- At the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, two Friday night 10,000-meter races determined who will represent the United States at the World Athletics Championships in July.
- Karissa Schweizer, Alicia Monson, and Natosha Rogers were the top three finishers in the women’s race, while Joe Klecker, Grant Fisher, and Sean McGorty were the top three in the men’s race.
- Those six athletes will return to Eugene for July’s World Championships meet. It will be the first time the meet will be held in the United States.
After 24 and a half laps of the track, Karissa Schweizer sprinted past Alicia Monson to win the U.S. title in the 10,000 meters at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.
Schweizer’s time, 30:49.56, was less than two seconds off her personal best, and by finishing in the top three, she earned a spot on the U.S. squad competing at the World Athletics Championships in July. That meet will also be held in Eugene, the first time the meet will be in the United States.
Monson, who led the last 10 laps of the race until Schweizer went by her, was second in 30:51.09, a personal best by nearly 20 seconds.
Well behind the top two, a pack of six women vied for third place and the final of three Worlds spots. Natosha Rogers and Emily Infeld were back and forth in the final 100 meters, and Rogers pulled ahead just before the line. She clocked 31:29.80, and Infeld was less than a quarter of a second behind, in 31:30.04.
Weini Kelati was fifth, Sarah Lancaster was sixth, and Steph Bruce, in her final year of racing, was seventh.
The race went out in a relatively easy first half. Emily Durgin led the field through a 5,000-meter split of 15:50. The pace picked up considerably in the second half, especially when Monson went to the front.
“When Alicia took the lead, I told myself if I can just stick on her for as long as possible, I have confidence in my kick,” Schweizer said. "She definitely made it difficult. With 400 to go I dug really deep.”
The second-half split for Schweizer was just under 15:00, and Monson was right behind.
“That was a smart move by Karissa,” Monson said of Schweizer’s strategy. “I was just trying to make it an honest race. I knew she was sticking to my shoulder and it was going to come down to a sprint finish.”
Schweizer, 26, runs for the Bowerman Track Club, and she made the Olympic team last year in both the 10,000 meters and 5,000 meters. She had Achilles surgery in October and ran only one race in 2022 before winning the U.S. title. She said she’s excited to see what she can do this year now that she’s pain free.
Schweizer says she’ll be in the 5,000 meters at the U.S. championships in June, when the rest of the events are contested to determine the Worlds team.
Monson, 24, trains with the On Athletics Club in Boulder, Colorado. She, too, made the Olympic team in the 10,000 meters last summer, although in the intense heat of during the Olympic Trials, she wobbled to a third-place finish and then had to spend the night in the hospital. On this evening, the temperatures were perfect for racing.
Monson plans to run a Diamond League 5,000 in June in Oslo, and then she will decide when she returns to the U.S. whether she will contest the event at the U.S. championships.
The race was missing Elise Cranny, who in March ran the second-fastest American time ever for the distance, 30:14, just one second off of Molly Huddle’s American record. Cranny, who trains with Schweizer on the Bowerman Track Club, was the prerace favorite.
But on Thursday, she posted on her Instagram that she hasn’t “been feeling like myself in training” and would skip the race to regroup for the 5,000 meters next month. Her agent did not immediately return a message from Runner’s World seeking clarification, and her boyfriend, Sean McGorty, said Cranny does not have COVID.
Cranny’s absence opened the door for someone else, and Rogers seized the opportunity. She first burst onto the scene in 2012, when she finished second at the Olympic Trials. But she could not go to the Olympics, because she hadn’t run the qualifying standard.
In the years since, Rogers has had injuries, coaching changes, and time away from the sport. She lost her sponsorship before landing with the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, although she is based in Denver and the team trains in Michigan and Florida.
“It’s been a lot of heartache and failure,” she said, “losing sponsorship and crawling my way back.” She was confident in her chances on the last lap—until the very end.
“I was nervous with like 5 yards left, because she almost got me there,” Rogers said. “Just in my head, I was like, ‘No. This is mine today.’ I was able to dig a little bit deeper—barely.”
Infeld was disappointed, but she said she had a lot to be grateful for. She, too, has had severe injuries, a change of team and coach, and a stalker who made her fear for her life. All that is in the past, and considering where she’s been, fourth place is something to relish.
“I feel so good, I feel like I’m back to my old self,” Infeld said. “I haven’t been feeling good for years. I wanted to prove a lot of people wrong. They’re like, ‘She’s old.’ I’m 32. I’m one of the oldest in the field, but I’ve still got this, I still have a kick. Compared to where I was last year, this is a step up.”
Joe Klecker takes the men’s title
The men’s 10,000 meters had the same stakes—top three earn a trip to worlds—but the pace went out so easy that most of the field was still in the race when the sprinting started during the bell lap.
Joe Klecker, an Olympian at 10,000 meters last year, won in 28:28.71, just beating Grant Fisher, the American record holder in the event, who finished in 28:28.81. Fisher’s time was nearly two minutes slower than the record (26:33.84) he set in March, and he said he was disappointed to finish second.
“Ultimately the goal was to get on the team, that’s kind of the base level goal I had for myself,” he said. “But I wanted to win. Joe ran a great last lap.”
Klecker closed with a final lap in 54.81 seconds.
Although Emmanuel Bor had a lead heading into the final 100 meters, Sean McGorty emerged in third place after Bor, slowing, tripped in the final meters and finished in eighth.
McGorty, recovering from Achilles surgery last July, ran 28:29.57 and earned his first berth on a U.S. team.
“It was a weird race,” McGorty said. “I don’t know if we expected it to be fast, but I didn’t expect it to start that slow. And a little bit of cat and mouse, and it was bunching up a ton. I tried to stay as relaxed as possible especially that last 300. You’re trying to close but also navigate all the bodies, so definitely a little more traffic than I wanted to find myself in.”
Dillon Maggard was fourth, Shadrack Kipchirchir was fifth, and Lopez Lomong was sixth. Woody Kincaid, the defending champion in the event, dropped out midway through with a side stitch.
Klecker, like Monson, runs for On Athletics, and Fisher and McGorty run for Bowerman. At the end of the night, between both races, Bowerman had three athletes on the team for Worlds, On Athletics had two, and Hansons-Brooks had one.
In both races, first place earned $8,000, second earned $6,000, and the third-place finishers took home $4,000.
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
