WTW: Yared Nuguse Finds His Form, Grant Fisher is Amazing & Keira and Conner Rock New Haven

The Week That Was in Running, August 30 – September 5, 2022

By Robert Johnson
September 6, 2022

Each week, we try to make the sport more fun to follow by putting the prior week’s action in perspective for you. Past editions of our Week That Was weekly recap can be found here. Got a tip, question or comment? Please call us at 844-LETSRUN (538-7786), email us, or post in our forum.  

If you missed our extensive Brussels Diamond League coverage, catch up now as we only mention it a little bit below.

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Is America’s #1 1500 Runner A Guy Who Didn’t Even Make It To NCAAs?

2020 US Olympic team member Yared Nuguse has had an eventful last 13 months. After making the Olympic team, he went to Tokyo but didn’t actually end up racing due to a quad injury. Instead of going pro, he returned to Notre Dame for his fifth year, in large part because he wanted to help the Irish win the NCAA cross team title. At NCAAs, Nuguse went out hard, blew up, and finished 158th. His teammates weren’t much better as the Irish finished 9th (their women’s team with little fanfare was much higher — 5th). 

Indoors, things started great as he opened with a 3:54.46 mile win and then broke Alistair Cragg’s 18-year old NCAA 3000 record by running 7:38.13. But at NCAAs he didn’t even score in the 3000 (9th) and was outkicked on the anchor leg of the DMR as he had picked up an injury and hadn’t been able to train much. Injuries kept him out of competition until May 6, when he ran 3:39.26 at Sound Running’s Track Meet but that meet didn’t have enough events in it so he couldn’t qualify for NCAAs. 

With all of his eggs in the USAs basket, he looked ready to make another US team as he won the Portland Track Festival in 3:34.98 in early June. But in the tactical US final he was surprisingly a nonfactor and only finished 11th.

Rather than wallow in misery, Nuguse has continued to race and he hasn’t lost since, picking up wins in the Ed Murphey Track Classic in Memphis (3:34.95, July 29), the Sir Walter Miler in North Carolina (3:53.34, August 5), Lucerne (3:36.34, August 30), and Padua on Sunday in a US-leading (and personal best) 3:33.26. 

In case you are counting, Nuguse has racked up six 1500/mile wins on the year, all of them in under 3:37/3:55, with two of the meets being World Athletics Continental Tour silver meets and two more World Athletics Continental Tour bronze meets.

No one else in the US has done anything close to that. Here’s how the five fastest US milers of 2022 plus Worlds team members Johnny Gregorek and Josh Thompson and last year’s US champion Cole Hocker stack up in terms of # of fast times run/wins racked up.

*Converted from 3:50.17 and 3:50.35 indoor miles using 1.0802 conversion
^Prakel does have two road mile wins, one in 3:51 and one in 3:48.

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With six wins in races under 3:37/3:55, Nuguse has more than everyone else on the list combined. He’s really made the most of his season after USAs.

That being said, in terms of who deserves the overall #1 US ranking, we’d still give to Cooper Teare as he ran 3:50 indoors, was 6th at Pre and won USAs. But Nuguse is making a strong push and certainly should be #2.

More: LRC 2022 Padua Results – Allie Wilson (1:58.37) Wins, Yared Nuguse (3:33.26) and Cole Hocker (3:35.18) Go 1-2 in 1500

• MB: Hocker, Nuguse, Hunter et al. racing in Italy this Sunday night
• MB: HOBBS KESSLER GOES HOME DEVASTATED!!

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Is Grant Fisher Having The Best Season By An American Distance Runner Ever?

Just as it’s odd to think Yared Nuguse might be ranked #1 in the US this year in the 1500 even though he was just 11th in the US final, some might find it odd to realize that you can argue Grant Fisher is in the midst of the best distance track season by any runner in US history during the professional era even though he didn’t medal in Eugene.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, last week in Brussels Fisher set his fourth American record of the year by running 12:46.96 for 5000.

Fisher’s American Records in 2022
February 12 – Indoor 5000 – 12:53.73
March 6 – Outdoor 10,000 – 26:33.84
August 10 – Outdoor 3000 – 7:28.48
September 2 – Outdoor 5000 – 12:46.96

Yes, Fisher didn’t medal at Worlds and yes he wasn’t the US champion in the 10,000. 

But he was 4th in the 10,000 and 6th in the 5000 at Worlds and he finished 3rd in the Monaco 3000 and 2nd in the Brussels 5000.

What other seasons might top that in the professional era on the men’s side?

In 2007, Bernard Lagat won Worlds gold in the 1500 and 5000 but we are counting that as a great US mid-d season, not long distance season as Lagat raced the 1500/mile 11 times and the 5000 only 3 times and never broke 13:30 on the year (although he did win the Zurich 3000 in 7:38 a few days after Worlds).

What other US distance seasons could top Fisher’s?

There are only three we think Fisher would trade this season in for.

In 2010, Lagat won World Indoors in the 3000, set American records in the indoor 5000 (13:11.50), outdoor 3000 (7:29.00), and outdoor 5000 (12:54.12), and won the Continental Cup in the 3000 and 5000. The next year, he earned World Championship silver in the 5000 and ran his 12:53.60 American record. Also that year, Lagat also ran 8:10.07 for the 2 miles indoors (an AR), won the Pre 2 mile outdoors in 8:13.62, and was 2nd in the NY (13:05.46) and Monaco (12:53.60) DLs.

Galen Rupp’s 2012 campaign was also pretty darn good. During that year, Rupp ran his 5000 pb of 12:58.90 for 3rd at Pre and won silver in the Olympic 10,000 while finishing 7th in the 5000. So his two Olympic placings added up to 9 whereas Fisher’s places at Worlds this year add up to 10. 9 is less than 10 and the Olympic medal is huge. Rupp also won US titles in both the 5000 and 10,000 in 2012 and ran 3:34.75 in the 1500 (indoors he was just third in the 3000 at USAs).

You can also make a case that any of Evan Jager‘s seasons from 2015 through 2017 stack up well against Fisher’s 2022 campaign — Jager didn’t break as many American records as Fisher, but was clearly one of the top three steeplers in the world for most of those three years.

You can pick which season above was the best and there is no doubt that Fisher would trade his 2022 season for the seasons Lagat had in 2007, 2010, and 2011 as well as Rupp in 2012, but it doesn’t mean that Fisher’s 2022 season hasn’t been incredibly special.

One last thing about Fisher. It would have been really cool if he’d won the race in Brussels while breaking the American record. LetsRun.com visitor Mark Wenneker pointed out that an American man hasn’t set the US 5000 record in a race he won since 1982.

More: Grant Fisher Runs 12:46.96 to Smash American 5000m Record
*MB: How much money has Grant Fisher made this year?

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Keira D’Amato and Conner Mantz Run Nearly Identical Times In New Haven (Based On Their Marathon Goals)

The winners at a warn and muggy (74F/23C with 94% humidity) US 20k championships on Monday — Labor Day in the US — were two runners hoping to run fast in the marathon very soon. Two-time NCAA XC champ Conner Mantz — who will make his debut in Chicago on October 9 — won the men’s race in 59:08 as 2:07:56 marathoner Leonard Korir was second in 59:13. In the women’s race, Keira D’Amato, who wants to break her own American marathon record in Berlin on September 25, outdueled Emily Sisson, who might go for D’Amato’s AR in Chicago. D’Amato won in a course record 64:09 as Sisson ran 64:35.

20k is an odd distance, just less than a half marathon (21.1k). Who had the better performance? On an absolute scale — acknowledging one is a men’s performance and one a women’s — we’ve got say D’Amato.

2:04:45 – marathon pace Mantz averaged in New Haven.
2:16:02 – marathon pace D’Amato averaged in New Haven.

2:04:45 is a marathon time that has been run 96 times in history whereas 2:16:02 has only been run three times in women’s history.

That being said, both Mantz and D’Amato ran similar times based on what they are hoping to do in their fall marathon. D’Amato, who has a 2:19:12 pb, will want to try to be the first American under 2:19:00 — a time roughly three minutes above her New Haven pace. As for Mantz, he said if everything goes well sub-2:08 is realistic with sub-2:07 being a stretch goal. 2:08 is also roughly three minutes above his New Haven time.

On a percentage basis, Mantz’s New Haven pace was 97.5% of 2:08:00 while D’Amato’s New Haven pace was 97.7% of 2:19:12 pace. 

More: RRW: Keira D’Amato And Conner Mantz Win USATF 20K Titles At The New Haven Road Race
MB: How will Conner Mantz’ legs respond in New Haven?
MB: Keira MF D’amato

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Recommended Reads

• LRC Complete Lausanne DL Coverage
• LRC The 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials Still Don’t Have a Host. Why? The Trials were supposed to be awarded by July 14. USATF’s Adam Schmenk told us why that decision has been delayed.

For recommended reads from other weeks, go here.

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Got a tip, question or comment? Please call us at 844-LETSRUN (538-7786), email us or post in our forum.