By Isaac Gibson
Akron junior Clayton Murphy took the lead down the homestretch of Hayward Field and won his first NCAA outdoor championship in the 1,500 meters Friday in 3 minutes, 36.38 seconds, the leading time in the U.S. this year.
“I’ve never gotten to run a victory lap around Hayward before,” said Murphy. “Getting to do that for the first time was really cool.”
Murphy is known for running the 800 meters. It has been his event in every championship race he has competed in as a collegian. He won the NCAA indoor title in the event and has a personal best of 1:45.49.
In Friday’s race, Murphy stayed toward the back of the lead pack. As the race began to spread out, it was a battle between Izaic Yorks of Washington and Henry Wynne of Virginia.
Yorks’ plan was to run a fast race to take the finishing kick out of Murphy. “But obviously that didn’t work,” Yorks said.
With roughly 120 meters to go, Murphy closed the gap between him and the leaders. He took the lead with 100 to go and did not look back. Yorks crossed the line second in 3:38.06. Wynne finished third in 3:38.35.
Now that Murphy has shown he has the strength and speed to compete at a high level in both events, the question is which one will he choose to compete in at the upcoming Olympic trials in July.
“I don’t know,” said Murphy. “I guess it is something that I will just have to figure out soon.”
Murphy already has the Olympic standard in the 800 meters, but he fell .18 second short of the 3:36.20 mark in the 1,500 meters.
“The plan is to race in Portland on Sunday in the first heat of the 1,500,” Murphy said. “That is supposed to be a little faster, but I wasn’t really expecting to run 3:36 today.”
