USA Track & Field – News & Notes, Volume 11, Number 3 – Rupp, Crouser post record-setting performances

Galen Rupp reclaimed the American indoor record for 5,000-meters, and Oregon high schooler Ryan Crouser had a monster series of efforts in the shot put at the Simplot Games to shatter the prep indoor record and highlight last weekend's track and field action.

Rupp, who two years ago set an American indoor record of 13:18.12 at the Tyson Invitational, ran a spirited race Saturday against Britain's Mo Farah at the Aviva Birmingham Grand Prix in England to finish second and lop .06 off Bernard Lagat's year-old AR in the event with a 13:11.44. The mark makes Rupp the 13th-fastest all-time performer in the world.

Rupp and Farah recently became training partners under Alberto Salazar. "It is always nice to have a familiar face in a race with you," Rupp told Doug Binder of The Oregonian. "When you train with someone day after day you gain the confidence that no matter what, you can always stay with them in a race."

Crouser, a senior at Barlow (Ore.) High School who won gold for Team USA at the 2009 IAAF World Youth Championships, twice broke the existing national indoor record with the 12-pound shot Saturday at the Simplot Games in Pocatello, Idaho, with his winning mark of 23.54m/77-2.75 adding almost two and a half feet to the previous record of 22.83m/74-11, set by Brent Noon in 1990.  

Crouser initially broke the record on his second attempt with a toss of 22.95m/75-3.5. His full series was 21.95m/72-0.5, 22.95m/75-3.5, foul, foul, 23.54m/77-2.75, 23.15m/75-11.5. Crouser's mark trails only the legendary Michael Carter's 24.27m/81-3.5 in 1979 on the all-time list.

Kastor gives birth!

Andrew Kastor reports on Facebook that 2004 Olympic Marathon bronze medalist Deena Kastor gave birth Monday to their daughter, Piper Bloom Kastor, and that “both mom and baby are doing great.”
 

Help Jim Beatty to North Carolina Greatness!

Jim Beatty, Olympian, former American and world record holder, member of the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame (inducted 1990) and the first man to break the four minute mile barrier indoors, has been nominated as the athlete achieving the greatest moment in North Carolina sports history.

Please go to https://ncshof.org:80/great_moments_vote.php  and cast your vote for Jim!  The voting deadline is April 15, 2011.

Additional information about Jim Beatty can be found at https://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=13.

Andrew Family Success

University of Virginia sophomore Robby Andrews, the 2010 NCAA indoor 800-meter champion and USATF Junior 800-meter titlist, isn't the only member of the Andrews family, of Manalapan, N.J., in the track and field spotlight these days.

On Saturday, February 19, competing in the Atlantic 10 Conference Championships at Kingston, R.I., St. Joseph's University senior Kristin Andrews anchored the Hawks to the A-10 women's 4x800m relay title in 9:09.23.  For St. Joseph's, it was its first victory in this event since 1999.
 
On Sunday, February 20, running in the USATF-NJ Indoor Championships at the Bennett Athletic Complex "bubble" facility in Toms River, N.J., Bob Andrews, 52, father of Robby and Kristin, anchored the Shore Athletic Club to an American Masters 50-and-up club team record of 9:02.56 in the 4x800m relay.  Shore AC, with Dan Kelly, Dr. Tom Cawley and Tony Plaster running the first three legs, erased the former record of 9:06.90 set by the Colonial Road Runners in 2008. (Note courtesy of Elliott Denman)

For more information on USA Track & Field, visit:  www.usa
About USA Track & Field

USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track & field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF encompasses the world's oldest organized sports, the World's #1 Track & Field Team, the most-watched events at the Olympics, the #1 high school and junior high school participatory sport, and more than 30 million adult runners in the United States: www.usatf.org.

Tom Surber
USA Track & Field
Media Information Manager
317-713-4690; Tom.Surber@usatf.org