Men's Pre-Nationals Race Summaries

A perfect day for racing meant fast times and intense competition, as most of the nationally ranked men's teams came together in Terre Haute, Indiana to take part at Pre-Nationals Saturday.  Heading into the weekend Colorado and Oklahoma State were strongly favored, but by the end of the day new twists and turns led to impressive victories for Alabama and Stanford, while Sam Chelanga of Liberty ran perhaps the best performance seen all season up to this point.

Men's Blue Race

Race Results: Team / Individual

Tyson David of Alabama pulled away to win the men's blue race (Tim O'Dowd)

As the teams lined up to kick-off the blue race, onlookers saw an absence of Oklahoma State star German Fernandez on the starting line.  In face, the Cowboys seemed to line up their "B" squad, as Colby Lowe and John Kosgei were missing from the box as well.  Earlier in the week coach Dave Smith reported that all three would be running and he'd sit the other four members of their top seven.  Turns out the talented trio would be running the open race, not the Blue Race.

That strategy changed the dynamics completely, with Alabama taking control early after NC State's Bobby Mack and John Martinez took out the race and led for the first 2k.  At 2k the pack rolled up on the Wolfpack runners and the official 2k team scoring had Michigan ahead with 122 points, with Cal second with 135 points and Alabama third with 142. 

From there Alabama took charge.  The squads talented trio of Emmanuel Bor, Tyson David and Augustus Maiyo ran relaxed in the front pack, which consisted of Syracuse's Brad Miller, Patrick Smyth of Notre Dame, Northern Arizona's David McNeill and Minnesota's Hassan Mead among others.  At the 5k Miller led, but the pack of ten continued to run strong.

Into the last loop the runners went, with Mead and David pulling away in the final 1,000m and establishing themselves as the finish line approached.  Into the final run the runners went, with David pulling slightly ahead with 400m to go and never looking back, as he crossed the finish line in 23:30.1.  A late charging David McNeill came close to upsetting David, crossing the line second in 23:30.7, while Mead finished third in 23:33.1.

As the final team scores were announced, Alabama rose their hands in victory with 89 points.  With David scoring one point and Maiyo and Bor finishing fifth and ninth respectively, Alabama was simply too tough up top to beat.  The key for the squads victory came from fifth runner Andrew Kirwa, who placed 43rd overall.  Earlier in the season at the Bill Dellinger Invitational, Kirwa was absent and the squad placed third overall dispite placing four in the top eleven.  On Saturday Kirwa's performance was ever vital as their sixth runner finished back in 148th place.

Northern Arizona placed second, scoring 113 points.  McNeill's performance was made even more impressive in that it was his first real test of the year, while teammate Ben Ashkettle opened his season with an 11th place effort.  Morten Bostrom also had a good day by finishing 18th, while the team's depth showed by placing all seven runners in the top 70.

Michigan came up with a strong performance as well with their third place, 146 point run.  Despite front runner Lex Williams finishing as their fifth runner in 50th, the squad placed two runners in the top 14 and ran a 52 second split from 1-7.  Florida State placed fourth with 212 points despite their top runner Luke Gunn not racing.  Gunn was considered one of the pre-race favorites to win the race individually, but sat out.  The team scored a strong 28 second 1-5 split that helped them beat teams like Minnesota (5th, 234 points), William & Mary (6th, 242 points) and Cal Poly (7th, 273 points).

Men's White Race

Race Results: Team / Individual

Sam Chelanga of Liberty never looked back as he won the men's white race (Tim O'Dowd)

From the gun, Liberty's Sam Chelanga wanted to make a statement.  The course record in Terre Haute was set a year prior by his ex-teammate Josh McDougal, who later went on to win the NCAA individual title.  Chelanga took off and set a torrid pace as he crossed the first mile mark in 4:16.  Spectators stood in disbelief, knowing full well that they were witnessing something truly remarkable.

Coming up to the 2k, Chelanga was a full 15 seconds ahead of McDougal's record setting pace, crossing the mark in 5:43, while he crossed the 4k split 30 seconds up on the record.  Running in front of the crowd as he came down the long home stretch at the 5k mark, Chelanga crossed the 5k timing pad with a 14:12 time, 34 seconds up on the chase pack.

Stride for stride Chelanga's lead grew and as he came into the final stretch of the race everyone was cheering wildly.  Chelanga cruised into the finishing chute 44 seconds up on his nearest competitor, smashing the course record with his 22:51 performance, while leaping and pumping his first in victory as he ran across the finish.  What an amazing performance!

Behind Chelanga a great race took place.  Stanford got out to a fast start, putting five in the top ten at the 2k mark.  Their strategy was to get out fast and they seemed relaxed and running strong through the first half of the race.  At 4k the chase pack caught Iona's Andrew Ledwith and Auburn's Elkanah Kibet, who both went out with the intentions of chaing Chelanga and giving him a run, soon realizing that they simply couldn't match stride with the Liberty runner.

As the last straight came into the sight, the kick to the finish became fierce, with a large group of runners all charging hard to finish second.  Auburn's Felix Kibioywo finished second in 23:35, while Stanford's Garrett Heath and Chris Derrick finished third and fourth respectively in 23:36 and 23:37.  Auburn freshman Girma Mesecho finished a stride behind Derrick in 23:37.5.

In the team scoring it was fairly easy to call Stanford the victor before the team scores were released.  The Cardinal placed their 1-5 in the top 33, with Elliott Heath, Hakon DeVries and Jake Riley rounding out the top five in 12th, 25th, and 33rd.  The squad made a strong statement, proving they were the best team in Terre Haut this weekend.

Iona had a strong showing as well.  The squad's top four finished between 9-18, while fifth runner Jason Weller placed 65th.  The Gaels finished second to Stanford 77-123, while showing that they will be a contender for a team trophy once again come November.  Ledwith closed well in ninth place, while Harbert Okuti and Mohamed Khadraoui jump started their season with 15th and 16th place finishes respectively.

BYU placed third overall with 154 points, using a nice 26 second split to upset a few squads.  Auburn ran behind a talented trio of runners, all finishing in the top eleven, and giving them 194 points, while UCLA exceeded expectations by finishing fifth with 196 points. 

The surprise of the day was the ninth place showing of Colorado.  While the Buffaloes generally start the season slowly and build towards nationals, the team showed they have a lot of work to do if they hope to trophy once again.  Jordan Kyle ran well for the Buffaloes by finishing seventh overall, but front runners Chris Pannone, Kenyon Neuman and Richard Medina finished 36th, 54th and 59th overall, all looking a bit sluggish.  Coach Mark Wetmore knows how to get his troops ready, but they have a long ways to go if they hope to repeat their typical success in Terre Haute in November.

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