Utah’s Clayton Young won the Crazy 8s 8K title on Saturday night
Utah’s Clayton Young bided his time until the last moment and made a strong move to win Saturday’s 33rd Ballad Health and Niswonger Children’s Hospital Crazy 8s 8-kilometer run on the candle-lit streets of the Model City.
With 200 meters to go, Young — the 2019 NCAA 10,000-meter champion from BYU — broke away from a group of six runners as he made his way into J. Fred Johnson Stadium to claim his second USATF title in 22:46 and the $5,000 that went along with the win.
There were nearly 3,200 finishers in Saturday’s races, including the Almost Crazy 3K, which was up almost 300 from last year.
“I was talking with my teammate Conner Mantz, who was runner-up last year and he said when he made his move, he felt like it wasn’t strong enough,” Young said. “He told me that I should be making that move before I turn up the hill. When I made my move, I was thinking about him and how he coached me through those final stages.”
Alberto Salazar’s American record of 22:04 lived another day. The start of the race was delayed by 45 minutes because of a strong thunderstorm that swept through the area.
“I had a lot of confidence going into this race,” Young said. “I’ve trained with Conner a lot and he’s had a great season, so that was a pretty good indicator. I just rode his coattails and went out there to see what I could do today.”
ZAP Endurance runner Andrew Colley was runner-up, finishing in 22:48. Oklahoma State graduate Isai Rodriguez took out the pace early and finished third in 22:49.
Young — who won the 2021 USATF 15K title in Jacksonville, Florida — trains with Mantz and now he’s got one up on his former BYU teammate.
“It’s finally nice to win another U.S. championship,” Young said. “You’ve got to celebrate all the victories, no matter how big or small they are. They keep you going and keep you motivated.
“To feel that strength over the last 800 meters was really validating and hopefully it’ll propel me through these next couple of races and into a fall marathon.”
Kingsport native Emma Russum — a member of Dobyns-Bennett’s 2019 state cross country state title team who now runs for Chattanooga — won the women’s division in 31:02.
It’s a dream come true of sorts for Russum, who’s regularly run the race since she was 6 years old.
“It feels really good to win and it’s even better because I got second last year,” Russum said. “I ran 20 seconds slower than last year, but it was super fun and I definitely was trying to keep a more relaxed effort at the beginning.
“People were yelling at me in the last bit that a girl was coming, so I had to kick it in. I love this race and I’ve been running it since I was big enough to run in (Little 8s).”
Russum made a little bit of area history as well, becoming the third local female runner to win the Crazy 8s title. She joined Johnson City’s Jenna Hutchins and Bristol, Virginia’s Stephanie Place.
“It’s really cool to be a part of such a short history of local winners,” Russum said.
posted Monday July 17th
by Tanner Cook