Izzy Thornton-Bott holds off the field for her first victory at Hayward Field. Photo by Cierra Hitner
Oregon’s Izzy Thornton-Bott has aspirations beyond the Hayward Premiere, but this weekend’s competition provided an opportunity to gauge her personal progress and showcase a winning effort inside Hayward Field for the first time.
“I knew I wanted to produce something solid today,” said Thornton-Bott. “What’s more solid than a win?”
Thornton-Bott, a redshirt junior who transferred from the University of Waterloo, won with a time of 2:04.98.
Mia Moerck, a redshirt junior from the University of Oregon, led the pack through the first half of the race, clocking a 60.76 seconds split after the first lap. Moerck, Thornton-Bott, and Oregon senior Carly Kleefeld rounded out the top three 500 meters in.
With a bit over 200 meters left in the race, Moerck, the rabbit, stepped into the infield, leaving an opportunity for a teammate to take the lead. Thornton-Bott passed Kleefeld on the outside, and with 100 meters left the teammates were shoulder–to-shoulder entering the final stretch, with Portland sophomore Laura Pellicoro trailing less than a stride behind them.
Pellicoro passed Kleefeld with about 40 meters left in the race, but her final kick wasn’t enough to catch Thornton-Bott.
In preparation for the outdoor season, Thornton-Bott traveled with the Oregon team to the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center during spring break. The trip was only nine days removed from Thornton-Bott’s third-place finish with her distance medley relay team at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She said the training has been extensive since the indoor season and there hasn’t been much let up.
“It was just nice to be away and have somewhere that isn’t full of distractions,” said Thornton-Bott. “It was a good opportunity to focus on honing our craft, producing more quality training than you get when you’re tired.”
Apart from the training, Thornton-Bott took advantage of the time to do some reading. Part of that reading included Adharanand Finn’s “Running with the Kenyans” as Thornton-Bott admitted she needed to “catch up on her running reading.”
“I got like three books read,” said Thornton-Bott with a laugh. “It was so nice.”
Thornton-Bott also finished second overall in the women’s 1,500 meters invitational Friday, but had the best time out of collegiate athletes.
This weekend was her first opportunity to compete in Outdoors for the Ducks, and she didn’t disappoint. “This weekend, part of it was practicing championship racing,” said Thornton-Bott. “We just wanted to come in and see where I was at… just prepare for the rest of the season, in terms of Oregon Relays, Pac-12s, regionals and going into nationals.”
Thornton-Bott’s outdoor debut was reminiscent of her NCAA Cross Country debut. Back in September, the Australian transfer won the Dellinger Invitational.
Thornton-Bott revealed Saturday that shortly after that competition she suffered a stress fracture in her left leg, sidelining her from October until early January.
“I just had a lot going on,” said Thornton-Bott. “The Oregon Track and Field program was so supportive afterwards… it has really set an excellent tone for the rest of my collegiate career here.”
