Martin's magical season continues
His 3:48.11 anchor leg propels Virginia to victory in men's distance medley relay in NCAA Indoor Champs
Gary Martin’s breakout junior year at the University of Virginia continued in a big way in the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Friday.
Running in the final race on the first day of the two-day meet at the Virginia Beach Sports Center, Martin ran clocked a stellar 3:48.11 on his 1,600-meter anchor leg in the distance medley relay to give Virginia its first-ever national title in the event
The Cavaliers’ time of 9:15.12 was the second-fastest collegiate time in history in a race contested on a 200-meter oval and it left them a little more than two seconds in front of second-place North Carolina at 9:17.17.
Oregon, which was in first place after the first, second, and third legs of the race, finished third in 9:17.57, followed by Texas A&M in 9:17.74, BYU in 9:18.31, and defending champion Oklahoma State in 9:20.10.
“It’s pretty simple. You don’t need to be in a big rush,” Virginia’s Connor Murphy said when ESPN’s John Anderson asked him about his strategy when he started his 800-meter leg. “Just get the baton around the track to Gary Martin. He knows what he’s doing. The job was that simple.”
Virginia had been in third place after the opening 1,200-meter leg of the race when Wes Porter ran 2:52.97, as well as after the 400-meter second carry when fellow senior Alex Sherman ran 46.54. But Martin was in fifth place when he received the baton from Murphy after his senior teammate had run 1:47.50 on his 800-meter leg.
However, Martin was only 1.2 seconds behind first-place Oregon when he started his leg and everyone in the stands knew he could easily make up that deficit during the upcoming eight laps of the track. The question was could he hold off senior Ethan Strand of North Carolina, who was a little less than a second behind Martin when he began his leg in sixth place?
Strand had crushed the collegiate records in the 3,000 meters and the mile earlier in the season when he ran 7:30.15 in the former and 3:48.32 in the latter, but Martin had given the mile mark a scare when he ran 3:48.82 to finish fifth in the Wanamaker Mile in the Millrose Games in New York City on Feb. 8.
That time had crushed his previous indoor best of 3:54.94, but he had shown his performance was not a fluke by running a 3:50.09 anchor leg for a Virginia squad that had lowered the collegiate record in the distance medley relay to 9:14.19 in the Arkansas Qualifier meet on Feb. 21.
He then finished second in the 5,000 — to Strand — in the Atlantic Coast Conference championships on March 1 before winning the 3,000 in 7:36.69 two days later.
While some fans might have longed to see Strand and Martin go head to head in the mile in the NCAA championships, they both decided to forgo that individual event so they could put their best foot forward while running with teammates in the distance medley relay.
Martin and Strand ran in fifth and sixth place, respectively, for the first half of their anchor legs. But they had moved up to fourth and fifth, behind Oklahoma State, Oregon, and BYU with 600 meters left in the race, and Strand was in first place and Martin was in second with 400 meters remaining.
Those two had broken clear of the rest of the field with 300 meters to go and Strand was still in the lead heading down the backstretch for the final time. However, Martin looked much more relaxed than his rival at that point in the race and he moved past him with about 120 meters left in the contest and continued to pull away from a visibly straining Strand all the way to the finish line.
“We’ve done this before. We’ve been there, so I think I just gotta treat it like any other race,” Martin said when Anderson asked him how he approached his anchor leg, “Stay calm. It’s easy to get excited at a national meet, but just save the energy for the last two laps.”
He then added that running with three senior teammates in the distance medley relay meant a lot to him.
“I think I really had to capitalize on this. And it’s pretty special to be a part of this group.”
Oklahoma State was in first place in the team standings with 17 points after Friday, followed by Virginia with 15. BYU, Duke, New Mexico, Texas, Texas A&M, Wyoming, and pre-meet favorite Arkansas were tied for third place with 10 points each.
In addition to the distance medley relay, four other finals were contested in the men’s meet on Friday, with sophomore Brian Musau of Oklahoma State winning the 5,000 meters and seniors Simen Guttormsen of Duke, Daniel Kelsey of Texas, and Daniel Reynolds of Wyoming placing first in the pole vault, long jump, and 35-poumd weight throw, respectively.
Musau, who had finished fifth in the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November, outkicked fellow sophomore Habtom Samuel of New Mexico to win a depth-laden 5,000 with a time of 13:11.34.
Samuel, the runner-up in the last two NCAA cross country championships, finished second in 13:11.78, followed by Wake Forest sophomore Rocky Hansen in 13:12.65, senior Casey Clinger of BYU in 13:13.46, and sophomore Dennis Kipngetich of Oklahoma State in 13:13.71.
Hansen, Clinger, and Kipngetich all set personal bests in the race in which seven runners ran under 13:16.
The race started out at a decent clip as Yaseen Abdalla of Arkansas led the field through the first kilometer in 2:37.04 before Samuel was in front when he passed two kilometers in 5:17.72 and three kilometers in 7:57.46. But the pace slowed substantially in the second half of the fourth kilometer as Drew Bosley of Northern Arizona was in the lead at 4,000 meters in 10:42.21.
Marco Langon of Villanova then moved to the fore and came through 4,400 meters in 11:44.90 and 4,600 in 12:16.01 after running the previous lap in 31.11 seconds. However, Samuel and Musau had broken clear of their closest pursuers as they began the bell lap and the Kenyan eventually overtook the Eritrean by running his final 200 meters in a swift 25.81 seconds.
That split was part of a final 400 in 55.12 and a last kilometer in 2:28.85.
Guttormsen cleared 5.71 meters (18 feet 8¾ inches) in the pole vault and Kobe Babin of South Florida also cleared a personal best when he finished second at 5.66 (18-6¾).
Hunter Garretson of Akron also cleared 5.66, but he finished third because he made that height on his third attempt and Babin made it on his first.
Guttormsen’s victory came two years after his older brother, Sondre, had tied the collegiate record of 6.00 (19-8¼) while winning the 2023 NCAA indoor title for Princeton.
They are the first brother duo to have won NCAA championships in the pole vault.
Kelsey dominated the long jump as his top mark of 8.16 (26-9¼) was nearly eight inches farther that the 7.96 (26-1½) best of runner-up Nikaoli Williams of Oklahoma. He also had efforts of 8.11 (26-7¼) and 7.97 (26-1¾).
Henry Kiner of Arkansas finished third at 7.91 (25-11½) and teammate Uroy Ryan placed fifth at 7.86 (25-9½) to give the top-ranked Razorbacks 10 points in the event. However, they later suffered a setback in the 5,000 when Patrick Kiprop and Abdalla finished 14th and 15th, and accounted for no points in the meet in which the top eight finishers are awarded points on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
Like Kelsey in the long jump, Reynolds had the top three marks in the weight throw, led by a personal best of 25.08 (82-3½) that moved him into a tie for second on the all-time collegiate performer list.
He also had throws of 24.61 (80-9) and 24.56 (80-7) in the competition in which Trey Knight of Cal State Northridge finished second at 24.49 (80-4¼) and Ryan Johnson of Iowa placed third at 24.48 (80-3¾).
Knight had been in sixth place after the first four rounds with a best of 23.50 (77-1¼) before his 24.49 toss in the fifth round propelled him to a runner-up finish for the second year in a row.
Peyton Bair of Texas A&M led a tightly-bunched group after the first four events of the men’s heptathlon as his 3,357-point total put him 17 ahead of Ben Barton of BYU, 65 up on Edgar Campre of Miami, and 68 in front of Jack Turner of Arkansas. Carter Morton of Iowa was in fifth place, 92 points out of first place.
Bair, a junior, posted the fastest time of the competition in the 60-meter dash when he ran 6.74 seconds, but he had fallen into fifth place in the standings after leaping 6.92 (22-8½) in the long jump.
He moved into second place after putting the shot 14.42 (47-4¾) before taking the lead after clearing 2.03 (6-8) in the high jump in the final event of the first day.
In addition to the five finals and the first day of the heptathlon on Friday, qualifying races were held in the men’s 60, 200, 400, 800, mile, and 60-meter high hurdles.
The 60 produced the three fastest indoor times in the world this year as JC Stevenson of USC clocked 6.46, followed by Jordan Anthony of Arkansas in 6.47, and Kayinsola Ajayi of Auburn in 6.48.
The men’s meet is scheduled to start today at 9:35 a.m., Eastern Time, with the heats of the 60-meter high hurdles in the heptathlon.
The field events will kick off with the high jump at noon, with track events starting with the mile at 6 p.m.