Issue 290, sponsored by Bombas
Dramatic DMR and 4x800 highlight Penn Relays
When I was writing about Victoria Bossong for last week’s newsletter, I was wondering how anyone could beat Harvard in the distance medley relay. During the indoor season, they narrowly missed qualifying for the NCAA Championships, but on Friday at Penn Relays, they got some redemption by running a collegiate record in the event.
Early on, they had their work cut out for them. Sophia Gorriaran ran a solid 3:20.36 1200m leg, but she handed off in seventh place, five seconds behind Providence’s Shannon Flockhart, who split 3:15.11. Harvard’s Chloe Fair had the fastest split on the 400m leg (53.20), and she moved her team into third place, 3.74 seconds behind Virginia.
Bossong also produced a big run on the 800m leg, running 2:02.54, the fastest split of the race. Harvard was still in third when she handed off, but they were only 1.55 seconds behind Virginia and 0.73 seconds behind Providence, which put Maia Ramsden in the perfect position, because she had PC’s anchor, Kimberley May, to follow.
Ramsden and May are both from New Zealand, and they have been racing each other since they were 14. According to May, she has never beaten Ramsden, but she’s making it tougher and tougher each time. Ramsden sat on May, who took the 1600m leg out hard. It was reminiscent of the NCAA indoor mile final, which May led until about 400m to go. This time Ramsden took the lead with 300m to go, and she crossed the line in 10:37.55, splitting an incredible 4:21.47 for 1600m. Providence took second in 10:39.04, with May splitting 4:23.68. Virginia finished a distant third, in 10:48.55.
Harvard took 10.83 seconds off the previous Penn Relays and outdoor collegiate DMR record, set by Villanova’s Kathy Franey, Michelle Bennett, Celeste Halliday, and Vicki Huber in 1988 (10:48.38). And they ran 5.84 seconds faster than the indoor collegiate record the University of Washington set in February. The DMR isn’t a championship event outdoors, so this is it for the season, but it was a fun matchup.
After their close runner-up finish, three members of Providence’s DMR—Flockhart, May, and Alex O’Neill—returned for the 4x800m the following day, and they were joined by Maeve O’Neill. They got out to a lead early, but the University of Washington’s Samantha Friborg split 2:02.12 on the third leg, and it came down to a battle between PC’s Flockhart and UW’s Chloe Foerster. They were well matched, and coming up the homestretch, it could have gone either way.
You can watch what happened in this clip, or watch the full race here. Regardless of which team you were cheering for, the ending was unfortunate. UW’s Foerster, who was running on the outside, made contact with PC’s Flockhart on the final turn. Then Flockhart drifted out into lane two, to make it tougher for Foerster to pass. In the process, it looks like there was some incidental contact between the two, which knocked the baton out of Flockhart’s hand. She kept running, and crossed the finish line just ahead of Foerster, but Providence was DQed.
Despite crossing the finish line in second, Washington won in a collegiate and meet record of 8:17.28, taking 0.17 seconds off the record set by Villanova’s Kelsey Margey, Angel Piccirillo, Nicky Akande, and Emily Lipari in 2013. A quick glance at the results makes it look like they dominated the race, finishing more than 10 seconds ahead of Duke, who took second in 8:28.37, but there was much more to it.
“It sucks that they got disqualified,” Foerster said after the race, on the FloTrack broadcast. “They should be here right now, with the wheel, but it’s just how the sport goes sometimes.” Both UW and PC know all about that; during the DMR at NCAA indoors, they were two of the teams affected by the pileup during the 800m leg. This time, things went Washington’s way. And I hope Providence gets their turn before too long. (Penn Relays results)
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Will the 776 Invitational be a game changer?
Alexis Ohanian announced last week that he is partnering with Gabby Thomas to launch the 776 Invitational, a women’s track meet that will take place in September. Ohanian, who co-founded Reddit, is married to Serena Williams, and he has invested a lot of money into women’s sports. He is hoping to help bring more attention to track & field outside of the Olympic Games.
What we don’t know:
Where the event will be. The only detail that has been disclosed is that it won’t be at Hayward Field.
Which events will be contested, and how many there will be. This ESPN article says the meet is for the world’s top sprinters. I’m curious what the longest event will be.
When in September it will take place.
Who will broadcast the event. Ohanian said on Twitter that he’s keeping in mind that people aren’t fans of paywalls.
If the athletes will receive appearance fees.
What we do know:
The prize purse will be at least $500,000, with $60,000 going to the winner of each event, with $25,000 for second, and $10,000 for third.
The event’s website says the event will “challenge the convention of current-day track events” and that the broadcast and fan experience will “modernize viewership for sports fans everywhere.”
The meet will not include field events, and it will be a maximum of three hours long.
From The Washington Post: “Ohanian envisions a party atmosphere at the one-day event, with an infield crowded with fans, a musical act providing entertainment between races and a disc jockey beat-dropping the second runners cross the finish line. ‘Bring the energy of almost like a Coachella,’ Ohanian said.”
As of now, this is just a one-time event. But if it goes well, Ohanian is open to doing more down the line.
Ohanian hopes to announce all of the committed athletes, as well as the event’s location, before the Olympics.
Ohanian isn’t the first person to attempt to shake up the existing model in track & field. But his attempt is exciting because he has the resources to do it well, and as an outsider, he’s thinking pretty far outside of the existing box, it sounds like. I’m looking forward to learning more, and I really hope this is successful. It seems that the world’s top sprinters are doing well financially, but you don’t need to go far down the results to find unsponsored athletes who are struggling to make ends meet.
The NCAA basketball tournament got me thinking about the ways track & field could better showcase the incredible women in the sport. The 776 Invitational sounds like it could be a big step in the right direction.
Who will rule the steeplechase in 2024?
With two months to go until the steeplechase final at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, I wouldn’t want to make any predictions about who will make the U.S. team. Every middle-distance and distance event has question marks, but the steeplechase might have the most.
The weekend’s racing provided some clues, but it also raised more questions. After ending last season with a hamstring injury, Emma Coburn opened her season at Saturday’s Shanghai Diamond League meet, and it didn’t go well. The broadcast was showing a commercial and/or Mondo Duplantis pole vaulting when she dropped out, so I didn’t see what happened. But she posted that she tweaked her ankle on a water jump with 1K to go.
Later she added in her Instagram stories, “I’m so pissed I fell, I was feeling great grrr. But that’s literally part of the job, to not fall. Let’s get this ankle better and get ready for the next race in a month!!” I certainly wouldn’t count Coburn out, but I’m curious how serious the ankle setback is.
In the same race, Gabbi Jennings, Coburn’s Team Boss teammate, ran a fantastic season opener. She finished fifth in 9:19.59, ran under the Olympic standard (9:23.00), and PRed by 5.46 seconds. If she can build on that this season, she will be dangerous.
At Stanford’s Payton Jordan Invitational on Friday, Courtney Wayment, who was third at USAs last year, led most of the race. But her former BYU teammate, Lexy Halladay-Lowry, who is redshirting the season, was stronger over the last 500m. Halladay-Lowry won, 9:27.72 to 9:30.57, and she’ll be one to watch this season. Marisa Howard, who ran 9:31.38, almost caught Wayment. And, running her first track race since 2022, Allie Ostrander finished fourth in 9:37.65. Ostrander said her main goal was to earn a spot at the Trials by running 9:41.00 or faster.
The Drake Relays steeple was supposed to take place on Friday night, but a tornado warning postponed it until 9:30 the next morning. Annie Rodenfels won the race in a meet record of 9:31.03. If she can get more comfortable approaching the barriers, Rodenfels could contend for a spot on the team. Angelina Ellis of Dark Sky Distance took second in 9:35.62, about five seconds off the PR she set two weeks earlier.
The Prefontaine Classic steeplechase on May 25 should be interesting. Coburn is scheduled to race, as are her 2021 Olympic teammates Courtney Frerichs and Val Constien. All three are on their way back after injuries. Last year’s U.S. champion, Krissy Gear, is also in the field, as are Wayment and Kaylee Mitchell, the Bowerman Track Club’s new recruit.
In the NCAA, it will be interesting to see if any U.S. women can challenge Olivia Markezich. Gracie Hyde, of DII Adams State, currently has the fastest time by an American woman in the NCAA, with a 9:28.17.
You can see all the fastest performances by U.S. women since the Trials qualifying window opened last July here. Early in the season, this event is wide open.
Other News and Links
I loved this article about Carol Wright, who won the 80+ division at the Boston Marathon. Wright, 82, ran 5:54:31, and one of her goals is to become the oldest person ever to finish the race. (According to the article, the oldest finisher so far was 84. But a quick search shows that Katherine Beiers, 85, finished the 2018 race, in epically awful conditions, she just didn’t make the time cutoff.) Wright took up running late, when she was 69, and she runs about 40 miles per week. She thought she was done with Boston when she didn’t qualify in 2022 and 2023, but she persisted and hit a qualifying time. She’ll run the Denver Marathon on June 1 with the hope of breaking 5:20 and qualifying for Boston again.
Alex Carlson’s running career has taken off since she arrived at Rutgers, but she’s running so well that she has decided to transfer to NAU for her senior year, where she’ll have training partners who can push her. This is a nice article about the decision, and how understanding her Rutgers coaches are.
Kate Grace is planning to run her first race since 2021 at the USATF Distance Classic on May 17. On Saturday, she got in a rust buster, running 600m of an 800m at BYU. She reported in an Instagram reel that she went through the 400m in 58 or 59, and hit 600m in 1:30. I love this clip that she posted.
Rose Harvey, who didn’t run seriously until the pandemic, has been named to Great Britain’s Olympic marathon team.
USATF announced last week that they’re expanding maternity support for athletes. The policy applies to athletes who qualify for USOPC funding and health insurance. (You can see the list of athletes who qualified in 2023, and the selection criteria, on this page. It’s pretty tough to qualify.) It sounds like the USOPC currently supports athletes for one year after the end of their pregnancy, as long as the athlete plans to return to competing professionally. And under this new policy, USATF will extend that until the next opportunity the athlete has to qualify for support, so, for the top athletes, there’s no lapse. The release said that this new policy is expected to benefit six athletes in 2024.
One upside to the Nike uniform debacle is that it has resulted in Queen Harrison Claye securing free wax passes from European Wax Center for the women of Team USA.
Ethiopia’s Zerfe Wondemagegn, 21, has been banned for five years after testing positive for EPO and testosterone. She finished fourth in the steeplechase at last summer’s world championships, but all of her results from Worlds on will be disqualified.
Boston University announced last week that Gabe Sanders, who was the school’s director of cross country and track & field, has stepped down. This article, from BU’s student newspaper, indicates that he has been accused of verbal and emotional abuse. One current team member told the paper that Sanders threatened to suffocate an athlete with his hands, among other things.
Additional Results
At Saturday’s Shanghai Diamond League meet, Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech earned her second steeplechase win in as many weeks, running 9:07.36. Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai was second (9:15.46). And one year after having a baby, in her first steeple back, Germany’s Gesa Krause finished third in 9:16.24 and dipped under the Olympic standard. In the 5,000m, which wasn’t a Diamond League event, Ethiopians swept the top four spots. Mekedes Alemeshete, who is 18, won in 14:36.70. (Results)
Sage Hurta-Klecker won the pro 1500m at Penn Relays in 4:07.10, with Helen Schlachtenhaufen close behind (4:07.73). Nia Akins, who is an 800m specialist, ran well, finishing fifth in 4:10.32, a PR. Rider University’s Teagan Schein-Becker won the college 1500m in 4:09.87. And Kenya’s Dorcus Ewoi, who trains with Puma Elite, won the pro 800m in 2:02.49. Running her first 800m of the year, Ajee’ Wilson finished second in 2:02.88. After the race, she told reporters that she took two months off last year, her longest ever, and she’s still building her way back. NC State’s Grace Hartman, Amaris Tyynismaa, Hannah Gapes, and Samantha Bush won the 4x1500m relay in 17:03.29. (Results)
In the Penn Relays high school races, Jimmiea King, Peyton Hollis, Sophia Thompson, and Paige Sheppard of New Jersey’s Union Catholic High School teamed up to win the 4x800m relay in a U.S. high school record of 8:41.20. Addy Ritzenhein dominated the 3,000m, running 9:17.81, and New York’s Dylan McElhinney edged out Virginia’s Reese Dalton in the mile, 4:40.82 to 4:40.95. (Results)
At Tuesday’s USATF 1 Mile Road Championships, Rachel McArthur and Anna Camp Bennett went 1–2, running 4:33 and 4:34, respectively (results). And four days later, in the 1500m at Drake Relays, their order was reversed, with Camp Bennett winning, 4:07.82 to 4:08.39. McArthur, who is returning to racing after having surgery in August, is in the midst of a breakthrough season. Behind them, Oregon’s Silan Ayyildiz ran 4:09.34. Something to keep an eye on: Rachel Smith was running at the front of the pack during the road mile, when she abruptly pulled up just after halfway and limped off the course. Also at Drake, Canada’s Aurora Rynda edged out Bradley’s Julia Nielsen in the 800m, 2:00.97 to 2:00.99. Nielsen is now ranked sixth in the NCAA. And Bethany Hasz won the 5,000m in 15:34.19. (Results)
Molly Sughroue won the 1500 at the Payton Jordan Invitational in 4:12.25. Sinclaire Johnson was leading with a lap to go, but she dropped to fourth in 4:13.64. Stanford’s Roisin Willis won the 800m in 2:02.36. Canada’s Briana Scott won the 5,000m and NAU’s Annika Reiss was the top collegian, finishing third in 15:33.21. (Results)
As part of her prep for the Western States 100 in two months, Katie Schide dominated the Canyons 100K, winning by more than 50 minutes, in 9:10:10. Because Schide, last year’s runner up at Western States, already had a guaranteed entry, the two golden tickets rolled down to EmKay Sullivan (second, 10:01:26) and Anna Kacius (third, 10:24:37). (Results)
Dani Moreno won the Canyons 50K in 3:52:24. Jennifer Lichter finished second in 3:57:49. Molly Seidel was originally scheduled to run, and it would have been fun to see how she stacked up, but she said in an Instagram post the morning of the race that her knee wasn’t ready for 31 miles of pounding. (Results)
Courtney Dauwalter won the Mt. Fuji 100, a 100-mile race through the foothills of Japan’s highest peak, in 19:21:22. She finished third overall, less than 11 minutes behind the men’s winner and only 30 seconds out of second place. (More info)
Kenya’s Joyce Muthoni Njeru won China’s Four Sisters Mountain Trail race, the second Golden Trail World Series race of the year. She covered the 22K course in 2:25:27. Switzerland’s Maude Mathys took second in 2:29:44, and running her first race in nine months, Grayson Murphy was third in 2:34:26. This was Murphy’s longest race ever, and she said she dealt with “full body cramps” and the last 10K was a death march, so she’ll be working on her fueling strategy going forward. (More info)
Kenya’s Agnes Jebet Ngetich ran 30:03 to win the 10K at Adidas’ Adizero Road to Records event in Herzogenaurach, Germany. She missed the women’s-only world record, set by the late Agnes Tirop at this event in 2021, by two seconds. Journalist Michelle Katami used the moment to point out that Tirop’s husband, who has been accused of murdering her, is out on bail. Katami said it looks like there will never be justice in Tirop’s case. Ethiopia’s Medina Eisa, 19, won the 5K in 14:38 and set a U20 world record. Kenya’s Nelly Chepchirchir won the road mile in 4:30.93, with Addy Wiley not far behind, taking second in 4:31.97. (Results | Event replay)
Kenya’s Lilian Kasait Rengeruk won the TCS World 10K, held in Bengaluru, India, in 30:56. (Results)
The Hamburg Marathon came down to a sprint finish between Kenyans Irine Cheptai and Winfridah Moseti, with Cheptai winning in her debut, 2:18:22 to 2:18:25. Ethiopia’s Gotytom Gebreslase, the 2022 world champion in the marathon, finished third in 2:21:19. After missing the Olympic standard (2:26:50) by 26 seconds in Seville, Argentina’s Daiana Ocampo finished seventh in 2:26:24 and dipped under the standard. Lindsay Flanagan had originally planned to run this race, but she had to put on the brakes after an injury flare up. (Results | Women’s finish)
In her debut at the distance, Canadian Olympian Kate Van Buskirk won the Nashville Marathon in 2:37:40. She finished second overall. And it’s heartbreaking to read that a runner died after receiving emergency treatment at this event.
Kate Landau, 47, won the Eugene Marathon in 2:40:53. She was a big high school star when I started running, back in the ’90s. It’s been a rough road for her, but that makes it all the more gratifying to see her running well all these years later. (Results)
Stephanie Pezzullo won the USATF Masters 10K Championships in 35:35. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
It was fun to hear Australia’s Sarah Billings recount lowering her 1500m PR from 4:06.77 to 3:59.59 in one race on For the Kudos (look for Spiked Up, episode 8.5).
If you’re interested in the ins and outs of the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and the challenge of finding host cities, Jon Hughes, who directed the 2024 Trials, was on The Directors.
Additional Episodes: Oregon’s Maddy Elmore on The Running Effect | Sage Hurta-Klecker on Citius Mag | Boston Marathon champions Des Linden, Caroline Rotich, Edna Kiplagat, and Hellen Obiri on C Tolle Run | Elvin Kibet, Brenna Detra, Briana Boehmer, and Johanna Garton on I’ll Have Another | On the Female Athlete Nutrition podcast, Maddie Alm said this is her last season running at an elite level.
Thanks, again, to Bombas for their support this month. I hope you all have a great week!
Alison
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