Compelling Races For Third Place In USATF 10,000m Championships Generate Drama On First Day Of Prefontaine Classic

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

EUGENE -- On a night when the U.S. selected its 10,000-meter athletes for the upcoming World Athletics Championships, it was the races for third place that were the most compelling Friday at Hayward Field. 

In the women's national championship 10,000 meters, Olympians Karissa Schweizer and Alicia Monson ran out ahead of everyone and demonstrated their dominance on the way to a return to the U.S. team. 

Forty seconds behind them, Natosha Rogers and Emily Infeld flew into the home straight side by side and fought tooth and nail for the one remaining spot. 

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Rogers had enough of a final burst to pull it out, by less than a quarter second, 31:29.80 to 31:30.04. 

Rogers, 31, finished second at the 2012 Olympic Trials and was unable to advance to the London Games because she lacked the qualifying standard. Ten years later, she made her first U.S. team. 

"With 100 to go, Emily Infeld came up on me and almost got me, but I was able to hold her off, but I really had to dig deep there," Rogers said. "In my head I was like, 'Nope, this is mine today.'"

Infeld, like Rogers, felt content to run in the second pack and try to kick for the win. At 32, Infeld has been through a lot since making three consecutive U.S. teams from 2015-17, including three troubling years when she was harassed by a stalker. 

"It was just tough," Infeld said of the outcome. "I thought I had it with 100 to go. I thought I was in good position and Natosha has a phenomenal kick. I gave it everything I had."

In a slow men's race, Grant Fisher likened it to "Ninety-six hundred meters of fartlek and 400 meters of sprint."

Fisher and Bowerman Track Club teammates Lopez Lomong, Woody Kincaid and Sean McGorty went in with the gameplan of expending the least energy possible until the end. Kincaid, an Olympian last year, dropped out of the race.

Joe Klecker got the jump on Fisher and won the last lap, winning the U.S. title by a tenth of a second over the American record holder. 

Behind them, it appeared that Emmanuel Bor was poised to get third. He swerved to his right to shield the onrushing McGorty and fell to the track a few meters before the finish line. 

McGorty, who picked up the 10,000 as a new event after undergoing Achilles' tendon surgery last year, made his first U.S. team. 

"I just tried to keep my eyes up and channel my inner 400-meter runner," said McGorty, who dabbled in the 3,000-meter steeplechase last year before his injury. 

McGorty and Fisher were Stanford teammates. In fact, McGorty hosted Fisher's campus visit when he was a prized high school recruit. 

"Such a tough guy on the team," Fisher said of McGorty. "A year ago he was steeplechasing to try to get on the team. One year later on the 10K team, so pretty cool."

None of the three world-record attempts that followed came to fruition, although Francine Nyonsaba came close to take down the women's 2-mile record, missing it by less than a second. 

Nyonsaba ran near the world-record indicator lights but couldn't hold onto them late and finished in 8:59.08. 

The converted 800-meter runner from Burundi settled for No. 2 all-time behind Meseret Defar's 8:58.58, and also owns the No. 3 spot from a win at last year's Pre. 

The paces in the two 5,000-meter races fell off, despite cool temperatures and dry conditions. A breeze on the backstretch caused Joshua Cheptegei to abandon the record attempt 1,000 meters into is race. 

He still won in 12:57.99, a world-leading time in 2022. 

Ejgayehu Taye ran past her Ethiopian teammate and world-record holder Letesenbet Gidey in the women's 5,000 meters and and ran 14:12.98 to rise a spot to No. 5 all-time in the event. Gidey was second in 14:24.59. 

In the field events, which were moved out of Saturday's schedule due to forecasted rain, Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh won the Diamond League women's high jump with a world-leading clearance of 2.00m. The World Indoor champion wore yellow-and-blue eyeliner and a pin in the shape of her war-torn country. 

Armand Duplantis of Sweden took three solid attempts at 6.07m (19-11) on the way to winning the men's pole vault to collect a Diamond League win. His highest made bar was 5.91m. Chris Nilsen of the U.S. finished second and Sondre Guttormsen of Norway tied his national record (5.81m) for third.

Valarie Allman had the three longest throws of the women's discus competition and won it with 68.35m.