By Shawn Medow
Nerys Knights could not stay seated while her daughter, Bethan, ran the 10,000 meters Saturday at the Pac-12 championships. She rose to her feet, went back down to her seat, then rose again to take a photograph with her camera. Nerys did not take her eyes off the track.
Bethan, a Cal junior, placed third behind Colorado runners Erin Clark and Makena Morley, who finished in 33 minutes and 23.92 seconds and 33 minutes and 29.22 seconds, respectively.
“I wanted to compete for her —Mother’s Day weekend,” Bethan said. “It means so much for me to have my family come out. They make it to all the events and that makes a difference because I want to put myself out there.”
Even with the third-place finish, Bethan set her personal record at 33 minutes, 30.13 seconds—1.12 seconds better than her previous best.
“I wasn’t going for time today—just kind of going in there to get some points for Cal,” Bethan said. “I just like running the 10K. I just went in there to compete today; I didn’t have a time goal —you know I actually thought it was going to be a lot slower — one second PR is pretty good.”
Bethan was all about getting points for the team. The greater the distance she runs, the better she does, so she knew she had a stronger chance of scoring more points for Cal by running the 10,000 rather than the 5,000. She also chose to run wearing flats over the spikes.
“The spikes beat your legs up a little bit,” Bethan said. “If I can do something in flats one week, then I just have a lot of confidence that I can run it even faster than I have in spikes.”
Bethan led for a chunk of the race, battling with Clark and Morley for possession of the lead. The rain held up for the vast majority of the race, but on the final lap, it all came pouring down.
With about 200 meters to go, Clark kicked and got ahead of Bethan, followed by Morley who got into second on the final straight.
“It’s rough in the 10K when you’ve done so many laps, but they’re just good competitors,” Bethan said. “I felt like I gave it my all with the rain and stuff, but they were in a better position to pass me.”
Ahead of the race, not much discussion goes on between Bethan, her mother and her boyfriend John Hogan, a sophomore 5,000-meter runner for Cal.
“There’s nothing I can really tell her,” Hogan said. “She’s the vet.”
Bethan now shifts focus to running the 10,000 meters at regionals and again at Hayward Field in the NCAA Championships.
“I think the coolest thing is her rising to the elite level,” Hogan said. “She’s an all-American, now she’s maybe in the cards of winning a national championship.”
