by Alex Lohr

FULL RESULTS

A crisp night in Occidental California brought some hot early season times and P.R.s for  the US Mid Distance crew and really zapped some excitement into the track world as we move towards USA’s. 

Watch more video of Occidental Oxy High Performance Meet 2011 on flotrack.org

Womens Steeple : Lisa Aguilera took 1st in the 3k steeple, and just missed out on the “A standard with a 9:43.95. The former American record holder looked smooth as she sat on Sara Hall until the final 800 and beat the rest of the field by almost 4 seconds.

Womens 800 : A stacked race came down to a lean at the line, with Alice Schmidt  edging out Maggie Vessey in 1:59:48. Both Schmidt and Vessey snuck under the “A” standard. Geena Gall rounded out the top 3 and was just off her PR with a 2:00.86. Jenny Simpson ran a smart race as she sat on the back of the pack through 500m and then brought it home in a PR 2:01.2, good enough for 5th and a new PR.

Mens 800 : Maybe the most exciting race of the night.  Corey Primm of UCLA (ran unattached) threw down the fastest 800 run by a collegiate since 1996!  Primm kicked with 200 meters to go and held off a late charge by OTC’s Tyler Mulder who also crushed his former PR of 1:45.73 with a 1:44.83. Primm is coached by legendary 800 AR holder Johnny Gray and his collegiate time is top 5 all-time. David Torrence continued his busy spring by taking 3rd in 1:45.43, just off his PR he set in Monaco last summer.

Women 1500 : Katie Follet continues to blossom in her first season of post collegiate running, as she P.R.ed with a winning time of 4:07.44 . Phoebe Wright joined the PR party as she crushed her former mark of 4:13 and grabbed 3rd place in 4:08.6.



Mens 1500 :  In a race rabbited by Olympic Silver Medalist Nick Willis, Andrew Wheating effortlessly cruised through the first 1350m of the race and threw down a classic Wheating kick, taking the heat in 3:36.46. Kyle Miller of Austin Track Club blasted his former PR 3:41 and took 2nd in 3:36.82. Although not happy with his rabbit/roommate/training partner, Will Leer also joined the Oxy PR club by running a 3:37.01, good enough for 5th place just behind Lopez Lomong and Canadian Nate Brannan.