TAKING A PAGE from the playbook he had used to win the 10,000 two nights earlier, Ky Robinson captured his second title of the championships.
The Stanford junior quickly got to the front, making sure that he was in proper position once the race settled down, recalling that at the Indoor he got swallowed up by the pack at the start of both the 3000 and 5000. That experience left the Australian import with few options to see the race develop and survey the field.
He was content to let others do the work, namely Portland’s Matt Strangio and Antonio Lopez Segura of Virginia Tech, as they clicked off tactical laps in the 70–72 range through the first 3000.
Behind Strangio and Lopez Segura, the 23-man pack stayed bunched, as Robinson was content to sit around the top 4, close enough to the front, yet able to take advantage of the runners up front doing the grunt work.
Business picked up after the 3K mark, when Northern Arizona’s Nico Young injected a 66.68 lap to wake up the field. Young followed it up with a 60.94 circuit, which cut the pack down to 8. Favored Brian Fay of Washington — who entered the meet as the collegiate leader at 13:21.99, and a feared kicker — lost ground to the field, only to be replaced by Harvard’s Graham Blanks.
The pace slowed slightly, with Young taking it down to 64.02 approaching 800 to go. Meanwhile, Robinson trusted his instincts, feeling that Young was going too fast too soon, and went to the front before the bell, finishing with a 55.53 last lap to take the win in 14:04.77.
Blanks, the Heps champ at both 5000 and 10,000, finished 2nd in 14:06.53, while Sharp was 3rd in 14:06.77. Young, who pushed the pace with 2000 to go, faded to 8th in 14:10.17, while Irish internationalist Fay, perhaps a victim of the Texas heat and humidity, rallied but could not catch Young for the final scoring spot, running 14:11.13.
“I feel like I’m about to wake up from a dream,” Robinson said. “This is something I wanted to do in my 4 — however many years I’m here — at Stanford. Third year, third time here, I have no words.
“I trusted myself that I’d have that strength at the end if I laid off a little bit, let [Young] go and expend all his energy. Thankfully, the last 500m, I felt good, went around to the front and, from there, I was just telling myself, ‘You can do it.’”
MEN’S 5000 RESULTS
(June 09)
1. *Ky Robinson’ (Stan-Aus) 14:04.77 (55.53, 1:58.99, 3:02.92)
(31.01, 72.63 [1:43.64], 72.89 [2:56.53], 72.77 [4:09.30], 71.33 [5:20.63], 71.89 [6:32.52], 2:20.57 [8:53.09], 67.21 [10:00.30], 61.55 [11:01.85], 02.08 [11:03.93], 61.85 [12:05.78], 63.46 [13:09.24], 55.53);
2. **Graham Blanks (Harv) 14:06.53 (56.61, 2:00.83, 6:22.47);
3. *Jackson Sharp’ (Wi-Aus) 14:06.77 (57.15, 2:01.64, 4:05.69);
4. **Luke Tewalt (WF) 14:07.18 (57.12, 2:01.73, 4:06.35);
5. **Parker Wolfe (NC) 14:07.50 (57.74, 2:02.19, 4:06.50);
6. *Charles Hicks’ (Stan-GB) 14:09.03 (57.71, 7:35.84, 11:11.36);
7. **Carter Solomon (NDm) 14:09.57 (58.69, 2:03.95, 4:09.01);
8. *Nico Young (NnAz) 14:10.17 (60.15, 2:05.18, 4:10.14);
9. Brian Fay’ (Wa-Ire) 14:11.13; 10. James Mwaura (Gonz) 14:11.82; 11. *Casey Clinger (BYU) 14:12.54; 12. *Yaseen Abdalla’ (Tn-Sud) 14:14.16; 13. **Toby Gillen’ (StL-Aus) 14:14.36; 14. Simon Bedard’ (Butler-Fra) 14:19.10; 15. Sam Gilman (AF) 14:19.91; 16. **Nicholas Bendtsen (Prin) 14:22.79; 17. *Chandler Gibbens (Ks) 14:24.71; 18. Antonio Lopez Segura’ (VaT-Spa) 14:27.70; 19. **David Mullarkey’ (FlSt-GB) 14:28.89; 20. *Eli Bennett (AF) 14:30.36); 21. Zach Facioni’ (WF-Aus) 14:37.57; 22. **Matt Strangio (Port) 14:45.44); 23. ***Brian Masai’ (Akr-Ken) 14:49.31;… dnc—Dylan Jacobs (Tn). ◻︎