Mary Cain leads Boston Record Party

What an incredible meet!
And maybe at least in part....a BIG part!.....for what happened to 2 key players!
But we'll get to that in a minute (or an hour?), as there's LOTS of tales to tell!

Mary Cain.
A name that has come to mean two things: FAST and RECORDS!
(Also a charming, funny, intelligent girl with a personality to kill for!)

Cain beat a class field of mostly American runners, her time of 2:35.80 crushing her days-old Age 17 record by a whopping 3.45 seconds.
(She needs to get into the "professionals" habit of breaking records by maybe TENTHS of a second, so as to make more money from her efforts!  LOL)

The time inches her onto the A-T World Indoor list for 1000 meters at 23rd place!
She fell short of the AR, but is now 3rd on the US Indoor list!
This moves her from 8th to 3rd on that list!
It's the fastest Indoor 1000 run by any woman under Age 21.
No Meet Record, however, as Regina Jacobs's 2:35.29 (# 2 A-T US) was run in this meet in 2000.

Now for the Big Question.
Does Mary get the HSR (and the Grade 12  record)?
Some are saying NO, as she's a pro.
Some are saying YES, as she's still a HS student in Bronxville NY.
I'll side with the YES folks....until or unless EVERYONE says otherwise!
Thus, the HSR remains in Cain's hands, as does the 12th grade record!

This race produced several other good marks.
Chanelle Price took 2nd in 2:36.63.
She moves from 13th on the A-T US list down to 4th.
Right behind her was Sarah Brown, whose 2:36.90 gives her 5th on the US list.
Comebacking Molly Beckwith ran a solid 2:37.19, for 6th A-T US!!
Treniere Moser, Cain's teammate, was leading the race until Cain's kick overpowered her (and the rest!).
But she held on to run 2:37.88, merely 8th on the US list.
She moves up 2 spots from 10th.
And Heather Kampf ran 2:40.90, for 18th A-T US!

A quality field....and 17 year old Mary Cain beat them all!

A men's race had similar depth for its deep American squad.
The 3000 was won by Hagos Gebrhiwet in 7:34.13, with Dejen Gebrmeskel in 2nd with 7:34.70
No records set by them, but a great race nonetheless.
However, behind them were several Americans who invaded the record book with alacrity!!

Sprinting hard, but barely missing catching Gebrmeskel, was Ryan Hill.
His 7:34.87 is now 3rd A-T US Indoors!
Then came Garrett Heath, whose 7:37.40 is now 4th US!
His time moves him from 18th to his 4th place position!
The parade continued with Andrew Bumbalough's 7:37.62, moving him from 8th to 5th on the US list!

I should mention here the sad fate of Canadian NOP member Cam Levins.
With 5 laps to go, he lost a shoe!
Yet, with just one shoe on, he finished in 7:41.59, a near Canadian record!
Kevin Sullivan, who holds that record with his 2007 mark of 7:40.17, tweeted Cam that an asterisk should be put by his mark, indicating HE did it with TWO shoes!!

Behind Levins was Will Leer, whose 7:42.95 makes him 15th All-Time US Indoors!
Finally, Hassan Mead's 7:44.88 places him 19th A-T US!

Three races were run that are rarely run at the pro (or any!) level, indoors or out!
Guess we'll start with the one that set a new Indoor WR!
Yep, I mean the Men's 4X800 Relay!
That one that Nick Symmonds has been trash-talking for the past umpteen weeks!!
Well, Nick will have to ask for a re-match!

His Brooks Beasts squad took....3rd!
Winning, with the WR time of 7:13.11 was the US All-Stars team, led by Duane Solomon!
Second was the NJ/NY Blue team, whose 7:13.22 is now # 2 A-T Indoors!
It's also a Meet Record, as the previous best, 7:13.94 by Team Global, was set at this meet in 2000!!

The Women's 2000 was, like the Men's 3K, very deep for the Americans.
In fact, it was new 4:24.54 miler Kim Conley who won!
Her time of 5:41.10, a Meet Record, is # 2 A-T USA (on a VERY short list!!), and # 17 A-T World!

She beat Emma Coburn by over 6 seconds, but that didn't prevent Coburn's 5:47.20 from getting her into 5th on the US list!
Lucy Van Dalen (NZ) was next at 5:47.62, but set no records.
Stephanie Garcia, the next American, reached 6th A-T US with her 5:48.25.
Then came Nicole Bush, her 5:49.29 giving her 7th A-T US
Then came Morgan Uceny's 5:49.97, giving her 9th US.
Finally, Heather Wilson's 5:50.35 gave her # 10 US!

Last but not least is the Women's 2 mile!
This was supposed to be a slam-dunk for Jenny Simpson to SHATTER the AR (Regina Jacobs's 9:23.38 from 2002)

BUT........
the "Lopez Lomong Syndrome" attacked her at about the 2800 mark!!
What's the "Lopez Lomong Syndrome" you ask?
Remember the Payton Jordan Stanford meet in 2012?
Lomong blasted a fierce "last lap" kick of 53 seconds....in the 11th lap of the 5K!
Stopping, he was told he had a lap to go!
He got going again, and finished with a 66 second REAL last lap, winning in 13:11.63.

Well, Jenny Simpson didn't have the same luck.
Thinking she'd beaten Sally Kipyego after kicking hard to nab her at the "tape", Simpson stopped.
Then looking bewildered, she started running again.
And finished 2nd to Kipyego, her 9:26.19 giving her 2nd  A-T US.
And 9th A-T World!!

Kipyego's winning 9:21.04 wasn't a Kenyan record, but it does place her 7th in the World!

Jordan Hasay is now the NOP team's fastest indoor 2 miler!
She beat Mary Cain's 9:38.68 (run in 2013) with a good 9:36.00.
Hasay is now 22md best-ever in the World Indoors, and 9th best US!!

It was quite a meet.
On a scale of 0-10, considering its achievement of records and high places on lists, I'd give it a 9.
It would've gone to 9.5 if not for Jenny's little arithmetic problem (LOL), and Cain's not kicking as hard as she thought she could (She said this in a post-race interview!), and one more "niggle"

That being Galen Rupp DNF'ing in the mile!
He appears to be okay, but he stopped with less than 400 to go because of a "sharp pain" in his foot.
But he was seen jogging afterward....with no limp or apparent serious injury!

This meet produced so many great marks, I'll have to do a separate post for all the rest of this week's material.
It will follow in the next hour or so!