As Many as Six Collegiate Stars Could Break Mile and 1500m Records

NEW YORK, January 12, 2012 - Six talented collegiate middle distance runners will compete in the NYRR Wanamaker Mile and NYRR Wanamaker Metric Mile for Women at the 105th Millrose Games with the goal of breaking the collegiate records for their respective distances. The meet is scheduled to take place at the Armory's New Balance Track & Field Center Saturday, February 11.

In the NYRR Wanamaker Mile - the first to be contested on a fast 200-meter Mondo track - Brigham Young's Miles Batty and Tulsa's Chris O'Hare will lead the charge to surpass German Fernandez's collegiate record of 3:55.02 set in College Station, Texas, in 2009. Batty, 24, the reigning NCAA indoor champion at the mile, has a personal best of 3:55.79.

``It is a great honor to be invited to participate in the Wanamaker Mile as part of the Millrose Games,'' Batty said. ``There has always been a lot of tradition associated with the Millrose Games and I'm proud to be a part of Wanamaker Mile as it takes a new direction in the Armory.

``As I planned for my indoor track season, one of my goals was to make an attempt at the collegiate record for the indoor mile but I knew it would require being in the right race at the right meet.  I believe that the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games will provide the ideal opportunity for an attempt at the collegiate record.''

O'Hare, 21, who hails from Edinburgh, Scotland, and has a career best time of 3:56.48, was the runner-up to Batty at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships this year. Like Batty, he'll be making his Millrose Games debut.

``It is very exciting knowing that the collegiate record is up for grabs but it will require a 'Braveheart' performance in order to achieve the mark,'' O'Hare said.  ``A lot more than talent and good training goes into breaking such a prestigious record.''

Kyle Merber (right) of Columbia University and Half Hallow Hills on Long Island. Merber won the boys' high school mile event in the 2008 Millrose Games. He will try to be the first to ever win the Millrose boys' mile and Wanamaker Mile.  

Photo courtesy of Dan Grossman/Maple Leaf Photos.

Bernard Lagat owns the Wanamaker Mile record with a 3:52.87 in 2005, overtaking Eamonn Coghlan's 3:53.0 mark set in 1981.

Also entered in the Wanamaker Mile from the collegiate ranks are two New Yorkers: Erik Van Ingen of SUNY Binghamton, and Kyle Merber of Columbia University. Van Ingen, 22, from Upstate Marathon, N.Y., finished sixth at the NCAA championships last year at 1500m (fifth in the indoor mile), and has a mile personal best of 3:57.11. He'll be making his Millrose Games debut. Merber, 21, the 2010 HEPS 1500m champion who attended Half Hollow Hills High School on Long Island, has already tasted Millrose Games success; he won the meet's High School Mile in 2008. Merber has a personal best of 3:58.52, and will also be running his first Wanamaker Mile.

Silas Kisorio, the 2011 NAIA 800m and 1500m champion from Oklahoma Christian University, will be in the hunt as well. His personal best in the mile is 3:56.64.

In the NYRR Wanamaker Metric Mile for Women, SUNY Stony Brook's Lucy Van Dalen has a very good chance to break Tina Krebs's collegiate record of 4:10.20 set all the way back in 1985. Van Dalen, the runner-up at last year's NCAA Division I Championships at 1500m who grew up in Wanganui, New Zealand, has a 1500m personal best of 4:11.59.

"I have watched the Millrose Games as a spectator for the past few years so to be running in the 1500m this year is very exciting for me,'' Van Dalen said. ``The Millrose Games is such a prestigious event and I feel honored to be able to participate it in. I feel that my training is going very well at the moment as I prepare for the NCAA Championships, so depending on how the race develops at Millrose, I feel that I will be prepared to run well."

This year marks the inaugural NYRR Women's Wanamaker Metric Mile.

MORE ABOUT THE 105th MILLROSE GAMES: The country's top men's and women's track & field athletes along with the finest college and high school student-athletes will showcase their talents in the Millrose Games at the Armory.

The Armory previously announced 22-year-old Matthew Centrowitz, the 1500m Bronze medal winner in the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, will be in this year's NYRR Wanamaker Mile. Other celebrated track & field representatives confirmed for the Millrose Games include 2008 Olympic Gold Medal winner LaShawn Merritt, who will compete in the 500m event, and eight-time Wanamaker Mile champion Bernard Lagat will be running in the 5000m.

Contender for a Olympic Gold medal and current Outdoor High Jump World Champion Jesse Williams joins 2008 Olympic Gold medalist Allyson Felix and World Champion/2008 USA Olympian Jennifer Simpson as confirmed athletes in the nation's premier indoor track & field event. Felix will compete in the Women's 60m event and Simpson will participate in the Millrose Games' first New York Road Runners' Wanamaker Metric Mile for Women.

Seven-time Wanamaker Mile champion and ``Chairman of the Boards'' Eamonn Coghlan returns to be part of the this year's Millrose Games. Coghlan will be the honorary coach of Ireland's ``Dream Team'' to compete in the Byron Dyce College Men's Distance Medley Relay against national college power Villanova, coached by five-time Wanamaker Mile champion Marcus O'Sullivan of Ireland, and Virginia, Duke, Providence, Columbia and Albany.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.armorytrack.com. Click on to Millrose Games for more information, including ticket prices and seating chart. Note: there is an 8 ticket limit for online sales. For group sales of more than 8 tickets please call the Group Sales at (818) 276-6790 (818-ARMORY-0).

For more information on the Millrose Games, click to www.millrose-games.org.