Several high school athletes will be competing at this weekend's Olympic Trials in Eugene, including two high school seniors in the women's 1500m. Kate Murphy (Lake Braddock HS, Virginia) and Christina Aragon (Billings HS, Montana) both qualified by time with the #3 and #4 prep marks of all-time (4:07.21 and 4:09.27).
Aragon happens to be the youngest daughter of legendary New Mexico miler Chuck Aragon, a former Los Lunas HS state champion, an MD and graduate of UNM medical school, as well as the alternate on the 1984 Olympic Team in the 1500m. Her mother Kathy (Pfiefer) was a standout runner at UNM who qualified to run in the Trials more than once (3x to be specific).
Quality genetics led to multiple national championships on the track as a junior last year for Christina, and at a recent qualifying race in Portland she ran away from a field of professional and collegiate runners, just dipping under the Trials mark of 4:09.50, running solo and chasing the time by herself over the final lap.
Aragon is not expected to compete at the front for one of the spots on the Olympic team, her effort will be measured a success if she can make the finals. She has committed to run for Stanford in the Fall unlike her sisters and father who all ran for the University of Notre Dame.
See the bios and achievements of all sixteen prep Trials qualifiers (12 girls, 4 boys). They include one current world champion, a couple junior world champions, and several national record holders.
Update:
Christina ran through to the semi-finals, missing out on a finals qualifier by two places finishing in 4:12:71. Kate Murphy also missed qualifying out of the semis.
The Olympic Trials are one week away and the NCAA Championships are two weeks past. This small window of time allows a moment to reflect on UNM's first and most recent individual national track champion, Courtney Frerichs. A member of last fall's national champion cross-country team, Frerichs ran away from the field in the 3000m steeplechase and soloed to the title as well as a new UNM and NCAA collegiate record in 9:24:41, breaking the previous record held by 1500m world champion Jenny Simpson by a little more than a second. Frerichs was NCAA runner-up last year running for University of Missouri Kansas City before applying as a graduate transfer to UNM for her final year of eligibility.
New collegiate 3000m steeplechase record
She was a heavy favorite to win the title, winning by nearly 100m. Her time however was exceptionally fast, 6th fastest all-time among US women, which now positions her for a realistic spot on the US Olympic team. She's currently the third US ranked woman by time:
1. Coburn, 9:10.76 AR 2. O'Connor, 9:18.85 3. Frerichs, 9:24.41 CR 4. Higginson, 9:33.38 5. Cheever, 9:37.12
This ranking comes with the caveat that two of the top 5 US women (Garcia, Quigley) have yet to compete this year. Both have PRs within one second of Frerichs new best. Should Frerichs find her way into the top three next week she'll be the first Olympian hailing from New Mexico since Shelly Steely and Aaron Ramirez in 1992.
Updated:
Left out a few athletes with local ties (naturally).
- Santa Fe athlete Aliphine Tuliamuk-Bolton is one of a handful of Americans in legitimate contention for one of the 10,000m spots. She'll be competing this weekend at the US Trials.
- Albuquerque Academy alum and prep track phenom Curtis Beach will compete for a spot in the Decathlon. He runs for Nike, and lives and trains in Arizona.
- Former Lobo standout Ross Millington has punched his ticket to Rio and will be representing the UK in the 10,000m. He lives and trains in Europe.
- Another former Lobo standout and European Champion Lee Emanuel has a shot at representing the UK in the 1500m. He needs to record a time of 3:36.20 by weeks end. Lee lives and trains in Europe.
Several other UNM sprinters and field event athletes will be competing in their respective nations trials this weekend. A write-up and list of these athletes was pulled together by the UNM athletic department.
Updated 2:
Courtney finished 2nd in 9:20.92 and will be running in Rio as an Olympian. So awesome.
A cool writeup on New Mexican milers was published yesterday over at BringBacktheMile.com. These guys do a stand-up job of promoting track via its most exciting race. They've compiled lists of all the U.S. sub-four milers; records lists; chronological and progression lists; and now lists by state.
What made the New Mexico writeup so rad was that it was my work - highlighting Aragon, Young, Maas, Krummenacker, and McNiff. Got me fired-up to see these guys get the spotlight on a more heavily trafficked corner of the web. The writeup also outlined the history and difficulties of running a sub-four mile on New Mexico soil, drawing from another post I penned just a few months ago. A shame that the article didn't link directly to my writing since I had layered in all kinds of additional detail and anecdotes and lists to ramp things up to Defcon-1 level of cool.
The story got attention, and tweets and emailed links and shares and pluses - very rewarding. All except for one glaring error right at the end of thing:
Hill stalks Lomong at the Cherry & Silver Invite - courtesy of Blake Wood
World Champs 5000m finalist Ryan Hill dropped-in at the UNM indoor track meet this last weekend and blitzed a sub-four minute mile in the men's open race, an effort rarely seen here at altitude. Hill clocked 3:59:00 flat to best two-time Olympian Lopez Lomong in a tune up for next month's National Indoor Track & Field Championship hosted once again at the Albuquerque Convention Center. This is an off year in track, meaning that there is no outdoor World Championship on the schedule. The big meet on the elite track circuit defaults to World Indoors, meaning that the National Indoor meet coming to town in four weeks is going to be a ripper.
Before last year very few sub-four miles at altitude had been run on American soil. This is partly due to the degree of difficulty and primarily due to almost no quality races held under such limiting conditions. Surprisingly, no sub-four has ever been run in Colorado. Until just last year none had been run in New Mexico. Olympian and BYU alum Doug Padilla was likely the first to accomplish the feat on American soil back in 1983 (Utah). Thirty years later native Montanan Pat Casey cemented his high-country bona-fides by soloing a sub-four in Bozeman as a junior at Montana State. Pat rabbits for Galen Rupp these days. Will Leer ran to a National Indoor title last year to be the first to accomplish the feat in New Mexico. At the time he was likely just the third to ever do it, with numbers four and five less than one second behind him. Eleven months later Hill joins the group. For sake of comparison, the most impressive American mile/1500m at altitude was easily Jim Ryun's run at the '68 Olympic Games - a 3:37.8 1500m at 7300ft (~3:54.8 equivalent mile), only good enough for silver in the wake of altitude trained legend Kip Keino.
Mad competition on the Moscow track last week. Some genius mind even developed a cellphone app so that nerds like me could follow the competition and real-time results during office coffee breaks or while traveling to a wedding in Telluride. Technology is something else.
You know what else is something else? Marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda who repeated his gold medal performance from London. Absolutely brilliant that the underdog of London who brought down all of team Kenya over the last 7km of the Olympic marathon, would return to Moscow only to dismantle all of team Ethiopa and one Kenyan challenger over the last 7km of the World Championships. That's the stuff of legend right there. I'd love to see him run New York. Team America was overmatched but ran bravely, running 13th, 27th, and 37th. The American women ran even better led by Olympic medalist Deena Kastor in 9th, teammates in 18th and 23rd.
Lap of honor for Mrs. Simpson (Go Buffs!)
We had solid performances in the distances but came up short for a podium spot. Galen Rupp ran to a 4th place in the 10,000m, Shalane Flanagan 8th in the women's final. Bernard Lagat ran to 6th in the 5,000m final, and we advanced all three of our 5,000m women's team into the final, led by Molly Huddle with finishes of 6th, 7th, and 12th. Evan Jager was a strong 5th in the Steeplechase one second off the medal hunt. It was the middle distances though where we finally broke through. A medal from each event - Nick Symmonds struck first with a silver in the 800m, followed by Jenny Simpson (Go Buffs!) with a silver in the 1500m, then Brenda Martinez with a bronze in the 800m, and finally Matt Centrowitz with silver in the 1500m. Simpson and Centrowitz were repeat medalists from the Deagu Championships in 2011. It's likely that Team USA even left two or three medals on the table with a few sub-par performances. Gonna be super strong over the next four years in Mid-D. Yay America, yay Rocky, yay stone-cold marathoners that run without fear.
Track and Field Nationals start up this week - Thursday-Sunday in Des Moines, IA. Top three finishers in each event provisionally qualify for this fall's World Championships in Moscow. The way elite running is set up right now, months will go by without seeing the heavyweight matchups. Smaller meets through the early summer and spring and even back into indoor season and cross country nationals will bring out a few of the top runners but many will stay home either because they're targeting a different meet or race, or they're working through injury, or there's no money in it (i.e. cross country), or they do show up only to race down in distance to sharpen speed or up in distance to hammer on strength. Nationals however, brings out all the Big Dogs to battle their marquee rivals over their natural race distances. Get it on, man. The only athletes that get a pass to Worlds without a podium finish at Nationals are the defending World Champions, and our only distance runner returning to defend a title is Jenny Simpson (of CU Boulder!) in the 1500m. Steeple champ Emma Coburn (Go Buffs!) was the only sure thing on the women's side but she's out with a back injury after winning NCAA's. The men's distance talent has become so deep that other than Olympians Galen Rupp and Evan Jager, just about every other WC qualifying spot is up for grabs. Shit is gonna get real.
Steeplers battle at last year's Olympic Trials
in Eugene. Cabral and Jager (c,r) earned
their tickets to London, Olinger (l) crumbled.
Beyond the big battles on the track there are a couple of interesting developments for this year's meet: Live streaming coverage will be available at USA Track & Fields' new internet broadcast outlet USATF.TV in what looks like a joint venture with Runnerspace. This is a big departure from the ordinary non-Olympic year coverage wherein NBC will sometimes provide edited broadcast coverage with comically bad announcing the following day - after it's well known who won and who crapped-the-bed. Of late, Universal Sports Online occasionally provides coverage at a fee, notably for European Diamond League events. Bandwith and login issues often plague the service. We'll see if the USATF can avoid similar issues in what amounts to their rollout of a new platform (I won't hold my breath). This is nonetheless a very positive development for a sport that can be difficult to follow even for the faithful.
Interestingly, without general access to live coverage on the cable networks or streaming coverage on the net, the best source to spring up (by a long shot) for major race event coverage has become Twitter. The platform doesn't crash, or stall, or attract nonsense and garbage as with the message boards. You can source your tweets direct from the top journalists and bloggers in the sport, from folks in the stands at the meet, and even from the athletes themselves. I've recently become a convert and have setup an account if only for the daily news feed (I've pinned a widget to the sidebar). For race previews and coverage as well as some of the best twitter feeds, I'd advise heading over to the Daily Relay.
Update: The USATF.tv link has been changed to one that works - http://www.livestream.com/runnerspace
Shocking, I know.
Update II (6/21): The first link is now the functioning one again - USATF.tv
Coverage and streaming last night for the 10000m were surprisingly good.
Catching up on events from the past week, notably the NCAA Indoor Championships. Some pretty spectacular performances throughout but my attention was focused in particular on the two UNM runners that were straight-up dealin' against some of the toughest collegiate fields in years. Junior Luke Caldwell grabbed All-American honors and 8th place with a 13:46.44 finish in the men's 5000m. Senior Josephine Moultrie finished just off the scoring in the women's 3000m with a placing of 10th in a field of 16, with a time of 9:14.84. Moultrie ends her collegiate indoor career owning a sweep of school records in the 600m, 800m, Mile, and 3000m.
Joe Franklin's teams have been crushing it the last few seasons. In February the UNM men claimed their first indoor conference title in 46 years. This follows a UNM resurgence in cross country, owning the conference championship for four straight years on the men's side, and five straight years for the women. I find all of this to be of special interest for the reason that UNM (and Albuquerque) is hosting the NCAA Indoor Meet next year, and the men and women in red are going to run the legs off the field with the handy advantage of 5,000 feet of elevation.
Continuing a short series of posts - A quick look back at the 5000m Olympic Finals:
Coming into London, the US men's 5000m team looked to be the strongest chance for a distance medal of all the races on the Olymic slate. The team included multiple-world champion and American record holder Bernard Lagat, American record holder Galen Rupp, and former 1500m specialist Lopez Lomong. All three men made it through the heats to the Olympic Final including Rupp, newly minted in silver from his brilliant triumph in the 10000m.
The looming question was whether Britain's Mo Farah could double up on his gold medal win from the 10000m. The best take on how the race unfolded, a very slow tactical affair with a bunched field until the bell lap, was this note from the Atlantic Wire:
Mo Farah is emerging from these Olympics as Briton's breakout hometown
hero. After winning gold in the 10,000 meters last week he said he was
tired. He wasn't sure he had enough in the tank to win the 5,000. But
then someone reminded him that 5,000 meters is, like, half of 10,000.
And he's so good at the 10,000! Gold medal good, even. So Farah was all
like, "I got this," and he totally dominated Saturday's race on the way
to his second gold of this Olympics.
Lagat congratulating the champion
Hahaha - that just cracked me up because that's a pretty good read of how the race went down. Rupp looked tired too, and although he moved up into a strong position with two laps remaining he almost immediately faded from the front and ended in seventh. Respectable, but out of the medals. Lagat hung tough and may have moved into bronze on the finishing sprint if not for a small stutter and near-trip. He finished fourth. Farah's gold was Britain's first Olympic win in the event. Full results here (Race video here - beginning at 0:55:40)
The reason why most championship races tend to unfold so slowly is because front-running in an elite caliber field is an almost certain way to lose the race (this is the reason rabbits are used in non-championship races - to keep the pace honest). Allowing a slow pace might seem counter-intuitive for runners that lack a kick because such a tactic all but assures that the best kickers will win anyway. But a runner that chooses to push the pace from the front simply allows the rest of the field to easily tuck and draft, then attack with fresher legs at the finish. Often times national teams will employ team-tactics by swapping leads to push the pace, then sacrificing their least talented athlete as the pacesetter toward the crucial point in the race.
In a rare example of what it takes to front-run and win, Kenyan great John Ngugi (below) jumps the field in the 1988 5000m Olympic Final. Ngugi had the skill and credentials to pull this off but to do it successfully he had to surprise the field with sub-4min mile pace for two laps early in the race. A phenomenally bold move to throw down in an Olympic Final. Note the Portuguese who gambles his own race for gold to see just how difficult such a move can be.
Continuing a short series of posts - A quick look back at the 10,000m Olympic Finals:
This was the big race that runners across the country had circled on their calendar. For the first time in a couple of generations, the US team had a runner in the field - Galen Rupp, formerly of the Univ. of Oregon - that had a legitimate shot of cracking the formidable talent of the East Africans and finding his way to the podium. Rupp's primary weapons are that he trains with the current World Champion and world no.1, Mo Farah of Great Britain, and that he has the finishing speed to close the race with a 53sec final lap. Only a half dozen of the world's elite distance runners have that kind of closing speed, Farah is one of them. With that said, the drama surrounding the race became a question of whether Rupp could step-up and resist cracking under the pressure of an Olympic Final, and whether the rest of the world's top distance runners would pursue a strategy to press a fast enough pace throughout the race to negate the kick of the favorites.
My man Dathan representing Boulder in the early going
The race began slowly as the runners found their legs, then Team Eritrea went hard to the front after the first mile and began alternating leads and pressing a strong pace (27min pace). Long time fixtures of the American distance scene Dathan Ritzenhein formerly of the Univ. of Colorado (Go Buffs!) and Matt Tegenkamp formerly of the Univ. of Wisconsin, were mixing it up in the lead pack through the first 6000m. As the race drama peaked over the last few thousand meters the Eritreans fell back to recover as both the Ethiopian and Kenyan contingents were chattering with one another at the front, debating their next move. They chose to sit and kick. Rupp held onto fourth position on the rail and all the front runners held tight until the bell.
Farah bossin' it in front of the adoring British crowd
Farah set off the bedlam by surging into the final lap. The London crowd roared their approval and the chase was on. The surge created space for Rupp to come off the rail and he was one of five that were away and chasing medals; Farah, one Kenyan, Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia (the world record holder and two-time Olympic champion), Bekele's brother Tariku, and Rupp. I stared at the television and thought to myself - an American is in position to conceivably win this race!? Oh shit, this was seriously going to happen. Rupp showed steely patience in lane two with the frightening shadow of Bekele on his heels, and then went all-in on the top of the bend, pushing past the fading Kenyan (bronze!), then on the homestretch the Ethiopian began to falter and Rupp overtook him 40 meters to the line (silver!), and then it was over!
Disbelief at the finish
I was in the pediatric ward of the hospital as this was happening. My brother and I, eyes glued to the set were whispering to each other this whole time, miming the tension and disbelief of those last four laps, and with great discipline and restraint, not yelling. Just then I hear my wife - who dislikes talk of running and related nonsense - calmly ask from behind us, 'wait, did Rupp just win a medal?'. Yes, he most certainly did. What a magnificent race. Results here (Race video here - beginning at 2:29:30)
Whew, well I'll follow that with a quick clip of another of the finest Olympic 10000m finishes of all-time. Greats Paul Tergat and Haile Gebrselassie battle for gold at the Sydney Games - in slow motion backed with opera music. A bit of a do-it-yourself job, but quite marvelous just the same.
Rudisha at the finish. Symmonds (far left), Solomon (center-left)
Continuing a short series of posts - A quick look back at the 800m Olympic Finals:
The US men have been exceptionally deep in the middle distances this year, and in the 800m the rare opportunity to place a man on the Olympic podium seemed more likely than not. The problem: Kenya's David Rudisha is the most dominant athlete in track and field not named Bolt, meaning that the available podium spots for the remainder of the field were just two.
Two men from the US contingent of three navigated their heats into the final, Duane Solomon , formerly of USC, and five-time US National Champion Nick Symmonds of Oregon. Unlike most championship races that play out tactically (read: slowly - see all other recapped races), this one was the race that David Rudisha had likely been waiting his entire life for. An historically deep field, roaring crowds, massively high-stakes and soaring adrenaline. At the gun he blasted straight to the front, mashed the pedal down in the first half of the second lap when runners generally relax and gather themselves for the sprint home, then sent that last 200m for a new world record (1:40:91) and Olympic gold. As masterful and bold a performance as any in the London Games. In his wake, he dragged every other runner but one to a personal best time. Three of the eight runners, including himself, ran to a new national record. The finishing time for each place in the race, one through eight, were all-time bests for that place. It was the greatest 800m race ever run. Amid all of this, the Americans honorably held it together for 4th and 5th place finishes. Out of the medals yes, but with the second and third fastest finishes in US history - D. Solomon (1:42:82), N. Symmonds (1:42:95). One really couldn't ask for better performances in an Olympic Final. Results here (Race video here - beginning at 1:44:00)
This was Kenya's fourth gold medal in the event over the last seven Games, going back to Seoul in 1988. The US last stood on the podium in 1992 when Johnny Gray (still the US record holder and coach to D. Solomon), won bronze.
Rudisha - Fortune favors the bold
An interesting stadium-seat view of the race as it unfolds. The Americans run near the back of the field until closing hard at the finish.
Continuing a short series of posts - A quick look back at the 1500m Olympic Finals:
Following an uncharacteristically good showing at Worlds last year (Simpson winning the womens title - go Buffs!, Centrowitz taking mens bronze) there was some question as to whether the Olympic contingent could continue to punch above their weight. What our milers lack in raw speed seems to be balanced by their collective savvy as racers. The men did not disappoint.
Manzano (triumphant) and Centrowitz at the line
Leo Manzano and Matt Centrowitz both made it through heats to the finals and followed a slow pace to the bell along with most of the field. The eventual champion from Algeria broke the race open on the backstretch with an improbable surge covered by the race favorites from Kenya and Ethiopia. All of these men but the Algerian faded badly on the homestretch where Manzano reeled them in with the closing acceleration he's known for, climbing the ladder to a silver medal (3:34:79). Centrowitz followed closely, barely losing out on bronze (3:35:17). Manzano's kick to glory was reminiscent of his win at the Trials and at Indoor Nats in Albquerque this February (where he incidentally kicked down Rupp and Centrowitz). A marvelous run for the Americans and a vindication that US runners are once again a threat on the elite level. Manzano in silver claimed the first American Olympic 1500m medal since Jim Ryun in 1968 (yes, Jim Ryun). Results here (Race video here - beginning at 2:28:00)
Uceny - an Olympic final (and years of work) abruptly fade
While the US men performed way above expectation, the women ran nearly the opposite. All of the Americans were possible medal threats with current world number one Morgen Uceny, defending world champ Jenny Simpson (go Buffs!), and Shannon Rowbury a former worlds bronze medalist. Simpson inexplicably washed out in the heats, and Uceny - repeating the disaster of last year's World Championships - tripped up in traffic and crashed to the track at the bell, failing to finish. Absolutely crushing to see that happen to her in two straight championships. Rowbury hung on for a solid 6th place finish (4:11:26). Results here (Race video here - beginning at 2:04:27)
A bit of video of Ryun at the Mexico City Games. The Kenyans intentionally drive the pace to use the 7000ft altitude to their advantage. Ryun leaves it way too late to respond. Kip Keino's winning time - at altitude, in 1968 - was less than a second shy of the winning time in London (3:34:86).
This year's Olympics were sweeeeet, and the US distance contingent was the strongest to suit up since at least the '84 Games in Los Angeles. With this in mind I wanted to look back at a few of the races and draw some context over previous Olympic years - beginning with the Steeplechase.
Fronting the women's team was Emma Coburn (two time National Champion) and Shalaya Kipp, both collegiates from the University of Colorado (Waddup!). Coburn made the finals - along with the third member of team USA, Bridget Franek - and ran to a 9th place finish in a personal best time of 9min 23s. Results here. (Race video here - beginning at 2:26:30).Coburn redshirted her senior year of eligibility at CU to train exclusively for London. It's the second straight Olympics that the top American Steeplechaser hails from CU (U.S. record holder Jenny Simpson in '08).
Jager and Cabral drive the early pace
In the men's race, the top American was U.S. record holder Evan Jager running in just the seventh steeple race of his career. He knocked out a very respectable 6th place finish (8:23.87, best US finish since 1996), followed closely by recent Princeton graduate Dan Cabral in 8th (8:25.91). Both Americans were in the lead group at the bell but fell well off pace in a blistering final lap. Results here. The race was dominated by the '04 Gold Medalist and double world champ Ezekiel Kemboi of Kenya who toyed with the field in the heats, then celebrated this win with his usual lane-7 finish followed with some memorable dancing on the track (Race video here - beginning at 2:48:40).
An incredible observation: Kenya has won steeplechase gold in every Olympic year they've sent a team going back to 1968 (African boycott in '76; Soviet boycott in 1980). That's 44 years. Below is some video of the finish in '68. The leader on the final turn is none other than Silver City's George Young, who finished in bronze.
I thought I'd have time to write more about cycling with the recent end to the Tour and Olympic track and field still one week away. But good Lord, the Olympics just overwhelm don't they? I neither have the time right now to write or follow the Games but the discipline of my attention span is notoriously poor, so a few notes on the first week in London:
This year's Tour de France champion was British rider Bradley Wiggins. He was the first Brit in the Tour's long history to finish in yellow, but also the first former track cyclist to win in Paris. Wiggins has multiple medals, including several gold, from the velodromes in Sydney, Athens, and Beijing. This year's champion in the Giro was Canadian rider Ryder Hesjedal, the first Canadian to claim the pink jersey. He also came to the cycling via early successes in mountain biking, including an Olympic appearance in Athens in which a flat tire spoiled a probable ride to the podium. With all this in mind who would win the Olympic Road Race on the first day in London? Savy veteran Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan stole the race from upfront as the favored Brits tried to control the race from the peloton and set up their best sprinter Mark Cavendish.
A vivid illustration of the difference between being an Olympic
champion and becoming the stuff of Olympic legend. Human laser-beam and fastest-man-on-the-planet Usain Bolt joined his Jamaican teammates for a trip to the dining hall in the
Athlete’s Village. The place quickly erupted into a prolonged standing ovation
of fellow Olympians. The throwers in his entourage quite literally found
themselves in the role of bouncers and personal security detail for the guy.
I was secretly hoping to see one of the legends of sport - Roger Bannister
- light the Olympic torch in London. His fame
isn’t tied to the Games as much as to his challenges with a stopwatch on the Iffley oval in Cambridge. Bannister’s shot at Olympic glory fell to pieces in
1952 as he faded late in the race to fourth. It was this failure ironically
that motivated his efforts in training that produced the world’s first fourminute mile two years later, after which, he retired to a career in medicine. I was hoping the
Games organizers would look past this technicality, but they chose not to.
There are reports that marathon world-record holder and part-time
Albuquerque resident Paula Radcliffe will be a scratch for next Sunday’s womens
marathon. Old foot injuries continue to bother her. Radcliffe hasn’t raced much
over the last few years and one has to imagine she may have hung up the flats before
now had London not been the host of this year’s games. American marathoner Desi Davila is also a likely scratch. Alternates from the Trials would be Amy Hastings or Janet Bawcom, both already qualified and set to compete in the 10000m. The next alternate would be none other than Deena Kastor. It remains to be seen if any of the alternates are prepared to run.
The idea of compiling a list of the state's elite milers has been stirring in my head for a few years. The subject is a bit removed from trails,
mountains, and marathon majors but it remains a universal running standard worthy
of serious respect. At the time, I knew of three New Mexicans that had
outrun the magical four-minute barrier and was curious if there had been
more. From time-to-time I'd do a little research, and in the end I dug up just
one addition - an Olympic medalist no less - and a couple of guys with personal
bests that put them right at the standard. One of these runners was Los Alamos'
Ryan McNiff who posted a 1500m four-minute-equivalent at a race out at Stanford just last week (update: McNiff ran a 3:59.11 mile in Feb '13 to become the fifth NM runner to break four minutes). As one might expect, the runners in this group share the
company of truly rarefied air and elite talent.
Due to the altitude constraints of New Mexico running, all sub-four races run by these men occurred out of state. In fact no one has ever run only at the 2013 US Indoor Championships was the first four minute mile run on New Mexican soil (and the 2nd, and the 3rd). With McNiff's recent effort
I figured it was as good a time as any to write-up the list, so here they are in
order of performance:
Date under 4min
Mile PR
1500m PR
George Young
Mar 1971 - 3:59.6
3:59.6
n/a
Chuck Aragon
Feb 1981 - 3:59.92i
3:51.62
3:38.40 a
Daniel Maas
Jun 1993 - 3:58.83
3:57.80
3:39.64 b
David Krummernacker
Feb 1998 - 3:58.62i
3:54:23
3:31:93 c
Ryan McNiff
Feb 2013 - 3:59.11
3:59.11
3:42.18 d
Matt Gonzales
May 2003 - 3:42.83
n/a
3:42.83
a) standing University of Notre Dame school record
b) standing Adams State College school record
c) eighth all-time US performer
d) four minute mile equivalent = 3:42:22.
The Four Minute Milers
Young
George Young(Western High School,
Silver City;
Univ. of Arizona)
- First on the list. Young grew up in Silver
City during the 50's. He
later competed for the Univ. of Arizona
and ran to several national records in the steeplechase and two mile as a
contemporary of Schul, Ryun, and Mills. He competed at the '60, '64, '68,
and '72 Olympic Games, claiming the steeplechase bronze in Mexico City ('68) in
addition to a 16th place finish in the marathon. He ran the 5000m in
Munich ('72). He ran his first, and only, sub-four minute mile at 34yrs of age in a time of 3:59.6 in Los Angeles, CA, March 1972. At the time, he was the oldest runner to
have accomplished the feat. The guy was a complete badass.
More about George can be found with his profile on the Tough Guy List.
Aragon
Chuck Aragon (Los
Lunas High; Univ. of Notre Dame) -
Aragon was a champion track and cross country runner for Los Lunas in the 70's
before being recruited to run for the Irish. He became the first Notre Dame runner to break the four minute mile with a 3:59.92 indoors effort in Champaign, IL, Feb 1981. Thirty years later he still holds the Notre Dame 1500m record of 3:38.40 (equivalent to a 3:56mile) set the same year. He just missed out on a spot on the '84 Olympic Team, like by half-a-stride missed out, and should have been named to the team afterward when one of the qualifiers had to drop due to injury. Aragon ran a lifetime mile best of 3:51.62 at the Dream Mile in Oslo, July 1984, which ranks him just outside the ten fastest American milers of
all-time.
More about Chuck can be found with his profile on the Tough Guy List.
Maas
Daniel Maas
- (Santa Fe Prep; Adams State College) - Maas was a multiple New Mexico state
champion at Santa Fe Preparatory before running for coaching legend Joe Vigil at Adams State. As a collegiate he ran to multiple NAIA titles, captained the team to multiple track and cross country team titles, and still
holds the twenty year old Adams State 1500m record of 3:39.64 (equivalent to a 3:57mile). He first broke the four minute mile barrier at Hayward Field in Eugene, OR, with a time of 3:58.83 at the 1992 Prefontaine Classic. Qualified through to the finals of the 1992 Olympic Trials in the 1500m, finishing eighth.
More about Dan can be found with his profile on the Tough Guy List.
Krummernacker
David Krummernacker
(Las Cruces High; Georgia Tech Univ.) -
Krummernacker was a multiple New
Mexico state champ in both track and cross-country.
As a senior he set the state record in the 800m of 1:51.73, which still stands as the
fastest time by a New Mexico
prep twenty years later (I was actually in the bleachers to see this). He ran to multiple NCAA championships while at Georgia
Tech, multiple US National 800m titles, and was the 2003 indoor World Champ in the event (PR of
1:43.92). He first ran under four minutes in Feb of 1998 with a 3:58.62i effort, and clocked a lifetime mile best of 3:54.23 later that same year. More
impressive is his lifetime best over the more commonly raced 1500m of 3:31.93
in 2002 (equivalent to a 3:48.9 mile). This performance stands as the eighth
fastest American all-time over the distance.
McNiff
Ryan McNiff (Los
Alamos High; Adams State College) - A multiple New Mexico state champion in track and cross country while running for coach Rob Hipwood at Los Alamos. A multiple all-American at Adams State College and part of three NCAA DII National Cross Country Champion teams. Ryan earned a spot on the junior US World Junior Cross team as a college freshman. He powered through the four minute barrier with a 3:59.11i showing at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville in February 2013, becoming the fifth New Mexican under four minutes. Prior to this effort his lifetime best was a 3:42.18 1500m at the 2012 Payton Jordan Invite in Stanford. Ryan is married to Heather McNiff (Wood), NM's lone finisher on the women's side at last year's Olympic Marathon Trials.
Deserving of Recognition - 1500m Equivalents
A quirk of the mile is that it's not raced very often. The
standard racing distance at meets above the high school level is the 1500m. And
while the title of being a Four Minute Miler applies solely to those that have
run 3:59.99 and below for the mile,
there is a recognized equivalent time for the 1500m distance - 3:42.22. Runners
with equivalent performances are recognized as having both the talent
and fitness for running under four minutes for the mile had the opportunity
been available. From the pool of New Mexico runners there are two is one phenomenal New Mexican that merits attention:
Gonzales
Matt Gonzales
(Santa Fe High; Univ.
of New Mexico) - Gonzales was a multiple New Mexico state champ in both track
and cross-country while running for coach Peter Graham at Santa Fe High School
(a heavily decorated runner in his own right). An all-American several times
over at UNM, he set several university records and finished 2nd overall at the 2004 NCAA Cross Country Championship besting names like Tegenkamp, Solinsky, and Hall. Like George Young,
Gonzales' strengths were primarily over the longer distances (he was both a 5000m and Marathon Olympic Trials Qualifier), but he ran with remarkable
range to come down to the 1500m, winning the 2003 Mountain West Conference Championship his junior year, in a time of 3:42.83. One of only a few performances he ever ran at the distance.
Phil Sakala (Onate High; West Point)
3:38.9 1500m, 7/26/2008
Wes Ashford, (Farmington High; Brigham Young University)
3:41.8 on 5/20/1988
And there you have it. Running immortality. If a few inaccuracies got by me here or if an athlete has
been overlooked please send an email or provide a correction in the comments below.
Several notable showings by the crew of local athletes this Spring. The year's
first two large national track meets were run at the Mt SAC Relays and Stanford's
Payton Jordan Invite toward the end of April. Just about all of the top
athletes currently training in the States attended to chase down Olympic time
standards as well as Olympic Trials standards. All the top college programs competed
to get a feeling for the fast, high-stakes, pre-nats atmosphere.
At Mt SAC, Santa Fe
based pro Aron Rono torched a 13min 23sec 5000m, good for fifth place behind a few
Olympic caliber collegians. Former UNM all-American Rory Fraser followed close in 13:27 for eighth. Santa Fe based Nike athlete Haron Lagat was just
behind in 13:33 for eleventh. In the night's second heat, former New Mexico prep standout and Univ. of Colorado
athlete Matt Tebo (Go Buffs!) stopped the clock with a brilliant time of 13:48 good for fifth. Impressive performances.
At the Payton Jordan
Invite just about every event was stacked six heats deep. The meet's marquee event was
the men's 10,000m which I was lucky enough to catch streaming live after a
night out with friends. Half the field was aiming for the Olympic 'A' standard of 27min
45sec, a crazy-quick goal for folks to be aiming for. Santa Fe's
Aron Rono had great positioning up front most of the race and was looking strong at the halfway
point. He moved to the lead and started pulling the pace at mile four. At that
point something happened that you'll seldom see in a race of that caliber - a group of collegians went to the front and proceeded to blow-up the field.
The 10000m field at Payton Jordan. Aron Rono in 4th position wearing yellow
Eight
in the lead-group ducked under the standard, including four collegian runners. Southern Utah's
Cam Levins earned himself a spot on the Canadian Olympic team as did Northern Arizona's
Diego Mercado who will be running for Mexico. Chris Derrick of Stanford
finished third but broke the American Collegiate record in the event. Rono fell off and finished
in a respectable 28min 6sec, good for 19th place. Don't know what happened to the guy but that's a killer pace and he may have just been cooked. Former Lobo Rory
Fraser started but dropped. Another former UNM all-American and Mizuno athlete Keith
Gerard ran 28:34, good for 22nd place in the second heat.
Albuquerque's
Jeremy Johnson dnf'd.
Alvina Begay
In the women's 10,000m Alvina Begay of the Navajo Nation and Univ. of Arizona ran
an awesome solo effort to earn herself a spot at the Olympic Trials.
The pace at the front of the second heat fell off at mile four so Begay charged
out on her own, finishing 2min better than her previous best and 11sec under the Trials
standard of 32:45. Begay will be one of the VIP athletes at this September's BuffaloThunder Half Marathon along with '64 Olympic Champ Billy Mills.
In the men's 5,000m, former UNM all-American Chris Barnicle ran
a time of 13min 42sec, followed closely by former UNM all-American Ross Millington in 14:11. In heat two Albuquerque's
Matt Tebo improved his best to 13:43, and UNM's Nicholas Kipruto ran 13:59.
And lastly in the men's 1500m, (yet another) former UNM all-American
David Bishop scorched an elite time of 3min 37sec (3:54mile equivalent) in the top heat. Former Los
Alamos standout and Adams
State all-American RyanMcNiff ran 3:42.19 for fifth place in heat three - a notable finish time in that
it's two tenths faster than the equivalent of a four minute mile. A career milestone if there ever was one.
