This Just In: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love NAU

Finally, T&F has come back… to Booooosssstttoooonnn.

It has been a long winter folks, but I am happy to have something to write about that isn’t about doping or the shoe debate. The first big weekend of Track and Field is in the books and I’m ready to analyze what Tyler Day’s 5000m American indoor record actually means and why we should start paying attention to Lolo Jones and Craig Engels.

Breaking down the BU 5000m Invite

This was always going to be the most intriguing race of the weekend, including 4 NAU runners, Craig Engels instructed to take the race out in Olympic Qualifying pace, NAZ Elite‘s Matt Baxter, as well as Nike’s Paul Tanui and Eric Jenkins… and while Paul Tanui took home the win, it was NAU’s Tyler Day who made the most impact.

Day was the only NAU runner to grab ahold of Paul Tanui’s pain train and is granted the “American Collegiate indoor 5000m” record for his efforts. 13:16.95 officially breaks Galen Rupp’s record and signals just how brilliant Tyler Day’s future looks. Coming into the race you might not have expected this out of Day, unlike Rupp before him, he did not have the hype behind him that Rupp has always seemed to have. While that may be revisionist history (and the fact that Rupp made the Beijing team the year prior)…