Track Fest (2023): full broadcast transcript & event recap

Full broadcast transcript

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

Gentlemen, we are here at Hilmer Lodge Stadium, Mt. SAC, Walnut, California, where the world's best athletes compete. This is part of the On Track Nights series and a World Athletics silver meeting. It is a Sound Running event. I am Jeff Merrill and I am sitting alongside three-time Olympian Shannon Rowbury in the booth here. Way up top looking over the track. It's the start of the pro outdoor season here in Southern California. Athletes will be looking to notch wins and high places to achieve valuable world athletics points to boost their world rankings and their pursuit of making national teams to compete at the world championships in

Budapest later this year. Here they're representing their branded teams though and there is no team more well represented than the home team, the On Athletics club here tonight. We got a slew of athletes competing, but we've also got the Bowerman Track Club out here. We have got the Union Athletics Club, we have the Brooks Beasts, we have Mammoth Track Club, Track Club, we have Under Armour Dark Sky, Under Armour Mission Run Baltimore. So many of these amazing teams across the country and international representation too, the OAC Oceania. I saw my childhood hero, Craig Mottram, walking around out there.

I mean maybe not quite childhood, but we're not that different in age. Some of the biggest stars we'll be competing today here at Hilmer Lodge Stadium . A state of the art facility just built on hallowed ground here in Southern California, where an amazing performance has taken place over the past 75 years or so. But we've got the 800 meters, the 1500 meters, the 3000 meters steeplechase, 5000 meters and 10,000 meters to cap off the night. But between the five and the 10, if you're here in Stadium, you're going to get a performance from Kyle. >> Well, and if you're not here yet, you should get here because we've got food

trucks and Kyle. >> That's right. >> Performing a show. There's free food trucks for tickets here. And there's a beer garden down there presented by Gooder and a lot of great stuff here. But while we're going to the concert between the five and the 10s, we're also going to kick it down to the studio here, track side. And the CITIUS Guys, Kyle Merber, Chris Chavez and Christina Henderson are going to do a little studio show and get some athletes down there between the 9 o'clock and 10 o'clock PM hour. But we've got a few undercard races going before we get to the main events, which will start at 7:20 PM.

But speaking of main events, Shannon, let's walk through a little bit of what we're going to see tonight in those top tiered silver level events. First one I'm thinking of is the women's 5000 meters. >> Yeah, you know, we had dinner last night as a group and we're talking about what we were most excited for. And I would say on the women's side, probably it's close, but probably the 5K is the one that I'm the most excited about. There's just a lot of names as I go through my list of women and I'm looking, you know, Josette Andrews coming fresh off of her Penn Relays record of 4:04 in the 1500 last weekend.

We have Melissa Courtney-Bryant, three-time bronze medalist in both Commonwealth and indoors. We have Emily Infeld, who, you know, is just a fan favorite. Myself included, who is with Team BOSS and really just seems to be training so well after kind of coming back from hip surgery years ago and changing teams. And I can not wait to see what she throws down, you know, Laura Galván, another personal favorite with my Mexican husband rooting for the Mexican national record holder. So I mean, I could go on and on. Katelyn Tuohy going after a collegiate record. I mean, there's just a lot of exciting racers in this 5K tonight.

And so that for me is probably the top women's race that I've got my eye on. >> Yeah, so many storylines, storylines abound in this women's 5000. We also have Elly Henes, who is coming back from an excellent performance at the 10 earlier this year, 30:48, where she dumped like a minute and a half off of her 10, 000-meter PR. >> Third against that field that was crushing it field that she came in third was such an impressive race. >> Right. It's, yeah, that race is a big one to keep your eye on. We heard that the pace is going to be hot and they are looking at low 14:40 pace. As we know about these 5000-meter races, too, it could get a little spicy in

those closing laps. So although that's what the pace is set up for, don't be surprised if it ducks under that 14:40 mark tonight, potentially. >> Right. >> Especially with someone like Josette Norris in, or Josette Andrews, I should say. Now she's married to Robbie, but, you know, Dathan doesn't send his athletes out without them being ready to go and, you know, he's, I've, in my racing years, there were oftentimes where there would be the -- some coaches who'd throw a time out there of, like, oh, my athlete can hit it, but they rarely did. Dathan, on the other hand, is proven when he kind of sets a goal for his

athletes. They're usually very close to getting it, if not crushing it. So, yeah, I think there is going to be, you know, it's set up to be a really exciting race. >> Some of the heaviest hitters out there, the OAC straight out of Boulder, too , and if their indoor season is anything, any indication of what could happen tonight, then we could see some fireworks here to go along with the food trucks and the beer garden. Next up on the list here, another event that we are looking at, we have the USATF Foundation men's 800 meters this evening, and there's some big stars in that line up there . Who do we got to look out for?

I mean, so Yared Nuguse and Mario García-Romo, two teammates coming in to do the 800. And I mean, Yared had just a phenomenal indoor season. So I think, you know, in the pre-race interviews, you know, I think Ollie was talking about the two of them going through, was it around, like, 49 or 50 in a 400 in a workout looking smooth doing it and feeling like they're both ready to lay down. I think he said, like, 1:45-ish, or what, 45? >> These are 1,500 meter men, too. >> Yes, yes, yes, let's clarify. So any time you have teammates in a race, especially ones from a team where they seem to really have that team bond, not all teams are created equal, but this

particular team, the On Athletics Club in Boulder, does seem to really work together and pay it forward to one another, push each other in races, and so, I think the two of them in it . And then, of course, Jesús Tonatiuh López, once again, you know, Mexican national record holder. My husband used to hold that record. It was broken before. Jesus got it, but, you know, looking to see him. And of course, he has a 1:43 personal best. He has already run 1:46 this season, so, you know, and that was, I think, in his first race of the season. So I'm looking to see how he performs against this field as well.

>> Yeah, these 1,500 meter guys opening up in an 800. We know Yared Nuguse, American record in the mile and 3,000 meters earlier this year, indoors. Amazing performances. García-Romo, having a stellar performance also in that Wanamaker Mile, that same race that Nuguse set that mile American record. Like you said, Dathan does not send his athletes out unless they are ready to do something special. And I'm very curious to see what they can do over two laps here and what that means for the season as it unfolds in the future. But we also have a guy like Isaiah Harris in here, too, a 1:44 man from the Brooks

Beasts up in Seattle flying all the way down here to Southern California to make some noise. We know the Brooks Beasts never shy away from competition. And when they can, they like to take some names and make a statement. So we'll look for him to do that tonight. And Tonatiuh López, too, always a fan favorite, another hard racer and such a smooth, long stride out there as well. >> Yeah. I think he and Nuguse are competing for the smoothest stride on track tonight. It will be so interesting with an 800 meter specialist like Benattu, who is coming in versus Yared, who has got his longer distance strong times and meeting at this, you

know, meeting at this distance. But I think that's, I think it's really fun to test yourself in events that you 're not used to or test yourself against people that you don't normally compete against . And we'll talk about this more as like tactics for an 800, but like, you know, there's two different ways to race an 800. You could be a speed oriented 800 meter racer who's getting out hard and trying to get a gap on the field. And then you could be a strength oriented 800 meter runner who's, you know, maybe can't cover that sizzling pace up front, although it's sounding like maybe these on guys can.

But, you know, typically those strength runners are going to be a little further back at the 400, but they're going to be working on the back stretch and coming off that final turn to try to make up the space. And so I think that also adds to the drama and the fun of an 800 when you have athletes with different skill sets kind of seeing where they, you know, where they align and collide. Who is the hare and who is the hound in this equation? We have got the On Running women’s 1500, but before we get to that, we are going to play a little ad for you, then we'll get back here. >> Maybe, maybe there's a runner out there who always feels amazing, who doesn

't need anyone to remind her why she's out there. Maybe there's this runner out there so full of running, wherever this runner might be, we haven't found them yet, because we weren't looking for this one runner. >> What a team. >> Yeah. All right, speaking of the team, we have got the On Running women’s 1500 on deck later in the evening. And that one features Gabriela Debues-Stafford, who is the defending champion in this track meet, the Track Meet last year, Track Fest this year. See what is going to be next year, but Track Fest for now. And she ran 4:03.2, I believe, to beat Sinclair Johnson in Sinclair Johnson’s ascendant season

ascended season last year, and she's looking to come back and make some noise. But who else do we have in there? Well, I mean, I think Debues-Stafford, we have got her coming off of such a strong season last year that was cut short with a sacral stress fracture, and now, you know, first race back a year later, kind of kicking off. You know, she's had a coaching change, it's been a big year, it's been a lot of changes going on. And so, I think she's going to be one to watch to see, as you said, kind of where she establishes herself. Of course, we have Nozomi Tanaka, her personal best is 3:59. She just ran last weekend, she was fifth at Drake, 4:13, she has been racing a lot

over the last couple of years, but, you know, eighth place at the Tokyo Olympics, you know, Olympic finalists, eighth place, you can't ever not keep an eye on her. And then, once again, we have two On Athletics Club athletes, both Sinta and Sage, that are competing in this race. And so, you know, they are set to go out at 4:03 pace, I think, you know, if I am looking at the field, I think there's going to be that desire to get in that low fours, maybe, you know, it's early season, but, you know, these athletes trying to see like, okay, where's my benchmark as I kick off this year? Coming back after those performances at the Penn Relays last week, too, Sage

Hurta-Klecker and Sintayehu Vissa. So, I mean, they've dusted off or kicked off some rust out there out in Penn in the rainy weather, and now we are under the sun here at Mt. SAC, and we will see what they can do in the three and three quarters. Further down the line here, this is a world athletic silver level meet. So we're going to get close to the first race pretty soon, but we just want to let you know that athletes have valuable points up for grabs in this meet, and we'll talk about that throughout the broadcast and give you a bit more of what that means, but it values racing much more than the system has in the past, and athletes facing off

against each other and head-to-head match-ups and really gaining points based on the quality of the meet that they're competing as opposed to just achieving a fast time and being able to move on from there. But guiding them along their journey today around the track, we have got the Wavelight, and that is brought to you by the Track Town USA Kids Club. The Kids Club is designed to develop and nurture fandom. Membership is free for children. With grade and below, you can visit tracktownusakidsclub.com to register today. Please do that. The Wavelight is the lighted segment. You'll see it as we get the 800 meters section two lining up right now for the

women, but you'll see it guiding them along the track, and we'll let you know what the p aces are and what they mean as the race begins. But we have the women lining up right now, and let's get into those fields. So we have got Mikayla Meyer here from the Nike Union Athletics Club, and she is a 1:58 woman, so definitely can do some damage out there. Yeah, PR-wise, she is at least two or three seconds faster than the rest of the field, but not necessarily season best-wise. There is Susan Aneno from the Peninsula Distance Club, who has a season best of 2:03 from indoors. Mikayla Meyer has a season best of 2:06.58 that she ran last weekend at Penn.

Arguably with her personal best, she could have been in a faster heat, but I think if we're looking at the context of the year, probably just looking to get herself off to a start in a race where she can be competitive and probably maybe hoping to control it a little bit. And she's in hit or in lane three here, Skylin Webb, somebody else to keep an eye on. I believe she was supposed to be in lane four, but lane four looks like it's empty. The pace here for the Wavelights, so the lights are set to 58 second pace, and the pacer will follow the blue light up front, and the runners will follow the

green light. 58 exactly will be at the top of the, at the front of the blue light, and the green light will be going at 58 second pace, so it'll just be ahead of them. Keep an eye on that. Susan Aneno in here as well, Anna Connor of the Cascadia Elite. I'm going to give a shout out to the Union Athletic Club's new kit that they're debuting. That's what Mikayla's wearing in lane three. You can see the field up here, Yasmine Hernandez, Anna Connor, Mikayla Meyer, Susan Aneno, HongJiao Wu. And here we go. We are off and running the first event of the Track Fest 2023, and that is Mikay la Meyer on the inside as they roll by the stage, and we'll see who gets out front here.

I believe this is not a paced affair, so purely racing. Well, we were supposed to have Saravan Dyke at 58 for 400, but I'm not sure that that perhaps is fair in the front. We're out. We are out hot, 27 to 28 pace for the front. That Susan Aneno there behind the front runner. And then we have HongJiao Wu in here, as well as GuiPing Zhang, Chinese athletes. So you can see Mikayla Meyer in there, the 1:58 athlete in fourth position and the blue the blue lights there. So they're ahead of schedule. Strung out, tucked together, 58, right? It's a 58 second first lap. So right on the nose, that is Saravan Dyke there, took him through, and now it

's Susan Aneno out front as they circle around to 500 meters. Still Susan Aneno getting a gap, and now Mikayla Meyer looks to be going by into second position. That's her in the blue uniform. Meyer former University of Virginia athlete, national champion there. About 1:30 through 600 meters, Aneno now getting a gap on the field. Yeah, Aneno put in a strong push leading it, right going into that 200 to go mark, separated herself from the field. They were close until that point, and she's just coming home hard. She's turning on the Jets right now for the Peninsula Distance Club. That's out of Northern California.

Vena Evans, the coach, shout out. Driving the arms to the table. See what the time on the clock is. 2:01.73 for Susan Aneno, a very good time for Heat 2 of the women’s 800 meters . It is a personal best if it is 2:01. That would be a personal best for Aneno. Great way to kick it off here. Way to go. Some handshakes along the way, and there's the track side cam. So the USA standard here is 1:59.8. So it's a tough standard to make it to USA's this year, but there's your winner . Susan Aneno and Mikayla Meyer getting a hug. Season best for her as well, 2:04, her previous season best was 2:06 from last

weekend. So, you know, it was a, I think that was a really well set up field of athletes . Like in an 800, it can be tricky. You're only getting usually in a perfect world. Eight athletes in that race are each in their lane, so they have a little bit more space because the 800 can get so hairy and messy, but you know, they were all kind of in the pace, strung out, closing well. Aneno broke away with her 2:01, and then as we can see on the results, you know, 2:04 for Meyer, 2:04 for Wu, Hernandez 2:05, and Connor 2:07. Aneno, a constant on the scene here too, and in the United States, she's a Ug

andan athlete. Yeah. I mean, I think that, you know, it was a, seemed like a really well set up race for what they were trying to execute, and you know, I think that's something that we were mentioning to each other beforehand, but when you sort of put into context where this race is in the whole kind of season trajectory, we're going to see some, or some collegiate appearances, but they have about just over four weeks until their NCs, they are sharp and, you know, looking know, looking for maybe a personal best or breakthrough for the pros, most of them are just starting off their season, or like, you know, one race into it.

And so, you know, it's, it's, this is really an opportunity for them to understand how their training is translating. Oh, we have got some Athletic Brewing beers here too, non-alcoholic on the broadcast, just for the fresh delivery. Let everybody know at home, you caught us, we didn't know that the cam was coming in here to take a look, but this is what we've got right now. So a little peek on the inside for you as we get into the men's 800 meter here, section two down on the line, keep an eye on Devin Dixon there, the tall guy in lane four. Oh, yeah, we got Athletic Brewing on the screen there as well.

Shout out. Delicious. Devin Dixon, a 1:44 guy at Texas A&M, and I, he has got the wheels too. I know his relay split times are, are out of this world. I want to say that he has gone under 44 seconds on a relay split for 400. Yeah, his personal best is 45 for an open 400. And then 1:44 from 2019 is his personal best in the 800, and they are off. As we intro them, they took off. And here we go. You will see the Wavelight is set for 52 seconds here. And this, this race is on pace. So this is, this is purely a racing affair and it looks like Devin Dixon is getting the inside, but out front, that is Maxime Tillman, Rocket Run.

He is a 1:49 man. So Dixon tucking in right behind Maxime Tillman here on the rail and they are right on pace. You could see them ahead of the green lights there. So right up there, keeping their lights in the pocket on the inside. Paulin, behind a little bit on the goal pace, but right at the edge of it for a 53-ish for the first 400. You can see Dixon coming wide, getting ready, I think to make his move on the back stretch. It looks as if there is a pretty strong headwind on the finish. So some of these athletes might be wanting to take advantage of the wind at their back on the back stretch right now as they approach it.

And we got a 53.6 there for the opening lap. So just shy of that 52 mark that they were shooting for, but it's all about the racing here. And we got Grosvenor swinging up on the outside there. Grant Grosvenor. Dixon still holding the line. Oh, and who's this swinging wide? This is it. They got out 53.6. So anybody's got a shot here, but look at Dixon opening it up, showing the class. Lots of daylight between him and the rest of the field. And I think that's, you know, as we watch him finish, he's able to maintain that lead on the rest of the field for his 1:49. So a 1:49.8 for the opening 800 here on the men’s side.

And it's a good win for Dixon too. It's good to see him get out there and win a race. I like that. But his season best was from indoors. He ran Albuquerque 400 and a 800 at the US Championships indoors. So this is his season best for outdoors, a season opener for outdoors. And you know, with 800s, it's tough. You're usually, unless you're an athlete who does like a lot of time traveling at practice, you're not an athlete. You're not normally going to have your fastest 800 right out of the blocks. Like usually it takes a few races to kind of work into it. And so I think for someone like Dixon, this is an opportunity for him to

establish kind of where he's at. I see now, it leads into the next eight weeks or so of training for US Champs. Still very early season running for 800 guys. Right. And we got Charles Shimukowa up there in second, Maxime Tillman for the third spot. And that is your first heat of the 800 meters. And it's nice to see the guys shaking hands and high five and after the race to just enjoying being out here. It's a great evening for track here in Walnut, California. I think some of these guys have personal best. I'm trying to do my best to look, but oh, no, probably not. I'm looking at the start list, pardon me, viewers, but great competition.

Once again, I think like a race that was really close together throughout and then just separated at the end. We look over to the track. We now have the 1500 getting ready to start. This is section three of the women's 1500 meters. So we're going to go three, two, one. One is the hot heat and that'll be taking place later this evening when the main event starts at 7:20 p.m. But section three here, the Wavelights are going for about 4:10 pace. And that is 66.7 per lap. So we have Yasmine Hernandez slated to pace this race at about 4:10. Look at this. We have got on the start list here, we have got Nia Akins on the Brooks Beasts.

First time ever last year at this meet, she broke two minutes for the 800, skipped 1:59 all- together and went to 1:58. But I'm interested to see what she can do here over three and three quarter laps. Personal best of 4:16 for Nia. So we'll see if she can, she can notch that down a little bit, but we've got a good look at the competitors, Lilly Doss there and the BYU athletes, Riley Chamberlain and Carmen Alder. Three of them. Three of Diljeet’s. So I spoke with coach Diljeet Taylor, the BYU coach beforehand and she spoke to the fact that I believe she has about eight athletes here since they don't have a

conference this year, it starts, they'll be in next year. But three freshmen, which she said was really a sign of their program and the depth of their program and it's kind of an opportunity also to expose these collegiate athletes, especially these freshmen to the world of the pros. So when they go back to those college races, they can feel that much more confident. It won't be as scary, expanding their horizons and sort of seeing what you're made of so that you can continue to develop and set higher and higher goals for yourself. So they're shaking it out on the line here, getting ready, BYU has been an

excellent program over the last few years. Coach Taylor has done an amazing job there and she has a professional group of her former athletes training with her too. Taylor made. We'll see you tonight. Yeah. There's the Schofield in here, New Balance Athlete and here we go, the women's 1500 meters heat three and I do not believe that I see Nia Akins out there on the track. So we will see if we see her later on maybe in heat two or we will check on that as we get more information. I'm shifting around that happened last minute, but in this field here, we're supposed to have our pacer Yasmine Hernandez going out for about 2:13 for eight

hundred. That is 4:10 pace, which would be a personal best for I think everyone in this field should they hit it. And so they're all within that blue section of lights, which is the kind of pace setting for that pacer. 4:10, a big-time barrier on the women’s side for the 1500 meters and I want to say the guys side as well. Yeah. That's a big one to get under. Yeah. The USA standard for this event is 4:05 flat, getting steeper and steeper each year. The world standard 4:03.5 and the Olympic standard for Paris next year is 4:02.5. So here we go, first lap, it was about 67. Just close to what they requested, but it's bunching up, which tells me they've

slowed down. You can see kind of from this angle, they're now even behind the green lights, but Hernandez makes it almost to six hundred meters here and then it looks like Ellie Leather up front there, of the Mission Run Baltimore distance, and then a gang of blue back there, the BYU Cougars, and they're working together. I like to see some teamwork here. I wonder what Diljeet told them heading into this race. It's a great feeling to have teammates on the line to work off of. And they're altitude, training at altitude, so coming down to sea level, a really great opportunity to sharpen up and that extra oxygen, you know, put it, put it to

your advantage in these races. But I mean, look at the BYU athlete taking off right now. This is Riley Chamberlain up front and she is gapping the field a little bit, 2:15 thereabouts through 800 meters. So 4:30 1600 pace for those high school runners out there, California high school athletes. And she looks like she's pouring it on at the moment, Riley Chamberlain all by herself up there in front. She has a personal best of 4:14, season best also the same as her personal best. So she, you know, this is what we're saying before, these collegiate athletes are sharp compared to the pros, compared to a lot of the pros, a lot sharper because they

've been racing and as they look towards NCAA's, they're trying to use this as an opportunity to get personal best, you know, because the, it's all championship racing now at the NC's. So here is Riley Chamberlain up front, coming in with a lap to go, she hits the bell and bell at about 3:05, 3:05.10, and then Carmen Alder, her teammate behind her, 3:07.07, so we 'll see if Alder can catch up to her, but about 3:22 at 1200 meters. She can close, she is going to be right at that 4:10 mark for a big personal best . You can see her flying down the back straight here, so 66.2 for that lap and here we

here we go with 200 meters to go. Alder also a 4:14 personal best, slightly faster than Chamberlain, so the two of them are well matched. Chamberlain, of course, having given herself a big gap on lap three and Alder trying to see if she can track her down over this last 100 meters. Chamberlain doing a lot of the work here, trying to hang on to those green lights so you know it is close to 4:10 pace, just outside. And Alder trying to chase down her teammate here, but this could be PR's for both of them. We'll see what they are when they get to the line as they pass these beautiful on banners on the inside.

So close. Yeah, 4:13, we will see what it is officially for Riley Chamberlain. 4:13.07, 67.9 on that closing lap. So looking at her splits here, that third lap, she really gave it some gas and that's something that a lot of milers are scared to do. They're scared of that third lap, Shannon. Yeah, well, the third lap, the second lap you need to kind of regroup a bit. The third lap is when you have to kind of start pouring it on and like pressing the pace a bit. I think we may have the third lap is when the ghosts can grab you out there, but not for Chamberlain. She pushed it all the way and she's rewarded with a win and her teammate Carmen

Alder second place, then Tracy Vanderwick, then Lilly Doss and Kristi Schofield for New balance coming in fifth place there at 4:21. So next up on the track, we have got the men’s 1500 section three. See who we have in this race. This race is slated to go 3:39 pace. There's a good view right there of the Gooder beer garden too, right on the rail there, track side. So that is going to get rowdy right about 7:20 p.m. I want to say we're on the opposite side of the track from the steeple pit. But look at this t-shirts going into the crowd. Come on. That's what it's all about. That's it. That arm's a t-shirt cannon right there.

We got Ali On the Run down on the infield, hyping up the crowd. All right. Here's a good look at your 1500 meters men's section three race. As we said, the lights are scheduled for 3:39. That blue light is the pacing light and then the green light is the 3:39 pace light. So this is 58 per lap. Ajay Kumar in this race, Charlie Dannatt, David Timlin of Wanna Beast, Sean Peterson, Parvesh Khan, Ben Veatch, Under Armour Dark Sky Distance, Akis Madrano from Tracksmith , Ryan Clark, Joseph Tsema, Peak Running Elite. There's Timlin there on the inside throwing up the signs. I saw Coach Li before the race.

He is Bernard Lagat’s coach, but now coaching some of the Chinese athletes that we're seeing in these races tonight about just under two years that he's been coaching them. And I think in the performances that we're seeing from these Chinese athletes, you can really see the effects of his coaching as they start to improve and have personal bests. How about it? We're off here. Men's 1500 section three. No pacer, just the wave lights. That's right. Just the lights to guide them home here in the 15. We got the Chinese athletes out front. That is Liu and Xie. And they've got a plan out from the gun it looks like.

Yeah, three Chinese athletes, then two Indian athletes, a Puerto Rican, very international field, which I think speaks to the importance of having quality races like this . So many of the athletes that I spoke with are we're up in Flagstaff or Boulder, doing altitude training, and we're able to pop down here, or Mammoth, and we're able to pop down here for competition. That first split. Let's see if we can get that to you. So 44.2. About 59 pace, on four-flat pace. And there's no blue light because there's no pacer, so it's just the green light that is exactly where they want to be right at the front of those green lights.

So Liu is trying to chase that light at the moment, and Xie is on his heels. And we'll see how long the Chinese athletes can push this, and if everybody else wants to hang on. We have got Charlie Dannatt there of Simon Fraser University in third place, out of Vancouver, Canada, and they've got an excellent DMR team, coached by Britt Townsend, fantastic runner herself. But we have still got Liu pushing the pace as we get to two laps to go, 1,500 meters. A good pace rolling right now, 3:39. That was a 59.53 — yeah, 59.53 for that second lap of the track. So just under the pace that they said they wanted, but strong.

And once again, you can see, just by looking at the field and how it's strung out, that it's a strong pace for the field, they're all just tucked in and really trying to hang on to the pace that is being set by Liu. And about 1:59 at 800 meters. Sean Peterson out there in the New Balance kit, it looks like, with that number four on his leg. A little strain on Liu’s face, you can see also, now, you know, we are hitting that 500 to go when the moves start to really happen. So we got a bunch of four, and AJ Kumar coming up to the lead here at the bell. Looking good. We'll ring that thing for you, and Kumar's driving right now.

We got a little jostling with Chinese teammates there. But about 58.4 there, you can see on the screen for the split. And we will see what it looks like at 1,200 meters, about 2:57 there, and the pace lights have gotten away from them a little bit, but this is all about the racing here. Kumar’s driving, and we got Charlie Dannatt there in the second position. And then Xie trying to hang on to Dannatt’s heels, but it is Kumar and Dannatt as they're inside 200 meters to go. Kumar really driving here. Looks great. Those arms really strong. He's got the wheels. Chin going side to side, Dannatt head down, looking straight at his shoulder

blades. Kumar's rolling, though. Here he goes. Let's see what this is as we come up to the line. It's going to be a big PR, I think, for him. The smoke guns are going. There we go. 3. 39. 3. 3:43 was his previous personal best. We broke 3:40. Big race for him. 3. 39. 89. 56. 8. Final circuit. That's what I'm talking about. Like Will Leer always says, it is always a good day when you can close it under 60 . That is true. That is true. And that's well under 60. So we got Charlie Dannatt there, Simon Fraser, in second place. 3. 41. Sean Peterson rolling up there. 3. 42. 85. Nice race for him. DongSheng Xie.

3. 43. So the Chinese athletes set the pace early. But then Kumar really capitalized at the end, throwing that 56 card on the table. Yeah. He looked great. He kind of moved out wide and took the lead with about, just, he started moving out wide and moving up with about 450 to go and then really hit that final lap in a great position, looking like he had a lot of running left in his legs and he carried it all the way through the finish line to have a big personal best. We're going to get right back to the women's 1500 meters section two when we come back. We're going to get right back to the end.

And we're back here, Hilmer Lodge Stadium, where the world's best athletes compete. This is the women's 1500 meters section two. Later on tonight, we will have the On Running women’s 1500 meters top heat. But this heat looks to be going around 4:08. That's the pace that the lights are slated to hit there as we get a good look at the field. El Adana Hu there in the Union Athletics blue, Regan Yee, Canadian steeple chaser, body skiring in here. Aisha Praught-Leer, Puma athlete running for Jamaica, Mia Barnett here, UCLA athlete too. I believe two years ago in this race, or in this meet, I should say, she won

the high school mile. So now stepping up, heat two, next year maybe the top heat. When we saw Praught-Leer in the warm-up area beforehand, and she was speaking to kind of recovery from surgery and getting back into fitness, and she has the best personal best in this field by about three seconds or so. But using this as a development opportunity before she heads abroad for some exciting races, and she said, Hengelo and Tokyo, for the Jamaican championships. Guns up and they're off in the women's 1500 meters. Here, as we said, Anna Connor is the pacer out there. As you can see at the left-hand side of your screen, and she's looking when to

cut in, does so nicely. Also in this race, Claudia Hollingsworth, the On Athletics Club Oceania, Australian athlete, she is 18 years old, and she has run 4:07.69 this year at that Australian season earlier in this summer down there, because, I mean, we swap summer and winter with them. That whole hemisphere thing. This is Anna Connor out front, Regan Yee, the Canadian steeplechase athlete, jumping up right there in the right behind Anna Connor on her heels with the green lights to her side. Regan Yee actually won a nice indoor mile at the Iowa Hawkeye Classic this year, right about 4:30 in a kicking finish.

So she's dangerous. That first split was about 49 for Connor, about 50 for Yee, about 66-67 pace, right on what they are hoping for for that 4:08. Mia Barnett, not wearing her UCLA blue, she's in the black uniform in third position right now, tucked into her inside in the blue behind Yee, that is Ella Donaghu for the Union Athletics Union athletics club. She just raced at Drake last weekend in the 800, where she ran around 2:09, hoping that hoping that that sharpener will give her that sense of ease as she comes to then the 1500 where the pace is a little slower and a little more in what she's kind of like her main

event. Now there's a gap with the rabbit up front here, and it's a little bunched up there. What do you think athletes are looking to do? Are they trying to close down this pace here, or are they waiting for somebody else to do it? I think it's not super bunched up, which tells me it's not like it's an easy, uncomfortably slow pace for them, but it's also not strung out to the point that they're really being pushed to their max. You see people kind of coming about too wide on the shoulders, we've got Barnett looking like she wants to go, but doesn't want to take the lead quite yet. I think in a scenario like this, we see Praught-Leer now coming up to the front, and

now usually it is in this third lap where there's someone that's finally like, "I've got strength, I'm going to start pushing from further out, and it seems that that is Aisha Praught-Leer today. Here we go, Aisha Praught-Leer coming back from surgery too, and she has taken the lead here with Mia Barnett on her shoulder. And Barnett, same thing, Barnett, Praught-Leer came by, Barnett then went on her shoulder. Now I think somewhere soon, Barnett, it's either going to be going into 400 or probably on that back stretch if she has it, she's going to try to push to the front, but I think she's a little hesitant to put herself out there too early.

Praught-Leer has the pole position, and Mia Barnett is in a nice spot too, Regan Yee boxed in on the inside right now, and I believe that is Claudia Hollingsworth, an 18-year -old in that green and white singlet, OAC Oceania, right in that fourth spot, third fourth spot on the outside. So this could be anybody's race here, but Mia Barnett really pushing down that back stretch. And now Hollingsworth, it's a race for the young-ins here. I know. Look at this, Mia Barnett pouring it on here, 200 meters to go, Hollingsworth hot on our heels, this is USA versus Australia here, where the world's best athletes

compete. It says so on the wall. Who's going to take this? 18-year-old Hollingsworth swings around, gets that lead at the front, and now it looks like Mia Barnett still has something to give, but Hollingsworth looking so smooth here down the stretch. Just so much control coming wide and then just driving at home, Barnett tying up a little bit at the end and just getting passed by Yee. 4:08.66 for Claudia Hollingsworth, not quite a personal best. She ran that 4:07. Barnett, I believe that's, yep, a personal best for Barnett. I am sure she was probably wanting to get under 4:10, but she did have a personal

best. Previously it was 4:10.23. She just ran 4:10 flat. And it looks like Regan Yee jumped up to take that second spot there too, 4:09. 78. Just in the last like 20 meters or so, she was able to nip past Barnett. Carina Viljoen there for the Mammoth Track Club, 4:10.14, the South African athlete. We saw her at the park earlier this morning after we got back from our jog, stretching out, getting ready for the race tonight. And there we go, Claudia Hollingsworth, Mottie Skyring, the Australian athletes with the On Athletics Club, coached by Craig Mottram, Australian hero, sub-13 5000 meter man.

I mean, 17 years old running 4:08, that is quite impressive. She's got a bright future. But what we were saying before, we have these Australian athletes. A lot of them have done, you know, kicking off with World Cross in Bathurst, and then a series of outdoor races for them in Australia. A lot of them have four or five races under their belt by now, and then they're somewhere in Doha recently, some are here this weekend, but really kicking off this outdoor season for the Northern Hemisphere athletes. But for them, pretty sharp, and the same goes for these Collegians where they 're coming off of a college season, where they've got five, sometimes ten or more races

under their belt. And so it's not surprising to me that we see these collegiate and younger athletes really dominating in this, you know, in this race, in these earlier races. Yep. Shannon, how about this? Take a look at the screen. Well, we will cheers some Athletic non-alcoholic beverages here. We have got up in this next heat to none other than the man, the myth, the legend , Matthew Centrowitz himself, the 2016 Olympic champion in Rio, and he is towing the line. He had some, he did some racing down in Australia in that early season, and he 's rounding back into form after a surgery himself earlier last year.

But he, he ran about 1:56 in the 800 down there. He ran 4:06 for the mile, he ran 7:53 for the 3K, so seems like his strength was in a good place down there. And now you never know what Centro, like he could just pop up at any moment, and track is a better place with Matt Centrowitz in it. When he is firing, I do not know what track would be like without Matthew Centro witz. Well, he's such a savvy racer, and yeah, you know, I think the last couple years have been a little tough for him with injuries and changing coaches, but also exciting. He's engaged, he's moved. I think it's, it was interesting he had his pre-race interview, and he was a

very subdued Matt. Usually, you know, having been his teammate, I'm used to wild, you know, kind of trash talking Matt Centrowitz, but he has matured, he is, as we said, he is set to be married. So he's, and I think, you know, you had shared, you had a conversation with him , and he just is joyful and excited about this process of rebuilding. It's a weird, it's a weird cycle, right? There hasn't been a down year, last year should have been the down year for all of us, but it wasn't because of COVID and the year we lost in 2020, and so, you know, with Paris ahead, I'm sure his eyes are set on that, and he knows how to peak when it

counts. Joyful is a good word. I would say he's hot, he's got fire in his eyes. He's a determined individual, and he's facing off against a good field here, so we've got Colton Johnsen in this race. Casey Neville-Bart, somebody to look out for, for the Under Armour Dark Sky Elite, Zach Stallings, Washington State, Austin Miller, too, of the Tinman Elite. He won a nice early-heat mile in the Millrose Games this winter, and the pace for this race is set, they want 3:35, so that would be 57.3s, and that is what the lights are to be set for, that's what they told us. So 3:35 is a good pace, as we know the USA standard is 3:37 flat.

The world standard 3:34.2, next year’s Olympic standard 3:35, and we are in that window, too, so if they get under 3:35, then they have hit that for Paris next year. But we have got Grant Grosvenor here, the pacer, looking back, seeing if anybody is coming 's coming with him, and it looks like Eduardo Herrera is in that second position. This is the same Grant Grosvenor that we just saw, I might add, in the men’s 800 section too, so. Doing a lot of work tonight. Bless his heart. Herrera comes through right around 59, too, there, for 400 meters, trying to get up on Grosvenor’s heels, and then Austin Miller, that tall athlete there, wearing the colorful

colorful Adidas kit, and he is running for Tinman Elite. Zach Stallings, Washington State. The fastest PR in this field is 3:35, so if they were to hit — and that is Rob He ppenstall, so if they were to hit 3:35 for the field, that would be a big accomplishment. Eduardo Herrera, near the front right now, personal best of 3:38, really the only person who's committed to going with that rabbit, which, you know, we will see once the pace or drops, kind of how he's able to maintain that pace that he set for himself. They come through two laps remaining, and there's a good gap, there's about 15 meters

that Herrera has on Austin Miller here, and you can't see it on the screen at the moment. Matt Centrowitz is tucked in second from the back at the moment, but the pack is, , everybody's in line here, there are no, no separating pieces, so Herrera now out front on his own, and that's Austin Miller back there, Herrera still has a lead extending at the moment. And you can see in the chase pack, it's all strung out, so I think they, you know, now we're within that last 600 meters of the race, this is the point at which the moves are made, and people start to kind of lay it out there, if you will, but with

that pace being strung out, it tells me that people are, that their chase pack is fully into the chase, we have got Matt Centrowitz making his usual savvy move, just gliding to the front so that he hits the bell in the perfect position to run clear for that to chase down Herrera. And Herrera out front now, and he's got a big lead, as you can see on your And Herrera out front now, and he has got a big lead, as you can see on your screen, Matt Centrowitz has moved himself into the second place position, and he is driving that second pack, so we'll see if he can get close to Herrera, but Herrera comes through

1200 meters, and now getting close to 200 meters to go, he's trying to chase those green lights. Yeah, four or five second lead on, or on the, maybe a few second lead on the rest of the group, but, and he doesn't look like he's slowing down either. Herrera was 2:39.9 with a lap to go, and we will see what he can get, but it looks like Matt like Matt Centrowitz is trying to hold off Neville-Bart coming wide on the outside, but Herrera driving to the line here, what is he gonna run, 3:38 — 3:38.45 for Herrera, and then Neville-Bart gets second there, it looks like. A very good run for Herrera, 58.46,

closing final lap, 3:40.13 for Neville-Bart, and then Centrowitz coming in third, 3:40. 46, so not a bad showing, given his results from Australia — the 1:56, the 4:06, the 7:53 , he now has a 3:40 back in the States, with eight weeks to the USA championships. Centro also closing in 56.23 for that final lap, Neville-Bart, the fastest closing lap in the field, placing second, getting that 55.29 there. Kinda handed to Herrera, you know, he was the only one that went with the pacer, he ran , he ran then the remaining 700 meters of the race by himself, and, you know, a little, I saw little tightening up the last, maybe 20 meters or so, but not really, like, he

just really maintained form for, pretty much the whole race and came close to his personal best, less than a half second off of his personal best in a race that he, you know, ran the second half solo, so, props to him on that performance. So it's a good opener for these guys here, not an opener for all of them, there 's been a few meets down here in Southern California too, where we've seen a lot of great, great results come out of, Bryan Clay being one of them at Azusa, and of course the Mount Mount Sac relays that took place here in this facility earlier this year, the times that we've been pouring through as we've been looking at these athletes coming into this meet

have largely come from those, those meets down here in California, elsewhere in the country, the weather's a little unpredictable, so, people like coming out to where it's, where it's nice here in the Golden State to race. You know, us native Californians, a little bit biased, but I will say that the conditions, it started out a little windy earlier in the night, and you, I still see the wind kind of like, it can't decide if it wants to stay or go, but, but overall really great conditions, especially for the distance races, and typically as the sun sets, the wind tends to settle, so as we get to these longer races later in the night, we're hoping that the

condition continued to stay good or even improve, and this is the women's 5,000 meters section two here on the line, that is Lisa Rooney, got Eva Richardson in here, Erin Teschuk, a Canadian athlete, Anna Dibaba in this race as well, sister of Tirunesh Dibaba — yes, raced, and Genzebe, who I raced against. Genzebe Dibaba as well, also in this race, Roisin Flanagan of Ireland, Hannah Steelman an On athlete here, so a lot of, a lot of good athletes in here that are roughly around roughly around the 15:30 mark, the time that they are shooting for here, the pace, the lights are set for is 15:15, and that is 73.2 pace.

I think Katrina Coogan has the fastest personal best in this field with a 15:24. So we see the BYU athletes that did so well in that 1500 coming back to pace, this is Chamberlain and Alder, so Diljeet Taylor giving them a, a bit of a job to do here, they are getting their workout in now afterwards, that's right, and they're off here, another name that I'm looking at in this list too is Marta Pen Freitas as well, the Portuguese athlete who's better known as a 1500 runner, and you can see her tucked in middle of the front of the pack there in the white, whitish yellow singlet. Right, black bottoms, she had a cute post that she shared about sort of this

developing relationship with the 5k, and you know, like the, you know, previously it was like on again off again, but trying to be a little bit more committed, see how she can do in it. She is a Brooks Beast out of Seattle, but a Portuguese Olympian too, in Tokyo. Yes. And 12 and a half laps here on the track, so we've got Alder up front and then Chamberlain, the BYU pacers, and then Erin Teschuk. We have the goal of 3K at 9:09 pace, which is that 15:15 5K pace. Not sure, you know, what the, the Pacers, you know, how much, if they're fully committed to that 3k or not, but Alder and Chamberlain are going to be able to work

together out there and get a really great double for the day. Jenna Hutchins in here too, of BYU, their team-mate, you can see her on the right side of the screen. Yeah, another one of Diljeet Taylor's athletes. Aubrey Frentheway in here, BYU athlete too. So the pacing for this, 73s per lap, they were out at 71 for the first lap, but they all look, well, pretty, I mean, it's one lap into a 5k, but pretty settled and kind of a thick pack. It's a big field of athletes. Yeah, it looks like there are 23 athletes in this race in total, which is, yeah , a big, big field for 5,000 on the track. Jen Randall in here too, tucked into the middle of the pack right now, and the

result, or the live result, say the 14th position. Also, I want to call out Katie Camarena in here too, ran for Portland State, and she's a great 1,500 meter athlete, training in Flagstaff at the moment too. But trying out the 5k, and she's also got one of the better personal best in the 5k in this race, 15:27. That was the 73 for that second lap, right at the pace that they've requested, and, you know, as we add, the best personal best in the field is Katrina Coogan, if I am reading this correctly, with a 15:... I think I said a 15:25-ish. So 15:15 is an ambitious time goal for the field, but, you know, when you have

bodies, many athletes committed to going after the pace in a facility like this beautiful facility at Mt. SAC, magic can happen as we saw it with The Ten earlier in the year. Plus, we got the jams of DJ JJ, seriously, people, if you are anywhere close to Mount Mount SAC right now, you should come as much as we want you to listen to us, come be here in person and feel the magic, it's pretty special. Yeah, they're rocking out here. That is three laps for the women here in the 5,000-meter section two, Amy Bunnage there in the third position. The first true racer in this race is the BYU athletes up front are pacing, and

The first true racer in this race — the BYU athletes up front are pacing — and then Anna Dibaba is there in that fourth position, second true racer. There is a 73 for lap three, they are continuing on that 15:15 pacing. I will say with the 5k, it's really the truth-telling moment is usually around that 3K / 2-mile mark. That's when the athlete can feel for themselves whether they've kind of paced it correctly or not, and you will usually at around 3K / 3200 meters see some athletes taking off and some others maybe falling back a bit. Really, this first mile is about just establishing a solid pace for yourself

that you can build on later, but you can make up a lot of time in the last couple laps if you've paced it correctly. Here, they're getting close to 1,600 meters coming up momentarily. Chamberlain going wide looks like she is done with her— oh, both, both pacers are done. 5:53 through 1,600 meters as both pacers step off, and then it is Bunnage left in the front, and that is Lea Meyer, too, in second place, who is a 9:15 steeplechaser, a German athlete, and a Tokyo Olympian in that event. So she's testing out the 5,000 meters, getting some early-season strength here, Hilmer Lodge Stadium at the Track Fest, but a world-class athlete there, 9:15.

And Bunnage is another Australian athlete that we've got who's come over from a series of racing in Australia, also young, only 18 years of age, and really a strong crew of Australian women that have started to really push each other, and really huge developments and improvements in those national records led by my former teammate Jess Hull. Shout out to her, but Bunnage, age 18, leading this field of women is pretty cool to see. Bunnage has got Meyer behind her, a Tokyo Olympian, and then a Dibaba behind her. Roisin Flanagan as well, who had a great indoor season running a good low-8:50s personal

-fifties personal best in 3,000 meters this year. But that's Bunnage out front, and she's clicking off 73's, 72's here, and we're coming up to 2,200 meters. We'll give you what the pace is here, as you have Bunnage and Meyer start to separate themselves. Bunnage ran a 15:31 on April 1st in Australia, so she is well under that current personal personal best pace that she set just over a month ago. Bunnage ratcheting down the pace, so at 1,400 meters, she was 73.9, then 1,800 meters, 72.5, and now 2,200 meters, 72.2, so she is just kicking it down a little bit and stringing out this field, and there are multiple packs going on, but this is 2,600 meters

that they just passed there, as they went by the start line, so over halfway, and we're coming up to the halfway mark right now, sorry, no, we already passed it, that's what I just said. Bunnage driving the pace, they're leaving it to the young one up here at front, and that's what it's all about, it's a new generations hitting the track. Meyer, though, hanging on her heels as they approach 2,600 meters, 74 seconds, sorry, that my distance was off, that was 2,500 meters at the top of the straight, this is 2,600 meters, now they're 2,700 meters, now that you need all of those splits, but just so

that we have everything, not that we're distance athletes by nature and need those precise splits for you, but you can look at the field, it's strung out, you got our lead pack that has about 5 athletes led by Bunnage, and you go back a bit, you got 2 athletes that go back a bit, 2 athletes more, it's just very strung out, you can tell this is a fast pace for this crew, and I think, as I was saying earlier, in I think in a couple laps we're going to start to see who's actually ready for that personal best as the early pace kind of settles into the body. This is a very good group here, there's 5 athletes, it's a good amount of

athletes to work together up front, Katie Camarena the 5th athlete in this field, as they come they come up to 3,000 meters at 9:09, so that is right at 15:15 pace, that is 3:03 per K, and 15:15 is notable, or sorry, USA standard is 15:09.95, 15:15 is the pace that they are going for. Now we see Meyer coming up on Bunnage's shoulder, that last 2 laps were, so B unnage had put in on lap 5 and 6, 72's, lap 7 was a 74, lap 8 a 73, now Meyer's taking over, I 'm assuming like kind of make sure that pace doesn't start to slow down after the early work that they've put in. About 9:45 through 3,200 meters there too, and Lea Meyer has gone to the front and she is,

she's, this is it, she's going to the front here and she's making her move with a little less than 2K to go, but Bunnage holding on there, we'll see if she can hang with Lea Meyer, and now Camarena is coming up, she's making a pass up to the third position and trying to latch on to Bunnage, it looks like, if she goes by Roisin Flanagan just slightly off screen, so maybe we'll see her coming to the picture shortly if she tries, there she is , trying to catch up to Bunnage. And that was a good move for Camarena because the, that separation was starting to happen, and in fact Bunnage is now falling off Meyer, as it seems like the pace may be

starting to catch up to Bunnage, Camarena was in a really great position like just right on the back of that lead pack, but and now we see her passing Bunnage just outside of the screen, I think with the goal of getting on Meyer, looks like Camarena is ready for a great race tonight. Yeah, that is still Meyer out front, Meyer reached 3,400 meters, that lap 9, the last time they crossed the finish line, 72.8, so she brought the pace down from where it had been the previous two laps, 74 and 73, and we're approaching the top of the straight now, it'll be 3800 meters when they get to the line, and then there will be

three laps to go from there. 15:15. And Camarena in second place, not able to close it down, but down, but she is gapping Bunnage, it's a 73, lap 10 was a 73 for Meyer, so after taking the lead she had a 72 followed by a 73, it's really solid and even splits. And Emily Mackay moved up to that fourth position behind Bunnage there too in that line, and that line, and you can see Roisin Flanagan in fifth, in the blue back there, Mackay, Team New Balance athlete balance athlete from Boston. But here it's all Lea Meyer here, since she's taken over from Amy Bunnage around 3K, but we're rolling around the bend here, hanging on to the green lights, and the

beer garden is rocking here at the On Track Fest, the food trucks are packed. We got the music going from DJ JJ. Yeah, Meyer at the front of that pace lighting, so, you know, remind you her, personal best is 15:31, she set it last year — may have, last year at JSerra at the Track meet, I'm guessing, and now you're looking to break that personal best by quite a lot, and no signs of her slowing down any time soon, and we're well within that, you know, well within two laps to go, about six, almost 600 meters to go. Yeah, that was a 72.8 with two laps remaining, and Camarena 74.5, so not getting closer to

Meyer at the moment, she's got less and less time to do so, as Meyer keeps stretching it out, using that steeplechase in strength, and her personal best for 3000 meters is 9:02, so coming through 9:09 for this, not far off of that, through 3000 meters. Here we go, we got the white light in front of her on the rails starting to show, and that means that she is close to 15:09, which is the US standard with the lap remaining, US standard does not mean a whole lot to Lea Meyer here, being a German athlete, but that's what those lights up front mean, just to let you know what's going on, but Meyer, 71.3

for that last lap, and she's pouring it on now. Yeah, and opening up the stride within that last lap, I mean both Meyer and Cam arena, and we have, it looks like Mackay coming past Bunnage, Bunnage still, you know, giving whatever she has left, but very clearly Meyer, you know, with, gosh, like a 30-40 meter lead. Under 200 meters remaining, and yeah, you can see her legs going a little faster now. She's got a big gap on second place, but Camarena's starting to roll too, hanging close to those green lights, and Meyer has passed the white lights, so she is under 15:09, and you can see the time on the clock, as she's got about 40 meters to go here to the finish

line in the second heat of the women’s 5,000 meters, and she is 15:06, 15:06 for Lea Meyer, Camarena coming to the line right about 15:15 there, or 15:14.10 for Katie Camarena, and Emily Mackay, 15:14.3 for the Team New Balance Boston athlete. Bunnage in 15:21, so personal best for her as well, but Meyer looked phenomenal . Meyer looked amazing, yeah, she just, once she took the lead, she just, you know, threw in a 72, 73, and then 72s all the way until the last lap where she brought it home in home in a 66 — or well, a 71 and then 66, so just the last two laps bringing it quicker and quicker in a really strong close, and that's what's so interesting with the 5K is, you

know, clearly she had it dialed in really well in the early laps, which enabled her then to, you know, make up six seconds in that last lap off of, you know, what the goal pace, you know, kind of what the pacing had her at, it's great, she executed that so well. Yeah, and you could see personal best across the board here, I am looking at Anna Dibaba and this, who came in with a 15:59. And then ending up 15:30, so if going down all of these results, we will have time to look at that later, this bodes well for the races coming up this evening too, as the too, as the wind has appeared to die down a little bit, at least enough for massive PRs in

this race, Meyer 15:06 is incredible, and we are getting, oh, we are shooting t-shirts out of a cannon now. Yeah, I mean, I think you can see, you know, we're at the, looking at the splits on for some of these athletes on finished results, who's our timing for this event, but really the difference was in with about six laps to go, the athletes like Meyer, who had kind of paced it well, were able to just really bring it down and the others maybe struggled a bit. We are going to get to the men’s 5,000 meters, heat two, shortly, when we come back. So we are back here, the start line of the men’s 5,000 meters, heat two, and it

's a loaded line up here, as you can see another massive field, and the guys just saw what the women did in that, in that heat before them, so they're probably giddy with excitement to get this thing going. You can see Zach Panning there on the line, the Hansons-Brooks athlete, and we roll through this incredible lineup. There's two high school athletes in here that you want to keep your eye on. So we've got Connor Burns, there's David Timlin coming back here, just pacing it looks like. Connor Burns, who is a 3:58 man, set last year at the Festival of Miles in St. Louis, 3:58.83 in the mile, and he's an Oregon commit, and then you also want to keep an eye

on Tyrone Gorze out of Oregon, but he is going to Washington next year, so they are starting their college rivalry early, but Gorze, 14 flat in this race last year as a junior. So a number to keep your eye on in this race is Galen Rupp's 5000 meter high school record of 13:37, and I do not think either athlete has made it known that that is their target at the moment. I have seen them talk about 13:45 pace, thereabouts, but if you are inching close to that, why not let your mind wander a little bit, a little bit further down the clock? Well, I think it's a, you know, I'm, if, when I would go into racing, I would

have my like, you know, baseline goal, and then the reach goal, and as they get off to this race, I'm sure each one of these athletes has the same kind of base level of performance, and then up and up, but we have our pacers, Timlin and Tsema, they are aiming for 3K in 8 minute and 8 minute pace, that would be a 13:20 US standard, and a 64 per lap pace, so those are the numbers to watch for. So as you mentioned, the US Championships qualifying standard is 13:20, and that is the pace that they're aiming for, 64s per lap, so these guys are going to be pulled along pretty nicely, John Reniewicki, Under Armour in this race, there is a, there is a

lot of great Hansons-Brooks athletes in here too, Ben Kendall, Alec Sandusky, Isaac Harding, Thomas Fafard, a Canadian athlete in here, but Timlin getting them rolling here , 32 seconds through — 200 meters, that is 64 second pace, so. It is right on from the start. Something that you can do when you've got the wave light hanging on right next to you. John Hammons there in the third position, but Timlin and Joseph Tsema up front are are your Pacers, and then the guys are rocking and rolling right behind them. So in the, in the 5,000 meters, when you're looking at kicking this thing off, do you break

it up evenly into three chapters in the first second third mile, or is there a different way of looking at this thing? I would usually, you know, I, I feel like threes an easy number to kind of wrap your head around. You can maybe do a little bit more than that, but I mean, I think it really is establishing a smart early pace so that you can get to that third mile ready to compete, you know, once you hit a mile to go to be able to shift your focus forward into hopefully bringing down the pace, as opposed to if you've bitten off more than you can chew, then you're just, you know, fighting lactic and trying not to die.

And so I think, you know, for these athletes, definitely somewhere in that last mile to last K is when they're likely shifting their mindset towards finishing and at the finish line rather than just kind of getting through and staying calm in the earlier phases. But if you look at the field, you know, from our vantage point, it is strung out almost no gaps. A few little gaps starting to form, but strung out the whole straight away with these athletes just here to go run hard, which I love to see, you know, athletes that are not playing games, you know, kind of looking around and waiting to see who will take it,

like just here to get after it. There is a, there is a goal on their mind here, obviously, the 13:20 for the US standard. And we can see 32 seconds for the first 200 meters, then 63 through 600. And then a 64 for lap three. And as coming off, Timlin's done a lot of work tonight. So thank you. Thank you, Timlin, for that. Look like he was feeling it at the end. Thank you, Timlin, for all of that effort you put in. We have Tsema now in the front to continue the pace up through around 3K if he's game. And right on him is Hammons, John Hammons there, and then Dan Schaffer behind him, but a little gap between Hammons and Schaffer.

And the high school athletes, Burns and Gorze are tucked into the back there. . So there is a good pack here, but they are running right together at about 68, 69 second pace. I believe, no, I'm sorry, they're running they're running 65s. So it's hot. It's a hot pace. Hot pace. Remember the pace we said they were talking about for this 13:20 US standard, 64 pace per pace per lap. And so far at the front of the field, it's been if we if we ignore what the Pacers were running, Schaffer 64, 64, 63, so right around that pace that they have set for themselves. They came through 1600 meters there in 4:15 for Tsema at the front,

continuing to be strung out a large pack at the front, one, two, four, five, six, plus the Pacers altogether. Now rolling here, Tsema at the front, driving the train. And then Hammons back there, with another 64 for Tsema, he is doing an excellent job. Although I am seeing now Schaffer falling off him a bit. Hammons now right on Schaffer. Just to remind you again, we've got the the blue lights out front that are for the Pacers to follow and the green lights, which are exactly the pace that the athletes want to be on, if they want to hit the target mark, which for this race is 13:20. And Tsema steps off.

So every man for himself at this point, if they decide to work together, that's something for them to hash out. He made it about two K. So now they're the remaining three K is up for these athletes to make this race happen. And you got Schaffer there in second, gritting his teeth, looking over Hammons, and it is looking it's looking like he's making a pass, doing some work. Schaffer goes to the front and we will get a read on what this last lap was. We have Fafard, Rowe, and Reniewicki with that lead pack up there. So that was a 64.8 for that last lap. And we know what they want is 64 flats for that 13:20 pace.

But that is what they want. If they want to slow it down and just go for the win, then that's up to them as well. But we've done a lot of talking going into this. These races too about what that what the time means, what splits mean and what an individual like Schaffer going to the front, these splits are not just random things that show up that show up on a paper. They're attributed to the athletes that make these moves and drive the race. And now Schaffer wants somebody else to help him out. He's going wide and waving his hand. So that's Jack Rowe coming in here to take the reins and it appears that they

are willing to work together somewhat to get this pace. You know, it's tough in the middle of the 5k sometimes. If you've really gotten yourself close to the edge, you can feel like you just won't be able to make it. And if you can get just past sometimes, sometimes you can get past that edge and actually feel a bit better. You know, I was actually kind of surprised to see Schaffer pushing to the front, he looked a bit — I think it was Schaffer — he looked a bit like his face was showing the work that he was putting in, but you know, now or it'll be interesting to see if just sharing the lead, mixing it up can kind of freshen, freshen up all of their

legs so that they can, you know, get through to that racing end of the race. Well, Schaffer knows that he can trust Rowe now because Rowe went to the front, but can Rowe trust Schaffer to retake the lead if that is necessary. But Rowe moving out to see if he can, and we will see if Schaffer does pull up and they are up and they're sharing the duties here. And rolling at about 64 pace still, 64.3 for the lap preceding this, but through 3000 meters here in 8:02, that was a 64.5 with Schaffer at the front. And then Jack Rowe, and then John Reniewicki too. Where is that — Heymans at the front? I'm sorry.

That is Heymans. Yeah, I misspoke before as well. And Heymans and Rowe sharing the lead. And Heymans is the one who I misnamed, but has this, you can see on his face the effort the effort that he's putting in. And yet I love seeing him trading off leads because I really do think that that can sometimes snap you out of your head. It never feels good. Let's be honest. I mean, or maybe rarely you have those races where you just feel like, you know , you're floating on air, but most of the time it's just a grind and to get through that middle portion with some help can really shift you, your focus from like internal to

just execution. And they are working here. Jack Rowe back to the front, taken over for Heymans. I apologize. Yeah. Apologize to the Heymans and the Schaffer families. Heymans from Belgium, I believe we spoke to his coach earlier this evening too . Yes, we did actually. Yeah, it's great. It's great training in Flagstaff this year and they've come down to do some race in here at Mt. SAC. They are based outside of Leuven, and then Flag for about a month of training and now coming on down to see how it translates. So Rowe at the front here with this nice shot rounding the bend. Heymans in his pocket, working together.

That last lap was a 63.8. So we will see what they are at 3800 meters, capping off lap 10 as they get to the top of top of the straight here. And John Reniewicki still in third, about 20 meters behind it looks like. And here we go. Heymans back to the front. I think these guys are going to be sharing some beers together in the garden after this. I just really love to see this. I've had a 5k that played out this way. And it truly was a race that at first before I started trading off the leads wasn't sure how it was going to finish and literally making that shift in execution can make all the difference.

And I love to see these guys working together. I don't even know. I would doubt they even pre-planned it. It probably was something that just naturally evolved and they're both ready to kind of pick up the, you know, take up the charge when needed. Well that last lap was a 65.5. Now Heymans is getting a bit of daylight on Jack Rowe here. So he may be all on his own. We'll see if he is kicking down the pace a little bit. It looks like he's ratcheting it up. And we'll see. Let's keep tabs a little bit on these high schoolers back here through 3,000 meters a while back. Both of them hit 8:13 and 8:14, about 66 flat average.

So they're rolling for 24 pace for 5,000 meters. And Heymans comes to the line here and through it. So does Jack Rowe, and now it is all Heymans taking this lap here. That was a 62.8. So he did kick the pace down a bit and he knows that he is not relinqu ishing it to Jack Rowe. At least he doesn't want to at this point. Thank you Jack for the work. I'm going to take it from here. He's moving. Heymans is moving off the front. We're inside two laps to go at this point. So this is 600 meters to go as we hit this mark. And the sun is beginning to set here at Hilmer Lodge Stadium over these lush green hills

that have just been doused with rain over this winter. And I have never seen Mt. SAC like this, but it is a gorgeous evening here. As Heymans rounds this bend, the wind in his hair and he is in front of the green lights green lights again. So under 13:20 pace. He wants the 13-teens and he wants it badly. You can see the look on his face as he gets up to the bell lap here and it starts ringing. There it is. Personal best of 13:42. So he is going to be well under that today. He said that personal best back in 2020. That was a 60. That was a 60 there — 12:15.5 with a lap to go. So we will see if he can get under 60, that of course would put him under 13:15.

The world standard for this event is 13:07. So he's a bit out of range of that at the moment unless he can do something extraordinary over these last 200 meters. But now he is inside 200 meters to go and we will see what John Heymans can do. The Belgian athlete running here in California. The ancestral homeland of Southern California track and field, Hilmer Lodge Stadium, Mt. SAC, Walnut, California. Here comes John Heymans down the stretch. This is the second heat of the 5000 meters and he is going to be well inside 13: 20. Wide-eyed and staring at the clock. He crosses the line, 13:16.9, and you know what I love to see about this?

His second to last lap was 60 flat and his last lap was 61. So he gave what he thought he had knowing that there wasn't a whole lot left. And now as they all come in, that was a 13:20 for Jack Rowe and a 13:34 for John Reniewicki. And we did, like, ladies and gentlemen, we did have a national record set, 13:37.30 for Connor Burns. He did it. He is somewhere there. There he is. He came in fifth place there, 13:37.30. Galen Rupp as the high school record holder is no more. There is Tyrone Gorze giving him a pat on the back there, the boys. Gorze came in at 13:45. So just what they were talking about aiming at Connor Burns.

There he is. With a 65, then a 63, then a 61 for his final three laps to get 13:37.30. 61 seconds, 3:58 as a junior in high school and now 13:37 during his senior year. That guy is going to Oregon next year running at Hayward Field for Jerry Schum acher and Tyrone Gorze running for Andy Powell up at Washington, 13:45 tonight. That is a rivalry now, down to 13:37.30. Took a good six tenths off the record there. That's a budding rivalry. We'll watch it for years to come. Well you called it at the outset. Watch for that high school record. We were so caught up in Heymans’ execution of his race that we were caught a

little off guard by that high school record even though you know we've been tracking it a bit but what a performance, 13:37.30, Connor Burns etched in the record books, closing in 61 . John Heymans, 13:16 tonight. A great view of the stadium there and that concludes our undercard races for this evening. We're going to turn our attention to the main event ladies and gentlemen as they lay the barriers out on the track. These are the steeplechases that are about to take place. I feel like now is a good moment to spend a little time also speaking about the world athletics silver ranking of this race and what it means to but before that we

do that. Oh before that we're going to we're trying to get sorry we're trying to get Connor Burns for an interview as well and we will let you know when we can do that. But in a moment yeah he's recovering. So yes while we while we see who we can track down we thought it would be helpful to give a little context about this world ranking system and why it's so important to be at competitions like with this one that are World Athletics tiered races. This is a World Athletics silver ranking race and you know we had done a little calculations beforehand which I think put into context the value of coming to world

athletics races and placing and so I'll give an example from a from the 5k you can give an example Jeff of the 1500 for the men but for the women's 5k as an example if you were to win just outside the auto standard, so 14:57 is the world auto standard, if you were to run a 14:58 but win here you would get 1167 points so 1,167 points for the win an additional or for the time of 14:58, an additional 100 points for the win, which would bring you to 1,267 points that equates to a 14:07 time score if you were to run that alone, which is basically the world the world record. Yeah so like like Shannon was saying for the for the men's 1500 meters because

this is the world athletic silver level event if the winning time in this event tonight in the men’s 1500 meters is 3:35, that is 1,175 points, but you get an additional 100 points for winning that event, which takes that time to be worth 3:37.9, if it were to be run — 3:27, 3:27.9 if it were to be run in a non-tiered event so this is it can be a little complicated to follow this system but the goal of this system is to make sure that we can get athletes into races where they go head to head face off against each other in more meaningful events where they can climb up those world rankings and we can keep an eye on the

rankings and see who really is the best in the world at any given moment and throughout the year. Agreed. So it's a very cool thing for this sport and athletes as we head into the future will be starting to look to and they already are keying towards these events and making sure that they get into these top events where they can race top competition and from then on we'll see fireworks and the best athletes achieve performances against the best competition which is what we all want to see. Absolutely. But that is about to happen tonight because we're entering. It has been happening tonight. It has been happening already but these events specifically going into the main

program here are the silver level events and these steeple chases coming up as we see the women assembling on the start line across the field are the Gooder Sunglasses steeplechases, so Gooder running sunglasses that are affordable, stylish and all performance. I got, I got a few pair a few pair of Gooders, and right now I think the Gooder flamingo is out there in the beer garden too you can see him on the screen he's behind that that flag waving there yeah he's been stretching with the athletes early on like swing I saw some like earlier but we 're taking you to the starting line here, the women’s steeplechase, another star-studded

event. Courtney Wayment is in here, the Tokyo Olympian, former BYU national champion. Diljeet Taylor’s athlete, who has a personal best about ten seconds faster than the than the rest of the field but this as a pro athlete this is her season opener and so you know she's got the talent and the ceiling you know just getting her getting her season off to a strong start here, and we also have Alicja Konieczek, the Polish Olympian, On athlete, a 9:25 athlete on the line she raced Drake last weekend I was really impressed by her execution in that race actually she mid race looked like she was out of it but so gritty

really came back and had a strong finish to come in second to Matty Borman. Two athletes here two other athletes to keep an eye on, I want to say Gabbi Jennings, the Adidas athlete from Team BOSS, fourth at USAs last year, 9:25 best as well, and they are off here, and then also look out for Krissy Gear, the Hoka NAZ Elite athlete, she has been on a winning streak, she won the won the BAA mile in Boston recently and ran 4:29 in the mile indoors, but getting over the barriers this evening, and that is Wayment at the front, so this is unpaced here, but there are points up for grabs so down the line winner gets 100 points second place 80 points

third place 60 fourth place 40 so a lot of good world athletics points here they can boost your ranking shout out to Marisa Howard, in second I think, she is a fellow mom making her comeback, she come back she raced at Drake in the road mile last weekend, and I love, with Marisa, she just gets out there and puts herself in it and it you know case in point right now up at the front of this race, gonna make it happen. Howard, a 9:22 personal best, and she is there on the left of your screen, Courtney Wayment right there on the rail, and that is Konieczek right behind her, also in the same green top, and then Krissy Gear out on the outside of

Konieczek, so here we go over the first barrier just dabbing that back foot in the water everybody gets over it cleanly at least from what we can see and an interesting choice not to put the beer garden near the steeple pit on the opposite side of the track nonetheless it's an exciting place to be you know the steeple is an interesting race in that you know not always would you want to be at the front leading a distance race but with the steeple having that front position gives you clear view of the steeple and the ability to kind of have a cleaner approach perhaps and so you might see in all of the distance races this is one

where you might see someone more than happy to go to the front because then they can ensure that they have that clean clearance of the barriers, so those look like the favorites up front still Wayment, Howard, Konieczek and Gear, and with the exception of Wayment, you know this world standard pace that they have targeted of 9:23 would be around a personal best. Howard has run slightly quicker than that world standard with her 9:22 personal best, but the rest of the rest of them, Konieczek for example, 9:25, and Gabbi Jennings, 9:25 as well, so shoe the Chinese athlete there is in fifth position and then Carmen Graves rounds out that pack

of six out front. Coach Li was excited about his athlete coming up into this race shoe. She's tucked into fifth there, and we still got Wayment out front, she has been defending that front that front position. The lights for this event are set at 9:23 pace, 9:23 is the world standard for standard for the steeplechase. The USA qualifying standard is 9:35 flat, so many of these athletes will athletes will be looking at that 9:35, but if 9:23 is within grasp, but then these athletes up front are front are certainly looking for that, and through three laps it is 3:12.6, they are running 75 to 77 pace here as we approach the barrier that's a great shot over the

steeple barrier there with the drone. I love the drone image shout out to Ivan our drone at the front versus Howard on the outside, everybody getting the space they need over at the front versus Howard on the outside everybody getting the space they need over the barriers, and Konieczek in there, Polish athlete, in third, still Gear is looking strong looking strong in that fourth position and she's staying out of trouble at the moment the NAZ elite athlete former Arkansas Razorback, the national champion on the DMR team there, for all those tuning those tuning in and Arkansas it's calling the hogs go ahead and do it in your living rooms.

But yeah they're strung out like we said kind of the athletes that we had mentioned at the beginning to have your eyes on with the the same ones that we see at the front controlling this race, most notably of course Wayment, who has the, you know, the Olympian strongest PB by over 10 seconds you know it is her season opener this pace should feel you know pretty manageable for her given given what she's run before but you know it's always you always have to feel things out however I'm sure seeing her teammates her fellow BYU teammates that that train with Coach Diljeet Taylor. Seeing them run so well, best give her a

lot of confidence and she is starting to pull away a bit, you know, they are behind that 9:23 pace, but starting starting to be some separation, with Howard and Konieczek just staying right in there. Konieczek onya check you know her head kind of down a bit side to side is exactly how she looked at Drake except this time around she has not allowed a big gap to form that she then has to make up she's right up there with those that lead pack and some separation occurring here is the front three detach themselves. Wayment, Howard, Konieczek, and now Wayment getting a little bit of little bit of breathing room too potentially on Howard, but Howard pulls her back. Wayment had a stellar

stellar year in 2021 and she was the NCAA national champion at BYU and then that same year made her made her first Olympic team for team USA. She was the third athlete who went with Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs. Steeplechase royalty. Yes not just on the US side but on the world side, and she is in great company there, but this is Courtney Wayment’s race, she has race she's been at the front nobody's been in front of her this whole time it's been all Wayment and Marisa Howard is trying to stay attached. About two laps to go. It is always so interesting so interesting with a Steeplechase because you know it's hard enough to run a race and then

add to that I believe it's 28 barriers. The water jump every lap except for the first lap and so you know for these athletes as they become more fatigued ensuring that proper mechanics to clear the hurdles and that's where you see kind of the experience and fitness really start to show itself in these last couple laps and as we watch you know for example Wayment just pulling away, but Marisa Howard, true to form, she is just, she is not gonna give gonna give up without a fight. Wayment has run on the biggest stages in the brightest lights, her PR comes her PR comes from Monaco last year, 2022, she ran 9:09.91. And St. Louis — we like that place.

That's one of the fastest tracks in the world in a amazing environment from what I've seen . But Wayment over at this hurdle and she's getting closer to a lap to go. She's approaching the line and it will be the bell lap. The green lights are ahead of her so she is a bit off the 9:23 pace at the moment. We're getting a shot at the barrier back there. The athletes further back in the pack. That was a 73 so her previous lap had been a 75 she's now picked it up to a 73. Marissa Howard was 75, now another 75. Krissy Gear was a 76 on her sixth lap but picked it up to a 73 having some good momentum.

So Howard drifting back a little bit, and Gear trying to close it down on Wayment and we've seen Gear’s strength over this season. Like we said in that road mile, which is a difficult course in Boston winning that BAA mile the day before the Boston Marathon. But this gap is getting smaller and smaller, from Wayment to Gear. And here is Wayment over the final barrier final barrier and Gear over the final barrier, and she used it well getting that gap down, and she is a she's a dark horse pick for many people out there. Krissy Gear swinging wide going around Courtney around Courtney Wayment, taking that hurdle easily, coming to the line. What is the time going to be

here? Krissy Gear takes the win, 9:23.6, over Courtney Wayment at the Gooder women’s steeplechase. You can see the results appear on the screen. That is Gear taking a big one for the NAZ the NAZ elite straight out of Flagstaff. Previous personal best was 9:38, so just missing that world standard of 9:23 flat I believe she was 9:23.55. She just missed that. But such a strong close for her over the last two laps. I think we can officially say that Krissy Gear has announced her rival — or her arrival on the American steeplechasing scene, winning this over Courtney Wayment, the Olympian and 9:09 steeplechaser. And there is another name to add to the mix to American

steeple chasing here. And we can see this replay on the screen, the pass as it happens, Krissy gear going to another gear and getting around Courtney Wayment. You just had to do it didn't you? It was laying out there. Krissy Gear breaks the tape and gets a hundred more points added onto her performance points as well. So we'll see where that places her in the world athletics ranking tables. But it's a big deal to run that time take the win at a silver level event such as this. We saw Howard come back, Howard held onto that fourth place position, ran 9:32. 10 so she made it under the USA standard. Alicja Konieczek, third place, 9:31. But Krissy

Chrissy gear takes the win there as we move on to the Gooder men’s steeplechase. The Gooder men’s steeplechase will kick off at 7:35 PM. So we have got three minutes time here. Also a big time event. If the lineups do not deceive us and they're raising the barriers at the moment here, we have a few Olympians in this race. We have Benard Keter running for the U.S. Army. We have Hillary Bor, 8:08 steeplechaser who has been on a tear on the road slightly road slightly and also an Olympian. And a big name in this race too for the On Athletics Club. An interesting . An interesting transition occurring, Geordie Beamish, who is jumping in here for his second steeple

chase ever. His first one he won on this track at the Mt. SAC Relays, 8:42. Better known as a 1500 meter a 1500 meter runner with one of the deadliest kicks on the planet. He won the mile at the Penn Relays last week in 3:59, but closing in 53. Yeah. In front of his teammate Mario as well. I think they joke that, like, classic, classic Geordie, just closing hard. Yeah. The OAC has a stellar a stellar stable of 1500 meter runners. And it seems like they're placing their pieces around the table right now, seeing how they can maximize their stable. But Geordie Beamish dipping a foot in in the steeplechase here, testing the waters. And an amazing field

a foot in in the steeple chase here, testing the waters. And an amazing field here as we get a look at it. There is Katara there, made his first team in 2021. There is Bor. ar. And you can see Geordie Beamish there and the pace pirate Craig Nowak who is not pacing tonight. He is racing and he won last week at the Drake Relays in the steeplechase in 8: 35. You can also see Joey Berriatua on the line too, Kenneth Rooks there. Joey Berriatua, a Tinman Elite. Once again, no pacer for this race. The Wavelights will be set at 8:15, which is the world is the world standard that the athletes would be looking for. 8:29 is the U.S. standard. The

best personal, the fastest personal best in this race would go to John Gray and Cooper Thunder birds at 816. But we have some 8:19, some 8:17, some 8:22s. So should be a solid group near the front trying to look for that. Come close to and hopefully get that world standard. Just missed it in the women. We were so close because the year is finished. Let's see what these men can do. Yeah, it's early season here. This is the first steeple chase for many of these athletes. But definitely the second steeple chase for a lot of them. And they 're off here. It's a big group. So we're going to try to play it safe over the barriers. Make

sure everybody gets over safely. You can see as they move up to the front here, Geordie Beamish on the outside. Benard Keter, Anthony Rotich in the mix too. And Brian Barraza, we asa, we didn’t mention him earlier. He has got the beard next to Berriatua, both Tinman athletes up there. But Rotich and Benard Keter go to the front. And Hillary Bor Boor right there in the orange and blue. Going straight to the front as everybody shifts into position. The steeple chase as for those who are not aware, you run the first through the finish line the first time without any barriers and you clear your first

barrier right past that normal start finish line on the track. Lap two is the first lap where you have the water barrier to contend with. And as we saw in this first lap, you know, it was interesting all the way through the first, you know, 250, the athletes are still running wide because they have the barrier to contend with and they need a clear view of it, especially in a field that is this large. But out front we have Hillary Bor. So we have got Bor, we have got Keter, we have got Rotich, and then Rooks. And Jean-Simon John Simone Desgagnés, the Canadian athlete, but he is tucked in behind Joey Berriatua who is

right behind Rooks in the blue. And that is Bor up front, the 8:08 man. Bor, like we said, has been has been on a tear on the roads recently. He set the American 10 mile record, 46:11, at the Cherry Cherry Blossom race in DC earlier this year. And he also won the Gate River 15K in 43: 11. And won the competition. They had the men's race start a little behind the women's race and the overall winner got a grand prize and it was him versus Emily Sisson and he ultimately took on the win looking strong all the way through the finish. So he's got some range and so clearly some strength as he brings it all the way back down from a 15K

to a 3K. Keter is a fighter there in second position. It would be a big feather in his cap if he cap if he could take down Hillary Bor here in this race. Bor is the heavy favorite. And now it now it is Keter out front taking over for Bor. So they are pushing the pace together here. And Rotich in that third position, Brian Barraza, the 8:19 steeplechase man of the Tinman Elite USATF athlete. Kenneth Rooks, as we said, is wearing the Cougars singlet for BYU. And Rooks is an 8:22 runner. So Keter, then Rotich and Brian Barraza. The front three all part of the WCAP program, training together up in Colorado

Springs and so you know the ability to kind of train as a, you know, being in this race then together able to have the comfort of being surrounded by teammates that you train with day in and day out can make it that much easier to just go out to the front and execute because sometimes it's tough to be willing to put yourself up out in the front and not know if everyone is just going to work off you. But if you're out there with teammates and you kind of potentially share the lead and work together to get until the racing end of the race, navig ated a lot of barriers together, but still Keter out front and Rotich now moving past

Bor there. Anthony Rotich of the WCAP. And it's bunching up up front there. But take a look right behind Barraza who is wearing the Adidas singlet, who is in fourth position and behind Rooks, you have got a sneaky Geordie Beamish coming up there, the OAC athlete in his second steeple steeple chase ever. First one, he took the win in 8:42, which is not a bad time for your first first steeple chase there, but he's in a whole different crowd here, but sticking his nose in it early. Taking that win last week as we said in the mile, his bread and butter event, 3:59 closing in 53. It is a lot more difficult to run a

run a 53 over barriers. But as Dan Huling said a few years back on the broadcast, you have got you've got to be able to run 58 seconds to close out a last lap of the steeple chase if you want to make a U.S. team. Beamish actually is from New Zealand. So he would be representing representing us. Not worried about making any U.S. teams. But here he is working himself into fourth position. And this is, this is a great development here because you have got Keter, you have got ure, you've got Rotich, you have got Bor, and then it is Beamish here, the new kid on the block mixing it up mixing it up with some real world class steeplechasers. Bor is one of the best U.S. steeplechasers

le chasers we have ever had. 8:08 is no joke. And he is tucked in right there. Beamish is giving him giving him a stare right in the middle of the shoulder blades there. Bor now back to the front, front, then Keter, and then Beamish. Whoa, it is a little bit of a jostling right there with there with Beamish and Rotich. And now it is back. So that is... That is Alec Basten up there jumping into jumping into third position, Under Armour athlete. And Bor is out front getting a little bit of daylight. of daylight. But Basten coming in, and now Bor is pointing to somebody on the infield there. Don't know

what that was all about. But it is Bor, Basten, and then Keter, Rotich. Jean-Simon Desgagnés there, and then Geordie Beamish. So now it is being strung out a little bit as Bor as Boar has injected some pace into this. That was a 65 second last lap. He has gotten 10 meters meters on the... on the pack at surge. We are well within two laps to go. As they knock over this barrier here, get to the 200 meter mark, and then we've got 600 meters to go. Bor has got a gap. And he has got a lot of strength as we know from his time on the roads earlier roads earlier this year. Is that Rooks? Someone just made a move to move up position, to tell you once

you once we can get a better degree. That looks like Rooks of BYU, he is in second position and position and then Basten in third. So now it is the college athlete going after Hillary Bor. The world class steeplechaser, arguably the best the US has right now. Beamish moving back up past back up past the two earlier leaders, Keter, Rotich. And here we go. They passed the bell lap, 7:16 on the clock. So 8:15 is that world standard time. But Rooks is making a move on Bor here. Let us see what Bor has left to give, and he looks over. Rooks takes the takes the lead over Bor. The college athlete from BYU is now in the pole position as they head into

they head into the final barrier. And the final water pit, excuse me. Rooks taking his time with it, getting over it. And Bor is over as well, taking a look back. So Rooks with the full the full head of steam right now. Coming on to the home straight. Driving, makes it over the barrier, navigates the last one smoothly and now it's head down to the tape. And that's 8:18. Let us see what these results are here. 8:17.62 for Rooks. That is a personal best, and he beats best and he beats Geordie Beamish, 8:20. We missed that on the camera there. He inched past Emmanuel Bor, did Geordie Beamish. Oh yeah, okay. On Athletics Club defeats Emmanuel Bor, an 8:22 second personal best

personal best in his second steeplechase ever. Look at that dapping up. Kenneth Rooks there on the broadcast. on the broadcast. Okay, first Beamish, because you could tell he was waiting to get over that last barrier and then he put on the speed in the last like, the last 60 meters. But also I think R ooks is the perfect example of what we're saying or if there's these collegiate athletes that are so sharp and they're ready for NCs, which is so close. And we are seeing these big breakthroughs or upsets if you will, whatever you want to call them over these seasoned pros because they have that sharpness in their

legs and they're then coming here and running these phenomenal times. So that 59.99 for Kenneth Rooks, final lap in that steeplechase, 8:17 on the clock for him. And you can see the results there. Geordie Beamish, 8:20.62, a 61 second final lap and just a ripping final 100 meters too to overtake Hillary Bor. I mean, 8:20.62 for Beamish, Bor 8:20.67, and this gun, how do you see this gun? Thank you for your pronunciation, my apologies. But just 8:20.68, so 0.01 apart. It was for my eyes watching it. It was such a close finish between the three. Rooks, Beamish, Bor. That is your Gooder men’s steeplechase for the evening.

Kenneth Rooks gets a huge win in that. Looking amazing. Looking fantastic and so does Geordie Beamish. Second steeplechase ever and he runs 8:20. His first one was 8:42. Just knocked 22 seconds off of that. That is big time racing. So now we turn our attention to the women’s 800 meters, USATF Foundation 800 meters and that event will take place at 7:55 so we have got a bit of time. But a lot of great events coming up this evening still. The men's 800 meters will feature some top dogs with Yared Nuguse, Mario García-Romo, Tonatiuh López and Isaiah Harris in there. The USATF Foundation 800 meters. The USATF Foundation is an amazing

organization that sponsors grants for many athletes to compete and pursue their dreams at the highest level going to the world championships in the Olympics. And you can inspire the next generation of track and field stars. You can support the USATF Foundation's youth grant club program if you text foundation to 269-89 and you can see it there on the screen. Personal story from the USATF Foundation. They support athletes development and like developing athletes I should say they support pros who are on the cusp of a breakthrough who've had that breakthrough and want to sustain their training but they also a couple years back launched a maternity grant

which I myself was able to benefit from in my you know maternity and postpartum journey and it's you know an incredible group of men and women some of whom have become close friends of my own in fact actually and mentors that really are there to support the athletes in any way that they need that help. A great organization there so you can text foundation to 269-89 and support USATF Foundation's youth club grant program. All right so these 800 meter races here we've got its early days for the 800 meters here in this track season like you said we have eight weeks to go until the US championships and how many weeks do we

have until world. We have got about four weeks to NCs, so these, as we are saying, these collegiate athletes they are sharp and the ones that we're seeing here are ready to go. The US champs just over eight weeks and the world champs just over 14 weeks so really you know it's always tricky of course especially for US athletes because you cannot overlook US championships you have to be ready to go there but you also have to hopefully you know if you do make that team you want to be really all peaked for your best at the world championships and so I think we see these athletes in either their first or second race of the season trying to sharpen up you know they'll

have rounds at the championships as well so those will be great sharpeners too but for the 800 you know I've seen many a many a individual get knocked out in the first round knocked out in the semis if they weren't sharp enough and so for the 800 it's really important to get out there get used to the chaos that can be an 800 to get your body toughened up for the paces that you're going to be up against you know my my first pro coach used to say that it uh you know depending on the race there were different kind of volume of that race distance before you kind of were hitting your like what you were capable of that season if you will and for the 800 could be like

five or six races until you hit kind of your sweet spot with them um most of these men towing the line tonight are one to two races in early season so 14 weeks until the world championships it is tough to maintain a peak for that long but these 800 meters are going to offer us a bit of d abbling into uh into an event that athletes would not normally run too. Like we have Mario García- Romo and Yared Nuguse, who are 1,500 meter guys who are jumping in for this 800 for a bit of speed work early season to sharpen their legs for for maybe some 1,500 meters down the road agreed yeah I think to be able

to have a personal best or run close to your personal best in the 800 is really important for a 1,500 meter runner who you know has to sustain the rounds um you have to have the strength to get through three rounds but you also have to have the kick to make it to the final the semi-final is always um often almost always a blazing over the last 150 um and you still have people that maybe aren't as strong that kick kind of get themselves into the final with the kick if they have one and so um I think this is uh you know just as you've been saying really important for these athletes and I think it is an interesting time of year where you do get a lot of maybe 1,500

meter runners that might want to touch on that 800 um as a way to kind of make that like in their preparation for the bigger races ahead. And here we see the USATF Foundation women’s 800 meter field coming to the line, so a lot of great athletes here, highlighted by Halimah Nakaayi, the Ugandan athlete who is the 2019 world champion in the 800 meters on a hot night in Doha in October same night, or the same world championships that Donovan Brazier, the American 800 meter athlete won the world championships. And we also have Dani Jones in this race too, New Balance and Team BOSS, coached by Joe Bosshard, but she is doing a bit of what we were talking

about earlier she's a 1500 meter athlete who's stepping down to race the 800 sharpen up a little bit and then make her moves up in her main event that's an opportunity for a 1500 meter runner to kind of you know if they can sustain a fast 800 when they then go and run the 15 that pace feels a little bit more comfortable you know that slower pace they feel like they might have a little bit more control um throughout the race. You know, I think Nakaayi with her 1:58.03 is the fastest personal best of the field although Sadi Henderson with 1:58.62, just not too much slower than that. Sadi has been training

ie has been training with the Atlanta Track Club, and made, and shared that she had been struggling with training until she realized she had had a toxic mold situation at her house which i am hoping is under control now it's exciting to see her back um on the field i had trained overlapped with her a bit when she was at USF in — never, San Francisco — lovely person, exciting to see her back and she ran her 1:58 a couple years ago at a Sound Running event in Sacramento. Yeah, it was a huge breakthrough she had never broken two, skipped 1:59 and just — 1:58. That is a great way to do it. It is. We have got McKenna

Keegan in this as well, a Union Athletics Club athlete. Aaliyah Miller also for Team boss and on running athlete there, Georgie Hartigan, On Running, an Irish athlete. Lori Barton of the Brooks Beasts. Claire Seymour of BYU, and Addy Townsend, New Balance athlete, trained by her mom Brit Townsend out of vancouver so that shapes up your field there and the pace lights will be rolling through at about 57.5 five for the first lap of this so we want to let you know that the usa standard is the same as the world standard, the qualifying mark which is 1:59.80, and the Olympic mark for next year is 1:59.

3. And here we go, the field is out and they are ready to go. We got Keegan, Mill er, Hartigan, Henderson, Barton, Nakaayi, Seymour, Jones, and Townsend. You can see the Chinese athlete Zhang on the inside, she is our the inside she's our pacer aiming for 57.5. She is out quick and they are descending in here getting their positions that is Nakaayi right there, right about 27 high, 28 flat through 200 meters, BYU athlete on her shoulder athlete on her shoulder Seymour, and then Dani Jones in that third position, and that is McKenna Keegan behind Jones of the UAC, in the new uniforms. Seymour challenging Nakaayi there, they are up by the blue

by the blue lights so just ahead of 57 five we'll see what the time is on the clock as they pass here good job by Zhang the pacer to get them rolling here, but it is Nakaayi who passes right about 58 it looks like Seymour’s personal best is the same as her season best, 2:00.04, barely um just barely over that two minute mark, so I am sure that that is in her sights. 58.08, Nakaayi on the inside, Seymour running some extra space there on the outside and then danny jones in that third position Nakaayi looks like she is fighting already, pulling with her arms out there as they get close to 200 meters to go. 1:28 on the clock through 600 meters, and it is Nakaayi and Seymour,

Seymour the college athlete looking smooth in that second place position. McKenna Keegan back there in third position but it is Nakaayi and Seymour, and now it is all Nakaayi as they get onto the home stretch, and Nakaayi eyes wide going into the finish here, Seymour trying to hang on. Nakaayi, let us keep an eye on the clock and see what this is. Halimah Nakaayi right about two flat, with Claire Seymour in second place. 2:00.2... 2:00.8 for Claire Seymour. McKenna Keegan comes up 2:02.3, and Aaliyah Miller 2:02.43 so good racing from the 2019 world champ Nakaayi, and amazing racing from Claire

Seymour, 2:00.81, looking within herself down that home stretch, not able to keep up with Nakaayi at the moment. McKenna Keegan in third with a season best, previously it was 2:02.76, made that a slight bit better with 2:02.32. And good finish for Keegan, coming over the lap coming kind of wide off the last 150 and um bringing it home strong in the last hundred meters and here we are giving a wave to the beer garden there, the Gooder beer garden, flamingos in there somewhere but Nakaayi looking good, now starting her outdoor season with a bang, winning a silver level event at the Track Fest here at Mt. SAC,

2:00.21. And the next event up on the track, as we get a look at the stands and everybody is getting t-shirts tonight through that cannon, is the USATF Foundation men’s 800 meters and this is an event that many people are looking forward to they've been highlighting it all week there we go, oh that is some hands right there, just throw the mitt out and grab it one-handed got a good view of the food carts here everybody's getting some grub join themselves in the beer garden getting ready for this 800 so the 800 we've talked about it a few times throughout the night. Yared Nuguse, everybody wants to see what the

goose is going to do tonight, the goose is loose is the favorite phrase, the goose is loose here at Hilmer lodge stadium and fresh off his 3:47 indoors in the mile, winning that Wanamaker Mile and then well before that the american record in the 3000 meters too so we know he is very strong at the moment and what can he do over the two laps so that's something you you know this man a lot of people have pointed to him and said he is the could be the future of american miling, and he could be a world beater, he could be a, he could be a gold medalist the tour the tools are there but in order to do that you need to be able to close a

the tools are there, but in order to do that you need to be able to close a championship 1500 in 1:46. When we saw Laura Muir leading up to the Tokyo Olympics, she used the covid year to focus on her 800 meter speed and got herself down to 1:56 I think it is and it paid it paid off she brought home an olympic medal and a world medal and you know those things that had sort of eluded her despite all of her phenomenal performances that speed coupled with her strength and her grit really you know served her well and so I think clearly Nuguse has that strength. It is wise for him and for coach Dathan

to be thinking about okay are there any areas where we could continue to improve so that regardless of the race scenario, we feel prepared to be in a medal position yeah these are these are high level races that that are taking place here but there are also workshops and and classrooms for the championships as well so being able to understand how to hold yourself and and conduct yourself in an 800 which in a lot of people's minds is one of the most chaotic events on the track and you only really get one move in an 800 meters and then the race could get away from you absolutely yeah i think that uh the the 800 as you as

you said you know it's every race shorter than the 800 you get lanes the 400 you get a lane the whole way but the 800 oh after only 200 100 meters excuse me you're kind of knocking elbows and sp iking each other intentionally or unintentionally and so you really have to um have a lot of intentionally or unintentionally, and so you really have to have a lot of wherewithal So a pure 800 meter man in this race, Tonatiuh López, has the fastest time in the field or in the field 1:43.2, and he is on the outside, you can see him right there, in the blue and orange and we said he already opened his season running 1:46. There is García-Romo,

Spanish On Athletics Club athlete on the inside of him. García-Romo, a 3:30 1500 meter guy, did that at the world did that at the world championships in Eugene, but a lot of people have said that the way garcia romo García-Romo races, his tactics and how savvy he is out there, remind them of a young Matthew Centrowitz. And here they go. We have got Isaiah Harris too in lane four, the Brooks Beasts 1:44 guy, Thomas Staines in lane three in that yellow and red singlet, British athlete, Drew Piazza in lane six. Pace for this race, van Diepen going through, 50.5. So the lights are set for 50.5 out there in blue, and that is van Diepen out

front who won this race last year, the Dutch athlete, was a very good 400 meter athlete as well, and then Thomas Staines is the only guy going with him at this point, and then we are back to Tonatiuh López so right now 1500 meter guys are content to sit back in the pack and see if they can try and claw it back at the end if that's what they want to do and we went through in about 50 mid just as we were expected to out front, 50.6 for van Diepen, Staines 51.1, and now Staines is back there a little bit, van Diepen is still going, he glances around and he pulls off the track, so Staines or van deepen

staying on, no, there he goes, to come through 600 meters and now Staines is on the pole position and Isaiah Harris is behind him, but Tonatiuh López the 1:43 man is trying to get onto Harris’s get onto Harris's shoulder, and they pass Staines. Romo and Nuguse are behind the trio up front, and here comes Tonatiuh López, can he catch Isaiah Harris down the straight, and the goose is trying to make a move, to make a move can the goose get there, the American record holder, can he do it for the crowd, there he is that is a finish. Yared Nuguse takes the win, 1:46.3, closing in 53.47. I wish we could get you that final 200 meters there yeah with a nice pad from

his teammate the goose is loose and no one could catch him in the USATF Foundation 800 meters So Tonatiuh López thought he had it in the bag once he got around Harris, but he didn't Yared Nuguse was there, and let us take a look at this replay. so right there the battle, you got Harris out front and then Tonatiuh López and those 800 meter guys are tying up, and then Nuguse comes and takes it. López had a little double take as the goose flew by and was like, wait, what? That is American record strength an record strength right there in the mile and the 3K, so we have got great things to come this

season for Yared Nuguse, and it is something that I think everybody in the United States should be excited about what this man can do on the world scene and especially in Budapest in 14 weeks. His 800 personal best previously was 1:48.29 from 2019, and he just took about took about two seconds off of that so it's a good night here in hilmer lodge stadium for Yared Nuguse. he takes the win in the 800 meters and that is it for the two lap events here at the On Track Fest. We are going to turn our attention to the top — billed three and three quarter laps, the 1500 meters here at the On Track Fest. The 1500 meters are brought to you by On

running as is the programming and all of the great amenities here tonight at the track at the Track Fest. On Running is doing a lot for running all over the world right now you'll see a lot of these On Track Fest, or these On Track Nights events that take place in multiple big cities around around the globe this being the first one here in los angeles and uh they'll showcase the oac this being the first one here in Los Angeles, and they will showcase the OAC here in the U.S., the OAC Oceania. It is an amazing thing to see this brand grow and what they are doing for the 're doing for the sport here tonight. Absolutely, and the infield can not hear it, but we got Nuguse

talking about his greatness is that what he's saying he's talking about his greatness down there Yared Nuguse, I mean, one of the most fun-loving guys out there, he is a unique character and uh i mean as distance athletes are that's uh that's our our breed but uh yeah it's good to see him roll down that stretch and take the win in the 800 and i can't wait to see what he's going to do later on in the season in the 1500 this is a guy that can challenge the world's best well i think what's so exciting is that he is just it's not just the times it's the way that he just fights for that win regardless of the race um he has that

winning mentality he has that um savvy you know in an 800 timing it perfectly to come home with a with a win over 1:43 and 1:44 you know like top in the world in this their primary event guys um and we've been saying you know this is the kickoff of the season for these athletes. Dathan spoke about this heavy training this heavy training block that these athletes went into after indoors you know really to make sure that they were rebuilding that base, and yet, you know, here is Nuguse with the sharp last 30 meters, it is it's exciting to see especially when you think about it in context of where we are in the year yeah

and here the 1500 meter events what he'll be focusing on later on but we have the women lining up right now for the the top, billed 1500 meter of the evening. We saw heat three and heat two earlier tonight and some great finishes there some great results but this is a star studded field here headlined by, I would say, Gabriela Debues-Stafford, who was the defending champion here at the Track Meet last year, Track Fest this year, she ran 4:03.2 last year, and she is going to be going against going against a couple of On Athletics Club athletes who are stiff competition. Sage Hurta-Klecker, who brings

cker who brings in a PR of 4:01.7, and last week at the Penn Relays she ran 1:25 over 600 meters. 600 meters Hurta, one of my favorite kinds of athletes, she is an 800/1500 specialist, so she can run can she can run 1:58 in the 800, she can run 4:01 in the 1500, it is a nice thing to be able to have thing to be able to have both of those skills she trained but and training at altitude with a team that ensures you have a strong strength base so you know sometimes you see athletes that are more distance oriented in their training that then lose that sharpness but you know we're seeing these this, these Dathan’s athletes

in this On Athletics Club really just having little fear, very few weaknesses, which is so which is so exciting to see, you know, as a fan of the sport. Yeah, and we have Sintayehu Vissa in this as well, of the this as well of the On Athletics Club, she is an Italian athlete, ran for Ole Miss, and a 4:04 1500 meter runner Rebecca Mehra there for Oiselle, and Nozomi Tanaka, like you said earlier, the Japanese athlete 3:59 runner who placed eighth in the Tokyo Olympics. We have Aneno, who won our first race of the night, the 800, in 2:01, coming back with the pace, aiming the pace aiming for 2:09 at 800, that would be a 4:03 1500 meter time if they were to run that

perfectly evenly the world standard is 4:03.5, so if they were to hit 4:03.5 or quicker, they would get that qualifier and the lights are 4:03 flat pace right now, so that is 64.8, and Aneno out front there on the blue lights. That is Tanaka going up to the front, Tanaka there, Vissa on the outside, and Sage Hurta-Klecker is in the fourth position as a racer right now, just regarding the rabbit Gabriela Debues-Stafford is coming back from a sacral stress fracture, she is back there in mid-pack, she is a 3:56 athlete, Canadian Olympian, but Tanaka making a move out to the front here and you said you got to see her last week at the Drake relays yeah you know she ran

the uh 1500 there she came in fifth, 4:13, it was, I think the winning time was Hull with 4:10 so it was not great conditions for fast times um you know Tanaka's an athlete that I've that tends to just go and put herself in it she also races a lot um and so I think you know she'll be looking for a much stronger performance than than she had last week and you know seeing her go out with the pacer see how that plays out in the second half Tanaka out front everybody else content to stay back in the pack that is being led by Sage Hurta-Klecker as they come through with two laps remaining but Hurta-Klecker it looks like she is trying to close it back down and get back up

close to Tanaka as they're running 65 seconds right now and then out up front and she steps off at 800 meters and the pack rolls through in about 2:11 through 800 meters, it is Tanaka still at the front and Hurta- Klecker behind her, and they are a bit off pace at the moment, but we have got a guy trying to get trying to get on the pack there getting photos that he can get so this is Tanaka, Hurta-Klecker coming wide with about 500 to go, and Susan Ejore, who is a 4:03 athlete here first onto the scene last year running 4:03 I believe in Nashville Sinta, who I believe was second to her teammate Andrews at Penn

and Hurta-Klecker at the front here as they roll into the last lap here, so it is Hurta-Klecker, Susan Ejore, and then Sinta Vissa, so the On Athletics Club athletes are up front, and Susan Ejore is sandwiched between them as oh there's a bit of a tussle back there it looks like Rebecca Mehra got hit a little bit, and Gabriela Debues-Stafford is moving up to the front, or trying to make her way up to the front, I think she might have been involved in that back there, but now Gabriela Debues-Stafford is moving up to the third position, and she is behind Susan Ejore. Sage Hurta-Klecker is still cker is still

clear in the front, and we will see what happens over this final stretch, but Hurta- Klecker is rolling out front, and it looks like Debues-Stafford coming up from third position is trying to make a move a move Hurta-Klecker pushing as well, getting some daylight, can she hold off Gabriela Debues-Stafford? Sage Hurta-Klecker driving to the line, and it is Hurta-Klecker, 4:06 for the win, 4:06.34 officially, 63.94 for that last lap for Sage Hurta-Klecker, and then Gabriela Debues- ela debuts Stafford 4:06.71, a nice return. You mentioned she made a comment about it being 300-and-how many days, like over a year — 348-ish days since her last race, so strong

showing for Stafford especially you know finishing strong coming off of such a long time since she had raced coming off of an injury, she gets her stride back. And a 4:07.10 for Susan Ejore, Sinta Vissa there in fourth position 4:07.77. So all these top eight athletes, down to Tanaka there, get the world athletics the world athletics points which will boost their performance rankings on the world stage again you know they they were aiming for that 4:03 time, it was a little slow, or they were a little off of it, a little slow for that goal pace from the gun and so you know in the later stages of the race

you know once the pacer dropped, Hurta-Klecker pretty quickly took over the lead and did most of the work and was able to maintain it all the way to the end which is an impressive thing to do in a 15, it is the 15 unlike the steeple is an event where it does help to have somebody pull you along as long as much as possible both from that ability to kind of like have a target to stare at but then also to kind of if there is wind to block the wind and you know that exhilaration of trying to you know swing wide off of them over that last 100 meters when you can like we saw with Stafford. And now let us turn our attention to the — the 1500, excuse me — for the men

the On Running men’s 1500 meters we can see a familiar silhouette there that the results just covered up or the the start lists on the left hand side that is Woody Kincaid who we know well from the 10 earlier this year and many other exploits, but he ran 27:06 to win that race, notched the world standard for world standard for this year and he's ducking down to do some speed work in the 1500 better known as a 5000 meter man and a little bit of a dabbler in the 10k. 12:51, an American record earlier this year indoors but here he is in the in the 1500 meters he'll face a great field here you know

the last year for him was a bit of a nomadic period coaching himself figuring out where he wanted to be he's ultimately you know he ran his indoor season unofficially part kind of spending a lot of time with Mike Smith's team up in Flagstaff and made it official after that 10 I think and he spoke to you know this the joy of being both kind of a leader and a role model for that that group that he's training with but then also kind of those Zen mind beginners mind coming back to the fundamentals and you know now looking ahead to kind of what you know what's next he also spoke about really you know for him as opposed to finding things outside

of the sport as he gets older for him it's actually been a realization of like I really want to dig in deep and focus on the sport more as my career gets as I get later into my career he mentioned you know he had done a lot of things other interests prior but now really laser focused on the goals he wants to achieve especially through Paris and the men are coming to the line now here he's got his training partner Abdihamid Nur in this race, who set the collegiate record for NAU last year in the NAU last year in the 5k, 13:06. Here they are out, and Charlie Hunter, the Australian, for the Union

Athletics Club is in this race as well, kind of moving around to start finding his position in that bright uniform Kieran Lum is tucking in right here, that is Charlie Grice in the all-black sing let, that is right behind Austin Miller the pacer. Charlie Grice, a 3:30 athlete, not to be tussled with. Rob Heppenstall who was listed in the earlier 1500 is in this race here, wearing that 13 number on the outside this is Lum’s first race in an — always — or an On uniform, he was a former Washington Husky and the pacer is Austin Miller, supposed to go through 800 — excuse me — in 1:55 about 57 5 is

their goal for the first four, so 1:55, an honest pace, not incredibly spicy right now but they're looking to ratchet it down potentially after that. We got Christian Noble in this race too in that New Balance uniform, but this is the Tinman, Austin Miller, pacing this race up front coming back after he raced earlier this evening, and Charlie Grice leading Kieran Lum, and then Hunter and then Kincaid so we'll see if Woody can close like he usually does he it seems like he's always got a 25, 26 second last 200 in his pocket, can he do that off of a hotter pace in the 1500 and can he do it getting by Charlie Hunter there, a 3:34 athlete, so here we go, two laps to go

and they're letting Austin Miller go a little bit yeah they're a little slow to start and then they slowed down a little bit further they are about 58 on that second lap when the target pace is 56, so 1:57 for Grice in the all-black there through 800 meters and now it looks like Noble trying to move up on the outside as you get a glimpse of Abdihamid Nur behind Charlie Hunter there, and Hunter moving up, everybody's trying to get into position here as there's some hands being put out trying to get some space for themselves Woody is a little boxed on the inside when every time you have a slow start it

gets like this there's a blanket of people and once you hit about 500 to go people aren't scared to start putting it out there anymore and they all want to battle for that front position either on the rail or on the shoulder inside a lap to go here they reach the bell and it is Grice and Noble out front, and then Kincaid and Lum behind them, Grice doing what he can to hold off Noble on the turn, smart tactics for him there. So 2:42 at the bell, we will see what they can get, Grice still not giving up that inside lane he's still at the front Woody Kincaid tucked inside can he move around, does he have space, but here comes Heppenstall, Rob Heppenstall, the

Canadian moves to the front and is rolling strong move on the back stretch to put about 10 meters more on the field about 10 meters ish on on the field around that turn and here comes Woody Kincaid on the inside but can he catch Rob Heppenstall? I don’t think so. This is Rob Heppenstall coming to the finish here and is that a finger to the lips shushing the crowd? Heppenstall, 3:36.97, a great win here in the On Running men’s 1500 meters with Woody Kincaid sneaking up on the inside 3:37.3. Festus Lagat 3:37.57, and Henry Wynne there for the Brooks Beasts in fourth, a good finish for him, 3:38.07, early in the season. Heppenstall with a 54.2 last

lap Kincaid with a 54.8 lots of the, uh, let us see, Festus Lagat 54.7, those were the three fastest except for uh Brian Fay back in eighth, University of Washington, had a 54.52 last lap, but some speedy closes so there we go, there is handsome Rob there getting some daps from his boys. Yeah, that's a big win Rob Heppenstall, a commanding win I should say, over a strong field that's right he's going to get an interview down there for the crowd and Woody Kincaid gets a nice nice day of speed work there as he'll no doubt turn his attention to the 5,000 meters pretty soon and the 10,000 meters but he's got that in the

in the bag already he's got that world standard so many 54s and 55s closing laps tonight but here is Rob Heppenstall yeah like you said a commanding victory with authority rolling around that curve and then not looking back and let's see what he does here oh yeah I'm not sure if it was a finger or if it was a yawning motion oh but I mean yeah confident no doubt so we have got the 1500 meters in the books now here at the Track Fest at Hilmer Lodge Stadium Mt. SAC, Walnut, California, but we have got the 5,000 meters up next, the Sound Running women’s 5,000 meters, so Sound running they're responsible for putting all these fields together and always

some great events down here and amazing opportunities for athletes to not only hit fast times but rub elbows and race against each other and some big time meaningful races like this one a silver level event for World Athletics. Well, and this is the race I was excited about — the men’s 8 — but of 's eight but of the women's races this is the race that I am probably for the night overall the most excited about this women’s 5k. Just looking at the field, like we said, Josette Andrews coming off of her win and meet record at Penn. Melissa Courtney-Bryant, you know, European indoor 3k bronze medalist common

Commonwealth 1500 bronze, three-time bronze medalist at different major championships we have some collegiate athletes, most notably Katelyn Tuohy, seeing if she can go after that NCAA 5k record, and then Laura Galván, who has been running really strong this season, her brand new 10k national record personal best of 31:04, and won the Carlsbad 5k just about a month ago and Emily Infeld, as I had mentioned before as well, you know, really excited to see how her training how her training with Team BOSS is translating into her racing, and we are going to get to that women's 5,000 pretty soon when we come back maybe maybe there's a runner out there who always feels

amazing who doesn't need anyone to remind her why she's out there maybe there's this runner out there so full of running wherever this runner might be we haven't found them yet because we weren't looking for this one runner and we are back here at On Track Nights, the On Track Fest, Hilmer Lodge Stadium, Mt. SAC, and we have got the women’s 5,000 meters on deck, and we were just talking before we went to the break, but Katelyn Tuohy is in this race for NC State, and we saw earlier a national record set in the high school, or by a high school boy in the 5,000 meters, 13:37 for Connor Burns, so it is always interesting to me, we have

talked extensively throughout the broadcast about where the professionals are in their season right now they've got a lot more time leading up to when they need to be sharpest but the college athletes are very sharp right now because their championships are coming up a lot sooner, so what can Katelyn Tuohy do as she gets into this field of top top athletes and eight women in this race have run under 15 minutes before, and Tuohy brings in a 15:14 best into the race, and we will see what she can do because the national collegiate record is 15:07, and that is set by Jenny Simpson but here we go athletes are assembling on the line at the moment I want to keep

an eye on Laura an eye on Laura Galván here, like you said, she had — the 10,000 meters was the last Mexican she wanted on the list and she got that at the 10 so she has the Mexican national record in the 5,000, 14:51, so if she PRs tonight, that is going down, but the pace set for 14:45 pace with a lot of women who you know it's not sometimes you have races where it's one person is trying to go after that time goal but I think as you said eight women under 15 minutes there's a big group that would be I think wanting to commit to that pace and if they can pull each other together that's when the you know exciting stuff

starts to happen in those you know, at the end of the race. Yeah, Galván is tough, running that 10k earlier this year also 15:05 at the Carlsbad 5,000, a big win, but Elly Henes is in this race too and she ran 30:48 at the 10 earlier this year, and that was a big PR for her, so she has been more of a 5,000 meter athlete and she's getting back to her bread and butter now on the track in the 5k tonight so she's somebody to watch but a loaded field here this is a let’s see how many athletes are on the line — there are 24 athletes on the line tonight so it's a big group and there's a lot of opportunity for somebody to take

control of this race and a lot of opportunity for surprise too which is what we all like to see in these types of races there is a lot of introductions to make with the — with the size of this field Allie Buchalski in the race as well, 14:57 a couple years ago at the Sound Running Invite down here. Jessica Warner-Judd, teen phenom from the UK, started with the 800 and has now kind of moved up through the years into this 5k, but all the way back in 2011 she was bronze at the World Youth Championships. And her personal best currently stands at 14:57, she set it in 2022. And Grace Barnett in this race — two years ago at the Track Fest 5000 meter heat

two she took control and won it in 15:12, and that is still her personal best, so now she's moved herself up to heat one we'll see what she can do here but that's somebody to keep your eye on of the Mammoth Track Club, saw her after her shakeout this morning when we were squeezing were squeezing in our run as well. Emily Lipari in here, she is always somebody to look out for, always a strong kick dominates the road races and here we go as we said the lights are set for 14:45. as the pacers jump out to the front and the fastest athlete in the field 14:51, I believe that — Josette Andrews, who has run 14:51 twice, but 14:51 two years

ago at this 5000 meters, that was her big coming-out party, and we have Laura Galván, 14:51, actually hers is the fastest, 14:51.15 by the points of a second, and then we have Emily Infeld with a personal best of 14:51 .91 from indoors, so, you know, if these women are in PR shape that 14:50 barrier would be a big target for them. Emily Infeld, such a tough competitor too — last year she has struggled with injuries throughout her career but always been able to come back right off of an injury and being able to contend right away exactly and you know and for her it was a pretty major injury that

she or a surgery that she had to have for her hip um and she's been very open about the kind of recovery process but in the you know kind of mechanically the her running just seems to be really coming together there's a lot of kind of like the smoothness and kind of like effortlessness of her stride has really come back and it's exciting to see that that power um and i'm excited as i said earlier i'm excited to see how that translates into erasing this season Absolutely. At 14:45 pace that’s 70.8 that we are looking for here per lap, so 71 for that second lap, first 2:34.5. Mikayla DeJanero is the pacer for this, and we have Whittni Orton Morgan,

a tailor-made athlete coached by Diljeet Taylor in that second position leading the group and then never far from the front you’ve got Laura Galván up there as well. We were supposed to be two pacers originally it was going to be both DeJanero and Dani Jones pacing, hopefully through the 3k um it is now just one pacer, Mikayla DeJanero, and we’ll see how far into the race she’s she's willing to pace so Whittni Orton Morgan up front, and then Jessica Warner-Judd behind her in the Hoka kit, and then to the outside that’s Laura Galván in the other Hoka kit, and then Melissa Courtney-Bryant, British athlete, and then Josette Andrews

who won the 1500 last week at the Penn Relays, so similar to — that perhaps a steeple would be the best example the kind of main players are up near the front we'll see how the race unfolds and now yeah we're getting to look at the pacer up front here but here's the pack and it’s strung out on the pace, we’ve got Josette Andrews in the fifth position there in the green top, and this is her first year as an On Athletics Club athlete just joined Dathan’s squad up in Boulder there, and on her outside shoulder is Elly Henes, who we want to look for after that amazing 30:48 performance and last year in this race Elly Henes ran 15:07 I believe, with one shoe for

the majority of the second half of the race wild we talked to her at the 10 she said luckily I do wear socks with my spikes because I wasn't totally barefoot out there but that still got a hurt oh yeah I've had that happen for like 600 meters of a race and my feet looked like chopped liver afterwards I can only imagine. Yeah, so we still have Whittni Orton Morgan out there, and we’re getting some splits on the screen here, so DeJanero is spot on the target pace, the chase pack has given her a bit of a gap we'll get a glimpse of what their 1600 meter is when they get up to the line momentarily DeJanero doing a — DeJanero doing a great job, and it’s about 4:44 through 1600

meters so 71s, and I believe DeJanero has now stopped, so for the last two miles of the race we'll be athletes to maintain a strong pace for themselves, and in the 5000, like like you were saying you don't necessarily need to get out right on pace I think it's better most times for the athletes to be close to that target — that target pace, but maybe a little bit under it because you can make up so much time in that last K if you if you are smart about the early stages yeah this is a core group of athletes up here in this — in this top group. Ednah Kurgat got there on the back end of the pack. Orton Morgan still out front, and I think she’s gonna be out front for

a while now I don't know if anybody wants to take over that pace from her this early on in the race we saw in the men's 5k the success they had by sharing the lead so if and when this race starts to kind of string out we'll see if the athletes are willing to work together to keep it going yeah they need to take a page out of Heymans and Rose’s book — they’re probably sharing beers right now in the good or the beer garden there, arms around the flamingo. But right now Orton Morgan looking great maintaining her pace just hit 71's for every lap split so far and Jessica Warner-Judd in second, Melissa Courtney-Bryant in third,

Josette Andrews in fourth, and then Elly Henes there, Laura Galván behind them and just for context, you know, 71s is still sub-15-minute pace, 72 flat would be 15 flat pace so these athletes are still under that 15 minute mark by a good margin. That was a 71 for her lap-six split for Orton Morgan. We have Warner-Judd, Courtney-Bryant, Andrews, Henes. yep so Josette Andrews here has made it known that she's going this is her her team's event here she’s made it known that she’s going for low 4:40s, or those in her group have where it gets out around around these places so these other athletes are

jumping on and want to be a part of it as well Emily Infeld there in that green and white singlet so we have Orton Morgan, Jessica Judd — or Warner-Judd — Melissa Courtney-Bryant, Jos- ette Andrews Henes, and then Joselyn Brea there on the outside in the blue, and Infeld is tucked in on the inside in the green. There’s a lot of green going on between On and Nike athletes, but you know right now it's it's uh still you know a lot of athletes all close together up near the front 2,600 meters there, passed in 7:44, so that was 72.3, and they’re leaving it all to Orton Morgan right now and perfectly comfortable with having her take the lead on uh for the

for over the first half of this race. Some good pacing done by Mikayla DeJanero early on, but if they want to kick it down a little bit that was the time to start start thinking about that that last lap was a 72 so that was the first lap by Orton Morgan that wasn’t a 71. We’ll see what the next one is but I it looks like you know she's she's done a lot of the work so far so we'll see what this next split is and in your experience can you can you have success taking the lead and driving from this far out at this point in the race I mean I think I would struggle with it but I and I but I think there are some athletes who, you know, thrive on — you know, an Alicia Monson, for

example who can just get to the front and just grind out the pace so you know it depends on how the athlete is wired so here we're coming up to 3,000 meters here that split we’ll get to you — that was a 73, so yeah, they’re — Orton Morgan is has been slower the last each lap the last two laps and you can see there's some bunching going on. We’ve got about five laps to go, so 2k-ish remaining in the race and as we see from the photo, Jessica Warner-Judd is right on Orton Morgan, but Josette Andrews is kind of coming wide you can see she's starting to think about oh and Orton Morgan is now dropped

out perhaps she was a pacer or perhaps she's decided I've had enough so the red light has been turned on as well on the on the rails and that means that this that is the world standard, so that is 14:57.00, and there the front of the pack is past that so the pack knows that they’re — they’re above world-standard pace right now. 3k was passed in 8:57, and now it is Josette Andrews up front, and Elly Henes, Joselyn Brea, Emily Infeld, and then Melissa Courtney-Bryant and Laura Galván, so a great group of athletes there, bringing it back down to 70. So now that Josette nor Andrews has taken the reins, she’s brought this pace back down to 70 seconds, and

it’s 70.8 is what’s needed for that 14:45 pace, that’s something that can be clawed back in the latter laps here as they get close to four laps to go yeah the average her average overall is still 71 or under — excuse — her average is still 71.6, so, you know, with her speed as well as she gets into those latter stages stages of the race could really you know that the slower lap or two early shouldn’t become a factor. We see Emily Infeld coming wide and starting to move herself up and it looks like we've got about a pack of five that's now kind of in contention for this win — Joselyn Andrews, fantastic 1500 meter runner too, so she’s got wheels to hold off the

women behind her and at this point too it doesn't necessarily come down to 1500 meter speed to hold off the women in — in a 5,000 meters. 69 right there for one. Wondering — Emily Infeld hanging tough up there in that fourth position in the front pack. Always rides it out, made a world team last year too for the 5,000 meters, narrowly missing that — that 10,000 meter team, coming back and making the team here so it's good to see her up there in the pack and we'll look for her to make a move too later in this race. But check out Joselyn Brea, she’s got a 15:05 to her name and she's sitting in that second position, so slotting herself in with the best athletes on the

continent right now and trying to make a name for herself, and Emily Infeld moving around Henes there trying to get back up on Joselyn Brea, because Josette Andrews is cranking down the pace yeah, that last lap was a 69 as we approach the finish line with about two laps to go we'll see what her split was for this last lap. So that was 4,200 meters there, under two laps to go. 71, so she slowed it back down a bit and the pack is bunching as much as it can with five athletes there but you can see Laura Galván in that third position now, inching her way up as well said she’s a 14:51 athlete and has the best time in the field, she’s trying to

get up into second it looks like, if she can. So it’s Josette Andrews and then Joselyn Brea still, and Laura Galván, Emily Infeld — four athletes that seem to be separating themselves at the moment Emily Henes — or Elly Henes, excuse me — trying to hang on there but it is still Josette Andrews taking the reins here and we have, just for those tracking the collegiate record, we have Katelyn Tuohy currently in sixth position with an average pace of 71, so she would be — well, she's still running under 15-minute pace, which would be under the collegiate record. Her last lap was a 72 so we’ll keep an eye on that. We’re inside the bell lap here, Josette Andrews

still at the front and that’s Joselyn Brea hanging on, this is a great race for Joselyn Brea 68 seconds for that last lap, and now Josette Andrews is opening it up, we’ll see what she can do over this last lap. She was 13:38.95 at the bell, and she’s ratcheting down the pace right now and opening up 10 meters of a gap as she heads into 200 meters to go a really impressive effort for Josette Andrews leading the last 2k-ish of the race Josette Andrews rolling right now, going to the arms, stepping it down — the training in Boulder is done well for her as she gets onto the final straight, and the On lights are lit

up behind her she's running towards the crowd and a big personal best we'll see what she can get on the clock Remember, yeah, her personal best is 14:51 — what’s it going to be? 14:43, that is a big one for Josette Andrews. And Katelyn Tuohy, for her, second — the last lap was a 75, but she still was just around 15 minute pace I think she's going to be right around this collegiate record so she's rolling into the finish now, 15:02 — she got that collegiate record by about five seconds, a new, new collegiate record here, 15:03.12, she beats Jenny Simpson’s mark. One for the Wolfpack there, NC state and Josette Andrews

14:43 personal best. For Emily Infeld, 14:50 for her personal best. For Laura Gal- ván, which means another national record, 14:49, the first Mexican athlete under 14:50 there, 14:49. Jo- selyn Brea, how about that, 14:47.76 for second place tonight, coming into this race with a 15:05 to her name Josette Andrews, I mean, taking the lead with five laps to go, maybe more, just throwing in a 70 and a 69 on lap 9 and lap 10, floated up a tiny bit lap 11 with a 71, but then lap 12 ran a 68 and then lap 13, the last lap was a 64, closing in a 64. Joselyn — really exciting seeing her at the 10 she paced Alicia and the whole field, but she went through 5k at 15-minute pace

which it takes a special you know breaking 15 minutes or running 15 minutes is a big deal for a lot of athletes for her she looked great doing it she came back tonight and just took about 10 seconds off of her personal best doing all of the work in the second half of the race it's a huge performance for her looking looking very smooth out there good things to come I think later this season that she faces stiffer competition on the schedule, for Josette Andrews. But Joselyn Brea a Venezuelan athlete, 15:05 was the national record for Venezuela, and she takes it down to 14:47 tonight a huge, huge PB, and then of course the collegiate record going down with Katelyn

Tuohy really uh just these races have not disappointed more than more than any other race I would say well, what Sound Running has done for women’s 5000 meter running is — is amazing, the the amount of of personal bests and standards coming out of these races. Two years ago, like we said, Josette Andrews then Josette Andrews ran 14:51, emerged, burst onto the scene, and before that she was somebody who wasn't viewed as a contender on the national stage and then all of a sudden people had to take notice and recognize absolutely we have we have that happening over and over at these major events here that Sound Running is putting on. And here we get to see this on the men’s

5000 meter the sound running men's 5000 meter race there's a man standing off to the right of the screen a little bit separate from the rest of the pack there, his name’s Cooper Teare, and he runs for the Bo- werman Track Club, the red lightning express flying in from Eugene here for this race and this is his first 5000 meters of the season. He ran 3:34.9 to win a 1500 meters at Bryan Clay down here recently and he's got a personal best of 13:06, so he’s the top mark in the field at the moment, but there is some other interesting athletes in here I want to look at that man in the yellow singlet

and the sunglasses there, the Olympic bronze medalist in the 1500 meters, the Brooks Beast Josh Kerr he stepped up to the 3000 meters indoor at the Millrose Games this year, and many people thought he couldn't contend there he's a 1500 meter athlete he's he's a true tried and true 1500 meter guy that’s what he is. And then he came in, ran 7:50.34, won that race and closed in 26 seconds holding off some of the best in the country including Cooper Teare. Well, anytime you have an olympic medal next to your resume you can't count anything out yeah he's a man who knows how to get it done also in here, Athanas Kioko, he’s wearing bib number — number four there,

he's next to Cooper Teare on the right side of the screen. He paced the — the Ten, helped pace the Ten, but stuck in it, ran 27:23, came in third place there, he’s a Kenyan athlete, and we’ll see what he can do in the 5000 here tonight, but don’t count him out. You’re looking for a winner — Dillon Mag- gard in here as well, he’s a scrappy guy, strong, runs for the Brooks Beasts, and he’ll be working with Josh Kerr heard that from Garrett Heath, some inside information there Charles Philibert-Thiboutot in this race too, Canadian athlete, he’s a 1500 meter guy but dabbles in the 5000. You’ve got Ben Flanagan, Go Blue, a Michigan athlete, runs for the Very

Nice Track Club and On running, he’s there wearing number seven, and he’s next to his new teammate Morgan Beadlescomb, he was a Michigan State guy but now a Very Nice Track Club athlete, and they’re fresh off their road 5k performances in Boston, 13:25 and 13:26, so amazing performances on the roads we'll see if they can translate that to the track. Now you’ve got Amos Bartelsmeyer in there as well for the Union Athletics Club, so there’s a guy that ran 3:50 in the mile indoors this year, 13:17 before that so it looks like we’ve got Mario García Romo out there doing some pacing for the guys pace is set for 13:07, which is the world-standard pace, that’s 63 per lap, that’s

the time to listen for, and watch for Sair Salgado and Casey Neville-Bard should be looking to pace 3k — through 3k at 7:52 all right, so the men are off and running right now, the 5000 meters here, Sound Running Track Fest will we see a sub 13 here tonight that's the question and who might it be we’ve got Mario García Romo there jumping back in after the 800, getting some work in and there, wearing number four in the fourth position, Athanas Kioko, the 27:23 man you know, the fastest PR in the field is 13:06 from Cooper Teare, so they were setting out at world-standard pace of 13:07, but, you know, I think

if in the right conditions I think we could see a sub 13 race I mean we've seen race after race these big breakthrough performances for athletes and I wouldn't wouldn't be surprised if we see that again tonight in this 5k so Kioko, a 13:09 guy also, and we don’t see Cooper Teare — oh, we do, on the very bottom of the screen, we’ve got Cooper Teare running side by side with Josh Kerr, there in the shades and you can see Salgado and Mario García Romo are clicking off 65s at the front 13:07 is the prescribed pace, in that 63s, so we’ll see if that’s — if that’s what they can get back to here, first lap was a little quick, they were through 29 through the 200, second

lap is 65 I think there was their effort to kind of even it out now we'll see it's a little jumpy for these boys out of the gun. Well, we’ve got García Romo coming off the 800, so 5k pace probably feels pretty awkward at first that's a good point that's a good point so he's settling in now yeah and he's following the blue lights which are for the pacer and the green lights are the pace that the athletes need to be on and Maggard — Dillon Maggard is the guy behind Athanas Kioko in the yellow sing- let, he’s not afraid to get to the front and push the pace if necessary, and then Kieran Tunt- ivate of the

Bowerman Track Club, representing Thailand, behind Dillon Maggard, and famously Kieran Tuntivate in the very first Ten, three Tens ago, two years ago, a PR in the 5k back to back, his first 5k was a PR and his second 5k was faster than that, for 10,000 meters, and he ended up running 27:17. So Neville- Bard stepped off, which I think was a good idea, he was, I think, kind of slowing down the rest of the pack at that point, and we saw Kioko kind of — he was about to go past him anyway because they were falling off of the pace that had been set by Salgado, so I think that was yeah that was Salgado

that stepped off — oh, Salgado that stepped off, Neville-Bard in the lead, and we’ve got Kioko out there itching to get after it tonight, trying to stay on to those green lights, so 63s first — first 200 was 30 seconds, 29 for some, then 65 for the second lap, 63, and then 63 through 1400 meters, and they’re coming up on 1600 meters now, and that is about a 4:13 to 4:14, so Kioko comes through in about 4:13 for 1600 meters, and he’s got about a 10 meter gap on the field, and losing touch slightly with the green lights, but that — that doesn’t matter, because 14:45 was perfectly attainable for — for Josette Andrews in the previous race. So, you know, the tough thing with

this it's been a little bit all over the a little bit jumpy a little fast then a little slow then kind of a pace um so I think you know now a mile in we got the athletes spread out hopefully it will just kind of be smooth smooth running from there and a little less yo-yoing going on for the rest of the race we want to let you know too that after this race for those in stadium they're going to get treated to a concert by Kyle — Super Duper Kyle — but we’re going to send it down to the CITIUS Mag studio, and we’ll have another super-duper Kyle, Merber, and Chris Chavez and Christina Henderson taking you through some of the earlier action before we come back for

the 10Ks later this evening but here we get a good picture in picture of uh the front pack so Athanas Kioko who we know is not afraid to charge into the abyss and make something happen as he is doing at the moment, and then we also have Dillon Maggard, who we know is not afraid to lead as he is doing in the second, perfect, like it was written for them, so living up to their names but now Cooper Teare is taking the reins, and all aboard the red lightning express as he moves to the front and then his teammate Tuntivate goes with him. 63s, 63s all around for that, it looks like maybe well 63 for Kioko up front, and then 64 for that second pack led by Cooper Teare, so they

're not pulling back Kioko just yet, he’s still making some space for himself, is that pack — or that gap looks like it's extended to between 25 and 30 meters at the moment but there's a lot of firepower in this second pack with Teare, Tuntivate, and Morgan Beadlescomb, it looks like, in third position and that’s Amon Kemboi of Puma Elite in that fourth spot too yeah, Kioko looking just kind of in his rhythm, just knocking off lap after lap Kioko coming up here to 2600 meters, seven laps down, that was a 65 for him, 65.1 and we'll see 65.05, so not necessarily pulling back Kioko yet, Cooper Teare with the 65.05

it’s certainly within Cooper Teare’s wheelhouse to do so, if you want to step on the gas a little bit, but you may not feel like that’s necessary at the moment, to pull back Ki- oko, and I don’t know, this slower pace lets a guy like Josh Curran there too pull, and it’s — it’s strung out, so I think for the athletes, for where they are in this time of year, like it looks like 65, 65s are around where they their bodies want to be you know if the pace was slow for them they would all be kind of bunched up but they aren't there's just long string of athletes well there are there are more milers than normal in this field right now and I think that that's

partially due to the changing landscape of championship racing where we saw about 10 years ago or less than that I mean famously in 2016 Matt Centrowitz won the Olympic gold running 3:50, and ever since then everybody said we can't let that happen again we need to if if I'm a strength runner then I need to go to my strength and push the pace so they've made it faster and now we see some milers in here like Josh Curran, who know that they need to improve their strength if they want to run with the best at the top. And Morgan Beadlescomb is also a miler, and Amos Bartelsmeyer, and Charles Philibert-

Thiboutot as well. Well, you know, it’s often said that speed comes through strength and it's it doesn't matter how fast your kick is you can't use it if you're you know too fatigued at the end of the race or if you can't be with the lead pack so the you know you might kick the fastest but if you're nowhere close it doesn't matter and so you know for all of these athletes it never hurt to ensure that they have a good strength base especially when you think about you know everything everything has rounds except the 10k, so the 5k you have to do one 5k before — the 1500 requires two 1500s beforehand, it’s three total rounds, and so — so yeah, to your point, that is

more and more important. But as we go back to looking at the field, you know, we’ve got Kioko in the front his last lap was a 64, he’s about five — four seconds, about four seconds ahead of Teare, they’re splitting about 65s in that chase pack, but it’s still strung out, not really any differentiation between the distance Kioko has on that chase pack, and the chase pack is still just moving right along, it’s bunched there, and you wonder who here — it’s mentioned the back the lead is the lead the leaders are kind of strung out and the back of it is like a little shuffling going on I think as people are starting to fall back and others are maintaining the pace

well you wonder who here is going to take make the move and there somebody eventually has to make the move to try and bring Kioko back. Yeah, and now it is — you’re right, now it is bunched, now these athletes you know, that last lap for Teare was a 69, we’ll see what this one is, I’m guessing it may be slowed down a little bit. 64 for Kioko up front — oh no, picked up, Teare was at 64 but I think the athletes are getting within that mile-to-go range now, it’s three laps to go they're all starting to think about their kick inside three laps to go here and everybody in that second pack has to be

thinking, there’s a 25 meter gap here up to Kioko, how are we going to bring this down and you could see it starting to the sideways triangle forming there on that drone shot and everybody's trying to gather up the strength to make a move. Exactly, and it’s been Cooper Teare driving the train for the entirety, pulling up here, and now we see some — some shifting around Morgan Beadlescomb has pushed up to that position behind Cooper Teare and Amon Kemboi behind him, Ahmed Muhammad is behind him as well, and then it looked — Josh Kerr has dropped off of that second pack, so he is not going to be a threat

tonight with his speed but it'll still be interesting to see how he finishes this race that's Dillon Maggard wearing the — the Brooks Beast yellow up in that front pack, and we have Kioko, who ran a 65 on that lap, Cooper Teare with a 63, so it’s the first time we’ve seen sort of a differentiation in this and you can see it now um in the way that that gap is closing I would say at this very moment it’s about 10 meters, and Teare is eating up the — that distance over the back stretch the gap has shrunk considerably, and it’s almost gone right now as Cooper Teare is clawing back onto Athanas Kioko, and we’ll see — is he going to overtake here, or is he going to

sit that's the decision that he's going to make I think if you're if you're rolling and you have the momentum you you’ve got to go. I agree, and I think that’s what’s happening here, Kioko looks over and sees all right I'm going to try, tuck in here and see if I can roll, but the train’s going, and now we're getting into 800 meters remaining — or sorry, this is the bell, this is the bell, so 62.2 on this and it is Cooper Teare at the front, Morgan Beadlescomb, Charles Philibert-Thiboutot in third place and Ben Flanagan there on the outside, as Athanas Kioko is being swallowed, but he's staying he's staying

there, he’s pulling up, you can see him get back into that fifth position, Cooper Teare is rolling now Morgan Beadlescomb, we know that he has that kick because he won that BAA 5- k road or road race, but it’s Cooper Teare — Cooper Teare is the defending US champion at 1500 meters, and he’s going to the arms, Morgan Beadlescomb is trying to catch him, but can Cooper Teare hold him off down the stretch he's pulling close can he take this does he have the steam he looks over yes it’s Cooper Teare, 13:12 for the Bowerman Track Club there it is, ladies and gentlemen, Cooper Teare first place for the Nike Bowerman

track club Morgan Beadlescomb second place for Very Nice TC, 13:12.95, Ben Flanagan comes in third for very nice TC, 13:13.97. So impressive for Teare, you know, essentially leading the chase pack from the outset and then ultimately, you know, biding his time until within a K to go, starting to bring down the pace and with 600 to go kind of being in a position to really close that gap on Kioko, and ultimately, you know, have that pole position at the bell, and close well over the last 200, holding off a kick from Beadlescomb. Some good results for the mi- -lers down the line here Charles Philibert-Thiboutot 13:15.74 for that fifth spot, good to see Kioko hang

on here here it is this is where Beadlescomb thinks, can I get there, can I get there, can I get there and then Cooper Teare knows he’s got it, oh, even with enough time to raise a hand to the crowd Craig Mottram was here in the stands to see that, famously did that at the Pre Classic two mile a long time ago now any day. Yeah, Bartelsmeyer, another miler in here with a good result, eighth place 13:16.66 down the line here, Josh Kerr comes in 13:36.31 for the Brooks Beast, so we’ve got Cooper Teare there and we're going to send it to a commercial and then we will be right back human too. And we are back ladies and gentlemen the stage is being set you can see Cooper

Teare down there getting an interview with the crowd as he just won the sound running 5000 meters, 13:12, here with the fist to the crowd. Stage is being set for a Super Duper Kyle to take it for a performance for the masses pretty soon and he's going to do that and we're going to step away and send you down to the CITIUS studio, and we will be back at about 10 o’clock this evening for the 10,000 meter races. I’m going to get some behind-the-scenes action of Jeff head banging to the — to the musical performance. Is that what you do for Kyle? I guess, I mean yeah reading the news but it's been a great night so far thank you all for joining

us we will see you on the other side, we’re going to send it down to the CITIUS studio where you'll get to hang out with Kyle Merber, Chris Chavez, Christina Henderson, and I know there's going to be a lot of good athletes stopping by too. So we'll see you on the other side catch us right back here in about an hour. All right, what a meet so far, we still have the 10K s, but we also have a concert and so yeah we'll be here we'll be here breaking down the races talking with some of the athletes during that time for those at home who are sitting around hanging out waiting for the 10,000, but right now I am joined by Josette Andrews — I’m still getting

used to saying that so am I not alone Twitter handle hasn't been changed yet no I don't can you change a Twitter handle I thought once it's set it's set I think if you pay enough money you can do anything on Twitter I think I could change the Instagram easily but I'm still tied to I said I got to keep my roots, you know, so now I put my name as Josette Norris Andrews. So, 5,000 meter champion here, 14: 43 — yeah, wow, right? Yeah, feels great. My — I felt like I was ready to run in the 14:40s, and this week has been a little crazy, with Alicia getting COVID, and then right before the race Dani dropped out from pacing, so I was like, oh no, how is this gonna go, but um

Dathan just said to wait until the last mile if I felt good or the last 800 if I wasn't feeling too hot so um I kind of went with a mile, I think, so yes. Your last mile, what did we say it was, we did the math — 4:34, 4:34, 2:12 last 800, that’s — I mean, quick times on their own, let alone at the end and you were doing it pushing up front is that what you wanted to do what are you happy to be the one winding up the race or would you rather sit and hang out um I was definitely a little bit nervous I didn't want to leave for the whole like the last 3k so I think I was accepting the fact that I was

gonna really push that last mile and have some work to do even if we were off pace so I trusted that I had that miler kick in there, so I really wanted to — my goal was like, if I could run the last lap in a 60, then I’m set, so that’s always the math, right, you’re like, all right if I just run a 60, then that would be good. Yeah, so — yeah, you said 2:12 for the last 800, so really happy with that. My legs were trembling the last 50 meters, I definitely pushed myself harder than I have in a really long time it hurt so we're here um we got you on the screen I think this is one k to go — oh yeah, we’re about to hit where there’s a mile to go, oh, we’re gonna

hit one mile to go okay it was right before a mile to go, 1800, yeah, you take the lead, yeah, I also didn’t know that Whittni was pacing — oh, you thought she was in it? I thought she was in it, I actually did, but then it was pretty aggressive so I said is there a chance I to be honest this will race with a little confusing with so many moving parts but um you adjusted oh yeah adjusted and just focused on the last part okay this was scary a little bit with this big pack right behind me I remember I was like oh boy here we are here we got a lot of pressure at this point I'm gonna keep it honest, because Elly —

what — Elly flat-tired me a couple of times. Did she? Yeah, then I was like, oh no did you — the back to you — you look them off? No, no, my spike was good, but it hit me yeah yeah yeah I’m sorry. So, 1600 to go, you’re feeling good obviously, because as Dathan said, if you feel good you can go with a mile, yep, with 800 I’d put in a race — does it kind of hit you like oh I'm having one. I am — through two miles I felt really good, like I felt like I hadn’t tapped into another gear so I was confident I would have another gear it was just a matter of like does anyone else also have it so it's just a little bit scary running from the front um but I

looked at the board a few times um and I just was like let me just keep I'm just gonna keep pushing it and pushing it I don't know if the last mile was all just a progression I think it was and that was I thought I could maybe break it open a little bit I don't know when it really broke open though so we saw you last weekend at the Penn Relays, ran 4:04, what did that race tell you this last week, getting ready for this and also just how much fun was that that was so much fun I it's always been a dream to win at Penn, and it was funny, Ben Flanagan last night was like, that race reminded me a lot of

what you did at Drake, when I won my first time as a professional, and I was like, it felt like the exact same race um so it was just really special to be back home on the east coast and we definitely were prepping for this race more, so that, running 4:04 and having that big of a gear, just made me feel really confident going into this race because I knew I was more prepared for a five than I was for the 15. I feel like that’s kind of been the story for you the past couple years, like the 15 and the 5, yeah are you now falling in love with the five after that if it always goes that well I think it’s just like, I’m so drawn to the 15 because you can do it so many

more times you can go to Europe and you can race back to back like that is the most fun I have like running the Diamond League 1500, so it’s hard, and I would love to get into a Diamond League 5k, maybe I’ll get a chance but yeah, Dathan — I don’t know, we don’t know what to do, I just love the — I love the 15. So here we are we're coming up on one lap to go I want you to just you just go call your own race here the last lap so this is the last lap um I definitely was feeling pretty tired I knew there was someone right behind me I saw her shadow I couldn't figure out who was behind me on the camera you didn't

look back no I looked up though and then I was just like man just keep going just that and at this point I was like let me just wind up each 100 meters because I knew I didn't know what I had left but I was just focusing on each 100 meters so when I got to 200 I think I put in another gear and this is where it's kind of breaking open a little bit yeah that I I also thought someone was right behind me right here there's just a camera guy yeah I am pumping though I am pumping what yeah how much does this hurt at this point or is it like my legs this hurt this hurt what's going on with the 1500s, they’re getting really tired here, I’m — oh, this — I’m just

like I want this race needs to be over right now I'm over there I just looked up at the board I just here's my favorite part you break the tape yeah you almost trip yeah it stayed on me and then I was just like let me just get on the ground, and then I didn’t mind because I had an On logo on it so I'm like oh it's okay you kind of like got wrapped in the blanket yeah I got wrapped around it I'm like that's it's fine I want to go to sleep yeah this is the first race I've fallen to the ground and like had to catch my breath though usually I'm scared never have to catch your breath so how interesting is it to watch yourself are you one of those athletes that's

like once a race happens you said it forget it like I'll never read anything I write again like once it's published I'll never go about it I don't like re-watching the interviews but I'll re- watch the races you're doing great right now oh thanks yeah the interviews make me I'm like oh no my voice oh but um I do like to re-watch the races and just like try to learn from them I like to watch other people's races, like I watch everything, like I was watching the Adidas road races this morning just I liked like a fan of the sport, and I love watching the Diamond Leagues to learn how to run them like

and just try to get better and be better well you crush it today thanks so much for sitting down and chatting watching the race with us thank you um we're looking forward to seeing you next where um um I don't know yet I'm trying to get into some races yeah text me when you find out okay I'll let you know all right well congratulations go enjoy the concert thanks yeah I 'm waiting on and then — yeah, you don’t — see you later, you can go enjoy the concert, I’m still on all right, and we have Cooper Teare joining us in a moment, he’s doing an interview behind this curtain right now but he's gonna be coming on yeah well the meet's been

unbelievably fun um I mean I wish everyone at home could see the concert situation right now I really hope our audio picks up a little bit for your sake but um you know earlier today it was a little windy I was a little nervous coming here tonight and things settled down we saw some really really fast times and we also saw some big surprise victories I think one athlete who I didn't get an opportunity to interview officially yet, but that was really, I think, a standout victory, was Rob Heppenstall in that 1500 he was someone who actually was supposed to be in section two and then this afternoon at

4 p.m. got the text that he got moved up, comes in, wins the fast section in 3:36 and it's kind of just been non-stop action here the last two hours these races have been quick that 5k besides just Josette running 14:43 to win, we saw a slew of athletes, we saw Brea run definitely another Venezuelan national record taking an additional 17 seconds or so off how fast she ran at Stanford just a couple weeks ago, and then Katelyn Tuohy running 15:03 to set the collegiate record and right before we had gone live with you here we did have an opportunity to speak with Katelyn and so I'm gonna kick it over to that interview that happened just 10 minutes

ago all right, I’m here with the new collegiate record holder Katelyn Tuohy, who asked for an for an Olipop, yeah, if she was gonna sit down for an interview with us, which I appreciate is he gonna like throw me one — Chris drank like seven yesterday, it was a new record, healthy gut yeah very healthy gut, um, all right, 15:03.12, yeah, you just took down the NCAA record, I know that’s been on your mind probably yeah how's it feel um it feels really good a little bit of a week so probably. Yeah, how’s it feel? It feels really good, a little — so close to that 15- minute barrier but we got some time so that'll that'll keep me motivated for a

bit how did you feel you know, you ran that 1500 at Wake Forest, what have you done in the last week or two to get ready for this race did you know that this was happening tonight yeah I actually had like a really rough week it's not feeling good at all um yeah it was really bad just like training hard training like just like overwhelmed and finals right now yeah I just finished school and just like yeah it was actually like a really rough week, but my teammates, they looked out for me, and um had like a pretty solid workout shout out to Gavin he's a member of our men's team and he let me hop in one of his reps

so yeah had a good workout then I came here just relaxed with Hannah and Ellie and um coach who but her like I don't relate so she's here a little late but yeah they just kept my mind off the race and the bad week and yeah so shout out to them for for helping me out and yeah I guess it worked out I don't know if I've ever even at what what are you majoring business nice any good classes the semester, um, coach thinks it’s really funny that I took a class called personal selling so I think you're good on that yeah I'll give you the a um all right so coming in today I mean the pace was ambitious like they we knew that upfront they wanted to run fast

what was your decision in the first half of the race and how are you gonna respond to that um we decided that we were just not gonna focus on time and we were just gonna race and the the times would come with that, so, um, yeah, Emily Infeld kind of like passed me and tucked in like a few spots ahead of me so I was like all right I'm gonna keep my eyes on her so I kind of just kept my eyes on her back for a few laps and tried to like turn my mind off, and yeah, the pace was ambitious and I felt good through like 10 and a half minutes and then it started to hit me so yeah so we were saying before we started rolling, 15:03.1 — that’s basically 15:02 — it’s basically sub-15, I

mean what's next now you know this you you got that record that has been around for a while you finally got it where are we looking next um yeah so we have our conference meet not sure what I'm doing yet we have to decide in the next few days, and then should I do like an 800, should I — that’d be fun — the 4x4, I guess, it’s — we’re trying to get a distance 4x4 going but I don't really like that idea. What could you run for 400? Uh, we ran a 57 in practice, yeah that's pretty good with that, so I think — rolling, rolling start, 57.9 I think, yeah, hand time probably more like 58 your parents were on the watch, yeah, they’re very friendly — Clay — um, but yeah, it’s

a little bittersweet that I missed that world standard by like five seconds but um qualified for US champs so hopefully run the 5k there and see what happens I feel like speed has been a big focus of yours this year I mean indoors every time we saw you it's like well I've got a close in sub-4:30 at USAs if I’m gonna make a team, how’s that going, aside from the 57.9? Yeah, so we're kind of thinking about focusing on the 15 — that, maybe regionals and NCAAs, but we’ll see um yeah so kind of focusing on the speed because like you said you had to be able to close the last 1500 hard um if you want to compete at this level in the 5k so very cool well I know

that we literally just dragged you off, yeah, a little funny — you’re not gonna walk, he’s crossing the finish line so I’m gonna let you go before you tighten up, apologies we don’t have that Oli- pop for you but I promise you we will get you some. Yeah, I like the Vintage Cola — Vintage Col- -a, okay, noted, noted all right, well, Katelyn, congratulations, it’s awesome, all right, thanks guys, all right we are back that was a great interview with Katelyn Tuohy, and now we’re here live with our 1500 champ I was just talking about, um, four minutes ago, Rob Heppenstall, 3:36, closing in 54 to get

the win how are you feeling I feel pretty good I mean I'm not sure if you heard or anybody else but I actually got a text from Jesse at 3:56 p.m., and he asked me if I wanted to be in the first section and I woke up from a nap, and I got the email and it said, you want to be in the first section, I can move you from the second heat, I said yes, I confirm, and basically went back to bed for an hour and finished on my nap, and then just tried to readjust mentally, and yeah, I mean, grateful for the opportunity so yeah all the sudden does that change the game plan in any way I mean if you win the

first section today then you probably I think could have won the second section but the guys in section one I mean you had the likes of Woody Kincaid in there, and he was — he was chasing you down there the last hundred does that change the game plan in any real way or is it just if you're ready to race ready to race oh absolutely I mean kind of going into like when I had the mentality of the second heat, I mean, I saw the likes of Centrowitz and, um, a couple — like Herrera was in it too and he likes to take it from the gun so um my strategy shifted a little bit um going into the first section, I really just wanted to get in the mix of those guys, I mean, world-class

athletes anywhere from 800 to 10K, you got Woody Kincaid in there, um, and then on the lower end you got Charlie Grice in it, uh, Kieran Lumb, I mean, when you’re in a race with those guys you just want to get in the mix and and try to uh make sure you're there with 300 to go so I think like uh going into it I really just wanted to make sure I was there with 300 to go and in a good spot um not get boxed in uh I saw how the race has sort of played out in the early stages of the meet, and really wanted to see what the mindset of the meet was, and it seemed like it was about that because I don't think that's something everyone would necessarily always understand like when

you see people running fast in previous heats that changes absolutely tell me like in what way because I think for fans who maybe haven’t been at a meet like this don’t realize, that’s certainly the impact that that has yeah absolutely I mean uh so even from like the third and second heat um I was very much only a few people wanted to go at the pace that was set and everybody else just kind of wanted to get their early season racing tactics in um so I think um after watching the early 15s and the early 8s everyone just really wanted to kind of get their feet wet and and really want to practice

kind of mano a mano, um, and that’s kind of the mentality I took into the — into the section, I mean we didn't come through the crazy fastest as you would typically see and I think um that's one to stay as patient as possible so here we are you know coming up to 300 meters into the race yeah sitting middle of the pack yep are you happy where you're at um yeah yeah so I just once I saw that we kind of were in a line and settled down, I stayed — I stayed on Woody, um, I knew he would be strong through the end so mentally I just wanted to stick on him um my biggest thing that I didn't want to happen was to people come on my outside, I mean Christian comes up, um,

and challenges um as well as Kieran later in the race, um, and just wanted to make sure I had an escape route um when when the tactics started to to kind of come into fruition so um yeah I was happy right here I just wanted to stay in contact um five meters from the from the lead so pretty comfortable there so you're not necessarily thinking I need to get the standard here I mean getting the win today you will get some nice points out of this yeah absolutely um but you know thinking about the world championships where you're hoping to obviously qualify represent Canada yeah you're not worried about 3:34, I think at some point I’m about to be able to run 3:34 and even faster,

um I think that's gonna come naturally I think um I've gone into races saying I gotta run this split this split this split and when you do that you kind of take away from what racing actually is in my opinion so I think um it's gonna happen naturally and I think it's gonna happen when I least expect it and I think just trying to kind of making a dogfight out there is the best way to to get the best results so you come through there in like 1:56-high, 1:57, yep, pretty comfortable, yeah, I and again I think that's just coming from an 800 meter background I mean when you got guys like going out on 24-

fly in the — in the first 200 in the 800 and you’re off the back, I mean, I’m kind of used to um just really fast paces and and and for me even right here um getting a little bun ched up yeah I mean this is a seriously lagging here um are you stressed by how boxed in you are or you 're oh I love it I love it it's my like right here is like my favorite type of racing actually I love it oh I because I think I always think of it as like a — like a Chinese finger trap, like the more you try to like stress out and tense up, the worse it’s gonna be and the harder, so I just tried to stay relaxed um as long as I

could um yeah even here I'm super relaxed yeah and you're you're pretty deep yeah oh yeah and I even come up on um but here's the move okay 300 to go yeah you're swinging outside yeah you're positioning you’re following — it looks like Kieran — oh, Christian is starting to make a big move on Charlie Grice, you swing, it’s almost lane three here, yep, oh yeah, I mean, and this is like this is what I love all racing I mean uh even in the 800 like once once you go you got to keep going and it's just like it's just getting I love getting chased from behind it's it's it's great so I think like yeah I mean I'm happy with that because it's like this is my bread and butter

type of race I mean you put a serious gap on you did work very hard to make sure you made the pass before the turn absolutely yeah I mean should she in terms of like running the most distance there wasn't the smartest move but I mean like I had to do what I had to do but I think this type of racing is like what makes the sport exciting and I think um we all could have gotten a line today and everyone could have ran super fast but I think making it exciting and making it good for the fans is like what's going to develop the sport so I think like I love it when it's packed up like that with 400 to go. Hell of a celebration, smoking guns back into the holster, yeah,

yeah I was thinking that — planned, uh, with a hundred to go I was trying to think what would be pretty cool I had a few in mind but I think like that one just happened naturally yeah I had that one I was working on for a while but um but yeah so very cool well Rob thanks so much for sitting down chat and this is awesome where are we seeing you next so I have that Bermuda meet on the 21st um and then I'll be heading over to Europe I'm getting some races out there so very tough spending about a month in Europe and then come back for Canadian nationals, and hopefully, uh, July 22nd, the Sound Running meet

as well so very cool well congratulations on the win today yeah absolutely nice hanging thank you thank you so much All right, so, uh, our other 1500 meter winner, I had an opportunity to speak to immediately after her race — or not immediately, but I let her catch her breath — Sage Hurta-Klecker ran 4:06, let’s hear what she had to say about that race here earlier I am here I chased her down Sage Hurta-Klecker just ran 4:06.3 to win here at On Track Nights. How did the 1500 feel? It was pretty good I just wanted to relax and sort of feel it out as the 1500 first 1500 of the year and you know it was pretty good

felt like I had it was competitive which was the goal if you win generally it's fair to say yeah I was able to compete today got out there a little different than a 600 at Penn Relays, right? Yeah, you know, off the line at Penn last week I was in dead last and this time I was off the line and I could have been in first if I wanted to be which is a nice change I don't know if you consume any CITIUS Mag content, but you know, I’m like your hype man for the move to the 1500 uh yeah you know a lot of people say that everyone's like well you've run a lot across country or an 800 runner — just give me a couple years. Okay, Dathan said no — Dathan, you

know it's like more threshold, more long workouts, more fartleks, so you’re like — more 150s, yeah yeah um let's watch the race and break me down a little bit of what's going on so as you said you got out well do you like being in that inside spot no um but like in the 15 it doesn't make me as nervous because I know I can get to where I need to go with my leg speed and then here it was you got choppy yeah because you know you go out and you know you're like running 14 second pace but then you want to settle into race pace and I didn't want to be at the front leading it so you got to hit the breaks yeah so the you know the rabbit kind of getting away from you I can't

tell, that’s Susan in there on front, yeah, and then Tanaka went around, and Sinta — do you love what Tanaka’s in races? This is my first time racing although I'm the biggest fan although like it might have been like a little silly, but the 800-1500-5k triple at worlds, yeah, it was inspiring, yeah, no, she’s a badass all right so you know the pace, it’s honest, it’s not super hot, um, what is your thought on that did you want something — like were you thinking that today I can run four-flat, or let’s not worry about time I mean, you always are like, is today the day that it’s going to be the four-flat

race and I am — I maybe it’s because, I mean, 800, I love pedal to the metal, like that’s what I love I want to be running hard but in a race like this I'm just trying to chill right here but see I'm like out on the outside because Tanaka was really getting a gap there and I was like I could probably kick her down because she's a little bit more of a strength runner but I just didn't really feel like leaving it up to chance, so yeah. It seems like you blink there and all of a sudden she’s getting away from me, yeah. Yeah, so it was like Sinta right ahead of me, and I wasn't sure like okay, is Sinta gonna realize I’m up on her shoulder and we can bridge this

gap together or like can I just take it so I was like you know I'm just gonna take it I'm gonna do the work that I need to do here. How comforting is it to be out there with Sinta? Um, it’s good like I know that we are together a lot in practice and we go back and forth um on the reps and on the workouts and so it's good to sort of like gauge and have someone sort of like especially on the warm up like it's a little fun to chit chat yeah it's a part of it you stay relaxed yeah so you guys come through in about 2:11 to 2:12, and on the second lap you’ve now seemingly reeled her back in yeah are you happy to chill once you've caught yeah like here I really I just wanted

to chill for a long time. Because — I don’t notice the photographer? No, dude, okay, I didn’t notice it I’m such in my own world, when it’s like, you know, that, uh, tick-tack noise, like, so he's own in his own world — gosh, that’s me, uh, when I’m running. All right, but now you’re getting antsy yeah because like I don't know the pace it's just not that hot and there are so many good people in the race it's like they could easily come up on the shoulder and like because that's what I get nervous about going in the front because I don't like running blind all the time but you have to be like confident

in that position so I just like once you go for you kind of just have to say okay I'm here I'm going to run strong you can really probably see the whole field on this board though it's massive yeah like you're fully aware of what's going on behind you at that point all right so mindset here 300 meters to go are you just winding it up when are you ready to let it rip yeah I'm trying to increase the effort a little bit I felt like today since it's such early in the season like oh oh wow oh you didn't even know that happened no good thing I was out there but I you know I felt like I could have like really hit the front hard but it's so early in the year

I just don't know like quite what I have in my legs so here it's like you really got to start kind of winding it up but you have Gabriela DeBues-Stafford in there, it’s like, welcome back, you know, 100 meters to go you know what yeah so it's like here here I'm definitely looking at the board seeing where they are and I get this like half a step here and I'm like just maintain this half a step but you also know she's there and then it's like well I don't think she's actually gaining on me I think we're running the same pace so I kind of felt like I had it and then I was able to celebrate although it's a good thing she wants another half a step closer to me because

it would have been a dangerous celebration well you want to break the tape here at your own sponsors event right? Like, that’s what I was thinking, I was like, On logos everywhere, everyone is here watching you like some level of pressure yeah corporates and yeah you know it's all it's all love from the On team so either way they'd be happy but this is more fun how fun has it been just you know you guys I feel like are really part of the brand maybe more so than other athletes feel the association with their respective sponsor are you like super familiar with everyone who's kind of behind the scenes I saw the product people yeah we know everyone from a lot of different

departments it’s overwhelming sometimes, I feel like every year, especially since On is growing so much there are so many new names and faces that we have to like get acquainted with but everyone 's so positive and I absolutely love it and it makes it like I'm just someone who's like I just want to run fast and race but it really makes it like that much more exciting and like such a more positive environment to have so many people pushing you along. Did you get On stock in your contract or no oh no but I bought some good support. Well, thanks so much, where are we seeing you next? I’ll be at the Rabat

Diamond League running 800 and then the Paris Diamond League running 800 so kicking off the 800 season. How exciting is that, to be able to travel to Rabat and Paris in the middle of the season I mean it's a great way to kick off the 800 is like I'm so lucky that I ran well enough last year that like I had these opportunities this early and I don't know I'm fun just gonna hang out with the guys on the team and we're gonna travel the world a little bit very cool well congratulations post-race workout now? I think I’m avoiding that right now, yeah. Good — go Joe, go Joe, go Joe Klecker, keep running, cool, let’s go cheer on Joe Klecker, thanks so much

Uh-huh. So I’m here with my doppelganger, Cooper Teare, just won the 5000 meters, 13: 12 there's so much noise behind us right now so I really hope that I hope you can hear us talk over it. How are you feeling? 13:12, closed in 54, yeah, first 5k, 13:20 in the Canadian tuxedo, um person uh now it's good I mean like not at all what anyone really wanted I think but at the end of the day, like, a win’s a win. Jerry kind of told us to forget about time and just like go for go for a winning compete and I think that's gonna be what's gonna get you to those world teams. And like, I just had a high-caliber field, like Josh came off a 7:32

indoors, Morgan seemed to be like the guy who has really come up with me this is so far so I was happy to be in here like I mean do a lot of work but be able to still post it out yeah it seemed like at some point in there at that is try to push it and make it honest did you just miss that move did you contemplate trying to get up on them yeah I mean I couldn't see I was behind Kincaid excited — I kind of missed the, uh, I kind of missed the jump but I don't think anyone was really going for it, I would have had to make a big move, so I was content I figured if he's running from the front he's running 63 64s until the finish and I knew like if

I was starting to pick it up with, you know, 3 to go, a 62 was gonna make up the ground, yeah, I mean, here we we have dual screens because that's how far ahead he was yeah that's insane I was hoping my mom was gonna see be able to see me back there she paid the six bucks or the four bucks to watch yeah it's good that you know everyone could see me at home um but yeah I knew I knew with like a couple laps the other — okay, 2 to go, we’re gonna put in a move and catch him, but I did not realize the — the group was that big, the entire field is there with a lap — with, uh, a mile now yeah I feel

pretty confident this is my first time ever racing in a headband so uh you know there was something there there was something they are you gonna do it again I don't know I think I gave it away um, so probably not, but my hair, I’m starting to have a mop under the CITIUS Mag hat um you know there's there's a lot going on under here so we're gonna see if I don't get a haircut before the next race you might see the headband again so 1400 meters to go do you feel confident that you know it goes coming back or are you like you know maybe I'm just gonna race the guys around me yeah, at NCAAs two years ago he took over with either 2k or a mile to go

and he went from running 64s to a 60 so you know I honestly had no clue I was just banking on him coming back a little bit but honestly like I feel like I had enough in the tank to like make a move even in the last lap if I need to go catch him but I was confident that I had I had a way to get back to him what does it feel like making that mental leap to the point where 13:12 is now a more tactical race? Yeah, that’s insane, like I remember just like running in NCAAs a couple years ago like and I think I closed in like 55 and like that was all I had and today I felt like I was so strong actually I was kind of pumped I feel kind of good in that but yeah look at

Morgan's got like the turnover coming and you know there's a high caliber group of guys coming behind so um yeah there was there was no room to play around in this one so last hundred meters here are you aware that Morgan is that close? Yeah, I saw a shadow with a hundred to go, and you could just hear him like I don't know I just know how to get to the line and like I know I was closing quick and I was a little cheeky, threw the hands up the last five meters, I had to do a little something um but yeah no I was I was really scared that he was gonna just like come like really quickly and just kind of take

me over. So, um — that sounded wrong. But Cooper, you had a great day today, thanks for sitting down with us your agent is yeah he's good enough yeah now you don't want to mess with him so you're gonna take your credit for the reason that you're late right it's not so yeah yeah all right thank you so much good seeing you yo great all right and next up we are going to jump to the interview from earlier today with our 3000 meter steeplechase champion, Krissy Gear of NAZ Elite all right, I am here with NAZ Elite’s Krissy Gear, just ran 9:23 to win the steeplechase here at Track Fest, how does that feel? It felt — it felt really hard

but I'm like over the moon right now, just ecstatic. 9:23, like, that’s fast, right? Yeah, does that sound unreal right now or yeah you knew that was gonna happen no I didn't think so I um I know that like the number 10 all time, right? Yeah, is 9:22, and so when I asked Alan, like, hey, what should he put my like entry time down for his meet, he was like 9:25, and I was like kind of annoyed, I was like, all right like let's be realistic here, you know, like, I think like 9:40 sounds fine. Is that a coach in your life who really believes yeah yeah but I was like he's definitely reaching and um now he's he's

good but smarter than I am so I should just trust it I'm gonna bring up the race and we can talk through it and everything because I have a lot of questions. Okay, first off, steeple — was this a definite decision that you're steeple chasing this year because you ran great indoors you ran personal bests in the 800 in the mile, we just saw you at BAA win, so what was the goal coming in today? Um just to decide if I was going to keep that door open or not um I put my foot down I was like I'm not ever doing steeple again um after I left college like I ran it you know a couple times like the conference

meet, when I got to Arkansas I did that too, well because I just went around the trials and so I was like I think it'd be fun um so did that and then like I ran in my senior year for points at conference, but it was like just kind of a team-player thing, it wasn’t something I wanted to do um and so when I was like you're going pro like they were like do you want to do the steeple and I was like no chance um and then I just think realizing I'm like a newer level fitness I was like all right I'd like I'd give it a go and so actually like last week like we wrote we rewrote my contract, um, to kind of include that as like an option, so I appreciate Hoka

doing that for me but well so we're here in the race we're under four laps to go you know being a relatively I don't want to say inexperienced steepler but you know compared to maybe Courtney you're giving a little bit of gap here is that a conscious decision or you know are you thinking I’ve got myself a long way to go? Um, I just think I didn’t know what to expect, um, I was a little nervous I feel like it's really easy to go out fast and burn yourself in a steeple chase and so um I don't know I was like I'm gonna pull back on play a little little safer I don't want to get like too far and over my head and then just like die my last three laps so trying to yeah

feel it out play it safe how nervous are you before a steeple chase versus a 1500 um today today not as much though yeah but like today not as much because there was no expectations like it's like a today was a deciding factor of it's like am I gonna if I still really hate it like I'm gonna close the door for good if I'm like oh this is as bad as I thought but I'll keep it door open and so I was like no preconceived notions like no expectations so it wasn't like hard to get or it was easy to not be nervous. If I told you here, with just under three laps to go that you were gonna win this race would you believe me um like 50-50 I definitely I like

to compete I like to not worry about time as much um and so that was definitely a goal win is like put yourself in position to where like you had the possibility to so I mean you're not even on screen I wasn't too far back but like a couple steps but like so at what point did you kind of flip that switch and go from like survival mode to like let's go for the win um between 600 going — 300 to go? 600, like, when I started trying to like move, and then I made a hard pass on Marisa um and I was like okay, like, maybe I could start trying to close it down, and coordinated like two- three to go, so

did the water jump feel good, like — what, when you threw — did that first one feel all the way to the last, did it get better and better? Like, okay, so — I love it, Steve, like, I love the jumps I love the water jump it's so much fun but I hate how long it is um so yeah so I look forward to like all right I go to the watch I'm like okay it's another like you know 380 meters to the next one so the waters look great I have I have a lot of fun with that there there is occasionally a 2,000 meter steeple that you probably prefer that I think that would have been perfect I've never run that but I'd love that all right so now with two laps to go still in fourth feeling

good though are the hurdles feeling as good as the water jumps they were a little messy um but yeah so probably not as good as the water jump the water but I have to get it right because I can only land on one foot right now and so like I have to like plan it out and time make sure it's like on but like the hurdles like I just kind of I don't know jump and do whatever what what did coach say after the race um he said that was great just all positive feedback we got yeah it was really brief I think he had just like I came like said like I'm trying to talk about it later you know but he has other athletes to go worry about so so still here you know you said

600 meters to go you decided you can win this race we're now at that point I was like I was falling um I mean you you gotta — you get them one at a time, yeah, so I was like watching her, and I was like okay like I got her you know trying to like me but not not yet anyways I was trying to um but I think down the backstretch I got her yeah but I tried to move with 600 to go it hasn't happened yet but that 1500 speed now comes in handy right yeah are you athletic obviously you're a great runner you're good steeplechaser overall like you have a background in sports no I'm terrible really like no coordination like it's like like people like I'm bowling the other week I'm

like I'm terrible and people are like no they don't believe how bad I am which like I roll a g utter ball like every frame like I do a gutter ball and then I'll actually like make it down but like like every frame. How do you — I don’t know, I’m bowling, and I’m thinking more like gymnastics I wanted gymnastics going up I like I was doing cartwheels yesterday because the field looks so green I was like super excited about that but I want you to walk me through the last 500 meters here um now you've moved up into seconds yes I count a lot in my head what do you feel like I just count down I don't know I know it's really weird um like how much more you have or you

just count I'll put a number and so like I think like around like three years ago I picked like 45 and I started like counting down and so I was just like okay like trying to get hurt like by the time you hit like the end of the number with the idea saying like let's run a 45 second 300 yes it was I knew it was gonna be 45 and I was like what time I get to put like down with 45 like I'll be almost done and so it's like my attention is on the counting all right so the last 150 here final make the — alarm? Oh, I was going to the arms, I was like, you got it, you got it, like just be quick I feel really clean like going over the barriers a lot of speed and so I knew I

had the last barrier in the bag how nervous are you just going that fast over the hurdle I just had that speed no like super easy to me it's easier to the faster you go yes I just think it's basic physics like velocity and velocity out like I mean coach scare you so I say that he was like speed cleans everything up so so 923 I believe that is now the us number one see are you thinking like now like you must be feeling good about the future thinking yeah team this year is that all of a sudden have you even processed that uh no I think I will tonight I don't think it's going to be easy by by any shot

I just think the woman's deep which has grown so deep so I'm like it's an option it's an optional key that off that door open but I also have a 1500 coming up in three weeks I think I think back here um so we'll kind of weigh our options at close we get to july but rookie season yeah going great yeah thank you yeah well congratulations thank you so much I know you I stole you in the middle of your cooldown so thank you for sitting down with me no thank you guys very much appreciate it kind of giving Krissy that shout in the lap count this week, for her to come out here and crush it, perfect. You — you do that, what is it, you said you love casting

things out just to things out just to be proven a genius to everyone. So anyways, Claudia Hollingsworth winning the section too today, another point for you. Yeah, I saw Krissy after and she like gave me a shout that she appreciated that and I was like look I just I know my stuff I study I watch um so super fun talking with her after that race. Yarin Negus — I’m about to speak with him, did you did you talk to Yarin yet? I mean one of the most anticipated races of the whole entire night I feel like we helped drive a little bit of that hype but it delivered uh one of the most thrilling races of

the evening, Yarin Negus takes them down, the specialist in the 800, running 1:46. I just had a conversation with Dathan Ritzenhein, and he kind of reiterated, uh, Ollie’s point that it was like he 1:45 possible, but tonight we saw 1:46, no speed work yet, no speed work yet, so I had a chance to sit down with Yarin, with Ollie, and I think he’s out of the picture, but Goss was there as well so let's kick it over and check that out all right let's do it not even catching his breath yet we are here with the 800 meter champion Yarin Negus, just ran 1:46.3 here at On Track Nights, how do we feel and now

also we’re here with Ollie to break down the race, yeah. But yeah, I’m feeling very very tired um the 800 is a interesting event say the least and I was excited to come out and try it but um yeah I see why I don't do this that's for sure how much more does that hurt than a 1500 it's just a totally different kind of hurt I guess like the 1500 it feels like there's a moment to like calm down and like kind of start back up again and this is just like okay I'm going I'm positioning and the bell rings, then like, shoot, what the hell, so it’s definitely hard. Oll- -ie, we — we’re talking yesterday we were putting I would say unfair pressure on you right right I like

to do that though I do like to do that. I mean, I’m — I put pressure on him in the 3k in Boston, I told him to run sub- 7:30, made a little bet, and he won that bet and cost me a little bit of money, but you know I feel like with Yarin particularly, the way he’s been running, uh, indoors and now to to this race he's just in a different different level differently so so we're gonna watch the race immediately nice so I can relive my mistakes how was that start because you got ate up real quick by Zay? No, I knew, like, I was like, okay, I gotta get out fast, and I was trying, but like they're just

all right there and this is where I knew I had fucked up so I was just like then I should have been like top three or something like that and I'm like literally all the way back here I knew why it was behind me because I didn't see what's in front of me so I was kind of like all right all right it could be worse so I kind of talked with the rail it could be worse you could be Mario right now. Yeah, I was just like, let’s see what happens. So do you guys do standing starts in practice or do you always do running starts because it feels a lot different when you stand we did like we did we only did like one standing start so most of it has been

like running into things so at this point do you feel finally settled after 300 meters you're coming up through you — you split 52-mid, yeah, I believe you’re in last, yes, like I can’t get Mario to go around me and I'm just like okay it'll get better I hope because I know like I want to really push at this last, like, 300 to go, that’s where the distance runners push, but um it was just really hard for me like kind of get out and move at that moment so I just kind of hung back as you can see what do you see here at this point so I mean I know these two boys I knew how the 800 meter guys are going to be out pretty hard and I thought okay these boys know

how to close you know how to close, just seen this at Millrose, but you have some guys here that are 1:43 guys, these guys can can still hold on and keep keep it rolling but right here in the back if you pause for a second you can see back at the bend coming through, when he’s — when he’s about level with Mario that's when you're like yeah it's going to win this race because you knew that okay yeah I knew I knew that, because I think I just saw them — he’s got the same face he had when he went 1:47, the American indoor record, and look at those arms, his legs, and he’s just coming through like that it's funny because I was thinking about how you said like oh try like

relax your face I was like I can't do it like I can't do it very relaxed in their face but they're running incredibly quick and it's kind of just to try and relax your body, but I think Yarin probably just relaxed his body and then just screamed his face. Yeah, he doesn’t know — but maybe if you’re running like that I wouldn't change anything so sure do you want to do an 800 now yes or no I think running with these three boys I'd love to do it with them because obviously doing it with teammates is a lot of fun and training together we've just had great great time progressing at this point of the season

leading into the big races, and it would be fun running 1500 with these guys hopefully maybe next year or later on the season we can jump in and see where our speeds at but yeah it does make it a little scared but I love to be competitive with the boys because you know if you're competitive with this guy and with Mario and with that field you're competitive with the best in the world. So, you know, 1:46.3, first one of the outdoor season, right? that's true yeah like what is your sense like what are you gonna take from this do you like where we're at sounds like you guys just really started tapping into some faster stuff this

week yeah it's yeah where are we at it's still like definitely very early in the season and um you know like we always talk about how the boat was at the end but it was a really good sign that like I'm had a good place right now so early on I feel like it's a very good thing to just be at a place where you know be a little bit of speed I was still a bit to come out and run like a ridiculously fast 800 um traces everything I could have wanted out of in so now I'm just uh ready to get ready to do what I do best, which is the 1500. Do you guys have a workout after this I don’t know, probably — I would say, knowing Ritz, there will be a workout, but uh

maybe not who knows sometimes he just he just says you know what we'll get back to Boulder we'll reset and get in the workout but we've got a you know a good schedule coming out racing get some amazing athletes, and I think for Ritz it just — it tells Ritz. Actually, I’m happy for you which is happy um happy for your situation, you’re not a 5k guy, you’re an 800 guy, right? I guess so I am now not until forever I hope yeah you're an 800 to a 3k guy we know that yeah yeah yeah yeah well yeah congratulations I you know I didn't know if we were talking yesterday I talked big game man I thought one point I kind of believed it too I kind of believed it yeah I

talked big game but you you showed some 800 guys tonight so uh it was really fun to watch congratulations and you know you can go cool down we got a nice practice track for you right here if you do one yeah 400 we'll see we'll see that was a fun interview yeah so a race that we had said might be the preview for the U.S. steeplechase team, yeah, for Budapest, ended up having someone that we probably didn't cover in our preview fairly enough not a single mention a little disrespectful on our part, because we definitely overlooked him, but Kenneth Rooks has entered the chat we need to stop being surprised when BYU athletes become the best steeplechasers in the

country yeah I had a chance to talk to his coach right afterwards and I was like what do we need to know about this guy and he was like oh yeah yeah spoiler alert it didn't get everything one of the nicest guys but a killer on the track uh so I'm uh looking forward to seeing what else he does because he took down Hillary Bor — Geordie Beamish closing really hard, finished second place, uh, so a lot of interesting things that took place in that race that we're going to be probably watching over the next couple weeks as to how it factors into the world championship picture in that road to Budapest

enjoy this interview with the nicest guy on the nicest team, in the — well, Kenneth Rooks 8:17 was the official, yeah. All right, I’m here with Kenneth Rooks of BYU, 8:17 twin here at on track nights how's that feel uh it feels great it feels amazing um I felt going into this race I had the ability to run under 8:20, and I was really excited to get in this this field um because I've been racing really well uh this year and I've seen it in the steeplechase this year yeah I've been for three this is yeah this is my third third steeplechase this year who's that so I I'm the probable regionals is next uh and the nationals um but I was

really excited to be be in this field that that helped push me and um I was I mean I was not expecting to win today I definitely like felt like — when I — when I got up next to Hilary — Hillary Bor at the end I thought he was going to give me a little bit more of a fight at the end and uh is that kind of surreal to be? It is kind of surreal, guys like Hillary Bor, Benard Keter, Anthony Rot- -ich, Geordie Beamish yeah it was I honestly like the last 200 meters I was just kind of like in awe I'm like wow I'm actually gonna win this thing today uh which is which is it was cool so what is it with BYU in the

steeplechase, what are you guys — why are you so good at it? Well, Coach Eyestone has figured out, um I think Coach Eyestone, uh, he knows how — I mean, he’s coached a lot of steeple- chases over the years, he learned a little bit from Weber State’s coach, a lot of the stuff that we do he learned from him, and Weber State had a lot of steeplers, uh, who were really good, but um, like yeah it's kind of funny he's he has a good eye uh picking out who who might be good steeplechases so why do you pick you when it went that happened to when did that happen so actually on my recruiting trip uh he talked to he talked to me about he thought that I'd be a good steeplechaser um

and that was partially because I played basketball in high school I played football actually my freshman year of high school instead of cross country and so um usually guys who are a little more athletic he usually thinks will be good steeplechasers. So, coach said that you are one of the nic- est guys i think you might have said the nicest guy in the team in BYU you guys are a very nice team of everyone i've ever met but you are still here on the track thank you is that a fair assessment i try to be nice i try to be nice and i i mean i try and get out there and compete um it's it's it's it's really

fun to compete and especially at the finish uh because you're just you're able to just let loose just see what you have left and it's fun fun to compete and then there was a little mishap there with the lap count, yeah, well aware that you had two laps left when the ring yeah i i was well aware i was well aware i was i was well aware that we had two laps left what's the goal here now the rest of the season after the success of today well um the goal tonight was just to get out um stay relaxed uh we were going to be going at a faster pace and then just uh make moves to stay with the pack and then move over the last k um and close hard uh and just see see see

what was going to happen and so uh the rest of the season going into nationals for ncaas and and otherwise i just want to have that same mindset um just going into other races and and uh things i mean if it goes like it is today it will probably turn out really well so thanks for sitting down chat and congratulations who you watching the rest of the year so thank you thank you all right so the first ever on track nights historic we saw some history made today we saw a collegiate record but the first record that we saw fall tonight was a high school record one that is stood for a long time one that you know there's sometimes 1500 guys who

struggled to hit Galen Rupp’s high school bar — he made the joke a couple years ago in Texas when Craig, uh, just missed Craig Engels just missed it, but now that bar’s gotten a little bit faster thanks to Connor Burns 13:37. I love the reaction, I didn’t know that you were filming me Googling, trying to figure out exactly Galen’s decimals, to see if he got it, you almost didn't make it across the line there the last 30 meters an awesome race by Connor Burns he is exhausted sitting down with me for this interview. It seems poetic, he goes duck-to-duck in terms of that uh that record. Let’s — all right, I’m here with Connor Burns, just ran 13:37 for 5000

meters the new high school national record holder how's that sound hello all right i'll start better all right ready three two all right, I am here with Connor Burns, just ran 13:37 for 5000 meters, our new high school national record holder how's that feel i mean it's amazing you know it's what i 've been trained for all these years to get that title. Next to the name Galen Rupp, what is it, I mean, you’re 're gonna be a duck I mean, do you — you definitely have posters of him on your bedroom wall — like, to take down a record by someone like Rupp, what’s that like? Oh, I mean, that’s incredible, you know, Rupp’s

one of the best American distance runners of all time, and, uh, to take down his record is, you know, it’s absurd that last lap, I mean, you closed in 61 seconds, but you made that push far out did that finish line feel like it was forever away? You know, I — um, about 500 to go I thought I went a little early and then like I just felt like I had a second wind, with 300 to go I was able to just keep pushing final gear and then locked up pretty bad the last like 70 meters was barely able to like finish and get at the line how are you able to push yourself to that level to the point where like getting one foot in front of the other was looking tough you know honestly

like this is probably one of the easiest places i ran like for the first two miles i've never felt like getting the race before ever i don't think like the first two miles felt like i was just out there jogging and I was able to put it together the last 800, it was awesome. Where do you go from here i mean that was probably one of the biggest goals of your whole high school career you know what what's the next? Next is the mile, Hoka coming up, trying to get to nationals, I can just my name very cool well connor i know that we're we're what like 20 minutes after the race we're still catching your breath congratulations i don't know what kind of a cool down you

're gonna get right now but get some food in you thanks that was uh we did that interview a very long time after the race had finished it was really easy for most of it but um all right well we are back here the concert is finishing up we're still gearing up we have ten days this is really fun the concert you don't know what it's gonna be like people love it i know it's actually very cool and very exciting yeah i'm enjoying it all right so we're joined back by Christina — Christina, you’ve been on tower and interview duty all night, yes, tell us a little bit about some of the interviews like who did you have an opportunity to speak

with tonight that viewers at home haven’t heard from yet. So, I spoke with — although, the Emily In- feld first, she is here, which I think, like, many people didn’t realize, and so she was very happy um excited where she is in the season now, had really good things to say about Boss and her time there and how supportive that team has been, and Joe and everybody, uh, so that was — that was a fun one for sure did you speak to Gabriela? I did, because Gabriela had a — quietly — a really really strong race it was all in the last 200, it was kind of — she was coming for Sage, yeah, and Christina, I

commented she ran exactly what she said she would, 4:06, and yeah, she was like, I think, happy but like you know she busted that rust off, right, like, um, so she took over. Yeah, that 4:06 turns into four-flat real quick for her she's where she didn't want to be it needs to be when i was talking just to kind of to stay on the women's 1500 for a sec i'd talk to Dathan afterwards — clearly we ran the interview with Sage — but you know, this whole experiment with the uh 1500 that you've been so hopeful for the plan is 800 at least for like this year and next year but i mean you get confidence from wins like this and i mean similarly

with a guy like you are, it’s like that performance today, yeah, I mean, 1:46, it’s good on paper, they’re training through things and now i think really for a lot of these athletes like they're looking towards that diamond league season that just kicked off yesterday it's going to be pretty intense and it's going to ramp up very quickly i think the thing i like down here is it only matters if you like there's only mixed in there. Yeah, there’s this narrative like, oh, early-season meets don’t matter they don't matter they don't matter but the momentum that you're getting here the confidence you're getting

here will carry over into hitting the standard in a couple of weeks to making the team to getting on the podium at worlds all that starts here by establishing consistency health and winning ways that matters right it's your point like and we've kind of gotten that vibe when we watch these athletes come through afterwards for interviews unless they really had like a stinker of a race i would say 80% of them are walking away from this thing like pretty content that it was like yeah i mean like knew it was going to be competitive and fast and it's a good gauge for where they might be fitness wise for the rest of the season so i mean it's not the type of

meet where you see people walking off the track in tears or anything like that but it's just like a good temperature check of like where do i have to be to really be in contention for those championships that are going to be coming up very soon so looking back at yesterday we made a number of picks i think Terrible, are you? I think so. A Cooper, that’s it. Let’s — let’s walk through them all right okay, the 800 — women’s 800 — all right, Claudia, she was second, no, none of us picked the winner we’ll — um, so zero points for us, we’re supposed to be track-and-field experts men’s 800, we both died, yeah, I didn’t get it, so it’s 2-nothing — us? I wouldn’t say

all right women's 1500, I picked Sage — you’re, you’re good, you’re nothing — or 2-1-0, I went Gabriela, uh got a great race, I did give a big shout-out to Claudia Hollingsworth, yeah, and she won the second section so i feel like i get like half a point yeah all right men's 1500 but we didn't even know Rob Heppenstall was in the race, you can’t — held out of that — that would have changed everything we had no clue, uh — we all struck out, yeah, we all thought Courtney was the heavy favorite, which she was, and then Krissy pulled off the, uh, the upset, again, I kind of want to give myself a half point for big shout outs this week and i talked about it but

i wasn't brave enough to commit all right so now you're at one one one two all right men's three thousand meters three thousand meters — three — we all struck out, we didn’t even say K- -enneth, no, so this is not looking great, I’m not doing well. Women’s 5k, I picked Josette, you picked Katelyn, I picked Emily, got a great race, and Katelyn also got, you know, the great race, just not the win yeah track-and-field expert, and I had Cooper in the five, all right, so you’re at two yeah i i i struck out you need these 10k to come through for you or else you're never on this out, you need these 10Ks to come through for you, or else you’re never on this

show — oh gosh 'd make so much money no we wouldn't but i think it's kind of exciting that we didn't do all that well right it means that people have stepped up it's like not always the favorites like i think it 's a good thing like we have a long season ahead if we always knew who is going to win it would be boring like why would we race right yeah so i don't know i i'm giving myself a nice pat on the back for my picks but it's a it's a long season and you know what the fun part is is that the athletes know that you know that these Sound Running events, uh, the Tracklandia broadcast, what we do with

CITIUS Mag, like, they’re all attentive to it, because, you know, we’re trying to push everything that's good for sport forward and uh i feel like sometimes they will consume or maybe they'll give us and i think some of this motive what we say sometimes may motivate them to to win they'll give us shit, which is fun, you know, it’s — it’s creating narratives, it’s having fun with it i mean we’re not picking the losers, we’re picking the winners, that’s important to state just having to pick our pick one person who's definitely not gonna win that would just be mean but overall i mean like when you talk about it me like

this and when what it’s supposed to accomplish, like, it’s checked all the boxes so far in terms of like delivering you know some fast performances some world-leading times uh good fitness checks for athletes and we tap into the performances maybe non-winners that really deserve some attention are notable and I’ll start with one — that’s Centro, you ran 3:40, you know, back under that sub-four-mile equivalent but he's getting better and better it was really we had a very fun interview with him yeah you talk to him, what did he do, five-minute conversation with him on the CITIUS Mag youtube channel

really good banter afterwards in good spirits but a step in the right direction again he's made the point he's looking for it's not about winning a world title or making a team here this is all getting him there and today was a big step forward so that's my non-winner shout out okay i'm gonna go you know we pay we're sitting five feet away from him and we're criticizing and ripping him Geordie Beamish, uh, I had the chance of talking to him afterwards, I said, you know, we we did you heard what we said yesterday, and uh, so where are we with the — with the Geordie Bea- mish steeplechase experiment? And he said, I might have to do one more, and it was — he had a lot

left in the tank and that race was chaotic i mean those uh the bell ringing at the wrong moment but i think i ran out on the track — that’s why they call you the Lap Count — I ran out with it, said two laps left when there's three, and I was just — I look at everyone around me, I’m like, that’s wrong, everyone knows that's wrong it was one guy up the front who, like, hand up and, like, kind of signals everyone — Hillary, Hillary i think it was yeah so then they came through all the way around and i was like oh like they're not gonna ring the bell, right, they ring the bell, and then Hillary signaled like

no there's two there's two generous of him like you some people would have just been like you know why do you let them go right and then i ran up and i i got in like lane three or four and i gave her like there's two there's two, yeah, to the athlete, um. But all right, so I’m giving Geordie — Geordie the award just in case you know it was a good i mean the experiment is going well right now he's got potential to you know hopefully run another one sometime soon standard it's very close to the standard so uh good things coming from — textbook Geordie today. I like — okay, okay, I like both of your picks i'll say

Morgan, uh, so he — yeah, yeah, so he came in second in the 5k right behind Cooper, um i talked to him after the race he was very excited with the race he put himself in it he thinks he has more to give so um, we talked to him yesterday, and we talked about buying Morgan’s stock right i i'm i'm in i'm in on it all right yeah i love it all right so thanks everyone for joining us for this nice little halftime show of sorts we've got some 10k's on the track coming up so we 're gonna toss it right back to Jeff and Shannon in the booth. All right, thank you, CITIUS Mag, Chris, Kyle, and Christina. We are

back here, Jeff Merrill in the booth with Shannon Rowbury, and we’ve got two 10,000 meter races on deck to cap off the evening here at the on track fest first installment of on track nights and the lights are are dazzling around the the ring right now yeah they had the lights off for a bit for the concert and it was quite quite beautiful i must say the wave lights are circling it had sort of like a Disneyland Tomorrowland vibe going on, I was — I was liking it, yeah, Tomorrowland Tomorrowland, thank you, thank you. So we’ve got the 10,000 meter races coming up brought to you by athletic brewing and we've got two cans of athletic brewing right here cheers

cheers tonight's 10,000 meter races are like we said brought to you by athletic brewing athletic brewing company is dedicated to crafting delicious non-alcoholic beer you can enjoy anytime and anywhere with no worries no hangovers we can even enjoy it here in the booth no worries at all yeah no judgment i can drink a beer and do my job that's right excellent they also give back up to two million dollars annually to protect and restore local trails through our two for the trails program and we like that love hitting the trails we did that this morning yes we did down here in the very super blooming southern california yeah lush green hillsides here uh not often

that you get to see that, dotting the — the hillsides around Mt. SAC, but they are green right now with a lot of cool yellow mustard flowers and uh we've got the women's 10,000 meter athletes they're cleaning up the stage right now from, uh — from Super Duper Kyle’s amazing concert down there and uh it's pretty pretty crazy to see a concert right on the on the middle of an infield there during a track meet but now the uh women are hype getting ready for this 10k yeah that was a fun little you know we need the playlist when you've got a live performer yeah at your competition we we do love DJ J

oh yeah, DJ J right over there, right there, maybe, yeah, yep, there’s DJ J, so this 10, 000 meters is set for a 30:40 pace, which is the world standard, so the lights will be wrapping the wave- light ring at 73.6 seconds a lap and we'll be keeping track of that it's a tidy field here for the 10,000 meters so earlier this year we had the the 10 10,000 meters and a lot of a lot of 10, 000 meter runners flock to that down in San Juan Capistrano, and there were two — two heats of 10, 000 meter races for both men and women, and epic racing, obviously with Eilish McColgan taking that, um, taking the win

in a British national record over Alicia Monson, who did the majority of the work throughout that race but being rewarded with an american record as well i mean that was about as good as it gets for 10k's um the quality of the field the depth of that field uh the breakthrough performances and Eilish in the middle of her marathon build-up, which she ultimately didn’t race with an injury but almost breaking 30 minutes, like, 30 — she was 30-flat, it was wild, um, she entered that race like the week of or something and then crushed it but tonight we have our very own 10k here at track fest you can see the athletes on the starting line lining up for the race there

are a few Puma Elite athletes in this field, notably Fiona O’Keeffe is in here running, she ran 30:55 at The Ten earlier this year, and that was a big PB for her, but she’s gunning for that 30:- 40, that world standard, that escaped her on that fateful day, but Taylor Werner, her teammate, is going to be pacing her here, and you can see her second from the outside, along with Regan Y- -ee Canadian steeplechaser, who’s doubling back from her racing earlier this evening they're getting their instructions now 25 laps on the track and here they go, women are off, the USA standard is 31:32 for this event

that's the auto qualifier for usas and the olympic qualifier for paris next year is the same as the world qualifier — 30:40, 73.6-second laps. So Regan Yee out front to start, and then taylor Werner, the other pacer, behind her, and then Fiona O’Keeffe latching right on there they’re aiming for 15:20 at 5k, the pacers are supposed to go 5 to 6k if they can which would be really great for Fiona O’Keeffe. The — as we said, the pace that O’Keeffe is looking for is 30:40, so that 15:20 would require about 73s per lap, keep you posted as we go along I mean, 73.6 is what I have written for the lap pace, so we’ll keep you

posted as we go on how it develops as everyone knows watching these 10k's or might must probably know you know the really the 10k could be divided into kind of two parts the first 5k and the second 5k the first 5k mostly being about kind of getting out in a good pace just kind of like zoning out if you will getting into that rhythm and getting halfway through the race and then in the second 5k starting to progressively eyes up looking towards the finish and bringing down the pace hopefully for whatever that time goal or place goal that you're looking for but as we said before we have Yee at the front setting the pace for our athletes, first lap was a 72, so just

under that goal pace you know getting settled into getting settled into it the blue is the designation for the pacer on the wave lights those wave lights when you see them the blue is the p acer zone the green is the target time zone and there might be some other colored lights that pop up throughout and if they do we will give you that detail and like we said earlier the wave light is provided by the track town USA Kids Club it's designed to develop and nurture fandom membership is free for children eighth grade and below visit track town USA Kids Club dot com to register today another notable athlete in the field here tucked in right behind Fiona O'Keefe

is Diane Van Es and she doesn't have a world beating 10,000 meter track time to her name but she has run 15:07 for the 5k on the track and she won the Dutch 10k road championships this year in 30:29, so that's that's a formidable performance there formidable mark yes very much so so she of course is probably thinking, hmm, I’ve run 30:29, I’ve got a 15:07, I know that the Sound running crew and these On races have phenomenal 10k’s, let me go try to get my PR, about two minutes three minutes quicker and if I'm not mistaken her 5,000 meter PR was set at track fest last year too so she's very familiar with with these events the second lap covered in 73 seconds so 72

73 for the first two laps and they're coming up to the 1200 meter mark right now slightly ahead of schedule if you’re following the lights, and behind Van Es we have WuGa, who is coached by coach Lee incredible coach out of Tucson he's been working with some of these Chinese athletes that we've been seeing tonight for just under two years he said um you know he spoke really highly of and he said that, you know, she just ran a 15:11 at Stanford, she ran a second- place finish at the Asian champs which had hopefully based on the points performance guarantee her a spot at world he said she's sitting around in the 20s on the world chart she's here trying to

see if she can bring down her personal best, which currently sits at 31:46, and that was run last year at Stanford so she's had a lot of good a lot of good luck um at Stanford there I will call it luck this is all skill for WuGa, uh, 15:11 this year and 31:46 on the Farm in Palo Alto, and this year she ran on this track and ran a 10k at the Mt. SAC Relays, and it was mid — around mid-32s so she's looking well, coach Lee said she’s capable of running, uh, low 31s, and that’s where, that’s where he'd like to see her go right now and she's tucked in to that front pack so this is a it's a long way to go

for for a smaller field but if you have a core group of athletes like this up at the front then they can help each other out especially we'll see how far the Pacers are going to be going yeah, you know, when we had The Ten there was, um, Alicia Monson and Eilish McColgan at the front and then and they had pacing through 5k with the help of Josette Norris — or Andrews — but then the chase pack didn’t really have — didn’t have a pacer, and it was this same Puma group kind of working together to pace each other, with Natasha Rogers, I remember watching her putting in a lot of that grind work to try to bring the pace quick um which I think caught up with her a little bit

at the end when Henes was able to go by, but in this scenario, you know, we do have pacers, and we also have a small enough group that they're all kind of just you know clumped together as you were saying Jeff to be able to you know get to the working end of the race hopefully ready to compete and that's Emma Grace Hurley, too, of the Atlanta Track Club, on the back of that pack right behind WuGa so a good group of athletes working together Emma Grace's personal best in the 10k is 36:48 so unless something crazy happens I'm pretty confident that that personal best will be going down tonight when is that from let's see from 2019 and uh and from Birmingham

Alabama too so it could have been humid — humid down there, tough, tough to run a 10k in the Southeast but I would say these are pretty ideal conditions for 10k I mean looking at the flags in the stadium there is zero movement it was a bit earlier a bit windy earlier in the night for the first few races there was a bit of a headwind on the finishing stretch but um as the night progressed that wind disappeared and now it is still and a little chill to the air which is perfect for these 10k athletes this is absolute perfect conditions for for 10,000 meter racing here it's it's it's great let me see if I can get with all of us the temperature and rec

apping the laps here we had 72 first lap, then 73, 73, 73, 73, 65, so through 2,000 meters in 6:07, and then they just crossed 2,400 — 7:20 — clocking another 73.3, so like clockwork, 73-second splits, what does that temperature — uh, 54 degrees so yeah lovely pretty much perfect for these 10kers and they could not ask for a better pacer than what Regan Yee is laying down right now, they’d asked for 73.6, and she has been practically exactly that and uh like we said earlier she is a Tokyo Olympian in the 3,000 meter steeplechase for Canada but now let's see we have Emma Grace Hurley dropping off a little bit

but there’s a core pack there of three racers behind the two pacers, the racing — the racers start at Fiona O’Keeffe in that second blue top, and then Diane Van Es, and then WuGa He had Emma Grace Hurley on that pack but she seems to have fallen back a bit and so yeah as we look to the race ahead would be the third fourth and fifth athletes that are the racers in this field, so that lap was a 73.8, through 2,800 meters next time they come around they'll be at 3,200 close to a two mile we'll get to see what that number is always exciting when you hit a landmark like that especially for the high school viewers

tuning in see if they can match up true great point but they’re just trucking along here at Mt. SAC, this beautiful stadium, it’s it looks amazing the way that — that On has decked it out tonight truly dressed to the nines and we couldn't be happier in this state-of-the-art press box up here too oh yes quite comfortable with our athletic beers non-alcoholic having a party up here as well, and we’ll see how far Regan Yee’s gonna go tonight she's really doing a great job knocking these laps out as they get to 3,200 meters right now in 9:47, so there aren’t too many high schoolers that can — that can run that, boys

or girls it’s a great time on — on both sides, but that’s the 73.1, 4:53 at 1600, 9:47 at the 3- 200 she looks great and now she starts to step off so two miles is a good amount of work especially at 9:47 when you’re leading that, there’s good things to come this season for Regan Yee, she had a good indoor season, and just getting to see her race tonight and then watching this pacing performance she's got a lot of good fitness and like you said 14 weeks until the world championship so she's got a lot a lot of time to sharpen up agreed but now we have Taylor Werner out front, the teammate of Fiona O’Keeffe in that

second position of Puma Elite, coached by Alistair and Amy Cragg, they’re out of North Carolina in a solid group assembled there they're a new club but a lot of great athletes who've joined in, like Natasha Rogers and — and Fiona O’Keeffe, who both had fantastic results in the 10k at The Ten earlier this year. And Alistair and Amy both think that Fiona O’- Keeffe’s future is going to be in the marathon but she's a little young right now and they're working her into being able to handle all those longer miles yeah I think it's it's exciting to see more training groups coming together I think we've been seeing in the last

couple years the success that that can bring when these especially with the dynamics of the teams we've been seeing lately where it’s really this support of one another, I think On Athletics Club is maybe the best example that comes to mind in the way that they show up to pace each other to phenomenal performances phenomenal times and the same goes here you know we saw with this Puma group at the Ten, they were working together in that chase pack to try to go after that 30:40 standard and we see it tonight while we have you know teammates pacing each other with Taylor Werner you know bringing her teammate through hopefully through five or six k that was

through 10 laps so they just reached 4k at 12:15, 73.7 for Werner, the average of the laps so far is 73.5 which is just under the — the 73.6 average pace that would bring you to a 30:40, so they are setting up exactly for what they were hoping for and back on the subject of those those groups too obviously they're they're middle distance focus groups and they're distance focus groups two years ago it seemed like nobody nobody could touch what the Bowerman track club was doing on the distance scene and then slowly but surely and maybe even quicker than we expected a lot of these other groups are

coming up to challenge and there's a lot more parity across the board with groups like the on athletics club and the Puma Racing Elite and obviously the Union Athletics Club which is a more middle distance focused group but so many of so many great groups out there to follow and they all have Instagram accounts they all have different websites that you can follow and look at and many of them are trying to share their their training and their journeys along along this road to the championship season so make sure you check all of them out absolutely and it's it's fun to follow along and what I really want to see and what we

talk about a lot is let's set these groups against each other and like they are running against each other in competition like this but scored competition because we're getting to the point where these these training groups are turning into real professional teams and we all want to see them face off in some relays and we want to root for our home team right you know I love that I love that the Puma group is in North Carolina because there there were a bunch of groups that had popped up along the West Coast, we had some, you know, a Tucson and Flagstaff, Boulder, kind of a little you know the Minnesota area but like we had the northeast but let's get some southern

teams we've got Atlanta we've got Raleigh now you can have your home team you can root for the team and for the individual athletes within it it's uh it's really for me what where I hope as well that the this sport will go but let's look right now back to the split so um 4800 meters there 4800 meters uh we have not seen anything other than 73s thus far into this race uh very impressive pacing from these two ladies out front, um, Taylor Werner clicking it off, so this — as they reach the end of this stretch here there'll be at 5,000 meters and that's halfway to the end of the race here so we'll see

how long Taylor Werner hangs in after 5,000, but Taylor Werner also in amazing shape too being able to lead this race and get to 5,000 meters at — under 15:20, right? It was, I mean it's you know the same as we saw in The Ten where Josette Andrews led, pacing through 15 — for, through 15 minutes at 5k um, we saw her tonight come back and run a 14:41 for a 10-second personal best so, um, 14:43 excuse me, 14:43, almost a 10-second personal best, um, like Andrews, I was just, you know, rounded down she makes me smile so um but I think you know yeah major props to both of the women especially Taylor Werner right now, I mean, the way that she’s executing this

pacing job shows her kind of control and command of the — of the distance and of the pace, yeah, 73.6 there for 5,200 meters, 15:55, just — just knocking them off, and they look really good, all of these ladies look fantastic right now and they're coming up on on a pack in front of them so something for Taylor Werner to latch on to and — and roll in, but it’s just the four of them right there hanging in and and this is a incredible facility to race at and a great evening too for this to take place. And it looks like — oh, here we go, so if you don’t know — Taylor Wern- -er, we understand to be the pacer, but now — if you don’t — she keeps going to the front, I guess

Taylor wants to get her full 6k in, or maybe she’s just gonna pull, um, who was it in the 10k that we was supposed to be the pacer that decided to just finish the race? Athanas Kioko, yeah, exactly have we ever seen a scenario where one of the racers wants to help the pacer so that the pacer can then come back and help them further into the race oh there we go we're not going to see that tonight she was committed to the 6k. All right, so that’s — that’s 5,600 meters there, and now it is Fiona O’Keeffe out front leading Diane Van Es and WuGa He, waiting for the splits to share with all of you so from the 5,600, that was a 73.6, so no time lost, oh, 73.8, 73.8, okay, well

I mean, not a single split outside of 73, from, uh — wait, I have lost it on my screen well, Fiona O’Keeffe, 73 at lap 14, now we’re getting closer and closer to the part of the race where things get super exciting in the meantime we have our lead lead racers lapping at other athletes luckily it's a small field so there shouldn't be too much passing going on so this is starting to look familiar now, as we saw, uh, Monson lead McColgan for the majority of that — that Ten race that took place earlier this year, but Wu- Ga He is trying to hang on still, and she’s still in the green lights, they’re — they’re ahead of 30:-

40 pace, as you can see Fiona O’Keeffe at the blue lights, yeah, the leaders have just stayed within the blue the entire time you know talking to coach Lee he was having an kind of internal debate of the what he thought was best in this racing scenario because it is a small field and he felt for her that she you know if if they had their druthers they may have set the pace for a little bit a little bit slower they weren't quite aiming for um 30-40 they were aiming for the round that like low 31s but it was — I like seeing that WuGa just got out with the lead pack, you know, if the option is to run

by yourself it was you know a great chance to just get pulled along through 6k of the race and we see her falling back a little bit now but not giving up too much ground so we'll watch her as the race progresses as well yeah initially she drifted back slightly but now it looks like she's gathering herself and able to hold that position more well the lead pack has come back out of the blue into the green so they might have slowed ever so slightly we'll see on the next split they're about to come through, they just did come through with nine laps to go, Van Es in second place there's a Dutch athlete, and she recently ran 70-some minutes for the New York City Half

marathon fourth place there, I think on March 19th this year, so right after her 30:29 road 10k, uh, so that last lap was a 74 for the athletes so that was their slowest lap thus far and that was for 6400 meter so lap 16 nine laps remain in the inside nine laps remaining right now but it’s all O’Keeffe here leading the train, the O’Keeffe of Davis, California, growing up there ran for Davis Senior High School, the Blue Devils, oh, and then on to Stanford from there so NorCal through and through, until she moved out to North Carolina here, runs for Pu- -ma Racing Elite and now we have, uh, a lead change as Van Es comes to the front with eight laps to

go so this is good to see at this point in the race too, that Van Es is willing to come up and and work because now we now there's something here they've they've made something together out of this and they know that they're they're in friendly company and they can help push each other at least to the latter stages, when they want to beat each other, yeah. Well, in those last two, laps were 74, they’re — they've been running great they were they haven't slowed much and their average pace is 73.7, so just over the 30-40 pace um but you know i think they're realizing that they need to kind of get after it um in these you know i would say the next four laps or so are

going to be a big kind of mental mental um challenge as they're still two miles out they need to put in that work to keep themselves on that pace they work so hard to set um but still not quite thinking about the finish line yet, so this is where they can help each other. Yeah, O’Keeffe back to the front now, Van Es behind her, so we’ll see what this is as they approach 7,200 meters, lap 18 now we're getting a good picture in picture too so we can see how the rest of the field's doing we can see — they come through, that was a 75.6 for lap 18 for the lead there, for Fiona O’Keeffe, and now O’Keeffe looking like she’s going to try and — and do this on her own, as Van Es

maybe drifting slightly but that was a 76 for Van Es, and then, uh, WuGa He, uh, 22:14, a 77 for lap 18 for her the other athletes moving out here, ceding the inside lane to O’Keeffe and Van Es here at Mt. SAC where the world’s best athletes compete, yes, that’s true, some storied races have taken place here. Let me see — we see Werner running back and forth across the field to cheer on her teammate well we i see her on the infield you can't there's you see her just a little bit peeping into the frame, a great — great work for Werner today too, yeah, 15:18 pace, roughly, going through 5,600 meters so it'll be it'll be fun to watch what she's gonna do this season as

well agreed and i always looked to how they achieved those times as well right like she ran it looking really smooth the only time i saw maybe a little bit of strain on her face was with the last like 200 meters of her pacing duties when O’Keeffe went past her, but, um, just so smooth and so even in her um kind of execution of that pacing. So O’Keeffe out front, Van Es in second place, O’Keeffe brought it down to 74 that last lap, um, so lap — 16 was a, let’s see, 15 — lap 15 was a 73, and we had a 74 for lap 16 a 74 for lap 17 a lot a 75 for lap 18 but then bring it back down to a 74 for lap 19

you know with these wave lights it's a visual reminder for these athletes of where they are in relation to the pace that they’ve set, and so kind of after the pacers dropped out, you could see the like green slightly getting away from them they'll be able to see that in there it's still close enough that they can see it, or at least that O’Keeffe could see it, um, and I think you know we're now at five laps to go, that was 8k, they just passed 24:38 for O’Keeffe, yeah, and we’ve had Van Es slow down to a 77 for that lap for her, so she is giving some ground to O’Keeffe, but O’Keeffe, um, that was a 75 for her

so she's you know gotten a little off of that 73 pace that they set early but you know when i look at her mechanics it's still smooth and strong especially you know looking at it from on the side like great cadence and this is a this is a tough thing to do solo now that O’Keeffe is out front and we see where the green lights are from the booth then they're about uh i would say 40 to 50 meters ahead, and O’Keeffe’s personal best from The Ten is 30:55, and those green lights are 30:40, so she very well could get a good personal record out of this race too and now we're within as she crosses the finish line we'll be within one mile to go which i think you

know from a mental standpoint is a huge kind of moment for these athletes um to then start kind of counting down towards the finish and really focusing on like only a mile left um and so we'll watch to see if that kind of proximity to the finish line adds um some energy to okeef who's you know done once the pacing excellent pacing duties ended um has really done the bulk of this work the last three k of the race, yeah, and 75.9 for that last lap for O’Keeffe, so she’s — she’s slowing and this is a this is a dark place at — at this point in a race for — for 10,000 meter athletes it's it's a tough

place to be, your body is heavy, you’ve got to swing — you’ve got to swing those legs with uh yeah with all that fatigue you got to pass people but she looks great like that 's what i'm surprised when i'm seeing the splits are slightly slower i'm surprised just because she still looks really great like i'm not noticing any visible changes in her mechanics yet i mean maybe a little less pop but that's natural as you get laid into a race so um and she's going by she’s lapping — a Chinese athlete here, that was a 75 as well, so that’s 75.5, which is better than the 75.9 previous lap, through 8,800 meters, so she’s inside three laps to go now

and she's done many intervals at this distance oh yeah leading into this race yes practice this many times, and obviously done this at The Ten a couple months ago and as for the others we’re watching, uh, that was a 77 last lap for her, and hers was a 78 O’Keeffe inside a thousand meters to go now, when she comes up to the — the line here it'll be two laps remaining and you're right her cadence looks like it's still it's still sharp and the green lights are uh they're getting close to around 80 meters ahead of her right now potentially 70 to 80 meters so here’s 9,200, inside two laps to go for O’Keeffe, the Puma Racing Elite, 75.5 again

and Van Es passes, two laps to go too, so 28:25 she’d need under a 2:15 800 to get under that 30:40 so it would have to be a pretty steep uptick in pace but we'll see how if she can approach her 30:55 O’Keeffe, the California native, coming around here, 500 meters remaining, coming on to the home straight teammate cheering her on in the infield she's not alone out there it might look lonely but there are a lot of people around the track cheering her on she's going to be right around that personal best, so 29:40 with a lap to go, she’s been running 75s, if she ran another 75 she’d 'd be like right at

maybe right over her personal best so let's see if she can bring down this pace a little bit over the last 400 i've got to think that she knows that that's within her grasp and i it seems like she's trying to pick up and give whatever she has left to try to get that personal best right now, that last lap was a 74.6, so if she can do another one of those she'll be right on right around that personal best that she set for herself earlier in the year there we go now we see we see the cadence start to shift and she's driving for home inside 200 meters this is it athletes moving out to lane two which is so kind because you know

they've got to be hurting as well that's right but the respect they have for one another and each other's effort so here comes O’Keeffe, she is the favorite in this race, and, uh, and we’re seeing why let’s — okay, keep your eye on the clock, 30:55 is her personal best — that she’s going to get, and there it is, 30:52 and we’re going to see Diane Van Es come through too 73 last lap, good kick for Van Es at the end, I think Van Es is trying to get under that 31 minute mark, which — she’s just outside, 31:02, but a great time for her too, so 72 last lap for O’Keeffe to get her to beat her own personal best that she said just a couple months ago

at The Ten, she ran 30:52, uh, and 77 — 30:52.77 was — is her new personal best, followed by Van Es, who ran a seven uh, 68-second last lap, I knew she was coming in quick, and how about WuGa He, oh yeah, WuGa He 31:14, nice, yeah, a new personal best for her by — 30 seconds, over 30 seconds and you'll once again really love that she decided to go with that lead pack and like latch on to a pace that maybe seemed a little bit scary but get pulled through 6k and ultimately come home with a 30 second personal best. Poppiani in there, 31:45, and that was Chloé Herbiet that we saw on the screen, Belgian athlete

so we’ll see what she ends up finishing, Ma coming in a big, big personal best for Ma too, 32:17, she’s listed at 33:07 and then here comes the Belgian athlete Chloé Herbiet, looking smooth I think that was — like around a 50-second personal best for her too, so across the board here Diane Van Es, her — her best on the track is listed at 33:20, so 31:02 tonight, she just got a big hug from lifted up twirled around hug so good happy with that performance Chloé Herbiet there, 32:38, yeah, and I would say like a minute personal best, I believe so not bad yeah it's exciting i would say the feeling of this 10k too not super

combative but uh oh yeah a lot of good performances and it was just a good feeling athletes helping each other get these marks out here late in the evening right 30:52 though for uh, for Fiona O’Keeffe, which is — which is great for her to get under that, because the — The Ten is such a prestigious event and a high — high-level event, and she ran 30:55 there, so to come back and run 30:52 here is a great performance for her and a sign of good things to come too that was our last athlete that crossed, we had Mikayla Reinhardt from Railroad Athletics, 33:38 and before her was Bethany Hasz Jerde from Boston Athletic

Association, 32:46 so like all the other events this is a world athletic silver level event too top eight places get extra points uh from 80 or 100 points at the top all the way down to uh 10 for which — if you’re asking yourself why that matters — for, oh sorry, 40 points, 40 points for eight for eight so for us athletes if you're trying to qualify you know we all qualify based on our national championships or you know world trials olympic trials um that's how we qualify for the team priority goes to place so top three would be you know first second and third consideration to go each country can send up to three athletes unless they have a you know a

previous champion from world champs or diamond leagues but i digress so top three you will get to go if you're top three and you have either the automatic time qualifier or world ranking points if you have neither of those they will go down the performance list and take the next athlete who does have that and so you'll for these athletes to toe the line at the trials with either an automatic time qualifier or a high world ranking that would ensure that um you know if for some reason they weren't in the top three but they placed further down they would be in consideration for that spot on a world

team which they which all athletes are really you know which is such a sought- after place to be yeah that is the to represent your your nation on the world stage is what all these athletes aspire to. We’ve got Brian Barraza there coming back to pace after the steeplechase today, the Tinman on the outside, and the men are off here, the target pace for this 10,000 meters, 27:30, which is 66 per lap the world standard for this event is 27:10, and USA standard is 27:50 so shooting for 27:30 puts them in that range there, target pace 27:30, 66 seconds per lap two pacers, Ahmed Muhammad and Brian Barraza, hoping to go 5k in 13:45

we'll keep an eye on those paces as we go through and like we were saying it's a great evening to do that it the women just showed that with how they knocked their personal best out of the park here it's it's nearing 11 p.m. here on the west coast but it's perfect racing it's perfect racing conditions and that's one of the exciting things about running obviously we love running and could say many things about why running is great but one of the things it's so fun is that there can be so many wins within a race obviously you have the race race winner but within that you know you can have personal best and national records all the way down the field in some

instances and so you know any athlete towing the line especially when they come to an event like this which is so well run on such great facilities with a great field of athletes they come to get after it it's we mentioned Monico before — Monico does have a mystique, but part of that has been built up over the years by athletes showing up committed to running hard and trying to go after a strong performance I think what we've seen over the last few years with The Ten or with Track Fest is that athletes can depend on good conditions and good facilities and good fields and so they will plan their

seasons and their trainings to prioritize those races where they feel like they can depend on a good opportunity and up front here we have Ahmed Muhammad and then Brian Barraza as the pacers, but the first racer here in the blue top is Adriaan Wildschutt, a South African athlete from NAZ Elite out of Flagstaff and then his teammate behind him, Alex Masai, also of NAZ Elite, and they’re clicking off 65s Geoffrey Kipchumba is on there too, running for the Army WCAP program, and that group looks like they're separating themselves from the rest so far they've hit at the at the front of the pack 65 for the first lap, 65 for the second lap, average pace of 65.6, two laps in,

many many laps to go but just under that target pace to start you can see the right in the blue of those wave lights blue and green that lead pack of five two of whom are Pacers and then a large chase pack yeah, Alex Masai up there for the NAZ Elite, he has a personal best of 27:42, and that was run this year actually at The Ten, so he’s looking to capitalize on that fitness and see if he can ratchet that time down a bit more following his teammate Ad -riaan Wildschutt it’s a great program there, the NAZ Elite, coached by Alan Culpepper now, formerly coached by Ben Rosario, who’s still part of the program managing that — that team, really wanted

the early groups to those — to move up there, I remember when the Bruces, Ben and Stephanie Bruce, moved up there a decade ago or something and you know Flagstaff was always a great place for athletes to train but really within the last five years or so it has become a mecca I feel like every other athlete I talked to if they've been at altitude training they've been in Flagstaff and and that's not just domestic US athletes it's international athletes that will come to spend their winter or spring you know altitude training in the states because the states is you know we have multiple high altitude options where you can get to six thousand feet seven eight thousand

feet and still have relatively good access to a track and airport to get to wherever you need to race in Europe those places would be St. Moritz which is about a three-hour train ride or drive from Zurich, or Font-Romeu — those are the two main ones, Font-Romeu is a two-hour drive from Barcelona so you know really exciting to see all these athletes that are wanting to come to the United States and then wanting to come to races like this where they know that they can come and continue their progress towards those championships in the summer I think in large part that happens because of all all these opportunities that are popping up too

along the the west coast you have those great training bases like you said like Boulder and Flagstaff and then it's easy to come down to sea level and race especially when there are amazing facilities and opportunities like this and then we all get to benefit from it because we we should get to see them clash and go after some great efforts absolutely so here we are up to 2k they passed 1600 meters previously at 4:23, and now 2k, 5:29, 65.9, so they’re hovering right around that 66-flat mark, as uh Muhammad still leads, and Brian Barraza in second there, and then Wildschutt too, former Florida State Nole, so

we see Muhammad wearing the Nole singlet up front, and then Wildschutt, the, uh, NAZ elite athlete there first one in the orange and blue top also ran in Tallahassee good trails in Tallahassee also a good winter training location for east coasters who want warm weather I don't like altitude yes Wildschutt brings a 27:38 personal best into this race, and that was set last year at Stanford so here we go splits are still being populated on the screen you can see another 66 flat through 2400 meters and now yeah the order is unchanged there's some shuffling in that second pack and it looks like that second

pack there, they’re running about 67-68, you know, usually as long as the pacers are on pace you wouldn't expect to see too much shuffling until unless either someone falls off the back or someone wants to go quicker, which we see a little bit of — Wildschutt maybe coming wide feeling like he wants to he's moving in and out yeah close to the rail and then coming maybe he's just trying to get get a look to see what's going on in front of him or clear footing you know sometimes it's um and I can be this way as well you know it's some athletes don't want to be directly behind they prefer to be in the pocket a bit so maybe the inside or the outside it

allows you a little bit more play and you feel like you're a little closer to the racer in front of you and so maybe there's a little bit of that going on as well and we're getting a drone right outside our window right now too, so it looks like Geoffrey Kipchumba is trying to hang on to that lead pack but he's there's a little bit of distance right now separating himself from Alex Masai and we always hear great things too about uh Alex Masai he's a young talent there just just came on board on the NAZ Elite last year and they think he's got a bright future ahead of him he’s a Kenyan guy. In the chase pack we have Eric Hamer leading — leading the

chase uh went through 2,800 in 7:52, with Thomas George of the Roots Running Project and Ryan Ford of ZAP Endurance right behind him, Andre Waring of Australia so Masai, Kenyan, Wildschutt is a South African athlete, so the 27:50 USA standard doesn't mean anything to them, but, uh, they’re shooting for 27:30 here, that’s what the pace lights are on and as we know, placing high up in this silver-level event too, getting a 27:30, that 'll just catapult your your world rankings up and make that effort effort yeah with the win adding 100 points probably under 27 minutes there, very good point, so another 66.1

3,200 meters — this was — this was 3,600 meters that was just passed here at 9:53 3,200, for those wanting to know, 8:47.5, so it’s interesting to me, all of these all these times for these these 10,000 meters on the pro level they cross two miles typically in it like what the top high school athletes are racing for two miles and then go that's less than a third of the race go four more miles but they were they all started somewhere too yeah so for all the high school kids out there running those times you'll get there absolutely you can get there yeah very true I think my high school personal best the 800 was my

1500 american record pace so you know it's uh as you said you got to start somewhere yeah that shows what consistency over years and years and years, yes. So that was 4,000 meters, and we saw Ahmed Muhammad step off 66.4, 4,000 meters crossing 11:00 flat it’s Brian Barraza up there, we’ve been told the goal would be to get the pacing through 5k so we'll see how Barraza does this pace over the next k, about 800 meters to go for him, then if he's trying to get to 5k, and then it’ll be up to the teammates, the NAZ Elite duo they have final race of the evening tonight I know it's been a good day here at

the track fest records upon records upon personal best and more records there are a lot of people going home happy tonight, yes. Oh, and there was Barraza, looks like he just stepped off at 4,400 meters or so, so he — stepped off in a 65.9, 12:06 through 4,400 meters, another example of excellent pacing, uh, between Muhammad and Barraza, just got them through right at that 66 flat average that they were looking for and really cool to see that too the the work between the teams helping each other out I mean they're competitive on the track when they step on the line against each other but it's beneficial to get another workout in and why not right help

somebody else out on the circuit too well that was a big part of you know when I in my old training groups that was a big part of those early season races was you want to go and have a actual competition but it's still early and you can't sacrifice you can't necessarily sacrifice that day from a like volume standpoint and from a development standpoint because you do still have the races ahead and so it's a way to get in those early season races without sacrificing the long-term goal and so I think it's really it's it's great to see these athletes willing to do that supporting one another because there is a full 400 meter track for warm-ups and cool downs

that they could be using but instead they decided to come back and support one another um but back on the track we have gone through 4,800 meters now, 12:00, and we’re getting the 5k right here, right so about 13:43 there we go, at 5,000 meters, and right under — right under 27:30 pace for them, and we've got the second pack too, led by Eric Hamer coming in, we’ll, uh, we’ll pay some attention to them as they cross 5000 meters in right about 14 minutes too, so 28 — 28-minute pace for them, that’s Eric Hamer, and Thomas George driving that train back there, 13:45 is what they had requested for the lead pack so

they were right on that going through 5k, it just passed, with 12 laps to go, 5,200 meters there 65.7 per lap, Wildschutt — or Masai — out front inside, and then Wildschutt, and there’s a trio of Eric Hamer, Thomas George, and Ryan Ford on the screen to your right, the smaller screen, Hamer’s been leading — leading leading that group for a while now and they're clicking off 66 66 67 67 so that group would very much like that 27:50, if they can — if they can get there they were on 28 minute pace but I know what they're looking to do and it looks like there's a lead change there's possibly Thomas George moves to the front to do some work but here we have Alex

Masai still leading his teammate, up to 5,600 meters and we’ll see what that is — or was — another 65.8, 15:23, there’s a lead change, they — yeah they traded traded, each other, because it had previously been Wildschutt, right, yeah, I think they've been going back and forth, they’ve been switching off, and now, yeah, Wildschutt’s going around to take the reins from Masai a little bit, this is what I love to see, you know, I love in this scenario that it's two teammates that have now gotten this far into the race together and I'm hoping that they talked beforehand about what will we do when the pacer drops off and

you know we're seeing them change leads I think that's so important to get through there's still a lot of running left it's so important to get them through until you know the last mile is there anything better than that when you when you're working your butt off out there and you've got a teammate that's doing the exact same thing and you know you can count on that person to to come through and deliver and then it makes you want to work for that person as well and you've got this special bond just circle in the track absolutely and the confidence of knowing you can depend on them right you know

the we've seen really good pacing tonight I think that's cannot be credited enough for helping get these races off right and the athletes committed to those paces and you know I think that all plays into these great performances that we've seen um I think you know when you're out there with a teammate uh you don't you don't often get such great pacing but if you have a teammate out there you know how they run you know their style you have confidence of having shared you know workout after workout with them and um that just like take some of the pressure off you can allow them when they lead to lead and when it's your turn you can think but it just you

know allows the athletes to relax a bit more because of the trust it's right nine laps to go we 'll get you the split for that — that was a 66.4, Wildschutt, 66-low, yeah, so they’re still — still hovering around that 66-flat pace that they wanted, and Eric Hamer leading that second pack on the on the right side of the screen there too, 68 the last couple laps for him, oh, they — those guys ran some 65s from lap 12 to 14 and then the last two laps have been 68s for them we just had another lead change with Masai taking — passing Wildschutt on the backstretch, oh, excuse me, the — the results site just

updated they've been running 68 68 this whole time here on the for the right side of the screen but 66-flat roughly for Masai and Wildschutt, right, and if you go to finish results who's our timing uh for this event it's really great under the live live events you can see these splits that we're seeing as they come in they also have the average of those total splits for the pace that they're running which is so helpful to keep keep track of you know uh how those points of a second can add up over time yeah all these little little pieces to change add up this 65.82 last lap getting to 6,800, that — that point-18 is — is valuable under the 66-second lap bar

but here we go, look at — space, yeah, yeah, Wildschutt looks like he injected some speed into this here it's always funny watching um the race like you can tell very clearly that there are mental kind of checkpoints that the athletes trying to get through so we hit eight laps to go two miles to go, and in that lap we saw then Wildschutt start to inject some pace so I have to imagine that in his strategy he wanted to get to two miles to go and then possibly you know start bringing down the pace, it was a big injection of speed, I mean he got a 65-low now and that that was midway through the lap, so we’ll see what this next one is, and he put 20

meters and it's still growing on his teammate in that lap in 400 because he took started pushing the pace around this time a lap ago and just thinking about this and the goal pace that he's sticking on here try to get under that 27:30 mark, 27:30 — or 27:28 was the world standard a couple years ago, so that, yeah, it’s — you could see somebody like Joe Klecker, uh, who was going for that two years ago and I remember when he eclipsed that mark and now this year he he was getting and I remember when he eclipsed that mark, and now this year he — he was getting under 27:10, and he development over years

like this, and especially like for somebody like Wildschutt too, and Masai, who’s younger coming into this that they're they're hitting these benchmarks along the way but that those amazing times like the sub-27s are not out of reach with more work year over year, yeah, it can happen you know we were talking about Josette Andrews, for example, always a great athlete, but in two years time went from being a great athlete to you know someone that on the international stage you 're going to be watching to see what she does um and uh and so I think you know I think it speaks to the development of the athletes as well you know coming out of college and kind of

maturing into their bodies and into their training, um, you know, the NAZ Elite team being based in flagstaff is perfect for a distance athlete especially someone who responds well to altitude training which it seems that these athletes do, yeah, Wildschutt pouring it on now, he’s ahead of the blue lights and staying there as we're coming up to 8k right now five laps to go so just shy of five miles on the track, and sub-22 for 8k, everybody out there who’s run college cross country knows knows what an 8k time means, and doesn’t necessarily associate 21:58 with — with that over hill and dale, but down here on the track that’s just en route to 10,000 meters, we weren’t

't getting anywhere near that 22 mark in our hilly run this morning, no, we did get over a thousand feet of vert though which was impressive and we're we're up at 11 p.m. watched some amazing what a day yeah wheel shut pouring it on here and we could see that that second pack on the right too, still led by Eric Hamer there, uh, it looks like they’re — they’re going 70s and Masai slipped to 69, but this is — this is all Wildschutt now, 65-second pace, 66-second pace, he’s been running that all race, four laps to go, he’s got him — on my left he looks great, so I mean Masai’s might be slowing down he is slowing down still maintaining form though i'm i'm happy to

see him not you know breaking down too much just the power is you know not quite there where it was but he's but hence the pace slowing down but his mechanics still look great yeah inside a mile to go here for a Wildschutt and Masai, and there’s Wildschutt cruising, looking good 1400 meters remaining from there it's like he's being chased by the lights now so we know there's a with some cheers on the turn from his teammates and this is this is a hugely valuable performance so or about yeah valuable performance to have at an event like this so the more time he can get that means he gets more performance points the better his time is obviously but that contributes to

what he gets with 100 points added on to that too for winning this race at a silver level competition and then that'll boost his his rankings up considerably his for a 10 000 meter athlete on the world stage you need two 10 000 meter races to your name to get into the points ranking system and he's got one within the calendar year or within the last 12 months from last year from his PR and this will be another one right in there for him and a really good mark for him absolutely but he's still cruising at 66 flat and i'm curious to see what he's going to do over these last few laps if he if he stays at 66 or if he really has something left in the tank and

he can he can pour it all out we'll get to see that but we're coming up this is 800 meters to go for Adriaan Wildschutt, the NAZ Elite, straight out of Flagstaff, that was a 65.7, so he 's getting antsy he’s ready for it, he sees that — eight, eight must be his lucky — lucky number, eight laps to go put in a big surge 800 to go another one yep and that on the right hand side of the screen too you can see Thomas George and Ryan Ford as Ryan Ford in the front leading Thomas George and they're clicking off oh they're they're inching it down now it looks like 67-68, pulling away from Eric Hamer, but we’re — let’s turn our

attention back to the big screen here, and we’ve got Wildschutt, too, who’s out-running these blue lights pulling away from him and this is one lap to go he's coming up to the bell one more to 10 000 meters he's run 24 laps, one lap remaining, I’m guessing that was 64-ish or something because he put some gap on the pace lights, so his best — yep, 64.9, 64.9, nice his best is 27:38 like we said earlier, and he’s well inside 27:30 pace right now and he's he's moving he is moving here we go so inside 200 meters to go Adriaan Wildschutt, come on man, you got this I don't know what time I want him to run but I want him to run fast and he's

doing it and I like watching it here we go he's coming up to the line this is your champion of the athletic brewing men’s 10,000 meters here at the On Track Fest, Adriaan Wildschutt of the NAZ Elite, 27:23 great time, 15-second personal best, love to see that, and they let the smoke out for him that was a 61.5 last lap, let’s see, but we have — still, here’s Alex Masai coming in as well good effort getting in under that 28-minute mark, well under — 27:51, and then we 've got Thomas George pouring it on down the stretch he's distancing himself from Ryan Ford George coming in 28:05, 28:08, 28:09

Thomas George 28:06 there good running from him too, that second pack did a lot of great work, 28:14 was George's personal best, so he got under that by a bunch, um, coming in, Ryan Ford also gets a personal best his was 28:16, now he’s 28:09 Eric Hamer comes in at 28:21 Wildschutt, your champion. Now, I thought I would do a little math experiment highlighting what we were saying about the world athletics and the extra hundred points. So the 27:23 that Wildschutt just ran was — was 1,190 points, when you add the extra hundred points for the win, it becomes 1,290 points, so 1,290 points value, which is a 27

or 26:20 uh time equivalent so in order for him to achieve that same amount of points that he did tonight at silver level purely on time, he would have to have run 26:20 at a non-tiered meet, yes yes that's I mean that that'll that'll do it that'll that'll bring the stars together and have race and uh I mean it's it's fantastic to see him get that result here tonight I'm super happy that that he was able to do that in front of us and we got to watch it especially how he ran that how he executed it you know pushing it from eight laps out I wasn't sure if you'd be able to sustain it, but then he went on to finish even stronger, um, and the pace lights were

behind him that latter half of the race yeah so as we see those world rankings updated over the coming days we'll be able to see uh that really that fruit really take hold and uh and yeah and him being able to catapult up those rankings as as all of these these results will right uh as we see them calculate from this awesome event here yeah and it was a great time I had an amazing time here and it was fun to watch all these these great races as always with you Shannon it's a pleasure to share the booth Cheers, cheers, cheers, yeah, Athletic Brewing non-alcoholic beers um thank you to everybody for tuning in thank you always for for purchasing the

pay-per-view ticket your money is going to a good place it's filling the prize purses for events like this that we can have stateside and in amazing facilities and and there we are like the drums right outside but, uh, once again, thank you all for tuning in, thank you to On Running, to Sound Running and we're leaving you right now where the drone is flying away and and that's it you're drifting off into into space it's been a pleasure thank you we'll see you next time maybe maybe there's a runner out there who always feels amazing who doesn’t need anyone to remind her why she’s out there maybe there's this runner out there so full of running

wherever this runner might be we haven't found them yet because we weren't looking for this one runner