Gary Martin Delivers, 5k Sizzles: 6 Thoughts on Incredible Day 1 of Men’s Action at 2025 NCAA Track and Field Indoors

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – With one lap to go on Friday night, the NCAA men’s distance medley relay had become the race every US distance fan had dreamed of. North Carolina’s Ethan Strand, the fastest miler in NCAA history (3:48.32), held the lead. Virginia’s Gary Martin, the second-fastest miler in NCAA history (3:48.88) trailed, a step-and-a-half behind. No other teams in contention. One of the most-hyped DMRs ever at the NCAAs would come down to a last-lap battle between the only two collegians to have broken 3:50 in the mile.

Strand who had received the baton in 6th place, 15 meters behind the leaders and 7 meters behind Martin, had gone for broke with two laps to go, seizing the lead in an attempt to shake free of the six-man lead pack. But over the final 200 meters, it was Strand who broke. Martin attacked on the back straight, and as Strand caught a glimpse of him, his face contorted in pain, everything in his body telling him not to give in.

It was no use. On this night, Gary Martin and his Virginia teammates were just too good. UVA won its first NCAA DMR title, delivering legendary coach Vin Lananna another win 15 years after Lananna won this event with an Andy Wheating-led Oregon team. The Virginia quartet of Wes Porter (2:52.97), Alex Sherman (46.54), Conor Murphy (1:47.50), and Martin (3:48.12) ran 9:15.12, the third-best time in NCAA history. And while it was a team effort, Martin was the hero, delivering one of the fastest DMR anchors in history in front of a raucous crowd, including almost all of his teammates who had made the 177-mile trip from Charlottesville to cheer him on.

It was a fitting finale to a sensational night of track & field action that featured four thrilling distance finals – one of the best first days in the history of the NCAA Indoor Championships. We’ve got a recap of the women’s action here. Below, six thoughts on the men’s distance action on Friday. 

*Results

The men’s DMR was an instant classic and both anchors were all-class afterwards

As ACC rivals, Martin and Strand have raced a number of times over the years. Prior to tonight, their most recent race came in the 5,000 at ACCs, where Strand blew Martin’s doors off over the last lap to win by 4+ seconds. Rather than allow that defeat to dent his confidence, Martin responded like a champion by getting revenge tonight.

“Obviously I would have liked to win, but I think today shows I just put it in the back of my head and if anything, used it for motivation,” Martin said. “It worked out.”

Strand, meanwhile, was kicking himself for taking the lead with 400 to go rather than waiting until the last lap.

“I did something I usually don’t do, I went from a little further out,” Strand said. “I was pretty confident going into it. There were just five guys in front of me and I wanted a clean track. I think I went a little too early, but you make those mistakes, you learn from them, you come back tomorrow better.”

Both men were complimentary of the other after the race, and we should get to see another great battle in the 3,000 on Saturday, where they’ll also face 5,000 champ Brian Musau of Oklahoma State.

“It’s a back-and-forth battle and we’ll have that back-and-forth battle for many years to come,” Strand said. “He got the better of me today. I’ll see him again tomorrow and it could be a whole different story.”

“You had two great athletes going at it, mano a mano – that’s what’s so beautiful about track. It was good for Gary, for a change not to be in the front and for Ethan to be out in the front,” said Virginia coach Vin Lananna.

As for what event Martin will focus on outdoors, Lananna said, “I think for him, I think his range is big…. He prepares well. He’s a great competitor. He loves what he’s doing. So whatever the event is, he’ll be good.”

When we asked Lananna to compare Martin to a past great of his like 4-time NCAA champion Gabe Jennings, Lananna revealed they are much different types of runners despite their success in the 1500/mile distance. 

“Gabe just finished everything off (really fast). He and (Michael) Stember would just kill the workouts. Gary is a different type of racer. Gary knows pace, and can run it, and can hit the workout. If you tell him to hit 10 x 1000 in 2:38, he can run 10 x 1000 in 2:38 – those are things that Gabe probably couldn’t have done. But if you asked Gabe to run 6 x 400 in 53, he could do that.”

Habtom Samuel ran like a boss, but he just couldn’t shake Brian Musau who was phenomenal

How crazy has NCAA distance running become in 2025? New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel ran 13:11.78 in tonight’s 5,000m final, closed in 26.37 for his last lap and…lost. In previous years, running that fast was a guarantee of victory at NCAAs (the previous meet record was Abdihamid Nur’s 13:19.01 from 2022). Closing that fast for your last lap was also a near-guarantee – for reference, Samuel closed nearly a full second faster than Nico Young did to win last year (27.29), and that was a 13:25 race (though Young’s last 800 of 1:54.42 was much faster than Samuel’s 1:57.88).

The NCAA is so competitive that one World U20 medalist (Samuel) finishes 2nd and the 2023 World U20 XC champion, his New Mexico teammate Ishmael Kiprkurui, could only finish 7th (granted, he ran 13:15.14, which was still faster than the previous meet record).

Samuel said after the race that he wanted to make it fast to prevent the kickers from hanging around. His plan was to run sub-13:10 and he wasn’t far off that, passing 3200m in 8:20 (13:16 pace). Samuel also said he was supposed to have help from Kipkurui in setting the pace, but Kipkurui, who is in his first season in the US since coming over from Kenya, did not hit the front until 1400m to go, and at that point he actually slowed the race down. Samuel was frustrated at having to lead the entire second mile by himself.

“I told him to help me, my teammate, to come to the front,” Samuel said. “I looked back many times but I didn’t see him. I didn’t get any help from him.”

As for Musau, he came into the meet with a decent NCAA track record, having finished 5th in XC in November and 4th in the 5,000 last year outdoors. Still, he said he was not expecting to win tonight.

“I was [saying] I’m going to be the runner-up or position 3, because I knew some guys, they are very experienced,” Musau said.

Musau’s plan was to hang with the leaders, place himself in position to strike, and make a move if he found himself with a chance to do so. He followed that plan to a T to earn victory tonight.

Rocky Hansen shows his promise on the big stage

During two years at Wake Forest, Rocky Hansen has delivered some tantalizing performances, but until tonight had not been able to deliver at NCAAs. In the fall of 2023, he finished 6th at the Nuttycombe Invitational, a nearly-unheard of cross country performance from an American true freshman. Shortly thereafter, however, he got injured and missed the rest of the season.

It was a similar story this year. Hansen finished 2nd at Nuttycombe in September but got heatstroke at ACCs (he finished 32nd), which he said set him back for the rest of the fall (he ran NCAAs out of loyalty to the team but finished 100th). Hansen’s latest big run was a 3:50 DMR anchor to outkick Strand and UNC in Boston on February 21, but then he missed the ACC championships with food poisoning.

The latter setback, however, proved to be short-lived and Hansen showed tonight he is as good as ever. For a true sophomore from the US to run 13:12 in an NCAA final and run his last lap in 26.73 is incredible stuff. Only three Americans – Cole Hocker (13:08.55) and Parker Wolfe (13:10.75), and Nico Young (13:11.30) – have run faster before their 21st birthday, indoors or out.

Prior to tonight’s race, we caught up with Wake Forest coach John Hayes, who said Hansen is the strongest athlete mentally that he’s ever coached. Since Hayes has coached greats like Leo Manzano and Lopez Lomong, that’s high praise. 

American Marco Langon, who took the lead with 800 to go and held it until the final 200 before finishing a career-best 6th in 13:14.16, wanted much more

One would think that Langon, who was 15th in XC and had never scored before on the track, would be happy with the extremely gutsy race he ran and his career-best finish. And you’d be wrong. 

“I didn’t want anyone running their own race, and if I was gonna lose, I wanted to lose my way, and I wasn’t fucking afraid to die out there,” said Langon when asked what he was thinking when he took the lead.

“This is what I wanted to do. I said after BU, after I ran 13:14, that I was gonna win and I was gonna do (everything) possible and I was gonna fucking find a way. And right when I crossed that finish line, I wanted to collapse. And I’m honestly just disappointed in myself.

“I’m in a position right now where I need to be able to provide for my family, [for my] mom and sister, and winning would have helped do that – maybe [get] more NIL or more anything and the fact that I couldn’t do that, I’m just pretty disappointed in myself. All I wanna do is just pave a great way for them and I want my little sister to be looking up to me.”

MB: EPIC Marco Langon interview after he goes for broke in NCAA men’s 5000 

Oregon’s 1:42 man Koitatoi Kidali did not make the 800 final but his teammate Matthew Erickson looked great

If you thought it was over for the rest of the NCAA when Oregon signed Koitatoi Kidali, a man who ran 1:42 and ran in the Olympic 800 meters for Kenya last year, think again. Kidali made it to NCAAs but was not on track to earn a spot in the final on the last turn of the first heat, at which point he lost his balance and fell to the track for a DNF. Kidali, whom we were told has signed more than $100,000 of NIL deals, will have to wait until the outdoor season to prove himself in the NCAA.

One guy who took a big step toward proving himself today was Kidali’s Ducks teammate Matthew Erickson. The Canadian, who won the Big 10 meet two weeks ago, had only previously made it to one NCAA meet (outdoors in 2023), but failed to make the final. Tonight, Erickson looked brilliant over the final lap of heat 1, running 1:46.11 (a hair slower than his outdoor pb of 1:45.74) to win by more than a second.

Top seeds Aidan McCarthy of Cal Poly (1:45.19 sb), Tinoda Matsatsa of Georgetown (1:45.21 sb), and Abdullahi Hassan of Mississippi State (1:45.53 sb) all made it through as well, setting up an intriguing final on Saturday.

Nathan Green and Abel Teffra lead the way in mile prelims

In the mile, #1 seed and 2023 NCAA outdoor champ Nathan Green of the University of Washington advanced comfortably by winning heat 1. The real drama came in heat 2. Georgetown’s Abel Teffra looked good in winning the heat, but the battle for the three remaining auto spots was fierce as the next four men were separated by just .23. Ultimately, Syracuse’s Benne Anderson, Washington’s Ronan McMahon-Staggs, and NAU’s Colin Sahlman made it through, with SEC champ Reuben Reina of Arkansas just missing out by .04.

Day 1 Talk: NCAA Women’s Day1: BYU Repeats in DMR Thriller as Doris Lemngole Keeps Winning

• The Official 2025 NCAA Indoor Nationals Thread 
• GARY MF MARTIN 
• EPIC Marco Langon interview after he goes for broke in NCAA men’s 5000 
• Simeon Birnbaum goes home devastated 
• Slow motion video of Deloris Lemnegole running into Hallady Lowrys lane