No Comparisons. The Frazier Sisters Triply Owned New Balance Nationals.
Prior to this weekend, just one other athlete was able win the difficult “distance triple” at the New Balance Nationals. Just one person was able to win the mile, two mile and 5,000-meter run against some of the best athletes in the country.
Now they’re at two and, not surprisingly, they share the same bloodline.
With her wire-to-wire victory in the mile run, Ryen Frazier capped off an amazing three days on the University of North Carolina’s Irvin Belk track. That win, one that produced a time of 4:45.23, enabled Frazier to make a clean sweep of the distance events, a feat she only shares with her older sister, Wesley, who did it all at the 2013 nationals.
Often times this week, the young Frazier stated she was unsure if she would make an attempt at the triple crown that her sister achieved two years ago. The deciding fact, plain and simple, was she just didn’t want to have any regrets.
“I didn’t want to look back and say to myself could I have done it, should I have done it. I looked at myself and said I might as well do it, see what I can do and if it’s not my race, it’s not my race,” she said. “I might as well give it a try.”
In a field that featured several runners who have run in the low 4:50s and under, Frazier hung with the lead pack after the first lap, passed at a very-relaxed 74 seconds. The Ravenscroft (NC) senior then felt it was time to take charge, picking up the pace considerably with a 69-second 400m split.
“We went really slow that first lap, close to what we did in the two mile last night,” said Frazier, making reference to her win in the deuce where she was timed in 10:07.16. “I was like I don’t want to make this some sort of kicker’s race. Not that I couldn’t use my kick, but based on the weekend I didn’t know how much was left. I was like this is too slow for me so I moved up. I knew people would go with me. All I thought about was gaping from there.”
Frazier produced a gap of four seconds by the time she crossed the line. Finishing second was Massachusetts’ state champion Ariel Keklak, who dipped under 4:50 for the first time with a PB of 4:49.27. Allie Schadler of Rio Rico (AZ) was third in 4:49.37.
Frazier savored the moment of joining her sister as a three-time winner at NBN.
“It’s kind of a crazy feeling,” she said. “I feel like it might be even cooler than the first time because I got to repeat it because everyone wanted me to do it, everyone pushed me to do it. With Wesley, they never really expected her to do it and she did it and they were like, ‘Wow!’”
Deep Run (VA) senior Matt Novak, a runner who has a number of top performances at high level meets, captured the mile with a time of 4:09.23. Novak led from gun-to-wire, finishing ahead of recent two mile NBN winner, Carter Blunt of Frisco Independence (TX), who was timed in 4:10.74. Ben Hill of Royal Oak (MI) was third in 4:11.17.
Novak started hammering from the start. He hit his opening 400m in 61 seconds.
“I thought that was perfect,” stated Novak, who was a sixth-place finisher at last year’s NBNO. He was also sixth at the Penn Relays Carnival. “I was going to try and get through (800 meters) in 2:03. My last 800 wasn’t too good. But even though it wasn’t my best 800, I created enough separation that they couldn’t catch me.”
Novak, a double state champion for 3,200m and 1,600m this spring, knew he could secure his first national title despite some strong challenges coming own the final straightaway.
“People were screaming you got this, you got this right to the end,” he said. “I didn’t really know where they were, but I felt decent enough that no one is going to catch me.”
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