Ex-Nike Oregon Project standout Dorian Ulrey & Kentucky alum Matt Hillenbrand join Brooks Beasts...

SEATTLE—Brooks announced in a release that the Seattle-based running shoe and apparel company has signed middle distance runners Dorian Ulrey (left/photo courtesy Brooks Running) and Matt Hillenbrand to join the Brooks Beasts.

The 28-year old Ulrey, who competed as a collegian at Northern Iowa and Arkansas, competed for Team USA at the IAAF world track & field championships in Berlin in 2009, and has a personal best of 3:35.23 in the 1500 set in 2009, and 3:55.62 in the mile, set in 2012.

Ulrey competed for the Nike Oregon Project until the 2013 season, then moved back to Fayetteville, Arkansas to train under his college coach Chris Bucknam for the 2014 season.  Last year, he ran 2:19.69 for 1000 meters, 3:38.73 in the 1500, and 3:57.52 in the mile.

Hillenbrand (left/photo courtesy Brooks Running), who graduated from the University of Kentucky, was one of just two collegians to qualify for the men’s 1500m final at the USA outdoor championships in Sacramento last year.  He recently completed his eligibility at Kentucky this fall, where he finished 41st in the NCAA Southeast regional cross country meet.

He has a personal best of 3:39.84 at 1500, and 3:57.00 for the mile, and also ran 13:49.24 for 5000m.

Hillenbrand was sixth in the 800 at last Saturday's Lobo Collegiate Open meet in Albuquerque, running 1:52.63, and ran on the Beasts' winning 4 x 400 meter relay.

Both join a Brooks Beasts middle distance group that includes Nick Symmonds, Riley Masters, Casimir Loxsom, Garrett Heath and Mark Wieczorek under the guidance of coach Danny Mackey.

The addition of Dorian and Matt to the Beasts underscores the team’s growing talent pool and its larger goals of being dominant in the sport domestically and on the global stage.

NOTE:  Brooks Running contributed to this report.