Men’s Mile Heats: All The Favorites Are Through; The Beginning Of The End For Lawi Lalang’s Historic Triple Attempt
by LetsRun.com
March 14, 2014
Albuquerque, NM – No big surprises in the first round of the men’s mile at the 2014 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships as all the big names were through comfortably. Oregon’s Mac Fleet and Arizona’s Lawi Lalang were 1-2 in the first heat and BU’s Rich Peters won the second.
Heat 1 – Why Lawi, why?
| Place | Name | Affiliation | Time |
| 1 | Mac Fleet | UO | 4:04.13 Q |
| 2 | Lawi Lalang | ARIZ | 4:04.27 Q |
| 3 | John Gregorek | COLU | 4:04.36 Q |
| 4 | Jeremy Rae | ND | 4:04.37 Q |
| 5 | Matt Hillenbrand | UKY | 4:04.67 q |
| 6 | Sam Penzenstadler | LOYI | 4:04.86 q |
| 7 | Isaac Presson | UNC | 4:04.93 |
| 8 | Elmar Engholm | UNM | 4:05.04 |
Lalang took the lead immediately and led the field through a relatively honest pace for the entire race until he was passed by Fleet in the last lap as it was an extremely close finish with the entire field finishing withing less than a second of each other. Columbia’s John Gregorek and Notre Dame’s Jeremy Rae took the next two automatic spots. Both Matt Hillenbrand and Sam Penzenstadler would make the final on time as 8th place in this heat was faster than 1st place in the second heat.
Our Only Thought: Why Lawi, why? As we wrote in our, 5000 recap, we felt like this was the beginning of the end for Lalang as leading the whole race at an honest pace here followed by doing the same in the 5000 was too much for him. He ran an altitude converted 3:58.95 mile and our question is why? He knew he had a 5K two hours after this prelim and two more races to run tomorrow. Why run a sub-4 equivalent if you don’t need to? Only 6 guys were eliminated from the mile heats so he was never in any danger of not making the final. He should have sit back conserving as much energy as possible for the races ahead.
Interviews:
Mac Fleet
Jeremy Rae
Heat 2 – Gotta Be Top 4
| Place | Name | Affiliation | Time |
| 1 | Rich Peters | BOSU | 4:09.65 Q |
| 2 | Will Geoghegan | DART | 4:09.94 Q |
| 3 | Anthony Rotich | UTEP | 4:10.09 Q |
| 4 | Jordan Williamsz | NOVA | 4:10.18 Q |
| 5 | Steve Mangan | DART | 4:10.22 |
| 6 | Michael Williams | PRIN | 4:13.07 |
| 7 | Izaic Yorks | WASH | 4:13.17 |
| 8 | Matthew Gillespie | IONA | 4:13.69 |
With the honest time put forward by Lalang in the first heat and no one willing to set a fast pace in this heat, anyone who wanted to make the final knew they had to be top-4. Here Rich Peters lead wire to wire as the pace was extremely slow going through 800 in 2:11. The next 400 was about 62 and then Peters closed in a 55.53 400 to win the heat as behind him four men competed over the final 200 for the last 3-spots as Will Geoghegan took 2nd, Anthony Rotich 3rd, Jordan Williamsz 4th and Steve Mangan missed the final in 5th.
QT #1: If Lalang is too burnt out from his 5000, look to Peters as a possible guy to challenge Fleet. He looked good here and did set the NCAA 1000m record earlier this season.
Interviews:
Rich Peters
Will Geoghegan
Jordan Williamsz
Michael Williams