The #1 Recruit In The Land Signs With…… New Mexico??

Princeton’s Peter Callahan Will Run in Grad School For Joe Franklin and the New Mexico Lobos

by LetsRun.com
May 8, 2013

Editor’s note: Originally we were planning on putting this in our Weekly Recap but wanted to make sure we weren’t revealing anything that was supposed to be off the record. Now that we’ve got permission to run with it, here it is.

We don’t spend a whole lot of time at LetsRun.com on the high school ranks as most of the action at the high school level isn’t truly elite. However, this piece isn’t about a high school runner.

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Rather, the #1 recruit in the country in our mind is Princeton’s 3:58 miler Peter Callahan. The 2010 US junior champ, who anchored the Tigers to the DMR title indoors, missed outdoor track both in 2011 and 2012. Since the Ivy League doesn’t allow graduate students to compete, Callahan will be competing elsewhere next year and perhaps 2015 if he can get a 6th year from the NCAA.

Where is he going? To New Mexico to run for Joe Franklin, who guided Lee Emmanuel to two NCAA mile titles a few years ago.

Peter Callahan celebrates the Tigers DMR victory in March

Since he hadn’t run outdoors and didn’t show up at the Penn Relays, many had thought Callahan was on track to miss the 2013 campaign as well. However, Callahan surfaced at the Heps last week (Ivy League Champs) and picked up right where he left off the indoor campaign. He unleashed his devastating kick and won the 1,500 and split a 1:48.45 on the 4 x 800.

Making it all the more impressive is the rumor is that the cross-training fiend Callahan has run on the ground only a handful of times all spring as he’s tried to avoid injury. He’s a big-time talent.

With the 3:46.65 that he ran in the prelims last weekend, Callahan sits at #54 on the NCAA East regional 1,500 list. The NCAA takes the top 48 guys that declare, and last year the 68th seed in the East ended up making to NCAAs. Thus Callahan probably would get in if he doesn’t improve but it’s a risk as more people will move ahead of him this weekend. As a result, he’ll either run at NC State on Friday or IC4as on Saturday.

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