#5. Heymach & Bowen Double Distance Duties For Colombia

Two of the top young distance runners in the country between sophomore Julia Heymach from Houston Lamar High School in Texas and freshmen Rylee Bowen from Sonoma Academy in California were both able to qualify for the World Youth Championships in Columbia in a pair of distance events over the past two days at the World Youth Trials at Benedictine University.

The 4:40 1600 meter runner Heymach and 4:43 1600 meter runner Bowen faced off head to head in the 1500 meter run today after both competed yesterday with Bowen winning the 2K steeplechase in a US #1 6:41 record for the state of California, while Heymach moved through the first round of the 800 meter run.

Heymach led from the start hitting 71 seconds for the first 400 meters and 2:24 for the 800 meter split with both Bowen and Sage Hurta from New York on her heels for the first few laps. At 3:18 at the bell, Heymach closed with a 69 second last lap to create separation from Bowen to win by three seconds in a time of 4:27.94, while Bowen finished her two days of racing with a 4:30.56 PR in the 1500.

A solid effort for Heymach considering she needed to conserve energy for a competitive 800 finals later in the day. She let the two-time New Balance Nationals 800 meter champion Sammy Watson go in the final lap, while her new goal became to simply hold off the next girl in the race which turned out to be Amanda Thomas from Western Branch High School in Virginia. Both were closing hard in the final 100 meters, but Heymach had enough to not relinquish second place in a time of 2:07.97 to qualify for a second event in the 2015 IAAF World Youth Championships.

Doubling at a World Championship meet is tough to do and depending on the meet schedule, Heymach and Bowen may decide to focus on just one event. Then again, both have shown plenty of times before their strength to double back to run fast times beyond this weekend. Heymach ran a 4:40 1600 and 10:14 3200 double at the Texas State Meet in May.

Regardless of how many events they decide to run in Cali, Colombia in two weeks, both will gain valuable experience racing internationally which should help further their development as two of the nation's top distance runners for the next two to three years.

Results: Girls 1500 - Girls 2K Steeple - Girls 800