Nathan Green returns as NCAA 1500m champion after a year's absence...
EUGENE--Washington's Nathan Green (Paul Merca photo), who won the men's 1500 two years ago in Austin, but finished a non scoring tenth last year as Husky teammate Joe Waskom won, made a triumphant return to the winner's circle, taking the title as the men concluded their competition at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.
The path to the 1500 title for the field was made easier in Wednesday's semifinals when reigning indoor mile champion Abel Teffra of Georgetown, and collegiate 1500 meter record holder Liam Murphy of Villanova were surprisingly bounced out and failed to qualify for the finals.
Oregon's Simeon Birnbaum went to the front and promptly slowed it down with Wisconsin's Olympian Adam Spencer and Bradley's Jack Crull just behind.
For most of the race, Green kept himself in position to react to whatever moves the frontrunners were doing.
After the field went through 800 in approximately 2:12, the real racing began, as Spencer and Birnbaum went to the front just before the bell.
Somehow, Green squeezed his way through a small gap between Birnbaum and Virginia's Gary Martin, and the race was on.
Birnbaum found himself trapped on the rail as they went down the backstretch with Harvard's Ferenc Kovacs and Martin in hot pursuit.
As they came off the turn, Spencer held the rail, while Green was on the outside of lane one, gaining about a step advantage with less than 50 meters to go.
On Green's outside, North Carolina's Ethan Strand found some room to run and make a late charge at the leader.
Strand ran out of real estate, as despite a dive at the line by Green, Green got the win in 3:47.26 to Strand's 3:47.33.
Kovacs squeezed past Spencer to take third in 3:47.42, with Spencer finishing fourth in 3:47.50.
Green finished his final 400 in 51.46, just enough to overcome Strand's last lap of 51.28.
Catching his breath and fighting the emotions in his on-track interview on ESPN, Green told John Anderson, "To do it again here just shows the growth, it shows that everything that happened was for a reason. I trusted my coaches and my people in my corner, and I came out on top and it means everything.
Describing the key last stretch in the race, Green said, "300 (meters) to go I kind of got pushed up to the front, and I just thought, 'this is it now.' I was coming around the bend as calm as I could and I just thought, 'I'm going to have to dive, because they're coming and nobody wants it more than I do.'"
Head Coach Andy Powell has now, incredibly, coached eight of the past 15 NCAA Men's Champions at 1,500-meters, four coming in his time at Oregon, and now four in a row at Washington, making the UW the third school in history to have four consecutive winners in the event.
The last team to win four straight 1500/mile titles outdoors was Villanova between 1968-71 with Marty Liquori winning three of them.
Oregon won four straight in the 1500/mile between 1959-62.
In other events involving Washington athletes, Cashmere native Rob McManus of Montana State finished eighth in the steeplechase, running a personal best of 8:25.83, as BYU's US Olympian James Corrigan won in 8:16.41.
In a race that had team implications, Bellingham's Jacob Andrews ran 47.35 on the opening leg of the 4 x 400 relay, as his USC squad finished seventh in 3:03.18.
South Florida won with a time of 3:00.42, with Texas A&M second in 3:00.73.
Had the Trojans finished sixth or higher, they would have won the team title outright.
Texas A&M's second place finished boosted the Aggies to a first place tie with USC for the team title with 41 points. Arkansas finished third with 40 points and Auburn was fourth with 35 points.
Green's win gave the Huskies 10 points, good for a 30th place tie, while Washington State was tied for 54th with 4 points.
Tahoma HS grad Alaina Brady of Notre Dame stands sixth at the break in the heptathlon with 3513 points.
Brady ran 13.41 in the 100 hurdles to finish second overall, then high jumped 5-5.75 (1.66m).
In the shot put, she threw 45-7 (13.89m), then finished the day running 25.33 in the 200.
Spanish national champion Sofia Cosculluela kicked off her first NCAA championship. In the opening event, Cosculluela won her heat and placed third overall in the 100m hurdles, clocking a 13.48, just .03 off her season-best.
In the high jump, Cosculluela had a third-attempt clearance of 5-3 (1.60m) to tie for 20th in that event. She threw the shot in a season-best of 41-7.75 (12.69m).
In the 200-meters she drew the tough inside lane, and ran 24.83. That put her in 15th to finish the day with 3398 points.
Here's who's competing Saturday with Washington ties:
6:11 PM 1500 Meters S. O'Sullivan, C. Foerster
6:24 PM 3000 Steeple Maggie Liebich
7:27 PM 400 Hurdles Braelyn Baker
7:55 PM 5000 Meters Amina Maatoug, Julia David-Smith
8:21 PM 4x400 Relay Braelyn Baker
TIME EVENT
3:30 PM Long Jump Sofia Cosculuella, Alaina Brady
4:45 PM Javelin Sofia Cosculuella, Alaina Brady
7:43 PM 800 Meters Sofia Cosculuella, Alaina Brady
ESPN2 will have live coverage of day 4 of the NCAA outdoor championships starting at 6 pm Pacific, while ESPN+ ($) will have dedicated field event streaming coverage starting at 12:30 pm with the discus.
PORTLAND TRACK FESTIVAL SATURDAY AND SUNDAY...
A number of pros and collegians with Washington ties are headed to Portland for Saturday and Sunday's Portland Track Festival, which returns to Lewis & Clark College.
Saturday's high performance sections of the Portland Track Festival consists of the steeplechases and 10000 meters.
Sunday, there will be high performance sections starting at 4:15 pm, while the hot window happens in the meet's final hour between 8 and 9 pm.
In the hot window men's 800, John Rivera of the Brooks Beasts is entered, along with Washington senior Justin O'Toole.
Former Seattle resident and last year's US Olympic team alternate in both the 10000 and marathon Jessica McClain is in the women's 5000, while Olympic silver medalist Kenneth Rooks, along with Washington grad Acer Iverson, and Gonzaga grad James Mwaura are in the men's 5000.
The final event of Sunday night's competition is the hot window men's 1500.
Incoming UW freshman Owen Powell, along with three runners from UW coach Andy Powell's pro group--Sam Prakel, Sam Ellis, and Kieran Lumb are entered, as the field goes for the world championship standard of 3:33.00.
The start list for the Portland Track Classic is available here, while the link to live results is available here.
GRAND SLAM TRACK CANCELS LA STOP...
Aș a follow up to yesterday's postponement of the 2025 Grand Slam Track season, and the cancellation of the Los Angeles stop that was scheduled for the end of the month at Drake Stadium, Grand Slam Track issued a statement on its website.
“The decision to conclude the inaugural Grand Slam Track™ season is not taken lightly, but one rooted in a belief that we have successfully achieved the objectives we set out to in this pilot season, and the importance of looking towards 2026 and beyond,” said Michael Johnson, Founder and Commissioner of Grand Slam Track™.
“We launched with a bold vision to reimagine professional track racing and we could not be more excited about what we have accomplished so far, delivering amazing races to a rabid fan base. As we’ve said all along, we were going to have learnings, make adjustments, and continue to improve. Sometimes we have to make moves that aren’t comfortable, but what’s most important is the future and sustainability of the league.”
“The global economic landscape has shifted dramatically in the past year, and this business decision has been made to ensure our long-term stability as the world’s premier track league. Our attention is now on 2026, with our eyes set on continuing to deliver the best-in-class storytelling, content, and competition that we have become known for in our debut year,” continued Johnson.
The obvious question is whether the move was prompted by investors concerned about the expenses by GST, namely with the prize money, the lack of a solid television deal, or the sparse crowd that turned out for the inaugural meet in Kingston, Jamaica, which historically has been one of the hotbeds of the sport.
NOTE: The sports information office of the University of Washington, Grand Slam Track, and the NCAA contributed to this report.
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