Olympic Trials Women’s 1500 — Hiltz MR Leads PR Parade

NIKKI HILTZ ANTICIPATED a hot 1500 and a barn burner it was. The World Indoor silver medalist knew where the competition would come from, with Elle St. Pierre fresh off her Trials victory in the 5000 and a slew of others champing at the bit.

Hiltz, who had a 3:59.61 PR, would have to contend with fellow sub-4 performers St. Pierre, 5K runner-up Elise Cranny, Addy Wiley, Heather MacLean, Emily Mackay and Sinclaire Johnson, with Cory McGee, Helen Schlachtenhaufen, and Dani Jones on the sub-4 cusp, with Maggi Congdon and Christina Aragon rounding out the competition.

As if on cue, St. Pierre bolted to the front at the gun, taking the field through 300 in 45.04 and 400 in 61.19, followed by Johnson, Jones, Hiltz and Cranny.

St. Pierre covered 800 in 2:05.55 (64.36), with the top 3 remaining the same and Cranny replacing Hiltz for 4th.

The sizzling pace did not let up as St. Pierre led Johnson, MacLean, Mackay, Hiltz and Jones to the bell. At 1200 Hiltz moved into 3rd, but was soon passed by Mackay.

With 200 to go New Balance teammates St. Pierre, Mackay and MacLean led the charge as Hiltz waited patiently to make their move — a last-half-lap charge that by now is expected. Some 150 out Hiltz passed a fading MacLean and had their sights set on the leaders.

Entering the homestretch Hiltz moved to lane 2, gritted their teeth and powered forward to the line. Hiltz, Mackay and St. Pierre were even with 50 to go before Hiltz found another gear to make it to the finish in a Trials record 3:55.33, followed by Mackay (3:55.90) and St. Pierre (3:55.99).

The top 8 all set PR as Johnson (3:56.75) finished 4th for the second consecutive time at the Trials, followed by McGee (3:57.44), Cranny (3:57.87), MacLean (3:58.31) and Schlachtenhaufen (3:59.71).

A jubilant Hiltz praised St. Pierre, telling NBC’s Lewis Johnson, “Elle St. Pierre has elevated women’s distance running. I saw the time, and I didn’t think that was possible. We all had to rise because of her. Awesome team we’re sending to Paris.”

They would later say, “Elle just pulled us all to an incredible time. I thought I was in maybe 3:57 shape. I think it’s a really good sign that when you taper, yeah, you can drop time.”

Mackay admitted, “I was just running for my life for the last 200m. I wasn’t thinking too much about who was around me. I knew Nikki was…