SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — For American distance running star Grant Fisher and his coach Mike Scannell The Ten’s namesake event Saturday night was something of a checkpoint on the way to the Olympic Games in Paris later this summer.
“We’re at the end of our first training block season so this was a report,” Scannell said. “How are things going? You want to check off everything. Check the boxes.”
So what was the answer?
“All is well,” Scannell said before breaking into a wide grin.
The same can be said for American distance running.
Fisher, the American record-holder at four distances, led eight men under the Olympic 10,000-meter qualifying standard of 27 minutes, with a 26:52.04 victory at J Serra High School.
Right behind him was Northern Arizona’s Nico Young, the former Newbury Park High School standout, in 26:52.72 shattering the 14-year-old collegiate record set by Sam Chelanga of Liberty.
Woody Kincaid, Fisher’s former training partner at Nike’s Bowerman Track Club, ran 26:57.52 for seventh in the second-deepest 10,000 in history. Only the 2011 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene has produced more sub-27:00 clockings in a single race (9).
“The goal was sub 27 and I got it done,” Fisher said.
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Before Saturday night only three Americans had ever dipped under 27 and no American-born collegian had even come with 30 seconds of breaking the barrier.
“Getting the standard is a really big deal,” NAU coach Mike Smith said. “It’s a really big deal for any professional athlete. It’s pretty spectacular for a college kid.”
Young’s collegiate record run is all the more impressive when considering it came just a week after he swept the 3,000 and 5,000 titles at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Boston.