Personal records were shattered this weekend as a group of five distance runners from the Arizona track and field team went to Walnut, Calif., for the Mt. San Antonio College Relays.
As one of the biggest meets in the country, the Mt. SACs contained athletes from all over the world and Arizona wanted to show it could compete with anyone.
After setting a new personal best in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Jim Click Shootout, sophomore Hannah Moen came to show she could master the 5,000m too.
Moen kept her cool and didn’t let the hundreds of other 5,000m racers get to her.
“”It’s all about how you (mentally) approach races,”” Moen said.
She placed 12th in the Olympic development heat with a time of 16:17.31 and bested her career time by 45 seconds.
“”I was starting to get nervous before the race, but then I thought to myself, ‘I should just have fun with this,'”” Moen said. “”As I walked up to the starting line, it all went away. I stopped worrying.””
Her time was good enough to put her in seventh place in Arizona’s record book. Moen is also the first UA woman to run under 16:20 since 2002.
Despite her performance in the 5,000m, Moen is going to stick to her race, the 3,000m steeplechase, at the Arizona/Arizona State/Northern Arizona tri-meet May 1.
“”I’m happy about the way I did, but I’m still going to focus on the steeplechase. It’s my race,”” Moen said.
Freshman Megan Meyer ran a time of 16:21.54, beat her personal record by 26 seconds and came in 14th place.
The women’s final 5,000m runner, junior Maggie Callahan, also set a new personal record of 16:37.82 and earned 19th place.
Freshman Lauren Smith, had her first collegiate 10,000m race. She came in 20th place in the Olympic development heat with a time of 35:53.31.
For the men, senior Mohamud Ige also added his name to the personal best list of the day with 19th place in the men’s Olympic development 5000m with a time of 13:55.56, five seconds better than his fastest time.