By Becky Hoag
When Oregon’s Edward Cheserek sustained a lower back strain, which caused him to withdraw from the NCAA West Regional, he was unable to defend his NCAA titles in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
Cheserek is a 17-time NCAA champion, 14 in track, three in cross country, and a five-time USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Year. While he has been a finalist for the Bowerman Award, the highest honor for any track and field athlete, for three years in a row, he has never won. This fact has shocked Oregon head coach Robert Johnston.
“Bowerman is the highest award you can get in track and field, right?” Johnson said Tuesday at a press conference previewing the NCAA championships, Wednesday through Saturday at Hayward Field. “Edward won the most national championships in NCAA history. Is there someone sitting here that thinks that that is an oxymoron? I don’t know how those things can be in the same sentence and Edward Cheserek not be awarded.”
Johnson said Cheserek should have at least received the award his first year or in 2016 and yet he did not. And now, Cheserek can’t compete in the NCAA championships, potentially hurting his chance of receiving the award this year.
In Cheserek’s absence, Syracuse junior Justyn Knight is prepared to make his move. He placed 10th at last year’s NCAA outdoor championships, but this May he ran a personal record of 13 minutes, 17.51 seconds at the Payton Jordan Invitational. Cheserek won the NCAA title last year in 13:25.59. Knight feels like this might be his moment.
“For the 10K and lower, all of the distance events are wide open,” Knight said. “And even if Ed was here, I think my expectations would stay the same.”
Knight said that other promising competitors such as Stanford sophomore Grant Fisher and Tulsa senior Marc Scott will make this a tough race.
Knight is interested in seeing what kind of race it will be, as Cheserek’s abilities made the type of race predictable.
“I think this is the best way to approach this race,” Knight said. “We have plenty of athletes here who are capable of a fast race or slow race. You have many talented guys here, and I think the way that all the athletes go into that 5K is to be prepared to run any sort of race, whether that’s tactical or right off the bat.”
