A Fan’s Guide To The 2019 USATF Distance Classic

By LetsRun.com
May 16, 2019

The 2019 USATF Distance Classic — also known as Oxy — takes place tonight at Jack Kemp Stadium at Occidental College in California. Below we give you a schedule of events, viewing info and then briefly tell you what to look for in each event. The schedule of events is as follows.

Competition Schedule (Pacific Time)

If you are a US viewer, you can only watch the event if you subscribe to NBC Sports Gold. We have no idea why USATF puts some events on USATF.TV+ and some on Gold. It seems like it would be best if everything went to Gold or if everything was included with a USATF membership. We guess one could argue college sports go to both Fox and ESPN, but that analogy doesn’t work for us. Whatever. International viewers can watch it on through AthleticsCanada.TV.

Women’s 800 – USATF standard 2:03.00, Worlds standard 2:00.60

The final heat is interesting as it features 2016 Olympic finalist Kate Grace versus Konstanze Kloserhalfen. So you get the Bowerman Track Club vs. the NOP and US vs. Germany. Klosterhalfen smoked Grace in their last meeting at Millrose on February 9, but that was over the mile distance.

Men’s 800 – USATF standard 1:47.50, World standard 1:45.80

In the fast heat, we get to see Olympic medallist Clayton Murphy face his teammate Craig Engels, the US indoor champ in the mile, plus Erik Sowinski.

Women’s Steeple – USATF standard 9:50.00, World standard 9:40.00

Not sure what we are supposed to say about this race with 4 entrants. We guess it shows that with Worlds not starting until the end of September that it’s still way early in the season. To be honest, we have no idea who any of these runners are.

Men’s Steeple – USATF standard 8:40.00, Worlds standard 8:29.00

Two-time Olympic finalist Donn Cabral is in this one as is 2016 NCAA champ Mason Ferlic. This is Ferlic’s track debut for 2019.

Women’s 1500 – USATF standard 4:09.00, Worlds standard 4:06.50

Usually USATF designs the 1500 heats to be even at this meet, but in this case the second one is more interesting. Klosterhalfen doubles back into it and will face former NCAA star Karissa Schweizer, Katie Mackey, Elise Cranny and Nikki Hiltz, the NCAA runner-up in the 1500 from last year.

Men’s 1500 – USATF standard 3:39.00, Worlds standard – 3:36.00

When we initially published this article, we left out the 1500 by mistake. Thankfully, a messageboard poster noticed it and published a preview for us. Here is what “chaserofsteeples” wrote about this race:

“US 2 mile champion Drew Hunter squares off with US 1000m champion Clayton Murphy who’ll be doubling back with a possibility for spoilers from newly minted 3:50 miler Sam Prakel or one of the 5k guys moving down. Couple other Bowerman guys in heat 2 as well and some throwback names running “unattached” including Chad Noelle and Mac Fleet.”

Women’s 5000 – USATF standard 15:25.00, Worlds standard 15:22.00

We’re sure other people will be watching for other reasons, but we’ll be paying attention to this one to see how much of a PR recent LRC podcast guest Stephanie Bruce can run at age 35. Her pb is 15:44.77.

Men’s 5000 – USATF standard 13:35.00, Worlds standard 13:22.50

The final race of the night is interesting as there are a lot of 1500 runners testing their strength in this one, including two-time Olympic 1500 medallist Nick Willis. British 1500 runners Chris O’Hare and Josh Kerr will duke it out as well in Kerr’s 5000 debut. Also included in the field is 2016 NCAA indoor mile champ Henry Wynne.

Talk about the action on our world famous messageboard: MB: 2019 USATF Distance Classic Tonight – Official Discussion Thread