EUGENE, Ore. — Even when he emerged from his second season at University of Oregon as a world-class miler, Cole Hocker reasoned he was not at peak fitness. Not when he watched peers run 1,500 meters in 3 minutes, 30 seconds, and still summon a sprint.
How did they do that?
Now, he knows. So does everyone else in track and field.
The 23-year-old from Indianapolis obliterated the U.S. Olympic Trials record in the 1,500 meters Monday night, so much so that he towed seven others under the record. Hocker bolted into the lead 250 meters out, then hung on to win in 3:30.59 at Hayward Field.
As gratifying as it all was, his coach reminded him this was a preliminary round. The 1,500-meter final is Aug. 6 at the Paris Olympics.
The goal, Hocker said, remains a medal.
“I’m not going to limit myself to top three,” Hocker said. “I’m going to go for the gold, for sure.”
Notre Dame graduate Yared Nuguse was second in 3:30.86 and 20-year-old Hobbs Kessler third in 3:31.53.
Hocker’s time was a personal best, bettering his time in finishing seventh at the 2023 World Championships. Moreover, if he didn’t know the time, he would have assumed it was another 3:35 race. Never had he shifted gears at such a fast pace, he said.
Top eight were under the trials record of 3:34.09 set by Matthew Centrowitz in 2016, the year he won gold at Rio de Janeiro.
Hocker, a state champion at Cathedral High School, conceded pressure can be greater at these trials than at the Olympics. When he got to Tokyo three years ago, he said he was just happy to be there.
“This team is so cutthroat to make,” Hocker said. “When the pressure was the highest, I executed. I couldn’t have raced better, I don’t think.”
In this race, instead of riding the rail as usual, Hocker ran along the outside of lane 1, following Nuguse. It can be risky to seize the lead as far out as Hocker did, but he built a four-meter that was unassailable.
Hocker ran the last 400 meters in 52.63, last 800 in 1:49.44. Nuguse’s last 400 was 53.17.
Hocker looked twice over his right shoulder as he approached the line, pumped his fist as he crossed and raised his arms in victory.
He became the first to win the 1,500 back-to-back at the trials since Jim Ryun in 1968/1972. Another Oregon runner, Dyrol Burleson, did so in 1960/64.
Nuguse had been 6-0 against Hocker since the 2021 trials, with three of the races at Hayward Field.
So the pace wouldn’t lag and allow younger collegians to stay in it, Nuguse took it upon himself to lead.
“I felt like going out and hammering it was the way to go,” Nuguse said. “I wish I could have had a little something extra. Today, Cole got the better of me. It just shows how good our team is going to be in Paris, honestly.”
Elsewhere, in a couple of surprise outcomes by Hoosier women, Allie Wilson finished second in the 800 meters, and Charity Hufnagel won the high jump.
Wilson is guaranteed a place at the Paris Olympics, but a technicality could block Hufnagel.
After reigning Olympic champion Athing Mu tripped and fell, Nia Akins seized control of the 800 and finished first in 1:57.36.
Wilson was second in 1:58.32.
“Only so few people in this world can call themselves an Olympian. And I can’t believe I can be one of them,” Wilson said.
Wilson, 28, a former high school soccer player who ran for Monmouth University (N.J.), was coached by Andrew Begley and Amy Yoder Begley at the Atlanta Track Club. When Amy, an Indiana Olympian at 10,000 meters, relocated to Indianapolis to become USA Track & Field’s associate director of long distance programs, Wilson followed.
Consequently, Wilson lost her sponsorship. She worked as a nanny to support herself after moving to Broad Ripple. She won February’s U.S. indoor title, then signed a Nike contract.
Hufnagel, who transferred from Ball State to Kentucky, ended the most dominant streak in American high jumping. Vashti Cunningham had won 13 consecutive indoor and outdoor titles.
Hufnagel cleared a personal best of 6 feet, 4 ¼ inches on her first attempt. Just 12 days before, she was 12th in the NCAA Championships here.
NCAA indoor champion Rachel Glenn, of Arkansas, was second, also at 6-4 ¼.
Cunningham, third at 6-3 ¼, was world bronze medalist in 2019 and world indoor champion in 2016. She is the daughter of former NFL quarterback Randall Cunningham.
Because Hufnagel lacks the Olympic standard of 6-5 ½ and has a low world ranking, she likely will not be on the U.S. team.
The former Charity Griffith, 23, of Rushville, called herself a “mediocre high school athlete.” She never scored in a state meet and ran races from 200 to 3,200 meters.
This was reminiscent of last year’s scene at Austin, Texas, where she surprisingly won an NCAA title representing Ball State.
“It definitely did remind me of Austin a little bit,” Hufnagel said. “I had injuries up to this point, and I knew all the steps were slowly starting to come back together, finding my rhythm again. Honestly, just lessons and trials over and over that God has taught me.”
At this year’s NCAAs, Hufnagel finished seventh in the heptathlon.
In the Olympic Trials heptathlon, two-time NCAA indoor champion Jadin O’Brien, of Notre Dame, was seventh with 6,108 points. Ball State’s Jenelle Rogers was 10th with 5,969.
Qualifying for Thursday’s final of the 3,000-meter steeplechase were two Indiana women: NCAA runner-up Olivia Markezich, of Notre Dame, and Butler graduate Angelina Ellis, of Zionsville.
Contact WTHR correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
