– Excerpt from American Track League information page which describes itself as “A series of international caliber track and field meets throughout the United States.” The series starts in Bloomington, Indiana on May 2nd and the calendar also has meets in Charlottesville, Atlanta, Austin and Houston.
This week we give out praise for Becky Wade for achieving a rare American marathon win, realize that the top US marathoners in 2013 were closer to the women's world record than the men's, spot Mark Wetmore, remember the great Nelson Mandela, talk boys and girls NXN, praise pro runners who are great high school coaches, and give out free coaching advice from the ageless wonder Joe Vigil.
Alexa Efraimson appeared to be dropped, but battled back with a great kick the final 400m to kick past Elise Cranny and Sarah Baxter to win. Baxter ended her high school XC career with her only loss as the Fayetteville-Manlius amazing streak of 7 national team titles ended with a runner-up finish to Wayzata.
Kai Wilmot of North Spokane won the individual title in 15:00 as 5 others finished in a close battle for 2nd, as Wilmot’s teammate Tanner Anderson was third. Wilmot’s a big talent who ran 8:57 2 years ago as a soph, but has been battling injures since. He was 4th at his state meet this year and picked the perfect time to put it all together. In the team competition, Gig Harbor, coached by 1:45:36 800m man Mark Wieczorek and 800m pacer Matt Scherer, got the win over CBA NJ.
*DyeStat’s NXN By The Numbers Some interesting stats from NXN.
*Hometown Coverage On Efraimson’s NXN Victory
*DyeStat Girls Recap
*DyeStat Boys Recap: Gig Harbor Credits Team Win With Big Race From 5th Man
*Girls Race Video Replay
*Boys Race Video Replay
*Interviews: Alexa Efraimson *Wayzata Girls *Kai Wilmot *Gig Harbor Boys
OTB:
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2013 was quite an amazing year in the men's marathon. Guest columnist David Graham takes a look back and gives you the top 10 rankings for 2013 (which have WR holder Wilson Kipsang only at #4), marvels at the fact that guys have now run 2:03 and lost and run 2:04 and finished fifth, wonders whatever happened to Evans Rutto and Duncan Kibet and looks ahead to 2014 and a possible masters WR for the great Haile G.
Spain’s Alemayehu Bezabeh And France’s Sophie Duarte Claim European Cross-Country Titles GB’s Gemma Steel was 2nd woman while Ireland’s two-time reigning champion Fionnuala Britton was only 4th. Spain won the men’s team competition while Great Britain won for the women. In the Under-23 race Iona’s NCAA 3rd placer Kate Avery was 4th. Oklahoma State’s Tom Farrell was 12th in the men’s senior race.
Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner Ron Burkle paid the highest ever price for a piece of Olympic memorabilia. The medal will be part of an educational tour of historical pieces organized by Burkle.
The team will be announced after the World Cup race in Igles, Austria on Jan. 19.
Glen Mills was named coach of the year.
Alberto Salazar said, "I never want to talk about the exact workouts because someone will think that they also should do that, and they will get hurt. They don’t know what we did to get to that point."
Women finalists are Bianna Rollins, Brigetta Barrett, Kori Carter and Derek Drouin, Lawi Lalang and Julian Wruck for the men.
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