Olympic Development Additional Preview

By Caleb Gatchell

So, the Olympic Development mile at Penn Relays actually looks pretty stacked this year. We’ve got names like Steve Mangan, Daniel Winn, Nick Happe, Reed Connor, and Coby Horowitz, just to mention a few. We also have PA product Owen Dawson in the field. Last year we saw Thomas Awad take Mike Rutt down in a thrilling finish, and I’m hoping we have something similar this year as well.

Probably the biggest name in the race this year is the Oregon Duck, Daniel Winn. He’s been on a roll starting with indoors this year, running 3:57 and 3:58 on his way to ultimately finishing 6th at NCAA’s. He has only raced once outdoors so far, but that was a pretty solid 3:45.68 1500 at Oregon Relays. I don’t think Oregon’s coming all the way across the U.S. to fool around, so I’m expecting a big time from Winn, especially since he should have some good competition. 

Reed Connor is a name that really intrigues me. The former Wisconsin Badger is now a part of NJNYTC and to be completely honest, I’m a little surprised to see him in the mile. He was a quite accomplished middle distance runner his first couple years of college, but then transitioned to the longer races, even running a few really good 10k’s his senior year. So, while he does have a very good 3:40.46 1500 pb, I’m not sure I trust him to be in great mile shape. That being said, talent is talent, so I would have to imagine he can run something pretty quick.

Nick Happe is name very similar to Daniel Winn in that I think we can be pretty confident he’s going to run something pretty quick. The former Arizona State and Notre Dame runner is in his first year of Post-Collegiate running and I’m sure he’s out to prove he belongs on this level. He does have the second best mile pb in the field with his 3:58.73, so I would expect him to be at the front. Hopefully we see something in the low-mid 3:58’s range from him.

Coby Horowitz is another guy in his first year of post-collegiate racing, and I’m sure the former D3 stud would love to prove he can hang with the best guys here. He’s entered unattached, so I’m guessing he is still looking for some type of sponsorship. This would be a great scene to make a convincing argument that he deserves one. 

A couple other names to keep your eyes on are Christian Gonzalez (3:59.98/1:47.49), Owen Dawson (3:59.74), and Steve Mangan (4:00.52) I think any one of these guys could round out the top five, and Christian Gonzalez could be very dangerous with that speed if the race is at all tactical. 

Winn-3:57.43
Happe-3:57.64
Horowitz-3:59.86
Connor-4:00.22
Dawson-4:00.35

The Olympic Development 3k Steeplechase isn’t a super intriguing race on paper, but there are a few names that I thought were fairly noteworthy. Sean Duncan is one of the intriguing factors, as he carries an 8:46 pb, but it is pretty old. It will be very interesting to see what kind of shape he is in this weekend. The next best pb in the field is an 8:51 and belongs to Kent Pecora. The final sub-9 is Paul Rupprecht who boasts an 8:59.Both of these guys have fairly old pb’s as well, but Rupprechtran some solid 3k’s indoors, and Pecora and Duncan both have a decent Steeple opener under their belts this year at the Sam Howell invite. After these three there is a slew of 9:02-9:10 guys that could all break out and run the race of their lives. However, nobody in that list had any times that jumped out at me. The name I really want to talk about though is Ryan Foster. Assuming this is the former Penn State runner, he was a great mid-D runner back in his day, but I’ve never seen any results for him longer than a 1500. I’ll be really interested to see what he does in his steeple debut. Also, Katleho Dyoyi should be mentioned just because he has an awesome name. Ultimately, there are enough people in this race that it should be a fun one, even if the time isn’t crazy fast. 

Duncan-9:01.4
Rupprecht-9:02.3
Pecora-9:03.
Josh Cox-9:06.3
Ryan Foster-9:10.4