USA Championship 10,000 meter preview

[Sasha Pachev]

Tonight is the 10,000 meter final in the USA Championship. You can see the discussion + start list at

http://www.letsrun.com/2009/men0624.php

For those who are lazy, here is the list:

1  David Jankowski                  Hansons-Brooks     28:55.68       
  2  Edward Moran                     Nike               27:52.10       
  3  Jeremy Johnson                   Team Indiana/Brk   28:33.08       
  4  Michael Krisch                   Georgetown         28:58.48       
  5  Mikhail Sayenko                  unattached         28:25.85       
  6  Stephen Haas                     Team Indiana/Brk   28:21.42       
  7  Lucas Meyer                      Boston A A         28:48.94       
  8  Scott Bauhs                      adidas             27:48.06       
  9  Galen Rupp                       Oregon             27:36.99       
 10  Seth Pilkington                  New Balance        28:25.56       
 11  Sean Houseworth                  unattached         28:33.71       
 12  Patrick Smyth                    unattached         28:25.85       
 13  Josh Rohatinsky                  Nike               27:54.00       
 14  Juan Carlos Trujillo             unattached         28:52.26       
 15  Dathan Ritzenhein                Nike               28:05.31       
 16  Tim Nelson                       Oregon TC El       27:36.99       
 17  James Strang                     Arkansas           28:29.27       
 18  Joshua Moen                      Team USA Min/Str   28:26.26       
 19  Abdi Abdirahman                  Nike               27:16.99       
 20  Edwardo Torres                   Reebok             28:16.87       
 21  Jorge Torres                     Reebok             27:46.33       
 22  Michael Kilburg                  Hansons-Brooks     28:20.57       
 23  Meb Keflezighi                   Nike               28:28.24       
 24  Luke Puskedra                    Oregon             28:34.17       
 25  Forest Braden                    Brooks I D         28:35.36       
 26  Louis Luchini                    Oregon TC El       28:26.61       
 27  Charlie Serrano                  unattached         28:39.77       
 28  James Carney                     New Balance        27:58.81       

I would like to point out that 4 out of 28 runners are originally from Utah: Josh Rohatinsky, Seth Pilkington, Patrick Smyth, and Luke Puskedra. That is 14% of the field. Not bad for a state that represents only 0.88% of the US population. Two of those runners (Patrick and Luke) have been coached by our lost sheep Bob Thompson and Mike Kirk. Kudos to them for discovering and developing the talent. Additionally, Mihkail Sayenko is a good friend of Sean Sundwall.

So I am excited to have five people in a race that big that I have enough of a connection with to want to cheer. Never thought something like this would happen since I hardly ever race out of Utah. Maybe Utah is slowly becoming next Oregon, who knows...

[jtshad]

David Jankowski is from Idaho Falls, ran at Oklahoma State and now runs for Brooks-Hanson.  I have run with kids from his HS alma mater (Skyline HS). 

[Michelle Lowry]

Will the race be streaming anywhere?  The lets run discussion didn't say.

[Steve P]

Not sure if you saw the race, but it was streaming from runnerspace.com and usatf.org. I am pretty sure they have archived videos of the races, too. I'm hoping they will do this for the whole meet.

[jtshad]

There is a link to the videos on USATF.org.  I watched the men's 10K, what a race...Galen Rupp just exploded in the last 500m, he is an incredible runner!

[Bonnie]

The women's 10K was pretty awesome too.

If you have 20 mins you should watch the mens 1500 semi's too ... it might turn out to be the most interesting of the meet ... lot's of guys (4 heats!!) only 2 can advance on the "sit and kick approach" per heat ... so some of these guys had to just take it fast from the start.  Very cool racing.

Dean I are were huddled around my laptop last night watching the races ... I love the internet!

[Burt McCumber]

Thanks a lot Jeff!   Next time put : **Spoiler Alert**  I haven't watched it yet!

[Michelle Lowry]

Oh my gosh just finished watching the women's 10k.  It was so awesome, esp after seeing the Olymic Trial race in 2008.

[Bonnie]

I agree Michelle, it was a good race and it is amazing how far Amy has come in a year!

[Michelle Lowry]

I think one of the flotrack announcers called her a relative unknown when she came to the Olympic Trials.  I want to be called an unknown by an announcer sometime.  But most likely I'll just stay unknown, but Amy sure helps me dream.  Last summer I watched a flotrack interview of her after she qualified, and she seems to be a good person, sweet and humble.  And I like the fact that a muscly woman beat the sinewy woman. 

[Bonnie]

Why you want someone like me (musculy) to beat you (sinewy)?   

I have high hopes for you Michelle, no pressure though!

[James]

I missed this on Thursday, but I just watched it.  It was a pretty cool race to watch, Galen Rupp has had a pretty outstanding year this year.

One of the lesser known runners in the field that I was surprised to see running was Forest Braden.  I went to high school with him up in Idaho, he graduated in 2002 the year before I did and then went on to run for Boise State.  I haven't heard much about him in a couple of years, but it's nice to see that he was still running.  A 10th place finish isn't bad either.