After graduating college, some runners burn out: they get injured, get tired, or just don’t like running professionally.
But Cooper Teare is still having fun with it — so much fun that he showed off some fancy footwork in the media tent after finishing sixth in the historic Bowerman Mile at the Prefontaine Classic last weekend.
“Don’t make me griddy,” he said, hitting the dance move.
This was Teare’s first Diamond League race, which he said was a learning experience for the upcoming USATF Track and Field Championships.
“I showed I’m capable of [competing], but also that there’s a lot of experience to gain from this,” Teare said. “Overall I can’t be super sad with it.”
Teare has been training in Eugene with Olympian Cole Hocker, who placed fifth in the Bowerman Mile. Everyone who beat the former Ducks ran in the 2021 Olympic 1500m final, which Teare said gives him confidence about where he stands in the US.
“At the end of the day the top two 1500 guys in the country are Cole and I,” Teare said. “Not bad company to be in, and I was right there. When it comes down to it, I’ll be ready in a couple of weeks.”
Hocker has lofty expectations for the coming weeks, sharing that he’s going for the 1500m gold at the World Championships.
“I don’t say that with any disrespect to any athlete, because that’s no easy feat, but I’m just being honest,” Hocker said. “That’s where my mindset is. Coming off of sixth place in Tokyo I see myself definitely in medal contention, and if I’m in medal contention, I should be in gold medal contention.”
Hocker said the Bowerman Mile — a “test against the best” runners in the world — made him excited for the rest of the season.
“The number one threat is coming from my teammate,” Hocker said. “I think that’s a good thing. We can both go into that race with a game plan and the same mindset of, ‘Let’s get this done. Let’s qualify for worlds.’”
Hocker said training with Teare gives him a mental edge he wouldn’t have otherwise.
“If I know Cooper can do this rep, and I’ve done every single rep with him up to this point, there should be no reason why I can’t hang with him,” he said.
Hocker estimated the pair spends four and a half hours together each day, which Teare agrees with.
“[Cole] feels a bit like a younger brother to me, even though he probably has more experience on a lot of the circuits now,” Teare said of his training partner.
If they qualify for the World Championships, the duo will have a home-field advantage — quite literally, since they both live just blocks away from Hayward Field.
“There’s something to be said about being able to sleep in your own bed the night before a race,” Teare said. “A lot of people came from halfway across the world to get here.”
Since they can walk to the track, Teare said the most annoying part about Hayward meets is having to drive across town for press conferences.
“We’re in this environment. We’ve been here plenty of times,” Teare said. “We have the crowd behind us. The ball’s sort of in our court when it comes down to that. We’re gonna make as much use of it as we can.”
Hocker, an Indiana native, says he loves his adopted city during the track season.
“Eugene’s kind of dead, [but during meets] it’s a completely different town,” he said. “They definitely add that level of excitement.”
