Millrose Games Entries

Here are some things I picked out of the early Millrose entries
http://s3.amazonaws.com/armory-public-files/2014-nyrr-millrose-games-entries.pdf

First off they have a club DMR race which should be kinda cool. NJNY is trotting out their 'B' squad guys who may not be big names but they do feature recognizable names (especially for PA guys) like Trevor VanAckeren and Sadiki White (NJNY A) and Nick Crits and Wayne Bartholomew both formerly of LaSalle (NJNY B). Also Haverford College and Bonner High School alumn Andrew Golato is on a Garden State TC squad. It will be interesting to see what kind of 400m legs each of these squads have considering that must of these club squads are distance centric and a 400 is really stretching some of these guys speed. Sadiki can probably run something pretty nice and he looks to be slated to be his team's 400 man.

PA's Christian Brissett of Cheltenham (repping SOL American) is in the 55 as PA's lone representative in the event.

I'll be very excited to hopefully catch the Men's 4x800m race at the Millrose games. The top teams in the race appear to be:
Duke (featuring PA's Kyle Moran, Alec Kunzweiler and Nate McClafferty)
Penn (featuring Mato Bekelja and Drew Magaha)
Villanova (featuring Chris Fitzsimmons, a 1:47 high school split to his name, Josh Lampron who has run down around 4 flat in the mile, Ben Malone, a stud kicker and freshman from New Jersey, and Mike Palmisano former Princeton runner and PA state champ who recently ran about 4:08 for 1600m split at PSU).

You can probably tell from my lengthy explanation of who is on which relay that I think Nova has the legs to take down a title in this race. The somewhat humorous part is that is likely their B team when you consider Jordy Williamysz, Sam McEntee (I think he has eligibility left?) and Sam Ellison are just watching court side.

I'm not usually into the 60m hurdles, but Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee, two top flight decathletes are battling Andrew Riley (former NCAA 110 hurdles and 100m not hurdles champion in the same year which is pretty sick) and Terrence Trammell. I'm a big Eaton fan so I will be pulling for him in this spot, although it is likely that he won't be quite as ready to run fast as the other guys who train exclusively for hurdles.

Worth noting, Ashton's new wife and medalist at the world championships in the hep, Brianna Theisen (Eaton) will be also contesting the 60m hurdles.

The women's 3k should be really fun to watch, even though it has slipped under the radar as a marquee event thanks to all the record buzz from Cain and Symmonds. The race features stud collegian Abby D'Agostino, who is the best up and coming 5k girl in the US fresh off her first sub 4:30 mile against Kim Conley who is coming off a strong showing in the mile this year (4:24!) which shows she is not ready to relinquish her top spot among US 5k women just yet. These two along with Betsy Saina, Ashley Higginson and Sara Hall should set things up for a nice assault on an all time type mark. Abby eyes another Simpson based college record (8:42.03) while Conley will chase a sub 8:40 mark, which only three US women have done indoors.

The men's 60m dash features some big names: Ryan Baily, Marvin Bracy, D'Angelo Cherry, Amer Webb and Isiah Young. Absolutely stacked field.

Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee will continue their workout later on in the meet in the pole vault against Brad Walker.

The elite man will contest a 300m dash, not oft contested, that will include Wallace Spearmon (current US #1 in the 200m) against Manteo Mitchell, better known as the guy who put the team on his back running the 4x4 with a broken leg though.

Here is another race that may have caught your attention: the 2000m! How about this for a field: Evan Jager, Donn Cabral, Patrick MacGregor, Bernard Lagat, Dan Huling, Andrew Bumbalough, Travis Mahoney, and David Torrence. This race features the last 3 Olympic steeplechasers from the US, super miler Bernard Lagat and David Torrence who has recently lowered his PR to 3:33.23 in the 1500m! That may give him the fastest 1500m mark out of anyone in this field over the last 5 years or so. Lagat is certainly an expert tactician but is his speed finally going to go? Jager ran about 3:58 last weekend, but can he bounce back and get a strong 2k mark in over a field of guys with solid kicks? I feel like somehow Lagat is going to find a way to pull this out. I don't really want to see it, but something tells me it will happen. Either that or a huge upset from MacGregor.

PA's Tony Russell is the lone boy in the Millrose field for the mile. Should be fun to see how he competes. PA has four girls competing in the event including footlocker national champion Tessa Barrett who is actually the slowest qualifier out of our girls. Kennedy Weisner leads the charge.

The women finally get a Wannamaker mile type headliner at Millrose with a field that includes multiple time US champ Morgan Uceny, Sarah Brown, recent grad and NCAA champ Emma Coburn (won the mile indoors, but is primarily a steeplechaser), super kickers Emily Lipari and Cory McGee, and reigning US champ Treniere Moser.

And oh yeah, perhaps the two greatest high school girls of all time: Mary Cain and Alexa Efraimson. Alexa made huge headlines when she dropped the 3k record down to 9:00.16! As a high school junior herself! She will continue to try and be absolutely Cain like as she travels across the country to try her hand at the mile. Cain has been no slouch herself, coming off a blazing 4:24.11 mark where she ran away from a great field and just missed the World Junior Record in the mile. The WORLD junior RECORD. But hey, Cain is going to have her hands full in this race. Coburn and Moser aren't messing around and Lipari and McGee have kicks that may be able to match Cain's.

But I'm buying in to the Cain hype hard core. I got her for the win and the world junior record. Efraimson still has to prove to me she is on Cain level, but she probably will drop at least a 4:35 which is solid for a high school junior. And super impressive for a high school junior girl.

But that mile race may not even be the best race of the day if you can believe that. The 1k has a phenomenal field which includes France's Pierre Ambrose Bosse who is one of the best young up and coming 800m men in the world. He will look for some revenge against Silver medalist and meet headliner Nick Symmonds, who recently ran 1:48 with his Brooks Beast squad mates in an open 800m in Charlotte. He will be making a world record attempt in the 4x8 before then and look to continue his momentum into the 1k in a chase for the American record. 2:17.86 is the mark to beat in this one.

Symmonds will be toed around the track by his trusty rabbit Matt Sherer who should help get them around the track in record pace. After Sherer's job is done Symmonds will be racing guys like Erik Sowinski, Mike Rutt, Tyler Mulder and Robby Andrews. Mulder has the 1:44 low PR in the 8. Sowinski boasts of an AR in the 600m and fantastic closing speed. Rutt has quietly been a strong and consistent 800m guy who just had a solid mile not too long ago at the armory. He will also be coming off that 4x8 looking for revenge. And of course Robby Andrews the streaky fire ball with a PR of 2:17.90 indoors last year, just off the US record.

Honestly, I think this record should come down, assuming they keep it reasonably honest. This mark isn't particularly scary, I just don't think anyone has taken a real shot at it. If Robby keeps his head in it, this has always been his event to lose, but I think Symmonds is going to come ready to play and represent the beasts to the tune of a kicking win over Mulder. But certainly don't sleep on Mike Rutt. One of these top tier pro races will feature a stunning upset. In this race the guy I see doing it is Rutt.

Women's 800m has got Ajee Wilson going after the WJR in the 800m and her first sub 2 mark indoors. She had a huge year last year that included a world championship final and a variety of sub 2 minute performances. She is a fantastic talent at such a young age and once cheered for my good friend Alex Weiner at a track meet. I run in his spikes now a days. Ajee runs faster than me at 800m. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, so I'm going to just move on.

The Men's Mile! It is always a great event and it features guys like Miles Batty, Kirubel Erassa, Nate Brannen, Brian Gagnon, Lawi Lalang, Will Leer, Leo Manzano, Cam Levins, Craig Miller, Austin Mudd, Chris O'Hare, Alan Webb and Nick Willis! So yeah I basically just listed the entire field besides John Gregorek of Columbia (rabbiting?)

This race is really cool because there is so much depth and talent. I got Nick Willis winning because he has been on a hot streak for some time now, but my #2 is Lawi. Lawi is coming off a 7:44 3k in dominating fashion which is just nuts. Manzano is never one to sleep on but he hasn't been relevant in a non-world championship qualifying race is a while. Austin Mudd is a sleeper if he can hold on to what is sure to be a blazing pace and kick. Chris O'Hare and Miles Batty have both set NCAA records on this track for the indoor mile in this race each of the last two years. I wouldn't be surprised if Lawi drops it down even farther this year, but that doesn't mean Batty and O'Hare aren't sleepers here.

And lastly, brief shout out to the boys from State College, Penncrest, and Henderson for punching your ticket to Millrose! Not 100% positive how Henderson got in there but great news for them! We will see what their 4x8 can do without Russell. State College is the best team from PA in this race as far as I can tell and maybe can even mix it up for a win! Should be cool to see!

(Small editors note here, Genezebe Dibaba of Ethiopia has run 8:16.60 and 3:55.17 in the past two weeks to set world indoor records in both the indoor 3k and 1500 for woman. Holy mother of pearl that is fast ... she won't be at Millrose but I figured it would still be worth mentioning)