New Balance Grand Prix Roundup


The question was raised to teenage phenom Mary Cain following her brilliant race in the 1000 at Saturday evening's New Balance Grand Prix at the Reggie Lewis Center: What advice would you give to high school athletes with the class meet championships and all-state meet looming?

Cain responded by recalling several races where she felt great heading into a meet and wound up running poorly and vice versa. And on those days when she was feeling less than 100%, it was her mental toughness that took over."

"At the end of the day a race is all about confidence," she said. "If you want it, you have to tell yourself that."

Brenda Martinez had one card left to play in the mile anchor leg of the distance medley and it proved to be one of the biggest finishes of her sterling career.

Martinez moved hard from fourth to second down the final back straight and surged off the final turn to pass Ireland's Nicole Tully in front of a frenzied crowd of 3,000 to take the lead and give the New Balance USA squad a new indoor world record of 10 minutes, 42.57 seconds. Martinez's split time was a scalding 4:27.27 and Tully was two steps back in 4:28.1.

"It feels good," said Martinez after signing autographs along the front straightaway for 15 minutes after the race. "I knew I had a little more left, but it was kind of scary."

The New Balance Meet continued to live up to its billing as one of the most competitive indoor competitions in the world with five meet records and two world records.

Jenny Simpson never trailed in the 2 mile and was succesful in her bid to break the American Record in a sterling 9:18.35. Simpson's time was well ahead of Regina Jacobs' long-standing 9:23.38 mark set back in 2002.

Ethiopia's Dawit Seyaum tore through the mile in 4:32.13 and kept right on going to break the world mark in the 2000 in 5:36.46. Kenya's Sally Kipyego was a distant second in 5:40.35.

Bernard Lagat finished second in the 3000, but his time of 7:48.33 was a new master's world record. Lagat finished a step behind Dejen Gebremeskel (7:48.19) in a stirring battle over the final 200.

Matt Centrowitz took the lead just after 800 meters (1:50.9) and pulled away from an impressive field for a new meet record of 2:17.00 in the 1000. Centrowitz was content to follow a slowish first 400 in fourth place before moving up.

"I think we were a little slow at the 400," he said. "I thought I had enough for it (American Record), but I'll go for it next time. I put myself in position the last 200 and came up a little short."

Cain was on the receiving end of the biggest ovation of the meet when she was introduced at the start of the 1000 and the prodigy didn't disappoint as she hooked up with Treniere Moser over the final lap to take second in 2:38.25. Moser was clocked in 2:37.86 for the win.

Moser is looking to enter the spring season sharper than previous years.

"I wanted enough left to kick," Moser said. "I don't want to wait until May to start working out the kinks. I have a lot of faith in my training."

Former Georgetown standout John Trautmann surged and took the lead over from Christ Blondin shortly after passing 800 meters in 2:09 and was never challenged on the way to establishing a new meet record in the masters mile in 4:18.72 . The time bettered the 4:19.73 run by Charlie Kern in 2011 and was almost five seconds faster than runner-up Peter Brady's 4:23.24.

"That (taking the lead at 800) was my plan the whole time," said Trautmann. "My goal was to run the race I wanted. Being a master you never know who is going to be here. I mean, Bernie Legat is running the two mile."

Massachusetts was well represented in the junior miles with Thomas Ratcliffe streaking to a fourth-place finish in 4:10.45 and P.J. Garmon surging across the finish in 4:14.08. Viraj Deokar was eighth in 4:15.40. On the girls' side, Kaleigh Hughes surged late for fourth in 4:57.34, just in front of Kaley Richards' 4:57.39. Olivia Lantz was eighth in 5:00.37 and Emily DeMarco took 10th with her 506.61.

Hughes was content to follow the field to see how the race would play itself out. "I wanted to come out and stay with the pack," she said. "I felt really good on the last couple of laps."