By Chris Chavez
December 3, 2023
Harvard’s Graham Blanks, the 2023 NCAA cross country champion, broke the NCAA 5000m record with a 13:03.78 victory at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener at Boston University – just two weeks after his NCAA individual title.
Here’s what you need to know:
– The previous NCAA indoor record was 13:08.28 by Arizona’s Lawi Lalang in 2012. It must be noted that Lalang ran 13:00.95 in July 2013 at the Paris Diamond League while still representing Arizona.
– The outdoor record is 13:06.32 set by Northern Arizona’s Adbihamid Nur in 2022.
– Blanks also managed to get under the 2024 Olympic qualifying standard of 13:05 to join Grant Fisher and Sean McGorty as the only American men to get under the time qualifying mark.
– Stanford’s Ky Robinson, the 2023 NCAA 5000m and 10,000m champion, helped push the pace once the pacers dropped out of the race. Blanks made his move with two laps to go and closed in 57.04 for his final 400m. Robinson finished second in 13:06.42 to get under the previous collegiate record but just shy of the Olympic standard.
– Coming into the race, Blanks’ previous personal best was 13:18.45.
Here’s what he said after the race:
Blanks: "My big goal was 13:05 or under because I knew that was the Olympic standard. The level of competition here, it’s not that far-fetched. The race is going to pick up. I was happy with it, I thought I could do it.”
Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
