EETC Field Notes: USATF Champs Day 1
It’s been a long time coming seemingly. Prep for the USATF Outdoor Champs began before Westchester county blossomed into spring and we knew we’d be dealing with wildfires.
Bookings were made in advance: flights, rental cars, an AirBnB that serves as EETC HQ, and entries. In the meantime, the squad were busy at work making metaphorical bookings: training, recovering, racing, recovering all in prep to Paint it Black in Eugene (to coin a phrase by Nohilly).
Earlier this week, it finally arrived as the annual track and field carnival rolled into Eugene once again - now the spiritual home of the championships, love it or hate it. With final touches of training made last Friday, it was a weekend of packing and relaxing before flying out to Oregon on Tuesday morning.
A team of six headed out to represent EETC at the championships. In the Men’s 800m, Luciano Fiore returned to Eugene for the second time off the back of a season that notched PBs in the 400m up to the 1500m. Hazem Miawad joins Luc in the 800; despite recently winning the Egyptian Trials for the same event, getting his Egyptian passport has been delayed by admin issues, meaning he is eligible to compete at the USATF Champs for the first time.
Over 1500m, new member Helen Schlachtenhaufen arrives fresh after narrowly missing her PB at Monmouth earlier in June. Dani Aragon - sole member of EETC’s Flagstaff chapter - joins Helen over the metric mile where she was a finalist in 2021. The dynamic duo of Eric Holt The Bolt and Ben “Benny Butter” Allen both return in the 1500m, with Eric looking to capitalize on last year’s 4th place finish.
Of course, Coaches Tom Nohilly and John Trautman also travelled to impart their wisdom as it was required. Reports have not denied whether Trautman’s checked luggage was a case of C4 Energy Drink or not.
Arriving in Eugene, Empire Elite HQ was subsequently filled (presumably by Eric’s booming voice and Hazem’s music bumping) as the team settled into life on the West Coast before racing kicked off on Thursday night.
Conditions were looking toasty for the first night of competition, where all six would line up and kick off EETC’s championships.
Men’s 800m
It was up to Luciano to open proceedings when he stepped out onto the track for heat 1 of the 800. Amongst his competitors was Will Sumner, and Wes Ferguson the 2023 NCAA DII Outdoor Champs in Divisions I and II respectively - and both holders of the coveted World Championship Standard. At the break, it was clear that Sumner’s front-running tactics were going to be no different today, with our man Luc slotting in tow in second. It was savvy racing as the two hit the bell in 53 and change, whilst the bunch scrapped for position behind. Luc followed the leader as he turned the screw, showing his strength to hold off the fast finishing Ferguson to take the second auto-Q position behind the gun-to-tape leader and claim his spot in the Semi-Finals on Friday night.
Hazem lined up in the third heat of four against some big names including Clayton Murphy and Brandon Miller. Miller set the pace early, making for a significantly faster half-way split than the rest of the heats at 52.1. Haz sat back to come through a second back from the leader hoping his conservative approach would be a benefit. Navigating the brutal traffic and contact over the next half-lap, Haz hit the gas into the home straight and closing in on those fading ahead, but just fell short of catching them. His time of 1:47.66 earned him 7th and a big PB for the first time under 1:48. He narrowly missed qualifying, with Miller’s 1:47.06 being the last time-qualifier just two spots ahead.
men’s 1500m
Three hours later, the sun had started to cast a golden evening light over Hayward Field as Eric and Ben took to the track for Heat 2 of the 1500m. As fate/luck/coincidence would have it, our pair were drawn in the same heat- fitting given that they’ve barely done a step of training without the others company over the past five weeks.
After watching the first heat set an honest pace at 3:35, no-one in heat two was interested in setting the tempo quite so high as the gun went. The result was inevitable, with a jostling bunch trawling the track at around 64 seconds/lap. Eric extracted himself early, allowing him to sit off of the leader’s shoulder in 2nd whilst Ben opted to sit back and avoid danger from the tail. As the pace heated up, Holt kept a vice-like grip at the front, ready to make a break if needed whilst Ben struggled to make ground from his position behind the bunch. The hammer came down from high-school phenom Simeon Birnbaum after 800m, before Eric followed a move with 300m to go to put himself in contention. Ben responded, closing hard and claiming one spot over the final 300 to finish 9th in 3:44.60. Eric’s third place finish (3:42.99) marked a big Q next to his name for the Finals on Saturday.
Women’s 1500m
Immediately following the conclusion of the men’s rendition of 1500m, it was the turn of the women. Helen lines up as one of seven women in the field with the World Championship Standard and is well in the hunt for one of the three spots.
Heat two featured Sinclaire Johnson and Heather MacLean alongside EE’s Helen, setting out in an moderate 68 first quarter. The field lined up behind rookie Laurie Barton for 800m, with Helen occupying third behind Johnson as they clicked off another lap around the pace of the first. Coming around at a kilometer, Johnson moved around into the lead before being passed just after the bell by Helen who hit 1200m in the lead. The pair traded blows to take the head of the race, closing fast over the last 300m as MacLean entered the chat 150m from the finish. A 4:09.72 was good for a comfortable qualifying spot in 3rd for Friday’s final.
Dani lined up in the final heat of the women’s 1500m which also contained a host competitive names, including the Dani’s younger sister Christina. It was great to see her get in amongst the race within a disrupted season, having only raced once last month to land the USATF Qualifying standard. However it was a tough race finishing in 12th.
Results
Paint it black.
-EETC