Violah Lagat Will Make The Payton 1500m Hot
Violah Lagat Will Make The Payton 1500m Hot
Preview of the women's 1500m at the 2017 Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford University
The 2017 Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford University is poised to be the leading NCAA meet so far this season. Watch the action live on FloTrack next Friday, May 5, from 4 PM PT to midnight PT here, view the entries here, check out the schedule here, and stay tuned to FloTrack for more event previews as we inch closer to the date that it's all going down!
Worlds standard: 4:07.5
USAs standard: 4:09.5
Who: Kaela Edwards, Brie Felnagle, Gabriele Grunewald, Therese Haiss, Nikki Hiltz, Lauren Johnson, Violah Lagat, Emily Lipari, Karisa Nelson, Marta Pen Freitas
When: 7:53 PM PT (Heat 1)
Why: Violah Lagat of Kenya headlines this field. Bernard's 28-year-old sister advanced to the semifinal round the 1500m in Rio last summer and was one spot away from advancing to her first Olympic final. She owns a 1500m PB of 4:04.10, set in Lignano in 2015, and most recently won the Carlsbad 5K in 15:35 over fellow Olympians Shannon Rowbury, Aisha Praught Leer, Dom Scott-Efurd, and Brenda Martinez.
Violah Lagat after her Carlsbad 5K victory:
A few other women in the field have run below 4:10: Marta Freitas, the 2016 NCAA 1500m champion for Mississippi State, ran 4:06.54 last summer to represent Portugal at the Rio Games; 29-year-old Lauren Johnson, who represented the United States at the 2015 World Championships and that year set her PB of 4:04.17 and now represents the B.A.A.; 30-year-old Brie Felnagle, the 2007 NCAA 1500m champion whose PB of 4:05.64 dates back to the 2013 but who set an indoor mile PB of 4:27.27 this January shortly after joining the NorCal Distance Project; and Gabriele Grunewald, who was fourth in the 1500m at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials and ran her PB of 4:01.48 a year later in Monaco.
Grunewald is not only the most consistent runner in the field -- she's dipped under 4:10 22 times since 2011 -- but also the most resilient. The Brooks athlete has been beaten cancer three times in the past eight years and was recently diagnosed with the disease for the fourth time.
On the collegiate side, Karisa Nelson is out to prove that her indoor mile NCAA title, which made her Samford University's first-ever NCAA DI champion in any sport, was no fluke. She opened the outdoor season with a 2:07.14 800m PB and 4:17.2 1500m win at Auburn; that 1500m time is actually only two seconds off her all-time PB, though her 4:31.24 indoor mile PB converts to 4:11.22.
Nelson has an All-American battle on her hands with the likes of Oklahoma State's Kaela Edwards, the 2016 NCAA indoor mile champion, and Savannah Camacho, who recently set a 4:14 PB at the Bryan Clay Invitational, as well as Arkansas' deadly duo, Therese Haiss and Nikki Hiltz, who set PBs of 4:16.55 and 4:12.71 at Bryan Clay.
Payon Jordan competitors Nikki Hiltz, Therese Haiss and Savanna Camacho set all-time PBs at the Bryan Clay Invitational:
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Women's 1500m
Worlds standard: 4:07.5
USAs standard: 4:09.5
Who: Kaela Edwards, Brie Felnagle, Gabriele Grunewald, Therese Haiss, Nikki Hiltz, Lauren Johnson, Violah Lagat, Emily Lipari, Karisa Nelson, Marta Pen Freitas
When: 7:53 PM PT (Heat 1)
Why: Violah Lagat of Kenya headlines this field. Bernard's 28-year-old sister advanced to the semifinal round the 1500m in Rio last summer and was one spot away from advancing to her first Olympic final. She owns a 1500m PB of 4:04.10, set in Lignano in 2015, and most recently won the Carlsbad 5K in 15:35 over fellow Olympians Shannon Rowbury, Aisha Praught Leer, Dom Scott-Efurd, and Brenda Martinez.
Violah Lagat after her Carlsbad 5K victory:
A few other women in the field have run below 4:10: Marta Freitas, the 2016 NCAA 1500m champion for Mississippi State, ran 4:06.54 last summer to represent Portugal at the Rio Games; 29-year-old Lauren Johnson, who represented the United States at the 2015 World Championships and that year set her PB of 4:04.17 and now represents the B.A.A.; 30-year-old Brie Felnagle, the 2007 NCAA 1500m champion whose PB of 4:05.64 dates back to the 2013 but who set an indoor mile PB of 4:27.27 this January shortly after joining the NorCal Distance Project; and Gabriele Grunewald, who was fourth in the 1500m at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials and ran her PB of 4:01.48 a year later in Monaco.
Grunewald is not only the most consistent runner in the field -- she's dipped under 4:10 22 times since 2011 -- but also the most resilient. The Brooks athlete has been beaten cancer three times in the past eight years and was recently diagnosed with the disease for the fourth time.
On the collegiate side, Karisa Nelson is out to prove that her indoor mile NCAA title, which made her Samford University's first-ever NCAA DI champion in any sport, was no fluke. She opened the outdoor season with a 2:07.14 800m PB and 4:17.2 1500m win at Auburn; that 1500m time is actually only two seconds off her all-time PB, though her 4:31.24 indoor mile PB converts to 4:11.22.
Nelson has an All-American battle on her hands with the likes of Oklahoma State's Kaela Edwards, the 2016 NCAA indoor mile champion, and Savannah Camacho, who recently set a 4:14 PB at the Bryan Clay Invitational, as well as Arkansas' deadly duo, Therese Haiss and Nikki Hiltz, who set PBs of 4:16.55 and 4:12.71 at Bryan Clay.
Payon Jordan competitors Nikki Hiltz, Therese Haiss and Savanna Camacho set all-time PBs at the Bryan Clay Invitational:
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