VERONA, WISCONSIN, October 19 — It may not have been the proverbial irresistible force and immovable object, but when the two most recent NCAA 10K winners — one from the track and the other from the grass — collided, a race to remember resulted.
New Mexico soph Habtom Samuel, who was disappointed that he wasn’t picked for the Eritrean Olympic team, certainly served notice here at the Pre-Nationals, shredding North Carolina senior Parker Wolfe’s 3-week-old course record of 23:04 with a convincing win over a strong field in 22:33.8. It was a virtually perfect setup for a good day of racing, with temps hovering near 60 degrees with a slight breeze and firm but not hard turf.
With 2K left, Samuel abandoned his patient, stay-within-himself approach and made his move, ever so gradually lengthening a slight lead into a no-doubt-about-it finish off a final 5:31 over that last fourth of the race. His most notable “victim” was defending NCAA cross champ Graham Blanks, a Harvard senior running his first race this fall since his 9th-place effort in the 5K in Paris. Blanks’ self-proclaimed “rust-buster” debut was none too shabby either, with his 22:40 effort also easily eclipsing the old course record and showing that he won’t go quietly 5 weeks hence in defending his NCAA title.
“The pace was fast,” Samuel said. “I stayed calm and patient with the guys at the back of the [lead] group. I looked at the [other] guys and they looked a little tired. That was my plan, after talking with my coach, to run very hard on the last mile or K. When I ran this course last year I wasn’t as good on the finish so I decided to go fast [from farther out].”
With a bunch of other NCAA title contenders absent here, the prospects of an epic race on November 23 look promising. Confidence will also be high among the other top finishers, seven more of whom were also under Wolfe’s mark, which itself may be some sort of record for shortest record ownership. Right on Blanks’ tail were a host of the early front-runners. Eastern Kentucky’s Justine Kipkoech was 3rd (22:41), Arkansas’s Patrick Kiprop 4th (22:43) and Iowa State’s Robin Kwemoi Bera 5th (22:45).
Teamwise, third-rated Arkansas took command early and trailed New Mexico by a tad in the team battle at 2K but then moved into first by 4K and never was really threatened. Its 89-point win came off a 4-7-8-18-52 finish led by Kiprop. Coach Chris Bucknam’s long-time power hasn’t won an NCAA title since 2000 but a better fifth-man finish could make it interesting come late November against the likes of Oklahoma State, BYU, Iowa State, Stanford, New Mexico and Northern Arizona among a host of other contenders.
No. 4 Iowa State, with Kiprop in the top 10 from the get-go, moved up steadily throughout the race and closed with 128 points off a 5-19-24-30-50 finish; the Cyclone squad was 2nd at the Nuttycombe race, then to BYU, which didn’t race in this one. Ninth-ranked Stanford (142), No. 8 New Mexico (166), No. 6 NAU (178) and No. 10 Wisconsin (199) ended as the top 6 in the 32-team “championship” race field; 25 more unranked teams competed in a “B” race won by Purdue with 73 points and by Utah Valley’s Mohamed Guled in 23:30.8, which would have been 50th in the main event.
Blanks was philosophical about his race. “In general, the whole race was fast,” he said. “I knew after like 2 miles, that we’re gonna get the course record today. Looking around with maybe a K to go, its about like six of us. I’ve actually got some work to catch up to these guys because the NCAA is loaded this year. I’m pumped to get back here in the winter and have an awesome showdown between all of us. It’s gonna be a dog fight up front.
“Maybe a fast race this early in my season would play against me,” Blanks said, “but I’ve got to be ready for that stuff.”
PRE-NATIONALS MEN’S RESULTS
Teams: 1. Arkansas 89; 2. Iowa State 128; 3. Stanford 142; 4. New Mexico 166; 5. Northern Arizona 178; 6. Wisconsin 199; 7. Notre Dame 201; 8. Syracuse 258; 9. Cal Baptist 312; 10. Harvard 327.
Individuals (8K): 1. **Habtom Samuel’ (NM-Eri) 22:33.8; 2. Graham Blanks (Harv) 22:40.5; 3. ***Justine Kipkoech’ (EnKy-Ken) 22:41.8; 4. Patrick Kiprop’ (Ar-Ken) 22:43.0; 5. ***Robin Kwemoi Bera’ (IaSt-Ken) 22:45.9; 6. Bob Liking (Wi) 22:54.6; 7. Kirami Yego’ (Ar-Ken) 22:59.4; 8. Yaseen Abdalla (Ar) 23:01.5; 9. Cole Sprout (Stan) 23:03.2; 10. ***Zouhair Redouane’ (CalB-Mor) 23:05.4;
11. ***Vincent Chirchir’ (NM-Ken) 23:06.5; 12. Carter Solomon (NDm) 23:07.4; 13. Carson Williams (Furm) 23:07.8; 14. **William Zegarski (But) 23:08.1; 15. Davis Bove (SLO) 23:08.6; 16. **Valentin Soca’ (CalB-Uru) 23:09.6; 17. Camren Todd (UtSt) 23:10.1; 18. *Ben Shearer (Ar) 23:10.5; 19. Said Mechaal’ (IaSt-Spa) 23:10.7; 20. **Lex Young (Stan) 23:10.8;
21. David Mullarkey (NnAz) 23:11.3; 22. *Thomas Boyden (Stan) 23:11.7; 23. *Colin Sahlman (NnAz) 23:13.3; 24. Sanele Masondo’ (IaSt-SA) 23:14.9; 25. Santiago Prosser (NnAz) 23:15.7; 26. ***Collins Kiprotich’ (NM-Ken) 23:15.7; 27. **Ethan Coleman (NDm) 23:16.3; 28. **Dean Casey (Co) 23:17.2; 28. **Izaiah Steury (NDm) 23:17.2; 30. **Devan Kipyego (IaSt) 23:18.2;
31. Brett Gardner (NCSt) 23:18.2; 32. Isaac Alonzo (Tx) 23:19.0; 33. *Matt Rankin (Iona) 23:19.6; 34. *Sam Lawler (Syr) 23:20.3; 35. *Toby Gillen’ (Ms-Aus) 23:22.5; 36. Corey Gorgas (NnAz) 23:22.6; 37. Skylar Stidam (In) 23:22.7; 38. *Jacob White (Wy) 23:22.8; 39. ***Liam Newhart (Wi) 23:24.0; 40. Dylan Schubert (Furm) 23:25.3;
41. Jack Jennings (Tul) 23:25.3; 42. *Assaf Harari’ (Syr-Isr) 23:25.8; 43. **Leo Young (Stan) 23:26.1; 44. Rowen Ellenberg (Wi) 23:26.8; 45. Lachlan Wellington’ (Iona-GB) 23:27.4; 46. Spencer Nelson (UtSt) 23:28.2; 47. *Shane Brosnan’ (Harv-Ire) 23:28.9; 48. ***Paul Bergeron (Stan) 23:30.3; 49. ***Bernard Cheruiyot’ (Tul-Ken) 23:30.5; 50. Gable Sieperda (IaSt) 23:31.0.