The Diamond League circuit is in full swing. After two exciting meets in China, we're heading to Rabat, Morocco's capital city, for the third installment of high octane professional track and field action. As is rapidly becoming custom here at MileSplit, we'll highlight a few athletes set to compete this weekend with roots in the U.S. high school system. But first, we need to conduct a sacred blogging ritual: patting ourselves on the back so aggressively that we nearly dislocate our shoulders.
Of the four athletes we discussed ahead of last week's Diamond League meet in Xiamen, three of them went on to win their event: Jamal Britt and Masai Russell made it two-for-two in Diamond League 110m/100m hurdle races this season, with Russell lowering her own American record in the process; and Valarie Sion comfortably claimed the discus crown by a 3m+ margin. (Check out the full results here.)
Now we aren't suggesting that us mentioning these well-established track and field stars on our website is the reason for their early season successes... but if you've ever seen the critically panned 2004 psychological thriller Butterfly Effect - starring Ashton Kutcher - you know that even the smallest action can effect a monumental downwind impact... and also that Ashton Kutcher is better suited hosting a television prank show than being a serious leading man.
Anyway, back to Rabat, which you can watch live on Flotrack, Sunday, May 31st starting at 1:10;m EDT.
Rabat is the only Diamond League meet on the African continent, and the first look we'll get at men's 1500m racing on this level in 2026. Though this event lacks the historical fanfare of the men's or women's 100m dash - nobody ever calls the Olympic 1500m champion the world's fastest person - there might not be a more exciting professional race right now. You have to go way back to the 2003 World Championship and 2004 Olympics to find a man who won global 1500m titles in consecutive years, and that man was the great Hicham El Guerrouj, who still owns the 1500m (3:26.00) and mile (3:43.13) world records.
Don't expect any records to fall in Rabat over 1500m. Hell, don't even expect the winner here to be considered a podium favorite for this summer's World Ultimate Championship. There's just that much variability in the event right now. With that said, of the 18 men who make up the 1500m field for Rabat - presumably 16 of whom are not going to serve as pace-setters - it wouldn't be a shock for 10 of them to win.
Included in that 10 is Yared Nuguse. As a pro, Nuguse is among the most decorated middle distance runners in American history. He's won four Diamond League races in his career and claimed silver in the 3000m at the 2024 World Indoor Championships. He's the fourth fastest miler ever, having gone 3:43.97, and for a glorious five-day stretch, held the world indoor mile record at 3:46.63. Oh, and he took home the bronze medal from the 2020 Olympic men's 1500m final. That's the exact sort of pedigree you look for when boldly and bravely blogging about who you think might win an international 1500m race against the likes of 2025 World champion Isaac Nader. But Nuguse wasn't always a name you'd pick to win a race of this caliber.
Initially a reluctant member of the track team in high school - Nuguse at one point had to be persuaded to quit the bowling team and go out for cross country - he quickly found his stride, pun very much intended. By the time he graduated from Dupont Manual in Louisville, he was a five-time Kentucky state champion between track and cross country, but a zero-time Foot Locker finalist or national meet competitor. He went on to attend Notre Dame, where he always seemed to do his best running as a member of the Fighting Irish DMR squad - he was part of teams that placed second on two occasions, and won NCAAs once. He managed to secure the 2019 NCAA Division I 1500m title in a photo finish and took second in the event in 2021 behind Cole Hocker. Nuguse qualified for the 2021 Olympic team - along with Hocker - but did not compete due to an injured quad.
Despite the auspicious start to his international racing career, Nuguse has more than cemented himself as one of the athletes to watch out for on the circuit as a member of the On Athletic Club. This will be his first outdoor track race of the 2026 season, but the last time he raced in Rabat, he took second in 3:33.02, finishing only behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
On the starting line next to Nuguse will be his compatriot, Vince Ciattei, another solid high school athlete who steadily progressed throughout college and as a professional to become a truly world class miler. Ciattei, who competed in high school for Perry Hall High School in the Baltimore suburbs, earned six Maryland state championships, spread across the 800m, 1600m, and 3200m. His high school PRs might not pop off the page by today's standards, but were rock solid for his graduating class (2013) - 4:09.27 for the full mile and 9:09.50 for the full two-mile. They were at least enough to get a look from Virginia Tech, where he wound up matriculating.
As a Hokie, Ciattei picked up a trio of NCAA silver medals - in the 2017 DMR, the 2018 mile, and the 2018 1500m - plus a national title in the DMR in 2018. Despite the impressive hardware haul, he graduated with understated PBs: 3:39.60 for the 1500m and 3:58.36 for the mile. But the folks at Under Armour Mission Run Dark Sky focused on his penchant for placing well in big meets, rather than his marks, and signed up. They've been rewarded for that decision ever since. His first few years as a pro, he was a consistent mid-3:30 performer, before breaking through majorly in 2024, when he ran an enormous personal best of 3:31.78 to take fourth at the Olympic Trials. He's since proved that result was no fluke, running in that range time and time again and dipping under 3:50 for the mile as well.
He recently qualified for his first global championship - this summer's World Road Running Championships - where he'll race the road mile. He's got momentum on his side, and will be looking to improve on his highest ever placement at a Diamond League 1500m, sixth, which he pulled off in Rabat last year.
Matt Wilkinson - Ciattei's Under Armour Mission Run Dark Sky teammate - is the first distance athlete we've featured this Diamond League season with a high jump PR in his MileSplit bio; he cleared the bar at four feet, eight inches in eighth grade. And while that was the last time he attempted a field event in an official setting at least, if you squint hard enough, you can make out his distant future... and it does involve leaping!
But first, Wilkinson, who wound up representing the U.S. in the 3000m steeplechase at the Paris Olympics in 2024, had to work his way up the high school and collegiate ranks. As a prep athlete at Minnetonka High, he steadily improved all four years, chipping away at the 1600m and 3200m in particular, until he graduated with high school bests of 4:19.62 and 9:15.70. He never qualified for the Minnesota state meet on the track, but finished seventh as a senior at state in cross country.
He opted to attend Carleton College, a Division III school in Minnesota, where he ran back the same playbook he did in high school: one of gradual and steady progress. However, after a few years, he turned a corner in a big way and won the 2021 DIII outdoor title in both the 3000m steeplechase and 5000m. That was enough for him to garner the attention of Division I University of Minnesota, where he competed for two more years as a grad student. As a Gopher, he placed eighth in the steeple at the 2022 NCAA Championships then third at the same meet the following year.
After his breakout Olympic Trials performance, he's consistently proven he belongs on the global stage in the steeple, and will be looking to better his highest Diamond League finish - seventh. His 8:10.23 steeple PB could be living on borrowed time, too. But either way, Wilkinson is more than just a guy you can point to on the starting line and say "you know, he used to run DIII, right?"
Some athletes come to the steeplechase and immediately know they've found their new home. Others, like Sage Hurta-Klecker, dabble in our sport's wackiest events for a season or two before moving on to find greater success in one of track and field's more conventional offerings. Hurta-Klecker will line up in the women's 800m in Rabat, where she'll be angling to pick up where she left off last outdoor season - one in which she ran 1:55.89 to place fifth at the 2025 World Championships.
But a decade ago, she was a New York high school (and middle school) star at Hamilton Central. She won three NYSPHSAA New York state cross country titles and four on the track. She graduated with PRs of 2:06.37 over 800m and 4:25.29 in the 1500m, then headed out west to the University of Colorado, where, as a true freshman, she promptly earned All-American honors in cross country - something she would do three more times as a Buffalo. On the track, her attention was focused on the steeplechase as a freshman and sophomore, and she displayed real promise over the barriers, qualifying for NCAAs in the event as a freshman.
But percolating beneath the metaphorical surface of the steeple pit were the middle distances. Hurta-Klecker, then just Hurta, was a part of an NCAA champion DMR squad, chipping in the fastest 800m leg in the race. And she struck NCAA Indoor gold in the mile in 2021. By the time she left Colorado and went pro - like Nuguse, Hurta-Klecker signed with On Athletic Club, opting to stay in Boulder for the next stage of her running journey - the steeple was a thing of the past for her.
Hurta-Klecker will have her hands full in the 800m in Rabat, as she squares up against the likes of Switzerland's Audrey Werro, South Africa's Prudence Sekgodiso, Kenya's Lilian Odira, and fellow American Addy Wiley. But at every level of competition, she's proven she can mix it up when it counts.
The Diamond League circuit is in full swing. After two exciting meets in China, we're heading to Rabat, Morocco's capital city, for the third installment of high octane professional track and field action. As is rapidly becoming custom here at MileSplit, we'll highlight a few athletes set to compete this weekend with roots in the U.S. high school system. But first, we need to conduct a sacred blogging ritual: patting ourselves on the back so aggressively that we nearly dislocate our shoulders.
Of the four athletes we discussed ahead of last week's Diamond League meet in Xiamen, three of them went on to win their event: Jamal Britt and Masai Russell made it two-for-two in Diamond League 110m/100m hurdle races this season, with Russell lowering her own American record in the process; and Valarie Sion comfortably claimed the discus crown by a 3m+ margin. (Check out the full results here.)