WEEKEND ROUNDUP: North American 5000m records in Portland; Maggard & Nageotte get wins...
By now, everyone is still amazed at the pair of national and continental records in the 5000 meters at the Portland Intrasquad II meet held Friday night at Portland's Jesuit HS track with very little advance publicity (other than tweets and Instagram posts by some of the athletes involved), in order to comply with Oregon COVID-19 regulations regarding public gatherings.
In the opening race, the Bowerman Track Club's Shelby Houlihan (left/photo by Paul Merca), broke her own American record of 14:34.45, running 14:23.92, and towing teammate Karissa Schweizer under the old AR, as the University of Missouri graduate and world championships finalist ran 14:26.34.
The race started with seven Bowerman TC runners on the line, with Stanford alum Elise Cranny, who ran 14:48.02 on June 30th at the first Portland Intrasquad meet doing the pace work through 3000 meters along with 2017 world championships steeplechase medalist Courtney Frerichs.
The duo led through the 3k mark in 8:47.88, with Cranny holding the lead for another lap before ceding to Houlihan and Schweizer.
Houlihan increased the pace over the last five laps, finishing with a final 800 of 2:07.25, and a last lap of 61.46, while Schweizer ran 2:09.49 for her last 800, finishing with a final 400 of 63.63.
“I knew Karissa was going to try to come up on me and take the lead, but I decided I was not going to let that happen,” Houlihan told usatf.tv after the race. “I just kept trying to fight her off and tried to have a big kick on the last lap.
“Karissa was in the race in Heusden two years ago where I set the previous record,” added Houlihan. “It’s been really awesome to have her as a training partner and to see how far she has come. She was only three seconds behind me today and I know she’s going to get that 5000m record at some point.”
The men's 5000 saw 2019 world championships bronze medalist Moh Ahmed of Canada break his own national record of 12:58.16, as he ran 12:47.20.
In the process, he broke Bernard Lagat's North American record of 12:53.60, set in 2011.
Just like the women's race, nine Bowerman TC athletes started, with five dropping out after 3000 meters, with teammate and Olympic steeplechase medalist Evan Jager, Stanford alum Grant Fisher and Portland alum Woody Kincaid doing the pacing through 3000 meters.
Kincaid hung on to Bowerman teammates Ahmed and Lopez Lomong for another lap before giving way to the duo.
Over the last 1600 meters, Ahmed cranked up the pace, running laps of 61, 60, 59 and 57, for a final 1600 of 3:57.26 to finish in 12:47.20.
Lomong, who was one of the beneficiaries of Ahmed's pacing in a similar effort last year at the Nike campus track in Beaverton, broke 13 minutes for the first time in his career, as he ran 12:58.78.
You can watch the complete meet below.
Complete results of the Portland Intrasquad II meet are available here.
In St. George, Utah Saturday, Lake Washington HS alum and former Brooks Beast Dillon Maggard won the KT Tape St. George 5000 Meter Showdown at Desert Hills HS.
Competing at altitude (2700 feet), Maggard, who now competes for Hoka One One and is an assistant coach at Utah State University after a season with the Brooks Beasts, ran 13:50.38 to beat BYU alum Rory Linkletter (13:50.72) and current BYU Cougar Conner Mantz (13:51.22), as the top seven broke 14 minutes.
Shadle Park HS grad Nick Hauger of Hoka Northern Arizona Elite was 12th in 14:07.84.
Complete results are available here.
In Marietta, Georgia Saturday, former Pullman resident Katie Nageotte won the women's pole vault at the RSS/American Track League CO-19 Summer Series meet at Life University.
Nageotte won the event with a best of 15-5 (4.70m), which is the highest season opening clearance for her.
The mark is currently the best mark by an American so far in this pandemic-filled 2020 outdoor season, and the third best in the world.
University of Washington alum Olivia Gruver tied for third with a best of 14-0 (4.27m) in her outdoor season debut.
Here is video of Nageotte's clearance, courtesy of her Instagram account:
Complete results of the meet are available here.
NOTE: The Bowerman Track Club, World Athletics, media partner RunnerSpace.com, and the American Track League contributed to this report.
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