Quite the set of races up in Boston that included a world record form .... a team I didn't even know would be featured in the race! The late entry squad of Richard Jones, David Torrence, Duane Soloman and Erik Sowinski jumped in as the USA All-Stars and stole the world record right out from under the other squads in the race. It took a big time anchor leg by Sowinski and NJ-NY anchor Mike Rutt (ran a pair of 1:46s on back to back days) to get it home in quite the exciting finish. Both of the top two teams were under the old world record.
Splits that I have found:
Richard Jones 1:51.00
David Torrence 1:47.46
Duane Soloman 1:48.60
Erik Sowinski 1:46.66
7:13.11
Kyle Merber 1:49.69
Brian Gagnon 1:48.60
Robby Andrews 1:48.29
Mike Rutt 1:46.60
7:13.22
Matt Sherer 1:54.66
Cas Loxsom 1:47.04
Mark Wizzo 1:47.47
Nick Symmonds 1:49.37
7:18.52
The last squad, the Brooks Beasts, ran Matt Sherer on the lead off in his first 800m race since 2010! It ended up costing them as the best rabbit in the world did just that for 400m before falling off the pace big time. Loxsom actually did an incredible job through 600m getting the team back in the race, but faded a bit. Soloman and Andrews let Wizzo get it kinda close, but Symmonds was about 2.5 seconds back when he got the stick. Sowinski and Rutt got out hard enough that it was just a coast job for Symmonds the rest of the way.
NJ-NY basically had a time trail for the 4 spots on the A team the night before and Merbz dropped a 1:47.9 which got him upgraded. Pretty fast PR for him. Rutt ran strong and Gagnon followed, both under 1:47 with Andrews running what I believe is an indoor PB at 1:47.0x. That may have taken a little extra pop out of their legs that allowed Sowinski to edge Rutt to the line.
In other news, Rupp gets a DNF. Hopefully that is precautionary and nothing too serious. In the same race Nick Willis dropped the hammer on the field rolling home in 3:57 after a 2:04ish opening 800m. Dang that guy is fit. Certainly a favorite at Millrose coming up.
Meanwhile Ryan Hill dropped a monster 3k mark against two of the best 5k runners in the history of the world. He was a close third to Dejen Gebremeskel (2nd) and Hagos Gebrewheit (1st) running 7:34.87 to make him the 3rd fastest American indoors at that distance ... ever. He is only behind Bernard Lagat and Galen Rupp on that list. Not too bad of company ....
Garrett Heath continues to run strong with a 7:37 for 4th. He has put together a nice start to his indoor campaign as well.
Jenny Simpson was a lap miscounting away from a possible American record at 2 miles. She ran 8:44 through 3k though, which means she is clearly in great shape. Gave Defar a nice run for her money in the event.
Meanwhile, Mary Cain continued to grab headlines as she lowered her own world junior record by a fantastic 4 seconds. Cain's time of 2:35.80 is blazing for 1k and is much faster than I can run. Which is awkward. PA's own Chanelle Price dipped down to 2:36 in the 1k which is a fantastic race for her as she tries to take the next step to join the US's elite 800m women.
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