Distance Gala Weekly

March 15 – March 21

Mid-to-late March is an interesting time of year.  While the indoor national championship events are over, a few states still host indoor meets, while outdoors kicks-off everywhere else.  In this week’s Distance Gala Weekly, we break down the top five distance performances of the week and preview the Team USA junior squads for the World Cross Country Championships.

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The Top Five

Indoors or outdoors, it didn’t matter, some tremendous performances were posted over the past weekend.  Ranging from a variety of geographic areas, this week’s Top Five is diverse and impressive, as always.

5. West Ranch (CA) & Dana Hills (CA) – With the California track season really starting to heat up, many of the top teams in the state took part in the California Relays over the weekend.  While there were many highlights, the best two performances came in the distance medley relay.  West Ranch H.S. won the girls DMR in a new outdoor US#1 mark of 12:03.81, while Dana Hills H.S. won the boys event in a US#1 time of 10:16.81.

4. Alana Hadley (NC) – Perhaps the most remarkable performance of the weekend didn’t even come from a high school runner.  North Carolina sensation Alana Hadley, who’s only 13 years old, placed second at the Wake Forest Open in the 5,000m run, crossing the finish line in a remarkable 17:09.38.  Hadley is a tremendous talent in our sport and it will be exciting this spring to see what she can accomplish on the track.  For a great article on Hadley, click HERE.

3. Brookwood (GA) – Similar to out west, the track season is still young in Georgia.  However, that hasn’t slowed down the distance runners in the state from putting up some great marks.  One of the best performances nationally this weekend came at the Coaches Invitational.  Brookwood H.S., who qualified for NXN this past fall, won the boys 4x1,600m relay in an outstanding time of 17:20.26.  The squad’s splits: Jackson Wearn 4:22.1, Sean Brennan 4:25.9, Tyler Anyan 4:16.2 and John Hewitt 4:16.1.

2. Hannah Neczypor (Jr., North Royalton, OH) – Despite winning by over 30 seconds, Hannah Neczypor ran one of the fastest 3,200m performances this indoor season at the Ohio State T&F Championships on Saturday.  The junior standout led from start to finish, crossing the finish line in a US#4 time of 10:33.63.

1. Colby Alexander (Sr., Strongsville, OH) – What an indoor season it’s been for Alexander.  Meet after meet he’s seemingly lowered his times for the mile and 1,600m.  On Saturday, Alexander did it again, this time running a new US#1 mark for 1,600m, winning the event at the Ohio State T&F Championships in a meet record time of 4:09.53.  After going for the win and finishing third at Nike Indoor Nationals last weekend, this was certainly the way to close out his final indoor season.

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World Cross Country Championships Preview

A trio of top prep stars travel to Poland this week, taking part in the World Cross Country Championships.  Emily Sisson (Sr., Parkway Central, MO), Ammar Moussa (Jr., Arcadia, CA) and Walter Schafer (Sr., Cherry Creek, CO) are looking to make a splash for Team USA, hoping to guide their junior squads to successful performances against some of the world’s best harriers.

Sisson, who last week placed an extremely close second to Foot Locker champion Megan Goethals (MI) at the NIN two-mile, running one of the fastest two-mile times ever indoors in 10:10.21, looks to join U.S. teammate Shelby Greany (Providence College) up front, pushing for a very high finish.  Sisson’s run the 10:10.21 and a 9:25.70 3,000m performance earlier in the indoor season, both indications that she’s ready to do some amazing things next weekend in Poland.

On the junior men’s side, Moussa and Schafer look to earn international experience, especially after some strong warm-up races the past two weeks.  Moussa recently won the 3,200m event at the Irvine Invitational in a very respectable 9:14.20, while Schafer won the ThunderRidge Invitational 1,600m event in 4:15.68 at altitude.  Both runners look to run strong races in the wet conditions, while former prep standout Trevor Dunbar (University of Portland) leads the U.S. junior men’s team.

USATF Preview / Team USA Roster

Interviews: Emily Sisson / Walter Schafer / Ammar Moussa

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Articles of Interest

Team USA Set for World XC Championships (USATF)

Ritzenhein Blog: Marathon Experiments (Competitor)

A Brief Chat with Jason Lehmkuhle (Runner’s World)

Mo Trafeh: On the Roads for a Sponsor (Running Times)

Profile Piece on Anthony Famiglietti (NYRR)

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