* This news release is brought to you by the Penn Relays
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The Penn Relays presented by Toyota is excited to announce the Olympic Development men's 3,000m steeplechase field, highlighted by two Olympians, Mason Ferlic and Ed Trippas.
The race will take place on Friday, April 29, as part of Distance Night presented by On.
The field includes: Ferlic, Trippas, Isaac Updike, Travis Mahoney, Jordan Mann, Brandon Doughty, Fitsum Seyoum, Michael Leet, Aiden Tooker, and Nathan Mylenek.
"As a steeplechase enthusiast myself, I can't wait to see this outstanding group race," said Steve Dolan, the Frank Dolson Director of Penn Relays. "This collection of Olympians and Olympic trials qualifiers are going to put on quite a show!"
Ferlic and Trippas lead this talented group after a successful trip to Tokyo for last summer's Olympic Games.
A member of Team USA, Ferlic ran 8:20.23 in the semifinal rounds. He made his first Olympic team after a third-place finish at the trials in Eugene last summer. This will be his first steeple in 2022 where he looks to improve his personal best of 8:18.49 run in April 2021 at the USATF Grand Prix. Ferlic will be representing the Very Nice Track Club.
Trippas, an Olympian from Australia, is also a senior at Princeton University. An NCAA All-American in the event in 2019, he ran 8:29.90 in the semifinal rounds in Tokyo last summer . He made Team Australia after running a personal best 8:19.60 in Valencia, Spain last summer. His top mark ranks him the third fastest Australian of all time and the 10th fastest time in NCAA history.
The fastest time in the field, however, belongs to Updike with a personal best mark of 8:17.74 at the USATF Grand Prix in Oregon last April, edging out Ferlic for the win. He also made his way back to Hayward Field for the Olympic trials, taking fifth in the final with a time of 8:24.72, just missing his first Olympic Team.
Updike will be representing Empire Elite along with teammate Travis Mahoney, who enters with a personal best mark of 8:24. From nearby Old Bridge, New Jersey and graduating from Temple, Mahoney set his top mark at the Olympic trials last summer placing ninth.
Mann enters with a mark of 8:26, representing Ocean State Athletics Club. Another Olympic trials competitor, he advanced to the semifinal round. He clocked his PR back in 2019 while at the Princeton Qualifier, winning the race. An Ivy League product graduating from Brown, he finished seventh at the 2016 NCAA Championships.
Doughty (8:29) and Seyoum (8:28) are both in the field representing Under Armour/Dark Sky. Seyoum enjoyed his personal best at Hayward Field last year in the Olympic trials. He did that just weeks after becoming an All-American with a ninth-place finish in the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field. Doughty's top time also came last year while racing at the Trials of Miles NYC Qualifier, taking third in the event. He joined Seyoum in Eugene at the end of June for the Olympic trials, advancing to the semifinal round.
Leet competed against Doughty in the Trials of Miles NYC Qualifier back in May, hitting his personal best time of 8:29.68 to take second in front of Doughty. His time earned him a spot with all the priorly mentioned competitors at the Olympic trials last summer in Eugene.
Tooker is coming off a successful finish to his college career at Syracuse, where he finished 10th at the 2021 NCAA Championships, a title race he made an appearance in three times in his four years. He set a personal best of 8:30.10 back in 2018 USA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.
Mylenek wraps up the field, representing Very Nice Track Club with his teammate Ferlic. A native of Michigan, he capped off a successful four-year college career at Iowa where he was a two-time NCAA All-American in the steeplechase, breaking the 63-year-old record school record in the event. He enters the field with a top mark of 8:34.