NCAA Men’s 1500 — An “Amazing Result” For Hoare

“With a deep field like that, it’s hard to think of yourself as the winner,” said Oliver Hoare. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)

With Collegiate Record holder Josh Kerr toeing the line, each competitor knew he would have his hands full against the defending champ (and 2-time Indoor winner). The New Mexico junior, 20, had set the CR of 3:35.01 at the Clay Invitational in April and was ready to defend his title against a field that included 4 others who had sub-3:40 PRs, Ole Miss senior Robert Domanic, Oregon’s duo of Sam Prakel & Mick Stanovsek and Wisconsin’s Oliver Hoare.

Vincent Ciattei, who came into the meet with a lifetime best of 3:42.59, led the pack through a slowish 61.6. With the Virginia Tech senior still leading, the pace continued to slow after a 65.2 brought the frontrunners through 800m in 2:06.8, with Hoare, Michigan State’s Justine Kiprotich, Virginia’s Mike Marsella and Kerr being the closest and ensuring that a fast finish was looming.

With 500 to go Kerr was stuck in the middle of the tightly packed bunch and had to wait for the bell before being able to maneuver wide to a striking position on the outside of lane 1. A 58.2 third circuit brought Ciattei through 1200m in 3:05.0, followed, by Kiprotich, Domanic, Prakel, Kerr and Hoare. Kerr followed a charge by Domanic down the backstretch and moved past him just before hitting the home straight.

With everyone giving their all, Domanic began to fade and it appeared as if Kerr might pull it off, but with 50m left he was no longer accelerating and a quick glance to his right confirmed that Hoare and Ciattei were mounting a final assault. Hoare passed Kerr 10m from the finish and went on to win in 3:44.77, 0.25 ahead of Ciattei and Kerr, who would need a photo to determine their places, separated by just 0.003.

In the end, Hoare’s 53-flat final lap secured him victory, with 2nd going to Ciattei by the slimmest of margins over Kerr, followed by Domanic (3:45.47), Texas frosh Sam Worley, Prakel, Kiprotich and Arkansas Razorback Cameron Griffith in 8th.

The winner described his homestretch drive by saying, “Going into that race, it seemed like it was anyone’s race and on that last turn—coming into that straight—I just pumped my arms and pushed through. At that point, I was thinking, ‘I got this,’ and I like to go into a race thinking like that. With a deep field like that, it’s hard to think of yourself as the winner, but I really gave it my all, and I came out with an amazing result.”

Hoare, an Aussie soph charted only No. 5 coming in, became the first Badger winner since Don Gehrmann won three straight, 1948–50.


NCAA MEN’S 1500 RESULTS

FINAL (June 08)

1. **Oliver Hoare’ (Wi) 3:44.77

(45.61, 65.61 [1:51.22], 60.55 [2:51.77], 53.00) (53.00, 1:53.55, 2:59.16);

2. Vincent Ciattei (VaT) 3:45.02 (3:45.012)

(53.73, 1:54.02, 2:59.70);

3. *Josh Kerr’ (NM) 3:45.02 (3:45.015)

(53.35, 1:53.90, 2:58.91);

4. Robert Domanic (Ms) 3:45.47

(54.02, 1:54.13, 2:59.52);

5. ***Sam Worley (Tx) 3:45.67

(54.02, 1:53.95, 2:59.89);

6. Sam Prakel (Or) 3:45.73

(54.14, 1:54.17, 2:59.97);

7. *Justine Kiprotich’ (MiSt) 3:45.75

(54.42, 1:54.78, 2:59.48);

8. *Cameron Griffith’ (Ar) 3:45.75

(53.84, 1:54.31, 2:59.74);

9. Amos Bartelsmeyer (Gtn) 3:46.54

(54.75, 1:55.23, 3:00.83);

10. *Diego Zarate (VaT) 3:46.55

(54.53, 1:55.15, 3:00.38);

11. Mike Marsella (Va) 3:52.39

(60.89, 2:01.23, 3:06.86);

12. **Mick Stanovsek (Or) 3:56.12

(63.92, 2:04.75, 3:09.77).

SEMIS (June 06)

I–1. Prakel 3:49.33; 2. Hoare’ 3:49.42; 3. Stanovsek 3:49.83; 4. Zarate 3:49.95; 5. Kiprotich’ 3:50.03;

6. Ben Malone (Vill) 3:50.61; 7. Alex Riba (TxAM) 3:50.72; 8. *Joseph Murphy (In) 3:51.14; 9. *Kevin White (Loy/Ch) 3:51.24; 10. ***Everett Smulders (Ms) 3:51.59; 11. **Christopher Torpy (MiaO) 3:55.74; 12. *Chandler Teigen (WaSt) 3:56.59.

II–1. Kerr’ 3:47.47; 2. Domanic 3:47.61; 3. Ciattei 3:47.73; 4. Worley 3:47.84; 5. Griffith’ 3:47.93; 6. Bartelsmeyer 3:48.00; 7. Marsella 3:48.01;

8. William Paulson’ (Prin) 3:48.09; 9. *Ian Crowe-Wright’ (NM) 3:48.65; 10. *Alex Rogers (Tx) 3:48.67; 11. **Nicholas Wareham (Gtn) 3:49.74; 12. ***Luis Grijalva’ (NnAz) 3:49.85.

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