that tomorrow before the Hot Window starts. Back here on the track, it is still, Weynshet, and she's clicking off 76 to 77. The green light is on 31:50 pace here. You can see on the screen. - It does seem as though the wheels might be falling off a little bit, you know, the last few laps were 76, 77, now 79 with the wave lights just steadily flying away from her, but got to appreciate the effort. It's a tall order going out there solo for 25 laps out here, charging into the unknown. - Yeah, maybe we should put some barriers out there, you know? Would that make it easier? Just focus and just get to the next barrier.

- She hit 3,200, 10:18 here. That was the last lap crossed. So finishing this circuit up here will be nine laps. And then 16 remaining. - It's not even that many laps when you think about it. This goes by and I'm like of an eye. - Oh yeah. - Four miles. Good four miles. - Red rubber. - Most of these athletes are, we've got, you know, in the fourth through seventh, athletes are all close together, but first, second and third are each kind of running their own race with about 50 meters separating them. Maybe, maybe not they'll come together at the end, but this is just kind of a solo grind that each of them are doing tonight.

- Yeah, Sanjivani Jadhav, again, relying on their entry times to indicate personal bests in this case, has a personal best of over 33 minutes. That white wave light is set right at 33 minutes. And so, you know, she's looking good, trying to notch herself a personal best, but this is a war of attrition out there tonight. And then it's, you got to want it in the 10K when you're out there by yourself. But I feel like a lot of these women, you can look at their split times and they're just clicking off things. They're within a tenth of a second on every lap. They're just metronomic. These are paces that are ingrained

into every one of these athletes. When it's interesting when you talk to a 10K runner, having not done one myself, but they talk about, you know, each race is kind of broken up in its own unique way. And for the 10K, it's very much, you know, the first 5K, trying to be as relaxed as possible, I'm told, when you're on the track at least, different on the roads, maybe, but on the track, trying to be as relaxed as possible through 5K. Then you get to the second 5K of the race, which we aren't at yet. Once we hit that 12 lap to go mark, we will be there. But then they can start to think about, okay, three miles to go,

then they break that up into smaller bits. But really, this first half of the race, the objective for each of the athletes is to be as relaxed as possible, and hopefully have chosen a pace that feels slightly comfortable, 'cause they're really just trying to get to the working end of this race that they're in tonight. - And there is a lot of discipline that goes into this as well. So as high level athletes, how were you going out into a solo tempo run? Was that your jam, Will? - Solo tempo run, never mind it. Yeah, you know, you just kind of, again, you're given a prescribed pace, which is not that easy, not that hard,

and you're just supposed to lock in and ride it out for anywhere from four to eight miles. I don't know how Shannon, how long your tempos were. - Well, I just did a tempo yesterday, and yes, mine was broken up into two four mile chunks, but yeah, the first four miles felt pretty, like, you know, if you've paced it right, feel like pretty within yourself, and then the second four miles, it's usually, for me at least, that muscular fatigue. You know, if you've picked the pace correctly, it's, have you done the work structurally to maintain mechanics as you get fatigued, and your body wants to break down?

- So how does that differ from a race pace effort to going out solo from a tempo effort? - Well, you know, haven't done a 10K, so I can't speak to it. I am sure the race effort is much harder. - Yeah, you know, if you're doing a out of 10 scale, right? Like a tempo runs usually about a six, whereas a race is a 10. And where you, while the, I think your hope is that the first 5K of a 10K on the track feels fairly comfortable, because it's, you know, it should be about 30 seconds slower than your personal best, so the pace should feel, or 5K, your pace should feel a little bit relaxed. Where that discomfort starts to settle in

is like, deep in your gut. - Yeah. - Anyway, it's just why you start to see people with these like, these looks on their face are just like, just pure pain. And so, I don't wish to ever experience that again, but I definitely respect all the athletes that can just grind through that discomfort. It's a true skill. - Yeah. - It's a talent, it's a, yeah, that's, that's well put. It's a skill, 'cause there, there, a lot of people can look at the sport of running and say this is a one dimensional thing, but if you look deeper, there are a lot of different underlying talents that make somebody successful at this.

It's, and the ability to dedicate yourself to this type of pace over a long period of time, and then keep doing it years and years and years. That's, that's a talent, that's, that kind of dedication is, is definitely a talent. - Yeah, the, in stadium announcer is getting to this before we are, but an interesting story unfolding here as Jadhav in second place just ran a 79.4 for that lap where Weynshet was 81.1, almost 81.2, and, you know, there's a lot of running left in this, in this event, and if you're having a two second differential, that gap will shrink quite rapidly. - So 5,000 was just passed in about, I wanna say 16,

16 teens, mid-16 teens, and the gap is eight seconds currently. - But consistent, you know, it's interesting watching Jadhav split 17s, 18s, the first few laps, but then settled into 79 and has been clicking off 79s for the last mile, and closing that gap on, well, Weynshet, you see now, you know, having that, like, the visual for a good bit of the race was before, it was such a difference in gap that you couldn't have it the whole way, so, running really great to try to get that, what we think is a personal best. - It always comes down to the chaser and the chased in these races, that's the name of the game here,

and well, Weynshet out front, currently the chased, and Jadhav, the chaser, and the laps, yeah, they have flipped here with Weynshet, 80 seconds over the last lap, and 78 for Jadhav. So, slowly but surely, narrowing that gap. We're now in that second 5K of this 10K race, and so, you know, in this phase, as we were talking about, this is when you're gonna start to see athletes applying pressure, or executing, you know, a different, often it'll be at, you know, certain markers like a mile to go, or six laps to go, or whatever it is that you'll see a shift in intent or in pace, because mentally, they wrap their head

around the competition in a certain way. - And Kaiser Gibson has dropped, she did a few laps ago, so we hope that she's okay and able to compete in the Portland versus Seattle 3,000 tomorrow evening. - She's saving it for tomorrow. - You might, yeah, hopefully she just shut it down and saved it for tomorrow, but she is a Seattle athlete, too, so. - Oh, okay, so do we want-- - We get back on the track, so, yeah. (laughs) - What's a, do we have an honors effort rule here at the Portland Track? - Oh, there we go. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. We in the box have to remain neutral for between the two teams, I believe.

- Do we? - I believe it. - Yeah. (laughs) - Let your emotions run wild. - I wear my heart on my sleeve. (laughs) Yeah, I mean, like, just visually right now, I don't even need to look at the splits, I can see this gap shrinking. What will be interesting to see is if Weynshet has anything to respond when Jadhav inevitably catches her. You know, I think they both still look very smooth. I'm not seeing any clear signs of deterioration aside from, you know, the tenths of a second per lap slower that Weynshet is running than Jadhav, but I think also what we're seeing is an athlete up front who's maybe not showing

the fatigue physically, but when your paces are fluctuating as hers are, that's a sign to me that the mental fatigue is beginning to set in. - Could it be a strategy? I mean, with pace thrown out the window here, and maybe she's not on the lights anymore, she's trying to secure that win, and maybe she's easing off the gas. - Not uncommon at all, that's definitely, you know, if you've decided that whatever pace you might have been initially striving for isn't feasible, then it's all about, okay, how do I take home, you know, the win or place the size possible? - Weynshet now coming back a little bit here,

so she was running 81, then 80, and now 79 and 79, so coming back into that 79 range, but Jadhav's still-- - How in it? - Yeah, she's 78. - Still running faster each lap than Weynshet, and it looks like she's doing it disciplined enough to not get there too soon, maybe just in time. - Yeah, she had a mile of 79s now looking like she's gonna hit a mile of 78s. Really, you know, composed and consistent execution. She's a smooth runner, Jadhav. - Smooth operator? - Smooth operator, yeah. Way smoother than my prepubescent voice that's gonna continue to crack here for the rest of the night, only to come up with--

- So exciting, you just can't help it. - I need to come up with some tea with honey tomorrow. But very, very, very excited to see this turning into a race where, you know, for a long time, it seemed as though these runners were just gonna be running by themselves. I think Jadhav, I don't know, Shannon, if you ever did this when you'd be in like a long road race or something where you're, you know, mentally counting down seconds to that person in front of her. - Oh, yeah, you see it, yeah. - She passes something on the track and in your head, it's okay, one, one thousand, two, one thousand. Oh, I'm five seconds back, four seconds back.

- Absolutely. - Clawing back time, and she seems like she's running incredibly confidently, but also very measured. You know, she's not seeing, oh, I'm gonna win this race. I need to make it this ground now. She's just doing it lap by lap by lap, a death by a thousand cuts as far as what it might say. - Oh. I think the gap is noticeably, I mean, it is shrinking because we can see it on the splits, but not enough to get the crowd really fired up about it yet. I don't know if it's very noticeable. We can see it, you can see it if you look closely, but. - Well, we're still also nine laps out. And so usually eight laps, I should say.

But the crowd, you know, I feel like with the 10K, it's like the beginning of a chess match where the moves do matter, but it's really at the end as you start to get, you know, closer and closer that. - Well, we're hearing some woos. I'm hearing some woos now in the stands. The fans are seeing some. - Yeah, exactly. You know, they're watching it in the early stages. They're seeing how people are, how people are performing, but it's, but they know that it's the last couple of miles, the last six laps or so of this 10K that the race is really gonna be happening. - Like a passive fandom for the first four miles of a 10K.

- Yeah. - You know, maybe we're engaging in a conversation with our friends and family that we're here with, keeping an eye on the race because nothing's gonna get too crazy. Another thing to note in this race is that every single one of our competitors that finishes the race will be getting paid. - That's great. - That is a great point. - Everyone's leaving the track with some money tonight. - Yeah, and everyone is pretty well spread out around the track too. There's no, no athletes are currently working together. I think that the closest- - No, not a single one. - The closest anybody is to another athlete is,

is about 35 meters or so. So spaced out, and it is still Weynshet out front and Jadhav in second, and Jadhav is still closing down on Weynshet with every lap. - Yeah, the gap now in just four seconds. This is, it would be cruel if she pipped her at the line. But it would be brilliant. - It would also be brilliant. It'd be a perfect race plan. - So we'll see if that ends up being the case. If that's the design of Jadhav to do that, then we'll see how it plays out at the end, but that would be excellent strategy for the runner now in second place. And that lap, 7,200 meters crossed by Weynshet, 23:35

with a 78 second lap. And that is faster than Jadhav now. Jadhav, that lap, 79.2. So the gap, budging a little bit now. - For the first time in seven laps, Weynshet has shown to maintain or extend her lead. - Well, they're about to be at that six laps to go mark. That's what they tell me is a big, another big barrier. - Six to go. In a six mile race, having six laps remaining. (crowd chattering) - Disappointingly still don't see anybody in the hot tub at the top of the turn. I can see the steam rising from that steeple pit. - The temperature is dropping a little bit now. It's getting a little--

- I mean, my coat soon, yeah. - Yeah, it's good weather and we're perfectly shaded here in this year's electric forest. - Let's see, the latest temp check is 69. But real feel of 67. - So that's prime running weather here. - Yeah. The wind still looks like it's blowing from the one tree right across from us. But the flags on the straightaway and then the stands are pretty still. - It's deceptive when you're tucked into these grove tracks in the northwest here because they do get very good protection from the trees around the edges. So it could be breezy out in the open. - But that's protecting, yeah?

- Tucked in here. It's a nice place to run and that's what people have always loved about Lewis and Clark where we typically have this meet. This year, as we said, the grandstand is getting a little facelift. So we look forward to getting back there next year. But this year at Mount Hood Community College, it is a great, great facility to have in the area and to have this race in this year. A similar setup too with this grove-like setting. And we could still call it the electric forest too because that's us that brings the electricity here. - The forest brings the forest. - That's a good point, thanks Will.

7,600 meters. 79.1 for Weynshet, 79.0. Well now, it just crossed 8K here. 8K was passed in 26:14. So that's the number that everybody who ran in college is gonna latch onto there. 79.9 for Weynshet and 80 for Jadhav. So Jadhav falling off the pace a little bit. Her long slog towards victory may end in defeat. We will see. Maybe she's trying to save a little bit now. - She's still ahead of those white wave lights, which are 33 flat pace. So let's hope for her that she can maintain the pace she's got and keep ahead of those. - We're supposed to be impartial, but for the life of me, I don't know why.

For no reason other than a lot of come from behind victory, I am Team Jadhav right now. I want to see her pull this off, but you know, this gap now has just maintained steady for the last two, three laps and. - We want a good race. - The head's starting to bob a little bit on Jadhav. - Now we've got the lap counter at the finish counting down the laps. - Yup. - Four to go. - Mile to go. - Last mile. This is one where the athletes tell me they get, they start to get really excited. The final mile of the race, each step they take, bringing them closer and closer to that finish line. I mean, truly that's been the case the entire race,

but you know, when you're having that mental visualization, you can imagine, you can start to imagine a mile and what that might be and feel like and how you're chipping away at it. - So the history of this particular event and the Portland Track Festival, too, is one where it is in that period of time in the season where many of the 10,000 meter runners, top 10,000 meter runners have already secured times and are resting and prepping for championships. But we've seen many marathoners race this and do so in preparation for fall marathon. So the event record is held by Shalane Flanagan, 31:38. But Natosha Rogers won this, not a marathoner.

She'll be racing the 5,000 later or tomorrow evening. - Des Linden won this race in 2015. So some big games. - Been all his title come and run this a couple of years ago and she went and did like a 15 mile tempo in the morning and then came and paced one of her teammates over 10K. - He did. - Yeah. - She holds the number four time ever, 32:02. - There we go. - Yeah, passing these, the lapping these runners right now has to give both Weynshet and Jadhav a good boost. You know, they give them something to go after where they've just been out there on their own. Well, Jadhav's had Weynshet to chase

since the starting gun of this race. But Weynshet has had at least a couple of people to look at and say, I'm gonna try and catch that person by the end of this lap or something to work after other than just endless tartan in front of her. - And that last, so 8,800, the last distance reached. 28:52 for Weynshet, that was a 79.0. And then Jadhav, 79.6. So, still not closing the gap anymore. - Yeah, the gap got as small as four seconds and it's back up to six seconds now. So, you know, I think that Weynshet firmly has this race under her control. She looked very, very strong. Very curious to see if this time that she runs,

which will be, you know, in that high 32 minute zone, will be enough to qualify her for the US Championships. She runs for the American Distance Project. I don't know if that implies that she has American citizenship or not. But if she does, we'll see if we can, if we see her again in a couple of weeks, in Eugene. - And six seconds not insurmountable over two laps here. So, we'll see if Jadhav has that in the tank. But still, it's 79.1 for Weynshet on the last lap and Jadhav, 79.2, so, not closing down, but they're inside two laps to go now. And it's game time, game time for Jadhav. And Weynshet just has to keep doing what she's doing

unless she hears some footsteps behind her. And you can see the men-- - I wonder if Jadhav's got a 60 in her pocket. - That would be incredible. I would love to see that. A little Mike Allen power there, six and three. For those of you tuning in now, and weren't watching earlier, Mike. - These are deep references. - Mike Allen won the first of three heats of the open 5K close to 63. - Yes. - A legend in the forest, 15:06 with a 63-second last lap. - Yes, we had Judson with a 60. - That's right. - And the shades and the swagger. - Another legend. - Dripping. - Winning heat too. - Weynshet comes up to the bell lap here

and it's being rung right now. 31:27 at the bell. - That was a 76. - So she's quickening. - 76 for Jadhav. - 76.9 to 76.7. - Nice. - So it's, they're trying. We'll see what Jadhav can do, but it's a big gap over a last lap right now. And Weynshet's inside 300 meters to go, charging down the back straight as we get a shot from the drone here. - Beautiful drone shot. - I love the drone shot. Props Ivan. - And 200 meters remaining. Weynshet rounds the corner. - Heading for home. - Heading for home. - And Jadhav, the gap remains the same at the moment as Weynshet is charging onto the home straight here.

She appears to be, I think it's safe to say, the 2023 Rose City Physical Therapy, women's 10,000-meter champion here at the Portland Track Festival. She'll notch her name into the list of champions tonight. And it is Weynshet Ansa Weldestadi. who is your 2023 10,000-meter champion in 32:40? - Nice. - And Jadhav, under 33, 32:46. So, achieving her goal there. - You'd love to see it. - Yeah. - And as Will said, every woman in this race will be getting money tonight for their efforts. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. And we have some athletes coming across now. We'll have to go. Hansons-Brooks Distance Project.

And Marybeth Chelanga here, rounding the corner at the 200-meter mark. And this looks to be, this is Stephanie Sherman on the screen here, coming onto the home straight. - So, Weynshet walks away with 1,300 bucks. Jadhav in second, at 800. And we have Stephanie Sherman, who's gonna walk away with this 10,000 meters with just under 500 bucks in her pocket. And Marybeth Chelanga, gonna make 325 bucks. I mean, great day for all these ladies out here at the track. - And that's how it is as it sits right now. But it'll go up. - You could make that better, fans at home. Spread the word. Sweet in the pot.

- Sweet in that pot. - Sweet in the pot. So, Angelia Rafter crossing the finish line right now. And then, Kathryn Munks coming up, for Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, Coming in to cap off the women's 10,000 meter field this evening. 32 — or 34:42 — for Kathryn Munks. And the 10,000 meters is in the books. So, Will, we have a men's 10,000 meters up next. - We sure do. - And that is the IncubatorU men's 10,000 meters. - This race, you know, I think is showing to be a slightly more competitive race than that women's race. Maybe not in what's gonna happen up front in terms of their relative time.

Comparing it to, you know, the times they'll qualify you for a US national championship. But there are a number of guys in this race and I'm very curious to see how it's gonna shake out here after it starts. Who, you know, I think they have the green wave light set at 27:20, which is very, very fast running. You know, that's, you're talking top 10 in the US at 27:20. So if some people can commit early to that pace, I'm very curious to see if they can hold on. As we saw in the previous race with Weynshet, she gave it a go for about a mile and a half. And then, you know, I think that the pace started to catch up with her a little bit.

But, yeah, there's a lot of names and I don't wanna make any predictions yet. But we got a lot of laps to dissect. - We do. So there was one man in this race who has requested that 27:20 mark. And that is Athanas Kioko, who ran 27:23 at The Ten earlier this year and placed third behind Woody Kincaid and Joe Klecker. And since then, Kioko has signed with On Running and he's run 13:09 in the 5,000 as well. He ran that indoors, but also ran the Track Fest 5,000. And he's come up to Portland to race this 10,000 meters here in a large field for 10,000 meters, I would say. But a number of these men will be gunning for that 27:50 mark

to try and get into US champs on July 6th and 9th down in Eugene, Oregon. - Yeah, we got, we got good old Benny Blanks down there. - Ben Blankenship coached by Ryan Hall now. He's trying to dabble in the marathon a little bit. And this will be, I wanna say his third 10,000 meters on the track, 28:08 is his best. And he did that at The Ten last year. We're gonna get down to the living room for an interview and we'll see you when we come back. - Your race today, I wanted you to just explain how you felt. - It's good, I'm so happy for the rest. No, that's good, everything's good, thank you. - How do you feel about running in Portland?

Do you like the weather? - Yeah, it's nice weather, I like it. - Do you wanna say something about your race, how do you feel? - It feels just, it's the first time, 10,000 in track. That's not bad, it's good for me. - You ran an amazing race, congratulations on getting the win in the 10K. And we're just gonna have you sign your name here on our finish line over here. You can, yeah, write a message if you want. - Taking a glimpse of the starting line here, the competitors in the incubator, you men's 10,000 meters here at the first night at the Portland Track Festival, 2023. And it is a stacked field.

And you can see right there in the purple singlet. Number 12, Tyrone Gorze, Crater High School. And he is wearing the singlet worn by Rudy Chapa when he broke the 10,000 meter high school record in 1976, running 28:32. That is the exact same singlet that Rudy Chapa was wearing. And he's taking aim at that this evening on this track. You're in Portland. - You love to see the nod to the history. - And the support of like the person who's record is about to be broken, recognizing the importance in our support of, you know, trying to achieve these things. - Well, you know, I just want to wish all the luck in the world.

I'm hoping that you can get it. Nothing would make me happier than if an Oregon kid can get that record. And for it to happen here, this weekend would be just awesome. So go for it. And I wish you the best of luck. - The nicest guy, just such a good guy. - Great words from the record holder there. And an Oregon great as well. - Guys, just put a smile on your face. - It does, you know. And we've got the pace pirate on the outside, Craig Noak. - And look at this field compared to the one we had in the women's race, 29 athletes on the original entry list. We'll get the firm numbers once they get started,

but quite a different race set up in this men's field tonight. - It's a big field here. And I saw some full tights on the inside too, some red, red, full tights. So we'll see how-- - Sure. Burr, you know. - If you're coming here from Tucson, it's freezing. - It's right. And here we've got Ben Blankenship on the outside there too. The Olympic 1500 meter runner turned, soon to be turned marathoner. Now 10k. - What would think? - Yeah. So we have a number of lights on the screen right now. We have the blue lights, that will be 27:20. And then we have the green lights, that will be 27:50. And we have the red light, which will be 28:32,

Rudy Chapa's high school record. So right now it's a fireworks show there, but those lights will start to be-- - You feel like I'm at a rave. - That's how we want you to feel here at a Portland Track Festival 10,000 meters. So it's a two man affair from the beginning with Craig Noak out front leading Athanas Kioko. And Craig Noak slated to do at least 3,000 meters of work, which will leave Kioko on his own for a good 7,000 meters. But not unlike what we've seen in 10,000 meter attempts this year, down at the track fest, we saw the Northern Arizona Elite and these elite athletes working together

to get some times down in the low 27:20s. But we see what the fans think here. They think Kioko's gonna take this one, Ben Blankenship, second guy in there, and then Blaise Ferro, who Will was saying is in good shape before we go on here. - I had the privilege of watching Blaise come, compete to work out in what appeared to be his pajamas in Flagstaff a few weeks ago, but didn't seem bothered by that at all. You know, was getting ready to do some heat training with there, keeping his body warm. But, you know, with a 27:56 PR to his name, like they're just, there's studs in this race. Brian Shrader's another guy who always sticks out to me

is, you know, he doesn't line up to race unless he's ready. And so, hoping to see the best version of Shrader out here on the track tonight, hoping that he can get that tick the box of another USA qualifying time, and then getting some serious racing down there in Eugene. Shrader, also a guy not afraid to stick his nose in it and push when times get tough, too. He's not afraid to jump out early on to lead the pace. But he's currently sitting in that second pack. He moved up to sit in fifth position in the second pack right now, as we're getting a look at just the top two runners here, Noak and Kioko, who is your first real competitor

in this race, but 2:11 through 800 meters, and we'll see where Gorze is situated at the moment. He is sitting right on Ben Blankenship, where he was through 800 meters, through 2:18. - And, you know, Gorze, when he set his record indoors, he had the wave lights to use, you know, in Boston at that New Balance Indoor Nationals. And so, he spoke of seeing them as he was closing. He had a long close to the finish. He saw the lights, and he knew that that meant that he had the record in his grasp, and it helped motivate him to get that time. So, he actually has experience utilizing these wave lights,

which is probably unique compared to a lot of the athletes in this field, and we'll be sure to see him referencing those later if this record is indeed in his grasp as well. - And right now, Gorze is in front of the red pacing lights and sitting right on the heels of Ben Blankenship. And how cool is this? This is a kid in high school right now wearing a legend singlet out there that has held this record since 1976, and running on the heels of a Olympian Ben Blankenship this evening. - We gotta give credit where credit's due, too. Ben is not just an Olympian, he is an Olympic finalist, which is another notch, and that's many feathers in your cap.

And an Olympic finalist in the year where we had, I think we had three people in the final of that year, but with obviously Centro taking the win. But, no, these groupings are very interesting. You see a lot of people who are committed to these paces early on. We saw Athanas Kioko down in Los Angeles at Mt. SAC for the On Track Fest. Be the person who was aggressively attacking the pace. Now, he didn't come away with the win that day, it was Cooper Teare, but someone who's not afraid of being the person out front. And I think that he's got one of the best paces in the world there with Craig Noak up front,

and nothing but faith in him to get him where he needs to be, and not afraid to be the person that has to do the work when Craig eventually steps off the track. This following pace group I think is also super interesting that you have the guys in the back of that pack who are just very content to turn their brains off, not lose sight of where they are relative to the pace lights, but knowing what they came here to do today. And Shannon was talking about this earlier that there's so many races within the race. And a lot of people are gonna walk off the track tonight, very, very pleased with the effort that they put forth.

- Yeah, I mean, you love to see these groups forming too, and with a common goal in mind, with the lights that are grouping them together. That the first mile was passed at 4:21.9, and this is 2,000 meters that was just crossed for our front group there for the pace pirate and Athanas Kioko, and then 4:28 for that second group there, and now 5:35 through 2,000 meters. So 67 low, 66 high for the second group, and just straight 65s for Kioko up front. And then Gorze back there, clicking off 66, 67, 68, 69. So I think he's gonna start settling in now, and he is right on that red light. - Gorze is confident.

- Gorze is moving to the front of that. - He's riding the train of about 13 professional or semi-professional men. - And you can see it on the screen here as he's charging to the front, all the confidence in the world cloaked in that magical singlet. - This singlet has superpowers. This is a super hero's uniform that Gorze has donned today. He knows that there's something special on the line, and absolutely he's just taking advantage of this opportunity. You'd love to see it. - Yeah, and he's the only one sticking on the red lights right now. I'd love to see some of those athletes who are talking back in that pack go with him.

We're looking at Noak and Kioko out front right now, 'cause Kioko has a job to do, and he's got a mission and a goal set that he set his sights on here for that 27:20 mark. And we'll see if he can accomplish it tonight. But clicking off 65s through 2,400 meters in 6:32. And he's rounding the bend now, and as he comes up to the finish line here, it'll be 2,800 meters. So, seven laps. - And for the fans watching on TV, the second group definitely has a pacer, the athlete in the black singlet and black half-tights. The pacer for that second group of what will eventually be six finishers with Lawrence Kipkoech, Geoffrey Kipchumba,

Logan Rees, Brian Shrader, Jorge Cruz Perez, and Ryan Kutch, all tucked in nicely single-file. And then, you know, not, but 50 yards back is Tyrone Gorze. Another 65.5 for Kioko as pace pirate Craig Noak still leads him through, and that was seven laps down. So, coming up to the line here, they're rounding 200 meters here, but 3K here. So, that is about 8:10 through 3K. And that second pack still on the white lights. - I think Kioko needs to be cognizant of what's ahead of him as does Noak, you know. I think while Craig's job is to stay on those lights and do the, you know, drive the hard yards

out front doing the pacing, it does seem as though Kioko has let a little bit of daylight shine between him and his pacer. And Craig steps off at two miles at 8:42. - Okay, so, 8:43, I always love passing this mark here because any high school boys watching, this is the top of the line here most years in the country. - And speaking of top of the line, Tyrone Gorze is coming across two miles in 9:07. - 9:07. - A time that would be the fastest two mile by many high schoolers in their state across America. This guy is coming through 9:07 for 3,200 meters in his 10,000 meters. This is crazy. He's ahead of the red lights, ahead of schedule,

and looks very comfortable. - He's running solo right now. So he wants this thing bad and he's doing it. If he's gonna have to do it by himself, that's what he's doing right now. And he's ahead of the red lights trying to make this happen. And there he is on the screen. You can see him rounding the bend, charging out front, charging out front in his race. And at this point, all of our paces are out of the race. And so now it is just Kioko out front individually, group of about five in the Chase pack all running together, which has now fallen off that second wave light time. Gorze in a race of his own against those red lights.

And then another Chase pack with some accomplished athletes, including Ben Blankenship in it 30 or 40 meters back from Gorze. - Kioko in his first solo lap, clocking 65.6, as he's 200 meters past that now, and he's still on the blue lights attached to his hip. - So maybe eight or nine meters behind Tyrone Gorze is the athlete Curtis Eckstein. Curtis has made an exodus from the group that he was running with behind. And starting to close that gap to Gorze, I would love to see Gorze get a little bit of help. And I mean, this kid is obviously an immense talent, but he still has, you know, 6K of running left,

which is a long way to go. We saw what happened in the women's race as, you know, even the athletes who looked very comfortable started to unravel a bit during those kilometers, five, six, seven, eight. So for him to have a little bit of help, someone to push him, someone to latch onto so he can turn his brain off, I think makes this a record that becomes even more in striking distance. - Or even just to make it, to break it up, right? Just the monotony of lap after lap, you can get a bit lost or complacent. And he's approaching 15 laps to go. I think to your point, Will, like to have someone else

just sort of jolt a little energy into him, potentially, you know, push him or challenge him would be, I think this would be the perfect time for that to happen. - And Kioko charging out front still with the lights. He is on pace and coming up to 4,400 meters here. - You know, he set the pace at 27:20. The world qualifying mark is 27:20, is what the green light is. 27:10 is the world qualifying standard. I've said earlier, you know, with these longer races, you don't necessarily need to go out exactly at your kind of target pace. But I wouldn't be surprised if he has that world qualifying standard in his sights.

And he knew that maybe the better way to do it was to get out a little bit under it and then try to close hard over the end. So watch for that. My guess is he's trying to go for that world qualifying standard. - That would be a real treat for us as fans to watch that. - Absolutely. It is impressive to be here in person and see how fast Kioko is running for 10K. Like he-- - 55 pace. - He's just absolute and he's so smooth. It's just, I mean, it looks effortless, but the amount of ground that he is taking up with every stride is, it's just a thing of beauty to watch. - He's clicking off 4:21 miles over and over and over.

And we've got the split screen on here now so we can also see Gorze. - With Eckstein coming right on him. - Yeah, hopefully Eckstein is jumping up there to take the lead and help out Gorze a little bit because you can see the red lights still tucked in on their side. - He looks like he is. He came up, I thought it was, at first it looked like maybe he was gonna tuck in behind, but he went wide on the back stretch and he's now pulled in front of Gorze. And, you know, hopefully for the two of them, I haven't done 10Ks, but I have done 5Ks and my favorite 5Ks are ones where I had an athlete or two,

even if it wasn't planned in advance. But, you know, we would take one or two laps at a time and then trade leads. And it just really helped break up that middle monotony of the race and make sure that the quality stayed high. - Yeah, and Kioko is still out there. We should say he ran 65.7 for that last lap. And this was 5K that he just passed in under 13:42. And the lights are getting away from him just slightly right now. So see if he can hang on. We should also note at this time too that the 10,000 meter record for the Portland Track Festival is 27:56. And that was run by Suguru Osako in 2021.

So that one is-- - Well, we plan, yeah. I know that we are in a different era right now in high school, middle and long distance running. That is clear. But Tyrone Gorze is coming through 5K in 14:16 for his 10,000 meters. That was 14:16 through 5K. And the kid looks like a hot knife through butter right now. - Which is smooth. - 14:16 is 31 seconds slower than his 5,000 best. So that is-- - Perfect. - That's right where he needs to be. Again, I know nothing about 10,000 meter running. All I've heard is, you know, take your 5K, multiply it by 2 and add a minute. - Cut. - There you go. - Is that easy?

It's not even that hard when you think about it. - So Kioko charging out front here. He's chasing the lights, but he looks like he's-- he's faltering slightly. He's starting to lose a little bit of form. - And it looks like the second pack is splintered as well. They've fallen off of that 27:50 pace. - Yeah, Shrader's going to the front now. I think that they're going to do their best to try and claw their way back to that white wave light. But, you know, Logan Rees, and I think it was Geoffrey-- Lawrence Kipkoech, they've been sharing the leads. You know, we're trying to keep our eyes on all these different

races within the race. But when the pacers eventually stepped off, I think, you know, a couple of the athletes who found themselves stranded out front. We're looking around for a little bit of help. And so Logan Rees has taken a couple of laps. Brian Shrader's taken a couple of laps, which is good to see people working together, because this is a long way to go. And if you're hurting now, it's a-- the last 4K will-- will be nothing shy of uncomfortable. And here goes Tyrone Gorze back out in front of Curtis Eckstein. - This is a heroic effort. - This is heroic. If he could get this, there might not be a stadium here tomorrow.

The fans might just shake it to the ground. [LAUGHTER] - There we go. So on the left-hand side of your screen, you can see Kioko, our leader. And on the right-hand side, you could see Gorze, who's taking matters into his own hand. And we shifted over back here. And we got Gorze on the front. - Kioko's having to navigate large stacks of people. - The one negative for him in this scenario of 29 athletes competing is that he is pretty much passing someone every 50 meters. - He's got a good stretch in front of him now. And the lights have distanced themselves about 35 meters in front of him. And he's clicking off 66 more-- oh, the last lap,

he clawed back a 65.8, so back under the 66-second mark. And that was through 6,000 meters at 16:25. Oh, Gorze starting to fade a little bit. And he's still-- - And I guess-- oh, I hate to see it. - Gorze feeling it a little bit right now. - It was a big slowdown. - This is an implosion. - But on the left-hand side here, we've got Shrader leading that second pack. And it looks like-- - Gorze slowed down a lot. - Yeah, he's struggling right now a little bit. - 10 laps to go, or-- nine laps to go, and it hit him hard. - And he's back on it, actually. - He's trying, yeah. - He's pushing again. - The only thing that I can think of

is there has been a gastrointestinal issue. - Perhaps. - We saw. - Yeah, because he's not running that slowly right now, but for the last 200, 300 meters-- I mean, he's lost 40 meters on Curtis Eckstein, who was his partner in crime there for a while. But Curtis also losing distance on the red wave lights. Ben Blankenship now driving the train of his athletes with Tyrone Gorze wedging himself in between there, looking for any sign of life that he can muster over the last eight laps of this race. - And Kioko now on the home straight again. Coming up to the lap. Previous lap was at 77.6, so lost a little bit there.

We'll see what he clocked through at 6,800 meters here. And that's a 77.6 again. So dropping pace, but we'll see if he could stay ahead of that meet record, 27:56, set by Suguru Osako, who famously, after doing that five minutes later, came back and jumped into the second heat of the men's 10,000 meters, got second in 29:04 or something like that. - Clearly didn't leave it all out there in the first one. - He just did enough for the win. But there's Kioko around in the bend on the far side. And Gorze tucked in still. - But definitely back at the pace or like moving well, there was just from about the finish line until 200

into the race or into the lap of note. Slow down quite significantly, but then got back up to his stride and tucked into that chase pack that had kind of yet distanced. - Looks like the red lights have been pulled off the track for the moment. If they get back onto pace, I'm sure they'll put them back. - I think Eckstein should be our sort of reference for where that pace was. He was a little bit behind it, but it would look like Gorze is nearly 100 meters off of it. - He's about 15 seconds back at this point, but he's got signs of life that are resurfacing. This kid is-- - And again. - There's the red.

- Yep, the red light is back on. - And Gorze is trying to go to the front of this pack now and regain control and charge after this record. This is a heroic effort. - Someone needs to talk to this kid about passing on the turn. (laughing) - He wants this thing from Crater High School. Tyrone Gorze doing everything he can. And the fans love it. They're cheering him on. And Kioko right behind him coming up down the straight as well. He's gonna lap this group. - So, starting from two miles into the race where Gorze came through in 9:14. No, sorry, I've lost him on this sheet here. They're saying 9:08, or 9:07, 9:08,

what we were saying for his two mile, his lap times were 69, 68, 68, 69, 68, 67, until that fateful lap where he dropped a 71 and then a 75 where they've sort of settled back into just sub-70, just sub 4:35, 4:36 pace, run 69s. I'm not sure that's gonna be enough, but you never know. High school kids are crazy. You know, he could run. - And his personal best is 29:29.92, set last year. So, you know, lots of ways for him to win in this scenario. Obviously, his big win that he's wanting is this high school record, but big personal best opportunity as well. - You'd love to see this group ahead of him help him

get back to those lights, if that's at all possible. - I think there's only one person in that group who has it in the legs, and that person's name is Tyrone Gorze. What I hope that doesn't happen is that he gets caught behind someone and has these guys he's been working with further distance themselves away from him. So, let's see if he can. Kioko rounding the bend again. And... Everyone is spread out around the track, running their own races. As we see, Kioko on that far side. And 200 meters ago, he passed 8,000, in 22:34, and that was a 69-second lap. Oh, excuse me. - I'm not saying Kioko is dropping.

- No, he's right behind Tyrone Gorze right now. - Blaise is missing from the list. - Yeah, he's somehow fallen off the results, but I'm sure that'll get rectified. We'll figure that out here in a second. - Yep, so Kioko coming up. Now he's lapping Gorze's group there, so we've got the thing. - And maybe that's gonna give him the kickstart that they need, and they follow him to the promised land. - I would like to see Gorze go with Kioko here. - That would be incredible. - Kioko is being shown in sixth, but he's, as we know, he's in the lead. - Scoreboard is wrong, ball don't lie. - So we, there are lap counters down there

that'll make sure that everybody knows what's going on. - Yes, if you look at the results for Kioko, there was a 2:14 lap split, so they missed a lap in there for him. But yes, as you said. - He teleported through time. - Yeah, heh, heh. - Kioko charging. - Kioko charging. - Probably passing in a large group. - So Kioko coming on to the home straight again here. And we'll see. - What he comes through at. - 8,800. - Yeah, it seems like almost all of the lights at this point have been turned off or on the track, which makes it difficult to gauge the amount of work that Gorze needs to do here. But suffice it to say that the kid is putting in

a Herculean effort, he's really going for it. And what a bummer to see, you know, whatever happened on that lap. We may never know. We may have to ask the man himself after the race. - There'll be time for that, I'm sure. - There'll be plenty of time. - So Kioko up front, a 68 on that last lap. And coming up here, he'll have two laps remaining. So Kioko on to the home straight here as the drone follows him. And the clock ticking at 25:12, 25:13. So we just saw the pace pirate, Chirraman. - Let's see if he jumps through the deck. - So 25:24 with two laps to go. Kioko's inside 800 meters remaining.

So we'd have to run a sub two minute 800 at this point to get under that 27:20 mark that he wanted, but we'll see what he has left in the tank. He's been running 68 the past few laps. And Gorze now — or not Gorze, Kioko — now with 600 meters to go. (indistinct chatter) - Yeah, it seems like Brian Shrader's group, they're running about as fast as Athanas-- - Kioko. - Kioko. Brain went dead there for a second. Had a restart. - You're back. - I'm back, I'm back, baby. (laughs) - So here's the bell lap for Athanas Kioko here. They ring it for him. - 26:30. - 26:30. So it seems like a PR is out of the question for him right now,

but still a great effort over 10,000 meters as he's pouring it on too, heading around the bend. That last lap, getting back to a 66.9 from his 68-second previous laps. And now just charging down the back stretch. Going to the inside, nice work. And getting to 200 meters to go in 27:01. So that was a 31-second 200 meters there. And now he's got a stretch of open track in front of him. Something he's thankful for. - One of the few times in this race that he's had such a long stretch. - So rounding the bend here. This will be the fastest 10,000 meters we've ever seen at the Portland Track Festival.

And the record will belong to Athanas Kioko, who's giving it everything he has at this moment to get under 27:30. And he seems to be right on the nose. - Not that far off of his personal best that he set earlier in the season in a race where he had so many other people to run with. - And now, let's get a look at Tyrone Gorze as he comes by the finish line here. He's got a lap to go. And with a lap to go. - Can he break 29 minutes? - Yeah, it's 27:55. - 27:55. So we'll see what he can do here. And we'll get eyes on the rest of the track too. And there he is. Rounding-- - Please, finishes. - Rounding runners here.

- We had some blazing finishes on the home stretch, but all eyes are on Gorzi to see how he closes out this final lap. - So the record will tick by here. Shrader came up for second there, 28:11. There's the record, 28:32. And Gorze, 150 meters to go. An amazing effort here doing a lot of the work by himself from the very beginning. - Inspiring. - And to recover from whatever happened and still put in such commitment and gonna come home with a personal best. - The fans are erupting here. And here comes Tyrone Gorze, wearing the jersey worn by Rudy Chapa. - Oh, right at 29 minutes for Gorze. - Gosh.

- What an effort there. That kid, that kid, something else. - Tough as nails. You gotta think that there, when whatever happened happened, when he saw that red light getting away, you gotta go to some very special place to get yourself back on track. - Right, yeah. - He wanted it bad, and with that kind of determination, he's got a bright future in this sport, in this distance. - Yeah, it will be very interesting to see what that young man is able to accomplish in college. - And we're getting, Kioko's getting his shoes taken off for him here, I think. - You gotta have a shoe guy. - I guess when you run 27:29,

then you get your On guy to take off your shoes. So 29 flat here, 10th place for Tyrone Gorze. That's a high schooler, running back-to-back, 14:30s for over 5,000. But 14:16 for the first one. And here we are, in the booth. - Tough track, fam. - Hello, everybody. Great, great first night here at the Portland Track Festival. We've got four of our championship races in the books, and that what we just saw is a meet record in the 10,000 meters for Athanas Kioko, breaking Suguru Osako's record from two years ago. - A record that needed to go. - Of all the records at the Portland Track Fest, I think that was the weakest.

- Yeah? - Yeah. - As we said, 10,000 meters is a little close championship season, but yeah. Especially the way that 10,000 meter running is trending. - Yeah. - This day and age, we needed a mark, we needed a mark a little faster, and Kioko came out and gave it to us tonight. - He sure did. I mean, we thought that that race had gone so far away from him as that green wave light just started to disappear off in the distance, but his ability to claw it back over the last two, three laps and run 27:30, I mean, that's insanely impressive. - Yeah, a 58.1 last 400 meters. - He was hauling. - What a man.

What a guy there. - What a mighty good man. - Yeah, what a mighty good man. And we're getting, yeah, some crowd shots here as we close out the evening with the men's 10,000 meters. And what a way to do it too. - Pat Richie is a fan favorite. I see a bunch of his friends and supporters who are, you know, all but too happy to come out and cheer on their buddy who just ran, I think he ran 29:30 for 10K. - 29:30.6 there. - Yeah, racing a race. - Running under the Johnny's track meet team name there. - Can't have a meet without meet. - Patrick Richie will tell you that. So he's a local guy here in Portland, works at Nike.

- I mean, the thing I like to see at the end of this race is sort of like what we saw also in Florence with Faith Kipyegon. You know, it seems like Athanas is a universally beloved guy. He's been over in the States now racing at least since the On Track Fest. So that was, he's been here for weeks and just watching the admiration and joy that the other competitors are getting from him being around is, it's fun to see. - Well, yeah, he, so this is second 10,000 of the season and he's, although he didn't get that standard or the 27:20, which is just outside, he notched some points here too because this is a world, world athletics,

tiered level meet, so some points will be tagged on to that 27:29 clocking and that'll go along with his 27:23 from The Ten this year too. So a good year at 10,000 meter running for Kioko. - Well, I love that about Kioko. He had the win in the bag and he still closed in 58. He still went for it. He wasn't gonna get that time, that personal best, but he didn't bag it. Like he just commits to the race that he's going to do and I really appreciate that about him. - And we're gonna send it down to him right now in the Hayward Magic living room with Deanna and Jillian. - And we're back in the living room couch

with Athanas Kioko. He's the champion of the 10K, the last race of the day. So tell us, how do you feel in that race? - So I felt so good when the pacer was there and then after that, like I had some good one mile and then after that, I started like feeling like a little tired being alone. So it was a little tough when the lights started leaving me, but you know, I had to keep strong, yeah. - I mean, and you did a great job. You keep strong through the last part of the race. - My biggest goal was not to have anything above 68. So I don't know if I ran any 68, but I wanted to keep it below 68, so yeah.

- Awesome. - And you had some great energy today. I mean, they call it the electric forest. Did you feel that at the end of the race when you were getting tired? Like did the crowd lift you up? - Yeah, the crowd was so good because like at some points I was like feeling tired and then someone just shouts the split and I feel like, yeah, I'm still in pace. So yeah, I had to just keep going, yeah. - Awesome, congratulations again. The last race of the day and we're just good to go. - Yeah, you can sign this. We have this finish line that we're having everyone sign. You can write a little message too.

Do you have the pen? - The name, you can write your name, you can write your time, whatever you want. - Yeah, thank you so much. - Yeah, great job. - I'm losing the fight on my team. (laughing) - All right, thanks, Deanna and Jillian and Kioko for that amazing performance. So we've had a great first night at the Portland Track Festival 2023. It's been fun up here. - Off to a good start. - Yeah. - Some new legends being made in the making, some old legends showing back up, like steeple squigs. So it was a cool night for young and old. - Legends of the forest. Well, what was your takeaway? What was your big moment of the night?

- As a D3 guy, as a former D3 guy, I am just pumped to see a D3 national record get broken. The quality of athletes, I mean, as we saw it from high school through D3, D2, D1 and into the pro ranks right now, the United States is on a trajectory to the freakin' moon for LA 28. - Yeah. - And this is the next generation, it's gonna be their representing our Olympic team. And so really fun to be a part of an event that gets to showcase those immense young talents and excited to see where they go from here. - Yeah, a lot more to come, too. - Tomorrow. - More to come. - Shannon, how about you? What was your moment of the night?

- I think it was that 10K, you see what an athlete's made of when they're in a challenge situation and how they respond to it. And so both Kioko, he set a goal for himself. He was falling short of it, but he didn't bag the race. He still tried to, I think he mentioned, he tried to make sure he didn't run slower than a 68 and he still closed in a 58. And then we have Gorze, who had a challenge lap, ran a 75 in there, but then I was fully prepared to watch him walk off the track and just be done. And instead, he got himself back together. And then he dug and dug and dug and he almost broke, or he had a personal best, but almost broke 29.

And that, I think, speaks volumes about him as well and what he's made of. And so I think that, to me, it was just like, who are these athletes and really the commitment they have to the competition? - Yeah, I love that effort there because it's so inspiring to watch that as well. You see, for me as a viewer, I get concerned when people start to slow down. - Yeah. - And then the guts that comes out of that and then they're able to push on. It's like, wow, this is a special person to be able to do that. And it's amazing to be able to watch that. - Yeah, I think we would obviously all love to see

the combination of the Rudy Chapa jersey with a high school record. I think that would have been very, it's a storybook ending to the evening, but the guts that he showed today, and Shannon just was talking about that was, I hadn't seen that very often. - No, yeah. - At the pro level, it's like, we'll just bag it and come back another day. - Totally. - But he came out here and just really put on an inspiring show for the fans and the stands, for the fans that are watching on the pay-per-view. And I think like, if you're racing tomorrow, that story's gonna resonate with you. And if you're racing anything coming out,

that story's gonna resonate with you, that it's not over until it's over. - It's a very good point. A lot of the people that are going to be racing tomorrow, we're here tonight watching that effort. And races start tomorrow at 3 p.m. with a lot of the open races, so we've got open 1500s, high school boys and high school girls, miles, masters, events. And then the high performance events, starting with Heat Four and Heat Three of the 800s and 1500s will begin at 4:50 p.m. And those are some amazing races of the level of runners who will be trying to make it into the US championships in early July.

But from there, we move on and at 6:10 is when things really kick off. And we've got the Portland versus Seattle team race, where Portland is gonna try to get the Cascadia Axe back from Seattle. And then we'll roll into the high school boys and high school girls elite races. And from there, the second to top heat of the 800s and 1500s and 5,000 meters. And then starting at 8 p.m. tomorrow evening, the Hot Window. Mark your calendar right now. Block everything out, that's right. We're gonna blow the roof off of this, off of this. - Yeah, so off of this roofless track. - Yeah, I'm so sorry, Mount Hood Community College.

You won't ever want us coming back. I appreciate this place of the ground. - So we've got 800s, the top heats of the 800s, the top heats to the 5,000s and the top heats of the 1500s to cap off the evening tomorrow night. So you can check all the fields at tracklnd.com and purchase a ticket, if you're watching this, you already have, you could sweeten the pot, make it a little more enticing and raise the stakes for athletes to go after it. Friends, if you're out there and you wanna bet on your athletes in there, throw some money down, sweeten the pot. I know there are four Brooks Beasts in the men's 800 meters.

Come on, guarantees. - Business. - Come on, guarantees. - All right, open the purse strings. - You've got the power. Okay, well that's it from all of us here at Portland Track Festival, from Tracklnd. Will here, Shannon Rowbury. We'll be back tomorrow with a lot more action and we're gonna hit Taco Bell now. So have a great night. (laughs) (upbeat music) >> Let's do go live. >> Yeah. I think I can take my. [MUSIC] Good afternoon track fans. We are back here at the Portland Track Festival, Mount Hood Community College. It's a great afternoon here in the electric forest. And I'm joined by Will Leer and Shannon Rowbury to my left and right.

>> Respectively. >> Respectively. It's great to be back here. We had an epic evening last night here in the electric forest. Capped off with 10,000 meter races, the men's race. Athanas Kioko win in 27:29. Tyrone Gorze, 29 flat, which was not a national record, although he was chasing Rudy Chapa's 28:32, but it was an Oregon State High School record. Took down Bill McChesney's 29:06, so an old record nonetheless. >> Another feather in his cap. >> Another feather in his cap. >> I think third all time I heard. >> Third all time. >> But right now we are turning to the track and we are kicking off this

afternoon with the Masters Men's Mile. So this is always. >> Well, technically mixed mile, but I don't think there's any women in it. At least my note, mixed one mile run Masters. >> Excuse me. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, we'll take a look out there and see if there are any women in this race. But this is always a riveting competition here at the Bowerman Track Club well represented. And Team Red Lizard Masters in here too. We'll see Peter Bromka on the track. Peter Bromka of Marathon fame. 2:19, man. >> Ahrlin Bauman of pacing at Nike Track fame. He had a many a workout with Ahrlin. >> The Bauman bros, he's one of the twins. >> Yep.

>> I don't see Oscar on the list today. But here they are, the gentleman stepping up to the mile line. They've done this many times. There's Peter Bromka there. We're in the number 14. That's Ahrlin being a goofball. >> Are you sure those aren't twins? Is Oscar in this race? I don't know. >> I don't think so. >> They're just the shaved head and Bowerman singlets. >> We'll see. We'll see how many of these guys can get under five minutes here. >> In the back, we've got the silver fox of Dan King. World record holder in his age group of 60 plus. >> For the mile. >> For the mile. Don't quote me on this, but I think it's 4:46.

It's a world record. >> Someone, check those stats and let us know. Bromka content to take the early pace here, telling the other boys, get in line. I got this. >> He's new to the Masters ranks here. He's going to stick it to him as long as he can. We'll see how long he can hang out there. >> Are we living by USATF Masters rules or by World Athletics Masters rules? >> He just turned 40 last year. >> That's the world Masters designation. In order to provide more domestic opportunities for young post-collegiate athletes, recently USATF Masters opened their age ranks to anyone 25 and older. >> That's why we've got a 16-year-old in this race.

>> He's an early master at 16. >> 69 seconds for the first lap. 70 seconds officially for 409 meters. >> Yeah, we have Lucas Spirling listed with age at 16. >> I'm not sure if that's correct. But for now, we've got Bromka still at the front in a 70 leading the pack. No wave lights in this race, but the meet record is 4:14. >> Anybody can be a master now, huh? >> Just about. Well, Bromka here, driving the train, he said that he wants to try a bit more in this race year, test the new ranks out. When you step up in age group and you're in a new pond, you kind of want to elbow around and feel out what you can do. >> How do you think they refer themselves?

You used to say like what, big fish, small pond? Is that young fish, old pond? >> It could be, yeah. He's a guppy out here. >> Just a guppy. So here's a half mile, reached in 2:20 for Bromka at the front. >> Some goodie eras. >> Got some efforts at movement. Looks like Gutierrez is looking to make his move coming into 700 to go. >> Also a member of the Bowerman Track Club. >> I, an eye opening conversation, maybe last year with Dan King in Boulder, asking him, you know, like, at your age, do you do speed work? You know, it's how fast can you run a 400? He says, my wheel, my mile of pace is 72 seconds per lap.

I can probably run a 71. >> That's kicking. >> Yeah, that's kicking as fast as I can go. You know, just, he knows what he's got and puts it out there. And I think this is one of the first miles I've seen him run this year, but prolific on the Boulder running circuit, but also loves these opportunities to come out and compete with the other masters. I know that these guys all just relish these opportunities to get on the start line together and slug it out. >> I mean, they love the sport. But they've been in it for, well, most of them have been in it for a long time. There are some new masters runners, but these guys are seasoned vets out here

for the most part as Gutierrez comes to three quarters of a mile here in about 3:30. So, like clockwork, 72nd quarters. >> Doesn't need a wave light. He's got a dial. >> Oh, he has the wave light. He is the wave light to Christian Cushing-Murray, for sure. And a bit of a duel out front, yeah, with Gutierrez and Cushing-Murray separating themselves. Now, Ahrlin Bauman, look at that. Getting into third place, coming on with a pull ahead of steam. Is that Ahrlin? Ahrlin Bauman, yep, coming. >> Full of run on the bottom string. >> Our surge with 300 to go. >> Great knee drive from all three gentlemen up front, too.

200 meters to go, rounding the bend here. Getting some gap, Gutierrez, from Cushing-Murray. And Ahrlin Bauman trying to see if he can close in on one of those two. You could see Cushing-Murray just engage here, too. >> Down shifting. >> Swing inside to side. Let's see if anybody can get Gutierrez as he squints into the pain. Oh, it's bright. It's a blinding light as he comes toward the finish line. The tape's out there. We'll see what he can do. Can he crack 4:40? Yes. >> Nice. 4:37.97, officially for Orestes Gutierrez. Cushing-Murray, 4:39. Bauman just missing, breaking, Bauman at 4:40, just missing,

breaking that and getting under, Bromka in 4:44. Let's go, Dan King, the veteran of the field. >> All right. >> The master of the masters. And the only man out here with the world record. And Dan King crosses in 5:11 there as we're getting a look at the back stretch here. The back stretch, the guys are shaping up for the 1500. Heat 4. We're going to go heats 4 to 1. So as we move throughout the day here at the Portland Track Festival, we're going to keep getting faster throughout the day. So this early section, oh, look at that. Masters on the track. Masters of the track. >> Seven competitors. >> It's a gentleman sport.

>> Handshakes, firm handshakes all around. >> Eye contact and firm handshakes. >> I think those guys are headed straight to the beer garden after this. >> I hope so. >> But yeah, as I was saying, we move faster throughout the day. So we're starting with the open sections right here, 1500s. And then we get into the, we're going to have some special Olympics races, a unified 4x1, special Olympics 100 meters. And we're down here at the living room with Deanna and Jillian. They've got, they've got Orestes Gutierrez here. >> This is a little bit breezy or did that bring us home guys? >> Hello, everybody, and welcome.

We're here in the living room couch with the first winner of the day, Orestes Gutierrez. Tell us a little bit, how do you feel in the race? >> I feel, well, right now I'm an old far, so I feel like I need CPR. But during the race, I felt, I felt okay. I was trying to keep up with. >> I had a age grade at him. >> This guy, this guy, he was going for the American record. And I was just helping him out. And it felt great though. It was awesome. >> That's awesome. >> Was it exciting running here in this electric forest? >> Oh my goodness. I love, I love the forest bathing. I'm a physician, so anytime I'm in the, in the forest, it's really,

it's really good for the body. Laura's a quarter saw. But I was a little stressed when I saw Kush, who's 55. He was breathing down the backside here and I thought he was going to get me. So I had to kick it hard. >> Well, he didn't get you, so you're the winner now. Now you get to sign. >> All right. >> You can put a little message in your time and your signature. >> Congrats again. >> Congratulations. >> And you can hold this up, the champion of the men's master mile. >> All right, and we're here on the start line of heat four of the men's 1500. We'll go from four to one. This is the first open 1500 of the day.

>> Something you don't hear that often in post-race interviews, I out age graded you. >> Yeah, I wonder if we're going to be hearing that in the 1500, the hot heat later this evening. Do you think Orestes is going to still invite Kush to his birthday party? >> I hope so. Those are big deals in the master run. >> That's what I heard. >> Once you grade up. >> You'll ever hear that though. It's raw competitiveness. I heard him breathing down my neck. I wanted to beat him. But also, I'm trying to pace him. >> Yeah. >> I'm trying to pace him, but I still really want to win. >> Yeah. And I looked up the record.

I'm assuming he was going for Richard Burns's 4:36 for the 55-59 age group for the mile set. In 1955. So he was a few seconds off of it, but not too far. >> Okay. So we have section four here. And Portland state runners in here. Is Max Randolph in there? He's on the start list. >> Well, there'd be a tall drink of water running this track. If Max Randolph was on the track, head and shoulders above everybody else. >> He decided to do us spend the whole day in the beer garden, I guess. >> I think that might have been my suggestion. >> But we've got some low slopes in here. Western Oregon runners.

Lost Boys Track Club represented with Riley Sine in there. The Vancouver Thunderbirds too. So a lot of good local talent in here. We've got some stepping on the inside there. >> Throw a blanket over the first 15 runners in this field. They're tightly bunched. Not any distance between the wheels in this peloton. >> These guys know what they're doing. The wave light is set for four minute pace here. So these gentlemen are looking to crack the magical barrier this afternoon here in the electric forest. You can see the green lights, they're ahead of them right now. Four minutes, special time in the 1500 and the mile.

Well, do you remember the first time you broke four minutes in the 15? >> I do. Yeah, I was at Occidental College in the SCIAC Championship final in the spring of 2004. >> Ooh. 3:56. >> Ooh. >> Shannon, do you remember the first time you broke four in the 15? >> Oh, yeah, Paris, Diamond League. >> It's the same thing. >> Yeah, same thing. >> It's like exactly the same. >> We're splitting the difference right now here in the electric forest. >> Hey, look, sub four to sub four doesn't matter where you do it. >> Yeah. Whether it's in the electric forest or in Stade de France. >> Yeah. >> Well, we're talking about the European vibes of this.

This track is giving us so, you know, appropriate. Yeah, about 2:08 through the 800 there. >> Yeah, 64's dead, his four-minute pace. So, I think they got out a little hot in 61-62 and started to lag a little bit when the wavelet went by. These guys, obviously, got a little crack of the whip. >> A little hungry. >> Yeah, we've got Anthony Sasso out front here trying to stay on the lights. >> And we do have a master's athlete in this race. Jacob Timm of the Tinman Elite. Jacob Timm trains at Niwot alongside numerous professional athletes. We see him out there always putting in the work. Here's the bell at 2:56, roughly.

>> They're in a good spot for that sub four. >> Easy to see, hanging right on the lights there. >> That's Sasso up front. >> Well, isn't hard, too. >> Sasso being chased by Rylan Heffernan. Sasso representing the Two Italian Track Club. >> Do you think one Italian track club was already taken? >> Yes. Without a doubt. And he's rocking the stash, too. Under 200 meters to go, and he's well ahead of the lights. >> Five guys in contention to break four minutes here. >> Oh, and seeking a bit of a challenge outside shoulder. >> Oh boy, look at this. >> Coming down the straight. >> God, Jacuzzi boy in contention for a podium finish.

That is Marcus Dickson coming in. 3:56 unofficially. I think he might be related to Madey Dickson, who won the second heat of the steeple chase last night. Part of the same track club. Madey, Madey. >> Yeah, Madey, Madey. >> It's Madey, Madey. >> Three under four. Dickson, Sasso, and Heffernan. >> So close for Gavin Flynn and Tion McLeish. Jacob Timm, our masters athlete, 4:11. >> Good performance there. >> You know, if I'm being honest, I would love to see Jacob Timm in that masters 's mile. >> Yeah. >> That would have been a nice, nice competition there. But there we see Dickson cruising down the infield.

He's making his way to the living room. So, 3:56.55. The time to beat for today's races in the electric forest. That is the fastest 1500 of the day. >> Are we going to stand by our promises from yesterday? Oh, boy. >> I mean, that's on you there. Look at this cheering section on the infield here. >> Yeah. >> I didn't see a credential on that guy, but, you know, cheering for all the athletes on the less. >> He was shortly tackled on the infield right after this footage was taken. >> Security. >> We got a strict security team here in the electric forest. But here, before we get to heat three, we're going to send it down to the

living room now. >> Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the living room couch. We are here with Marcus Dickson, who is the winner of section four of the men's 15. Marcus, can you walk us through that last lap, because honestly, you really killed it. >> Hey, well, thank you so much. First one to dedicate. This is my beautiful wife, Madey Dickson right there. I love you. My buddy, Rylan, was in the race. He took it out hard. And I decided to sit on him. And last but not least, Craig Engels gave me these spikes. And if I'm going to wear Craig's spikes, I can't lose. >> That's a perfect mentality to have.

>> That's awesome. So tell us, how does it feel to run in the electric forest? >> It's amazing. Madey, will you move here with me? It's amazing. >> Awesome. Well, congratulations. >> Thank you. >> And thanks for coming on the couch. >> Thank you. So fun. >> Good job. >> Oh, man. I love the living room. That is fantastic. >> That is not -- >> Not that that was anything other than spectacular. >> Yeah. It is just these interviews have not disappointed. >> I guess when you're married, you can't ask someone to marry you from the couch, but will you move here with me? >> That was going to go on, yeah.

I was waiting for her to run out and say, yes. Oh, is that her? >> Yeah, there she is. The braids still rocking the braids. >> For those of you who can't see, they just had a big bear hug in the infield. >> Yeah. A ringing endorsement for Portland there. >> Yeah. And for Craig Engels. For Craig Engels, yes. I think he'll be sticking around for the Hot Window later this evening. >> Yeah, I hope so. And I hope he's firmly planted himself in the beer garden. >> Well, last time I raced at Portland Track Festival was the Craig Engels motorhome parked at the 100 to go mark. So, just Craig Engels and Portland Track Festival have a long story to history.

>> It was very nice of Craig to allow us to use his home for our track. >> Yeah. >> He did sleep in there overnight. >> That doesn't surprise me. >> I mean, where else was he going to sleep? >> I don't know. Yeah. Well, heat three on the track right now. And like we said, the time to beat 3:56.55, that kicked off the day. And we'll see if we get progressively faster throughout the day. I'm sure we will. But the guys are assembling here. There's a good little village on the backside. We've got Track Town tent set up with Oregon Track Club, the Union Athletics Club, the Harman Track Club, and a Nike FJ Cruiser over there.

We heard that the trail bago is in the shop right now. Or else it would be out here as well. And I don't think Craig Engels owns a Winnebago anymore, sadly. But he's owned quite a few, so maybe he'll pick another one up. >> When Craig was going through an existential crisis a few years ago, he and I had a talk, a long talk about whether I thought it was a good idea for him to continue running because he was ready to give up everything, move to eastern Oregon, and start a Winneb ago refurbishing. >> I remember this call. >> Winnebago's could run free. >> Yeah, like stallion. >> Yeah. >> Look how far he's come.

>> And I said, "Are you kidding me?" You just ran 3:33 yesterday. I think you're doing all right. >> So we got a good look on the line there. The gentleman lining up in heat three, the men's 1500. There's some good flow there coming in from Matthew Hopkins and the Victoria Endurance track club. >> Yeah, a lot of salad there. >> A lot of salad. >> I think we'll look for him to make some moves. >> And if he's not, you know, look for him afterwards for refreshing crisp rom aine. >> So we have a few Canadian athletes in here. Victoria Endurance Track Club, Jaxon Kuchar. Luke Sandmayer and Matthew Hopkins, the aforementioned University of Calgary in

here too. Conrad Drover. And the guys are off here. Heat three of the men's 1500. And Horizon track club up there in the orange singlet there. Richard Torres, as he makes his way to the front. 3:55 is what the pace lights are set for. So just under the last heat's winning time. >> It makes sense. If we're going faster. >> If we're seeding correctly. >> We're not getting more furious, we're just getting more faster. >> There is a slight breeze on the track today, but from what Shannon said, doing her research down there before the race, it's felt just in the middle of the back stretch. >> Yeah, you know, if you look at the trees, you can see them blowing right

around the 50, or I guess it's 150 meters into the race, middle of the back stretch. When I walked through the track, it felt mostly just in that one little section . I think the wind is kind of cutting through. But otherwise the track felt pretty protected, pretty calm. It's good for these athletes. >> So right about here? >> Yep, exactly. >> I'm feeling it right there as they got through 400 meters in about 62 seconds and are right on the green lights. As they came through 400, that was Sean Janecko. And now it is Gabe Van Hezewijk up front. He's part of the Victoria Endurance Track Club, so one of four Victoria

athletes in the field. >> Yeah, I was noticing the four Victoria athletes all competing in the same race. >> Sure, they came in with a goal. They're trying to target perhaps at 3:55 that the lights were set for. >> Two laps to go here, 1500 as they round the bend. It's still Van Hezewijk up front. And getting close to 800 meters now as they come to the line in about 2:06 high. So the lights are dim on the back stretch there, but they're just out of reach at the moment as Van Hezewijk tries to hold on to them. And Sean Janecko, number 11, on these outside, trying to claw back to the front runner.

>> You got to imagine someone is charging their batteries like a Prius, ready to pounce. >> Oh yeah, over the last 400 meters. Last night we saw some fireworks with a lot of sub-60 second closes in the distance races. So, you know, we're looking for more of that fire, more of that action today in these early heats of the 1500 as Van Hezewijk gets passed now by Sean Janecko. We're in hip 11. >> At the bell in 2:55, so there have to be a screaming last lap in order to duck under that first heat's winning time of 3:56. But what do we always say here in the electric forest? It's always a good day when you can close under 60 seconds.

>> Oh yeah. >> It's always a good day. >> And you know who else says that? Faith Kipyegon. >> Yeah. And anyone who closes under 60 seconds. Like Sean Janecko trying to make it happen here. >> Back to the green. >> 200 meters to go. He's in the green. He's in the green too because Will said he'd buy him a beer if he can beat those lights. >> Oh boy. >> Yeah. I get mates rates over at the beer garden, so not a heavy investment. But come on, Sean. Give it hell. And it's all Janecko here trying to keep it together, grit in his teeth, coming down the home straight. >> You're tying up a bit that last 50 meters.

>> Oh Lord, get into the line. >> He's trying to save me money. >> And here we go. >> Don't save me money, Sean. Finish it off. Go ahead on shot with a finger to the sky. >> That might have cost him. 3:56.50, so he just ducks under. Heat one's winning time. >> Yeah, but I don't think he beat the lights. >> No, he didn't. >> He didn't. >> Well. >> It was a tactical affair. And he pocketed the win. 61.7. >> He also might be 20 years old, so maybe it was never going to happen for it anyways. Maybe I have a lot of brewing over there in the beer garden. I think they've got some Capri Suns on hand over there.

Capri Suns and orange slices for you, my man. >> There we go. Some good sportsmanship helping each other off the track there. A good look at Janecko relishing his victory. He's being guided over to the living room, I suspect. And we'll get to talk to him in a little bit. >> That's Tom Brady. >> I think so. Tom Brady loves this meet. Loves this meet. Wants to move to Portland, I heard. >> Yeah. >> As soon as we get a football team. >> I mean, I would like that. >> Janecko, obviously taking his time because he knows he has some big shoes to fill in the arena of the post-race interview. So he's working up some woodiness.

>> That's right. Yeah, that is a tough cushion to fill after Dickson's riling up the crowd. >> I mean, we're two for two so far. >> He might be working himself into an interviewing position down there on the couch. Bring Dickson back next year. >> The fans of signs already in the stands. Bring Dickson back. We want Dickson. [ Laughter ] >> So we have heat two of the men's 1500 assembling on the back stretch, too. As Janecko makes his way to the couch. Some couch interviews are more difficult than other ones. Depends on how the ham he's doing or how much might be coming up after that effort. We're going to send it down right now.

>> Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the living room couch. We're here with Sean Janecko. He just won section three of the men's 1500. How did that feel? >> It was very painful. But, you know, he came through with the win, so it was great. >> We have great energy here. The weather is perfect. That's helping you with your race. >> Yeah, the weather was pretty hot. Sorry, I can't think right now. >> All good. >> Yeah, the energy was great. It was awesome to finish off my season with the win, so that's great. >> That's awesome. Well, congratulations. >> And thanks for coming down to sit with us. >> Thanks so much.

>> Janecko's a little brain blasted after that 1500, I think. I think he left his body and his mind. >> I was wondering if he was going to be able to get up or if his hamies would be cramped. >> Where is my mind? >> I'll just stay on the couch while my soul does a victory lap. >> I think he's about to puke. >> Yeah, so not unexpected. Janecko really gathering himself for that interview. And, you know what, I think that might lend some perspective to the fan out there who understands what it is when some of the pros, you know, like, "Oh, why aren't you super eloquent in your post-race interview?"

Well, I have no oxygen in my mind. >> Yeah, exactly. >> That's why. Don't look for life advice from me after I run a hot 1500. >> It is the best time to ask people questions. >> Well, he got out too. It's so hard. >> Oh, yeah. >> It's 400 to go. >> Yeah, he's losing his lunch. >> Yeah. But he had such a strong push from, like, 400 out. And you could see it really caught up to him with about 50 meters to go, but he held it together to get that sub four. And then, you know, the lactic just probably has continued to build after the finish line was crossed. >> Love that effort. >> Love that effort.

>> Oh, my goodness. >> Sorry, guys, we're watching the field in the action. >> Okay, here we go. This is good. Honestly, there's some things I miss about running, namely being fit. But then there's some things I don't miss about running track races. And it's this feeling right now, and if there was a camera that we could get, I 'm trying to not go right now, it would just illustrate exactly what we're able to see. But you know what? That's a great reason to come out to the Electric Forest, come by your tickets, come get in the stands. You see stuff that you don't see on the broadcast. >> You know what?

That kind of pain is temporary. He's so-- Here's your start line, just shaking it out before the beginning here. >> It's a warm day, so they don't need to worry about hitting in too many strides. They're that fine, delicate balance of making sure you're loose but not over striding with nerves and jitters. >> So this race they're looking to go get under that 4:30 mark. >> So, on the start line we have from the Pinto Track Club, Sarah Gayer, who's doubling back from a 5K yesterday, has a second fastest seed time in this heat, but Erin Owens owns the fastest seed time with a 4:34. So, we'll see how they can stack up to the task at hand with senior wave light.

>> Did you call it senior wave light? >> Senior read a wave light? >> I don't know, I just like it. >> Yeah. >> Nice work. >> Okay, the women step into the line. Ooh, they've asked for 430 pace, so this will be a great stretch, an opportunity to really test themselves today. >> It's a great day to do it. >> Dare I say the best, the perfect day. >> June 4th. So it looks like they were stepping to the green line initially, but first Davis told them the white line and then they're off. Behind the line, not on the line. And Portland State athlete jumping out to the front there. Jamie Zamrin followed by Erin Owens wearing that Tracksmith uniform, but she

's representing Victoria Endurance Track Club. And Sarah Gayer behind her. Portland State Vikings here in the electric forest. So defending the home turf here. Zamrin. And coming up to the finish line for the first time, 51 through 300. So this race will establish the fastest time of the day as of yet for the women 's 1500. We're seeing on paper that the wave light was set for 430 pace, this front group of five women well ahead of that. As you pan back through the field, the wave light is cruising along with about the third group of athletes. So these women are out here today running with purpose.

They were about 70 71 through the first quarter there and now it is. Is that Erin Owens taking the lead, tip one? Yes. Erin Owens in the front. Followed by Sarah Gayer. And then behind her, Sierra Atkins in third place. But Owens, two laps to go. Still pushing the pace. And that was a 74 lap there from finish to finish. Let's see what she is at 800 meters and Owens in about 2:22. So yeah, pretty good pace here for first heat of 1500. Pace is hot. And Shannon, what does she got to dig into here in this third lap and what's she thinking about as she approaches that bell lap getting this much distance

on that second place runner. Each step she seems to be accelerating away from the competition. Usually for me it was often in the third lap trying to begin that build towards the finish. I had some speed but for me it was kind of how do I get a mix of both. For Owens, it seems like she's really trying to put in the work and get distance on those competitors. Gayer in second place is not giving up much ground but has a tighter stride pattern than Owens. So we'll see over the last 400 meters, Owens is able to accelerate further. And a 3:17 at the bell and she's really stepping on it. We saw the guys kind of looking around in their races and testing each other,

figuring out who wanted to take it. But Erin Owens just from the gun wanted to get after this thing and she approaches 1200 meters in 3:34. So not slowing as her from 300 to 700 she was 73 and then 700 to 1100 she was 72, too. too. But approaching 200 meters to go now it's still all Erin Owens out front for the Victoria Endurance Track Club. Sailing down from the island. Lucy Brookham has made incredible moves on this final 500 meters and has rocketed past some of her competitors and is quickly approaching second place. But right now it's all Erin Owens with 100 meters to go. Owens kicking from the front here and stepping on the gas she had more to give

and she's fighting down this straight. She's got a time in mind that she wants to hit and we'll see if she can do it. And on the couch afterwards what it was but 4:26 on the clock. 4:26.92. And really in the leads you know since we had we had Zamrin take it out but Owens was in third. The 700 meter split was her at the lead and really just kind of owned that race . And had negative successive negative splits with her last split being sub 70. So one another athlete maybe took a page out of the Kipyegon book. Well what are we talking about sub 70. It's a great day. Yeah 69.9. What do we always talk about though there's the there could be the winner of

the race but then there's the person who makes the race. It doesn't always have to be the winner but I feel like in this case Erin Owens made the race and then she wanted. Made it and then took it. Yeah. So here's the full list of results here. We get Erin Owens 4:26.92. Great day. Sarah Gayer 4:32.4. Lucy Brookham 4:35 for the Rose City Track Club. A local there. Just right back into running running past the couch. You know I'm sure exactly what has happened here but maybe we're. Not feeling so hot getting ready to go do another event. Not interested in a post race interview. Went back to her bag.

We'll try to get her. Well but put an imaginary person on the couch. She seemed very non plus by that effort effortlessly jogging back down the home stretch to her bag to her water bottle taking the spikes off. Maybe she's got another event coming up. I'll part of the day's work. And we've got the we're getting a glimpse here of the heat one of the opens with women's 1500 with the wave light set for 4:20 pace for this heat. So we're getting a replay here as we see Erin Owens stepping on the gas down the home stretch. And right about here it looks like she sees the clock and digs a little deeper.

You saw her go to the arms of cooking that cadence a little bit and just dig. Fitness was never the question. Yeah breaking the tape and style. Punching right through it. So there we go. No need to remind the crowd that she was number one. The tape did it for her. Tail of the tape. So here heat one assembling on the line. In this race. Set to go off next. Here's the competitors in our highly contested hotly contested four by 100 meter relay are making their way across the infield. I see some batons in hands. And we do have the unified four by one coming up which is going to be a really cool event.

That's special Olympics athletes mixed with non special Olympics athletes. Alternating for a four by one hundred meter relay before we get to that. We're taking a look at the line here for heat one of the women's fifteen hundred meter open event. Bruce, Reynolds, Chan. Deswaef, Hawkins, Bassett. Game faces all of us. That was that is a game face I've ever seen one. Beat Castro giving them their instructions. And 4:26.92, the time to beat from the first heat. Emily Pomainville. Cascadia lead on the line. Do you have any more high school athletes in this? Not that I see. I see a nineteen year old teenager.

We had a high schooler run 4:56 in the last heat. There's the whistle. And we're just about set. And we're off here. Heat one of the open women's fifteen hundred meters here in the electric forest . We'll see who'll take the win in this one. Wave light set to 4:20. Bassett coming up on the outside wearing number two. And she looks like she's going to take the lead here. It almost looks like a pacing duty the way she's cruising into the front. But we'll see if it is or not. We'll see if she's pacing or player. But Fiona Hawkins on her inside wearing number three. And then we've got a couple Portland pilots behind them.

Styblova was in the steeplechase yesterday. Fifth place. So we talked about that double yesterday. A lot of athletes love to hit that steeple and then come back for a hot 1500 . The Mason Fairlick special. 8:18 and 3:35 double here two years ago. Go blue. Bassett coming to the first quarter sixty nine seconds. So just under 4:40 mile pace. And Fiona Hawkins behind her. And then Mathilde Deswaef of the University of Portland wearing that purple sing let in third. Bassett looking strong up front. And there's a good pack right behind her strong out. Nobody's jockeying for position at the moment. Seems like a pace that they're all pretty happy with.

Very content to let Rebecca Bassett take the lead right now. I think that a lot is when we're going to feel stressed by this stretched. By this pace here being set by Bassett. But again content to capitalize on an opportunity here in the electric forest. As they come through two laps to go. Rebecca Bassett running a 71.1 on that lap. From 300 to 700 meters into this race. So coming up to eight hundred meters here Bassett at the front. Driving the train heading around the track here hitting the line in about 2:20. Right on the nose. And the pack of five is separating themselves up front. Bassett, Hawkins, Deswaef, Reynolds and Chan.

So we've got University of Portland represented Peninsula Distance Club and Victoria Endurance Track Club up front. I love to see so many Victoria athletes coming down from the island. I make that trip in the fall try to every year. Take the ferry up there you go across Puget Sound. I've never done it is it beautiful. It's beautiful as a site that's in front of you right now. It's five women set to pounce with 450 meters left in this race. I can't argue with that. No, no I this is I this is where I want to be right now for sure. See Hawkins coming wide and going into the bell lap ready to make her move for

the front. 3:15 on the clock at the bell. So now it's Hawkins at the front taking over for Bassett. Bassett In fact was a racer just took a great angle around that start there to get to the front at the very beginning. But now Hawkins getting some distance as they get to 1200 meters here in 3:32. And Deswaef coming by Bassett right now for that second position. But it's Hawkins up in the front down the back stretch. Closing in on two hundred meters to go rounding the bend right where the beer garden is and there's some people in there. Masters miler is enjoying a beer enjoying some miling. But do not count on Mathilde Deswaef looking very strong coming up on the

shoulder of Fiona Hawkins. And it's a battle to the lane of high hopes stretch battle here as Deswaef takes the lead over Hawkins driving to the tape. The Portland pilot up to the front and she's flying heading to the tape crossing in 4:25. Fastest time of the day just eclipsing that 4:26 from the earlier heat of Owens. It's always a good day when you can close under seventy seconds. So get some hugs from our competitors there, teammates. 4:25. The fastest time in the open sections of the 1500 today. If you think you can do better than that show up. I think we're going to see that a little later.

Yeah. Yeah. It better. Stands are starting to fill up here too as we get ever closer to the Hot Window starting at 8 p.m. or you'll see the championship 800, 5000, and 1500 meter races here in the electric forest. Portland Oregon. Track City, the landier. This way of making your way to the living room. We didn't get a chance to speak with Owens but. We will. I think I think Owens had some business to attend to and we may not get everybody after after their wins here but most people want to sit on the couch after they take a victory here. We're excited for the 4x1. Here, yeah, this is a special treat that we get.

We've added special Olympics races to the Portland Track Festival for the first time this year and we're starting with this unified 4x100 meter race that will alternate special Olympics athletes with non special Olympics athletes. And then we will have a men's one hundred and a women's one hundred as well. But before we get to that we're going to send it down to Deswaef in the living room. And we're back in the Grandma's couch with Mathilde Deswaef, the winner of the 1500 open women's. So tell us how you feel in the running. You're from the University of Portland, winning in Portland. What does that mean to you?

There was so much fun. I'm from Brussels and I'm here in Portland just for one semester. And today was my last race and my teammates was so much fun. So the last lap you really unleashed a monster kick. How did you get to that mental spot to really push through that? I tried to stay focused during the race. Like I didn't watch the splits or anything to not get stressed. And at the end I felt I had some energy left so I just kept going. I also just wanted to ask, I see you have like some, your makeup is very like on point honestly. All matches like any lucky charms or anything kind of special. No nothing special, it's just part of the pre-race routine like it's fun.

Well major congrats and you can sign or finish line that we have right here. And then pose with our very lovely champions plaque. Congratulations. Alright, straight from Brussels and straight back. Last race in the States with a win. Coming up on one semester. Look good, run good. Taking scalps. Mission accomplished. Here the fans are getting ready to watch the unified 100 meter. They're lining up, getting set at the moment. But while they do that. So we've gotten through the open 1500 meters here. And now we're at the unified 4x1. Then we'll have the Special Olympics 100 meters. Then we'll go into the men's 400 and that will get us into the high performance

sections heats three and four. Which will get us then to the Portland versus Seattle team race and the ceremony to kick off the hot sections. Yeah, well the Hot Window starts at 8 but the hot section the heat or heat to of the high performance sections. I'm just so excited for the Hot Window. I want it to start now. We've got a lot of fun to have before we get to the Hot Window. I mean everything is, I'm just like we have an extension of the Hot Window that starts right now. The Hot Window, the hottest hot of the Hot Window. It's already getting hot. The white heat is at eight o'clock. That's right.

The white heat. And then it's just hit after hit after hit. Straight bangers. This is like the Doobie Brothers greatest hits album. Not a bad track on it. Yeah, we're getting set up for the four by 100 meter race here. Didn't they have sunscreen over that beer garden? I'm seeing Gutierrez and Kush over there chumming it up. Guns out. I mean we don't have a steeple chase today and the pit is on the outside of the track so. In extension of the beer garden? Oh yeah, maybe we can get that fencing a little further out there. Have a nice little little pool side beer garden. Swim up bar. We need an inflatable flamingo in there for sure.

We can get a gopher to go get one of those over at a target. That'd be great. These are all notes that we can take for next year. Yes. Pool inflatables. Never a bad idea. Easy to repurpose. So as we look towards this hot window here. Let's see we've got, we're going to kick it off with the Track Town kids club women's 800 meters. And this is going to be a, this is a special race too. It's a loaded field. You have to have run 2:01 low to get into this race. And it's headlined by Raevyn Rogers, World Championship Medalist. But here we're back on the track looking at our competitors in the Special

Olympics 100 meters. Getting their lane assignments ready to go. Pete Castro giving them their instruction. It's team gray and team black which are alternating in the different lanes. You have any team name? That's a good question. We've got four teams lining up here. And they're off. Here we go, the unified 4x100 meter race. Brand new addition to the Portland track festival. Hand off secured. And rolling on the outside there. Oh yeah. Team black looks to be in the lead at the moment. By a lot. Team gray giving great chase though. Team gray with a, that was the smoothest handoff I've ever seen.

Team USA could take a note from that. Making up the stagger here. Team black on the inside. But this is team black on the outside here. The last exchange. Boom. Right at the hand. Smack. Wow. And here we go rolling down the home stretch. Go get him team gray. Come on team gray. Chest it down. Oh we got an absolute monster in team gray looking after second podium position . It's going to be a blank. Oh my gosh. We'll see who can get there first. Yes. Team gray for the victory. Oh man. Oh that was dramatic. Snatching the finishing tape. Yes. Good effort all around. What a close. Team gray for the win.

Oh and an arm up. Raising a baton to the crowd. Beautiful. Impressive. Pure passion there. Loving everything of it. Oh and we heard on the infield. The champion said he just kicked it into overdrive down the home stretch. He did. In fact he did. That's exactly what he did. Dominic Toretto hitting the NOS. I just kicked it into overdrive. Oh and I think we're going to get an interview here in the living room. Impressive. Could be a unified interview here. Gather your teammates for the winning for some. High fives around. High fives all around there on the infield. This is great. I'd say it's a hit.

We're going to keep it. We're going to keep that event here at the Portland Track Festival. If you lose it I'm out. Don't call me. Our athlete who went into overdrive also has some really sweet shiny blue spikes. Oh yeah look at those things. Michael Johnson had gold. Overdrive has blue. I think we were seeing a few of these athletes doubling back here. Oh we're getting a replay here on the screen for you. Down the final stretch. And there's the let's see overdrive here. So he's not even in the picture yet. And a good effort up front there. Closing into the line. There he is. Overdrive. Enter the screen.

Oh splits the difference. Takes it. Oh good. We got a different angle here as well. Boom. We're going to keep going. And I think we've got a few of these athletes doubling back for the 100 here too. Oh good. So we've got men's and women's Special Olympics 100s on the track. Oh yeah. No wonder they passed right by the living room couch and only could be caught in passing. They're still business. They got stuff to do. Exactly. Now the last time I saw 100 meters being contested at the Portland Track Festival it was Nick Symmonds carrying his wife. That's right. Oh my goodness. Setting a world record in the rain and boots.

Difficult to watch. Yeah. He was having a good time. I hope so. I hope so. I don't remember the time for that. Was it 17 seconds? Yeah. Pretty impressive. 17 seconds. What do you think Pablo could do carrying you? You guys want to contest that next year? Set it up for you guys. 16. Definitely 16. Pablo. You heard it. I mean the fans. Not the long legs. Yeah. After that performance some of the fans in the stands are saying like that we this is Portland. We need to be more inclusive so it should just be a spouse carry and you can have. That's true. You can have spouses carrying other spouses. Perfect.

Like. We should add that in. Other spouses or do they have to be your own spouse? I think that's up. I don't know if the rules are clearly defined for this event. I think. For insurance purposes I think you have to carry your own. Your own. Yeah. That doesn't mean you're going to get yelled at any less. Yes. You still have to take out the trash. Yeah. I feel good after two kids and all the carrying of those you know wouldn't be a far. Far step forward to go get that world record from the Symmonds. Yeah. You carry in. I'd like to see also I mean that was more of a. That was more of a time trial scenario.

I'd love to see this as more of like a head-to-head competition. Yeah. I'm getting kicked in the back of the head. Head to head competition. Someone's having a spouse thrown at them. Yeah. Maybe that's a throwing event. Maybe a spouse throw. Would you rather be thrown like a discus or a javelin? Back in my competing days I think I maybe could have been thrown as a javelin. I had better core strength. I think I don't know if I could go through the air very well anymore. How far do you think Ryan Crouser could throw you? 77 feet. You're exactly the size of a shot. You know be more like a hammer.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just grab your ankles. If I like I've seen that in a number of Avengers films where someone gets swung around and thrown. Yeah. Alice in Wonderland and the little painting the roses red you know they get the. Oh right. Well flamingos. Yeah. Yeah playing croquet. Yeah croquet. This is fantasy land or track in Portland. This is Alice's Wonderland. This is. Wunderland. So we're getting the men's 100 meters set up right now for the Special Olympics . I think we're getting them a little bit of time settled down after that epic finish. Because they're doubling right back here. They do they deserve as much time between rounds as we give to our pros so.

Saddle up guys we're going to be here for a little while. Pete Castro giving him the instruction right now. He'll be flying down the stretch very soon. We get close to five o'clock here. Portland track festival. Watch our athlete in lane three. He was our surprise late. Speed applying winner of the four by one. See what he's got in this straight hundred. See if he's got anything left after overdrive. Wow. I. I am pumped up right now. Here we go. We got athletes in lanes two through six. Gray shirts versus the black shirts. We got some with the lean start. Get on out boys. There we go. Oh boy. Come on overdrive.

Overdrive looks a little tired. Oh it looks like center of the track coming through. Taking the wind and lane four seated correctly. Dominating. Yes. Hundred meter performance. Great runs all around there. Thirteen ish. I think he cracked thirteen. Yeah thirteen flat. Thirteen flat here. Zero zero zero. That'll get rounded down. Yeah. Yeah it is a 12.993 officially. Got some speed. Alright. Shannon what's your best standing hundred? Probably around there. I don't think I was close to that. And a great partnership with Special Olympics Oregon here. Devon. Did he say he ran a 4x1 also? I think so.

I believe he said he ran the 4x1 as well. Yeah being interviewed down there. We're getting a replay. Did you see Devon punch it here in the second half of that? In the second half of the race distance himself in lane four. Hitting 13.00 or 12.993. He got the lead. He did the start. We turn our attention to the women's race here. We have a long hold of the start line. We have one of our 4x1 anchors here in lane five. Off they go. Three competitors in the race. Special Olympics Oregon women's race. Oh. Redemption in lane five. Got out kicked in the relay. She is out. And lane three. Trying to come back.

Late charge in lane three. We'll see if lane five can hang on. She got it. Under twenty seconds as well. Got out kicked in the 4x1. But came home to win one open one. 19.21. Nineteen forty two twenty one one. And we're going to send it down to the living room right now for an interview with Devin. Hey everyone we are here with the winner of the men's one hundred for the special Olympics. Why did you introduce yourself to the crowd? Hello my name is Devin. Devin how did this race feel today? It was fun. I love doing the one hundred. I got kind of exhausting out to the 4x1 but it was good. So you just doubled right now.

Yeah. Hey everyone why don't we give him a huge round of applause for that. As we go for that. Yeah. All right. Way to go Devin. Doubling back right after that 4x1. And then hitting the one hundred. I watched Devin. I think he had the lead off leg for team gray and you know we knew there was something special there. But I don't know I don't know when we saw nitrous out of the out of the heels of overdrive. I apologize don't know any of the competitors names. But in that 4x1 I was expecting a similar result from the open one if I 'm being honest. But Devin shown us that he was a class in the field.

I think Devin had his eye on the prize. He bided his time maybe maybe held a little bit back in that 4x1 so you could take the victory there. There were two great teams. It is possible that he emerged victorious in both events. Very true. Great day for Devin. I'm suggesting that they executed their plan of perfection. There you go. So now we have the men's 400 on the track here. The one 400 meter race of the day here at the Portland Track Festival. And something we'd like to add in the future more heat to the men's and women's 400. But just a men's race today. The four athletes. Two siblings it looks like.

Baricevic, Max Baricevic and Sam Baricevic. Blake Leeper in this race too. Blake. An athlete who's. We're going to send it down to the women's winner of the women's one hundred. We are back in the living room couch. I think the. We're going to send it down to the women's one hundred. Okay, we're good. Okay, we are here with the winner of the women's special Olympics one hundred. Why don't you introduce yourself? I'm Molly. Molly, how did that one hundred feel today? Amazing. Is it one hundred your favorite race? Yeah. Do you like running in Portland? Yeah. Why do you like running in Portland? It's fun and to get extra exercise.

Awesome. Well, everyone are running a plus. Running a plus for Molly. Congratulations. Congrats. Great race for Molly. They're both in the four by one hundred and taking her individual victory in the one hundred. Why does she like to run? It's a little bit more exercise. A little bit more exercise. I'll say. We're looking down at the men's four hundred right now. So we've got Blake Leeper in the field. Like we said earlier and a Paralympic athlete here. Born without the legs below the knee. So he's got the blades on down there. But secured multiple Paralympic championship medals. He's a decorated athlete and a special performance we're about to see here at

the Portland Track Festival. So we also have Max Parker in this race. And then Baricevic. Max and Sam. So yeah. Blake Leeper ran 45.25 for the open 400. That is that's I mean we're about to see something special here today. We'll see what he does. I think I want to he ran Portland Track Festival last year. And I think he ran around 47 seconds I want to say. So as we both know as we all know the weather last year was a bit drearier. It's kind of rainy. So this is a this is a great day for some fast running and we'll see what he can do today. Blake Leeper. I don't say this from a depth of knowledge that I have of Mr. Leeper.

But I'm I'm crushing through his Wikipedia page right now. Said he made an appearance as a contestant on the fourth episode of the first season of Netflix's awake game show. And made into the last round winning $191,000. Go Blake. It's a good day. I don't think we're given quite as much away today. Maybe Blake's wants to sweeten the pot. Yeah. Bet on yourself Blake. Max Parker there on the outside lane six. And then Blake Leeper there and lane five. So he'll be trying to make up the stagger there. And stands continuing to fill here throughout the afternoon as we are now less than three hours away from the hot window.

And the beer garden also. It's also filling up. That'll be lively later this evening. I think those those Masters milers found their way under the umbrella. Yeah. Under Rihanna's umbrella. And the gun is up here and the men's 400 meters athletes get into their blocks. And no uncertain terms I think that 400 is. Maybe my favorite event track. 4x4 is mine. I agree to disagree. And we're off here. Parker, Leeper. Baricevic, Baricevic. A name so good you had to save it twice. Baricevic making up the stagger. But now Leeper starting to move down the back stretch. Stand close looking smooth. Baricevic.

That's Sam in the right yellow. But Blake Leeper coming up on the outside. Around the curve here. Posing a formidable challenge. They're about dead even with 100 meters to go. Stride for stride. Baricevic and Leeper. Here we go. Who's going to take this down the stretch? Baricevic out in the front. And he crosses the finish line. 48 seconds. We'll see what the change is on that. 48.5. Leeper 49.01. Max Baricevic. 49.92. Max Parker coming in 52.99. So great race in there. Smile from Blake Leeper. He likes it. And then the brothers there getting kind of a hug. Getting a succession like hug. Here's the replay here.

The final stretch. So it looked like Leeper was closing. And then Baricevic had something left. Hits the gas. Able to distance himself and get towards the finish line there. Leeper just getting a little bit lactic over the last 50 meters. Not able to continue the same turnover he'd had earlier. Leeper moved really well from about 250 to 350. Yeah. Or even to that. Back stretch. He moved really well over that back stretch and then just caught up with him a bit. I'm sorry, 150 to about 300. So Sam Baricevic goes to the University of Washington. His brother Max is a sophomore in high school. Sophomore in high school at Jesuit just ran 49.5.

That's pretty dang good. That's 49.5 as a sophomore. He's got a bright future here. In the 800. There we go. Shot of the stands here. So next event up on the track. We are moving over to is. High performance window. Yeah, we're now getting into the high performance sections. Heat four and three of the 800 meters and 1500 meter races. So getting ever faster throughout the day. And we're going to see some two lap events here as they set the cones up for the break. 800 meters special event. You get one move in the 800. That's what they say. Make a count. Well, and it's always fascinating with the 800 because you get these speedy

athletes with their 400 meter abilities that are off in the ones out at the front. And then you get these maybe 1500 meter more or more strength based athletes that are usually out to the back. And then somewhere in lap two, usually around the back stretch, you start to see how those two skill sets overlap and collide. And so we'll likely see that in these 800s today. Some some athletes getting out hard trying to not die at the end. And others trying to close strong the last 100 meters. Yeah, some of these some of these events are more meeting grounds than others between different event groups.

And the 800 meters is definitely one of those where you get the strength athletes and the speed athletes coming in running two different strategies of races. Usually like they have two very different execution styles. That's always interesting to watch. We'll see that on display here as we see Spencer Brown taking a few straight outs down the back stretch. The athletes special his YouTube channel. I don't think I've seen Spencer Brown since last year's Portland Track Festival . Well, he's back with a vengeance for this 800 meters. But before we get to that, we're going to send you back down to the Hayward

Magic living room. Okay, it's going to stream. Hello, everyone. We are here with. Sam Baricevic, who just won the 400 meters. Tell us. How do you feel for that race? My strategy was to get out hard that first 100. And they kind of just carry that momentum down the back stretch and then with about 150 left, just give everything I had. And you did. So how's the feeling, how's the energy, how's the weather, how do you feel running in Portland? The weather is great. I'm lucky to have it like this. Lucky to have it like this this time of year and every time this opportunity is great. Awesome. Well, now you get to sign this.

You can write a little message your time. And our very lovely finish over here. And then you can pose with your amazing woodcut. And we're getting a glimpse of the heat for the men's 800 here. Competitors lining up. Patrick Ballage. And lane number one, Clifton Thompson. The OTC Elite. You got to believe that Patrick has a brother whose name is Ben, who runs the steeplechase. The University of Oregon. The University of Oregon. You got to think it. Yeah. You would have. You don't know too many Ballages. Eric, bike and rude. In lane three, Patrick Weaver, lane four. Matt Pueschner, lane five, and Adam.

Mytopher. Lane six. The first heat of the 800 meters of the day. And this race should go through in 53 through the quarter here. So we'll see some spicy racing for all sections of the 800 today. If the 400 meters is a long sprint, the 800 meters is a longer sprint. It's turning into that. Then you cross almost any level of competitor. The idea that it's anything other than a pretty close to all out affair from the gun. If you think it's going to be any different as a runner, you are mistaken. This is fast, fast, fast running. And it's pretty much always a positive split on the second lap. You know, the long distance is longer.

You might be able to kick it in. On the eight, you're trying to just minimize how much you slow down. As we passed through at about 55 at the 400. So a little slower than the stated pace of 53 that they were looking for. 55 on the, yeah, on that first lap. So we'll see what they can do this second lap here as that is Mytopher out front. Headed down the back stretch. We've got a big move on the back stretch from, I think it is weaver. Weaver overtaken him. And now on the other move, it looks like from Thompson. Patrick Thompson liking his chances. About 1:23 through 600 there. So 28 seconds on that third 200.

And weaver still at the front. But Mytopher not letting go of him. And Thompson, here comes Mytopher again, retaking the lead. That's his move. And can he hold on now as he heads to the line? Is he going to take it? We'll see the time on the clock. 1:52 for Mytopher. Taking the victory. Some statisticians argue that the two second differential is the optimal way to run the 800 meters. I've heard four but that's probably for women. 1:52.5 here, going out in 55, so 55, 57. And we saw that in his ability to close, you know, that two second differential that you mentioned will. He dialed it in pretty close to what he was capable of and he was able to bring

it home over that last 50 meters. And that's a sign of strength to be able to lead, drop back, and then come back and take the lead in the 800. You don't see that too often. As you said, Jeff, you get one move. Yeah. He let everyone else shoot their shot first. He who kicks last wins. As the Great Ron Warhurst used to describe any race of any distance, get out hard, pick it up in the middle, kick at the end. Yeah, a genius coach, able to articulate himself very well. A man of many words. We're all waiting for the biography to come out. You're writing it, right? Oh, yeah. Foreword. I will write the foreword of that book.

Beer Garden starting to fill up. There we go. It's five o'clock somewhere. It's now officially open. I think it did officially open at five. There he went. A soft opening before. But it's Sunday. It's Sunday fun day. They should have had it open early. We got the replay here as Mytopher comes back, storming down the stretch. Overtaking. Weaver. Holding off Thompson there. Yeah, Thompson looked great coming off that turn. I thought maybe he had a shot, but all three men were really able to have strong closes. Oh, look what we have here. In this heat of the men's 800 meters. This is Wesley Shipsey, Central Catholic senior runner up in the 1500 meters.

All right. I'm confused. Wesley Shipsey is wearing an Oregon Track Club singlet listed under Bowerman Track club. Where does your allegiance lie, sir? Where does it lie? I mean, Oregon. Yeah, with the land. Yeah. He is from Portland. But yeah, Wesley Shipsey, actually he is hopping on a plane right after this and heading over to Austria for the World Trail Running Championships. Why not? The U-20 team for Team USA. But the 800 is off now and he's in it. And the time to beat 1:52.5 from the first heat. Grant Grosvenor in here. Never afraid to take the lead. Grant coached by none other than one of the favorites at Portland Track Festival

, Pat Casey. Oh. And he's jumping to the lead right now wearing that four on his hip. Looking like an Ingebrigtsen. Rincon Leopoldo in second there. And that's Emmett Klus wearing the headband from Western Oregon, the Wolfpack. Grosvenor out front. Leopoldo. 52 is what the Wave Lights are set to. And coming through at about 53 seconds is the Bell Dings. 53.49. Officially through the first 400 meters. And now we're getting a little move on the outside from Klus. Trying to do the double pass. Swinging wide on the back stretch. But it's still Grosvenor out front. And then Leopoldo in second. And a horde of challengers coming from behind.

As the pace maybe slows a little bit too much out front. And a lot of guys are full of running from the back half of that field. 1:21 through 600 meters for Grosvenor. And now Leopoldo makes this move. He's been sitting in second for the entirety of the race. But swinging wide on the outside. Oh. Oh no. On the inside. Indoors. Inside pass. Not available. Leopoldo, it's all him. Coming to the line here. Eyes up on the clock. Can he get under 1:50? He does 1:49 for the win. Shipsey comes across there in the green singlet. Shipsey as well. 1:49.7 for the high school senior. First time breaking 1:50.

I think first time breaking 1:52 actually. It updated to 1:50 for Shipsey's final time. So he may not have gotten under 1:50, but it sounds like he did get a personal best. A two second PR nonetheless. 1:50.4. Leopoldo gets 1:49.29. And he appears to be happy with that result. I'm going to make a completely uninformed statement. Wesley Shipsey is going to be the fastest guy at the under-20 World Trail Running Championships. The fastest 800. The fastest in her. Yeah. Yeah. The world was at mountain running or trail running championships. Don't leave it to a kick. A great miler as well. I think he's about 4:06 for the mile.

Wesley Shipsey. Two athletes in that heat under the 1:50 barrier. With Rincon Leopoldo 1:49.29 showing his strength coming down the home stretch. Spencer Brown was trying to get by for that to get by earlier, but got boxed, had to go around. Was it Brown or was it Campbell? We neglected to say in this race too. Coming across a number, you can see in the USA single and we're in number five there. Owen Powell. Andy and Marisa Powell's son. He's a sophomore. His place? He's in high school. He's in high school. He's in high school. High school. He's around 1:50.8. Just ran 1:50.72. And he's run 4:07 in the mile this year as a sophomore.

You need to update your results there, sir. I need a refresh. We're going to send it down to the couch for an interview right now. We're going to do that after we watch this women's 800 meters here. Megan Wagenaar, the BTC Elite. Local favorite. Alyssa Brown, Lane 2, Wagenaar, Lane 3, Brooklyn James, Lane 4. Emily Pomainville of Cascadia Elite, Lane 5. And we saw her in the 1500 earlier. So that's why we didn't get Owens earlier. She had business to attend to to get this 800 double in. And that looks to be. Am I? Pomainville. So maybe we were either we were mistaken earlier or now, but. Maybe she just got slotted into this 800 meters.

And then Lindsay Siebert wearing hip number six, but. Up front, that is Alyssa Brown and then Megan Wagenaar. Shannon, would you rather double 800 and then a 1500 or 1500 than an 800. 800 than 15 because you might get more lactic, but the speed will feel easier as you get into the race and your legs can kind of. Like flush out to the first half. So Wagenaar here moving to the front. And she's a 2:08 800 meter runner, so coming up in about 1:05 there. Well within her abilities. We'll put your your science to the test here. See if it's the two second or three second positive split or if she's going to

negative split this one. She does look like she's moving very well down the back stretch. She's cruising looking smooth down the back straight there. Getting close to that 600 meter line. 1:37 roughly. This looks like it might be an even split affair for us. The Nixon and special. It's all Wagenaar now. Coming onto the home straight. And the crowds welcoming her in. Driving looking strong and powerful. Punching the sky with those fists. Eyes up on the clock. We'll see what it is. She came through in 65 to begin with and crosses in 2:10. So close to that 2:10 mark, sub 2:10, 2:10.59 for Wagenaar.

With a negative split. 65.3 and then 65.28. Wow. Pomainville also with even split, 66, 66. A great day for Pomainville there with the 4:26 1500 meters and then 2:12 800. Getting a little bit of a break but not sure how much rush. And here we got the replay coming on screen as you can see wagoner. Giving it everything she has coming down the stretch. Clocking three one-hundredths faster than her first lap. For lap number two. And putting the arms up. I think you're just forced to put your arms up when there's a tape there. I do think that is correct. Which makes for great photos. It's asking for it.

Yeah, nobody wants to hit the tape at the front of their biceps. So now we're looking at 1500 men's heat four. This is heat four of the high performance sections of the men's 1500. Before we get to that we're going to send it down to the couch with Megan Wagenaar. Hey everyone we are here with the winner of the third heat of the women's 800 Megan Wagenaar. Megan how are you feeling? A little tired little headache but that's an 800 for you. Definitely classic 800 moment. Do you feel the energy of the electric forest today? Yeah like a lightning bolt hit me or something. And you know I was really hoping that there's popcorn in these buckets but they

're empty. We eat it all. Well thank you so much for coming down to sit with us. We're just going to have you sign this finish line here and then yeah you can go get your cool down it honestly. Congratulations. Thank you. All right heat four of the men's 1500 meters. So we got through the open sections earlier today progressively getting faster in the four open sections of the 1500, 3:56.5, 3:56.50. Well 3:56.55 then 3:56.50, 3:53.2 and then 3:50.11. And that is Tate Shenbine, meet director, walks across the screen. We're looking at heat four of the high performance sections which will culmin ate with heat one

later this evening in the Hot Window featuring Matthew Centrowitz, Cole Hocker, Craig Engels and a slew of other fantastic runners. But here we'll see what this heat is slated for wave light wise. It looks like 3:42 is what's being asked for the lights. So equivalent to sub four roughly for the mile. And the depth of the 1500 in this meet is always astonishing. I'm not sure how many this year were entered but two years ago I think there were 43 athletes at 3:43 or faster. So these sections would be the top section in many meets around the world. Each of these sections and it's an honor to be on the line in any one of these

sections here in the electric forest and to win any one of these sections is a real treat. Smartly the starter just moved numbers one and two to the outside giving a more advantageous starting position. Aiden Smith and Clayton VanDyke both with 3:45 personal best to their names. Starting on the inside is tough sometimes because you have the world crashing down upon you after the gun goes off and you have to really put a lot of energy into the first 50 meters which you can't get back once that's been put in the world. And I'm sitting between two 1500 meter runners right now very accomplished. So I will see most of the strategy talk to both of you as we analyze the fields

here. It looks like no one wanted to take it because it's a little bunched at the start. We'll see if they slow even further coming off this turn. But usually in that first lap the positions don't tend to settle until you hit the finish line with three laps to go. And this is another Canadian up front we've got a lot of Canadians coming down to Portland to race. Jonathan Podbielski of the University of Regina. Jonathan Podbielski. Ever so slightly off the tail end of the pace lights but hardened by those Canadian winters. Not shy. So I think a high 62 through that first lap there and look how wide this pack

is. They want to get going a little faster and Nate Riech number seven on the outside is swinging into lane two trying to give himself some space but will anybody jump up to the front and try and take it from Podbielski here and push the pace. The Running Designer Clayton VanDyke they're sitting right on his shoulder was one of the top seed times coming into this event. You know we don't have the manpower here the person power to verify any of these seed times per se but we trust that the athletes are being honest with us and so the running designer their content to let Podbielski push the pace here with 400 or 800 meters to go in the

fourth heat of these high performance 1500 meters. So inside two laps to go here as they approach 800 meters Podbielski still up front the Canadian pushing the pace about 2:04 flat or 2:03 high for 800 meters so I think we're in store for a blistering finish. I was just digging the same to myself that you know when you're getting out in these slower paces where no one really wants to take it early that just means that you're going to have two or three kicks from two or three different athletes who one wants to push it around now and another will get it on the home stretch going into the last lap and then

the back stretch and then the final stretch so here they come with about 500 meters to go in this race. And this is Carter Cutting the high schooler from Oregon he's a 1:49 800 meter runner taking the lead. You can make up a lot of time with a fast last lap in the 1500. We see that time and time again I mean when I was starting watching these college kids run 3:34, 3:33, 3:32 with 52 second last laps and we didn't used to see this in my day of running but a lot of these guys gearing up charging their batteries for a big finish. Cutting is the 1500 meter state champion this year for Oregon and he's hitting

200 meters to go at the front trying to hold off his post-collegiate and collegiate competitors. I think we're trying to pass him, Cutting held him off going into the turn. Affolder making another move coming wide on the final straight away but Cutting matching it to keep himself in the lead and it's going to be a battle all the way to the finish line. It's Cutting and Affolder, Cutting's got the inside and it looks like he can hold on to it the high schooler takes the victory here in 3:46. He raced a really savvy last lap where he knew that if he could just hold off Affolder into the turn then he would have the advantage of the shorter distance by

having the rail and he did that and then coming off the turn he knew that that move was coming and saved enough over that last 50 meters to be able to hold off another charge from Affolder. That is championship racing strategy at its finest, à la Matthew Centrowitz taking the taking the bell or taking the pole position when the going got tough and holding on to it throughout the race. 3:46, closing in 57.3 for that final 400 meters. 87-3 for his final 800. You just love to see it. You'll have to see a young man out here running with intent and just digging deep over the last 100 meters as Shannon was just saying he got contested on the outside

shoulder with another athlete with Luke Affolder who looked great with 150 meters to go but then Carter Cutting just gritting his teeth, going to the arms, driving them up high and finding something special, finding something else the last 50 meters. And that is only the first section of the high performance sections here. Where do we go from here? I think we only go down in time from here but in terms of excitement. So here is heat three shaken out. We get Matt Palmer on the screen there but we're going to replay here to watch this final stretch duel where Cutting takes the victory holding the inside there and it

just looks like he's going to a different place. You hit that high level there and once you hit that all-out sprint there's no going back. How many races do you think he's running this year, about 20? Probably a lot as a high schooler. As a kid like that too who's a number one on his team for sure, sure he's doubling and tripling in a lot of those. 4x4, 800, mile, maybe 4x8, every race, well I guess here they run the 1500. Yeah, so I mean he doesn't have to run all that. You know what that looks like to me? That looks like an athlete that's used to winning. Yes. Yeah, he's practiced very much.

Which is always so interesting and exciting to see when you have an athlete who has learned how to win by being the best in high school or in college and then comes into a new scene but they keep those instincts and as their fitness grows they just can sometimes jump right to the top of a strong stacked field. And we're going to hear from him now. We're going to send you down to the living room with Deanna and Jillian. Hey everyone, we are back in the living room couch with Carter Cutting who just won the fourth heat of the men's 1500, Carter, how do you feel? Honestly that really hurt but it was really fun to go out and compete.

All glory to God for the strength to get me to the win and yeah, this is just a fantastic meet. So you are still in high school. How does it feel to run with the big guys? It's fun, they really push me. Yeah, the pace was quick and I thought it in my legs but it's just super cool to be able to come out here and get the opportunity to compete against some of the best in the country. Well congrats for winning the fourth heat and thanks for sitting down with us. Yeah of course. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Heard a lot on the results on World Athletics. I didn't see a 1500 meter personal best but to your question, Will, about how

much he's competed. I do see the New Balance Indoor Nationals where he was first in the mile and the Lilac grand Prix earlier in the year that we were at, Jeff, as well as a couple more in there so I think he certainly understands kind of where his fitness at and wanted to show up here to see how he could test himself against this big against the big boys as we heard on the infield. Has he broken four minutes? He has not. I don't believe. He can if he wanted to. He's got a lot, he'll have a lot of opportunities left in his life to do it, but that's an athlete that has four minutes well within his grasp.

Number 1091, personal best in the mile that I'm seeing. So here, and we've heard from him and his competitor, Wesley Shipsey, too, who ran 1:50 today that they love these types of meets. Meets like this in the Lilac Grand Prix where they can rub shoulders with their heroes and get a close up view of how they do things and then show out as well. He definitely did that. But here we are. That was special to see. You'll have to see the next generation. Yeah, we'll see him down the line for sure, but we're getting a glimpse of Heat 3 here on the line that was Aidan Tooker, and this heat is set to go 3:39 for the lights

. You've got Cook and Smith. And Bienenfeld, there's Matt Palmer there of the BTC Elite, and Rahul from India. So 3:39 is what the lights are set for, and we've got some Portland pilots on the line there, the purple uniforms. Grant Grosvenor slotting in on the outside next to Rahul from India. Grosvenor will definitely be functioning as a rabbit here coming back so quickly after that 800 meters just moments ago. So the US Championships qualifying standard for men is 3:37 flat. As Heat slated to go for 3:39, the first Heat was won in 3:46.18. Here we go. That was a mess of guys jockeying for position there down the back stretch.

And as the rabbit moves up, gets into position, everybody jockeys for position. But you can immediately see that they got out after it faster than the Heat before. It strung out almost immediately having that rabbit to kind of key off of and make sure that they get out on pace, and now they're all strung out single file for the most part as they pass through the straightaway, the finishing straightaway, going into three laps to go. And Bienenfeld in second following the rabbit there, followed by Rahul. And their sub-60 second pace right now, coming up to the quarter in 58. So great pacing from Grosvenor there, looking smooth.

One of the things I always felt about rabbits is it's very important that they nail the pace, but how they look doing it is equally as important because if you're running behind someone who looks relaxed, you yourself run in a more relaxed fashion. If you're running behind someone who looks stressed out to be achieving those p aces, psychosomatically is affecting the way that you're running, and Grant's doing an exceptional job of pulling this field through the first 600 meters. We'll see how far he can go. But it's Grosvenor out front, and Bienenfeld hot on his heels, looking for a new personal

new personal best today. I couldn't agree with that more, too, that statement, because you key off of that energy of the person running in front of you. We've got the paces stepping off with two laps remaining in the race. So now it's Bienenfeld up in the front, followed by Rahul. They want to go sub-3:40. They got work to do, 1:43 with two laps to go, requires about a 1:56 last 800. So they can't let off the gas too much now, as these two athletes start to separate themselves from the rest of the field. It's Bienenfeld and Rahul going 1-2 right now. Bienenfeld stretching it out right now, came through in about 1:57 high

through 800 meters. And he and Rahul are distancing themselves from the pack, but not totally dispatched yet. Now we saw in the last heat that a lot, again, a lot of things can happen in the last 400 meters, if you have running left in your legs. But right now the two in the front look good. I mean, you can see the stress are going to creep up into the shoulders of Bienenfeld, and Rahul is just chilling in his slipstream. He's chilling right now. But these guys see the lights ahead of him, they see the work that they have to do, and they know that this has to be a fast last 400 if they want to dip under 3:40.

So that looked like it was about a 60, 59.07, 3:42.39 with 400 meters to go. We had Sam Vincent, I believe it was from Portland, moving well with 500 to go. Now they're in third place, just off screen, but closing in in another athlete with a big surge on the back stretch, which we can't see on the screen. Miles Smith. Coming in, trying to see if you can catch those two leaders. They were 2:56 at 1200 meters, as it's still Bienenfeld and Rahul and Miles Smith giving chase. Who's going to channel their inner Woody? Someone's got it coming with a big last 200 here. Kicking is all about keeping your hand on the stove for as long as you possibly

can. We'll see if Bienenfeld could do that here, as he looked like he was rigging with a lap to go, but now he's got some distance and a little bit of room as he guts it out towards the tape and crosses in about 3:41, 3:41.16 for Aaron Bienenfeld there, taking the victory in heat three. 58.77 on the close. And a judge by his reaction, if that's a personal best or not. Love to see a fifth finisher in that race too, Rueben Reina, 3:43.02 wearing the ol' Butter Boys Track Club singlet. What do you love about the Butter Boys? What do I love about the Butter Boys? Yeah. Just how smooth they are. You just slap a little bit of butter on anything.

Like butter? Butter makes everything better. Just sliding around the track like butter in a hot pan. Bienenfeld, taking the win there, 3:41.16 and ratcheting the pace down, 60, 59 , 58. Tough way to do it, especially leading when the rabbit stepped off as he did, but claiming the victory here in the electric forest. Yeah, went, became the rabbit once the rabbit stepped off, but got the win as a result of his willingness to put himself out there. So from here, as we inch further and further closer to the hot window, we're moving from heats four and three of the men's 1500 meters in the high performance section.

And this is now a women's 1500 in the high performance section here, and this will be heat three of the women's 1500 high performance. And after heat three of the women's 1500, we will have our ceremonial Portland versus Seattle 3000 meter race and the opening of the top heats of the Portland track festival. But here we have on the screen, Bienenfeld, kicking from the front away from Rahul to Rahul to claim victory in 3:41 with his competitors in tow. Miles Smith looking like maybe he was going to get it. Maybe he wasn't. And ultimately, you have to come home in second. Miles Smith really needed to unhitch the trailer there.

You could see it sort of pulling in his midsection, he had to reach back and slap that thing away. No sir, no thank you. Get off my back, pal. How do you do that? Well, how do you unhitch the trailer that late in the race? You need to ask Woody. We're going to send it down to the living room to see what Aaron Bienenfeld as to say about it right now. Hey everyone, we are here with the winner of the third heat of the men's 1500. Aaron Bienenfeld, how are you feeling today? There's definitely a shock to the system. I've been running like longer stuff all year, but I really need to get my speed up a little

bit, so that's a good test today. Perfect opportunity for it, a great crowd for it too. I know, I've only been to Portland like, even though I went to Oregon, I've been to Portland like three times maybe, so I didn't race there, so it was about time. So how does it feel to run in Portland again? Honestly, I think it's a run in Crazy City, and I just always wanted to know what it feels like. And today was the day. It was pretty spontaneous. I didn't know last week if I was going to race, but sometimes you've got to be spontaneous. Yeah. Congrats, and thanks for coming down to sit with us, so everyone give them a

round of applause. Congratulations. And Bienenfeld, an Oregon Duck and also German athlete. Oh, here we have Madey Dickson coming back from last night's victory and heat one of the steeplechase. Madey, will you move to Portland with me? Depends on how this race goes. We saw her husband earlier take the victory in one of the open sections of the 1500. Clearly a guy who really hopes his wife nails this and thinks that this is going to be their next home. Here's a good look at the starting line, Ella Borsheim there. One of the things that Bienenfeld just referenced, I do think it's funny for people that end

up down in Eugene, it's very much a bubble of vortex that keeps you down there. The 105 miles to traverse up the highway five, the five, highway five. What do you call it here? A five. A five. A five. A five. A five. You know, seems insurmountable. It does, but like we like to say with our Track Town friends, the I-5's never been shorter. Shortening the I-5 from Eugene to Portland and just making it all the landier here. One great landier. One great landier to rule them all. But a loaded women's 1500 here, lots of competitors on the line, 16 athletes altogether it looks like. In heat three of the women's 1500, which will be the final high performance

section before we get to the Portland versus Seattle, 3000 meters and then our ceremony to open the top sections of the Portland Track Festival this year. Runners to the line and they're off. Here we go. When there's this many athletes, you just hope for a clean start. And some jockeying for position and we'll see who takes the lead now. Looks like Mia Moerck up front, getting some room for herself. And the pace lights are set for 4:15 for this 1500 meter section. Moerck out front here. But it is a jam packed group there. Nobody wants to go single file at this point and they are ahead of the pace

lights too. Another Canadian jumps to the front there, Rachel Mortimer of the Vancouver Thunderbirds. Vancouver, one of America's, North America's finest cities. I couldn't agree more. 68 seconds for that first 400 meters, 67.8. Emilie Girard rocking the NAU uniform, but clearly racing unattached as the NCAA athletes are getting ready for the NCAA championships next weekend in Austin. But a large pack behind them closely bunched together and falling ever so slowly behind the wave light. Well, they got out pretty quick, it seemed, given the pace they had set and I think catching up with them a little bit, see some slowing as the pack widens some of the

athletes all the way out in lane two. And this looks like a 5k pack to me more than a 1500 race. It's the moment where they're waiting to see who's the least patient or who feels they have the most strength. Two laps to go and it looks like it slowed down even further. Mortimer still up front, 71 seconds for Mortimer at the lead as they come towards 800 meters here, 67.8 for their first lap. Now we have a couple athletes looking like they're sick of waiting and ready to move. 2:19, that's Maggi Congdon. Maggi. Big move to get already a few steps on the rest of the pack just as they pass through

that back stretch, now hitting 600 meters to go. And I think Maggi has had enough of the toying with the pace and the pack there and slowing down so she's gotten out front and getting some space, but. Is that Dickson that we see? No. Honestly, a Valor Track Club giving chase. Maggi Congdon's still out front and gaining, gaining distance on the field as she comes to a lap to go and they ring the bell as she hits the line in about 3:09, 1:07 for that for that last lap. Looks like she put in a move as she hit that bell lap giving herself more space on the rest of the field. So she's strung it out through 1200 meters and roughly 3:25, and still

increasing her pace. We have some movement for the chase pack, a new leader. I can promise you that head-on view does not do justice to the gap that Maggi Congdon has opened up against this field. She's ahead by 30 or 40 meters at this point and just continues to put the gas down. She's extending her lead with every step of this last lap here and the green lights are now right by her side too, so she's right on 4:15 pace. We'll see what she could do as she closes down on this final stretch here, coming into the shade of the grandstand here at Mount Hood Community College. Maggi Congdon will be your winner here of Heat 3 of the Women's 1500, and she

crosses in 4:15 on the nose, 4:15.59, Casey Monoszlay of Valor Track Club gets under 4:20 in 4:19.41. But kicking down in pace again, she hit a 70, and then she hit a 67, and then she hit a 66 for her last lap. That was impressive. The way that she just slowly turned the screws, right? She took the lead and got a gap of a few steps right away, so she separated herself from the other competitors. But then over the course of 600 meters, just continued to build and build and build that lead. A lot of poise, a lot of control, and great execution for a win. Really, she put a lot of emphasis on the move that she made after the 800-meter

mark. I think that's one of the things that differentiates the mile in the 1500. When you're running down the back stretch, it's an easier place to accelerate into that final push for home versus coming around a bend for another time. It seems like that 109.5 meters is insignificant, but the mentality of, "Okay, I only have to do this one more time. I have to come down the back stretch one more time. I'm already into my penultimate lap clearly for Maggie that made the effort much more digestible." I think that that's for a lot of these athletes. You see moves being made in consistent locations because they're just trying to

mentally chunk up the races and visualize how much is left versus how much I have in my tank. To your point, you know, on that straightaway to come off the turn with less than two laps to go and start putting in the effort. As we watch, she looks like she's got another 400 to go here. At least she could have gone through a mile had she wanted to. Absolutely. That was an impressive run. I mean, if this is the caliber of athlete that we have at Portland Track Festival and not and not the NCAA Championships, I'm excited to see what there is in Austin next weekend . Great point. Absolutely. We're going to hear from her right now as we get down to the living room with

Deanna and Jillian. We're back in the couch with the 1,500 meters, Maggi Congdon. Oh, I think there's a lot of chicken all the way from any of you to have us. How do you feel running in Portland? It was fun. It was always a little weird like racing somewhere without your team, but I was happy to feel able to do it and race for NAU, so yeah. So we had some great crowd energy here in Portland. Do you feel like that helped you secure the win today? Definitely, yeah. It always helps when people are cheering for you. Well, congratulations. We're going to have you sign this so you can just have it for the memories.

Cool. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. So Maggi Congdon takes the win there and heat three of the women's 1,500 and now we've got a little bit of time before we get to our ceremonial opening of the high performance section, the fast races of the Portland Track Festival. Not quite yet the hot window, the hot window will begin at 8 p.m. But we have the Portland versus Seattle 3,000 meter race for the Cascadia Axe. And as we all know from last year, Cascadia Axe was given to Seattle rightfully . It was initially, allegedly, allegedly rightfully. It was initially given to Portland. But under further inspection, when we went to the tape, a Seattle runner was

obscured by his teammate in the footage and we had to count the Seattle runner and in doing that, it tipped the scales in Seattle's favor and they took the team trophy back up north. Back up that end of the I-5. Yeah, you know, it's really, it's pretty incredible that FinishLynx cameras are the are the only thing that can capture ghosts. Yeah, ghosts took that one for Seattle. So for those of you who don't know, the Portland versus Seattle 3,000 meter race is a cross-country scored race where 14 athletes from Portland race, 14 athletes from Seattle, and it is a coed race where the women start 70 seconds ahead of the men and then the men

try and close it down throughout the race and it's normally a blanket finish. It's pretty close to figuring out exactly how they're going to, how they're going to finish the men and the women lining up. That is going to be coming to us. Oh, let's see, is it six, six, ten. And so we have ten minutes until that, that time. I see some of the Portland, the athletes down in the stands. I love it, I even see, shout out to Tara Welling, some of my old teammates who is a mother of two. She'll be representing PDX. So kicking off, kicking off the high performance sections here. We have some Tracklandia Tifo being hoisted at the top of the home straight as

well as the Unipiper. I hear him somewhere off in the distance. He comes down the home stretch, wrestling the wind a little bit to get this banner up and displayed in its full glory. And here it is, Hail Tracklandia, Track City USA, as we have the Unipiper cruising down the stretch, getting us ready for Portland versus Seattle 3,000 meters. Darth Vader mask, flames. Playing the flaming bagpipes, beloved in Portland, known far and wide. I think this guy has like 40,000 Instagram followers or something like that. Nobody's ever seen this face. The Unipiper? The Unipiper. Unipiper? I actually heard it was Phil Knight.

It might be. Legend has it. Local legend has it. The uni-piper is Phil Knight. He's a man of many talents. I actually saw that in air. You can see the Unipiper in the background. If you look at the credits closely, deeply referential. So we have the Unipiper gracing the track here, getting us ready for the Portland versus Portland versus Seattle race. And now we have our Tracklandia Tifo banner hoisted on the flag poles, and this was designed by Matt Palmer, who you saw in a 1500 earlier, and Leo Chang, designers at Nike , also members of the running club. And you can see the running clubs represented here.

Bill Bowerman sitting in a hot tub, like the Jacuzzi Boys, holding a cup of coffee for Deadstock Running Club in Portland, Deadstock Running Club. He's got a run-trill necklace on. The Red Lizards are represented on the stump, and so are the stump runners with the stump in there. So the clubs all in there. He's got a rose in his mouth as well for Rose City Track Club. And now we are set. The stage has been set for the evening's performances now. Conversations in the stands have ceased. The fans are fixating on the edge of their seats. As you said, as you said on last night's broadcast, in pubs and dive bars all

around the city. In coffeehouses and dive bars. They've been gnashing their teeth for a year now, because of the atrocity that occurred, with the axe being taken back to Seattle. Horrifying, for the Portland people. They have waited one full year for this moment. Portlanders have waited one full year to be able to take this axe back to what they believe is his rightful home in the Rose City. So some strides being shaken out here as the Unipiper makes his way over to the beer garden. Also on the home stretch is a happily married couple. We're going to Portland soon, the Dicksons. All smiles. Yeah, yeah.

If you're a realtor, we'll take a 1% cut. Make checks out to Tracklandia. 3:56 and 4:20 today for the Dicksons. It's a good day in the 1500s for the couple. The high fives all around here. The beer garden for the Unipiper. Loving that. And we've got five minutes to go before the Portland versus Seattle 3000 meters . And I lied to you all earlier, it is the women get an 82-second head start for 3000 meters. I just want to point out that our prize purse is now up to, let's see, $47,933. Maybe someone, some people out there want to tip us over in the 48th and beyond . So that's right, with every ticket sold, $3 go into the prize purse to boost

the prize purse. Portland Track and their partners have seeded the purse this year with $44,000. And now it goes up with every ticket sold and every, every sweet in the pot too . And that'll continue after the race as well. So you can buy a ticket after the performances tonight if you so choose. But that boosts each of these individual event purses. So right now the Track Town Kids Club women's 800 meters is sitting at the winner taking home, $1,357 all the way down to six places taking home, $136. If you really love that women's 800 and you really want to add to the prize purse there, as Jeff said, you can sweeten that pot.

And the championship events of the night of the races that will cap off the evening, the 1500s, the Nike running 1500s, were seeded with an initial $10,000 spread throughout the purse. And right now first place is taking home $4,158. And because of that, we've got a stacked field in both of those races. As we do for all of the hot window races, that'll begin at 8 p.m. this evening. But we're looking forward to a special treat in that men's 1500 as the first, second and fourth place finishers in the Olympic trials in 2021 will be facing off once again. With the only member of that trio, Craig Engels, having taken a win here at the

Portland Track Festival, owning two 1500-meter victories in 2019 and 2021. >> I think we should talk too about the meet and the global ranking, this new system that we live in and the points that athletes need to acquire in order to get a world rank. This meet being a bronze-level continental tour competition tied directly to the prize purse that has been provided for these athletes and it's really meant to boost our sport. And also, as you have so often spoken of, the importance of encouraging athletes to show up and compete for wins. >> And that's something that we like to do. We like to celebrate the wins here at the Portland Track Festival and it

carries meaning to win an event here. Something that everybody on the couch is very proud of hoisting their log round trophies. And down here on the line too, as we look at the 200-meter mark, you can see Craig Rice, the founder of this meet of the Portland Track Festival, and here, laying at, I 'm not sure whose feet those are, but that is the Cascadia Axe. So that has been in Seattle for a year and Portland desperately wants that back . They want to hoist that in front of their home crowd with a victory here in the Portland versus Seattle 3K. It's Kellen Manley who's holding that axe. >> Ooh, he's been practicing that pose.

There he is, Scotty Olbergding getting a photo of him, founder of the Jacuzzi Boys and the Portland Track Treasurer. There's Craig Rice on the screen though, founder of the Portland Track and the Portland Track Festival. This meet started as a middle school meet initially in 2008 because of the proximity to professional teams in Portland and around Oregon. It slowly grew from there. And now, it is what it is today, an extremely competitive meet that draws eyes from around the world. Last year, viewers from 27 different countries watched this broadcast. I feel like there would have been more. There are more countries out there.

There's more than 27 countries. I hear everybody's getting their instructions. The women will start and then the men have to wait an agonizing 80 seconds to get to the line and begin their chase. >> Have you ever participated in handicap race like this? >> I haven't. View? >> Yes. Very fun. It was 3k or 2 miles down in New Zealand where everyone started based upon your personal best. And so with the idea being that if you ran as hard as you could, you're going to be kicking home with the fastest and the slowest people on the starting line. So it was very fun to run people down from pretty much the starting gun.

>> Where did you end up placing? >> If Nick Willis is watching, I firmly beat Nick Willis. And Nick actually got into a massive kick with a local man from Christchurch, which was the fans loved it. Fans loved it. >> That sounds amazing. >> It was fantastic. On a grass track. >> I would love to have a grass track meet here, somewhere. What do you think about that? Didn't you like it? >> You know, I don't necessarily see the point in taking our technology backwards. But it does make it for a fun spectacle. Also to have an appropriately fast grass track requires steam rolling it five days a week,

creating a surface that's flat and then also firm on your foot. >> Oh, we don't like steam around here. Oh, here we go. We're off. >> We'd have to be an electric roller. >> Yeah. A bulldozer or one of those things. >> So the Seattle athletes are in green here. And Portland is in a nice maroon color, PDX on the front. You can see Tara Welling from Portland there tucked into the Seattle group. Amelia Keyser-Gibson up front. So last night she participated in the 10,000, didn't make it all the way. But chose to step off and come back and defend the Axe for her city, Seattle. >> You got to respect that dedication, Jeff.

It's not often that you see someone throw away their own dreams and desires in the sport for the good of their city. >> Yeah, it's her civic duty to do so. So three Seattle runners up front and Tara Welling, and then Theresa Hailey representing representing Portland as well, tucked into that first group. And Sarah Klecker in this race and that in the orange hat back there, sister of Joe Klecker, who is on fire right now. The guy just runs consistently fast races. And now the men start as 80 seconds, has been run this race for the women. And the men will start on the outside alley and then they'll cut in on the home

straight. So here we go, they are one full lap behind the women right now. >> This is cross country scoring, correct? >> This is cross country scoring. So as it stands right now, it's pretty much all tied up with, well, Seattle appears to be in the lead by maybe a couple of points, how many athletes score? >> So 14 per team, minimum of five, five each gender can be in the race. The women start, then men start 80 seconds later in outside alley before emerging races. From that point on, it's first 10 across the line, no matter what gender scored cross country style. >> The first 10 from each team?

>> The first 10 total. >> First 10 total. >> Got it. >> They'll score it that way. Lowest scores wins, $1,400 team purse at the ax and city pride. >> That'll buy a lot of beers in the beer garden tonight. >> It will. So each of the 14 members gets a crisp $100 bill for the victory. And they'll take that right to the beer garden for the hot window. >> The food carts. >> Here we go, we've got Portland man jumping out front there. Portland's got three to four athletes. You can see Julian Heninger, that fourth athlete representing the BTC Elite. But today it doesn't matter what club you're a part of in Portland, it's all

about representing Portland and the same for Seattle. >> It seems at this point unfathomable that the guys can make up 350 meters at this point remaining on the lead women. But we'll see how much to put the gas down. That's one of the beauty of these handicap races. There is no sitting and kicking. You've got to go all out. >> So yes, we're only three and a half minutes into the race and that's when the women's got time. 800 meters reached by the men in 2:11. So they're on a hot pace for 3,000 meters here. 4:22 pace. >> Theresa Hailey, it looks like -- well up front on your right, that is Amelia

Keyser-Gibson for Seattle, followed by Tara Welling and then Theresa Hailey. So Tara Welling, formerly Tara Erdman, accomplished runner. Hit loyal of Merrimout and then Nike athlete. I think she's a 15:28 5,000-meter runner. >> Also great on the roads. >> Oh, she was -- yes, a marathon qualifier, U.S., U.S. Champs Marathon qualifier. >> What the 15K champs in Jacksonville on the roads as well. We've got the men up front here and this is three laps for them, 3:18 through 1, 200 meters for the men. >> And 1,200 meters, and then Amelia Keyser-Gibson is coming up to 1,600 meters here. She has about a 10-meter gap on Tara Welling.

So just a tick over five minutes for Keyser-Gibson on the women's side. >> I haven't done the mental math yet, but if the men keep on this same sort of cadency 66s, I do believe that they will eclipse the women who are leading the women's portion of this race, but the gap continues to grow between Seattle and Portland. >> Yes, it continues to grow. So a lot of Portland runners up front there. Seattle is hanging tough with two runners in the front pack and it looks like one is darting up into that fourth position now, but it's a big maroon mob on the men 's side and Amelia Keyser-Gibson is leading on the women's side for Seattle.

>> And here comes the man. >> Yep. >> And you see these team tactics. You know, Portland will not mess it around. Had their crew out to the front to get a strong pace and only a couple of the Seattle folk in the mix with them. So we'll see who comes across here, but it's all over the track right now and I 'm sure people are out there keeping track of what lap everyone's on. >> The guys seem to be sort of ticking off 64 or 65, 66, they slowed a bit to 67 on that lap and obviously to the dislike of a couple of Portland athletes who have gone to the front now to try and continue to run away from their competitors from the north

. >> And that is Julian Heninger up front now driving the train for Portland and five Portland athletes ahead of the first Seattle athlete at the moment. So you can call them the Maroon 5. >> But the Blazers are out of the NBA finals. Will this make the front of the sports page tomorrow in Portland? >> I think it will, I mean, regardless, regardless it would, if they could secure a victory today. And now we could see some women being lapped by Heninger up front. Keyser-Gibson is on the back stretch and the lead pack for the men are on the home stretch. >> If you're following along at home, the athleticlive, athletictiming.net,

live results here is actually incredibly accurate and not only depicting how fast they are running each lap, but exactly where amongst this field that these competitors are landing. And so as Jeff was saying, we've got Heninger driving the pace for the men with not one, with not one, not two, but four, five other Portland athletes in front of the first Seattle male competitor. And they are closing the gap very quickly on the female leaders. >> And the men's pack is splintered right now, it's all over the place, so are the women. They're spread out across the track. Keyser-Gibson is crossing the finish line with a lap to go, she's hitting the

bell lap right now. And we'll see, Heninger is kicking right now, that's a, that's a big. >> That's a tall ask. >> That's a big stretch to overcome there. >> Keyser-Gibson maybe made a smart decision, stepping off on that 10,000 last night so that she could do this today. >> And she's hammering down the back stretch right now, she's not leaving any of this to chance. Keyser-Gibson's going to be the winner of the Seattle Portland 3K this evening. But my goodness, Portland has an absolute, as you said, the maroon mob behind her charging fast. >> Yeah, they've been waiting one full year to get that axe back, and both

cities have been on fire with commentary about this race. But Keyser-Gibson jumps onto the home stretch right now, and the fans are cheering her into the finish, and she's rolling down the home straight like a ball of fire right now. She crosses the line first. >> Here comes Terrelly pushing Julian Heninger to the outside and the outside of Lane 2. >> Give it a little forearm shiver. >> She probably felt a little sigh of relief knowing that it was a Portland athlete that came across the Portland Portland Portland Portland here. And now the second Seattle athlete crosses, but who's going to get there first?

>> It looks like Seattle and then Portland, but so many Portland athletes crossing right now. I don't know how this could possibly go to Seattle this year. >> How many ghosts will the FAT find? >> It looks like Portland has this one in the bag. We'll wait for the official announcement here as runners still stream across the finish line. >> That's the most genteel call I've ever heard. It appears as though they haven't in the bag. >> They slam the door shut in Seattle's face at this running of the Portland Track Festival. But guess what? That just makes next to your story even drippier. >> So last year, the scandal was that initially Portland, given the crisp $100

bills, given the Cascadia acts, and then under further review, they found out that they lost by two points, two points last year, to come back this year, and like you said, slam the door on Seattle, and it looks like barring something crazy, something that we didn't see on the broadcast. It looks like Portland has retaken this axe and brought it back to Portland for another 365 days. >> I think Keyser-Gibson takes the overall victory. >> Nine, her final time was about 9:24, I think. >> Yeah, showing 8:04 on the splits, but that is not accounting for the difference in start. >> Yeah, so these, that's right.

So add 80 seconds to Amelia Keyser-Gibson's time, and that will be her official time. So Julian Heninger's time of 8:19, that is what won on the men's side, and 9:44 for Tara Welling, but it appears that the axe is coming back to Tracklandia. One full year we've been hearing about this here, all across the city. It's such a fun event that has become part of the tradition of Portland Track. I remember living in Portland, and my husband, and his friends talking about who would be running it, and how they could defend the title, or earn the title, and it's a great way to get some fun and energy and mass participation in these track races,

which can sometimes feel a bit daunting or intimidating, that team dynamically helps get people excited. >> And it looks like we're getting all the athletes from both teams congreg ating on the infield. >> That's going to be a lot of people to fit on that couch, Jeff. >> They're right outside the living room, yeah. >> They're knocking on the door? >> They're knocking on the door. >> What happened to the door from last year? >> I think it was dismantled. >> It got it, yeah. >> They did, that's true, they did take the axe and barge in, 'Here's Johnny' style last year. >> But yeah, this celebration, getting ready for celebration now in the infield

, receiving their cash. Then they'll be heading over to the beer garden, but seven minutes from now we will be going to the high school girls elite mile, but here Portland has taken over the living room at this point. We can see Deanna and Jillian down there, but it is a whole Portland crew here, and we'll see who's the spokesperson for Team Portland. >> Choose wisely. >> You may never get this opportunity again. >> I might get some fiery characters there. >> You know, Seattle lingering, I don't think that they're totally convinced that they've lost this yet. >> They want a recount, I think. >> They won't let it go.

>> They throw in the red flag. >> It's a. >> You asked for a booth review. >> It benefited him last time, so why not try again? >> You only get one challenge in this race. >> Yep, they used it last year, I guess. >> One challenge per decade. >> Here we go, it's a good, see, it's a sisterly love thing, or sister cities, and we're going to send it down to chat with them right now, Deanna and Jillian's got them. >> Okay, we are here with both teams, so everyone is just crowding around in the living room today, let's get started with the spokesperson from the Portland team. Okay, so how do you think the team did, are you guys pleased with your results,

what are your thoughts, little race, debrief, whatever you want to say? >> Yes, I think we're still tabulating, so it's a little unclear how it shook out, but I think given the vibes emanating from the burgundy squad, I think we did pretty well. >> How about you, Cherie, what do you think? >> I can just feel the Portland energy, I can hear myself. >> And we are also Seattle team, so how do you guys feel, how do you guys like running in Portland? >> Oh, I love this mate, I'm very happy that this race can happen every year, even if we lose more than win, but yeah, it's one of my favorite races of the year, so

always happy to run it. >> Yeah, it's always great to come to Portland, the competition is awesome, and it's just fun to put it all out on the track and see how it goes. >> Okay, so we do actually have the results, if you guys are curious, so drum roll everyone, the winner is Portland with 69 points, followed very closely with Seattle with 153 points. >> So, congrats to everyone, you guys can come again next year and try to win. >> Next, better luck next time, I suppose. >> Congratulations. >> And if you guys want, we'd love for you to sign this finish line poster, and then hold up our lovely trophies over here.

And please give a round of applause to all of our competitors today. >> Successfully secured the Cascadia Axe, with 69 points. >> Over 153 over here. >> That would take a lot of hidden ghosts in order to change that result. So I think we can confidently say that the axe is safe in Portland for the next year. >> So for all of you out there, the axe is back in town. Everybody's partying in the streets right now, the city is ablaze. >> It's a good thing we're out in Gresham, because I heard Portland's losing it right now. >> We're losing them up. >> But all of you out there, you can see how motivating defeat can be.

Losing by two points in the manner that they did last year to train for an entire year, come back and win by, I'm not great at math, a million, 94 points, a million points. >> That's what we call definitive. >> As we now look ahead to the high school girls, elite mile, followed by the high school boys elite mile, followed by even faster heats of the 800s and 1500s, 5Ks, and then you're looking at the website like I am, the burgundy, bolded, named races picking off at the hot window at 8 p.m. >> It's getting ever hotter here in the electric forest. So the high school girls' mile is up next, as we get some victory photos here

of Portland's team. >> How about those drone shots, I just can't get enough of those drone shots. I've been a guy. >> Shout out to Ivan there, so we've got a great field here. This is a large or 21 athletes it looks like in the high school girls' mile, accomplished runners from across the west coast here. >> You know, I'll be honest, usually the big fields, we usually see them with the men. I love that there's actually more girls in this high school mile, 21 entries compared to the 20 on the men's side. I think that's wonderful. These ladies getting out there, testing themselves. >> Shout out to the women.

>> Oh yeah. >> Let's go girls. Who runs the world? >> Girls. >> And here they are, we've got athletes from the Stumptown XC Club here, and that is out of Beaverton, many of them run for Jesuit, and notable names in here. Donna Peters is in this race, Maggie Bennett, Allie Bruce, Ella Thorsett is in this race as well, Josie Fale, Amalie Beil, Sydney Collier, Sally Roos, Audrey O'Neill. So getting their instructions from Bruce Davis and Pete Castro right now on the line, but this is a special race for each of these girls as well. >> What is the standard of excellence now in girls' high school miling?

>> I think, well, 4:40, 4:40s is really good. >> Well, 4:47.96 is the meet record held by Ali Janki here. >> The wave light pace is 4:50. >> So we'll see if they can get into the 4:40s, that'd be awesome. >> But later we have Sadie Engelhardt running who just broke the California high school record in 4:33. >> Yeah. She'll be racing a 1500 in Heat 2. >> So we have an excellent field of high school girls assembled here, but also other high school athletes. As we've already seen throughout the meet with Wesley Shipsey and the 800 Carter Cutting and Cutting and 1500, see the young brothers later on in the high performance races too.

And the girls are off and running now, starting at that mile start line behind the finish line and getting rolling here. So if they're looking at 4:50s, the wave light is -- >> 72 seconds change. >> And Emma Bennett out front to start wearing hip number one. Emily Wisniewski tucked in in second place there. And Ella McGillis on the inside. So Bennett, Wisniewski and McGillis and the rest of the pack tucked in there with them. They're ahead of the lights right now, ahead of 450 pace. So good pacing being done by Emma Bennett up front in about 71 seconds. >> Through that first quarter. >> 72.75 is what the athletic timing is showing.

>> I think that's the full oral event. >> Excellent point. >> So they're about 4:45 pace right now if they can hold onto this. And Bennett is gapping Wisniewski. >> Oh no. >> Wisniewski goes down. >> Oh no. >> As she got back up, she's back in there. >> Looks like no harm was done, hopefully. >> Hard surge to make up some space, seat. >> But with that, Emma Bennett is now clear of the field. >> And at this moment, clear those wave lights. Just a great way to judge the pace of a race consistently throughout the course of these laps. But Emma Bennett just keeps driving from the front, looking very, very in

control. So Bennett comes through in about 2:23 at 800 meters, or half mile, through 2:24 809. >> And Emma Bennett has about a 35-meter gap on the field. As they round the bend, and Ella McGillis and Emily Wisniewski back in two and three. >> Wisniewski pushing on the back stretch to try to close that gap again. >> Bennett, crossing in the 200-meter mark there, extending her lead, it looks like. Emma Bennett showing her class right now. As we saw some great miling out in St. Louis earlier this week, the festival of miles from both the girls and the boys out there, and it's a chance for the Northwest to

show out here in the Portland Track Festival on the high school scene. So Bennett, cruising up to 3/4 of a mile now, and you can see the lights chasing her. And hitting the bell at about 3:36. So just under 72 for a quarter mile for that lap, and Wisniewski back in second here. But Emma Bennett has it, looks like an insurmountable lead at this point, almost 40 meters it looks like. >> Did you see she sort of went 250 meters to go, went to the arm, that her stride lengthened even further as she quickened her pace, and she's going to obliterate 4:50 for the mile today. This is fantastic high school running.

>> She is looking strong now. She rounds the bend, and we'll get the camera on her as she gets onto the home straight here, Emma Bennett, been leading this race from the get-go, and now ratcheting down the pace as she was running 71s, like clockwork for the first three laps, and we'll see what she can get here as she approaches the finishing tape. It looks like it could be a meet record, 4:47, 4:47.84, and it is a meet record. It is a new meet record. She has overtaken the meet record from Ali Janki that was set in 2019, Wisniew ski comes in third, or second, 4:55, Allie Bruce, third place, 5:01, 4:47.84 for Emma Bennett

. Taken the high school girls championship race here at the Portland Track Festival. >> A little bit of ink in next year's program. >> Yeah. >> The lasting legacy. >> We'll see it there next year. >> And here we get the replay here as Emma Bennett comes onto the home straight , into the shadows of the grandstand. Looking strong. Looking fluid there. No sign of duress on her face, not really that affected by the race in general. Just ran her own race to exactly what you needed to do. >> Very even split, 72 for that 409 meter lap, and then 71, 72, 71 for her last lap. Just kind of in the lead from the gun and never left it.

>> Great performance there. Took the race into her own hands, held onto it. Delivered a great performance here. Now we move on to the high school boys elite mile, championship race. Aaron Lakeman in this race. Kai Mitchell-Reiis, Anthony Fast Horse. >> What a name. Michael Grossman, Asher Danielson, Cruize Corvin, 21 athletes in here as well. Jeffrey Hellman in here representing Johnny's track meet. >> Can't have the beat without me. >> Before we get to the boys race, we're going to send you down to the living room where Deanna and Jillian got Emma. >> And we're back in the couch with Emma Bennett, she's the winner of the high

school girls mile. Emma, how do you feel? >> Right now, I'm still tired, but it was so fun. I didn't really know what to expect going in, but it was a really good race. It was like some more teammates like last time's racing, so it was good. >> Have you ever raced here before? This is the first time. >> First time. So what are your thoughts on Portland and the electric forest as they call it here? >> I love it. I highly recommend. >> Are you going to come back next year? >> Hopefully. >> Yes. >> Well, congrats. Emma, do you get the sign? >> Thank you. >> And everyone, please give up. >> All right, and we're back on the line here, high school boys.

As Emma Bennett said, 10 out of 10 would recommend the electric forest. >> Shades, some hair down, lots of bodies on that starting line. >> Right on. Some of the region's finest here on the line. >> You got to fall in the women in the girls' mile, excuse me, at about 550 into the race. We'll hope for this men's race, we can have a clean one. >> It'll be interesting to see how they choose to race this one here. I think we saw at the Oregon State meet a tactical finish, the winners close to 55 seconds. That's pretty quick. That is a good finishing kick there, so we'll see if anybody wants to take it

out fast, then at least somebody's going to go with them, I would think. >> The record by Mac Fleet, 4:02.90 from 2009. >> That was a good race, yeah. >> I would say so. >> Mack who? >> That year, Mac Fleet, I believe Robbie Andrews was in the race too, Trevor Dunbar. We'll see if any of these guys can get close to that, 4:02 is a tall order, but increasingly not so much these days, not as much as it used to be, at least. >> After Thursday night, there are now 19 high school boys all time that have run under four minutes. >> I'm having an allergy attack over here, sorry, not being intentionally quiet

. >> Before 2001, there were three. >> Allergy attacks. >> There were three allergy attacks ever. Here we've got Pacers out for this race. So there are Pacers out front, and that looks like Carter Cutting in the second position there. So coming back after his 3:46 1500 meter win to pace his buddies in the high school race. >> Look back to see that everybody's in there. >> Wave light is at 4:08 pace, they're ahead of that. >> I think it appears as though we have two different wave light paces. >> The blue is the Pacer Wave Light, and the green is the, which is just a little bit ahead of that for a week.

>> So coming through and under 61 seconds for the Pacers at a quarter mile. >> There's a lot, there's still, you know, it's strung out, but still in twos, which tells me it's a strong pace, but one of these athletes are feeling prepared to tackle . >> These guys are chomping at the bit. Nobody wants to be too far from the front when the racing really starts here. But it looks like the Pacers are getting a little gap on the field. >> As Asher Danielson and Kai Mitchell-Reiis don't necessarily, oh, here we go. They're coming back up onto the Pacers and they're on the green lights as well. >> Carter Cutting.

>> Carter Cutting. >> Pumping up the crowd. >> Let them hear it. >> Take them into it, Carter. Let's go. >> That's right. Coming in 800 at about 2:03 or half mile, excuse me. >> 61 for that first lap and then a 62, they slowed down a bit, but now it's strung out again with our second Pacers trying to urge the athletes behind him to come along. >> How far is Carter Cutting going to go here? We've got Kai Mitchell-Reiis hanging on him. But now Carter Cutting pulls off at about 1,000 meters, and it's Kai Mitchell- Reiis. >> Aaron Lakeman. >> Local Aaron Lakeman from Tualatin there in second place.

>> Asher Danielson in third place. Excuse me. That looks like Anthony Fast Horse in third place of the Beach Elite, Beach Elite, and a legendary flow. >> And Mitchell-Reiis out front, Lakeman, Fast Horse, reaching 3/4 of a mile and 3:07 low. >> They just put in from Mitchell-Reiis. >> Mitchell-Reiis picking up the pace after hitting 3:07, and the lights are a little bit ahead of him, so he's slightly slower than 4:08 pace, but trying to get back on it. >> Fast Horse trying to move out on the back stretch, and he's taken second now , and he's hoping it can get into first. >> Fast Horse looking very strong right now, as he's trying to get in front

with 200 meters to go, but Mitchell-Reiis, he's not letting him around, he's holding the line. >> When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. >> Fast Horse trying to swing wide, and guess who's coming, Aaron Lakeman coming around. >> You thought he was dead, not yet, folks. >> It's a three-man race, but Mitchell-Reiis kicks again, and this time it might be for good. As we look at 30 meters to go, getting to the line here, it's Mitchell-Reiis in 4:09 for the victory. Putting the arms up, Anthony Fast Horse. >> Fast Horse in 4:09.96, Lakeman 4:11.22, Asher Danielson 4:11.5, 62 seconds dead on

the last 400, so not the craziest-fast finish that we've seen, but- >> But even, and they got out hard. >> Or even. >> I think, you know, that early-fast pace was going to take away some of the sting from their final kicks, but what was exciting to see was Mitchell-Reiis matching the challenges that were thrown at him, not once, but two or three times throughout the race. >> Yeah, just a gutsy finish there. And here we got the replay of the three-man race here. Looked like Fast Horse was going to try to move around, but then Mitchell-Reiis kicks again, able to stay in front, and he gets to the finish line, puts his arms up

after a little glimpse back. I got in the space. I could celebrate a little bit. >> Safely celebrating across the finish line. >> Yeah, always be safety first. >> So that concludes the elite's high school races. And now we will move on to the penultimate races, the penultimate championship races. So heat two of the men's and women's 800 meters, followed by a heat two of the 1,500 meters, and then heat two of the 5,000 meters. So getting faster and faster before we get to the hot window at 8 p.m. And we will have our Portland Track Festival championship races of 2023. And it's been a great evening so far.

We've seen some great races all across the board. I just died a little bit during that boy's high school mile courtesy of the I just died a little bit during that boy's high school mile courtesy of the grass pollens of Clackamas County. But I'm back. >> I'm back, baby. >> I think. >> 6:50 p.m., we're going to kick off this women's heat two of the 800 meters. Pacer's getting a talk from Tate Shenbine, the meet director over there, and a good field assembled in this second heat. McKenna Ramsay, the Pacer, BTC Elite athlete. Or she's a racer, sorry, not a Pacer. Aaliyah Miller in this race, or in lane five, an athlete for Team Boss.

Michaela Meyer in here too, the Nike Union Athletics Club in lane four. She's a 1:58 runner. >> Tells you something about the strength of field here. >> Yes. >> We're off here. >> Women's 800 meters, heat two, Portland Track Festival. >> Getting out of some tension. >> And Michaela Meyer jumping out front here. Pacer getting in front of her, and it looks like Aaliyah Miller is getting into that position right behind the Pacer as they get to 200 meters in 28 high, 29 seconds. So it's Miller out front and Michaela Meyer, a great race, both NCAA champions. Aaliyah Miller indoors and Michaela Meyer outdoors.

>> Fun to see them battling now as pros. >> Meyer a Virginia athlete and Miller a Baylor athlete? >> Meyer coming wide, looking like she might want to be moving, but holding it holding back a little bit. >> And at about 60 seconds they cross the line right on the lights and Miller out front now. >> GuiPing Zhang of China in that third position, followed by Olivia Cooper, and it's Miller out front right now. Looking smooth, and Michaela Bauer wearing that one number and distance. But now it's still Miller as they pass 600 meters, and she's growing her lead right now, looking fantastic swinging around the bend.

>> We've been waiting to see this race from Aaliyah Miller all season. I've been privy to watch her training incredibly well, but has been struggling to put it together in the race of two laps, and here she is, winning by 10, 15 meters as she powers towards the finish line. >> And it's all Miller, Meyer trying to claw her back, but this is Miller coming to the line, 2:02 for the win of Heat 2 of the women's 800 meters here at the Portland Track Festival, 2:02.5 with a great close of 62.6. >> Miller shut the door on that lead from the second that the rabbit dropped off. >> And Meyer putting it together to run 2:03.98, claiming second place in that

race. >> It's great to see when a gutsy intentional race pans out for an athlete. You could tell she looks strong as she took the lead in that second lap. >> Incredibly. You know, I think we're also sort of the time is ticking, right? We don't have a lot of time left before the window of qualification closes for US championships, and so Aaliyah knew that she needed to put a time on the board that was going to secure here a spot as her season continues to improve to get into USA's. We call it sort of like the mark of a professional athlete. You can't go on fire for the US championships, you know, hard to call yourself

pro. So Aaliyah Miller came out here today, ran incredibly well, strong, composed, and I got to believe with a little bit more push from behind, you know, pushing the pace from behind , can go even faster. >> Yeah, she looks like she has more of the tank there, but a great performance nonetheless. 2:02.5, the mark to beat for that top section. >> And now our champion urges victorious outdoors. >> Welcome, welcome outdoors, welcome to the great outdoors, Aaliyah Miller. Now we look towards the men's heat two section of the 800 meters, and it's also a loaded field. And a couple of high schoolers in here, or at least one, Will Heslam is in the

field. Before we get to these guys, we're going to send you down to the living room to have a little chat with Aaliyah Miller. >> Back in the couch, we're here with Aaliyah Miller, the winner of the women's 800 section be. So tell us Aaliyah, how do you put in the run? >> I felt really good, I was really excited to be in the front of the race, and see what I can push from, and it was really nice to come home with a win. >> I mean, the crowd seems very excited, he has some great energy here. So what are your thoughts on running in Portland, and just being here for this race? >> Oh, I mean, it's amazing.

I feel like I've seen these meets the past couple of years. So first year pro, and do what will come to all the Portland, Oregon meets, it 's really special, and it's really fun. I mean, people want to come up here and run fast, so it's really nice to do that for the team. >> Awesome. Well, congratulations. >> We're happy to have you here, so you can sign our finish line here, and congrats. >> Nice shoes. >> All right, and we're back here looking at men's 800 meters, we can see. >> Maybe I was born to run. >> Great pace there, Eric Zwinski there. >> The Iowa Hot Guys. >> Of the Iowa Hot Guys track club.

These guys are in good hands, and as I said before, we went down to the living room, we've got Will Heslam in this, who was the Arcadia mile champion, and a 1:49 800-meter runner already. He's wearing that OTC speedsuit, kids love the speedsuits these days. >> That's 64.3 is through 500 meters, I believe. >> If it was through 400, they'd be going way too quick. >> Christian Harrison also in this race is the Golden Coast track club. He's right behind Zwinski, the pacer, there. He's run 1:46. >> Christian Harrison is a beautiful runner. I've always loved watching him run the 800, but a little bit of a gap between Z

winski and Harrison as they come through 400, but Zwinski is a consummate professional doing his job absolutely to perfection. These guys need to have more trust in him, get up on his shoulder, let him break that wind for you. Christian Harrison's starting to gap a little bit between himself and the rest of the competitors. They're on a good pace. Christian Harrison comes through in 51.79 there. So this is not a slow pace for 800 meters here, as they're still stepping on the gas and hitting 600 meters in 1:18. So something special could happen here, 1:46 is within their grasp. >> Jared Gilley looking for that inside pass, it does not appear as though it's

open right now, but, you know, maybe -- oh, it's some aggressive moves. >> Gilley maneuvering around, but I don't know too much. >> The tires are flattening out for Gilley, as Harrison tries to make his way to the finish line. >> It's going to be Harrison as he comes up to the line, crossing it at about 1:48. >> 1:48.19 for Christian Harrison, Jared Gilley, 1:48.67, Ramirez, 1:48.99. >> As we were talking about earlier, the optimal difference between the first and second half and the optimal positive split of two seconds and four seconds for the women, the five second differential, we saw the absolute utter pain that afflicted upon these athletes

. >> It looked like the last 50 meters or so for both of the athletes, it hit it different times and it hit Harrison a little bit later, but you could see that just kind of -- that's where the drills and the strength work come in to try to -- you don't necessarily do the strength training or really it pays the biggest dividends at the end of the race when your body is fatigued and wanting to break down, it's the athlete with good strength that can maintain form longer. >> Harrison able to stay ahead and claim the victory there coming through 600- 1:18 and then holding on close to a 30-second final 200, but the high schoolers, 1:50.40 seems

to be the number today, that's what Will Heslam ran seventh place, joining Wesley Shipsey, who ran , who ran that earlier today. >> Now we have heat two of the women's 1500 meters lining up, so this is a great field assembled here as well, and in this race, if we are not mistaken, Sadie Engelhardt will be running. >> Did see her walking around the stadium, so she is in the house. >> Also local favorite for the Union Athletics Club, Ella Donaghu is in here too . >> There is 1500, doesn't it? >> Grant High School, and Ella Donaghu is here for the Union, and Ella Donaghu is getting a roar from the crowd right now.

>> And we have Jenn Randall in this race from Eugene here, Julia Heymach, Stanford runner who is now Brooks Beast, Micaela DeGenero of Puma, Katie Camarena is in this race too, she's run 4:10 in the 1500 meters, and is having a great season, ran a great 5,000 down at the Track Fest, and she is a Portland State alum. And heat two is off and running right now. Marissa Howard is the pacer, it looks like, trying to get out front. Micaela DeGenero wants to get out front too, and took Marissa Howard a lot of effort to get out in the lead. >> Marissa Howard, steeplechaser, also a mom, probably just a bit of a different pace

different pace to start a 1500 than the steeple. >> She's -- >> You have to adjust a bit. >> She's safely in the lead and cruising now. >> That's DeGenero of Puma, right behind Marissa Howard, the pacer. >> They're way ahead of pace right now, and that's largely as a result of Mar issa Howard and, you know, fights so hard to get to the front of this large group of women, all looking for fast times here in the electric forest tonight. But as they came through 300 meters, we're looking at a very single-file line which, to me, just has fast pace. >> And there's -- everybody is up in that line too.

There's nobody that's falling off pace just yet. But it is fast, 63 seconds through the first 400 meters. >> You see Sadie Engelhardt in the orange with the yellow headband sitting in about fifth about fifth place. >> Sadie Engelhardt, 4:33 to win the high school state meet in California last week. So flying up to do something special today in the 1500, and has been taken out -- has been taken out in about 64 seconds through the first 400 meters. The field is stretched out with DeGenero, the first competitor in this race, tucked in behind Marissa Howard. And Ella Donaghu, making her way up, you can see her on the outside, tucking

into that fourth position. >> Engelhardt moving up right behind her. >> And they've come through with two laps to go, and this heat two of the women 's 1500, that was the 68, so they're settling into pace now. But we'll see what this pace is as we get to 800 meters. >> Another athlete moving up into the third spot, potentially further, making her move with 700 to go. >> 2:12 through 800 meters, so 63, 69. >> It's tough when the pace slows that much to get any momentum back and to claw back that time that is just seeming to creep away as the wave light disappears off into the distance around the criticalist track.

But the pack, obviously the pace is slowing because everyone is bunching together, coming in to 500 to go. >> But now it is Katie Camarena taking the lead from Micaela DeGenero, Camarena having na having a great season, like we said already. And she's not afraid to take this with a lap to go, and it doesn't look like she has any intention of slowing down as she comes up to the bell lap. This is Camarena up front in 3:04, 3:04 high, and that was a 67.3 for Camarena. >> Rebekah Greene in second, and then Julia Heymach of the Brooks Beast. >> And Camarena storming down the back stretch now, a visible change of pace.

>> Sadie Engelhardt in fourth, trying to stay wide and move up. >> And Jenn Randall now making a move into second place, trying to chase Camarena. na. >> Who exerted an enormous amount of effort on that back stretch, but doesn't appear to be slowing as she rounds the bend. Camarena, well clear of the field at the moment, onto the home stretch, coming into the shadow of the grandstand, here at Mount Hood Community College. Jenn Randall trying to claw back, and it's a good race for third as well. But look at Camarena rolling into the finish line, eyes up on the clock, and it is 4:08 roughly, 4:08.73, a new personal best for Katie Camarena, Micaela DeGenero, 4:11.21,

Jenn Randall 4:11.7, Ella Donaghu 4:11.93. >> Sadie Engelhardt in seventh, 4:12, I'm pretty positive that's a big personal best for her. >> Or I'm seeing 4:11 from last year, so it would be right around her personal best. >> Or 4:13.04, officially for Sadie Engelhardt. Camarena, training partners with Colleen Quigley, and so wins for Colleen yesterday, and the steeplechase, and Camarena today, and 1,500 meters. >> It's like things are going well in that training group. >> Everybody's fit. When you see your training partners doing well, it's easy to have belief in yourself. >> Right. And like we were saying yesterday, we're four and a half weeks out from U.S.

championships, so there's not much time. What we're seeing from these athletes is pretty close to what they're going to bring to the table at that championship race, so it's exciting when you see someone like Camarena have such a strong finish. She took the lead with about 500 meters to go after the pace it slowed, and then just pushed and pushed and got a win by, what was it, about three seconds over the rest of the field. >> And an appetizer for the Nike women's 1,500 meters that we'll see later this evening, headlined by Lucia Stafford, who just ran 4:02 down in LA last week. So as we keep going here, we're getting into heat two of the men's 1,500 meters

. >> Another one. >> Line them up, and we've got a couple of stars, high school stars in this race here on the Newbury Park Athletic Club, the Young brothers, Lex and Leo, both in this race you can see. >> Initially, they were going to have one in the 1500 and one in the 800, but it looks it looks like they both have decided to be in the same race together. >> Once you hear that Craig Noak is pacing this race, then it's hard to stay out of it. >> Hard to pass up an opportunity with the pace pirate. >> Before we get to this race, we're going to send it down to the living room with Deanna and Jillian.

They've got Katie Camarena. >> Hey everyone, we are here with Katie Camarena, who is the winner of session two for the Women's 1500. Katie, how do you feel, I mean, you really kicked it into the final notch at the end, so kind of walk us through that race? >> Yeah, it felt really good, and I knew it was in a good spot. I saw my coach on the backside, and he was like, you're strong, just go for it, so did it, and it worked out. >> Well, we're here in the electric forest. How do you feel about running here? >> I love running here. I just spent a year and a half living here, actually, so it's like a second

home for me, so it's good, and a lot of fans in the stands for you, I've seen. Yeah, I got a lot of people out there. I saw people. Hi! Well, congratulations, Katie, and everyone, please give Katie a round of applause. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations, Katie. >> You can sign us. >> Well, that's so fun. >> I think Katie is somebody who's going to be improving as we head forward, too. She's on a great trajectory right now, and look at that, look at that beer garden right there. >> You've got to be Katie's dog. >> I hope so. >> That's the happiest dog I've ever seen. >> What are we doing up here?

Yeah, Tandy's at home, but I'm very similar. >> So. >> That's a beer-loving dog right there. >> Never been a dog that didn't love beer. >> But we turn our attention to the men's 1500 here, Heat 2. You can see the young brothers there in their matching orange singlets. Matt Wisner on the line for the Oregon Track Club as well, Jack Yearian for the Oregon Track Oregon Track Club, Austin Miller in this race for the Tinman Elite, and Rheinhardt Harrison, too, Oregon freshman running unattached. So this race will be paced for what I assume is, yep, 3:37, the U.S. auto qualifier, U.S. Champs auto qualifier.

>> The last four or five years it's taken 3:38 low, 3:38 mid to get in, but as we again approach another Olympic cycle next year, the dials get turned up on the times. World Athletics continues to decrease the time for their automatic qualifications, and so USATF has sort of followed suit in making our auto times a bit quicker. >> You see Tomas Palfrey there, and everybody's getting their bibs, the pace pirate, Craig Noak. We've got two of the best Pacers on the circuit out here at this meet. >> He doesn't even say "pacer," just says "pace pirate." >> He's got a pace pirate, bib. >> That one's going up the garage.

Elias Schreml there for the University of Arkansas. There's Rheinhardt Harrison and the Young brothers, Lex and Leo. Leo has run 3:39 for the 1,500 already. I believe he did that down at The Ten in the 1,500 meter race there. >> Yeah, finishing right in the heels of Casey Comer. >> There it is. >> He can run Baltimore distance. >> In good company. Austin Miller was in that race as well for the Tinman Elite, and he's back on the line today. So a lot of these guys have seen a lot of each other. We've got the striped singlets of the Oregon Track Club with Jack Yearian and Matt Wisner coming up from Eugene.

When you're down in Eugene, it's always a good time to come up, take the trip to visit Portland. Big City. Bright lights? >> Bright lights, big city. >> If you're a wealthy person, you could take the flight from Eugene to Portland. I wouldn't recommend it. You got just popping a podcast and drive up I-5. It's shorter than it's ever been. >> It's never been shorter. >> The men coming to the line right now, they're off. >> Paced for 3:37 here, this will be a very interesting race to see what these guys can do. The young brothers, after their high school season, of which they've run a bunch of professional

meets already. >> Gosh, the beautiful beachy flow of Elias Schreml and Matt Wisner there compliment each other so beautifully in this fading sun, Sunday night. >> That hog emblem on the chest elicits a lot of feelings amongst people from the south. >> But here we go, perfect pacing by the pace pirate here, right on the blue lights. >> We expect nothing less. >> Jensen Johnson, if I'm not wrong, was a victor at the Portland Track Festival last year. I feel like maybe I'm projecting. >> Maybe. >> Maybe I'm projecting to this year. >> We'll see 57 seconds through 400 meters. >> And they're sticking right with the pirate up there, pirate trying to steal

a few seconds for the group. >> One of the young brothers, mid-pack, and the other at the back, see how things play out in the next lap or so. >> That's Leo Young tucked in in the front behind Matt Wisner with the long flowing blonde hair, the Oregon track club uniform. But some jostling up front as there's a bit of a gap behind Schreml and pace pirate comes through where he's supposed to be, but the guys have to jump on the pace about through where he's supposed to be, but the guys have to jump on the pace about 58.8 from finish line to finish line. I'm coming up to 800 meters now in 1:56 for Schreml in the Hogs uniform and as

Liu, the Chinese athlete behind Schreml, pace pirate goes through a thousand meters nicely for the guys. >> That's huge for athletes to have a pace for a thousand meters. >> And Schreml swinging around the bend as you've got the Tracklandia Tifo in the background and then Liu behind him. And we're coming up to the bell lap as Liu comes across and passes Schreml with 2:41 on the clock. So they've got some work to do in this final quarter. They want to get to that 3:37 mark, but it's very possible that they do so. >> We've seen crazier things the last two days, but they're really going to have to

get on their horse here down the back stretch. >> Kumar Saroj in second there behind Liu. And then Jensen Johnson. And now there's some action on the outside. >> Leo Young tried to make a move on the outside and encountered a bit of traffic. . Matt Wisner trying to make moves around the outside, but it's all Liu of China right now. >> Is this still Liu and Saroj? And then it looks like Rheinhardt Harrison trying to make a move on the outside to pass Liu and Matt Wisner coming up on him as well. Harrison, Wisner, Liu, who is it? It looks like Matt Wisner at the line. >> But Matt Wisner waiting for the winner for the win.

>> Down goes Harrison, flat on the track, Harrison able to get third still and duck under 3:40 running 3:38.9, Wisner 3:38.82. He's got the top time of the day, heading into the Nike Running Men's Championship race this evening. >> That'll close out the night, strong close from Wiesner. >> Look at this, nine athletes under 340 in this race. Look at that lob. >> Leo Young, 3:39.87 in ninth place. >> Just missing that 3:37 mark that they had set as the goal, but strong finishes. Link it for those top three. >> For a high schooler to be running 3:39 from March at The Ten to 3:39 now, that consistency is

impressive. >> Here's the stretch battle. >> It predicts a personal best coming at some point. Maybe we might not get it this year, but perhaps soon. >> Wisner eeks out the win. >> Liu gets second place narrowly and then Harrison drops to the deck. >> That one looked like it hurt. >> 3:39.9. >> It's going to sting in the shower later. >> Yeah, that rubber is unforgiving. But here we're getting a glimpse of the fans lining up, getting ready for that action in the hot window, coming up shortly, starting at 8 p.m. >> We've got 45 minutes till showtime, a 3:38.8 in that second heat of the men's 1,500.

And Will, you said 3:38, has made it into the USA's recent time. >> Pretty consistently for the last four or five years. So hopefully, yet another successful Portland Track Festival for a handful of guys in that second heat of the high performance 1,500. >> So 1,500's in the books until we get to our premier events at the end of the schedule. And next up, we have the women's 5,000-meter run, heat two of the high performance races. Local athletes in this one, you've got Kaitlyn Peale for the BTC Elite. She's a U.S. championships, U.S. marathon championships qualifier. And also, Secretary on the board for Portland Track.

Harry Mack in this race as well. And it looks like Sage Brooks is jumping back into this one. Sage Brooks, we saw last night wearing her. Oh, look in the stands here, and we've got Mr. Blankenship. And Blankenship after his 10,000-meters last night. >> Blankenship is so cool. Looking great. >> No one's cooler than Ben Blankenship. >> Taking in the scene, enjoying some track here in Portland. Getting ready for a women's 5,000. Here we are. Before we get to this women's 5,000, we're going to send you down to the living room with Deanna and Jillian. They've got Matt Wisner. >> Hello, everyone. So we are with the winner of session two for the men's 1500, Matt Wisner.

Matt. I mean, that race was pretty wild. At the very end, you very narrowly got that win. So how do you feel? What was the race strategy? >> I knew I had it. [ Laughter ] >> Yeah, I guess I came into the race with the goal of, like, trying to win. If I didn't win, it was going to be a failure, except backwards. Failure. Yeah. I didn't feel that good, and I tried my best to, like, give a real serious effort. And, yeah, I don't know, I thought I was quitting a couple of times, but I pulled out, I guess. >> How many times have you tried to quit? >> Once before the race started, once on the starting line, once it, like, 800

in, and then from there I was like, all right, let's just finish this thing up. >> Okay, so you're Oregon Track Club, and this is probably exciting because there's lots of fans for you today, so do you have anything to say to your crowd? >> Yeah, I mean, this is my first year being on OTC, but it's kind of been a vibe. I like the stripes, helped design the singlet, self-servingly. Yeah, that's all I got to say. >> Well, you guys, you can sign this finish line right here. >> Thank you, Matt Wisner, for that. Thank you for the speech in the living room and the singlet. >> It's a vibe. >> Race in us with your presence.

We've got the women's 15 or 5,000 meters on the track here, heat two, and glimpses of the stands here at Mount Hood Community College. This year's Electric Forest, the setting for the Portland Track Festival, as the sun begins to go down and give us a little bit more shade here, prolong that shadow over the infield. Shadows are getting longer, races are getting hotter, races are getting a little longer here with 12 and a half laps on the track, too, for the next couple before we get to the hot window, and the beer garden is filling up as well, right at the start of the 5, 000 meters. Like the frosty brews there, pouring, that garden is filling up.

>> Are you a Portland state poet? Will? >> I'm a Portland state poet. Yeah. True bard. >> We get a glimpse of the start line here. Ally Ginther, the Vancouver Thunderbirds, Kaitlyn Peale, BTC Elite, Kelsey Sw enson, Jessica Gockley, Kerry Mack, Wazelle Little Wing Athletics, straight out of Bend. And Casey Monoszlay is jumping back into this, I think we saw her in an earlier section of 1500. >> Why not? You're out here. Might as well. >> There's still races to be run. Madison Heisterman in here, too. >> Unless somehow you have a track at home, might as well use the one out here. >> We got one for you.

>> We got one. Come run. >> And we've got a pacer in this race, too. It looks like Caroline Austin. >> Steeplechasing fame. She's a 9:46 steepler. >> 5,000 meters, section two. She's Ginther up there wearing one on her chest. Kaitlyn Peale on the outside and about, oh, call it fifth position. >> The green lights are going 16 minutes. >> And this pace is set for 16 minutes in this 5,000 here. >> We can see the pace lights set on the screen. Pace lights courtesy of Pre Classic as we look towards Pre Classic September 16th and th and 17th. The Diamond League final down in Eugene, Oregon. Just an hour and 40 minutes here down the road, but the I-5 has never been shorter.

All the fans in the stands here today will be taking the trip down to Eugene, fill up Hayward Field, fill it up, come down, pack stands or fun stands for both the US championships July 6th through 9th and the Pre Classic Diamond League final September 16th, 17th. Get your tickets now, TrackTown USA. >> Shout out to TrackTown. And when you're down there, go visit the Fast Forest or -- I don't know if it's a fence a fence on it? >> Yep. >> And the electric forest here competing, the Fast Forest commemorating every American American man that's broken four minutes in the mile and woman who broke 4:32.

>> Or 4:30. >> Or 4:30. >> Or 4:30. >> There's some controversy surrounding that, but -- >> It's not my forest. I don't have a lot to say about that. >> The number they chose? >> Yep. >> Now you can always go back. And then you don't look back in anger. >> Okay. >> Our ladies strung out on the back stretch, a couple minutes into this race, the pace are still in. >> The pace are in as they approach 800 meters here, pace is set for 16 minutes and 5k and they come through at about 2:33, right on the lights. So Caroline Austin still pacer out front and Ally Ginther, the Vancouver Thunderbirds in birds in

second. Kelsey Swenson in third. And you can see Kaitlyn Peale wearing the BTC Elite singlet, third from the back. >> It's nice to see meet management clustering a group of ladies together, all with similar goals in mind today, all obviously getting the memo to wear black as well. >> A lot of coordination. Getting it very easy to, you know, tell athletes apart. The one in the black. >> It's a stylish outfit. Austin still in front as we're moving down here, down the back straight with the food cart village, flanking them and rolling up to 1200 meters. That is Kelsey Swenson wearing our number three there behind Ally Ginther.

And Austin is on the pace lights, on the green pace lights there. The pack is slightly off of them at the moment, except for 16 minutes. And after this race, we'll have the men's 5000 meters, heat two, before we close out the penultimate section of the evening, and then we head straight into the hot window from there at 8 p.m., and you'll want to be in your seats for that. >> Go to the bathroom, get your snacks, get your drinks, nonstop action. >> Here are these women cruising around in the first mile. >> Approaching that 1600 meter mark, we'll get you that split when they come across it. >> Caroline Austin doing a great job pacing out front.

Knowing where the women are seems that she's a little bit off the pace lights right now, but gauging what these women want. >> How high the weight of the 1600 meter mark? >> So as a pacer, you have the prescribed pace, but then you also have to gauge whether athletes are going with you or not. >> Yes. >> It's always a difficult thing to do. It's tough to, you know, you could slow down, does the athlete just not feeling it, and they just keep that gap formed and, you know, trying to gauge what it is that they need from you, because really the goal of that pacer is to support the athletes to achieve

a successful outcome. >> I think one of the things the pacer has done well in this is a couple of different times she's slowed to minimize the gap between herself and the first finisher here, Ally Ginther, and then has visibly increased the pace, sort of like going back to the pack to come out and come with me. Let's go, let's go, let's go get back up to these lights, but it's a tactic that I very much appreciate because if she's out there running by herself, it's not productive for these women. >> And as Shannon mentioned at the top of the broadcast, a few hours ago at least, the peak exposure to whatever breeze there is is taking place sort of in the middle

of the back stretch, and so, you know, it behooves these women to be as close to the p acer as possible to maximize a wind-blocking potential that she can provide for them. >> It's 6:28 covered 2,000 meters at that start line, 200 meter mark, so they're coming up to 2,200 meters here as they approach the finish line, Caroline Austin's still out front doing a great job pacing, and Kaitlyn Peale has moved her way into that first competitor's position. >> Kaitlyn Peale, University of Michigan grad as well, cross-country all- American. Go blue. >> Sure. >> Cares not for World Athletics regulations when it comes to footwear choices.

>> She's hitting the roads now. >> Good. The tartan road, if you will. >> She's hitting nice purposes. >> The tartan, yeah, the long red tartan road here. >> The never ending tartan road, just loop after loop. >> It ends when you stop. >> There we go. >> Yeah, she's turned her attention to the marathon now and is training more for that as she's made, already made the U.S. champs, it'll be in Disney World in Orlando. >> Our dreams are made. The happiest place on Earth. >> The electric kingdom. >> So Caroline Austin's still out front pacing these women as they're running about 77-78 pace through these laps.

And coming up to 2,600 meters here, 8:25, Kaitlyn Peale running another 77.6, and now she's out in front with Jessica Gockley. >> Six laps remaining in this race, so now, now's when the action will be starting soon. Not that it hasn't been, but the drama, perhaps, I should say, will be starting soon. >> Yeah, now we know the contenders and they're starting to separate themselves and make their intentions known to each other and to the crowd as Kaitlyn Peale is driving the train here with Jessica Gockley on her heels, looking to stay there. Kelsey Swenson in that third pack with Ally Ginther and Madison Heisterman.

Sandra Kilmartin of the Vancouver Thunderbirds back there as well. Kaitlyn Peale, this is all her now, as she approaches 3,000 here. >> Gockley on her like Velcro. >> 3,000 meters reached in about 9:43 for Kaitlyn Peale, and that was a 78.4 there. So, a drop in pace from the 77s that they had been running, and maybe Gockley will think about taking the lead at some point here, or she might be just content to stay about taking the lead at some point here, or she might be just content to stay on Kaitlyn Peale if she likes the 78-second laps. >> She looks like she wants to run up on her. >> Yeah, you have to say she's moved, visibly moved to the outside, but Kaitlyn

Peale doesn't like that move. Kaitlyn Peale still wants the front here, and 3,200 meters, 10:23, it looks like . So a great time at 3,200 meters for high school girls out there, and they've got over a mile to go still. >> Once they cross the finish line, four laps. >> She's starting to show this effort on her face, the head going back and forth, you can see a little bit of a grimace through the forehead, but it doesn't appear to be slowing down. >> Peale's a marathoner, she likes the pain cave. >> Well, she's deep in it right now. >> In approaching the finish line here, so 3,400, that was a 79.09, 11:02, so we

're dropping in pace now, or raising, 77, 78, and then 79, but Gockley still content to sit on Kaitlyn Peale at the moment. >> You're watching Gockley as an outside observer, she looks like she could take the lead, but every time she comes up on Peale, Peale searches a bit, and Gockley hasn't gone up with the confidence of like I am passing now. We're still, as we said, just three and a half laps until the finish. >> Peale, still in front here as they pass the Tracklandia Tifo banner, raised up there on the outside. We're in the shadow of Mount Hood here, Mount Hood Community College, on a clear sunny day

so you could see it perfectly driving over here. >> It was beautiful. >> Looks like the paramount mount. >> Yep. >> Kaitlyn Peale here, still in front with Jessica Gockley, passing the lead. >> Gockley at this point, just going for the win. >> Pulling up on her side, and now Gockley takes the lead. >> And the coach wants to tell me if you're going to pass, pass with authority, if that person doesn't think that they have any chance of sticking with you. >> It seems like that's what Gockley is attempting to do at this moment, but TBD if it's successful as Kaitlyn Peale is fighting back, not giving her an inch.

>> 79.06 for Gockley on that last lap, and they're inside three laps to go right now. Gockley trying to distance herself from Kaitlyn Peale, but Peale staying close down the back stretch as they go by the beer garden. Two and a half laps to go, now 1,000 meters left, 4K and about 13:02. >> Starting to get a bit of separation for the first time with Gockley pulling away from Peele. She had battled on the back stretch, didn't want to let her go, but looks like She had battled on the back stretch, didn't want to let her go, but looks like Gockley may have pushed just a little bit more, and Peale has fallen back now, about 10

meters. Gockley looking strong now, sensing the finish, getting up to 800 meters remaining as she approaches the finish line here. Two laps to go. We'll see what the split is. So that was 4200 meters, another 79.08 for that lap, so slowing again, Kaitlyn Peale is slowed, another two seconds for an 81, 13:42, but this is all Gockley out front now, inside two laps to go. >> We have Ginther and Heisterman working together in third and fourth with their sights on Peale trying to see if they can maybe close down on her over the last 650 meters of the race as it probably just pulls and pulls further away.

>> We've got some tracksters hocking down a roadster right now. >> That is Ginther wearing number one right behind Peale, and now we're getting a glimpse of Kelsey Swenson, but here we've got back Jessica Gockley coming on 500 meters to go in this heat two of the women's 5,000 tonight. >> She looks great, she looks strong, her cadence is quick, rolling up to the line on a pleasant evening here, Portland, Oregon, and she hits the bell with 14:58, 76.2 fastest lap of the race for her so far. >> Her entry time 16:14, so if she had a 74 quicker, 73 quicker, she could be besting that 16:14 that she entered with.

>> So she ratcheted it down to 76, she can charge us down the back stretch, and now she's just pouring it on, giving it everything she has. >> The beer garden loves it, it's noticeable out there, as she approaches 200 to go. She's missing the clock, so she knows what she has to do. Rounding the bend here, 150 to go, she passes the steeple pit, and now. >> And in our back Peele has been passed, we have Ginther, and Eisterman in second and third, but it's all Gokley now coming home with about 50 meters remaining. >> Gokley on the home straight, crowds giving her an applause as she comes toward the finish

here, 16:14 was her seed time. >> Well under that. >> And with the arms up, 16:10 at the finish, taking the win at the tape. >> 16:09, in fact, getting under that 16:10. >> 71 seconds for the last lap, Jessica Gockley takes the win 16:09, here in the electric forest, Heisterman comes through in second, 16:20, Ginther, 16:24, Kaitlyn Peale, 16:33, 65, after doing the lion's share of that work early on in the race, after some great pacing by Caroline Austin. >> And there she is, Jessica Gockley, your winner of Heat Two of the Women's 5, 000 Meters. Feeling good out there. >> Yeah, you know, she looked from six, seven laps to go.

Like she had the potential, she could have a definitive finish. I think, you know, she was waiting a bit till she felt like she could wrap her head around the, what was left, being a Vancouver athlete, you know, maybe thinking of it in terms of a K to go, she definitely then started to put in a surge with around a K left in the race. >> Yeah, and here she is coming down the stretch again as we look at the replay . Arms up, breaking the tape. No better feeling than that. Break the tape here in Portland. >> Worth the price of admission. >> Absolutely, and now, getting settled there with the coach, going over splits

after the race, and we get a look at the men's field, the Heat Two of the 5,000 Meters here. The last event of the evening before we get to the 8 p.m. hot window with the championship 800, 5,000 and 1,500 Meters here this evening, what the crowd has come out for. And we get a glimpse of the competitors here, Chase Howard at the Bowerman Track Club elite. Alejandro Diaz, Jamar Distel, Aiden Smith, Riley Moore, Evan Jenkins, Jaret Carpenter. >> My fellow friends, I have to head out for the night. I will be tuning in en route to the airport, but it's been a pleasure spending the night with you tonight.

I will be very excited for this hot window as will you, but in the meantime, we get to enjoy this men's 5K signing off. >> And thank you, Shannon. >> Bravo, Shannon, thank you. Make sure to hit her with the clapping emoji in the comments section below. >> We got to get comments this year. >> We do? >> No. >> No. >> I don't care what anybody says. >> There is a comment section, it's called Twitter, and you should never go there. >> It's a terrible, terrible place. >> But here we go. Heat two of the men's 5,000 Meters. If you hate yourself and you just weren't sure, go on Twitter. >> They've got at least 13 minutes and 50 seconds, I would say, that they don't

have to be on Twitter for now. >> But here Tate Shenbine gives them their instruction. Meet director there. We're in the Great Portland Track Festival shirts this year. Pete Castro, the official, lining them up. >> Tate's a sub four, guys, isn't he? >> I don't think so. >> I thought he rents up for a light couple of years ago, maybe as close. >> That was -- you're thinking of Liam Mayrow. >> I'm thinking of every guy with a mustache. >> Yeah, that's -- >> If you have a mustache, I think you've broken four minutes in the mile. >> So the pace lights provided by Pre Classic here are set for 13:50, that'll be the green

the green light. >> Is the pace pirate back in action? >> I don't see him out there. I know the pace pirate will be pacing Hot Window races later, so he's saving his legs right now. >> Yeah, great warm up for him. >> He's got to get some wind in his sails. >> It's a pollen in his hair. To those who care, I'm still struggling here incessantly with this delightful grass pollen. If anyone knows of someone in the stands who has Claritin or Zertech or Allegra , I will take it. No questions asked. >> Just throw it up here. >> I'm retired. I'll take whatever you got. >> But it is a big field here, assembled for the 5,000 for heat 2.

There's 22 men on the line. And they're off here. So other notable racers, Sean Davidson of Hoka Aggie running club. Saw his teammates race the steeplechase last night. >> Wow. >> And Leo Daschbach in there. >> Just wow. >> Yes, Will. What's the wow? >> You're not seeing this wow? >> Okay. I know what the wow is, but you can go ahead and tell him. >> If you're somehow missing this, if you're somehow missing this, it's Davonte Jett-Reynolds from Adams State who has the flowiest, most beautiful. I think it's an ombre mullet combined with aviator sunglasses. Now that is, to quote Matt Wisner, it's a vibe.

>> It's a vibe. That's a winning look out front and he's tucked in on the rabbit right now if that is in fact a rabbit. >> Is that a rabbit or a sub four guy? There's a rabbit because his bib says pacer. >> There's a sub four guy because he has a mustache. >> That's the sub four look now, huh? Well, what does this look? >> This look is incredible. >> So the Incredibles are on the wave light pace here set for 1350 and you can see the lights on their inside and coming up to the line here at 600 meters into 5,000. Pace is 66.1. >> Pilot's are crushing right now. Pilot did not love what was gone on the back of this pack.

Wanna be very much near the front of the plane. >> There's Jonas Gertsen up there. We're in the purple pilot singlet with Davonte Jett-Reynolds behind him still. Travis Feeny, Jack Scherer, rolling around the bend here, getting things going . Heat two of the 5,000. Good evening of racing here in the electric forest at the Portland Track Festival. And the guys are all strung out nicely right now. There's a good rhythm to the pack. They're on the pace lights. >> Just chilling out. Got a lot of running to do. Turn your brain off. Try and use as little extra energy as you need to. Get the laps off one by one.

We had a lot of 5K to talk through last night. You could make it through a mile and a half, two miles of a 5K. Without the effort creeping up too much, you were going to be in a good position. >> They're still rolling 66 lows as they come up to 1,200 meters now on the back stretch, passing the beer garden and 3:18. So 66s, 66s, 66s officially, and you've got the young brothers doing their cool down on the infield. What do you think? >> Mama Young cooks. >> I have no idea. >> Whatever it is, special. >> I'll Bill Walton, kind of comment on the broadcast here. >> I don't know. You've got -- these boys are absolutely incredible.

>> They are. >> What goes in is what comes out. >> She's feeding him right. >> Yeah. >> Great job. They've got a fast older brother and Nico Young too, and we all know down at NA U. Those guys are going to Stanford next year. >> Might as well. Heard it's a pretty good school. So here, we're coming up to the 1,600 mark, and 4:24. So 66s. Boom. >> I feel like he can get a handshake from Erik Sowinski and Craig Noak after this. >> Yeah, or you know, the much more affirming tip of the hat, like I see you, you did a good job. >> Yeah. >> We see you. >> The tip of the watch. >> Yeah. >> Click of the watch to you, sir.

>> Click of the watch. Your watch has ended. So men are all strung out, beautiful sight there, rounding the curve here, as the sun is setting and the shadows are elongating in the electric forest, prepping us for this hot window action that we're about to see right after this race, and a good way to set it up, because there's a good line here, strung out as they're approaching 2k. Just received a text message from the omnipresent track fan, always willing to step in and offer advice and little tip bits of deep insider information, Mark Mish, coach at Colorado State, Colorado Springs, says Davonte is complete, this is Davonte Jett-Reynolds here

in third place, a second behind the Pacers, completely blind in one eye and 20% vision loss in the other, and so that probably explains a lot of the vision assistance that he's wearing out there, but incredible story. The story is about as incredible as his mullet, that's next level. Still 66s here for the pack, for Jett-Reynolds and crew, Jonas Gertsen, still up front there. There's been little changing of the guard throughout the pack, is everybody's contentious to string up, stay in a line and ride this pace for as long as they can, as it 's being given to them. This is the epitome of a time trial, you know, we're not worried about racing

right now, we're worried about running fast, what the prescribed pace was is exactly what they're getting from the Pacers, and these athletes, you know, was a one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten in a line, very content to just hang on to his co attails. And here we are, this is halfway right here, so 6:55, so they're right on that 13:50 pace that they want, and here we go, getting in front of Jett-Reynolds, it looks like that might be Travis Feeny jumping up, or no, I think that's Jack Scherer, excuse me. So he's tucking in right behind Jonas Gertsen in the purple now, and now moving

up again, after crossing halfway, it's go time. Starting to see a bit of struggles to the athletes that were leading that pack, a couple of fractures through that group of ten, a lot of athletes aren't giving up hope yet. That is Philippe Morneau-Cartier that has made the move up to the Pacers as the pack looks to lag a little bit. Morneau-Cartier jumping up there, Canadian athlete, and the Pacers swings wide here as we come up to 3,000 meters, and he's leaving it to Morneau-Cartier, who is on a head of schedule for pacing right now under that 13:50 pace, and has reached 3,000 meters in 8:17 with a 66.2, Travis Feeny, the next across in 8:20, and Evan Jenkins in 8:20

as well. The flag at the top of the turn here with a hundred meters to go is pointed straight down. There's a bit of rustle in the leaves in the back stretch, but the wind's dying down nicely as we approach the Hot Window of the Portland Track Festival 2023, with Philippe Morneau-Cartier probably of watch fame, jeweler watch fame, making light work of this pace as he continues to ever press the pace up front, just clicking off 66s, looking incredibly smooth. Looking like a champ out there, and yet another Canadian here leading a race. This is a Canadian invasion here in the Electric Forest as it always is,

Canadians have had a long string of success at the Portland track festival. Gabriela DeBues-Stafford holds our women's 800-meter record, 1:58.7, we'll see if Raevyn Rogers and Coe can attack that later this evening after this race, actually. Evan Jenkins in second place, about 35 meters behind Morneau-Cartier, made some decisive moves around some athletes who are struggling to stay on pace, trying to claw their way back to the leader up front, but we'll see if they can hold with about 1400 meters remaining. Morneau-Cartier now with the green lights to the left of him. He was running with the blue lights earlier, so right on 13:50 pace still, and a

little bit of movement in that second pack again behind Morneau-Cartier. From shuffling of the deck with a good group of three who look like they're ch omping at the bit to get after it, we'll see if they can claw back some space up to Mor neau-Cartier as he approaches 3800 meters here. It is amazing how quickly the future of your race can go in the 5K, go top of the world, and then all of a sudden those 66 has become 68, so 68 has become hopefully not slower than 68. We're cheering for you, we're cheering for you, but my goodness, this is a tough event. Yeah, 68.2 for Morneau-Cartier out front, and then 68 flat for the three chasers, Jack

asers, Jack Scherer, Evan Jenkins, and Merga Gemeda, but now Merga Gemeda is dropping off slightly and it's Jack Scherer and Evan Jenkins giving chase to Morneau-Cartier, who still has a significant gap, and we'll see if he can hang onto it. At the last time, Jack, his gap was about four and a half seconds, so we'll see what we get again when we come up to the finish line. The Canadian Morneau-Cartier coming up to two laps remaining. This is the make or break time, what have you got left? So inside, coming in inside 800 meters here, 4,200, that was a 69.7 for Morneau-Cartier, and then a 69.3 for the chaser, Jack Scherer, so as Morneau-Cartier slows, so

does the chase pack, and they're going to have to make some decisions here inside 800 meters. Can Morneau-Cartier hang on? The last lap of a 5k, strangely takes care of itself, is this penultimate lap where things can be made or break, make or break, and this group of two behind Philippe Morneau-Cartier is clawing back ground at a rapid pace. And here they come, Morneau-Cartier slowing from 66s to 68, now 69s, is trying to maintain his lead, but Evan Jenkins is around to Jack Scherer, and Evan Jenkins looks like he wants to do some damage and is closing fast on Morneau-Cartier as they approach the

bell lap. Jenkins goes by Morneau-Cartier, and all you can do is look up, 12:53 at the bell, that was a 66.5, so he's chasing that sub 14 minute mark, Evan Jenkins in the black singlet out front, and now Jack Scherer, swinging wide, going around Morneau-Cartier, and really driving the arms down the back stretch, but Jenkins still has a full head of steam. Eric Jenkins hung his spikes up, Evan Jenkins picked his up. Hello Evan Jenkins, hello world, rounding the bend, under 200 meters to go, and chugging along nicely, swinging the legs, pumping the arms, gritting the teeth, driving, here he comes down the home stretch.

Ladies and gentlemen, Evan, for a second and third with Philippe Morneau-Cartier pulling back ahead of Jack Scherer, but it's all Evan Jenkins who missed the finishing tape, oh they missed it, no, he didn't get an opportunity, run it back, Evan Jenkins. Evan Jenkins got it though, 13:54.65, and Morneau-Cartier clocks under 14 minutes, 13:59.28, and then 14 flat for Jack Scherer, Chase Howard, Bowerman Track Club elite athlete, 14:04, closing in a nice 60 flat, 0.7, so chasing that sub 14 minute mark, but not quite getting there today, and we got the rest of the crew rolling in here, results pop

ulating as they come across, Merga Gemeda, 14:06.89, Jamar Distel, 14:07, Sean Davidson, 14:09, and we've got the women, 800 meter runners warming up right now as we gaze down at the track, shadows are almost entirely covering the track, shading it nicely as we look at Evan Jenkins after, or Jenkins after his performance, and we're going to leave you now and go to a break, but we'll be right back, and when we come back, it's hot window time. For those of you joining us, welcome, this is it. This is the hot window of the 2023 Portland track festival tonight, we will decide who are the champions in the 800 meters for men's and women's races, the 5,000

meters and the 1500 meters here in the electric forest, ladies and gentlemen, be where your feet are. This is a time that you will tell your grandchildren about. And if you don't, the black and white of the paper tomorrow will. We are here at Mount Hood Community College, ready to start the hot window of the Portland track festival, and this is an exciting moment here is the women's 800 meters, competitors line up, you can see the hot window on the screen there, starting with the track town kids club, women's 800 meters. Here at Mount Hood Community College, where the trees shake, the legs ache, and

the stands quake, Will Leer is joining me for tonight's Hot Window. Will, we've got an exceptional field lined up here for the women's 800 meters. This is the who's who of women's 800 meter running or some of the who's who of women's 800 meter running right now. I think it's safe to say that the U.S. has the deepest field of women's 800 meter runners in the world right now with innumerable athletes breaking the fabled two-minute barrier. We've got world champions, Olympic champions, and in this group is a large group, is a large number of these women who are trying to contest with the thing mose, the, the

Raevyn, we have Raevyn, Raevyn Rogers here, who's run 1:56 for the 800 meters, absolutely astonishing Olympic bronze medalist. The weather is accommodating, they've seen other athletes run incredibly quickly this evening and I think that, you know, there's no better starts at the hot window than this event. Yeah, 1:56 to Raevyn Rogers' name. Last year she won this event, 1:58.9. We have never had a repeat winner for the 800 meters in the Portland Track Festival, but there she gets a, an applause from the crowd and the meet record is held by Gabriela DeBues- Stafford as we said earlier, 1:58.7.

Nia Akins in this race too, Brooks Beast, her best 1:58.78. Addy Townsend on the outside, let me get a glimpse of the rest of the competitors, Kristie Schoffield, Nia Akins there, Raevyn Rogers, Taryn Rawlings, Kaela Edwards has been on a hot one too, she's in lane two and Rebecca Mehra on the inside in lane one. Edwards coming into this race, having run 2:00.22 this year with a personal a personal best of 1:59.6, every athlete in this field has run 2:01 or faster. The pace is set for 73 seconds to 500 meters, which is about 58 seconds through the 400. With the assistance of the Wave Light technology, this rabbit should do an

exceptional job. It's the expectation of the athletes and it's the job of the athletes to get right in their tail and follow them to the promised land. So the pace they're trying to get out in front, but we do have Kaela Edwards charging out front too. She means business tonight and they are well ahead of the Wave Lights, but that as expected as you want to get some change in the bank in the 800 meters to start out. But that's Edwards and then Raevyn Rogers and Nia Akins and Taryn Rawlings on the inside and then Rogers teammate McKenna Keegan wearing the Nike Union Athletics Club uniform behind

Rawlings. But now the Pacers ducking out on the inside and Kaela Edwards really wants to get after this pace. You see Kaela attempt this strategy a couple of times this year. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but she's running so aggressively from the front and unfortunately there were some photographers after the finish line there preventing the rabbit from getting out of her way a bit more quickly. But we know Raevyn Rogers has a fiery finish and so Kaela's trying to get as far away from her as she can, charging down the back stretch so you have Rogers right on Edwards followed closely by Akins.

A 57.5 through the quarter as they drive down the back stretch, Edwards still in front and to see Raevyn Rogers this close to Edwards, this is going to be a special performance because we know that Rogers likes to hang back. And Nia Akins is also an incredibly strong 800 meter runner, you know, these women not fading at all, not giving an inch over the final course of this race and Rogers pulls up on the outside of Edwards' shoulder with 100 meters to go and is that inside we're not going to open for Akins. Here it is. And it does. And it does. This is the move. Now it is Rogers and Akins down the stretch.

The Union athletics. Pass on the inside twice. Rogers the defending champion and now Akins driving to the line, a huge victory here in the electric forest for Nia Akins as she ducks under the two-minute mark, 1:59.37. The Brooks beasts have had a storied history here in the 800 meters at the Portland Track Festival, but it has been historically on the men's side. Tonight, Nia Akins notches her victory for the women. That is not only a Portland Track Fest record, 1:58, was Gabby DeBues-Stafford. Yeah, 1:58.7. But Nia Akins stamps a world qualifying time with that 1:59.37, something that she no longer

needs to worry about when she goes to compete in Eugene at the U.S. Championships in four and a half weeks. What a run. Gutsy taking some chances with two inside passes in the last 100 meters. How did she get away with that? She looks confident out there and she'll take home as it sits right now, $1,387 . Sweeten the pot. Come on. Sweeten the pot for that performance and there will still be purchases after tonight. No doubt with the noise being made here on the track at Mount Hood Community College. These are the men lining up and this is a race for the ages shaping up here. In the total running production, men's 800 meters.

We've got a slew of Brooks beasts in here. They've targeted this race. There's four of them. You've got Devin Dixon, who has run 1:44 and is looking to find his form and get back to that. The glimpse of the meet record, still Tyler Mulder's from 2013 when he ran 1:47. . That is with so many great runners who have raced here in the past. We get a glimpse of Josh Kerr there, the Olympic bronze medalist in the 1500, joining his fellow beasts on the line for the two-lapper, Isaiah Harris there, a 1:44 man as well. The fastest shuffle on the planet Earth, Isaiah Harris. Rolling those shoulders around the bend.

Absolutely. I love it. We've got Charlie Hunter, the Australian man, Nike Union Athletics Club, a 1:44 man, and then Kyle Langford there, British guy on the Brooks Beast, 11th in the world and the 800 meters. On the inside, the world indoor silver medalist, Noah Kibet in lane two for the Union Athletics Club, and then on the far inside in lane one. Last year's runner-up, Derek Holdsworth, who ran a personal best of 1:45.3 in this race. So a great list of competitors here. The Brooks Beast have won this event four times, but not since 2019 when Josh Kerr won it. He is in the field, we'll see if he can do it tonight.

The defending champ Brandon McBride is not on the line, so. And they have none other than Erik Sowinski. Erik Sowinski knows this race well, he's going to get them out. We have $25 thrown in. Oh, we want to know what Kibet errantly went up to the 400 meter start line, so they called the athletes back. All right, getting reset here. We have $25 thrown in for the, it says for the beast from the east, sweet in the pot. That's got to be Langford. And we're off and running here. The beasts are in the yellow singlets, the blue singlets of the Nike Union Athletics Club. We have Elliott Cook on the outside, University of Oregon runner.

And then Derek Holdsworth on the inside, that's Noah Kibet jumping out to an early lead behind Erik Sowinski. Kibet is a savvy tactical racer. If you want a hot pace, you get the Iowa Hot Guys Track Club, none other than Mr . Sowinski. Seems to be quite a bit ahead of the rest of the pack right now, but doing an excellent job, he's exactly where he needs to be. And yet for whatever reason, Noah Kibet does not seem capable of keeping pace with this race. It's too bad. And you have guys like Josh Kerr, who usually uses late charge to win this thing. Having to step up. This bodes well for the likes of Josh Kerr here.

The pace through 400 meters, 53.03 for Josh Kerr, given the nod there, just ahead of Noah Kibet. But Kibet retakes the lead, and we'll see what they can do over the second lap. It's Kibet still out in front, and can Josh Kerr get by him? Kibet gives a surge down the back stretch as they approach 600 meters, and they are flying and the two are separating. It is 1:19 with 200 meters to go. Josh Kerr, given a lot of energy on the outside there. Yeah, running an extra two to three meters. And oh my goodness you guys, there here is coming hard charging fast, along with Elliot Cook. It's Josh Kerr, the 1500 meter man, and a slew of Brooksbeast with him.

But look at Devin Dixon on the outside. Can Devin Dixon take it from his teammate Josh Kerr? I don't know. We'll see. Josh Kerr takes the win. And it looks like a 1:46.62 for Josh Kerr after a 53 opening lap. So 53-53, and it is Brooks Beast 1-2-3. I don't know what happened. Noah Kibet got out in front of every single other athlete in this field and looked intent of being the man behind Erik Sowinski, and then all of a sudden it seemed like he just started second-guessing himself and just let his gap grow and gap grow and gap grow. And this is what happens when you put a 1500 meter medalist amongst that slower

pace, Josh Kerr charging away to the finish with the great drone shots there, but here comes Josh Kerr, almost negative splitting this 800 meters, taking the victory in 1:46.6. Josh, it looked like Noah Kibet was running the smart race on the inside as he was pushing Josh Kerr on the outside around that entire second lap, but Kerr able to use his 1500 strength and cruised a victory here in the electric forest as the beast go 1-2- 3. You know, I know Josh Kerr will not be disappointed with winning a race against a bunch of 800 meter specialists. I think he's a guy who probably still hopes to lower that personal best running

the 1:43-1:44 range, which is what Jake Wightman and a lot of these other top tier 1500 meter runners are doing across the world, but a win is a win. The guy loves to compete. He got to think if he had a little bit more patience and just sat behind Kibet and then and then unleashed with a 100 meters to go swinging wide, that his last 100 would have been even quicker and he could have won by an even larger margin, but the race played itself out. Josh Kerr, very much victorious. And we turn our attention now to the Doshang women's 5000 meters, Doshang making sock liners. The insoles you put into shoes and they've made Portland track personalized

sock liners for this evening. So you can pick up and pair those if you're in-house, got some headphones listening to the broadcast. But we see the event record set by Jess Holle in 2021. In the current champ, Waynei Colotti, 14:57 last year, we have a few 14:57 athletes in the field. Julie-Anne Staehli in that 2021 race ran 14:57, a Canadian in Ali Dukowski, 14:57 athlete herself. Natosha Rogers is in this field of Puma elite racing, a 14:52 best indoors this year and she ran a brilliant 10k at The Ten, Doshang a time in the 30:40 range. You can't count Natosha Rogers out, it's just, it's very enlightening talking

to her competitors, one of whom was Emily Infeld who said, I don't know that I've ever encountered a woman who enjoys being uncomfortable more than Natosha Rogers. That's scary. That's scary. And you know what, I don't want to race that person. But you know, she's, I think one of the great things about Natosha Rogers is she has basically made it known that that's how she likes to race. She likes to race hard, she likes to make the pace fast, it's never, and she also has a great finish. You know, we've seen her the last couple of years at the US championships kicking with the likes of Emily Infeld who's one of the best finishes in the world, making

these teams, even after being the person who's hard charging and pushing that pace from the front. So she can push the pace and then still muster an incredible finish off of that which is definition of world class. And I'm also looking forward to seeing Taylor Werner race, she's in this field Puma elite Puma elite racing too. She paced her teammate Fiona O'Keeffe at the Track Fest, 10,000 meters. She cruised through there in the 15 teams, looking very comfortable. So ever since then I've wanted to see what she can do in an open 5,000, today we get that opportunity. A number of tough women in this race though, Kellyn Taylor, tough as they get.

And the women are off here in the Da Shang 5,000 meters. We get that great drone shot and then round and bend here. Julia Heymach out there for the beast. She's pacing and then Marissa Howard behind her, pacing as well. And we're underway, Julie-Anne Staehli in that third position, the 14:57.5 athlete from 2021. That was an incredible race with an epic finish. Jess Holle took it over Andrea Sacafian and then everybody was cheering on Julie-Anne Staehli to break that 15 minute barrier and she did everything she could to get under it and did it by 2.5 seconds. So Heymach up front. I don't totally understand what the second pacer is doing, getting up on her

shoulder. She just tuck in, looked at the other woman do the work but they are right on pace, bang on right in that blue zone. We are told there's going to be two lights here, a green light and a white light, green light being the World Championship standard, 14:57, the white light being the US standard of 15:09, the green light is now US standard, which is 15:09 pace. So a lot of these women again, you have some road warriors out there, some people who don't race on track that often are using this sort of last ditch effort to qualify for, you know, how many US championships has Kellyn Taylor raced at?

Heymach, I can't count that high, I don't know, we're going to cut away to an interview with Josh Kerr, I will be right back. Hi everyone, back in the living room couch with the one and only Josh Kerr, the winner of the Men's 800. So Josh, how are you feeling, I mean, that was a pretty crazy race and you really stuck it out to get the win, so give us a little race debrief. I knew I was going to be at the back early, just because those guys have really good 400 metres like times, so I just wanted to make sure that I was continually pressing because my start to make top speed to take so long, so I was passing people the whole

time, but I felt really good and never settled and we were slow through 400 and I think I negative split, so yeah, I felt really good about it. That's awesome. Do you enjoy the electric forest vibes, how do you feel about running here in Portland? Yeah, we can be in any forest in Portland and it's the same vibe, you know, the crowds amazing and you know, with packed races like Portland Track Festival every year, it's difficult not to come out and support and be excited to be a part of it. Well congratulations, great job, everyone give a nice big round of applause for Josh. Congratulations. Thank you.

And you can sign this to finish. Alright, great to see Josh Kerr take that victory and now he has won two 800 metre races at the Portland Track Festival 2019-2023 and we're coming up to 1200 metres here with the women's 5000, we've got the fan pole up there, I think Natosha Rogers is going to going to take Taylor Werner close second and 3:36 at 1200 metres, they're on the blue lights and we can see what the prize purse is sitting at for this race at the moment. Yeah, so 3:36 is 72, it's 15-flat pace, which again, that is incredibly fast running, Natosha Rogers obviously running that 14:52 indoors, very much within her zone and I

think that Julie-Anne Staehli is looking to get under that barrier, it's a formidable barrier, no different than some of the other greats in track and field. Yeah she got under in 2021 and she's looking to get back to that form this year , I believe she's run 15:11, if I'm not mistaken this year, or 15:15 indoors, I'm sorry. So Heymach still at the front and Marissa Howard, the other pacer on the outside and Staehli right on the pace, Natosha Rogers behind her in the purple, that powder purple uniform and her teammate Taylor Werner behind Natosha Rogers and I got to talk with this Puma Elite Racing team at The Ten earlier this year and they've got a great team

camaraderie going on, got Natosha Rogers, Taylor Werner in there and Fiona O'Keeffe as well and just a good team energy training out in North Carolina with Alistair and Amy Cragg and they're making a lot of noise on the track this year too. It's fun to watch other teams emerge and compete for that limelight that has been taken for a long time by teams like the Bowerman Track Club. But many teams around the country emerging like Puma Elite Racing and the Under Armour squad too which have been making noise. Strength in numbers, that's a real thing I think a couple of years ago, USATF or someone did a study of looking at where the greatest athletes in the world are coming

from and it was a resounding over 90% coming from enclaves, training groups so there's an obvious benefit to having training partners to show up with every day at practice to push you to make you better and you know on your bad days someone else is being a good day so you gotta show up every day ready to go to work and ready to challenge yourself. The Puma Elite Racing group this year indoors was probably one of the more impressive displays of team running I've seen since some of those early Bowerman days when they would go to either BU or at the armory when people were running just in groups of women

running at the same times but also nice to see here Kellyn Taylor sort of closing the gap between herself and Allie Buchalski. Kellyn Taylor in the hat down there, Buchalski the beast hanging onto the tail end of that front pack. Yeah I think there's a large amount of comfort right now in that front group of five where I think you'll probably see a couple of these ladies say you know we're off of this pace how fast can I run? How fast can I run the last kilometer or the last mile and that's a tactical challenge posed by their coaches to get them ready to run at US championships because they're running

at world championships where the paces are often fast and just require an immense close. And seeing that critical mass up front too with this fast pace gets me excited to see the kind of action we're going to see in the later stages of this race because you never know who can emerge from that pack and have a great day and if somebody does that who's a relative unknown then I mean the newswire goes quickly you're able to claim or to tout a favorite immediately and then that person becomes the one to beat. So we'll see as Marissa Howard takes Julie-Anne Staehli and Natosha Rogers, Taylor Werner and Allie Buchalski through the line there, six laps remaining in this race and

now they're letting her go a little bit. Yeah I think her father's going to make up that gap pretty quickly here. She's a gamer right, she's got the time, she doesn't need to come out here and prove anything, she wants to win, she wants to show all these other competitors that she's ready to go in four and a half weeks down in Eugene and so if there's going to be a falter from any of the athletes she'll capitalize on that opportunity and she made that gap back to the rabbit, made that up in 100 meters, so she's obviously feeling really good. That's a great part about this meet too is its proximity to championship season

. It's a great time to make statements to your competitors and a statement in the forests heard far and wide and now it looks like Marissa Howard is swinging wide here as they approach 3000 meters and Natosha Rogers will assume the duties with her teammate Taylor Werner hot on her heels and Julie-Anne Staehli trying to stay in touch as well as Ali Buchalski but about 9:06 through 3000 meters and we'll see what Rogers can do off of this pace. Yeah I'll be curious to see what these teammates are going to do, you know I think if I'm wrong Taylor Werner does she have the championship standard already as well she's 15:11

so there's a world where Natosha Rogers tries to pull her teammate along to get that world championship standard or at the very minimum to definitively punch her ticket down to Eugene with a 15:09 but right now Natosha Rogers is content to be out front and just really following the guidance of these wave lights she's uncanny how good she is at pacing. And two miles reached in just under or just over 9:40 it looked like. Thereabouts, Julie-Anne Staehli is down at the moment but not out too. She is not letting the gap grow considerably and Allie Buchalski is clawing back to Julie-Anne Staehli too those third and fourth positions but this is Natosha Rogers and

Taylor Werner out front you can see Staehli and Buchalski right behind them in the split screen . I stand corrected Taylor Werner around 15:11 indoors this year in that BU meet where Natosha Rogers ran 14:52 her outdoor personal best 15:18.7 she's looking at a personal best there's no better time to run on the personal best in a month out for a championship so I think she's probably going to try and see how low can she go. And she's fired up right now she jumped in front took the lead I remember talking to her before The Ten and she did some pacing duties for her teammates and I asked her what they

were looking to do and she said sub 30 baby. Love that energy but Werner out front now leading this championship race here in the electric forest this evening Natosha Rogers behind her they're both looking to get in the money and one of them is going to take the log round home who's it going to be teammates out in front. It's funny it's a consideration that I'm not even thinking about watching these two women races that there's a there's pretty large delta in the prize purse between first and second. Yeah. That's another consideration for these women that this is a job after all and making money

is important. You got to put food on the table 11:31 especially of a distance runner 11:31 at 3800 that was a 72 for so they just keep clicking off 72's with change and now Rogers goes around her team made again to reassume the pacing duties you can see their coach Alistair Cragg jogging by him giving him a split giving him some encouragement and now yeah Natosha Rogers coming through here rounding the bend Taylor Werner and then that screen on the right you can see Staehli and Buchalski and they're about four seconds five seconds back so still looking to get a good seasons best here out of this race and it looks like Buchalski is

trying to make her way around again Taylor Werner going around Natosha Rogers Werner could maybe sense that the pace was slowing slightly because this is not even a lap that she let Natosha Rogers take the lead and now it's Werner daylight between the two teammates Werner is pushing and you could tell she looked strong at the Track Fest doing that pacing job for your teammate Fiona O'Keeffe in that 10,000 but now she's getting a slight forward lean going here and she's inside 800 meters to go at this point that was a 72.5 but Natosha Rogers not out of the picture yet the word four laps for Taylor Werner been 72-

1, 72.5 72.4, 72.5 I mean they are just following these lights like clockwork but you gotta have the fitness to be able to do it the lights don't do all the work for you Taylor Werner you know if she can muster something over the last 500 meters she might drop under 15 minutes the lights can show you the way will but you have to do it and Taylor Werner is doing it right now for the Puma elite racing team she's driving here and we're coming up coming up to the bell lap and they're ringing it for her right now as she approaches she hits it in 13:55 so driving with everything she has she would need to have a close

under 65 to duck under that 15 minute mark which is not tall order it is a tall order not impossible she's flying on the back stretch continuing to put lengthen that gap between herself and Natosha Rogers she's left the wave light in her rears and with 200 meters to go Taylor Werner flying now around the 200 mark and she's leaving her accomplished teammate behind her like Natosha Rogers is a very accomplished individual here 14:52 athlete team USA member in the 10,000 meters and Taylor Werner this is her race tonight this is all her she's pushing she's driving her legs punching towards that finish line here driving

down the straight the win is hers what's it gonna be 15 minutes passes on the clock and it is 15:02 for Taylor Werner tonight Natosha Rogers coming in for second as Puma elite racing takes one two 15:03 takes 15 seconds off Taylor Werner's outdoor personal best takes eight seconds on for overall PB as the competitors continue to stream in here Katherine Wasserman comes in third for NAZ Elite 15:15 Allie Buchalski 15:19 for the Brooks beasts and Julie-Anne Staehli 15:24 for New Balance Boston Taylor Werner there she is doing some damage tonight in the electric forest cranking up the voltage here for her team bringing that

energy and that passion that she brings to 30 baby we're going to the moon there we go getting a hug from the competitors Katie is over there wow so the results are populating on the screen there's your top 10 in 11th we had Sam Nadel 15:43 Maddie Alm 15:44 Roisin Flan agan 15:46 Katrina Coogan 15:52 Haley Herberg 16:07 around out that entire women's field so here's Taylor Werner driving down the stretch again looking fantastic doing it this is a clear confidence booster for her heading into USA's and we got a month to go oh me I'm in the best shape my life how about you yeah oh what did you do tonight I just won Portland Track

Festival taking home the log round cool what we had now 1500 bucks for that race 1392 13 92 as it sits now but I wouldn't be surprised if it does get up to 1500 see sweet the pot we've got the men's 5,000 meters here and this is the Paul Banta Memorial men's 5, 000 meters as we look at the team's scores so the way that we calculate these scores this year first place gets five points second place three points third place one point right now the Brooks Beast dominating with 14 points over the American distance project with eight US Army with five and Lululemon with five with those steeplechase wins from

Qatar and Quigley last night this is the men's 5,000 meter race named after Paul Banta who's a long time track man here in Portland he started the Portland Track Classic which is the predecessor to the Portland Track Festival and this race is commemorating his gifts to the community so it's a special one every year. Last year this race was won by Pat Tiernan of that Puma Elite Racing team 13:19 one of the greatest guys in all track and field the Aussie yeah our start list is showing 17 I'm sure how many paces we're gonna have jump in and assist this group clearly have one or two but it's a little crowded on that start line nothing these men aren't

accustomed to but we wish them a clean start the wave light is set for 13:20 for this race and that is the US championship qualifying standard world qualifying is 13:07 the meet record last year it's 13:19.14 by Pat Tiernan and he took that from Dathan Ritzenhein, Olin Hacker in acker in the field oh and it's a false start 5,000 meters gunshots everywhere I think it was a timing error I heard it down over here sometimes we've been told there can be a faulty shell for the starting gun which is nobody's fault but the shell maker I've only ever heard that excuse from crabs so 13:19 for Pat Tiernan last year and taken the meet

record from Dathan Ritzenhein around 13:19 Dathan Ritzenhein famously ran 13:19 came back in a second heat and ran 13:44 so why not it's a Suguru Osako special where he did that in the 10k run 27:56 and then 29:04 but look at that beer garden filling up at the 200 meter line here as we run the whole Banta Memorial 5000 meters followed by the ca ppers of the evening the Nike running women's and men's 1500 meters 1500 meters is a special distance here at the Portland Track Festival through all sections the depth is always amazing in the top races are electric fans give the nod to Olin Hacker here who just

claimed a victory in St. Louis earlier in the week running 3:56 for the mile and then jumping on a plane coming out here competing 5000 meters how do you think the legs are feeling after that probably pretty good it probably pretty good doesn't seem like people are phased by much anymore new shoe technology come off a race feel great put on squishy shoes cover check on some squishy shoes go for a run prize purse and $1,393 for the win right now and look at that that beer garden is going to get rowdy for this one and can you imagine what it's going to be like during those 1500s if I don't see you know like in

the golf getting beers thrown out of the track this isn't been a successful event if Craig Engels wins tonight you will go straight over there is he doing it is going to spread straight over for kex and a Craig stand all right looks like we're ready to go Pete Castro gives the okay and we'll go when Bruce Davis says we can go and not a moment before I think it might be we've got timing over there checking out the machinery gun is up yeah I think the voltage was getting too high here in the electric forest they didn't check the equipment sometimes that happens we don't know why we don't know how but it does happen it's magic

so we've got Pacers out in front that looks like Brian Barraza in the second position Austin Miller up front Austin Miller and Olin Hacker in that third spot tucking in there wants to get under that 13:20 mark and it's amazing how far American 5000 meter running has come it makes a sound old but in the last 20 years I remember watching 5000 meters the documentary and nothing comes easy 2004 and guy the US athletes were trying to break 13:30 back then 13:20 13:21.5 was the Olympic standard but it was a big deal to get under 13:13 sure yeah a lot of guys the Olympic standard is now 12:50 so good luck everybody yeah better start looking

to the points for that but you never know we've got we've got what three Americans in Florence that ran in the 12:50s that was insanity and some special nights have happened here in Portland in the 5000 meters for Woody Kincaid and others Woody running that 12:58 on the Nike campus in the Hunt Portland 5000 in 2019 and then on this track prior to 2019 in 2016 the first time that Woody Kincaid defeated Galen Rupp in the 5000 meters occurred here at Stumptown Twilight when he wore his Portland pilots uniform to do that Austin Miller at the front here leading Brian Barraza, Olin Hacker coming up to the start line

2:08 roughly for 800 meters on the pace Brodey Hasty sitting in there too Benjamin Eidenschink behind Olin hacker Brodey Hasty was a high school sub four guy right I believe if he was if he wasn't he was close maybe maybe four flat and we're going to send you down to the living room to have a chat with Taylor Werner but we'll be right back and we're back in the living room couch with Taylor Werner we just won the women's 5k okay Taylor walk us to the race how do you feel so my teammate and I Natosha the goal was to kind of stay in the middle and we got out in the front right away so we were like all right the game plan

is completely changing but I'm so glad I haven't team it in there we just kind of work together and next thing you know I was like I can kick and I'm gonna do it and now I'm on the couch so I mean that is the goal ultimately oh yeah I'll take that for sure I mean I 'm cool with that so our follow up question is obviously where I mean we're in the electric forest as they like to call it the crowd energy seems great and it probably pushed you a lot at the end how do you think that changed your mindset oh it's so nice I mean when you're running that hard you can get so negative so fast and so when you hear people

cheering for you it's like okay yeah no I have something else to do to entertain the public and just keep going because I really don't want to embarrass myself so but no it's so fun and so fun what we're so happy to have you here in the couch let's go back next year congratulations huge congrats Taylor and we're back here in the men's 5,000 meter race got Austin Miller and Brian Barraza leading the group up front see Tom Anderson peeking out there but we're coming towards 1600 meters here as Miller steps off about 4:16 high to 4:17 so Hacker sitting behind Barraza now and Eidenschink wearing number seven my sources are telling

are telling me that Ben Eidenschink is fit very very fit fit oh my fit fit as fit and if he's taking any notes from Alicia then he's doing something right yeah that's well Alicia Monson yeah they're partners and partners in crime out there in Niwot, Colorado well they he's part of a trio that separated themselves Olin Hacker Brian Barraza the pacer and Eidenschink so staking his position to try and claim the victory here in the electric forest tonight take home a log round that'll serve as a nice charcuterie board for himself and Alicia I can't see it serving any other purpose we got Thomas Fafard in that

bright yellow singlet to a Canadian leave he's from back and he's jumped on to that trio trying to hang into this pace but now oh Fafard closing the gap passing Eidenschink getting up up to Hacker as we said Olin Hacker ran 3:56 few days ago out of St. Louis it's a good tactic running some hard 1500s whether they go or miles or 1500s whether they go well or they don't it does take a lot of the sting out of that first four or five six laps of this race if you only run miles and then run a 5k the 5k is a real pain because you just keep seeing these numbers that you're unaccustomed to seeing 12 11 10 and then

by the time you get the four laps to go this is my race distance what am I doing out here but this group of four Brian Barraza doing the Lord's work out there for him keeping them right on pace right in the heart of that green pace light Olin Hacker seems up to the task and you know my tradition of cursing athletes when I say how fit they are lives on but Ben Eidenschink holding on closely you can do a lot of work in the last five six laps of this race we've been saying that time and again we've watched people with massive closes make gaps dwindle over the last you know four hundred five hundred meters so I'm not too worried

but this gap this trio of three up front looks really good to me we'll see if Eidenschink channels his inner Tyrone Gorze and get back in and fight to the finish like he did last night boot rally baby yeah 29 flat after a mid-race upchuck Barraza out front Olin Hacker still there and there's some shuffling in the deck in that second pack as Lawrence Kipkoech now leads it in the bright orange and Tom Anderson from Seattle wearing the Hoka singlet in there as well last year Tom Anderson a ringer in the Portland versus Seattle 3k maybe why maybe why it was tipped in their favor he's a 13:20 5,000 meter man he wasn't

willing to throw away his race tonight for the axe we've we've tried to convince Woody to jump into the Portland versus Seattle 3k now and again maybe he'll do it one day if you ask him three he can't say no to something he asked him three times so he asked him a third time everybody knows that everyone knows that Olin Hacker out front here loving the promise before I've been on the drone just absolutely killing it just beautiful through 3k and 8:01 here that was a 64 second lap they've been running 64 flats mostly Olin Hacker driving the train now and Fafard but Hacker is getting some daylight

up there yeah as we talked about before it's it is absolutely insane in this event how quickly you can go from being cool, calm and collected to sirens going off inside your head saying what are you doing what are you doing what are you trying to do to your body this is insane Olin Hacker and still it's like he's covering ground fairly effortlessly the kid moves really really well and it seems very much up to the task tonight you know he's got the lights right in front of me knows what he's got to do yeah right in the red line out here he's playing with fire the NAZ Elite athlete Olin Hacker straight out of Flag

staff it's hacker solo now and Fafard in second Eidenschink still in third and then that pack behind them led by Tom Anderson in the Hoka uniform so that was a 60 well 63.99 so still right on 64 flat pace yeah they're ever so slightly slow that 13:20 so 13:20 would be 8 minutes at 3k 9:04 at 3400 so on slipping a little bit right now but you know with this with a big closer last 600 meters I think he draws those lights back in right now this is where you start to second guess a lot of decisions you made early in the race with I think 12 100 meters to go is one of the hardest places in a 5k but if you can get if you

can grind through these next two laps without losing too much ground a big closer last 400 takes care of anything that may have slipped away yeah Hacker trying to hang on to those lights solo now he for where we are the race right now looks like he might have that first place to check in his pocket already but you never know what can happen relapse remaining yeah 10:10 at 3800 meters he needs to run 62 points these next three laps to come under 13:20 at least average that so I still have high hopes for Olin Hacker today his his form hasn't really changed he just the lights seem to be slowly slipping out of his grasp see a

little tightening up in his neck slightly that was a 65 last lap through 3800 meters yeah he saw a little grimace or a little squint of the eyes that shows you the man is working he's putting in the hard yards right now coming up here 800 meters to go is 800 meters to go so depending on what that does to your brain it could be a good thing or a bad thing we'll see what it does for hacker here I only ran a couple competitive 5k's in my life and one of my one of my strategies was if I'm hurting really bad I needed to take the lead 800 meters to go now I didn't last very long there I got swooped up by a bunch of other much

more accomplished athletes but just simply making that move to the front shocked my system enough to get me to the finish line that was another 65 there for Hacker 11:15 with 800 meters to go so Hacker facing the back stretch alone right now charging down it and Eidenschink has retaken second place ahead of Fafard as you can see them in the distance in that big screen and Brodey Hasty has jumped up in front of Tom Anderson in that third pack to get into fourth place Hacker's rounding the bend passing the steeple pit so as he comes up here he'll have 500 meters to go now if you're watching this broadcast I know

anybody in the stands make sure to remind them that steeplechase pit has been turned up to 104 degrees to match the key to the Hot Window so the hot tub still no takers but Olin Hacker coming up with 400 meters to go what can he muster over this last lap can he close in 60 and run 13:20 now was about a 65 there as well 65.2 so 12:20 at the bell and now with less than 400 meters to go hacker tries to unfurl that stride and channel the power that is flowing locks are giving him straight out of Flagstaff up to Portland running here in the electric forest taking the victory tonight in the Paul Banta Memorial 5000 meters it looks to be his but he's

chasing that green light in front of him and he's gaining on it we'll see if he can duck under the standard look at this he's rolling right now going to sprint form come on Olin Hacker give it hell he's kicking it into overdrive and the fans love it they're driving they know he's in front of the lights what's Olin Hacker gonna do here driving to the tape 13:19 a lot of ground can be made up in the final 400 13:19.28 for Olin Hacker a 58 68 final circuit there he is oh what an effort there you go big man enjoy it second place goes to Benjamin Eidenschink 13:33.24 and you know what let's check but that very well could be a meet record oh just off 13:19.14 is the meet

record for Pat Tiernan 13:19.28 for Olin Hacker shoots him way up the all-time list Brodey Hasty 13:37 for third Brodey 13:37 and a whole group of guys under the 14 minute mark but a little electricity in that last lap for Olin Hacker as he's running 65s and then managed to close well he'll call it the electric forest for nothing that's right there's a lot of energy right now people are getting fired up because you know what's next the Nike running 1500s this this is the premiere event of the evening and we've stacked the prize purs es here currently the Nike running women's 1500 meters the prize purse is sitting at

the winner receiving four thousand one hundred and ninety six dollars currently as the women toe the line second place we'll get 2623 we know those numbers will go up throughout the evening as we look at this group and we can see on the outside the Pacers Katie Camare na coming back after her 4:08 effort heat two and then it looks like Kaela Edwards jumping in as well but the competitors in here we have Lucia Stafford headlining the field and Helen Schlachtenhaufen Marta Pen Freitas of the Brooks Beast in here as well Lucia Stafford coming back after her 4:02 race down in LA last weekend and Anna Camp-Bennett in this for the long haul after pacing

that brilliant women's 1500 down in LA last week Emily Lipari in there too we have the the lights set for 4:05 the world standard Allison Cash Hanna Hermansson in this field Grace Barnett Schlachtenhaufen Taryn Rawlings coming back from the 800 doubling in this event and Christina Aragon in here too on the inside the women are off as Kaela Edwards jumps to the front and so does Katie Camarena fans like Hanna Hermansson and Lucia Stafford but I don't see Lucia Stafford in the field A.C. Rawlings and Schlachtenhaufen followed by that Alma Delia Cortes of Mexico Alma Cortes Skylyn Webb Skylyn Webb having a great season two 4:06 win at Stanford earlier this year

and now as the lights start to dim you can see the wave lights in this drone shot too as they round the bend coming up to 400 meters with Taryn Rawlings latched onto the pace at 64 high so it's the two Pacers and then Taryn Rawlings and then Helen Schlachtenhaufen in third place and then Skylyn Webb behind her on the outside so Rawlings going with the pace Rawlings a Portland native grew up here so showing out for the home crowd she now trains down in Southern California with the Golden Coast Track Club Hey said there's can't lose much now they're right on the edge of that 405 pace and Katie Camarena starting to slip ever so slowly behind the blue lights Kaela

Edwards starting to sense that moving them on her shoulder to apply a little bit of pressure so that Taryn Rawlings doesn't lose anything here and there's Rawlings and Skylyn Webb trying to claw back to Taryn Rawlings who's trying to stay on the pace after that 800 meters in her legs but it looks like Rawlings is moving wide as well and now it is Skylyn Webb as Rawlings steps off and some movement back there as Allison Cash jumps up and so does Alma Cortes but Skylyn Webb at the front behind Kaela Edwards who is on the lights and you can never count out Emily Lipari one of the most tenacious racers in

all of track and feel across a variety of different distances but she's proving herself to be very formidable in this event and who knows Kaela Edwards might just take it the whole way is Kaela Edwards going to stay in this she's that she's well past a thousand meters and she's coming up to 1200 meters and she's hanging on the lights too Allison Cash right behind her or not right behind I should say about 10 meters Kaela Edwards steps off now as Allison Cash is your lead racer now it's Allison Cash and then Helen Schlachtenhaufen and then Skylyn Webb Schlachtenhaufen looking to make a move right now around Allison Cash and she gets

by and she's got an open side of the back stretch this is surprising from Schlachtenhaufen there are stages of this race where she looked like she was just struggling so much but has found something else within her and is absolutely flying with 200 meters to go you can see her continue to change gears downshift and fly away from her competitors with 150 meters to go passing the hot tub. Schlachtenhaufen now has a good gap on the field Allison Cash driving in second Allison Cash coming down from Seattle and it's Schlachtenhaufen down the stretch she's chasing the tape it looks like this will be Helen Schlachtenhaufen's

victory for the Nike women's 1500. Instead the Portland Track Festival for the women's 1500 meter championship race there's your victor Helen Schlachtenhaufen with second place Allison Cash there 4:05.67 takes the win here tonight and the lion's share of the purse oh well Emily Lipari came up for second I miss spoke you got it right well I know Emily Lipari finished when I see one hey that's expected there's Schlachtenhaufen driving here and she got a clear gap on the field crossing the finish arms up for the band or for the tape here's another angle with the fans and there's Lipari just edging out Cash and Anna Camp-Bennett getting fourth there the champions

log around firmly in Schlachtenhaufen's grasp I'd like to applaud all of the track and field announcers in the world who just continued to nail Schlachtenhaufen's last name it's just fun to say it is incredible to say and for the event that many of us have been waiting for this evening the Nike running men's 1500 meters to cap off the night and there have been many electric performances in Portland throughout the years but the field assembled here tonight is one ready to set fireworks off so we have in this field a rematch of the first second and fourth place finishers of the previous Olympic trials Cole Hocker Matthew

Centrowitz the 2016 gold medalist in this event in the Olympics there's Cole Hocker there the champion and there's Craig Engels two-time winner of the Portland Track Festival 1500 Henry Wynne Charles Philibert Thibou Johnny the Jet Gregorek Amos Bartelsmeyer Andrew Hunter Samuel Prakel Amon Kemboi Kieran Lumb Cameron Proceviat there's Matt Centrowitz Dillon Maggard in the field and your pacer Erik Sowinski rocking the Jacuzzi Boys athletic club singlet clearly attempting to garner the love of the fans here and the fans like cpt tonight it looks like cpt's been on a burn early it's been running super well you know I think Henry

Wynne with every preceding race just keeps getting better and better as does Matt Centrowitz you know there's a lot of talk this winter when he went down to Australia some of the results that he was putting out people were mocking us you know of course as the message board zoo centro's done and what's you do he shuts them up in LA by running 3:35, 3:36 being exactly where he needs to be when he needs to be there and you know when Matt Centrowitz runs 3:36 there's a switch flipped and that just gives him all the confidence in the world yeah and you don't want to Matt Centrowitz later if you have

to race him at USA he's laser focused between now and then knowing that he's in the right place physically he's just he's one of the best there's ever been you you can never count him out it's he's he's one of the rarest personalities in the sport and one that needs the pressure in order to succeed most of our blood runs at about 98.6 Matt Centrowitz is about 68.9 guys got absolute ice run in his veins but this this rivalry between well Matt Centrowitz Craig Engels and Cole Hocker too for for many this is Craig Engels' house the Portland Track Festival is largely a Craig Engels meet here for the performance performances that he's given in the past

so we'll see how this plays out as they let Sowinski go to the front and there's some pushing and shoving is here and Lumb goes with him and then Samuel Prakel behind him here in Lumb 3:35.9 guy coached by Andy Powell as is Samuel Prakel I think most of this field is coached by Andy Powell Jeff and I mean who wouldn't want to be coached by Andy Powell I wouldn't because that would mean I'd still have to be running here we go but Soinski doing Sowinski doing now Kieran Lumb up for the task tonight Samuel Prakel Johnny Gregorek Henry Wynne Centro CPT a 56.5 as the sprinklers go off on the field oh boy cool them down sprinklers are too hot it's a hot one goes too hot turn

on the sprinklers Kieran Lumb tucked in behind Erik Sowinski Samuel Prakel there Johnny Gregorek everyone is going with the pace and Amos Bartelsmeyer in there we got Centro tucked in right behind Bartelsmeyer on the outside Henry Wynne it looks like Craig Engels is boxed as usual on the inside yeah Craig Engels in terrible position CPT getting tripped up by Andrew Hunter Craig needs to get out of that Centro right on Amos we 800 meters there's a lot of race left to do Kieran Lumb looks fantastic Samuel Prakel right behind him Johnny Gregorek no one's giving anybody an inch everyone wants to be

at the front when we come to 700 meters from now Kieran Lumb right on Erik Sowinski 1:54 everyone wants that pole position but now it's starting to stretch out a little bit as Sowinski's still on the front Kieran Lumb has been sitting there the entire time right behind him in his pocket and then Samuel Prakel at Johnny Gregorek Amos Bartelsmeyer and Matthew Centrowitz and if we were to teeing this up to be Centro v Engels Engels is right on the heels of Centro right now just waiting to unleash her ferocious kick we saw him finish so well in LA last week in the 800 waving to the fans as he ran a 1:47 hopefully

Craig doesn't get boxed in here again but it goes Kieran Lumb Samuel Prakel Johnny the Jet Gregorek Amos Bartelsmeyer and the gap back to Centro Centro seems to be faltering a little bit as the front floor are getting away Lumb at the front with 2:36 with a lap to go we'll see what fire everybody has throw at each other in this final lap there was a 57.1, 56 high for a lot of guys changing position around there 2:51 at 1200 meters this is hot let us not forget Kieran Lumb walked away from the back half of his senior season at the University of Washington and taken on deal he knows he needs to run the time to get into world championships this is the best

chance that he's had it's Lumb it's Prakel it's Gregorek it's Kemboi Lumb a Canadian and look at Sam Prakel go around and he's got a fight with Amon Kemboi who's trying to make it around as well and Cole Hocker coming in like a head full of steam Cole Hocker using his patented kick swinging wide we now see that Cole Hocker is absolutely fit right here who's gonna make this it's Kemboi at the front but can Cole Hocker get there does he have enough track Kemboi right here Cole Hocker who is it I think it's Kemboi we will see 3:33 oh it rounds off to 3:34.12 3:34.12 for Amon Kemboi the Puma elite racing

Wow Cole Hocker 3:34.14 his first race of the season Johnny Gregorek coming in third 3:34.35 Amos Bartelsmeyer a great performance that's that's a personal best for him 3:34.39 Prakel 3:34.63 it's a blanket finish here are you not entertained this is what you came for and this is what you got Andrew Hunter with a fantastic finish 3:35.33 Papa Drew the new dad the new dad and let me damned look at that pack rolling up here oh so close what an exciting finish I apologize if we tripped on the words a little bit there the last 100 meters but I saw a vision a blurred vision coming around with 150 meters to go you saw it before that vision was Cole Hocker none other than and

the fans going home happy here after that 56.4 for Kemboi on the close but 55.13 with Cole Hocker trying to get through a lot of traffic in order to make that happen you know it's we could call that race a vintage Cole Hocker race but I think as you go towards the US championships he 's not going to put himself in a position where he needs to do that much work to get to the front he's too savvy he's been on the biggest stages too much he knows how good his competitors are but now guess what everyone knows that Cole Hocker is here to play yep he's Cole Hocker has re-ent ered the chat in US American Miling and look at this this is a good result for Craig Engels

as well his first 1500 of the season he placed 11th in this race at 3:36.79 that's 11 Dillon Maggard a you know a guy who was sort of trending towards that 5k 10k maybe more towards 10k is taking a step back now on to the tutelage of Danny Mackey with the Brooks Beast runs 3:37.17 as the results are now official 3:37.17 for Dillon Maggard Centro tires got a little flat there at the end for Centro coming in last 3:38.20 but you know I he knows what he needs to do he's got a month to prepare now and we are we're on the screen well we're here for the drone right in front of us it's been a pleasure to spend the evening with all of you tonight

here at the Portland Track Festival and you will once again we started with master's men's the gentleman's mile shaking hands nodding heads we finish with a send off from the electric forest on one of the most unbelievably fantastic men's 1500s that I've ever seen domestically and we've got an interview with that winner yeah let's send it down to the living room Amon Kemboi and we're back in the living room couch with the last winner of today Amon Kemboi who just won the 1500 so tell us how you feel that was a pretty high race yeah it started out like tough but i was able to move into lane two and

just along the group i was cautious about the the movement in the front pack just just checking around and then waiting for the just run from that execute the rest so that's the plan on now honestly amazing do you think the crowds energy did anything to help you especially at the end where i got really close between you and the competitors yeah it helped a lot i was able to feed on that and thus this is the last 150 meters and just roll push push myself as much as i could yeah because i felt there was someone behind me just able to hang on and for that win amazing job congratulations so you can sign our finish line right here at the

last one of the day and that is a wrap with Portland Track Festival very good to go well one exciting finish uh hats off to Amon Kemboi with a fantastic last hundred meters run it's can't believe we've come to another close it's tall order to fight off Cole Hocker with that uh that stretch run there but we know that Cole Hocker has it now and Amon Kemboi the Kenyan takes it here the Nike running men's 1500 meters but what else is there to say well this has been a great evening and uh we're gonna do it again next year absolutely but uh from all of us here Portland Track, Tracklandia we uh we thank you for tuning in and uh so long from

the electric forest happy to land here aloha