VERONA, WISCONSIN, November 23 — Although winning an NCAA championship for the first time is pretty darn memorable, the second is doubtless oh-so-much better.
Just ask Graham Blanks or Ed Eyestone, who were very happy men late Saturday morning after the Harvard senior gutted out another individual title and the BYU coach watched his team get out fast, build a huge lead and then hang on for its second title in 6 years.
Harvard’s Blanks had every meter of the 10,000 on the Zimmer course etched in his brain by plotting it beforehand on an app, not to mention racing on it four previous times; so he just knew intuitively when to make his ultimately decisive move.
That seemingly sudden burst with just over 1K remaining propelled the Georgia native into a quick lead over New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel that he gradually lengthened on the long uphill climb to the finish before he crossed in a course record 28:37.2. It was more than enough to hold off Samuel (28:38.9), who ran the second 5K with his left foot shoeless and bloodied by spike wounds but still gutted his way to the line.
It was a repeat of last year’s race in which Blanks and Samuel went 1-2 and Blanks became the first Harvard man — indeed, the first Ivy Leaguer — to win a hill-and-dale crown. But it was a reversal of the Pre-Nats meet results from 5 weeks earlier on the same course, albeit over the shorter 8K route. Then, Samuel defeated Blanks in the Harvard senior’s debut in the former’s self-described “rust-buster” following some downtime after his 9th in the Olympic 5K. Blanks now is the 14th man to win multiple titles (and 13th to successfully defend a title).
As Blanks emphasized post-race, it was an incredibly talented field and he was effusive in praising his rivals. Unheralded Furman senior Dylan Schubert was aiming for a top 10 finish but hung in with the leaders and surprised even himself with his 3rd in 28:39.6. Yaseen Abdalla of Arkansas was 4th (28:41.5) and Brian Musau of Oklahoma State 5th in 28:44.9. Bolstering Blanks’s view, the rest of the top 20 was a virtual who’s who of college distance excellence, with, for example, the likes of BYU’s Casey Clinger in 6th, North Carolina’s Parker Wolfe and Ethan Strand in 7th and 8th, Villanova’s Liam Murphy in 9th…
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