Hamer Grabs NCAA’s Top Mark in the 5,000 Meter

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GOLDEN, Colo. – Back with an agenda, the All-American Eric Hamer, who was awarded eligibility for another indoor season recently, crushed the Steinhauer Fieldhouse record Saturday afternoon in the 5,000-meter race with a time of 14:16.29 – good for the first spot in the NCAA Championships if it started tomorrow.

Hamer, of Monument, Colo., was one of two Rams that had their ability to compete on NCAA's biggest stage striped away last March in Albuquerque when the NCAA Indoor Championships was cancelled due to COVID-19. He may have that opportunity this year with the nation's top time that could and should hold within the top-16 qualifiers according to distance coach Art Siemers. The NCAA indoor meet this year will be in Fayetteville, Ark. from March 11-13^th.

With the indoor season cut short, Hamer had today and next week when the Rams take a handful to the Iowa State Indoor Classic to get a qualifying time for the national meet and to get quality races under his belt. Today's Mines Front Range Open, hosted by the Colorado School of Mines, was a meet that just saw the Rams, MSU Denver and the hosts.

The previous facility record that Hamer overtook happened last year by Marcelo Laguera of CSU Pueblo who was also the 2018 NCAA DII Cross Country National Champion. Laguera clocked a 14:34.68, meaning Hamer bettered it by 18.39 seconds.

"It was a small field today, but Hamer's race was perfectly rabbited by Mines' school record holder," Siemers said. "Hamer also had good competition as Mines are the defending national champions in cross country for DII. It is tough to qualify at altitude on a 188-meter track, but he is in great shape. He wants to break his own school record, so he has another shot next weekend when we go to Iowa State. He is one of the top runners in the country, so I'm excited to see what happens next week in a bigger field."

Last indoor season, Hamer set the school record in the 5,000m with a time of 13:40.11 at the Boston Opener.

Other Rams were in competition Saturday with the idea of getting more competition to some that don't fall under the cross country final roster, but need more reps before outdoor season.

"It gave some athletes a chance to compete that won't be traveling to Las Vegas in two weeks for the cross country conference championships," Siemers explained. "It was really good for us to get out there and race and see what else we need to work on. Sydney [Petersen] had a close race down to the wire and Bailee Carr won the mile, which should convert to her best time and show she is more range than the 800m. Dawson [Besst] had a PR and raced a lot smarter than his last outing."

MINES FRONT RANGE FINAL RESULTS
For complete results see link at top of recap
(PR)- Personal Best, (D) – CSU debut

Men's Mile
3. Dawson LaRance, 4:27.43
4. Dawson Besst, 4:27.90 – PR by 2 seconds
5. Ryan Birkmeier, 4:31.45
6. Cameron Ross, 4:34.89

Men's 5,000 Meters
1. Eric Hamer, 14:16.29
11. Gannon Willcutts, 15:33.21
12. Connor McCabe, 15:50.56

--------------------

Women's Mile
1. Bailee Carr, 5:07.39
3. Lauren Neugeboren, 5:13.03
4. Jenna Diers, 5:17.35
6. Lauren Turner, 5:31.07

Women's 3,000m
2. Sydney Petersen, 10:26.84 – PR by six seconds
3. Hailey Leader, 10:50.16

For More on Colorado State Track & Field and Cross Country follow: Twitter – CSUTrackFieldXC | Instagram – csutrackfieldXC | Facebook – Colorado State Track & Field/Cross Country

- CSURams.com -

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