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.

Six Still In It With 500m To Go

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.

Barrios Makes His Move

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