Yared Nuguse Only Entered in 5K at ACC Championships; Will Not Contest 1500 at NCAAs
By Jonathan Gault
May 11, 2022
Notre Dame star and 2021 US Olympian Yared Nuguse is only entered in the 5,000 meters at this weekend’s ACC Championships in Durham, N.C., meaning he will not be able to run the 1500 at this year’s NCAA Championships.
Nuguse, 22, ran 3:39.29 at the Sound Running Track Meet on Friday in California, a time which would easily qualify him for the NCAA regional meet in the 1500. But the NCAA requires all qualifying marks to come from a meets featuring at least 10 events per gender, criteria the Track Meet did not meet. Therefore Nuguse cannot use his 1500 time to qualify for regionals.
Nuguse still had the opportunity to qualify for NCAAs this weekend — indeed, he ran a then-NCAA record 3:34.68 in the prelims at last year’s ACC meet — but when entries were posted for the ACC meet on Wednesday, Nuguse was entered in the 5,000 only.
LetsRun.com reached out to Notre Dame coach Sean Carlson, who confirmed that Nuguse, who won the NCAA 1500 title in 2019 and was second in 2021, will not run the 1500 at NCAAs this year.
Tim Healy for TrackTown USA
“He strained his hamstring in the last 100m [at the Track Meet], which is why he didn’t run fast,” Carlson said. “Well, nobody ran fast [in that race]. We’re unsure if he’s going to even run at ACCs, but the 5k is the furthest away, it gives him the most amount of time to try to see if it’s right. Thursday’s 1500 prelim would have been getting greedy and he’s done so much for Notre Dame that we don’t want to jeopardize his professional future. Our bigger focus is making sure he’s healthy for the US championships [June 23-26]. We just thought that it seems like the best plan that’s kind of between where maybe he still has a shot of running in the NCAA while also protecting him.”
The 1500 prelims at ACC are on Thursday, while the 5,000 is the final individual event of the meet on Saturday night. As of now, Nuguse is not qualified for NCAA regionals in any event (the 1500 was his first race of the outdoor season) but he could still potentially qualify in the 5,000. Currently, the 48th-best time in the East (final spot into regionals) is 13:53.16, but that time could be adjusted based on scratches and performances from other conference meets this weekend. Nuguse’s personal best is 13:40.62. Carlson said Nuguse will only run at ACCs if he is 100% healthy.
Should Nuguse compete this weekend, he would exhaust his NCAA eligibility. Theoretically, if he were not to race at ACCs he could elect to redshirt and would still have one year of outdoor eligibility remaining (he competed in 2018, 2019, and 2021 while the 2020 season was cancelled) but he does not have any cross country or indoor eligibility left.
Talk about Nuguse on our messageboard / fan forum: MB: Shocker: Yared Nuguse NOT running 1500s at ACCS (he’s in 5000) & will not go for NCAA 1500 title .