Woody Kincaid and Elise Cranny used ferocious, last-lap kicks to win the 10,000-meter titles Thursday in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships.
Kincaid, the former University of Portland star, covered the last 400 meters in 54.76 seconds to barrel to finish line in 28 minutes, 23.21 seconds in the men’s race before a crowd of 5,311.
Grant Fisher, fourth at the 2022 World Outdoor Championships, had taken the lead at the bell for the last lap. But Kincaid was third, and lurking.
Kincaid took the lead on the back straight, and once he had it, he wasn’t going to relinquish it.
Joe Klecker the, 2022 U.S., champ, was second in 28:24.96. Sean McGorty was third and Fisher faded to fourth.
“It was my kind of race,” Kincaid said. “Not fast, not slow, a little bit windy.”
When the hard push began late in the race, Kincaid was just where he wanted to be.
“Right in my wheelhouse,” he said.
Similarly, Cranny bided her time through most of the women’s 10,000 meters, then struck on the last lap.
She bolted past front-running Alicia Monson with 250 meters to go and won going away to finish in 32 minutes, 12.30 seconds.
Cranny said the race fell into place for her when Monson began her push over the final four laps.
“I just tried to find a good spot on the rail and stay as relaxed as possible,” she said. “I thought Alicia might take it at some point. I just tried to be ready.”
Monson placed second in 32:17.51. They will be two of the three entries on the U.S. team for the World Outdoor Championships later this summer in Budapest, Hungary.
Natosha Rogers was third in 32:22.77, but hasn’t met the world qualifying standard of 3:40.00. In fact, the only other runner in the race to have achieved the standard within the qualifying standard is fifth-place finisher Karissa Schweizer.
Both Cranny and Schweizer compete for the Eugene-based Bowerman Track Club. Runners without standard have until July 30 to meet it.
Runners can also get into the world championships if they have a high enough world ranking.
McGorty, the third-place finisher in the men’s race, also needs the standard of 27:10.00 or a high enough world ranking to make the world championships team. Fisher has the standard. Both runners are members of the BTC.
There were some interesting moments in the qualifying preliminaries.
Yared Nuguse led a swift first heat of the of the men’s 1,500 to the finish line in 3:35.37. Former UO runner Johnny Gregorek qualified automatically by finishing third in 3:36.95.
All three time qualifiers came out of that preliminary, including 2016 Olympic gold medalist Matthew Centrowitz, who squeaked into Saturday’s final with a sixth-place finish in 3:37.36.
In the third semifinal, ex-UO star Cole Hocker used his fierce kick to cross first in 3:39.23.
Hocker’s former Oregon teammate Cooper Teare was caught in the final two steps by Henry Wynne, who placed third in 3:39.34. Teare was a non-qualifying fourth in 3:39.38.
“I wanted to use as little energy as possible,” Hocker said. “That’s the name of the game in the prelims.”
It was that kind of a day, hot through afternoon, but comfortably cool by the 10,000 finals in the evening.
Ten-time U.S. champ Emma Coburn cruised to a first-place finish in her preliminary heat of the women’s steeplechase in 9:36.69. She was followed to the finish line by Oregon State’s Kaylee Mitchell, second in 9:38.15.
The real drama occurred early in the second semifinal when Courtney Frerichs of Bowerman Track Club crashed going over a barrier on the home straight early in the race.
The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist had to patiently, but urgently, work her way back into the mix.
She did, advancing to Saturday’s final as a time qualifier in 9:47.36.
Frerichs, who is coming off December ankle surgery, was running her first steeple chase this season.
“Not ideal,” she said.
The fall came when the runners were still jogging through the early laps.
“I went over that barrier and somehow I stalled going over it, and I hit it,” Frerichs said. “I don’t really know what happened. It’s part of the event.”
After that it was just a matter of keeping her composure and moving up. Her veteran savvy helped her do what she had to do.
Sha’Carri Richardson exploded to a world-leading time of 10.71 while posting the day’s fastest qualifying time in first-round heats of the women’s 100.
Seventeen-year-old Mia Brahe-Pedersen, and former UO stars English Gardner and Jenna Prandini also advanced to Friday’s semifinals. UO sprinter Micah Williams and former UO sprinter Kyree King moved on in first-round heats of the men’s 100.
Former UO star Raevyn Rogers, who represents the Portland-based Union Athletics Club, kicked hard off the last turn to win her qualifying heat of the women’s 800 in 2:00.08.
Rogers, bronze medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, had the day’s second-fastest time behind USATF indoor champ Nia Akins, who won her heat in 1:59.09.
Sinclaire Johnson of the Union Athletics Club, the reigning U.S. champ, cruised to a first-place finish in her qualifying heat of the women’s 1,500. She finished in 4:07.84, the day’s fastest time.
Here are the results from the USATF Outdoor Championships: https://results.usatf.org/2023Outdoors/
— Ken Goe for The Oregonian/OregonLive reported from Eugene.
KenGoe1020@gmail.com | Twitter: @KenGoe