NCAA Men: Nathan Green Golden, Corrigan & Whitmarsh Get Crowns, Musau Repeats

EUGENE, Ore. — The men’s portion of the 2025 NCAA Track and Field Championships ended on Friday at Hayward Field. The team battle came to an unsatisfying conclusino as Texas A&M and USC tied as national champions. But the individual action was hot as usual and we give our highlights below.

The 1500 came down to a mad sprint with everyone in it

In the men’s 1500, Nathan Green, the 2023 NCAA champ, won his second title and stretched the Washington Husky win streak in the event to four as he closed in 51.46 to win a tactical 1500 in 3:47.26.

UNC’s Ethan Strand, the indoor 3000 champ, was boxed on the third-to-last and second-to-last turns. He finally found some room midway through the final turn after dropping all the way back to last but his attempt to go from last to first in the final 150 came up just a little bit short as he was second in 3:47.33. His 51.28 last lap was the fastest in the field.

Harvard sophomore Ferenc Kovacs of Hungary, the Ivy League 800 champ, enjoyed the tactical nature of this one and was a surprising third in 3:47.42. It was virtually a blanket finish for all of the scoring places outside of the top 3. Eleven of the 12 racers ran 3:47 and 0.68 separated 11th from 1st.

Strand’s tactics definitely cost him a chance for the win but oddly enough he didn’t really run a horrible tactical race. It wasn’t like he made lots of bad decisions or mini moves. He tried to run a little wide near the front but the problem was just after 800 all the guys went way wide and boxed him in. He then was too hesitant to push his way or squeeze his way out.

Once Strand realized he was in horrible position on the last lap, he decided it was better to stay patient rather than move out to lane 5 on the back straight and try to pass everyone. With 180 meters to go, Strand said he felt like he had a ton left in the tank, largely because he had not made any moves to that point in the race. He thought he might be able to run everyone down for the win, but wound up coming one place short.

“With 100 to go, I thought I had him,” Strand said. “I started running out of gas with about 20 meters to go and realized I couldn’t quite get him.”

Strand didn’t win, but his close was sensational. Hobbs Kessler, were you watching? 

Nathan Green: “[This win] makes Washington the most dominant 1500 and mile program in history.”

Before the race, Washington coach Andy Powell expected it to come down to the wire. He told Green to be prepared to dive at the finish, and with 250 to go and everyone still in it, Green heard Powell yell at him from the stands to remember to jump. At least, Green thinks he heard him.

“I’m pretty sure I heard him yell jump,” Greens said. “Or I was just imagining it.”

Green didn’t need to dive but wound up falling and doing a somersault just past the finish line anyway. He wasn’t certain that he had won, but a look to the scoreboard confirmed he had won his second NCAA title. It was the fourth straight win victory by a Washington Husky: Joe Waskom won as a sophomore in 2022 and a senior in 2024; now Green has done the same, winning in 2023 and 2025.

“[This win] makes Washington the most dominant 1500 and mile program in history,” Green said. “Anybody who says otherwise can go check the facts.”

Okay, Nathan, here are the facts.

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Washington is the third program to win four straight titles, after Oregon (1959-62) and Villanova (1968-71). Indoors, UTEP actually won six in a row from 1977-82. Oregon and Villanova are tied for the most NCAA 1500 wins with 13, followed by Arkansas (6), Washington (5), and Wisconsin (5).

But Washington is the first school to win 6 of 7 NCAA 1500/mile titles (Luke Houser won indoors in 2023 and 2024), and the fact that Washington had three guys on its roster from 2022-24 who would each go on to win two NCAA titles in the same event group is something that we may never see again in the NCAA. What Green, Waskom, and Houser accomplished during their time in Seattle is truly remarkable.

“It’s been hard [without them this year],” Green said. “They definitely were my rocks. They’re like my older brothers. It sucks. They’re my best friends, and to not have them with me kind of sucked but I’m glad that I could show those two that everything they told me throughout the years didn’t just go in one ear and out the other. I was paying attention. I was listening.”

Green will be training with Waskom again soon as he confirmed he will stay in Seattle to be coached by Powell as a pro.

With Green departing, UW’s 1500 dynasty is over, right? Not so fast. Washington is reloading by bringing in the two fastest high school milers in the class of 2025 – Owen Powell (3:56.66 high school indoor record) and Josiah Tostenson (3:57.47). The two will room together and Owen should be familiar with the coach: Andy Powell is his father.

Harvard’s Ferenc Kovacs tried to channel Cole Hocker in the 1500 final

Kovacs only has a 3:37 personal best and had never run an NCAA final before today, so it was a big surprise to see him finish 3rd in a loaded final, just .16 from the win. But Kovacs was quietly confident heading into this one. He said he watched last year’s Olympic 1500 final about 20 times this week studying Cole Hocker. He felt that if the big dogs focused too much on each other, he might be able to sneak the win like Hocker. It didn’t quite work out that way, but 3rd was still a great result for Kovacs.

“I think I could run 3:35, but this is why I like the NCAA final,” Kovacs said. “It’s not about fast pbs and fancy-schmancy PRs. It’s about the mental aspect.”

Steeple: Olympian James Corrigan ran a strong race to win his first NCAA title

James Corrigan of BYU was one of the feel-good stories at the Olympic Trials last year, as after only finishing 9th at NCAAs, he made the US Olympic team.

He showed his class tonight as he picked up his first NCAA title.

Coming in we expected the steeple to be a battle between Corrigan and fellow 8:13 steepler Geoffrey Kirwa of Louisville by way of Kenya. That’s exactly what unfolded. Kirwa gapped the field with about 1k to go and got close to a 2-second lead. But in hindsight, Corrigan was being smart. He realized the pace was honest and just kept Kirwa within striking distance. 

“I felt confident that, at that pace, which was already hot, anybody that made a move was still going to pay that last lap,” Corrigan said. I knew that I just needed to keep the string short enough that, even if there was a gap, where I could feel confident the last lap. The string never got too long. I could feel the tension, and the last lap felt very similar to last year’s Trials where it caught me off-guard when I was passing people because everyone seemed like they were standing still.”

Thanks to a 61.01 last lap, Corrigan made amends for his disappointing 9th-place finish last year, erasing a 1.67-second gap at the bell to win in 8:16.41 as Kirwa ran 8:17.12 (63.39 last lap). Furman senior Carson Williams had the race of his life to finish third as he PR’d by more than 10 seconds at this meet, going from 8:30.83 to 8:19.71 (he ran 8:24.33 in the prelims) as Iowa State’s Joash Ruto, who got the pace going with a 64.17 third lap, was 4th with a much-deserved 8:20.47 pb.

Corrigan has a full year of eligibility remaining at BYU (plus an extra season of cross country) but was noncommittal when asked whether he would be returning to the NCAA in the fall.

“We’ll see,” Corrigan said. “Things are going in a good direction where I have options.”

Kirwa, for his part, had no regrets about his strategy. He knew Corrigan had a strong kick and knew he had to shake him by the bell. It almost worked.

Sam Whitmarsh was easily the class of the 800

After finishing as the runner-up last year, Texas A&M senior Sam Whitmarsh ended his NCAA career in style with a convincing 1:45.86 win. After running mid-pack for the first lap in lane 1, Whitmarsh saw a sliver of daylight just before 200 to go and quickly jumped outside and got to work. One of our favorite mantras at LetsRun.com is that you’ve only got one move in the 800, and Whitmarsh used his wisely.

“I just saw a hole and I knew I had to take it,” Whitmarsh said. “I knew it was now or never.”

Soon he was in the lead and he never looked back. 2025 indoor champ Matthew Erickson of Oregon was a clear second but nearly half-a-second back in 1:46.32 as he was shuffled back and only 7th coming off the final turn. 2024 indoor champ Rivaldo Marshall of Arkansas was third in 1:46.71

It wasn’t a good day for the three semifinal winners on Wednesday as Cal Poly’s Aidan McCarthy was 5th (1:46.88), Virginia Tech’s Christian Jackson was 7th in 1:47.42 and Arkansas’ Tyrice Taylor was 8th (1:47.44).  

Oregon’s Koitatoi Kidali said he was “feeling terrible” due to shoulder and knee soreness

Kidali, the 2024 Olympian for Kenya with a 1:42 pb, was a nonfactor. Running with his shoulder wrapped after a fall at the finish of the semifinals, Kidali also was limping. He finished last in 1:52.10 and said that his shoulder was sore but he was also dealing with a knee injury that he picked up a couple of weeks ago. Kidali said some of those close to him suggested it was not worth running today, but he wanted to give it a shot on his home track.

“I said let me fight until the end,” Kidali said. “…I don’t want to let down the Ducks.”

Even though Kidali has not yet shown the same form in Eugene that he displayed last summer in Kenya, he said he has enjoyed his time at Oregon. He likes that he is able to get an education, but admitted that it has been a little challenging balancing schoolwork with training. 

5k: Brian Musau had to back off and reset after NCAA indoors, but he is a national champion once again

Musau impressively won the NCAA indoor title in March, setting a meet record of 13:11.34, but as winter turned to spring, he found himself not recovering the way he wanted after workouts. Musau had been planning on a long season – he wants to make the Kenyan team for the World Championships this year – and felt he needed to back off in training before gearing up again. His coach, Dave Smith, agreed. Musau only ran one race this spring, at Arkansas on April 25 to get a regional qualifier, and Smith even held him out of the Big 12 championships to get him right.

Musau did not take any time fully off, but the easier training period clearly worked as he looked good at regionals and great in the 5,000 final today to win his second NCAA title in 13:20.59 after a fierce battle with Villanova’s Marco Langon in the home straight.

Musau will head to Kenya later this summer to prepare for the Kenyan trials in the 5,000. He had to miss them last year because he had not taken the requisite number of out-of-competition drug tests ahead of the meet. But Musau has been tested enough this year (Kenya has been designated a “Category A” by the AIU, which means any athlete who competes at Worlds must pass three out-of-competition tests in the 10 months before Worlds) that he should earn an invite to the trials.

Habtom Samuel was Mr. Runner-Up this year

Habtom Samuel is one of the best runners in the NCAA, but the 2024-25 season was one of near-misses for the Eritrean. He was 2nd at the NCAA cross country championships in November, 2nd in the 5,000 at NCAA indoors in March, and 2nd in the 5,000 and 10,000 at NCAA outdoors this week in Eugene. He was also 2nd at NCAA XC in 2023, though Samuel does have an NCAA title – he won the 10,000 last year at this meet.

Marco Langon: “I come out here and it’s usually win or die”

Langon looked to have timed his kick perfectly as he tracked Musau through the turn and made his bid for the win by slingshotting wide off the turn. But just as Langon had gained half a step on Musau, the two bumped together. Musau very may well have powered away to win anyway, but Langon lost momentum after the contact and faded to 3rd in 13:21.17, collapsing across the finish line.

He was devastated not to win. Langon is close with his mother and sister but said barely spoke with them over the last month as he was so locked-in on this race.

“Every time you go out to a big race like this, a national championship, your quality of life – at least for me – has to go down a bit,” Langon said. “I stay away from my friends, I stay away from home for a while. You pretty much put all of your emotions, 1000% of what you have, into this. And it’s obviously with the intention of winning.”

We asked Langon whether he could keep going with that approach to major races knowing the stress it creates in his life. He said yes, once again speaking passionately from the heart and gave an amazing interview, just as he did after NCAA indoors this year. He compared the fear and anticipation of racing to the same feelings ancient humans would get while hunting lions.

“It’s supposed to be stressful,” Langon said. “If you don’t have anxiety before a race, you should go to a hospital. You have something wrong with you. If you’re not scared, you’re not prepared. That’s my mentality going into this.

“If you have fear, fear is what keeps us alive as human beings. You go back to primitive days, back in days to cavemen trying to hunt down a lion. Bro, their brain’s going crazy, you know? They’re going insane. That’s anxiety, that’s the adrenal gland in your brain shooting adrenaline to your heart and making you get heightened senses and more emotional and more attached to surviving. I come out here and it’s usually win or die.”

Sprints: “Not a prelim warrior”: Jordan Anthony wins NCAA 100m from lane 9 and says “big news coming”

Jordan Anthony of the University of Arkansas cemented his status as the fastest man in the NCAA, winning the 100m title in 10.07 seconds. He held off Max Thomas of USC (10.10) and Jelani Watkins of LSU (10.10) to add the outdoor crown to the 60m indoor title he claimed earlier this year.

Anthony grabbed national attention at the NCAA regionals by blazing a wind-aided 9.75 (+2.1), a mark just over the legal limit for record purposes. But tonight he was way out in lane 9, after only making the final at NCAAs as a time qualifier.

It didn’t matter.

Anthony stormed to the win by 0.03 seconds. There was some confusion at the finish as Watkins, running in lane 6, pounded his chest in celebration, unaware that Anthony—way outside in lane 9—had taken the crown. Watkins was third, as Thomas edged him for second from lane 8.

Asked afterward if the outer lane or a slower prelim worried him, Anthony shrugged it off:
“I’m not a prelim warrior. I’m a championship guy.”

Anthony also plays football for Arkansas (he had 111 yards on 8 catches as a wide receiver last fall) as the NCAA champion, he has a path to becoming one of the best in the world in track. He may have to choose soon as the US championships are from July 31-August 3, which is around the time college football teams are starting training camp.

Will he run USAs? “That’s between me and my coach,” he said.

Then came the tease: “Big news coming though. Big news coming.” 

Our guess is that Anthony will be a professional sprinter within the next few weeks.

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