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Top Ten Distance Performances of the Weekend

Published by
Scott Bush   Apr 29th 2013, 6:05pm
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What a weekend! Outside of the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships, it can be argued that this past weekend, with the Drake Relays, Penn Relays and Payton Jordan Invitational, is the greatest weekend of distance running in the United States all track season. Check out ten of the best performances of the weekend.

Jenny Simpson: The Drake Relays lined up a star-studded women’s 1,500m race Friday evening, including all three 2012 U.S. Olympians. With so much talent in the field, it was not surprising that the winning time was under 4:05, it was more about how it was won.

Simpson, who switched back to coach Mark Wetmore after the Olympics, opened up her 2013 racing season in a big way, crushing the field with her winning 4:03.35 performance. No other runners were close (Sheila Reid was second in 4:07.92) and Simpson showed she’s going to be a force to contend with this year. 

Women’s 4x800m Relay: It’s a rare day that a national record falls in April, but that’s just what happened at the Penn Relays Saturday. In the women’s 4x800m relay, the USA Red team of Lea Wallace, Brenda Martinez, Ajee Wilson and Alysia Montano won over Team Kenya 8:04.31-8:07.58, while taking home the U.S. record in the event.

Wallace led off in 2:02.0, passing the baton to Martinez, who continued her impressive 2013 campaign with a 2:00.6 split. With the lead, Martinez handed off to Wilson, who kept the lead with her 2:03.1 effort. When Wilson passed to Montano, there was no question USA Red would win, but Montano showed why she’s one of the best in the world, as she cruised to victory with a split of 1:58.6.

Good things are in store for the U.S. at the 800m distance, as three athletes on the USA Blue squad ran sub-2:03 marks. The depth at the two-lap distance is strong and only getting stronger.

Jamie Cheever: While she didn’t win her race, Team USA Minnesota member Cheever ran one of the finest races of the weekend and one of the most eye-opening of 2013. At the Payton Jordan Invitational Sunday evening, Cheever almost beat Olympian Emma Coburn in the steeplechase, running a huge personal best and achieving the World Championship A standard with her 9:29.13 mark (less than a second behind Coburn). Cheever firmly established herself as a top three contender at the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships later this season and added her name to a list of athletes making a big jump in performance in this post-Olympic year.

Ben True: Has any athlete been more impressive in 2013 so far than True? He’s won a national title at the USA 15 km Championships, placed sixth at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships while leading Team USA to a silver medal and now ran a new PR of 13:14.44 to win the Payton Jordan Invitational 5,000m in a World Championship A qualifying time. True is on fire and fans should be stoked to follow him the rest of this season. If he can stay healthy, True will be a favorite to challenge Galen Rupp in both the 5k and 10k at the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Eric Jenkins: What do running a top ten all-time American collegiate mark, finishing a 5k in 13:18.57 and running a World Championship B standard time have in common? That’d be Jenkins’ Sunday evening at the Payton Jordan Invitational. While he finished “only” seventh in race, the Northeastern University standout continues o show he’s one of the very best at the collegiate level and is the early favorite for Most Improved Runner of the Year award (if it was real!). All this and Jenkins is only a junior!

Kate Grace: What a week for Grace. To start it off, the NJ-NY Track Club athlete beat a very strong USA 1 Mile Road Championship field, which included three Olympians. Off a relatively slow start, Grace pulled away in the final 100m of the race, to win her first national title in 4:43.02, setting a Grand Blue Mile course record in the process.

As a follow-up performance, Grace finished third in the Drake Relays 1,500m, setting a new personal best with her mark of 4:08.24. Grace had a great indoor track season and is showing that she’s going to be a key player for a Team USA roster spot this summer.

Sean McGorty: While 3,200m and mile races at the Arcadia Invitational and Mt. SAC Relays received plenty of fanfare over the past few weeks, Stanford-bound McGorty has quietly gone about his business establishing himself as the best prep distance runner at the moment. Last week, McGorty ran a solo 3,200m performance of 8:46. This past weekend, the Chantilly, VA senior won the Penn Relays mile event in a meet record time of 4:04.47, which ranks him US#1 and adds him to the list of sub-4 contenders. Not to be forgotten, Villanova-bound Ben Malone (NJ) finished second in 4:05.59.

Mary Cain: While she finished a distant sixth in the Drake Relays 1,500m race on Friday evening, Cain broke her own prep national record with her 4:10.77 performance. Cain’s been a roll all year and while we’re sure she wanted to contend a little better at Drake, setting a new personal best, breaking a national record and setting herself up for another big outdoor season has to be encouraging for the high school junior.

Sara Baxter: While Mary Cain racks up big performance and tons of media exposure, the California junior who beat Cain at NXN this past fall continues to dominate the west coast scene. Over the weekend, Baxter continued her progress, winning the Ventura County 3,200m title in 10:08.76, besting her runner-up competition by 47 seconds. She’s yet to be challenged this season, but at this point a sub-9:55 3,200 clocking doesn’t seem unrealistic, which would rank her among the all-time greats at the high school level.

Treniere Moser: After a slow start to her 2013 season, Moser seems to be getting back on track with her winning ways after a big 1,500m win at the Payton Jordan Invitational. Facing strong competition, Moser blitzed the field with her 4:06.40 victory, winning by just over two and a half seconds. Moser, who’s now under the tutelage of Alberto Salazar, is showing she’s back to being a top three and Team USA contender.



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3 comment(s)
Scott Joerger
Sarah Baxter's time was 10:06.74 rather than 10:08.74, which was her seed time from Arcadia. For what it's worth, her win at Ventura County was 15 seconds faster than she ran at the same meet a year ago. In fact, Sarah seems to be faster in all her league meet solo wins. I agree that she has a lot more in her. But I also think it will take more than a 10:08 to beat Anna Maxwell at State. Anna closed hard at Arcadia and finished a mere 2 seconds behind Sarah.
Chris Nickinson
Solinsky's 13:20 last night is encouraging with the troubles he's had the previous two years.
SteveU
Honorable mention (at least) to Elise Cranny, who'd never broken 5 for a mile/1600 until this year and ran a 4:15.07 1500 at Stanford!

Scott Bush, on , said:

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