NCAA Men’s 10,000 — Patience The Key For Young

The strongest of a strong BYU presence was Clayton Young. (MIKE SCOTT)

A SENSE OF URGENCY actually helped Clayton Young remain patient during the longest track race. “I’ve been at Nationals 6 different times and I’ve led going into the last 400 two or three times,” the 25-year-old BYU senior explained, “and I got eaten up every time. This race was all about patience.” And, of course, outsprinting the other 23 runners during the final lap despite being tagged as No. 7 on our formchart coming in. Nemesis Gerald Kigen of Alabama, like Young, was always near the lead from the start. They both sped up with 2 laps to go, but the Kenyan could never quite catch Young, who won 29:16.60–29:18.10. Young, who covered his last 800 in 1:59.43, reeled off a 55.88 final lap and 28.2 closing 200, outsprinting Kigen’s 57.20.

BYU, with no fewer than a half-dozen runners in the race, added senior Connor McMillan in 3rd (29:19.85) and soph Conner Mantz in 4th (29:19.93). Oklahoma State’s Hassan Abdi, never a threat to win, sped up during the final round to pass favored Tyler Day of Northern Arizona and Robert Brandt of UCLA with a 59.56. He was bearing down on Mantz but his 29:20.73 came up 0.80 short. Day edged Brandt, 29:25.23–29:26.34.

The first 9 laps of the race were led by Coastal Carolina’s Nadeel Wildschutt, with his brother Adriaan always close. With 8½ laps left, Nadeel was stepped on by another runner and lost a shoe. He knelt to retie it, and both brothers lost contact with the pack. The pace was understandably slowish throughout considering the 80-plus temps and high humidity after a couple of rain showers during the day. The Cougars were ready for the less-than-ideal conditions, thanks to coach Ed Eyestone’s personal story of passing out at the ’83 NCs, then coming back to win a 5/10 double here in ’85. “He prepared us for the race,” said Young, whose wife Ashley and 5-month-old daughter Lucy, were watching. “We practiced our finish over and over. We spent time in a sauna to get accustomed to the heat.”

Mantz, who had beaten Young at the early-season Stanford 10K, finished in 58.62 and was confident. “I knew if he ran well, he would pull all of us along. After the 5K, we were right with him.” Coincidentally, Young edged Kigen in that Stanford race by 1.78 seconds, nearly the same margin as here (1.50).


NCAA MEN’S 10,000 RESULTS

FINAL (June 05)

1. Clayton Young (BYU) 29:16.60 (pace—68.63, 71.64 [2:20.27], 69.59 [3:29.86], 69.69 [4:39.55], 70.21 [5:49.76], 70.88 [7:00.64], 71.22 [8:11.86], 69.64 [9:21.50], 72.31 [10:33.81], 72.29 [11:46.10], 71.47 [12:57.57], 71.46 [14:09.03], 71.48 [15:20.51], 73.29 [16:33.80], 72.14 [17:45.94], 73.25 [18:59.19], 72.35 [20:11.54], 72.28 [21:23.82], 72.17 [22:35.99], 71.35 [23:47.34], 71.28 [24:58.62], 69.93 [26:08.55], 68.62 [27:17.17], 63.55 [28:20.72], 55.88) (finish—28.2, 55.88, 1:59.43, 3:08.05, 4:17.98);

2. Gilbert Kigen’ (Al) 29:18.10 (57.20, 2:00.68, 3:09.67, 4:19.88);

3. Connor McMillan (BYU) 29:19.85 (58.85, 2:02.41, 3:11.79, 4:22.07);

4. **Conner Mantz (BYU) 29:19.93 (58.62, 2:02.27, 3:11.65, 4:21.18);

5. Hassan Abdi’ (OkSt) 29:20.73 (59.56, 2:03.44, 3:12.58, 4:22.75);

6. *Tyler Day (NnAz) 29:25.35 (63.98, 2:07.72, 3:16.73, 4:26.90);

7. *Robert Brandt (UCLA) 29:26.34 (65.40, 2:09.54, 3:18.10, 4:28.26);

8. Azaria Kirwa’ (Lib) 29:30.88 (65.27, 2:13.66, 3:23.06, 4:32.99);

9. *Gilbert Boit’ (Ar) 29:32.03 (66.56, 2:14.20, 3:24.10, 4:33.77);

10. *John Dressel (Co) 29:32.38;

11. Paul Hogan (MaL) 29:42.60;

12. Ryan Forsyth’ (Co) 29:47.90;

13. **Nadeel Wildschutt’ (CCar) 29:54.12;

14. Brent Demarest (Va) 29:54.20;

15. Rory Linkletter’ (BYU) 29:55.21;

16. *Sean Burke (BC) 30:01.13;

17. Frank Lara (Furm) 30:09.94;

18. **Ben Veatch (In) 30:14.93;

19. **Adriaan Wildschutt’ (CCar) 30:52.04;

20. *Iliass Aouani’ (Syr) 30:54.96;

21. *Dallin Farnsworth (BYU) 30:58.64;

22. Aaron Templeton (Furm) 31:00.58;

23. **Connor Weaver (BYU) 31:11.05;

24. Lawrence Kipkoech’ (Campb) 31:20.16.◻︎

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