Meg Hogan enters the homestretch during the 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships.

Who is the best collegiate distance runner you’ve never heard of? The George Washington University’s Meg Hogan would be a strong contender for that distinction. Hogan is certainly one of the fastest distance runners who didn’t run at the NCAA Championships this past spring. Her absence from the NCAA meet had nothing to do with a lack of a qualifying performance and everything to do with the fact that GW does not officially sponsor track & field.*

Hogan, however, had a fabulous track season. In February of 2010, she won the Virginia Tech Challenge 5,000 by more than a minute in a PR of 16:09.54. She went on to with the ECAC Indoor 5,000m title in 16:18.10 in early March, followed that up with a huge personal best of 32:34.95 10,000 at the Stanford Invitational, finishing fifth in a race won by Lisa Koll, who set the collegiate record of 31:18.07. Hogan’s only loss of the season to collegians other than Lisa Koll came at the Penn Relays, where she ran 16:12.10 to finish a close third behind Stony Brook’s Holly Van Dalen and Villanova’s Amanda Marino.

Hogan’s best race of the season, however, came in June at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Lap after lap, the lead pack consisted of four professional runners, one collegian on the verge of signing a professional contract (Koll) and Hogan. This prompted comments on Twitter, even among those who follow the sport closely, along the lines of, “Who?!” Those who weren’t familiar with Hogan’s accomplishments wondered who she was, how she was hanging in there, and how long she would last. Hogan dropped off when the race really heated up, but she made herself known at the top level, finished sixth in 32:52.84, and showed agents and shoe company representatives that they better be paying attention next November when she competes in her final collegiate race. Hogan finished 27th at the 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships after taking a hard fall early in the race, and will look to finish significantly higher in 2010.

The most interesting part of Hogan’s story, and the biggest indicator of her future potential, perhaps, is the fact that she did not do any competitive running until her sophomore year of college — the fall of 2007. Growing up, Hogan focused the majority of her athletic attention on basketball. The Ballston Spa, New York native attended Saratoga Central Catholic School, just up the road from Saratoga Springs High School, which is known for producing star distance runners.

Hogan’s first season of running, at Mount Ida College in Massachusetts, was solid, but if you didn’t know she was new to running, you probably wouldn’t have known that there was a future star in your midst. This reporter, for one, was at several of Hogan’s meets that season and, frankly, did not notice her 69th place finish at the New England Division III Regional (23:19 for 6k) or her 35th place finish at the ECAC Division III Cross Country Championships (24:17 for 6k). One year and one school later, however, she finished 96th at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, and that was just the beginning of Hogan’s rapid rise.

We caught up with Hogan via email in July.

*Hogan’s coach, Brian Beil, has since learned that it may be possible for an athlete in this position to petition in to the NCAA meet, noting that Oregon State had a high jumper compete at the NCAA Championships, and Oregon State does not officially sponsor men’s track & field. Under NCAA rules, athletes at a Division I school that sponsors cross country but not track and field can compete in track meets, paid for by the school, on a limited basis.

Tell us about your basketball background, and did you do other sports, too?

I have been playing basketball since I was 10 years old. I was also a soccer player, and I was an Irish dancer. I was very serious about basketball; I played fall ball at the same time as soccer, summer league, AAU basketball in the spring and, of course, regular season in the winter. I practiced all the time! I was a point guard, mostly because I was short and quick and was a good three-point shooter. I moved up to varsity as a freshman in high school and I was recruited to play at the Division III level at Mount Ida College. I went to basketball camps — including Siena Basketball Camp — five years in a row. I was obsessed.

Did you run at all in high school? When did you first realize that you had talent for running?

I did not run in high school. I actually never ran; the only associations I had with running were suicides at basketball practice and Indian runs at soccer practice. My high school actually had neither a cross country team or a track team. I went to a small Catholic school in Saratoga Springs, New York. When I started running my sophomore year of college, I realized I had a talent for running and I also fell in love with the sport.

Are there other runners or great athletes in your family?

My dad ran cross country when he was in high school and he is now getting back into it. He plans on running a marathon next year. Other than that, my brother is a good soccer player.

What made you initially decide to attend Mount Ida College?

Since I was 12, I wanted to go into Interior Design, not interior decorating [laughs]. I always like to point out that distinction. They had one of the best Interior Design schools in the country and I also went because I could play basketball there.

What made you decide to transfer to George Washington, and did running play any role in that?

One of my best friends went to GW, she was a year ahead of me. My freshman year, I went out to visit her and I fell in love with GW. I think GW is the perfect balance between being a campus and being a part of the city. I loved Washington, DC, too. It was my first time being there.

Towards the end of my freshman year, I started to realize how much Mount Ida was the wrong school for me. It was just the wrong fit and I went there for all the wrong reasons. That’s when I decided to get into running. The cross country team at Mount Ida needed people and I thought it would be a great way to stay in shape for basketball. That summer I ran road races, trail races, I had no idea how to train, no idea. I was just running, and I loved it. Then I entered my first cross country season feeling excited and competitive. I won my first three races and continued to have a great season after that.

Unfortunately, I was still really unhappy at Mount Ida and the only thing that was still keeping me there was the great Interior Design program. I talked to my parents about it and they were really supportive of my decision to transfer to another school. I thought, ‘If I had to go any school in the country right now, which would it be?’ I absolutely loved GW and they had an accredited Interior Design program. I knew I really wanted to keep running, though, so I thought I would just shoot the coach an email and see if he was interested…and he was! Now the rest is history.

What made you choose a school that officially sponsors cross country but not track?

I chose GW mostly for the school, my life wasn’t centered around running back then like it is now. Also, I was still such a rookie to the sport. At Mount Ida, we only had cross country and I didn’t know the difference…I guess I thought it was normal.

Do you think that not having a track program at GW has held you back at all?

I actually don’t think it held me back too much. I was still able to compete at some major races. I think the only down side would be the inability to compete at NCAAs, which I hear isn’t true anymore.*

What, if any, do you think are the advantages to a “cross country only” college program?

I think some advantages to a cross country only college, for me, is that you can still run track but not have the added pressure of being in season. There is a lot more freedom in that if I’m not feeling ready for a race, it’s not a big deal, I’ll just run in the next meet. Also, you are running for yourself, really, for your pride and your goals. You are mostly on your own. It can be difficult at times because you have to be strong mentally, but coming from someone who can easily get psyched out, I think it has made me a stronger person and a stronger runner.

How has your mileage progressed over the years, and how have you been able to increase it relatively quickly and remain healthy?

My first year of running I had no idea what I was doing, I was just running. When I transferred to GW, I jumped into high mileage and got injured. I think that’s when I learned how to take care of myself and ease into high mileage.

What’s a typical training week like for you? Do you do much supplemental work (conditioning/weights, crosstraining)?

Typical weeks are Mondays and Wednesdays 8-10 miles followed by weight training. Tuesdays and Fridays are workout days with a morning workout and an evening 30-minute run. Thursdays and Saturdays are 8-10 miles and Sundays are long runs. My coach will have us do pool workouts, which I dread! I am really not a fan of crosstraining, I get really bored. I am a terrible swimmer and I think that’s why I don’t like pool workouts.

Do you train with the other women on your team, and do you ever hop in with the men?

I don’t really train with the women on my team, I will sometimes jump in workouts with the guys, but for the most part, I do my workouts by myself. Sometimes my coach will do a workout with me.

What are your goals for the cross country season?

This coming cross country season I would like to lead my team to top three at our conference meet, help Jessica Stern (one of my teammates) qualify for nationals, and I also hope to be top three at nationals. Last year I fell at nationals, which was a little disappointing because even though I was All-American, I know I could have placed better.

What are you up to this summer?

I am training for cross country, of course, but besides that, I spend all my time working. I am a host at a restaurant in DC and I also have an internship at an architecture firm once a week, because I’m taking an internship course right now. It’s a very busy summer!

Do you plan to focus on the 10k in the future, or having you considered going longer and branching out to racing on the roads?

I do plan to continue racing the 10k but I am also interested in moving to marathons in the future. I really love the marathon, I think it’s a great race.

Do you ever race on the roads during the spring semester or in the summer?

I normally don’t unless I am pacing for someone or using it as a tempo workout. I think I might run a road race or two in August and use them as a workout. I love road races; they are always fun.

In what area are you getting a graduate degree, and have you started the program yet? Do you plan to finish it?

I am getting my graduate degree in Interior Design, I start the program in September. I do plan on finishing it, but who knows! It’s a two-year program but if a pro team with a great deal wants to sign me when my eligibility is over, I have no idea what I will decide! I guess I will just cross that bridge when I get to it.

Is a professional running career something you hope to pursue full time after you finish your education?

That is something I hope to pursue, I don’t know what my options are, I am still a rookie to running so I guess I’ll see what happens when my eligibility is up! All I am sure about is that I definitely want to continue running after college at the elite level.

Do you plan to remain in DC after graduation, or have you considered going elsewhere?

I am staying in DC for now. The graduate program is two years and I have eligibility this coming year. I would prefer to finish out my graduate degree and stay in DC for the next two years, but I am up for anything! After two years, I would love to go to the West coast, like Oregon or the San Francisco area, or even back to the Northeast where I am from, but I would even consider leaving the country, so I really am up for anything!

What are your ultimate goals in your career both in and out of running?

My ultimate goals are to continue running to the best of my ability, that’s all I can ask. To also continue having a career on the side is something that I would love to do. I want to be happy and healthy, and also eventually get married and have children.

I’ve seen a couple of things suggesting that you are a huge ice cream fan. Is this indeed true? And if so, who makes the best ice cream, and what is their best flavor?

It is! I have had every Ben and Jerry’s flavor! Ben and Jerry’s definitely makes the best ice cream. I like all their ice creams but I tend to choose flavors that have chunks of cookie dough or something like that. I have a two favorites, first is Cinnamon Buns, which is amazing for obvious reasons, the cinnamon bun cookie dough is ridiculously good. Then, if I want a fruit flavor, I pick Magic Brownies, the Dave Matthews flavor, which is a black raspberry ice cream with fudge brownies. I think a part of me loves that flavor due to my love for Dave Matthews. Ice cream is one of my obsessions; I have a pint of ice cream after every race.

Interview posted July 31, 2010.

As of today, I am also less than 5 weeks away from welcoming my first child into the world.  I have a lot of work to finish over the next few weeks before my son arrives so I will once again have to put Eliterunning on hold.  However, I am excited to announce plans to continue updating Eliterunning beginning in Mid-September, early October – just in time for the fall marathon racing season!

I have missed interviewing athletes and updating the site more than I can express in words – I am very much looking forward to diving back in soon.  In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for the site, or requests for athletes you would like see interviewed, feel free to email me at eliterunning1 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Happy running to all!

Bridget

Special appearances by Dick Beardsley and Erin Ward!

American steeplechase record holder Jenny Barringer has been forced to end her season due to a stress reaction at the head of her right femur.  Barringer, 23, made the decision with her coach, Juli Benson, after finishing third in the 5000m at the USA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, last Friday.

“It was important to me and New Balance (her sponsor) and the beginning of my professional career,” Barringer said of her decision to run at the national meet despite feeling a deep and persistent ache in her hip.  ”I wanted to be strong and be tough and train through the pain.”

But Barringer said that her race in Des Moines was a wake-up call, that she would need to take a break from running in order for the injury to heal.

“The national championships were really an eye opener for me, and face my fears, and recognize that I can’t train or race at full capacity,” she said speaking via cell phone from her home in Boulder, Colo.  ”I can’t face the top women in the country, never mind the best women if the world, if I can’t run seven days a week.”

Barringer said that her training began to be compromised by the pain prior to the adidas Grand Prix Diamond League meeting in New York on June 12, where she finished fourth in the 1500m in 4:03.63.  She sought treatment at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.  Conventional soft tissue therapies, like massage and Active Release therapy, were not enough to address the problem.  It always felt that the therapist just couldn’t go deep enough.

“It’s difficult to know what’s going to fade and what’s going to be big,” she said of the pain.  ”I ran New York and was happy with my performance there, but I know my training was already compromised going into the week.  Shortly after that… I’m not bouncing back as I expected I would.  The sports medicine staff at the Olympic Training Center suggested I get an MRI and I found I had a stress reaction in my right femur.”

Barringer plans to take several days off before picking up a routine of cross training, including running on an anti-gravity treadmill.  She said that tests showed that her overall bone health and calcium levels were excellent, and she felt confident that the injury would heal quickly.

“It just makes my hip so stiff,” she lamented.  ”I can get out and go on a run if I’m very well warmed up.  But, that gear shifting, going from 72 to 65 (seconds per lap), that’s so difficult because my hip is so uncomfortable.”

Barringer was the most sought after runner to come out the NCAA in 2009, and was signed by New Balance last winter.  She represented the United States in the steeplechase at both the 2008 Olympic Games (9th place) and the 2009 IAAF World Championships (5th place).  She set her American record of 9:12.50 in last summer’s world championships.

Like the soul hit by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, “She Ain’t a Child No More,” former California prep star Jordan Hasay has grown up.  The outgoing University of Oregon freshman, who as a 16 year-old captured the fond attention of fans and the media when she finished tenth in the 1500m at the 2008 USA Olympic Trials over, is now 18.

But the 2007 IAAF World Youth Championships silver medallist at 1500m is still a junior –she does not turn 20 until 2011– and plans to make her final IAAF World Junior Championships next month in Moncton, Canada, a productive one, doubling in the 1500m and the 3000m.  Last week in Des Moines, Iowa, Hasay won the national junior title at 1500m (her fourth) and placed second in the 3000m, locking in her national team berths in both disciplines.  She told reporters after her 1500m victory last Saturday that despite racing 17 times so far this year she can still be fresh for next month’s championships.

“That’s been the goal all season,” said Hasay, who has clearly grown several inches taller in the past two years.  ”It’s a big year.  It’s my last year as a junior.  We’re trying to peak for July, so we’ll see how that goes.  I mean, I’m tired, but we’ve consciously kind of held back and tried not to overtrain and still save something.”

In her first year as an NCAA athlete, Hasay has been a solid contributor to her Oregon Duck squad which won the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships team title in Fayetteville, Ark., last March, and finished second at the recent NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships on her home track of Hayward Field in Eugene.  In the indoor championships Hasay took fourth in the mile, scoring 5 points, and anchored the Oregon distance medley relay team which took second, good for 8 points.  In the outdoor championships she finished third in the 1500m scoring 6 points.  She’s also set personal best times at the indoor mile (4:35.01), indoor 3000m (9:12.25), 3000m (9:18.92) and 5000m (16:16.02).

In Des Moines, Hasay was upset by high schooler Emily Sisson in the 3000m, losing in the final kick by 19/100ths of a second.  That defeat made her 1500m win all the more important.  It was only her second 1500m victory this year.

“It’s actually really nice because I haven’t won a race since, I think, my season opener outdoors, the Stanford Invite (March 26),” Hasay explained.  ”I mean, I’ve run well –I wouldn’t consider my other races bad– it’s just a different level.  So, it’s nice to win again, and experience that.”

At the last IAAF World Junior Championships in 2008, Hasay finished fourth in the 1500m (Britain’s Stephanie Twell took the title), and she was a full two seconds from making the medal stand.  But at the junior level, two years of additional training and development can be significant, and Hasay feels that she’ll be a medal contender in Moncton.

“I think I have a good shot, especially in the 1500,” she said.  ”I think my speed is really coming along, and that’s what it takes at the international level.  I finished NCAA’s in 63 (seconds) for the (final) 400, so I was really pleased with that.  It’s definitely coming around.  For the 3-K, I think it will be a good opportunity for a PR against some of the African runners who like to take it out hard.  It’s going to be exciting.”

Hasay thinks those championships may provide an opportunity for her to break the 23 year-old USA junior 1500m record set by Suzy Hamilton in 1987.

“I’d really like a shot at the American junior record, it’s 4:09.1,” she said.  ”So, I think I have a real shot at that if it goes fast.  That would be really exciting.”

Adjusting to college life can be difficult for any student, but has special challenges for a young woman who already enjoyed a measure of fame as a young girl (she has 1,048 Facebook friends).  But Hasay said she enjoyed her first year at Oregon, made new friends, and said that her favorite subject was chemistry.

“It’s definitely difficult,” Hasay said of the pressure she’s felt as a young star.  ”But I just try to enjoy it.  I love the sport.  I love the people.  I love the atmosphere, so that definitely helps.  I love the quote (by Michael Johnson) that ‘pressure is nothing more than the shadow of a great opportunity,’ so I just try to take my opportunities and just have fun out there.”

DES MOINES, IOWA (26-Jun) — Aisling Cuffe, a wide-eyed eleventh grader from Cornwall High School in Upstate New York, came here to the USA Junior Outdoor Championships to earn a berth on Team USA for next month’s IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada.  She had hoped to make the team at 3000m, but finished third in that event last Thursday to Emily Sisson and Jordan Hasay, despite running a personal best 9:20.94, well under the IAAF qualifying standard of 9:35.00

“This year she wanted to go world’s in the 3000,” her coach Dave Feuer told Race Results Weekly in an exclusive interview.  ”Unfortunately, probably the only two girls in the country who could beat her happened to sign up for the same race.”

So Cuffe decided to start today’s 5000m, the distance at which she won at last year’s junior championships with a 16:43.58 personal best.  Although there was little doubt that she would win today’s race, she not only had to place in the top-2 to make the team, but she also had to beat the IAAF World Junior Championships time standard of 16:30.00. That was a tall order for any 16 year-old, but made even more difficult by the 90°F (32°C) temperatures accompanied by 55% humidity under a scorching Midwest sun.  According to the USATF team selection policy, she had to have the standard by the end of today’s meet.

“We’re not too happy about the time of the race with the heat and all,” said Feuer of the late afternoon start time.  ”She had to average 79’s and we thought that she’d be the only one trying to do it, and we were right.”

Cuffe bolted to the lead at the gun, and settled into her pace.  She hit the first full lap in 80.4 seconds, then ran 79.2, 79.4, 80.0, and 79.7.  The small crowd of perhaps 300 cheered as the stadium announcer explained Cuffe’ challenge.  With each lap her lead over the main field grew, from 11 seconds, with ten laps to go to 53 seconds with two laps to go.

“Obviously, nobody was even close to that pace,” Feuer observed.

Cuffe’s pace slipped to the low 81’s and 82’s, but with two fast final laps the standard was still possible.  She began to lap the other runners, passing all but one by the finish.  Spurred by the crowd, she dropped down to 77.1 seconds for her penultimate lap, but then the wheels fell off.  Her loping stride began to stiffen, and her head and back drooped forward.  Precious seconds were slipping away.

“She went and was on (pace) for about half the race, had a couple of bumps above 79, but came back,” sighed Feuer.  ”But she was just spent.”

Cuffe forced herself to finish the last circuit in 89.7 seconds, by far her slowest of the race.  Clocking 16:52.25 she won by some 36 seconds, but her dream of competing for Team USA –at least for this summer– was shattered.  Although she made it off of the track with just a small amount of assistance, she crumbled to the floor of the recovery area under the stadium.  Comforted by her mother, Mary O’Hanrahan, and coach Feuer, she rose to her knees to vomit repeatedly into a trash can.  She was unable to speak to the media.

“It’s a great effort, having run the 3000 two days ago and PRing, with a 9:20 was, I’m sure, part of it,” her coach reasoned.  ”Obviously, the heat (was a factor), but it wasn’t all the heat.”

Cuffe was helped out of the recovery area by her coach and mother, then driven away by the Drake Stadium medical staff in a golf cart for further treatment.  She was smiling as the cart pulled away on the sky blue track, the stadium then early empty.

“She’s special,” said Feuer who managed a wan smile.  ”She’s, you know, above and beyond whatever you could ask someone to do.  She doesn’t do it all on talent.  She wasn’t always this fast.  She started out, obviously, above average, and she is so into what she does and dedicated.”

The other two junior distance races held today, the 1500m for men and women, had happier endings.  Jordan Hasay of the University of Oregon and Rachel Schneider of Georgetown University went 1-2 and in 4:26.38 and 4:27.26, respectively.  Both possessed the 4:28.00 qualifying standard before the race and made the team (Hasay said she would double in the 1500m and 3000m in Moncton).  On the men’s side Princeton’s Peter Callahan (3:46.42) and Loyola-Los Angeles’ Elias Gedyon (3:47.65) both got under the 3:48.00 standard and locked in their places on the national team.

Anna Pierce won the open 1500m with a strong final 100m to pass both Shannon Rowbury and Erin Donohue in the final 20 meters of the race.  Pierce clocked 4:13.65.  Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Shalane Flanagan was tripped and tumbled to infield about 900m into the race.  She finished 11th in 4:19.56.

“It got messy in the middle,” said Flanagan who will make her marathon debut in New York in November.  ”I got caught up in it.”

The five-day USA Outdoor Championships conclude here tomorrow.

DES MOINES, IOWA (25-Jun) — A year and a day ago in Eugene, Ore., Lauren Fleshman failed to show up on the starting line of the 5000m at the USA Outdoor Championships.  Plagued by a series of mechanical problems stemming from a broken navicular bone in her foot that spawned other injuries, the 2006 USA 5000m champion scratched from the race, unable to compete.  She seriously considered retiring at 27.

“If you’d have talked to me 12 months ago I was ready to, I don’t know, open up a shoe store or something else,” Fleshman said after winning her second national 5000m title here tonight.  ”Move to another state.  I was very frustrated.”

But under the patient coaching of Marc Rowland at the Nike Oregon Track Club in Eugene, the former NCAA champion at for Stanford University had been slowly working her way back to the form which put her on two national 5000m teams for the IAAF World Championships, and allowed her to run a personal best of 14:58.48 in 2008.

“If I didn’t have coach Rowland and the Oregon Track Club, I don’t know if I would have made it back,” Fleshman explained, her wavy light brown hair pulled back into a ponytail.  ”I definitely wouldn’t have been national champion this quickly.  So, I’m full of gratitude for my situation in Oregon.  I can’t say it enough.”

In tonight’s race, Fleshman ran most of the way in the pack and did not respond immediately to a big surge by three-time Olympian Jen Rhines who threw in a 69.7-second lap with 5 laps to go.  Rhines managed to build an eight-second lead with four laps to go, and it appeared that her aggressive strategy might work.

“My thinking was to go with five or six laps to go, but I got antsy,” said Rhines.  ”I was just trying to get out of the habit of just running for second or third.”

With two laps to go, Rhines’s lead was down to five seconds.  Fleshman was working with Molly Huddle to catch the 2002 USA 10,000m champion, and with 600 meters left in the race decided to go for the win.

“It was just knowing that I had enough left to put on a good kick,” said Fleshman.  ”I didn’t know if it would be enough to win, but I just got this smirk where I knew I had something left.”

Running 66.9 seconds for the final lap, Fleshman was too far in front for the chasing Huddle to catch her, stopping the clock at 15:28.70.  Huddle came next in 15:30.89, and steeplechaser Jenny Barringer third 15:33.33.  Rhines was fourth.
Fleshman’s return to the top was painstaking.  She said that she had to totally reinvent herself by changing her form, strengthening weak muscles, but most of all taking things one step at a time.  She said that she couldn’t put together four weeks of training without getting reinjured.

“I had to first take it day by day, never think more than one day at a time, never get frustrated, try not to think about how good I had been,” she said.  ”It’s really all about learning to live in the moment, which is hard to do.”  She added: “I just reinvented myself from the ground up with help.”

That help came from a chiropractor named Dr. Ted Forcum and a physical therapist named Robyn Pester, Fleshman said.  ”‘I need to start over and I need you two guys to help me,’” Fleshman recalled telling them.  ”And they did.  They were the first two to jump on board helping me.”

Fleshman won a trail run last September in Bend, Ore., then a road 5-K last October.  She didn’t step on the track again until last April when she won the low-key Oregon Relays 5000m in 15:42.46, giving her a qualifying mark for tonight’s meet.  She also ran a special 1500m race for elite athletes held at the Oregon State high school championships, clocking 4:12.30.  Arriving at Drake Stadium this afternoon, she wasn’t completely sure she was ready to mix it up with the other contenders.

“There was a big part of me which wasn’t sure, but there was this little part of me which felt that I might be able to win it,” she said.  ”And that scared the crap out of me.”

While her victory in 2006 was satisfying, Fleshman said it had far less meaning than tonight’s.

“This one is so sweet,” she said, her eyes growing misty.  ”I mean, I don’t know how else to put it.”

*  *  *  *  *  *

The men’s 5000m final was far more predictable.  Off of a slow pace, Bernard Lagat overwhelmed the field with his final 100-meter sprint to win easily in 13:54.08, collecting his third USA 5000m title.  Tim Nelson, an aspiring marathoner, finished second (13:54.80) and Georgetown star Andrew Bumbalough ran his final race as a Hoya, finishing third in 13:55.16.

When asked if it was an easy victory, Lagat smiled, paused and said, “No.  It was a great race.”

Lagat said that he was thankful for the slow pace because he was feeling some fatigue from his recent 5000m American record in Oslo on June 4 (12:54.12) and his 1500m race in New York on June 12 (3:34.36).  He compared tonight’s effort with a tempo run.

“I didn’t come here to run a fast time,” said the reigning world 3000m indoor champion.  ”I promised people here that when I came for the Drake Relays that I’m coming back in June.  I’m glad I did.”

DES MOINES, IOWA (24-Jun) — The Nike Oregon Track Club ruled supreme at Drake Stadium here tonight as Amy Begley and Galen Rupp both successfully defended their national 10,000m titles in tactical races.  On a comfortably warm and moderately humid night, both athletes used superior closing speed in the final lap to secure their victories for coach Alberto Salazar.

For Begley, 32, a Beijing Olympian at 10,000m, her victory was bittersweet.  With 16 laps to go in the 25-lap race, she latched onto the back of NCAA 10,000m champion Lisa Koll, an Iowa native, who pushed to the lead and brought the small crowd to their feet.  And there Begley would stay, lap after lap, as Koll churned out steady 76 and 77-second circuits.

“I’m usually the one who leads and people sit on me,” Begley told reporters after the race.  ”Alberto told me just to wait until 800 to go.  But, I feel really guilty doing that.  I mean, I’m ten years older than Lisa.  I feel so bad doing that for 25 laps.”

Each time Koll came down the homestretch with Begley in tow, the crowd would cheer for the Iowa State star, something which Koll said made a big difference in her performance.

“The crowd was awesome,” Koll said after the race.  ”I walked out, and I walked down the backstretch and I could hear everyone just like, ‘Go Lisa, go Iowa State!’  When I came down the front, there was like a roar.  There’s nothing like that to pump you up.”

Koll knew that she couldn’t outkick the faster Begley, so she began to pick up the pace with three laps to go. She ran 74.8 seconds, then 72.9 for the penultimate lap, but she could not shake Begley.  With about 500 meters to go, Begley surged to the lead to take the bell, and within a few strides she had a big gap on Koll.  The former Arkansas Razorback ran her last loop in 65.2 seconds to win in a stadium record 32:06.45.

“This race was all about how fast I could go the last lap,” Begley explained.  ”To compete at the world level, they close in 56.”  She added: “Right now my goal is to get closer and closer to 60 seconds.”

Koll, who clocked 32:11.72, was satisfied with her runner-up finish in what would probably be her last race in Iowa until, perhaps, next year’s Drake Relays.  ”I knew she was going to be there at the end,” Koll said of Begley.  ”I think anybody who’s done a lot of races, who’s seen a lot of races, knows that she’s really great.  I knew that she was going to be feeling good.”

Rupp’s race was similar to Begley’s, but was a painfully slow affair in the early laps.  The first kilometer was passed in only 3:06.7, and halfway in only 14:57.5.

“You never know in championship races,” Rupp said with a chuckle about the slow pace.  ”Last year when I was in the NCAA’s it kind of got me used to it, going out slow and just being ready for anything.”

Rupp stayed well back in the pack, and was in 17th place with 19 laps to go.  But the former Oregon Duck responded quickly when James Carney threw un a 62.9 second lap with 16 laps to go and took the lead.  Patrick Smyth, Ed Moran and Ryan Sheehan also covered the move, creating a small separation from the main field.

But the pace would soon sag and the field came back together, until Smyth ran a 66.2-second lap with six laps to go.  Smyth faded, leaving Moran on the lead who kept things in the 65 second range, dropping everyone but Rupp.

“I made some good decisions and put myself in good places and responded to all the moves,” Moran said of his strategy.

All but one.  With 600 meters to go, Rupp decided it was time to put the race away and quickly spurted ahead of Moran.  Running easily, he split the last 400 meters in 59.5 to secure the win in 28:59.29 to Moran’s 29:03.07.  Winning, Rupp said, was that tonight’s race was all about.

“It was like Al Davis said, ‘Just win, baby,’” Rupp said referring to the former American football coach.  ”That’s all we’re trying to do in these races.”

High schooler Emily Sisson has had a whirlwind of a senior year.  The 18 year-old from Chesterfield, Mo., has endured a series of ups and downs in her final year as prep athlete.  But despite the challenges, the diminutive distance runner always seems to take the bumps in stride, stays positive, and keeps smiling brightly.  And nothing could make her smile more than her win today in the 3000m at the USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.

Outkicking Oregon All-American Jordan Hasay by .19 seconds down the blue homestretch at Drake Stadium, Sisson earned a national championship title and a berth on team USA for the IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, next month.

Sitting in third through the 800m mark in 2:33, Sisson was biding her time behind New York state champion Aisling Cuffe, with Hasay, a University of Oregon freshman, in between the two.

As the widely favored Hasay took the lead at about the halfway mark, the pace quickened from 76 to 72 seconds per lap.  Sisson drew even with the six-time junior national champion with 200m to go, and never eased off the gas.  Matching Hasay stride for stride down the stretch, Sisson, eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, took the lead with only a meter or so left, mustering enough strength to reach the line first in a personal best time of 9:18.73. With the win, Sisson earned her second junior national title.

But before Sisson arrived on the start line in Des Moines, she had to travel quite a journey.  From Seattle to Boston, Europe to Washington, and many places in between, Sisson still managed to shine.

To begin 2010, Sisson earned a trip to the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, by placing second in the junior division of the USA Cross Country Championships in February.

Focusing on the World Championships, Sisson had a tough choice to make.  She wanted to run at the Nike Indoor Nationals in Boston as a final tune up before the trip to Poland.  But, the Missouri State High School Activities Association did not view the Nike Meet as a sanctioned event, because it is not a USATF-sponsored event and was being held before the official start of the track season.

“When I made [the USA Junior team] I realized that I needed to take a break after [the World Cross Country Championship], and I wanted to run Nike Indoors as a race gearing up for that event,” Sisson told Race Results Weekly.

After discussing the situation with coach Ryan Banta, Sisson felt her best option was to run at Nike Indoors, where the competition would be strong and the timing right, two weeks before World Cross.

Her decision, though, would come with a harsh penalty.  Running at a non-MSHSAA sanctioned event forced Sisson to give up her remaining eligibility for Parkway Central High School, putting her on the sidelines for her final high school outdoor season.  So, in what would be her final track season before moving on to the University of Wisconsin in the fall, Sisson would not be able to defend her state titles in the 1600m and 3200m.  But that wouldn’t deter her from running well at Nike Indoors and the World Cross Country Championships, nor the rest of her outdoor season.

After finishing second to Meghan Goethals by .07 seconds in a dramatic sprint finish at Nike Indoor Nationals, Sisson went on to finish 18th in Poland, the top finisher from the USA.  She finished the 6000m course in 20:08.

As Sisson told Race Results Weekly two weeks ago at the adidas Grand Prix in New York City, “it’s worked out, I’m very happy with my decision.”

But Sisson’s streak of fantastic races wasn’t about to end with the muddy finish line in Poland.

As she shifted her focus to the outdoor track, Sisson would have to find open races.  Her first stop was at the Kansas Relays, where she ran a 16:20.44 personal best for 5000m, dominating the competition which was comprised of collegians from around the Midwest. Wanting to see if she could run under 10:00 for 3200m, Sisson held a time trial in St. Louis, where she ran 9:51.1h.

To follow that up, she was selected to compete at the inaugural Jim Ryun Dream Mile in New York City during the adidas Grand Prix IAAF Diamond League Meet.  There, she ran a personal best of 4:44.02 to place fourth.

“It’s been going exactly how I hoped,” said Sisson of her season so far. “I was nervous coming in.  A lot of things happened my junior year, injury-wise, a lot of things that weren’t planned. Senior year everything has gone like I hoped it would.  It’s been amazing, I have been able to do a lot of cool things.  I feel really blessed getting to experience everything.”

Like a dream come true, everything has paid off for Sisson.  Now she can add today’s win to her list of accomplishments.  But, she is not done yet.

Set to run the 5000m junior race on Saturday, Sisson has her eyes on one last prize.  Forgoing the New Balance High School Nationals last week in order to prepare for the Junior National Championships, Sisson will be running against some of the same competition faced in the 3000m.  Cuffe, as well as Georgetown’s Emily Jones (who was a teammate to Sisson on the USA Junior World Cross Country team), will toe the line with her.

When the 5000m is over with, Sisson will have time to look back over her high school years, while looking ahead to her future at Wisconsin.  In typical Sisson fashion, she tries to look at the positive side of things.  Asked in New York what will stand out the most from her high school days, Sisson says she has too many great memories.  But all of the Foot Locker National Championships, as well as the trip to Poland for the World Cross Country Championships are most vivid in her mind.

“It would be really cool to make another team,” she said two weeks ago.

Now, Sisson she has made another national team, and has yet another memory for the vault.

Photo courtesy of Iowa State Athletics Department

Fresh off of her victories at the NCAA Championships at both 5000m and 10,000m, Iowa State’s Lisa Koll has made her first move towards turning pro, signing a management contract with Peter Stubbs Management (PSM) of San Francisco, Calif.  The 22 year-old Iowa native from Fort Dodge told Race Results Weekly last Friday in a telephone interview that she felt very comfortable with her decision and was looking forward to racing the 10,000m at this week’s USA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines.

“He came really prepared,” Koll said via cell phone of PSM associate Dan Lilot who flew to Ames to meet with her.  ”I was extremely naive to the situation, and he came with all kinds of examples of paperwork.  We kind of sat down and he told me how the process would go.  He really impressed me with his whole presentation and the comfort level I had with him.  He really impressed me.”

Koll came to Iowa State a diamond in the rough.  She had only finished eighth at her state high school cross country meet in 2004, and redshirted her 2005 indoor and 2006 outdoor track seasons.  Under coach Corey Ihmels, Koll made steady improvements through hard work and a disciplined approach.  From 2007 to 2010 she dropped her 5000m personal best by about a minute to 15:17.76 and her 10,000m best by some four minutes to 31:18.07, the fastest ever by a collegian in the NCAA system.

“I think anytime you have someone who does what Lisa has done this last year, especially with her humble beginnings, people kind of think all of a sudden she got really good,” explained Coach Ihmels in a telephone interview.  ”She’s worked really hard over these years.  It just didn’t happen.  She had to make it happen.”

Koll became visible on a national level in 2008 as a sophomore when she clocked 32:11.13 at the Stanford Invitational, setting a then American collegiate best for the distance.  She went on to win the NCAA 10,000m title that year and placed eighth in the USA Olympic Trials at the same distance.  In 2009 she won the Big 12 5000m and 10,000m titles, despite suffering from a back injury which forced her to miss several weeks of training in the spring.  She rebounded to enjoy a truly memorable senior year, winning three out of the five NCAA distance titles available (she won the 5000m titles both indoors and outdoors and the 10,000m, while taking second at 3000m indoors and finishing 12th at cross country last November).

“She’s had her ups and downs, but probably more ups than downs,” Coach Ihmels explained.  ”She’s just one of those Midwest kids who came in and wanted to get better.”  He added: “She’s very smart, rolled with the punches and came out the other end a better person.  She’s been very easy to coach.  Great athletes make good coaches.”

Great athletes also make great management clients, and Peter Stubbs and his team were predictably happy to have landed Koll.  ”The PSM team is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with an athlete –and person– like Lisa,” Stubbs said in a prepared statement.  ”She excels at everything she does, and we look forward to helping her reach even greater levels of excellence.”

Stubbs said that Koll had not yet been signed to a shoe company, but that he would “aggressively market Lisa to potential sponsors” and was looking forward to “finalizing a partnership for her shortly.”

Koll said that she was ready for the move to the professional ranks, and that she planned to stay in Iowa for the immediate future under Coach Ihmels.  ”I’m really excited about it,” she said of her professional career.  ”I guess I don’t really look at it as being nervous.  I’m just continuing what I love doing.  I don’t want to look at it any different than I have over the last five years.  Now I’ll have the time to work on it that I didn’t have before.  I’m going to dedicate myself 100% to it.”

Koll has the second fastest qualifying mark for Thursday night’s national championship 10,000m race behind only Olympian Amy Begley, and has a good chance of making the podium.  Coach Ihmels said that he’ll be there to support her in Thursday’s race and beyond.

“Obviously, she’s embarking on a whole new realm of possibilities,” he concluded.  ”Obviously, I’m going to do everything I can to help her make that next jump, whatever that is.  I’m probably never ever going to (be able to) repay her for what she’s done for our university and this program.”