Brad Nye breaks the tape ahead of Edwin Cheserek in the NBIN mile. Photo by Tim O'Dowd.
If you've been watching the trajectory of Brad Nye's indoor season this winter, it's difficult to think of this one as a major surprise. But that's the way most followers of track and field will cast it.
There isn't much that Edwin Cheserek has left unaccomplished this year, but winning the New Balance Indoor Nationals mile title is one thing. That honor fell to Davis's Brad Nye.
For the last two years running, Utah distance has been coming of age. A couple of bad breaks at NXN have blunted the national impact of the rise, but there were no bad breaks today. Nye ran a great race. It's just that simple.
A fluky great race? Not really, look at the times Nye has been posting all season--at altitude--and then try to convince yourself that anything about this run was extraordinary for Nye. Maybe the most surprising thing about the outcome was that he was able to travel across the country, three full weeks after a solid run at Simplot, and put the pieces of the race together when it counted the most.
Nye split 2:00 over the second half of the race to track Cheserek down and win in a impressive time of 4:08.67.
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing Nye now is how to cycle things through in time to be fully ready once again when the big outdoor meets on his schedule rolls around.
Joining Nye in New York was teammate Brayden Cromar. Cromar had a nice run of his own, finishing fifth in the 5000 at 14:56.51.
Definitely something for fans of Utah distance running to celebrate!