New Mexico Standout Edges Nico Young For Victory; Tayvon Kitchen Runs All-Time Fastest Prep 3,000 As Two Crater OR Boys Run Under 8 Minutes

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

Ken Martinez/Keenan Gray photos

INTERVIEWS

SEATTLE – Winning’s easier for Habtom Samuel when he has both of his shoes on.

The two-time NCAA cross country championship runner-up didn’t have to worry about racing with only one shoe this time around on day one of the Husky Classic. Instead, he only needed to worry about withstanding nine other competitors in the closing stages of the men’s 3,000 meters.

Samuel of New Mexico clocked 7 minutes, 39.39 seconds to hold off Olympian Nico Young of adidas and eight other collegiate standouts while leading them all under the meet record at the Dempsey Indoor Facility on Friday in Seattle.

Samuel, who moved to seventh on the Division 1 3,000 meters list in the NCAA this season, lowered Lawi Lalang’s meet record time by almost five seconds when the former Arizona Wildcat ran 7:44.20 at the 2014 Husky Classic.

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“I thought it was a good one,” Samuel said. “It was a good race. I had a really good kick against the top guys. I’m happy with the kick and the race overall.”

The prescribed pace for the first 1,600 meters was 4:04, but the lead group came through around 4:07, setting up a more strategic type of race. With less than a kilometer to go, moves were created, and the pace began to ramp up.

On the final lap, Samuel sat in third behind Northern Arizona’s Colin Sahlman and BYU’s Casey Clinger and found some room on the inside to sneak past both of them on the backstretch to ultimately take over the lead in the last 200 meters.

Young, in his first race back since the Paris Olympic 10,000 meters final in August of 2024, was the closest to Samuel at the end, finishing second overall in 7:39.53.

“It ramped up pretty quick,” Young said. “It was a crazy finish. It was fun to practice racing tactics again after only doing workouts maybe with a few people or by myself.”

Samuel’s teammate Ishmael Kipkurui, the 2023 U20 World Cross Country Champion, finished third in 7:40.06 ahead of Portland’s Matt Strangio (7:40.09, fourth), NAU’s Sahlman (7:40.41, fifth), Washington’s Acer Iverson (7:41.02, sixth), BYU’s Clinger (7:41.05, seventh), NAU’s David Mullarkey (7:41.21, eighth) and Drew Bosley (7:41.47, ninth) and Jack Rayner (7:42.57, 10th) of Melbourne Track Club.

Like Josh Hoey last week at the Millrose Games watching his high school national record be snatched by Cooper Lutkenhaus, Young's high school record in the 3,000 meters is no longer the fastest prep performance of all-time, thanks to Crater OR’s Tayvon Kitchen.

Kitchen dipped under Young’s best of 7:56.79 to run 7:55.48 for the fastest 3,000 meters ever run by a high schooler. The time is also faster than the all-time high school outdoor best.

“That’s crazy,” Kitchen said. “I can’t lie, I was going for it, but I didn’t know if I was going to go sub-8 today, so that’s crazy.”

What’s even crazier was his teammate, Josiah Tostenson, also dipped under the eight-minute barrier, running 7:57.42, to become the fourth and fifth high schoolers ever to break eight minutes for the indoor 3,000 meters, albeit on an oversized track. High school national records, officially, can't be set on oversized flat tracks. 

The Crater duo also joined Newbury Park’s Young and Lex Young (7:57.06) as the only other pair in history to have multiple sub-eight-minute racers from the same school in the indoor 3,000 meters.

“Our goal is to become the best duo in high school history,” Tostenson said. “We’re going to do what we can do to get there.”

Sheldon OR’s Malachi Schoenherr ran 8:26.83, placing him ninth on the high school season list.

Washington State’s Evans Kurui broke a facility and meet record in the men’s 5,000 meters in 13:17.16 to move to 10th on the NCAA season list. Stanford’s Thomas Boyden finished second in 13:21.92 and Oklahoma’s Shadrack Kiptoo claimed third in 13:22.14.

Aiden Le Roux (unattached/Cheyenne Mountain CO) and Zafer Courcelle (unattached/Franklin OR) posted the top two 5,000 meters times in the country for high schoolers this season, with Le Roux running 14:15.84 and Courcelle running 14:22.68.

BYU’s Jenna Hutchins cruised to a 13-second win in the women’s 5,000 meter, running 15:31.41.

NAU completed a sweep of the top three spots in the women’s 3,000 meter, with Hayley Burns getting the overall win in 9:01.22. Ava Mitchell and Nikita Moore finished second and third in 9:01.60 and 9:02.18, respectively. The invitational section is coming Saturday.

Victoria Rodriguez and Cassidy Armstrong, local Seattle area preps, ran the third-and fourth-fastest times in the country so far this winter. Competing unattached, Rodriguez (Mercer Island WA) ran US#3 9:31.00 and Armstrong (Ballard WA) ran US#4 9:31.65