Oregon sophomore Cole Hocker won the 5,000-meter invitational race Friday night at the Oregon Relays with a time of 13 minutes, 19.98 seconds due to a kick that pulled him out of third and into first in the final 150 meters. He finished .26 seconds ahead of teammate Cooper Teare.
Hocker bested the meet record of 13:36.25, and the top four finishers all topped the best outdoor time NCAA this season, 13.24.26.
They didn’t quite get the time they were shooting for, though — the Olympic standard of 13:13.50.
“I was thinking we were probably off that goal time, so just go for the win,” Hocker said. “I was confident, but I was definitely hurting in that last 400.”
This isn’t the first time in 2021 where Hocker has had a significant kick. He beat Teare by .08 to win the NCAA indoor title in the 3,000, and at the Hayward Premiere his kick took him from fourth to first in the final 100 meters of the 800.
“There’s really nobody else in the country that can push me as hard as he does,” said Teare.
The focus of Friday’s final event was on the four runners with at least one NCAA championships apiece: Wesley Kiptoo and Edwin Kurgat from Iowa State along with Hocker and Teare. The four lined up next to each other at the start: from left to right stood Hocker, Teare, Kurgat, and Kiptoo, and in that exact order is how they finished.
The first pacesetter, Neil Gurley, pulled aside at the 4:14 mark, and the second pace-setter, James West, gave way three minutes later. Kiptoo initially had the lead, then Teare took up the mantle eight and a half minutes in. The top group of four made a big pull away from the rest at the 10-minute mark and it was tight all the way through.
Hocker was sandwiched between the two Cyclones with Teare up top. Just after the final turn, he made a maneuver off the rail, narrowly edging in front of Kiptoo and Kurgat then running past the right shoulder of Teare for the victory.
“That was a little bit of a challenge to get around,” Hocker said. “I do my best to kind of throw the gap there, without getting in too much contact. I had to kind of switch focus there in the last 150 and then try my best to get around. Luckily, I found an area.”
