2013 USA Indoor Track and Field Meet – Day 1 Mid-d and Distance Recap – Chelsea Reilly and Will Leer Win 3k Titles

By LetsRun.com
March 2, 2013

Editor’s Note: Employee 1.1 planned on being in Albuquerque to cover the 2013 USA indoor meet but a broken down car and the inability to rent a car even though he presented a scanned copy of his actual license, his expired license, a credit card and a college ID have kept him from the meet. So unless someone from Flagstaff wants to let him borrow their car, we’ll be covering USATF indoors remotely.

The highlight on Saturday was Jenn Suhr’s world record in the pole vault. (Article here, video of world record here).

Below we have the mid-d and distance highlights from Saturday.

On Sunday, the meet will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network (which is different than NBC) live from 4-6pm ET.

*2013 USA Indoor Meet Results/Schedule/Homepage

Women’s 3000: What a Finish: Chelsea Reilly is a national champ in a Nascar Finish

Lisa Uhl Flying Off the Track

The breakthrough season of former Cal runner Chelsea Reilly continued as she held off the woman who we thought was going to be the winner, Emily Infeld, as well as 2012 US Olympian and 4-time NCAA champ Lisa Uhl in a dramatic finish that left Uhl and Reilly sprawled out on the ground.

Reilly took the lead on just before the bell. She led around the final turn with Infeld trying to pass on the outside and Uhl a step behind on the rail. Uhl made one final push the final straight and moved ahead of Infeld and was gaining on Reilly. The only problem was there was nowhere for Uhl to go as Reilly was right in front of her and Infeld to her outside, and Reilly was smart enough to not abandon lane one like so many race leaders. That didn’t stop Uhl who bumped Reilly from behind. The end result was almost a disaster.  After the bump, Uhl ended up pushing/shoving Reilly across the finish line and Reilly got the win before she tumbled to the track. Uhl however got the worst of it as she first fell back to third and then flew head first off the track and into the electronic scoreboard. She ended up with a visible shiner on her face.

Despite all the chaos, Reilly’s final 200 was a quick 30.42, just enough to be called national champion. Pretty impressive for someone who didn’t score at NCAAs last year for Cal.

LRC Analysis: Having watched the race replay, we definitely don’t think Uhl tried to do anything dirty. We actually think she realized just before contact with Reilly that she  had no where to go and was trying to pull her hands up to pull up a bit.

If you are a coach, you need to show this race replay to your athlete as Reilly is a national champion because she did something so many race leaders don’t do – she didn’t abandon lane one. So many runners, even when ahead, finish by habit in lane two and it’s a horrible habbit because it gives room for third or fourth placer to move up in lane one. A race leader should move the middle/outside of lane one and then stay there. It’s ideal as it falsely gives hope to those in third or fourth that the rail might open up and takes them out of the race.

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A mega congrats to Chelsea Reilly. Many runners who don’t score at NCAAs as seniors, as was the case with Reilly last year at Cal, just abandon the sport. She didn’t and now she’s a national champ.

Lisa Uhl displaying a shiner after falling at the end of the 2013 USA Indoor 3000 race.

Lisa Uhl doing a face plant into the scoreboard at the 2013 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships

Chelsea Reilly (c.) running expertly down the middle/outside of lane one.

A happy Chelsea Reilly after winning the 2013 USA Indoor Track and Field Championship 3000

The crazy last lap of 3000m:

Men’s 3000: Will Leer Absolutely Dominates

With only four competitors in the race, the men’s 3000 was on paper likely to be a forgettable event. Additonally, given the recent form of Will Leer, we expected him to run away with it and he did just that. Leer sat in second for the entire first 12 laps, just behind Ben Bruce, before taking the lead before two laps to go and going on to win by nearly 9 seconds.

In our preview, we said that we thought that the 8:19 steepler Bruce wouldn’t have the finishing speed (3:45 1,500 pb) to match up with Leer (3:36 1,500 pb) at the end and that’s exactly how this played out.

Leer is also scheduled to run the mile final on Sunday.

3k Highlights

Women’s 800: Ajee Wilson and Katherine Mackey Win Their Heats

The women’s 800 was basically just a formality today as the field was only reduced from 7 to 6. 2012 world junior champ Ajee Wilson, who is the favorite in many people’s minds, led from start to finish in heat 1.

In heat 2, 2012 Olympic Trials 1,500 finallist Katherine Mackey got the win. Makey has a pb of 2:02.23 so she could contend in the final. This was was a lot better than the 2:05 she ran on Feb.9th in her only result on the year that we are aware of.

Men’s 800: Wieczorek Goes Home Early|

Will Robby Andrews get another come from behind victory in Sunday’s final like he did at the 2010 NCAA indoor meet?

The big news in the the men’s 800 was that  2012 Olympic Trials finalist Mark Wieczorek was sent home early in heat 2 as Robby Andrews did he normal come from behing thing, going from last to first on the last lap to get the win.

Other than Wieczorek, the big names all adanced to the final and the final including newly minted American 600 meter record holder Erik Sowinski, 2012 US Trials 5th placer Tyler Mulder and 2011 Olympic 1,500 bronze medallist Matt Centrowitz,who is a bit overmatched at the shorter 800 distance but could fare better in the final as day 2 benefits the strength runners. (That is if Centro just doesn’t run the mile final on Sunday which is 48 minutes after the 800 final).