M1500m Semis - Who You Got?

I'm glad Waleed Suliman got through.

Officials made the right call!

Heat 1:

Cooper Teare
Sam Prakel
Cole Hocker
Eric Holt
Joe Waskom

Heat 2:

Hobbs Kessler
Henry Wynne
Yared Nuguse
Vincent Ciattei
Colin Sahlman

Waskom and Houser might go after the standard so maybe the qs come from heat1? Plus "x" factor of who will make heat 2 fast?

The heat finishes showed that the level of middle distance running in this country has gone way, way up. We have three guys with world indoor medals and the ability to contend for world and Olympic outdoor medals, and we have blanket finishes in 3:38-39 style races with 54 closes. We haven't had this kind of quality depth ever before. We should celebrate it.

my concern is some of the younger NCAA guys (specifically Sahlman and Cook) ran WAY too hard yesterday and might not have enough in the tank for a quick turnaround. Sahlman ran out of gas in the NCAA finals a few weeks ago, if the pros take it out early and force him to make multiple surges it could break him.

So the first question is which heat is going to be quicker.

On first glance you would think heat 2 and it has the advantage of being the 2nd heat but it is crazy how often the second heat steps out onto the track knowing what they have to do advance 7 guys, and then goes through the 800m 3 seconds slower than the first.

Either way, my guess is heat 1 is quicker - I think Hocker is going to control the race exactly like he did yesterday - I don't think it will be quite as fast, but I could still see it being in the 3.35/3.36 low range. I just have this feeling we see heat 2 inexplicably go out slower and end up slower. So 7 from heat 1, 5 from heat 2.

Give me (in no order) from Heat 1:

Comber

Waskom

Hocker

Prakel

Holt

Teare

Houser

Heat 2: (also no order)

Kessler

Cook

Nuguse

Green

Wynne

Houser has a championship level kick. Murphy has a good kick. Prakel is always a legit 5-7 type guy, Porter's got an excellent future, Teare has 3:32/12:54 and will I think make a really good 5000m runner over the next few years, Holt has been running at a very high level this year and came close to beating Wightman, a World champ who has run 1:44.10 earlier this year and so is in pretty good form, Waskom has two NCAA champs and made the US team this year and he can do it again in a slower race because he has an outstanding kick. Thompson is a pro and will put himself in good position to qualify in a 3:34-36 race. Henry Wynne is another seasoned pro who will be there at the end in the 3-6 place. Cook showed his quality at NCAA's and almost won it. Green has won it and looked excellent in the heat in his finish. Finally, of the many really good guys in the heat who have a shot at qualifying, Colin Sahlman has risen rapidly as a sophomore. He has the 800m chops to contend and qualify for the finals this year. I think his time is going to come in the next couple years.

The top three guys are obviously Nuguse, Hocker, and Kessler. I think it will be Hocker this year because he looks very strong and very motivated to win. I don't know whether Nuguse feels that burning need to win this year (he is most concerned with qualifying), but we shall see. I like Kessler's focus on the start line and when it counts and I think he will run wisely and make the team as well. He has excellent speed for the finish and can run a fast race as well.

For sure Matt Wisner lmfao

The question should be who you 100% don't got advancing?

Heat #1 Gilman

Heat #2 Wisner

I'm almost ready to buy plane tickets to Paris for Hocker and Nuguse and send them on their way.

Cooper looks really fit but he's also run sub-13 this year so I'm not sure what to expect. Is his goal to run both in Paris? He came into the meet top 3 in both.

The last guy to already hit the standard Kessler, who doesn't have a "safety net." He'd do well in the 800 but likely miss out on Paris for both races if he doesn't get the 1500 spot. I expect him to do everything Nuguse does, in order to conserve energy against one of his biggest competitors in this race while guaranteeing that he doesn't miss the final by .01 seconds or something insane.

Honorable Mention: Craig Engels. He'd have to PR at 30 for the IOC to even let him in but he has experience on his side, winning in 2019 and getting fourth in 2021.

Wild Card: Eric Holt. A late bloomer but has gone 3:35.86, 3:34.05, and 3:35.86 in the past 35 days. Wouldn't be shocked him to push the pace to go after the standard tonight so he only has to race for place in the final.

College Kid: Colin Sahlman broke 3:34 but he's also done a lot of racing this year but I also assume he's too young to buy alcohol in America so experience may be worth more than results while there's still the possibility to qualify.

There are others in the mix for placing but these are the guys with the sixth fastest times since the qualifying window opened plus an extremely experienced 1500m USATF champion. Five more guys will move on but I'm not as confident in them.

Frfr, this is LetsRun, we wanna make sure we look at this from a negative perspective

3:53 milers suck lol

Technically with the shoes they're no more than 3:57 milers.

Will be interesting to see if Hocker and Hobbs lead from the gun in their respective heats. I suspect they will. The right move

"You may not know all of the athletes in these 1500m heats..."

Speak for yourself champ

What’s with inconsistent showing of splits?

I'd rather see every 400m split than these random live heart rate stats.

They are talking about goofy stuff instead of telling us the lead 800m split.

Showing their speed vs splits - silly.

Unless I'm missing something you're thinking we should celebrate multiple 1500 m runners who can basically go through 4 minute mile pace as a jog fest and then let the last 300 rip in 39 which will make the last lap 54 and that should be celebrated.