I came across a great feature on Cohen by Ben Istvan in the Philly Inquirer that is full of some great info I'd never heard before. Cohen was very good at basketball in HS but when he went to college, he didn't go for track - he just went to be a normal student at DII Tampa. But there was a guy who he shared a class with - Gabe Chisari - who saw his track and field backpack and kept telling him to come out for the team.
The rest is history. Major props to Chisari, who it looks like was only a 27 minute 8k guy who never ran track for Tampa from what I can tell, as without him we've likely never heard of Cohen.
The Inquirer article ends with these quotes from Cohen:
“I still can’t really believe it. Being at a Division I school, let alone a national champion — I just remember watching these guys on YouTube.”
“I’ll get back to the basics and hopefully can make it to the final on Sunday,” Cohen said. “Maybe book my ticket to Paris.”
