Conner Mantz gains rare American win in NCAA Cross
Conner Mantz became the first American winner of the NCAA cross-country men's title since double Olympic medallist Galen Rupp in 2008 after he destroyed the opposition in the final kilometre.
The 24-year-old Brigham Young student, who this winter has run a 13:28.00 indoor 5000m and last summer ran a 28:07.70 10,000m, ran a well-judged race throughout.
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The early pace on the incredibly wide starting area in Stillwater was very fast.
Newly-crowned NCAA indoor 5000m champion Wesley Kiptoo, who started that race at near world record pace a few days earlier, set off with similar intent and was through the official 1km point here in 2:31.5, but Mantz stuck to the Iowa State Kenyan and was timed at 2:31.7.
Ehab El-Sandali followed with 2:32.7 at 1km, while Kenyan Alex Masai (2:33.5) and South African Adriaan Wildschutt (2:33.7) also committed themselves from the off. In total, 91 runners were timed at 2:40.0 or faster.
At 2000m, Kiptoo (5:23.6) and Mantz (5:24.1) had drawn further away from Masai (5:27.3) and Wildschutt (5:27.6) as they headed a group of 14 which were spread over around 10 metres.
Through 3000m, Kiptoo stayed up front (8:14.6) but he was now joined by a charging Masai (8:14.6) as Mantz dropped back (8:16.6) with Wildschutt (8:21.4) heading a chasing pack of eight which included young Briton Charles Hicks (8:21.8), who led home Britain's under-20 team in the 2019 European Cross Country Championships.
Patrick Dever, who led home Britain's team in the 2019 World Cross-Country Championships in Aarhus with an excellent 37th, was 19th in the next pack (8:30.9).
The 4km split of 11:15.9 for the two leaders showed their gap had now grown over Mantz (11:21.3) who was being caught by Wildschutt (11:21.9). He had a slight gap over the next group led by Luis Grijalva (11:23.7) with Hicks still well placed (11:24.4) in eighth and Dever up to 17th (11:34.2).
At halfway at 5km Kiptoo (14:24.4) was just up on Masai (14:24.7) but Mantz (14:27.6) and Wildschutt (14:27.9) were closing and it was now Somalian Abdihamid Nur (14:32.0) who was up to fifth and drawing away from a pack which still contained Hicks in eighth (14:34.4), with Dever closing and moving through to 16th (14:43.5).
Kiptoo moved clear at 6km (17:24.1) as Masai was joined by Mantz and Wildschutt (all three were on 17:26.5), with Blaise Ferro (17:35.6) moving clear in fifth. Hicks (17:44.1) was beginning to find it tougher and was down to 10th while Dever (17:47.5) was closing fast in 14th.
The 7km mark saw Mantz join Kiptoo (both 20:15.7) with Wildschutt (20:16.1) still with every chance. Masai (20:17.4) dropped off but held a big gap on Ferro (20:27.9) in fifth.
Dever's advance had continued and he swapped positions with Hicks as they sat in 10th (20:38.1) and 12th (20:42.0) respectively.
It still looked a three-way battle for the title at 8km with Kiptoo (23:27.60) marginally ahead of Mantz and Wildschutt (23:28.2). Masai (23:32.7) continued to fade but still had a good margin on Ferro (23:41.5).
Dever's charge was now becoming more noticeable as he was up to seventh (23:47.7) while Hicks was fighting to hold his position in 15th (24:02.6).
As the race entered the final mile, suddenly Mantz was away at 9km (26:28.4), with Wildschutt (26:32.2) edging clear of Kiptoo (26:33.9) and Ferro (26:47.5) up to fourth but under pressure from Nico Young (26:48.1). A now very tired Masai (26:52.0) was only just ahead of Dever (26:52.3). Hicks was now 16th (27:13.6).
The final kilometre was all Mantz. He covered it around 20 seconds faster than the other two medallists as he stretched the winning margin to 22 seconds.
Florida State's Wildschutt (29:48.2) was a clear second, with Kiptoo (29:54.9) just doing enough for third but Young (29:58.3), Dever (30:00.0) and Ferrer (30:02.0) were all bearing down on him. Dever therefore was only five seconds down on a medal and marked an improvement on his 11th-place finish in 2019.
Hicks did well in the last kilometre to get back up to 14th (30:21.0) with a very strong finish.
Isaac Akers, who was 12th in the 2018 European Championships under-20 race but had been 194th and 100th in his two previous NCAA outings, was a fine 19th in 30:25.4.
He followed his Tulsa team-mate Dever through with a steady start but was only 115th after a kilometre and 47th at halfway in 15:00.7. He was still only 36th at 8km (24:19.1) but it was in the closing stages where he did the damage and his 3:00.7 last kilometre was only bettered by the winner Mantz and over 15 seconds superior to the other medallists.
A further Briton Jamie Dee was 56th in 31:04.
Northern Arizona won the team race with four runners in the top 10 and they scored 60 points to Notre Dame's 87.
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