The BOLDERBoulder International Pro Team Challenge is set to take place on May 27th, and the four teams assembled to represent the USA are a who’s who of American distance running.
There will be two women’s teams and two men’s teams donning a bib for Team USA, each with three runners taking on the 10k course. They will face off against some of the top teams in the world, as the BOLDERBoulder International Challenge is largest international road-racing team competition held annually in the United States.
Though the race has been run since 1979, the International Pro Team Challenge started in 1998. Teams are scored with a cross-country style points system based on finishing place. The team with the lowest score for all three runners is the winner. Ties are decided by the positions of the 3rd place finishers.
The race boasts an impressive slate of past winners, including Ric Rojas (Nell Rojas’s father) at the inaugural running in 1979, Frank Shorter in 1981, and the previous two winners for the men are part of this year’s Team USA Red squad, Leonard Korir (2022) and Conner Mantz (2023). Deena Kaster famously won the race three years in a row from 2001 to 2003, with current stars Aliphine Tuliamuk and Emily Durgin (who is on this year’s Team USA Red) earning individual victories in 2022 and 2023, respectively. The course record for both the men and the women were run in 1995 when Kenyan runners Josephat Machuka finished in 27:52 and Delilah Asiago in 32:13.
Read below for a full listing of this year’s USA teams.
Team USA Red
WOMEN
- Nell Rojas
- Emily Durgin
- Sara Hall
MEN
- Leonard Korir
- Conner Mantz
- Clayton Young
Team USA White
WOMEN
- Sara Vaughn
- Carrie Verdon
- Makena Morley
MEN
- Sam Chelanga
- Jared Ward
- Futsum Zienasellassie
