SPU alum Turner Wiley runs 7th fastest marathon by an American this year in Arizona...
In Chandler, Arizona, Seattle Pacific alum Turner Wiley (photo courtesy Turner Wiley) finished second in the Marathon Project Sunday morning over a multi-loop course designed to produce fast times at the Rawhide Events Center.
The Issaquah resident, whose previous personal best was 2:11:55 set in 2024 at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, went through the first 10k in 30:45, then through the half marathon at 64:40, where he was in seventh place.
He maintained the 4:57/mile pace through the 30k mark, which he passed in 1:31:55, then ran the next 10k in 30:44 to pass 40k in 2:02:39.
With a personal best staring him in the face, he hung on over the last 2.2km, to finish in 2:09:27, 2:28 below his previous personal best, and with a few weeks left in 2025, the seventh fastest time by an American this season.
JP Flavin of the Hansons/Brooks Distance Project took the victory in a personal best of 2:09:18.
Canadian Thomas Nobbs, who began his collegiate career at the University of Washington before transferring to the University of British Columbia, finished 11th in 2:12:27, while Kirkland native Dillon Maggard was 32nd in 2:18:27.
Former Brooks Beast and Seattle resident Jessica McClain, who was serving as a pacer for a group trying to hit 2:36, a minute under the 2028 US Olympic Trials standard of 2:37:00, finished in 2:32:51.
JOSH KERR OWED A LOT OF MONEY FROM GRAND SLAM TRACK...
According to a report from Front Office Sports, Josh Kerr (Paul Merca photo) of the Brooks Beasts is on the list of Grand Slam Track's twenty largest creditors, with Kerr owed $218,750.00 in prize money and appearance fees for the four meets he was contracted for: Kingston, Jamaica; Miami, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
Grand Slam Track, which announced on December 11th that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, was the league launched by sprint legend Michael Johnson as the premier global professional track league featuring matchups between the fastest stars in the sport.
There was a lot of hype surrounding the league, including first class accommodation and travel, a prize money structure not seen in the sport, along with world wide television and media exposure, thanks to a $30 million investment secured by Johnson from among others, Winner's Alliance.
Kerr was one of the first to sign on with Grand Slam Track, in a big announcement that the league made in late June 2024.
In the two race (800/1500) format over three days, Kerr finished seventh in Kingston for $12,500; won the Miami stop for $100,000; and $50,000 for second in Philadelphia.
Washington State alum CJ Allen, who competed in two of the Grand Slam meets in Kingston and Philadelphia as a Challenger, won $30,000 in those meets, placing 6th in both meets (400/400 hurdles at both stops).
The fourth meet in Los Angeles was never contested, when word got out to numerous parties, that the league did not have the funding to pay the prize money, as well as pay the vendors, contractors and others involved in staging the meets. According to an unnamed source, one of the top vendors demanded payment up front from Grand Slam Track before sending equipment to Los Angeles.
Several reports state that the athletes have been paid 50 percent of their winnings, so Kerr has been paid $81,250, while Allen has received $15,000.
Besides Kerr, the league owes Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone $356,250, the fifth-highest amount of any unsecured creditor, the filing says. Grand Slam owes Olympians Gabby Thomas $249,375, Kenny Bednarek $225,000, Marileidy Paulino $211,875.00, and Alison dos Santos and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden $190,625 each, according to the document.
The biggest creditor is Momentum-CHP Partnership, the production company who made a deal with Grand Slam to broadcast all of its events. Momentum is a British television production company, while CHP is Carr-Hughes Productions, which produces most of the pro track and field meets televised in the USA. They are owed $3,035,584.
Curiously, CitiusMag, a track and field website, is owed just under $273,000 for services involving marketing and promoting the series to its readership, a fact that LetsRun's Jonathan Gault and Robert Johnson contend that Citius failed to disclose to its audience, citing that, "Under FTC rules, publishers and influencers are expected to disclose material financial relationships when they are being paid for content."
NOTE: The Marathon Project, Front Office Sports and LetsRun.com contributed to this report.
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