Odds and ends before the Thanksgiving break...
Some odds and ends before going on the Thanksgiving break...
Ran into Brooks Beasts assistant coach Julian Florez at the NCAA cross country championships in Verona, Wisconsin last week.
Maggard is one of six in the elite field entered with a 10000m seed time at 27:37.16.
The headliner in the men's elite field is the legendary Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, with a personal best of 2:01:41, set in 2019 in winning the BMW Berlin Marathon.
In his two marathons completed, Bekele finished second in London in April, running 2:04:15, and 39th at the Paris Olympics, running 2:12:24.
Besides Bekele, seven other runners entered in the field have run under 2:06.
In the women's field, Washington alum Izzi Batt-Doyle returns to the roads after a 2024 season that saw her bypassed for Australia's Olympic team in that event. Batt-Doyle did make her second Olympic team in the 5000 meters.
Batt-Doyle is seeded ninth in the women's elite field, which is led by Mergetu Alemu of Ethiopia, Alemu finished fourth in London, and was a DNF at the Paris Olympics.
Alemu is one of three in the field with personal bests under 2:20.
Race time for the Valencia Marathon begins at 8 am local time Sunday (11:00 pm Saturday night).
The Valencia Marathon is a World Athletics Platinum Level road race, and will be streamed via the race's website (territorial restrictions may apply).
GRAND SLAM TRACK NOTES...
With our focus on the collegiate cross country season, we missed the fact that former Renton resident and two-time Olympian Devon Allen was signed as a racer by Michael Johnson's Grand Slam Track, which begins operations in 2025.
Allen has spent the last two seasons focusing on football, as he was on the practice squad of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Grand Slam Track announced its four meets: Kingston, Jamaica on April 4-6; Miami on May 2-4 at the Ansin Sports Complex; Philadelphia on May 30-June 1 at Franklin Field; and Los Angeles on June 27-29 at Drake Stadium.
2024-25 INDOOR SEASON BEGINS NEXT WEEKEND...
The 2024-25 collegiate indoor season begins with a bang next Saturday, as select athletes from the University of Washington, Washington State, Gonzaga and Seattle Pacific will make the trip across the country to Boston for the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener at the Boston University Track & Tennis Center.
The Colyear-Danville has emerged as one of the biggest early season indoor meets, as numerous teams and athletes look to race on Boston University's track, which is one of the fastest banked indoor facilities in the world.
Many athletes want to race at this meet, especially those who competed at the NCAA cross country championships, before going on their holiday break, to take advantage of their racing peak conditioning.
At last year's meet, 7 women in the 3000, and 4 women in the 5000 were inside the top 16 times to qualify for the NCAA indoor championships. On the men's side, 3 in the 3000, and 9 in the 5000 qualified for the NCAA championships.
Two women in the 3000 and three in the 5000 qualified for the 2024 NCAA Division II championships out of this meet. The men provided the exact same number of qualifiers as the women--2 and 3--for the D2 championships.
One woman who won't be in Boston next weekend is the Huskies' Sophie O'Sullivan.
According to a press release from the Honolulu Marathon, O'Sullivan will run the Kalakaua Merrie mile road race on December 7th in conjunction with the Honolulu Marathon the next day.
The mile, which will be held on Saturday, kicks off with about 2,500 runners who will run the flat, World Athletics-certified, out-and-back course on Kalakaua Avenue adjacent to Waikiki Beach. After that the professional athletes will line up with athletes in the women’s category getting a 32-second head start over the men. Prize money is paid based on the combined finish order of men and women.
NOTE: The Valencia Marathon, Honolulu Marathon, and the sports information offices of Seattle Pacific, Washington, Washington State, and Gonzaga contributed to this report.
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