2014 Payton Jordan Men’s 10,000: Mexico’s Juan Luis Barrios Gets The Win Over Cam Levins
By LetsRun.com
May 4, 2014
After a big negative split, Mexico’s Juan Luis Barrios was the winner of the 2014 Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational 10,000 in 27:34.40 as Cam Levins was second in 27:36.00. Oklahoma State’s Shadrack Kipchirchir surprisingly set a collegiate lead at 27:36.79 for 5th beating out Texas Tech’s multi-time NCAA champ Kennedy Kithuka (27:41.73). Bobby Curtis was the top American in 7th with 27:46.30.
This race was completely different than the women’s 10,000 as they started at a conservative pace as they were 9:01 through 3200 (only 28:10 pace) and 13:59 at 5K. The field stayed together for most of the race as Barrios, Levins, Kithuka and Luke Puskedra traded off leading many of the early laps. Late in the race with 6-laps to go there was finally a major separation as a pack of six that included Barrios, Levins, Kipchirchir, Kithuka, Bashir Abdi and Daniele Meucci broke away from the rest of the field.
The 6 would stay together until 1 to go as Levins had the lead at the bell. Abdi took the lead on the backstretch, but with 200 to go Barrios made a huge move to the front and just blew away the field over the final 200. He closed in about a 56 last lap to complete a 4:10 last mile. Levins closed in about 58-59 seconds to pass beat Abdi in the final straight as 2-5 finished within .79-seconds of each other. Kithuka didn’t have anything left for a fast last lap and was 6th.
Quick Take #1: Not all American fans might be familiar with Juan Luis Barrios, but he’s legit. In addition to his 13:09 5000 PR, he was 7th in the 2008 Olympic 5000 and 8th in the 5000 final in 2012. His 10,000 best is 27:28.82 from 2012. A great race for him as he had a poor year on the track in 2013 (DNF in the World Champs 10,000) and this was his outdoor season opener. He did run 61:46 at the NYC Half for 4th though so he was clearly in good shape.
Quick Take #2: This was a big 10,000 PB for Kipchirchir and Kithuka as they’d previously ran 29:08.64 and 28:18.97 respectively. With that time Kipchirchir puts himself 9th on the NCAA all-time list, knocking Dathan Ritzenhein‘s 27:38.50 out of the top 10.
Event 23 Men 10000 Meter Run Section 1 =============================================================== Name Year School Finals =============================================================== Finals 1 Juan Luis Barrios Nike 27:34.40 2 Cam Levins Nike 27:36.00 3 Bashir Abdi Top Sport Vl 27:36.40 4 Daniele Meucci Unattached 27:36.53 5 Shadrack Kipchirchir Oklahoma State 27:36.79 6 Kennedy Kithuka Texas Tech 27:41.73 7 Bobby Curtis Hansons-Brooks Odp 27:46.30 8 Yuki Sato Jpn-Nissin Foods 27:46.59 9 Dame Tasama Rfc Liege At 27:55.21 10 Arne Gabius Nike 27:55.35 11 Aron Rono Wcap 28:03.51 12 Zewdie Miliyon Yachiyo Kogyo 28:04.64 13 Tetsuya Yoroizaka Jpn-Asahi Kasei 28:05.67 14 Stefano La Rosa Italy 28:19.36 15 Christo Landry Mizuno 28:20.98 16 Luke Puskedra Nike Oregon Project 28:27.54 17 Brendan Gregg Hansons-Brooks Odp 28:28.54 18 Paul Pollock Melbourne Tr 28:32.18 19 Jake Riley Hansons-Brooks Odp 28:32.59 20 Tyler Pennel Zap Fitness 28:35.52 21 Tony Okello Santa Monica 28:42.18 22 Luke Caldwell New Mexico 28:59.63 23 Lex Williams Unattached 29:15.41 24 Malcolm Hicks Nike New Zealand 29:19.51 25 Liam Adams Adidas Australia 29:51.66 26 Raul Pacheco Club Rodolfo Gomez 29:57.03