In a weird night of racing, the women went for it, the men left it too late, and I, for one, welcome Mary Cain as our new overlord. We were originally going to have just a crack recap of the whole meet, but then Bronxville junior Mary Cain altered reality (and the laws of the fourth dimension, but more on that in a bit) and made Olympic medalists, World Champions, and national record holders totally insignificant.

The Race

While Susan Kuijken and her training partner Zoe Buckman looked strong with 300m to go, it was Katie Mackey and a quiet Mary Cain who were about to make some noise.

In the final meters, Mackey and Nicole Sifuentes were stride for stride before Cain flew out into lane two and showed her normal finishing kick.

Except this closing speed wasn’t off the usual slow pace. It wasn’t even off a moderately fast pace.

It was IAAF “A” standard pace. Mackey, Cain, Sifuentes, and Sarah Brown all dipped under the 4:05.50 with Lulia Lucas (again) just on the outside looking in. While all of the focus may have been on the IAAF "A" standard, we can't forget that there was a collegian in the race, too.

@flotrack @emmajcoburn w/ the 5th fastest collegiate time ever

— Joe (@JoeBosshard) May 18, 2013

Speaking of the collegiate list, Mary Cain now only trails Jenny Simpson's 3:59.90 on the all-time NCAA list. More on the history behind her run below.

Cain had once again proved that the impossible was possible. Now she’s a contender for the U.S. Championship 1500m team.

Event 5  Women 1500 M Run
================================================================
        Meet: * 4:05.92  2012        Shannon Rowbury, Nike      
     Stadium: # 4:05.92  2012        Shannon Rowbury, Nike      
    Name                    Year Team                    Finals 
================================================================
Finals                                                          
  1 Mackey, Katie                Brooks                 4:04.60#
  2 Cain, Mary                   Unattached             4:04.62#
  3 Sifuentes, Nicole            Saucony                4:04.65#
  4 Brown, Sarah                 New Balance            4:05.27#
  5 Lucas, Julia                 Nike                   4:05.89#
  6 Buckman, Zoe                 Nike                   4:05.91#
  7 Kuijken, Susan               Nike                   4:06.59 
  8 Coburn, Emma                 Colorado               4:06.87 
  9 Conley, Kim                  New Balance            4:07.17 
 10 Tomlin, Renee                Nike                   4:08.09 

The Aftermath

Mackey’s been on fire all spring and she earned the $2,500 payday, but the story here is all Mary Cain. If there were any thoughts of her in any other singlet other than a Nike one, forget it.

Don’t forget - she’s a junior in high school and junior in status. While she ranks #18 all-time on the world junior 1500m list, she still has until December 31st, 2015 to make her way up towards the top. It goes without saying, but her 4:04.62 run is a new high school and U.S. junior record.

We no longer know what to expect from her. Ever since Cain’s first race of the indoor season at the University of Washington (9:02.10 for 3000m), we’ve been wondering when she would hit her ceiling. Even after the Drake Relays, where she rubbed elbows with the top Americans and took 6th in 4:10.77, we doubted that she could go any faster.

She didn’t just go faster. She changed the paradigm for herself, the 1500m, and the sport. Forget everything you knew about this special girl and just sit back, relax, and enjoy history in the making.

When we’ve asked about her racing strategy in the past, Cain has talked about not focusing on time, but place. The goal for the whole year is to get better at racing and hopefully fast times will come (they have). However, in the post-race interview at Oxy HP, Cain said that she didn’t worry about place or time; she was just running.

Nice job, Mary Cain - you’ve officially ruined the fourth dimension. That's the kind of answer from a stunned high school junior who's both exhausted and probably in awe of what she just did.



We’ll have more in the morning about Cain and the rest of the meet, but for now, we’ll leave the current world 1500m list and the all-time junior 1500m list is below

via tilastopaja
(Note: The database seems to be incorrect as it lists Nicole Sifuentes in front of Cain, but that's incorrect).

Current World 1500m List

Rank	Time	Name
1	3:56.60	Abeba Aregawi
2	3:56.98	Faith Kipyegon
3	3:57.54	Genezebe Dibaba
4	4:00.76	Viola Kibiwott
5	4:02.05	Eunice Sum
6	4:03.35	Jenny Simpson
7	4:03.56	Mary Kuria
8	4:03.92	Siham Hilali
9	4:04.60	Katie Mackey
10	4:04.62	Mary Cain
11	4:04.65	Nicole Sifuentes
12	4:04.86	Brenda Martinez
13	4:05.13	Betlhem Desalegn

All-Time World Junior 1500m List

Rank	Time	Name	Date
1	3:51.34	Lang Yinglai	10/18/97
2	3:53.91	Yin Lili	10/18/97
3	3:53.97	Lan Lixin	10/18/97
4	3:54.52	Zhang Ling	10/18/97
5	3:59.60	Gelete Burka	8/28/05
6	3:59.81	Wang Yuan	9/11/93
7	3:59.96	Zola Pieterse	8/30/85
8	4:00.05	Lu Yi	9/11/93
9	4:01.71	Li Ying	9/10/93
10	4:02.98	Kalkidan Gezanhegne	7/13/09
11	4:03.45	Anited Weyermann	7/3/96
12	4:03.82	Faith Kipyegon	5/19/2012
13	4:03.95	Tizita Bogale	7/22/11
14	4:03.96	Meskerem Legesse	5/24/03
15	4:04.00	Liu Qing	10/19/05
16	4:04.24	Nelya Neporadna	8/29/03
17	4:04.29	Naomi Mugo	7/3/96
18	4:04.42	Astrid Pfeiffer	6/25/83
19	4:04.62	Mary Cain	5/17/13
20	4:04.84	Li Jingnan	6/23/00

While we managed to get #OxyHP trending on Twitter (right next to Kanye West), we failed at trying to get the #marycain party going. We have to commend your efforts, so here are some quality #marycain tweets.


Tweets about "#marycain"