Terrier Classic Day One: 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter American records, fifteen sub-four miles

And a dash of family fun

The John Thomas Terrier Classic, hosted by Boston University on perhaps the fastest indoor track in the world, always produces a midwinter explosion of stupid-fast times in the distance events. I ran in this meet once or twice around the turn of the century, but back then it hadn’t really earned the name “classic”—not because of its relative youth but because the meet wasn’t nearly as deep even allowing for every technological and demographic development since. There were plenty of ~15:00 5,000-meter scrubs in those days, but the Terrier Classic is harder to get into now.

My nephew Hayden got into the mile this year’s meet, a two-day extravaganza that hosted the men’s races today (results). Not by much, though. He was seeded 254th and, in effect, last in the entire field.

This isn’t the only unusual honor Hayden earned recently. He was also named the male track athlete of the week for the Great Northern Athletic Conference on Monday after his personal best in the 800 meters last weekend.

Hayden, whose own uncle was the North Atlantic Conference Laggard of the Week six or a possible seven times in the fall of 1989 or 1990, wound up beating fifteen of the zero runners he was “supposed” to beat based on seed times (not including the eight fellows who quit their races after they were underway). He was tenth out of seventeen in his heat, the sixteenth of sixteen.

I had predicted a 4:37.91 to his coach based on his recent 800-meter time and how he achieved it. But it’s not easy moving from the 400m and the 800m (his only events in 2023 until today) to the mile, especially a high-energy mile, and not start out at too brisk a clip (a phrase best imagined in a snooty British accent).

Based on these splits, his 440-yard splits were about 68.5. 71.8, 71.0, and 67.7 for intermediate quarter-mile times of 68.5, 2:20.3, 3:31.3, and 4:39.0. It is getting harder to believe that he came into college less than a year and a half ago with a fastest mile of 5:37, or that he missed all but one cross-country race last fall thanks to a bout of anemia.

As for the other scrubs on hand, a total of fifteen men broke four minutes, impressive even though there were twenty-seven runners seeded at 3:59.40 or faster.

The 3,000 meters produced an American record, with Yared Nuguse—late of Notre Dame University, now with On Running in Boulder—breaking Galen Rupp’s 7:30.16 by nearly two seconds. Nuguse moved into ninth on the all-time global list, knocking Eliud Kipchoge down a peg.

Also, Drew Bosley’s 7:36.42 set an all-conditions collegiate record, breaking Rudy Chapa’s 7:37.70 from May 10. If you haven’t heard of Chapa, it’s probably because he ran that time on May 10 of 1979.

Heat six of the 3,000 meters saw two very quick times by New Hampshire high-school boys, or at last boys who attend New Hampshire high school. Byron Grevious. a junior from Connecticut who attends Phillips Exeter Academy, won the heat in 8:15.10, while Coe-Brown Academy senior Aidan Cox was fourth in 8:16.65.

Those times convert to 8:54.71 and 8:56.38 for two miles.

Because Grevious ran this race unattached, I’m considering his time ineligible for New Hampshire state record consideration. That makes Cox number one on the all-time list, indoors or out, but it’s honestly unclear by exactly how much. John Mortimer and Matt Downin both ran close to 8:30, I believe, outdoors in the early 1990s. But no one has come close to 8:20 for 3,000 meters, at least not in a race only 3,000 meters long.

In the spring of 2015, Elijah Moskowitz of Souhegan ran 8:44.79 at the Loucks Games in New York State, one of the unlikeliest sub-8:45 performances in the history of the event and to this day the only 3,200-meter time by a Granite State kid that converts to a sub-9:00 for two miles (3,218.69 meters). Cory Thorne has the fastest two-mile time by a New Hampshire schoolboy (9:03.75, run outdoors in 2004).

If Aidan Cox runs the two-mile at the New Balance Indoor Nationals this year, he will lay waste to the nine-minute barrier, but he’ll need a sub-8:47 to match Moskovitz’ outdoor performance.

The 5,000 meters seemed unlikely to outshine the 5,000-meter bonanza on the same track at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on December 3. That just-after-NCAA-Cross-Country-season set of 5,000-meter races accounted for the first eighty-two (82) names on the 2022-23 indoor performance list coming into tonight.

Ollie Hoare (supposedly pronounced “Hwa-ray,” but I don’t believe it) led the field through halfway in just under 13:00 pace, and by “just under” I mean Hoare went through 2.4K on pace to run 12:59.90. By 4K, Hoare was gone, and Joe Klecker and Woody “William” Kincaid were seven seconds in front of everyone else, the pair still keeping the vanguard on 12:59 pace. Kincaid wound up running 12:51.61, breaking former Bowerman Track Club teammate Grant Fisher’s American record of 12:53.73 from last January on this track. Klecker was second in 12:54.99, making him the number-three American of all time.

While a recent BTC runner and Shelby Houlihan defender breaking another BTC runner’s national record is a wash from the standpoint of anyone who mistrusts and dislikes the club, at least the American indoor 5,000-meter record is now held by someone born in the United States. I doubt anyone quibbles with the fact that Fisher was born in Canada, but when people are associated with dirtbags, it becomes more tempting to start taking cheap shots at their credentials.

The women run the same events in the same order tomorrow. I don’t think any of my nieces are running, but I’ll still be paying attention.