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First Thoughts: Fouad Messaoudi & Logan Measner Record DNF Marks While Numerous Men Run 1:45 (800) in East Region
- Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
- May 25, 2024
- 10 min read
The men's races at the East and West Regional Championships are all wrapped up, meaning that the fields for the NCAA Outdoor Championships are now finalized! Below, we broke down all of the key developments from Friday's men's finals.
Fouad Messaoudi Records DNF in 1500-Meter Finals, Isaac Basten Barely Advances Despite Tactical Miscue
The men's 1500 meters finals on Friday was wildly entertaining and overall fascinating, especially in the West region. However, the biggest storyline that we first need to discuss is Fouad Messaoudi recording a DNF (Did Not Finish).
The Oklahoma State star has looked excellent this spring, running under 3:38 over 1500 meters on two separate occasions, clocking times of 3:36 and 3:37 in back-to-back weeks. And throughout most of yesterday's race, the Cowboy star was leading his heat, opting to be a bit more aggressive than a few others.
But on the final lap, Messaoudi was overtaken by the chase pack which had begun to unleash a barrage of finishing kicks. And when the camera angle changed to show athletes coming off of the final curve, the Stillwater-based star was nowhere to be seen.
Not having Messaoudi advance to the national meet is a crushing blow to fans of the metric mile. While he was arguably better last spring and than he was this year, it still felt like the Cowboy ace had an outside shot of battling for this year's NCAA title. And at the very least, he had proven that he was more than fit enough to be a favorite for All-American honors.
I imagine that the other All-American hopefuls in the men's 1500 meters are breathing a small sigh of relief knowing that they won't have to deal with Messaoudi on the national stage. Because if you look at which men did qualify for the national meet, you'll find that nearly all of the focal 1500-meter stars advanced to the national meet which isn't always the case.
Speaking of 1500-meter stars who nearly didn't advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Drake's Isaac Basten continues to be the king of giving people heart attacks.
In that same 1500-meter final race as Fouad Messaoudi, Basten found himself at the back of the pack going into the final 250-ish meters -- something that is hardly surprising given his racing style.
However, as the final 100 meters unfolded, Basten was still a ways back from the leaders. The Bulldog talent did make up a ton of ground, but he BARELY out-leaned Oregon's Tomas Palfrey at the line by 0.03 seconds, although both men were still able to advance to the national meet based on time.
The catch? Jackson Sharp, the first man out of national qualifying over 1500 meters, was just 0.06 seconds away from Basten.
Basten has proven before that he has a lethal kick and is often brilliant when it comes to tactics. And yet, at the same time, he has a tendency to be far too conservative when implementing his last-lap kick, putting himself in a handful of extremely stressful situations which he frankly doesn't need to do.
I'm not saying that Basten should all of the sudden become an aggressive front-runner for the NCAA Championships, but he'll need to reevaluate his approach for his season finale.
We then come to the East region which had a handful of smaller headlines that are still worth mentioning. One of those headlines being Syracuse freshman Benne Anderson running a 3:39 (1500) to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Anderson was a stud in high school, showcasing tremendous talent. He was a perfect recruiting win for a Syracuse program that needed to establish a greater long-term identity. And yet, despite his resume, I still thought it would be a while until Anderson played a role as a nationally competitive name in the NCAA.
That, of course, is not at all the case.
Anderson has been excellent this season and he seemingly just peaked better than anyone else over 1500 meters relative to expectations. Despite his youth, he has raced with great poise. He has earned a pair of top-eight finishes (between the mile and the 1500 meters) at the ACC Indoor & Outdoor Championships this year. And while that may not seem like anything super exciting, it's important to remember how loaded the ACC is this year at that distance.
Kudos to Coach Brien Bell who has helped Anderson get way ahead of schedule in terms of his collegiate fitness.
Also, I loved seeing Oregon's redshirt freshman Rheinhardt Harrison earning a "big Q" and putting himself on the national stage. He has been pretty sharp in a handful of races this season (although not all), so it's nice to see him execute on a big stage with a lot on the line.
As for everyone else, there weren't too many shockers, although not having Georgetown's Abel Teffra advance to the national meet is a bummer. This guy is absolutely talented enough to be racing at the NCAA Championships (he was, after all, a 5th place mile All-American this past winter) and for the most part, he's been super consistent this year.
In the West region, the biggest omission is Wisconsin's Jackson Sharp, although it should be noted that he still qualified for the national meet over 5000 meters.
In the metric mile prelims, Sharp chose to be the aggressor in the second heat of the men's 1500 meters, taking the lead for 1000 meters before the pack took over. And when it was time to go, Sharp just didn't have enough pop in his legs to respond -- he simply looked tired.
That, however, may have been because he ran 13:17 (5k) at the LA Grand Prix just last week. Thankfully, that didn't impact him too much in the West region 5000 meters where he was still able to extend his season.
Five Men Run 1:45 (800) in East Region Finals While Multiple Breakout Races Result in National Qualification
Wow, the men's 800 meters did not disappoint.
In 2023, the men's East region 800 meters was extremely tactical due to the poor weather as no one ran under 1:49 in the finals. However, this year, we saw TONS of super fast times including five men dip under 1:46 for the half-mile distance.
The quintet of Rynard Swanepoel (Wake Forest), Shane Cohen (Virginia), Camden Marshall (Indiana), Oussama El Bouchayby (Alabama) and Tarees Rhoden (Clemson) all ran 1:45 for the 800 meters on Friday. That's a new PR (to varying extents) for each of those men except El Bouchayby.
For Swanepoel, this isn't necessarily a shocking performance given that he had already run 1:45 (800) this year. However, that effort does validate his earlier breakout race in a major way, especially since he's beginning to flirt with 1:44 territory now.
For Cohen, this is monumental. We have been saying for a while that Cohen is beginning to pick up steam. He has steadily progressed over the half-mile distance and has become increasingly more competitive at the top of talented fields. Even so, running 1:45 (800) was absolutely not something I expected him to do.
And with a mark like that, I can't help but consider him for my All-American picks that we will inevitably make before the national meet.
As for Marshall, this result has to feel really good. He's been an excellent middle distance runners for the last few years, but had never run under 1:46 (800) before and had missed qualifying for the national meet (as an individual) on a handful of occasions.
However, a 1:45 (800) PR shows us that his ceiling is that of an All-American, especially after seeing how competitive he's been with his star-caliber BIG 10 rivals. Marshall is highly experienced and (usually) makes the right tactical decisions more times than not. I'm excited to see how he fares on the national stage.
Oussama El Bouchayby has been a tricky name to figure out this year. He was a D2 megastar last year before transferring to Alabama. And while he has had moments of promise, he hasn't always been available to race (he only competed once this season prior to the regional meets) and his overall consistency has left us wanting more.
Even so, this was a huge step in the right direction and at the perfect time of the season. We know that when he's at his best, El Bouchayby can run with nearly anyone in the NCAA over 800 meters. If this Crimson Tide star can toe the line in Eugene, Oregon healthy and firing on all cylinders, then I wouldn't totally count him out of the national title picture.
And then there's Tarees Rhoden, the Clemson talent who has looked as good as he ever has throughout this still-unfolding postseason. After running 1:45 (800) to win the ACC title, the Tiger star was able to validate that effort with a slight improvement on his PR. For someone who has often been a wildcard in our eyes, seeing Rhoden establish some steadiness at a high level of racing has been extremely encouraging to see.
As for everyone else, most of the major stars did advance to the national meet, although the Georgetown men were extremely unlucky as Tim McInerney and Tinoda Matsatsa were the first two men out of national qualifying, placing 13th and 14th overall despite each man running 1:46 (which was a PR for both).
However, the consolation prize was that freshman Gabriele Angiono ran a fantastic 1:46 PR (which was a full one-second improvement) and secured the final 800-meter qualifying spot to the national meet.
Also, shoutout to Penn State's Yukichi Ishii, Butler's Will Cuthbertson and Army's Luke Griner. All three of those men were incredibly clutch, each running 1:46 (800) personal bests to advance to the national meet. Their consistency, specifically Griner's, paid off in a big way.
As for the West region, there were very few surprises in the men's 800 meters -- almost none, actually. Yes, I will admit, certain men like Matthew Erickson (Oregon) and Angus Harrington (UCLA) were more favored to advance to the national meet than not. Even so, those two athletes were far from locks.
Big shoutout to Texas' Cole Lindhorst who dropped a fantastic 1:46 (800) PR on Friday. He's been a really solid and steady talent across the middle distances, but finally cracking through the 1:47 barrier feels like a huge development. He's always been capable of running a time like this, it was just a matter of when we would see that.
Logan Measner Takes Hard Fall on Barrier to Record DNF While Yasin Sado Posts Impressive 8:27 (Steeple) PR
I don't necessarily want to spend a ton of time on the men's steeplechase mainly because there were very few surprises. In fact, when you look at the East region, you could argue that the men's steeplechase was the most predictable race of the entire weekend as we await the results of the women's finals today (Saturday).
There were, however, two key storylines that I wanted to discuss.
The first is Wisconsin's Logan Measner recording a DNF on Friday. The Badger standout and BIG 10 champion was having a fantastic season over the barriers and water pits. He had run a PR of 8:37 at the Penn Relays and took down a quietly deep field to win the BIG 10 steeplechase title. And through 80% of Friday's race, it looked like the Madison-based standout would extend his season to early June.
However, in the latter portion of the race, Measner tripped over a barrier, taking a hard fall on the back straightaway. And even though he got back to his feet fairly quickly, you could tell from his first few strides that he had a serious limp. That was ultimately enough to end his race (and his collegiate season) early.
I really liked Measner this year. I thought he was a great sleeper pick to be an All-American even in a year where it felt like the steeplechase was crazy deep. Sure, he wasn't in the same tier as Nathan Mountain, Abdelhakim Abouzouhir or Victor Kibiego, but if Measner was a backend All-American this spring, I don't think anyone would have been surprised.
Going back to the East region, we saw Virginia veteran Yasin Sado grab the overall win with a fantastic steeplechase time of 8:27. And with that performance, it's time to start looking more seriously into how high this Cavalier star could place on the national stage.
Sado has always been a reliable distance talent who has offered great value for UVA over the last few years. But in 2024, it's clear that he has taken another step up in his fitness. During the winter months, he ran personal bests of 3:55 (mile) and 7:56 (3k) after clocking a 5k PR of 13:31 at the Boston U. Season Opener.
And now, when you look at Sado's 2024 outdoor track campaign, he has posted steeplechase marks of 8:34, 8:30 and 8:27, in that order.
In other words, few steeplechasers are peaking and progressing better than Sado is this season. If he carries this momentum into Oregon, then...could he realistically battle for the national title? I don't know if I'm there yet, but there's a lot of time (and a lot of thinking to do) between now and the national meet for me to be convinced otherwise.
But at the very least, when it comes to making your All-American picks, you probably won't many more reliable names to add to your predictions than him.
Also, one last note: Shoutout to Montana State. Yet again, they put three men on the national stage in the steeplechase. Seeing Rob McManus and Levi Taylor advance was not a shock by any means, but Owen Smith snagging a national qualifying spot was a pleasant surprise.
Heavy Favorites Deliver on Expectations Over 5k
This was simply one of those events where I shrugged my shoulders and thought, "Yep, seems about right." Of the 24 men who will be contesting the 5000 meters on the national stage, I was not at all surprised by 23 of them earning a national qualifying spot.
The only name who you could maybe say was a surprise national qualifier in this field was Northern Arizona's Brodey Hasty. Yes, he has been a multi-time All-American on the grass before, but the Lumberjack veteran has not had the same kind of success on the track.
Regardless, Hasty has been such a steady and reliable veteran for NAU over the years and he has been instrumental in helping establish their cross country dynasty. Seeing him extend his final season only feels right.
Also, how about Hasty's teammate, Cael Grotenhuis? After being the lowest seeded 10k runner to qualify for the national meet, the rising Lumberjack talent rallied back to also earn a national qualifying spot in the 5k! He's looking really strong so far this postseason and could be super dangerous on the national stage with so many teammates also in the field with him.
