Who's #1: Bromell, Houlihan Make An Impression

Who's #1: Bromell, Houlihan Make An Impression

Mar 31, 2015 by Meg Bellino
Who's #1: Bromell, Houlihan Make An Impression


2015 Outdoor Premiere of Who's #1:


Texas Relays Madness
The Texas A&M boys traveled down the road to Austin to take down the 4x100 and 4x400 fields at the prestigious Texas Relays. The ran NCAA No. 1 marks of 38.91 and 3:02.19. No rest for the NCAA relay champions, apparently, as the Aggies stole the show. The biggest let-down? The Florida Gators. Absent from the 4x1, one would think the 4x4 would be a much closer match-up between the Aggies and Gators, but alas, it was not. The Gators finished fourth in 3:05.26, behind A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor. This was the same meet last year that saw the Gators and Aggies running the No. 4 and 5 all-time NCAA outdoor marks in the 4x1, so what was different this year? The Aggies are on another level.

Other notable performances from Austin include the Texas Longhorn women running an NCAA No. 1 3:29.65, becoming the first women’s team under 3:30 this outdoor season. Kansas senior Michael Stigler ran 48.44 to win the 400 hurdles, just outside the NCAA all-time top 10 list. Baylor’s Trayvon Bromell continued to steamroll over the competition, running 10.02 in the prelim and 9.90 (wind-aided) in the 100m final. #Blessed

Desert Dwellers Don’t Disappoint
The Pac-12/Big 10 Challenge was an excellent meet between Arizona State, Arizona, UCLA, Michigan, Indiana, and Nebraska. 2014 NCAA 1500m Champion Shelby Houlihan ran NCAA No. 1 4:14.35, taking down last year’s fifth-place finisher Brook Handler of Michigan. Arizona’s Collins Kibet won the 800m in a blazing 1:46.87, almost a 2 second personal best for the sophomore brother of Elvin Kibet. Coach James Li, who was busy coaching Team USA at World XC in China, has to be happy with that mark.

Wesley Frazier? She’s baaaaaaack!
Remember when Wesley Frazier was a high school senior in 2013? She won just about every major high school championship, including the adidas Dream Mile, and the outdoor mile, two mile, and 5000m in 2013, the first female to win all three. Frazier joined Hannah and Hailey Meier at Duke where they were hyped as one of the best freshman classes in history. Then, nothing. Frazier ran three XC races in 2014 but hasn’t done anything worth mentioning on the track. For someone who broke 16 minutes for 5000m in high school, this was disappointing. But never fear! She’s back! At the Raleigh Relays, Frazier ran 15:45, running as “Unattached-NC State.” So word is now out that Frazier transferred and will be joined by her superstar little sister Ryen Frazier next fall. Also impressive is the fact that Frazier led two other Wolfpack women under 16:00, with Samantha George (15:51.74) and Erika Kemp (15:57.84) following Frazier’s lead. NC State could be a team to watch come cross country season…

Meanwhile in Jamaica…
At the Jamaican High School Champs, Akeem Bloomfield made history by being the youngest under-18 competitor to break 45 seconds in the 400m, running 44.93. What? He’s not even the fastest world junior in the event this season (18-year-old Abdalelah Haroun of Qatar ran 44.68 the week before), but he’s No. 13 all-time in the world. Impressive. Caliber High School also impressed with relays wins, going 39.08 in the 4x1 and 3:06.76 in the 4x4. These are high school kids! Look out for some of these teams to travel to the Penn Relays and go against the U.S.’s best.

USA Cross Disappoints
For a full recap here. But basically Team USA did not live up to their high expectations. On paper, Chris Derrick looked to be one of the hottest competitors in the field. He led the U.S. team, finishing 24th, but still this seventh-place finish was no where near their medal winning 2013 showing. I think one of the biggest takeaways from this race was Sara Hall’s 20th-place performance. Hall lead the U.S. Team, which is outstanding considering she just ran the LA Marathon on March 15th.

Carlsbad Heatin’ Up
It was the first year on a new elite course, due to the course being too short in 2014, and it had an affect on the runners. Genzebe Dibaba finished just two seconds off of the road 5k world record, winning the “World’s Fastest 5k” in 14:48.
U.S. favorite Brenda Martinez unfortunately dropped out due to illness, so the Top American prize went to middle-distance stud Sarah Brown. On the men’s side, it was a Tucson training showcase. Lawi Lalang won the race in 13:32. Teammate Bernard Lagat finished third in 13:40, another master’s record for the ageless wonder, and Sam Chelanga was fourth in 13:50. Diego Estrada was the top American, running 13:56 to finish sixth.