By Chris Chavez
June 5, 2023
The Portland Track Festival took place this past weekend at Mt. Hood Community College.
Here’s what you need to know from the men's 1500m, which was the best race of the meet:
– Puma Elite’s Amon Kemboi won the men’s 1500m in 3:34.12 to lead nine men under 3:36. Kemboi closed in 56.40s for the final 400m.
– U.S. Olympic Trials champion Cole Hocker had his best race in a while and closed hard (55.14s for the final lap – the fastest in the field by far) to move from 12th place at the bell to second at the finish line in 3:34.14. This was his first race since January after dealing with Achilles issues.
– You can find the full results here.
Quick Thoughts:
– As Kyle wrote in last week’s edition of The Lap Count, the men’s 1500m is shaping up to be a great race at the U.S. Championships. Yared Nuguse, Hobbs Kessler, Cooper Teare and Cole Hocker have posted the fastest times of the year and have run under the world championship qualifying standard of 3:34.20, but there are a slew of guys knocking on the door right behind them.
– Last year, Hocker was eliminated in the first round of the U.S. Championships after dealing with a foot injury. It was massively disappointing for the United States to be without its sixth-place Olympic finalist at the first-ever World Championships on home soil but he’s young and there are many more teams for him to make in his career, barring injury. (Hocker turns 22 on Tuesday.) Sunday night’s race was a major step forward after not racing for four months.
– Johnny Gregorek and Sam Prakel have been racing often this spring and managed to put together season’s bests of 3:34.35 and 3:34.63, respectively, behind Hocker.
– Amon Kemboi continues to make progress under coaches Alistair and Amy Cragg. He has now run a 1500m personal best of 3:34.12 for 1500m and 13:18.53 for the 5000m this outdoor season. Kemboi now has the World Championship qualifying mark. However, Kenya currently has five other men who have run faster in 2023.
What Hocker said afterward:
Cole Hocker: “I’m extremely happy with that. Coming out here today, I just wanted to race. It was my first time racing since January. It was my third time spiking up since January. I really just wanted to hang onto those guys and see what I could do. A mental goal for today was to dip under 3:39 and I would be happy with that as a start. 3:34 is very reassuring. Just knowing where I’m at with fitness, just gives me a lot of confidence. I haven’t had that much confidence in the past four months.”
“I haven’t felt like my old self in quite some time – that goes with the kick as well. Today was just back in that racing atmosphere where I thrive. As nervous as I was to get back in with really talented guys, I think that’s what pushed me to feel like my old self again.”
“The goals stay the same: USA champ and world champion as well. It’s been the goal since turning pro. Haven’t forgotten it.”
"As long as I can stay consistent, I trust in my coach and my training. I know if I can keep consistency, I’m going to be the best that I can be and I think I’m one of the best in the world."
Other Races:
– Nia Akins beat Raevyn Rogers 1:59.37 to 2:00.20 in the women’s 800m. Akins closed hard on the inside in the final 100m for a 61.04s final lap. The women’s 800m at the U.S. Championships is starting to get a bit interesting.
“The goal was to just kind of show up, check off the box and take care of business to get the opener out of the way,” Akins said. “I have never broken 2:00 as an opener so I’m really excited about that.”
Ajee’ Wilson is displaying her usual level of consistency with three wins in three outdoor 800m races this season and a season’s best of 1:59.01. Athing Mu has yet to race but has her spot assured for the world championships as the defending champion. (Coach Bobby Kersee says that she may run the 1500m at the U.S. Championships.) Rogers has made every world championship and Olympic team since 2019 and won both of her previous 800m this season before Sunday.
Last year, we dubbed Mu-Wilson-Rogers as “The Big Three” since all have medaled at indoor or outdoor world championships but this could be the year that we see someone like Akins or Sage Hurta (2:00.62 SB from Rabat) infiltrate the top three.
– Josh Kerr, Devin Dixon and Isaiah Harris put together a Brooks Beasts 1-2-3 in the men’s 800 meters. Kerr won in 1:46.619 – just 0.101 seconds ahead of Dixon (1:46.720) and Isaiah Harris (1:46.907). World Indoor silver medalist Noah Kibet was seventh in 1:47.95.
“To be a really good 1500m runner, across the board, you have to be speedy enough at 800m, which is shown by current world champion Jake Wightman and you have to be strong enough over 5000m, which is shown by the rest of the guys,” Kerr said. “I’m trying to do a little bit of both and hopefully that means I can run a really fast 1500m.”
Kerr shared that he will be in the Oslo Diamond League men’s 1500m.
– Helen Schlachtenhaufen won the women’s 1500m in 4:05.67 in her first race since becoming a member of Empire Elite, where she is coached by Tommy Nohilly and John Trautmann.
– PUMA Elite’s Taylor Werner put together the best race of her pro career with a 15:03.13 personal best and the win in the women’s 5000m. That’s the fifth-fastest American women’s 5000m performance of the season. Teammate Natosha Rogers, who qualified for last year’s world championships, finished second in 15:10.17.
– Northern Arizona Elite’s Olin Hacker managed to squeak out a tiny personal best with his 13:19.28 win in the men’s 5000m.
– Colleen Quigley won the women’s steeplechase in 9:32.48. It was her first steeplechase win since the 2018 ISTAF Berlin meet when she ran 9:10.27.
– Benard Keter, last year's U.S. Championships third place finisher, ran a season's best of 8:22.97 to win the men's steeplechase.
– Athanas Kioko, who recently signed with On, won the men’s 10,000m in 27:29.82 – just shy of his personal best of 27:23.84 from March. In that same race, Crater High School senior Tyrone Gorze (a Washington commit) finished ninth in 29:00.17. That’s the fastest high school 10,000m in 47 years and moves him up to No. 3 on the all-time high school list. Rudy Chapa holds the record with a 28:32.7 from 1976 and let Gorze borrow his high school singlet for Saturday night’s race.
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.
