NO SURPRISES. If one can sum up Yared Nuguse’s race plan for the 1500, that was it: make the pace so brutal that the only people in contention on the final stretch would be the real players.
For Hobbs Kessler, the plan was to stay on the outside shoulder of the leader throughout — no more getting trapped on the rail.
For defending champion Cole Hocker, it was all about winning.
The heats dawned with the news that ’16 Olympic champ Matthew Centrowitz had scratched, victim of a bad hamstring. Northern Arizona’s Colin Sahlman won the first in 3:38.67, coming out on top of a mad dash 5 lanes wide. In the second, Kessler rode on Nuguse’s shoulder before claiming the win in 3:37.50. In the third, Hocker sent a message with his front-running 3:34.54 — he was ready.
Saturday’s semis broke some hearts. Hocker won the first in 3:37.89, with notables including Sam Prakel, Luke Houser and John Reniewicki not making it. In the second it was again Nuguse and Kessler up front, only this time Nuguse made sure everyone knew he was ready, tying Centrowitz’s meet record of 3:34.09. Along the way, things got rough between Kessler and Sahlman. Kessler finished his 3:34.16 with a 54.19. Sahlman faded to a non-qualifying 11th.
The rounds proved accurate tea leaves for guessing how the final might be run. After the initial sorting-out, Nuguse went to the front with a 56.32, Kessler aggressively positioning himself on his shoulder, and Hocker in 4th behind unheralded Vince Ciattei. A lap later the front of the pack looked much the same, Nuguse leading through in 1:55.30.
Then the mile AR-holder went to a painful place. His 56.03 brought a 2:51.33 at 1200. Hocker passed Kessler and Nuguse midway down the backstretch. Already sprinting at full tilt, the others couldn’t match his speed. As Hocker sprinted toward the finish, Nuguse looked solid in 2nd. Kessler looked back, saw Ciattei, and found the gears to hold him off.
The clock told the story of why no dark horse could surprise the favorites on the stretch. The field had been absolutely thrashed. Hocker’s 3:30.59 PR destroyed the meet record. Nuguse, the architect of the pace, got a 3:30.86. And Kessler ran the fastest race of his life at 3:31.53. Ciattei’s 3:31.78 led a parade of major PRs: Nathan Green at 3:32.20, Henry Wynne at 3:32.94, NCAA champ Joe Waskom at 3:33.74, and Elliott…
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