BY CHARLOTTE STAUDENMAYER
The Adrian Martinez Classic, held on Saturday, June 8 in Concord, MA, attracted many athletes with their sights on the US Olympic Trials, scheduled for the end of June at Hayward Field in Eugene, OR. Some of these athletes have already qualified, and used the meet as a tune-up opportunity to prepare to try to make the Olympic team. Several others did not yet have automatic time qualifiers, and the meet presented one of their last chances to get into the Trials. The wind was extremely strong at the track, and at first it appeared that the conditions would not be conducive to running fast times. But the athletes were undeterred, producing three new meet records, four Olympic Trials qualifying marks, three Olympic A Standards, and numerous personal bests.
Hometown team New Balance Boston’s Emily Mackay won the women’s 800m in 1:57.87. Mackay, who plans to compete in the 1500m in Eugene, already had the Trials 800m standard (2:00.50), but her time marked a 2.3 second improvement to her personal best, her first time under 2 minutes, a meet record, and achieved the Olympic A standard of 1:59.30. “The goal was to PR and I knew I was in shape for it,” Mackay said. “I’ve wanted to break 2 for a long time, it’s been a huge goal of mine.”
Last year at the Adrian Martinez Classic, Mackay ran 2:00.17 in the midst of a breakout year, in which she broke 4:30 in the mile and 4:00 in the 1500m, as well as setting 13 and 28-second PRs in the 3000m and 5000m, respectively. Mackay’s fitness has taken another jump in 2024. While she finished eighth in the 1500m at last year’s US Outdoor Championships, she finished second in the Indoor Championships 1500m in January and earned a bronze model at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
Mackay’s new 800m PR will give her some extra confidence heading into the Trials, although she plans to only compete in the 1500m. “I feel like I’m really strong right now and want to take advantage of that in the 15,” she said. “My goal for the Trials is to make the team. I just want to stay in a really good headspace and try to go forward with the same momentum I’ve had the past year.”
Dorcas Ewoi of Puma Elite took second in 1:58.58, bettering her previous personal best of 2:01.12 by a wide margin and making her the third-ranked Kenyan woman in the 800m this season. Mackay’s New Balance Boston teammate and 2021 1500m Olympian Heather MacLean ran 1:58.77 for third, a personal best by almost a second. Both Ewoi and Maclean ran under the Olympic A Standard as well. The top three finishers all ran under the previous meet record of 1:59.75, and the top four finishers all finished under 2 minutes with the Trials standard, as Helen Schlactenhaufen ran 1:59.97 to improve on her previous best of 2:01.05. Elle St. Pierre, Indoor World Champion in the 3000m, who currently holds the top times in the US for both the 1500m and 5000m, finished sixth in 2:01.18.
Benjamin Allen of Empire Elite won the Men’s 800m in 1:46.62. “The main goal was to test myself, see where I’m at, and run fast.” Allen has already qualified for both the 800m and the 1500m at the Trials and plans to enter in both. He later paced the 1500m, with the goal of simulating competing in both events at the Trials.
“The goal is to make the 1500m final and see what I can do when I make that final,” Allen said. He has competed at the last two US Outdoor Championships but has yet to make it through to the final. Allen has been training with Empire Elite since 2021, and over the course of his time with the team, he has improved tremendously, lowering his mile time from 4:08.81 to 3:52.71, his 800m time from 1:50.81 to 1:46.24, and running a US #3 all-time mark in the 1000m (2:16.67) back in February. “We’re really gaining momentum,” Allen said of the New York City-based team. “I hope people recognize our progression this season and look out for us.”
Shane Streich of Atlanta Track Club took second in 1:46.91, and Allen’s Empire Elite teammate, Zalen Nelson, finished third in 1:47.41.
Sam Gilman of New Balance Boston won the men’s 1500m in 3:36.76, setting a new meet record, a personal best, and qualifying for the Trials by running under the automatic standard of 3:37.00. This is his first time qualifying for the US Championships, and he may qualify in the 5000m as well. Although he does not have the automatic standard of 13:25.00 for this season, he may make it into the race based on ranking, in order to fill the 30-person field.
“I’m absolutely ecstatic,” Gilman said. “It’s racing, it’s not time trialing, I love to race and I love to win but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t chasing that 3:37.” Although Gilman is trained by New Balance Boston coach Mark Coogan, he is an active officer in the United States Air Force and is currently stationed in Dayton, Ohio. “I’m so thankful for Mark, and for Christian Noble and Derek Johnson who I’m able to compete with, and that the singlet I wear represents Boston,” Gilman said. Assuming that he qualifies for the 5000m, he plans to compete in both events at the Trials. “I want to have fun, just compete, and keep getting through the rounds,” he said of his goals.
Gilman’s New Balance Boston teammate Christian Noble was second in 3:37.84, and Foster Malleck of Boston University was third in 3:37.87. Noble and Malleck, along with fourth-place finisher Jack Salisbury of Empire Elite, who ran 3:38.14, were all under the previous meet record of 3:38.20.
Lauren Gregory, who represents Nike on both the track and the trails, won the women’s 5000m in a 4-second personal best of 15:17.99. Although she was a few seconds short of the automatic time qualifier of 15:10, she may make it into the Trials based on ranking in order to fill the field.
“I would have liked to run a little bit faster, but that’s always the name of the game,” she said. “It as a solid effort and I’ll take that.”
If the Trials don’t end up working out, Gregory will shift her focus to the trails this summer, as her running career has always been marked by racing on both the trails and the track at the highest level. While competing at the University of Arkansas, Gregory was a multiple-time national runner up in the mile, 3000m, and DMR. Now training with Ben True’s team, Northwoods Athletics, Gregory was the 2022 US Vertical Mountain Running Champion and has competed at the World Mountain Running Championships multiple times. So far this year, Gregory said that she has been all-in on track training. “I just feel like putting all my eggs in one basket,” she said. “I’d rather just really go for it and not hold back.” She still takes to the trails regularly for easy days when she is training for the track, but will add more uphill-specific workouts and practice fueling during longer runs when she shifts her focus to longer races over more difficult terrain later in the summer. After her track season wraps up, whether that be at the Trials or earlier, Gregory will be looking toward the Golden Trail Series at the end of summer into early fall.
Erika Kemp, of Brooks and Rhode Island Track Club, finished second in 15:20.29, and Bethany Hasz of the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) took third in 15:37.17.
Helen Schlachtenhaufen, who has already qualified for the 1500m at the Trials, doubled back from her fourth-place finish and personal best in the 800m with a win in the 1500m, setting a new meet record of 4:06.78. “My A goal was to break 2 in the 800, because I haven’t done that before, and then get a good hard effort in with the 1500 after, just simulating that feeling of rounds in the Olympic Trials,” she said. “Training’s been going well but I’ve felt like my races haven’t quite matched what I’m doing in training so it’s really nice to see a step forward.” Schlachtenhaufen has finished sixth in the US Outdoor Championships 1500m for the past two years, and was fifth in 2021. This year, she is looking to improve on her consistency and make the 1500m team.
Annie Rodenfels of the BAA was second in 4:07.33 and Laurie Barton of Atlantic Track Club was third in 4:08.67. Ellie Leather of Under Armour Mission Run Baltimore and Great Britain, in fourth with 4:09.13, was also under the previous meet record of 4:09.33.
Schlachtenhaufen, who is based in Boston, said that she looks forward to the Adrian Martinez Classic every year. “It was the first pro track meet I ever came to as a fan,” she said. “It’s just such a great community event and Boston has such a great running community, it’s so great to be a part of it.” Before the high performance races, the meet holds community races for people of all ages, from an 8-and-under 800m to a masters mile.
The Adrian Martinez Classic began as a tribute to Adrian Martinez, a champion miler for Concord Carlisle High School who went on to run at Williams College. The summer after he graduated college, he went into sudden cardiac arrest while playing soccer with his friends. “This event is exactly in the spirit of Adrian,” Frankie Martinez, Adrian’s father, said. “He loved the camaraderie, running with friends, having fun at an athletic event by being with the people you like to be with and rooting everyone on.”
Charlotte Staudenmayer is a student at Williams College where she competes in Cross Country and Track
WATCH: Full Replay of the 2024 Adrian Martinez Classic
KEY TIME STAMPS:
- 2:04:00 – Men’s 800 Meters
- 2:18:20 – Women’s 800 Meters
- 2:30:30 – Men’s 5000 Meters
- 3:01:30 – Men’s 1500 Meters
- 3:11:45 – Women’s 5000 Meters
- 3:33:30 – Women’s 1500 Meters
