Latest / The CITIUS MAG Podcast | A Running + Track and Field Show / USATF Outdoor Championships 2026: Day 3 Reactions | Nikki Hiltz & Nathan Green KICK To U.S. Titles + More

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USATF Outdoor Championships 2026: Day 3 Reactions | Nikki Hiltz & Nathan Green KICK To U.S. Titles + More · The CITIUS MAG Podcast | A Running + Track and Field Show

0:01
All right, we are here. Day three of the 2026 USATF
0:05
Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the books,
0:07
Chris Chavez with Kyle Merber here.
0:10
I mean, let's start off with our quick vibe check.
0:12
Incredible atmosphere today. At the track it's building.
0:16
It's building thanks to the New Balance Cheer Zone.
0:19
We brought the energy for sure. The the lime green stood out.
0:22
We had a great section until about we were 45 when the Sun
0:27
made it a different game. Yeah, fractured art, fractured
0:31
entire cheer zone. But I'd say we really peaked
0:34
during the. Steeplechase Women's steeple.
0:36
We had a cobra. That went well.
0:40
And like we, you don't get that at a track meet.
0:43
In general, I would say those around us were very confused
0:47
when we were chanting Slow it Down during the 1500s, but they
0:52
bought in. The mayor made it to the meet.
0:56
Zohran Mamdani, in attendance today for a brief moment, held
0:58
the finish line for. Very nervous for holding the
1:01
finish line, yeah. Did a good job and yeah, he
1:06
stuck around for a little bit. Didn't say for the whole entire
1:08
meet. He got into the stand, sat down,
1:10
shook hands and all that stuff. So.
1:13
Was that the biggest cheer of the day?
1:15
Or was it Nikki? Nikki got some big cheers during
1:21
their intro after the win. Like in this post celebration
1:26
moment. Zohran was up there for sure.
1:29
I forget who it was. One of the athletes after just
1:31
like, gave a shout out to New York City Pizza and the crowd
1:34
erupted for that. People.
1:36
Really. Responded that was like during
1:37
when I like the the wheelchair I think one hundreds afterwards.
1:41
So yeah, there were some I guess like we, we got you got a couple
1:45
texts about some like deceiving crowd shots.
1:48
Yeah, so. This kind of reminded me today.
1:53
The 1500s were great. Crowd was so into it.
1:56
And then we had the we kind of had a mass exodus, yeah, of a
2:00
lot of distance fans before the 100 meter hurdles final.
2:05
Part of the problem is that it takes a little while to set up
2:08
the 100 hurdles and then like, I guess like, and there's been so
2:11
much time in between these events.
2:12
There's a few problems. There's also like 12 city bikes
2:15
on Randall's Island. And it's a contest to see like
2:18
there's there's that's actually like one of the more intriguing
2:21
races of the day is. Like.
2:23
Who can make it out of the stadium?
2:25
Like, we were sitting next to a guy who had the app open and
2:29
watching how many city bikes were left in the one dock that's
2:32
immediately outside the stadium. And the added challenge to that,
2:37
you would think, oh, that's just easy.
2:38
Just, you know, head out when there's three or two left.
2:40
No, there's no service in the stadium.
2:43
So yeah. So like it's.
2:46
So all that's to say a lot. Of kinks, but they're working
2:49
through. It all that's to say is whatever
2:50
the crowd shot was, that inspired 3 different people to
2:53
text me asking why no one was. There, fake news.
2:56
Fake news, very deceiving. The crowd was very good.
3:00
Our voices like you could tell, like have taken a toll today.
3:03
It was the cigarettes primarily, but the I think tomorrow with
3:07
basically just hits yeah, finals finals, finals finals and then
3:12
we're going to see a really, really strong crowd.
3:14
But today definitely good vibes was exciting.
3:20
I I drank a ton of water. It one of the a hot dog that had
3:25
probably been off the grill for roughly 90 minutes, but we
3:29
pushed her. We pushed through the day
3:31
buzzing today. Persevered.
3:32
Yeah. Yeah.
3:34
And so let's get through some finals that took place today,
3:39
cuz the first rounds that took place, nothing all that crazy.
3:43
No, Lyles ran the slowest 200 he's run since. 2019 2019
3:48
Outdoor 200 He had a slower indoor.
3:50
Yeah, so, but no big eliminations in that.
3:54
It was just from a Sprint perspective or I don't know how
3:57
much we're diving in right now for the sprints.
3:59
It was just windy. It was like a strong head wind
4:02
and so the times went out the window and it just like you knew
4:08
who was going to go through in the two hundreds.
4:10
Like there wasn't that many surprises.
4:15
I don't know what did you think? Like Noah really took his time
4:18
getting out. Well, that's what.
4:19
We said it was just sort of like that this is going to be Noah's
4:23
final. To lose like I did, the odds on
4:25
that thing must be insane. Like you can't make money on
4:28
that race. So Garrett, Karen was, I was.
4:33
Pumped to just see him on the line healthy, looking good.
4:37
He beat Max Thomas I think in his heat.
4:39
Former teammate. Yeah, hugging it out after.
4:42
But All in all, yeah, I mean, like Will will like it's
4:46
basically what the what theatrics does know Lyles have
4:49
in store for the final and it'll be good.
4:53
All right, So what do you what do you prefer?
4:55
Do you prefer that we get into the 1500 finals or we lead our
5:01
viewers into going through the other races first?
5:04
Because that's obviously the event you want to talk about
5:06
the. Most let's let's get to the
5:08
1500s. That way we keep everyone OK.
5:11
All right, great. So we.
5:13
So we're so the women's 200. OK, yeah, let's hit the women's
5:16
200. Well, the women's 200 also
5:18
didn't. Well, Melissa Jefferson wouldn't
5:20
look phenomenal. 22 five looking down at like 60 meters.
5:24
Truly incredible. Yeah.
5:27
Did not have to run anywhere close to 100 meters to have that
5:30
one locked up. Cambridge.
5:33
Fergus, I think she was. Was she in lean one or two?
5:39
Not always the the preferred way, but she looked very strong
5:42
as well. She's obviously just having a
5:46
great season and it continues here.
5:49
Look, I don't think anyone is going to touch Melissa in that
5:53
final. Like I want to hype it up.
5:55
I want to build people up. Give your reason to tune in.
5:58
It is Melissa's race. But if anyone is going to push
6:03
Melissa, it's gonna be camera series.
6:05
And there's two things to maybe think about.
6:07
It's like, all right, we obviously saw, like, the show
6:11
Shikari put on. Yeah.
6:12
So now it's like, what can Melissa deliver as her own show
6:17
woman in this thing? But she did also have a moment
6:20
after the race, walked through the mix zone and talked to the
6:24
reporters and said that like, she wanted to not necessarily
6:29
apologize, but clarify that like, none of whatever, however
6:33
she came off at the Prefontaine Classic was intended about
6:37
anybody. She was going through some
6:39
personal stuff, like around the same time.
6:41
And so for all the talk of the Shikari doesn't like Melissa and
6:46
vice versa, like it doesn't seem like there's too much credence
6:50
to it. But I mean, again, like, they're
6:52
just too big stars in the same event.
6:55
Of course there's going to be some sort of friction when you
6:58
get to the starting line or just you know, it can get close to
7:03
it. Yeah.
7:04
I mean, I think I said this a couple weeks ago that I imagine
7:07
that there was a closed door coaches meeting or something at
7:09
some point and we're. All Better Together.
7:13
We're Better Together pushing each other and so saying the
7:16
right things, focusing. I think having them if I'm
7:20
coach, having them in separate races this weekend net good for
7:24
the entire group and for them probably individually this
7:27
season, but looked great. Let's go to the no major
7:31
surprise, yeah. No major surprise.
7:33
Women's 400. Aaliyah Butler.
7:36
Did not listen to my suggestion of taking it easy the 1st 300
7:39
meters and practice closing it down.
7:41
Yeah, maybe you go do that another like domestic smaller
7:45
meat that has lower stakes, but for the win 4993 only woman
7:50
under 50 seconds and then. She had a full half second plus
7:54
lead at 200 meters. Yeah, just established from the
7:57
very beginning I'm the alpha in this field.
7:59
I'm. It's mine to lose.
8:02
And in fairness, her last 100, Alexis always was coming back.
8:06
Yes, like she felt that the the monkey jumped on her back a
8:11
little bit. But she had worked up a big
8:14
enough lead and it's just so fit that at the end of the day, job
8:18
done, national title secured. First national title for Aaliyah
8:22
Butler Men's 400. This one, a little bit of
8:25
controversy because initially Justin Robinson had run a
8:30
personal best to cross the finish line first, was declared
8:34
the winner. They even like, I think they
8:37
announced him and celebrated him.
8:38
And then they come over the PA no more than 510 minutes later
8:43
and they announced that he had been dequeued and it was due to
8:47
a lane infringement and Chris Bailey.
8:49
You booed. Oh, I booed.
8:51
You had a DQID. Q And I booed, yeah.
8:53
I was like, I mean, we're celebrating this guy.
8:56
I was pumped. It was a really feel good.
8:58
It was win. I mean, he's had some success
9:00
unsponsored on relays. I mean, he just he was so good
9:05
as a teenager and I feel like just kind of stagnated there for
9:09
a few years and this just felt like a big breakthrough.
9:12
And it just like a guy who through Arizona State has just
9:16
been putting it away, just like running solid races year in and
9:22
year out, a very key contributor on many relays.
9:25
But like, this was his moment. It was like, this is what off
9:28
years are all about. Yeah.
9:29
And then take it away from us. Unfortunate Chris Bailey ends up
9:33
being the winner. You don't want to win like that
9:35
either. No, Like Chris, I can't imagine.
9:39
Feels great about that in this moment.
9:42
But yeah, a win's a win, but it's like a weird win.
9:45
Yeah, so world I don't already said in the mix zone.
9:48
I'm sure it's. Complicated world Ender champion
9:50
last year, now US champion this year.
9:53
So that's the men's 400 bringing us to the next final, which was
9:59
the women's steeple chase. Where the prediction, I think
10:03
that was thrown out there on the preview podcast was that the
10:06
fastest time by an American would be run here at this race.
10:09
And there was a point where it looked like they were going to,
10:12
I think Mac at one point called out.
10:13
I don't know if we were just doing our own math, they looked
10:15
like they were on like nine O 7 pace or something like that.
10:17
But it ended up being Lexy Halladay taking it from AK out
10:24
and got the victory 912 back-to-back national titles for
10:30
her. Someone did chime in on the
10:33
comments section on one of the podcasts on Spotify and said
10:36
that last year she was someone who announced her pro signing at
10:43
the championships and then went on to win it all.
10:47
So. So she's the the Kyle the the
10:50
the pro announcement, curse breaker and adds another
10:54
national title here. Gabbi Jennings just took that
10:56
from the beginning and. A lot of time up in the front,
10:59
yeah. I kind of just appreciate like,
11:02
it was the middle of the day steeple change.
11:04
Yeah. And like the whole joke people
11:06
make about like, at least you get to cool off in the water.
11:08
Yeah. Bad joke.
11:09
Still hot as hell. So the fact that in the middle
11:13
of the day, on not a calm day wind wise, like there was wind
11:18
that Gabby just went to the front, kept it honest, wind up
11:21
getting some PBS and season best out of this entire field because
11:25
of it. Unfortunately, at some point
11:26
Lexi just decided to take over. We were rooting hard for Emma
11:31
Coburn in this one and all Things considered, a really good
11:35
return to the national championships, like after, you
11:38
know, the last couple years having been a little bit rough,
11:42
but now fully back and just good to see her back in action.
11:46
We had Emma's army in full force wearing.
11:49
Our young. Heads there were.
11:51
Fatheads there was. Who else was there?
11:54
It was we had, yeah, I mean, we had, we, we had cheers, all that
11:59
kind of stuff. So.
12:01
Quick tangent, I know we normally leave throws to Paul.
12:05
Paul Yeah, But when we're talking about the.
12:08
Loudest Thompson The. Loudest moment of the day, in
12:11
fairness, maybe was the javelin, yes, So we're down.
12:14
Curtis Thompson was leading going into the final throws and
12:20
at the last moment Jordan Davis absolutely from launches 1.
12:25
From Georgia, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. 70 So I think
12:29
it they were like the 70 they were like 77 was the lead at the
12:33
time. And then he tossed it 8236 and
12:36
the crowd went nuts. He went nuts.
12:38
It was so electric in there. Moments later, Curtis Thompson
12:43
stepped up. I was looking at the flags
12:45
because I was like, if it's windy, this thing's going to
12:48
fly, yeah. So reminder to running fans, it,
12:54
you know, about airplanes, headwind is good in the javelin
12:59
and so it was a strong headwind. Curtis Thompson, I think he's
13:04
made 12 Olympic teams, something like that, something like that
13:08
anyway. It wasn't even a question.
13:11
87.59. I mean he improved by a full 10
13:18
meters over his previous best in the series.
13:22
The crowd went nuts. Crowd went nuts.
13:23
That was like one of the best moments of the day.
13:26
So for a moment we were back to being big throws guys we had.
13:32
Oh, and Speaking of clutch, also women's pole vault, same exact
13:36
thing sort of happened. Sandi Morris, who has been
13:39
unsponsored this season, clutched up at the very end,
13:43
cleared 490, got the victory over Emily Grove And it's just
13:47
like, really good to see her back.
13:49
Yeah, and the crowd was really into that as well, so.
13:56
So we touched on women's steeple. 400 hurdles.
13:59
We saw first rounds. No major surprises, No, I would
14:02
say Is this a battle between Caleb Dean and Chris Robinson?
14:09
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Cuz like, we're not, we don't
14:12
have rye. We don't have Trevor Bassett.
14:15
Which Speaking of, Congrats to Trevor Bassett and his wife
14:19
Harley. They're expecting a baby girl.
14:22
Excited. Great video of the, the, the
14:27
gender reveal. They had like a star-studded
14:29
cast of like Anna Hall, Mike Holloway, Clair Bryant, like all
14:33
the games. That wasn't AI.
14:34
No, it wasn't AI. They were all making their their
14:38
guesses and so Congrats to to Trevor and Harley.
14:42
But yeah, no, it's Caleb Dean and honestly, like I want to see
14:46
what kind of race Caleb goes for cuz like.
14:49
Well, Chris Robinson kind of has a very similar style as well.
14:51
They. Go next next to each.
14:53
Other they both just send it, yeah, and then hope to hold on.
14:56
So it'll be a battle of who can hold on.
14:58
Yeah, All right, so the fastest time of the day today was Caleb
15:02
Dean's 4847. Almost a half second over the
15:06
next fastest guy women shot put another national title for Chase
15:11
Jackson 2055 way ahead of of 2nd place and.
15:16
Women's 400 hurdles. I mean, the winner's going to
15:20
come out of some combination of Anna Cockrell, Shamir Little or
15:23
Delilah Mohammed, I think right now.
15:24
Like right? Yeah, I mean, Anna looked great.
15:27
Anna just has this tendency as the season goes, just really
15:31
finding her rhythm. And it's it has been found.
15:35
Delilah Mohammed has the crowd behind me, though the Queen's
15:39
native. I mean, she walked here
15:40
probably. But yeah, she stayed.
15:43
She stayed with her family. Yeah.
15:45
So, Anna Shamir Delilah. The The fact that Delilah came
15:49
back still running US championships is so cool.
15:53
This must be what it. It is and then like it all kind
15:56
of like. In New York.
15:58
It played out perfectly where like in a way, the car, the
16:02
stars align. Are you all right?
16:03
I actually lost my voice from yeah like a little bit today.
16:07
Taken aback by the Delilah. Win I'm so I'm getting emotional
16:10
I. Can't believe it.
16:11
I can't believe she's. Back it's like playing with this
16:14
is like playing with LeBron for some of these athletes so they
16:17
have like Delilah, OK you're like Oh my, I used to look up to
16:20
you I used. I was running New Balance
16:23
nationals when you set the world record.
16:26
Yeah. Like, well, So what I'm saying
16:29
is the stars align for Delilah, where, like, she contemplated
16:31
retirement, basically was fully going into retirement.
16:34
Had a little bit of a farewell tour last year, then Sydney wins
16:39
the gold medal in the 400 it gets pregnant is missing 2025.
16:44
So now you're like OK, she's for sure out of the 400 hurdles.
16:47
Then Femka decides, hey, I'm leaving the 400 hurdles too, so
16:53
peace out. And you're like, all right,
16:54
well, at least two medals just moved, moved out of the way.
16:57
And so if you're Delilah and you go to the world Ultimate champs
17:02
and you win the world ultimate champs, do you do you retire as?
17:06
No. The first world ultimate champ.
17:09
Like she'd make history as the first person to hold the world
17:11
record. The Olympic gold medal, ultimate
17:13
champion. Look, we're populated at this
17:15
point. We're going to LA Like we can
17:17
keep pretending we're taking this day by day.
17:19
Yeah, we're going to LA. Yeah.
17:21
So I think it's it's awesome. It's a great story.
17:24
And I think mentally you probably have to take it day by
17:27
day. Yeah.
17:28
We're like meet season by season, but there's no way you
17:31
finish up 2026 potentially with the US title, potentially with
17:36
the world Ultimate Championship like podium or something like
17:40
maybe a win, who knows? And then say I'm done, like
17:43
you're going to your your home Olympics.
17:45
Let's go with the prediction then.
17:46
Who you taking in this final? I I just feel like Anna is is
17:58
finding it like what is needed I think like Delilah doesn't.
18:03
Miss. But I feel like Anna has the
18:06
higher ceiling right now, if that's fair.
18:09
Like if you tell me the winning time is, you know, something
18:12
crazy, I'm going to say, OK, Anna won.
18:16
But. Some of these times have been
18:18
slower. This thing gets tactical.
18:22
Yeah. My pick would probably be Anna,
18:24
but not nothing against Anna, just obviously the story of it
18:28
all. We'll be rooting for Jalila and
18:30
we'll be very excited if she pulls it off.
18:32
Part of me misses that Jasmine and wishes Jasmine Jones was in
18:35
this field because it would have made that showdown a little bit
18:38
more interesting. But it seems to me, I think that
18:43
that whole training group has opted to kind of stay in
18:47
training. So I'll I'll keep it
18:51
interesting. So we each have a different dog
18:52
in the fight. You can go and I'll go Delilah,
18:55
sticking with your local my local Queens compatriot.
19:00
So we've forgotten the men's steeple chase.
19:02
The men's steeple chase, Yes. Oh, thrilling finish.
19:05
Crazy race. Yeah.
19:08
So for the folks who may not be as familiar with Nate Mountain,
19:11
why don't you brief him a little bit on on some of his
19:13
background? Yeah, I mean, Nate Mountain is
19:15
like a true steeple chaser out of UVA.
19:18
He ran and one of the fastest, I think it was the world lead when
19:21
he did it in April earlier this season.
19:24
Now running with Hoka, but there were 5-6 guys of them at the
19:27
bell. It was a pretty honest race,
19:29
too. I mean, Nate ultimately won in
19:31
813, but there's just so much depth right now in the US men's
19:36
steeple that in an honest race, you can have 5-6 guys with a lap
19:41
to go still together. And so you had Carson Williams
19:45
there, Duncan Hamilton, Daniel Makowski, and I want to say
19:48
Parker Stokes and Cooper Katha were still there.
19:50
James Corrigan was still breathing down the neck like it
19:53
was, it was very, very competitive.
19:56
But the the moment was on the final barrier.
20:00
Nate looks like he's got it. He looks like he's gotten the
20:04
best legs. Just his toe tapped the barrier.
20:09
Let's let's tell the folks what we were doing.
20:12
Yeah, we were doing something. We were trying to so, so there
20:16
weren't as many team New Balance athletes competing today.
20:19
So like we still wanted to like lose our minds and stands.
20:23
And so at one point during the men's steeple and the women's
20:26
steeple, we just started doing like the like when they clear
20:32
the the barrier and. Finally, breathe.
20:35
Yeah. And so we were doing that each
20:38
time. And when we did it for the men's
20:40
rage, we're like, OK, this is the one that they're the most
20:43
tired for right at the very end of the race.
20:45
Like if we get a crash out, it's going to happen here and nearly.
20:49
Happened it was, so he recovered.
20:51
Nathan Madden. Brilliantly, he didn't go down,
20:54
but he stumbled, got up and just barely held off Carson Williams.
20:59
Big PB for him. I think it was 817 from Monaco.
21:03
Earlier this season for Carson Williams.
21:05
Yeah, for Carson. Williams yeah, actually shout
21:06
out to someone I think in our Spotify or in our Instagram DMS,
21:10
like said, you know, messaged us and said like, hey, like look
21:13
out for Carson Williams. You guys didn't talk about him
21:14
at all in the first round, but he.
21:17
Had been 23rd at NCAA's last year.
21:21
Currently unattached. Is he with the bandit?
21:26
That's a good question. I thought he might have saw All
21:28
Blacks maybe. Maybe it was just a homemade
21:31
black singlet. Could have been that.
21:33
But yeah, great race for him. Hopefully he gets picked up off
21:38
of this. Yep.
21:39
And then you also, yeah, I mean, here's the thing with the men's
21:42
people is just sort of like we have a rotating cast right now,
21:45
potential contenders of people who can make these teams.
21:47
Like I if you told me to make my picks for three guys who'll make
21:50
the team in Beijing next year, I have no idea who I would pick.
21:53
Right now, wide open. So it's a it's a event prime for
21:59
some turnover in young Town to really establish themselves.
22:03
All right, time for some 1500. Meters.
22:05
Let's do 100m hurdles. Oh, yeah, Let's start with that
22:08
because like, basically, like you said, same thing that
22:11
happened in London. It's sort of like we want to.
22:13
Well, when they built this schedule, they probably thought
22:16
that Messiah Russell was going to run here and.
22:19
Imagine a world in which Messiah like breaks the world record as
22:22
the last event of the day and be perfect.
22:25
Mamdani would have been like, I wish I would have stayed longer
22:29
so. We got to find out if he bought
22:30
his tickets or if he only buys his Knicks tickets.
22:34
Yeah, yeah. He didn't make a trip through
22:36
the mix zone. I was waiting for an opportunity
22:39
for our mix zone team to ask him one of those question like that
22:44
or just the the Robert Johnson from Let's Run interaction with
22:48
Mumdani. But we did text Robert and he
22:51
was pretty amp. He's like, he's like, I didn't
22:52
see him, but I heard the crowd so.
22:55
They heard him in the Bronx. They heard him in the Bronx.
22:58
All right, women's under hurdles when we were Speaking of
23:01
unsponsored project. Big win for them here because
23:04
Alia Armstrong has been unsponsored the last two years.
23:07
I think, yeah. And Alia was great out of LSU,
23:11
really great college career and has just been consistently doing
23:15
really well. Just kind of like on that cusp
23:18
of always getting into diamond leagues or like winning
23:21
continental gold races. And she's just been really
23:24
consistent in that 12 three 12412 five range.
23:28
So this is a great win for her. Also.
23:31
I mean, she had a moment earlier this year in which there was
23:36
like a short ban because she was taking acne medication, acne
23:39
medication and I'm I'm sure was like super hard on herself for
23:43
that is like that's an honest mistake.
23:45
Things happen sometimes like that.
23:47
I get passes on because we, yeah, I give passes in certain
23:50
situations. I gave her pass on that.
23:53
And so for her to come out and triumph in that, this is what
23:56
not having Messiah here does, is they create these other
23:58
timelines where an unsponsored athlete who's been fighting on
24:02
the circuit hard to get into the races, get the opportunities to
24:06
just show what she's capable of. It's awesome.
24:10
Yeah, I'm looking at it right now and it looks like Alia
24:12
Armstrong, Alicia Johnson and Rania Jones are four of the top
24:16
three of the top four and they're all unsponsored with a
24:20
no footwear or apparel company. Tara Davis Woodhall ends up in
24:23
3rd place. So the Olympic long term
24:25
champion holding her own where like you made an observation
24:28
where you're thinking like, does she like go too high over the
24:32
hurdles? Yeah, I, I mean, she's
24:35
definitely just a little bit like she she doesn't she she
24:41
jumps, I don't know, like it seemed.
24:43
And she's so athletic. It's like I would love to see
24:46
her in a heptathlon. She can do anything.
24:50
It's like, I mean, I guess jumping makes sense now that I
24:54
think about it. That's on brand.
24:58
But just the fact that she is taking the opportunity to come
25:01
out and off the year, have some fun, enjoy it, crowd loved it.
25:05
I mean. It's not at the point yet where.
25:07
Like it can quit like, yeah. Where they, I think at one point
25:10
floated the after the pre classic press conference coming
25:13
off the LA Grand Prix performance.
25:16
It's like, hey, like if they approach you, would you want the
25:18
schedule changed for LA to accommodate a long jump 100
25:22
hurdles double? It's like today doesn't
25:24
necessarily prove to me that we're at the point of having to
25:27
consider that sort of adjustment quite yet, but this is, I mean,
25:34
a podium at AUS Championship. It's fun, it's good for her,
25:36
it's good fun. Now the 1500s.
25:40
Should we bring Mac in? Mac and chat with us.
25:42
Yeah, he wants to. Chime in 15 hundreds come on in
25:45
bud all right so the. Men's 1500 was first and.
25:52
Going out in an absolute jog fest, yeah.
25:55
And whereas 10K, look, there's some mixed feelings about a
26:01
tactical 10K, I get that it's a long time to be tactical.
26:05
So first lap was 68 I think was the slowest.
26:09
All right, here's my thing about a tactical 10K tangent.
26:13
It's not tactical if you just jog the entire time and then
26:17
Sprint. That is not a tactic.
26:19
A tactic is surging, making moves, different people, taking
26:24
the lead. That is tactical.
26:26
Yeah, in a 10K. If not, you're just doing a 9600
26:30
warm up and then a final four. Yeah, that's that's a little bit
26:34
different, but a tactical 1500, if it's slow, it's tactical.
26:39
The bar is lower, but all right, so they started jogging.
26:42
And we were cheering for it. Nuts.
26:44
Yeah. About Mac, I think you started
26:46
the slow it down chant. Yeah.
26:48
You know, we were trying to bring some like good baseball,
26:51
football, you know, crowd energy, I think, to the stadium.
26:54
So we had to, you know, slow it down, you know, some of those,
27:00
some other slower. It went over well, I think.
27:02
I think it went over I, you know, I hope.
27:03
That. Not to toot our own horns, but.
27:08
Toot our own horns. I like to think that our section
27:10
had a little bit of an effect, an energy effect on the crowd
27:13
around us because we were excited.
27:15
We're track and field fans. But yeah, no, they, they decided
27:19
to walk off the line and for fifteens, like Kyle was saying,
27:22
for fifteens, that that's just incredibly exciting.
27:25
For 10 KS, not so much. But yeah, they walked off the
27:28
line and yeah, really. And yes, going out hard can be a
27:34
tactic. And we use the term, you know,
27:37
it got tactful when they run slower.
27:40
But yeah, Nathan, Nathan made the right move.
27:43
So then at 800 they come through in like 215 and Nathan at that
27:48
point slots into second. So he was taking this thing from
27:50
the front. So my early pick, which didn't
27:53
age well, was Joe Wascombe. I thought it was going to be
27:56
relatively honest race. I like the way he looked the
27:58
other day, but I think when we were having conversations about
28:02
what we might see in the in different, we were saying like
28:05
if it's a 339 race, this person wins.
28:07
If it's 336, race this person. Wins.
28:09
We didn't run this scenario for a 350 race.
28:11
We did say if it was slow and I think a lot of us felt Nate
28:15
would excel in a slow race. I mean, we know he's got a good
28:19
800 wheels and the thing about I changed my pick from Joe to Nate
28:25
with forge meters to go a little late to be picking some live
28:28
betting, but he had the rail, yeah, and everyone was capable
28:32
of running a 51 second last lap. And so whoever is going to win
28:36
is the guy who's in first and running on the rail.
28:39
He didn't have to do anything extra.
28:41
Hole looked dangerous for a little bit.
28:43
He did look dangerous and he didn't have it in him today, but
28:48
the one mistake Nate could have possibly made was if he would
28:51
have swung wide off the rail and he didn't do that, so there was
28:54
no room for anyone to come in and sneak by him.
28:57
Yeah, Vinciotti was fighting for that, fighting for the win
29:03
there, and it just stayed second.
29:05
Think of the races that Vince has been training for this
29:08
season and primarily Diamond Leagues, which have been going
29:10
out in 150 through 800 and how different of a race this was.
29:15
And it's just like Vince is kind of in a tough spot because he's
29:18
not used to front running. I mean, he had his LA Grand Prix
29:21
1500 meter win at the beginning of the outdoor season and you're
29:24
kind of thinking like that's his best shot, but that certainly
29:27
wasn't a three fifty 1500 meter race.
29:30
So. And like Reinhard, Harrison was
29:33
third. Right and it but.
29:35
You you leave anyone and. You leave it open and it's I've
29:38
been like Kyle said, I mean, that's kind of been my shtick
29:40
over the last few years. Is like the rail is the shortest
29:43
way around the track. Like lane #2 I will say this a
29:46
million times until I die. Lane #2 is lane 2 is, is 7
29:54
meters further from from from line to line.
29:57
It's 7 meters further. And think about that one through
29:59
9 all ran 350. They all ran within point feet
30:02
of each other. 7 meters is that entire length.
30:06
Like if you if you're running 7 meters less, you're you're
30:08
finishing first instead of 9th. That is like, and that's how
30:12
important the rail is in races like this where everyone has
30:14
extremely similar top end speed over the last 400 meters.
30:19
So yeah, Nathan, Nathan taking control, sticking to the rail
30:21
and make sure no one went around him.
30:23
Like it's really hard to do. Really impressive.
30:25
And and Congrats to him. Gary made a big move at the
30:28
going into that bell lap as well.
30:30
Yeah. And and look again, it's it's
30:34
just a crap shoot at that point because you got to get around
30:37
all those guys too. If I'm Gary, which it look,
30:41
it's, it's a solid race for him. It doesn't It's it's, I would
30:44
say it's like AB, it's kind of like B plus like it's what you
30:48
expect. I think that is a great learning
30:52
experience for a lot of these guys because you have now
30:55
learned back to your point. And this is something that Josh
30:59
had talked about a bit about his world record was like, no, now
31:02
I'm learning to, like, run a rhythm rather than tactical and
31:05
like shifting gears. And that, like, reflects in the
31:07
type of training you're doing. A guy like Vince, who is running
31:12
diamond leagues all the time, Yeah, you're just settling in
31:14
behind a rabbit and going, this is a totally different beast.
31:18
And now you think about the way you approach things differently
31:21
in championship years. Don't get caught up in the idea
31:24
of just getting behind rabbits. It's about.
31:26
How how do some of these guys Kyle get winning becomes a habit
31:32
Nathan Green has one more races than than a lot of these guys
31:36
this over the last year or two. How do some of these guys that
31:39
are in this like weird kind of zone where they're not winning
31:42
Diamond leagues? Yeah, how do they how does that
31:46
habit, how do they get. That habit, I made this analogy.
31:49
So there's two ways to practice. One run 8 hundreds.
31:54
It's the best way to replicate the end of a 1500 in a
31:58
championship without having to run championship 1500s, which
32:02
you only get the opportunity maybe once a year, maybe twice a
32:05
year. And so you have to go and run 8
32:07
hundreds. You can do it regularly.
32:08
It's part of the training block and you can figure out the way
32:12
of navigating a field at top end speeds.
32:16
That's the first thing. Second thing, though, Mac is I
32:18
used to always use an analogy of a boxer, which is before you get
32:23
that title fight, you have to like work your way up to
32:26
thinking you have the to the the right to even be in the title
32:30
fight. And just because you are getting
32:32
that last second call to go to a Diamond League and be in it, to
32:37
maybe come in 12th place with APB, doesn't mean you should
32:41
accept it. Sometimes the right move is to
32:43
go to a little race in Belgium, race guys have similar ability
32:47
and win and come away with a head on your shoulders that no
32:50
longer fits on it. Like that's the mood.
32:53
Like you need to just get that ego.
32:56
And it's really hard to walk away from a Diamond League race
33:00
even if you PB. But if so many guys beat you to
33:03
say no, I deserve to win the championship.
33:05
Yeah, so that's your case for going to the B tier like
33:10
European meets post COP? And that's, and I like, I'm
33:13
thinking that for someone like Vince, someone like Gary, a few
33:17
other guys. They need that.
33:19
They're missing those reps. I think they're missing those
33:21
reps They can run really fast. There's no like no one has any
33:23
doubt that Vince or Gary can just like run a just a crazy
33:28
fire 1500. But yeah, it's it's that habit
33:31
of winning. And I know we'll move on to the
33:33
women's 15, but like we see the same thing there where it
33:37
becomes like second nature. It's muscle memory.
33:39
Like once you get to 100 meters to go, you're familiar with what
33:42
that last 100 meters is like when you are going to win.
33:45
And that's something that you start expecting of yourself.
33:47
You, you, when you start winning races, you're like, oh, I'm
33:51
going to. Beat you.
33:52
Yeah, yeah. It's it when you're getting 2nd,
33:54
3rd, 4th, 6th, you don't have that mindset when you get to the
33:58
start line or 100 meters to go. So now question national title
34:03
for Nathan Green. What is it do you want to see
34:06
from him in a different style of race?
34:07
Because he's proven himself as a, you know, tremendous kicker
34:13
when it's a slow race. But like set like when you add
34:17
this to your resume, you'll get the invitation to some of these
34:20
diamond leagues later on in the season.
34:22
Like what would you like to see from him in some of those races?
34:24
I mean. When he's up against Yard again
34:26
and Cole. Nate has run 348 OH.
34:31
Yeah. He is AUS champion, he is a he
34:36
is consistently been a guy to watch now in every race he's in
34:40
for a few years. For him, you you need to get
34:44
strong and continue to build up that ability to do rounds and
34:49
make sure that you get through the rounds with no issues.
34:52
Because it's a big difference between whatever the hell this
34:55
prelim was here and a prelim and semi final at a World
35:02
Championships or an Olympics. Because a semi final at an
35:05
Olympics or World Championships is the hardest race you will
35:09
ever run. And he's got to be really,
35:12
really strong and able and be able to handle that.
35:15
I. Was going to say something.
35:15
I was identically, I'm going to see him like emotionally
35:17
developed to handle rounds like. That I love when Mac agrees with
35:20
me and when he's shaking his head Yes, yes.
35:23
Because because like, I don't know from, I don't know Nate
35:27
that well, but he he but it's really up for these races.
35:30
He's a bulldog. Yeah, he real peaks and valleys
35:33
type of runner. Yeah.
35:34
And we know his top end is there that to make US teams
35:39
consistently. And I think part of that is
35:41
exactly what Kyle is saying is he just got to be able to manage
35:43
the rounds. I want to see him go through
35:45
like next year's preliminary round with like, not even the
35:49
fake, oh, that wasn't hard. I want, I want it to emotionally
35:52
not be difficult for him. Yeah, let's get into the final
35:55
and have that expectation that he's going to actually make the
35:57
team and not be so much of A like.
35:59
Yeah. I told you so like type of
36:01
energy. It's working for him.
36:04
It's worked from this far. But you know, see, think of
36:07
Cole, think of Yard, think of how they kind of have navigated
36:12
around recently. And it's it's not necessarily
36:14
that as they're going through the the preliminary and semi
36:16
final rounds. I don't think his ranking is
36:20
high enough to get him the ultimate champs right and a 350
36:24
is not going to do you all that good.
36:25
We were talking. About that, he's close.
36:27
His current world ranking is 17th.
36:30
So he's right there. I mean, he just, he just did
36:32
great in London. Yards coming in, so yards coming
36:35
in. But not everyone.
36:36
'S coming out. You got to assume Seb might
36:38
offer a spot to Josh. Yeah.
36:41
But. That doesn't take.
36:43
I think that's just another. Spot from the again this is this
36:46
get on my my like my preacher. Get on it, stand.
36:50
On it like This is why world ultimate is awesome because now
36:54
we have if you are a Nathan Green fan and you want to see
36:57
him get in, it is time to get on the road to ultimate website.
37:02
Get a sense of the numbers and he needs to do in the next race
37:05
out that he's in, have an idea of like what it actually will
37:08
matter. The next Diamond League matters
37:11
for him. He needs to get in it and he
37:13
needs to place relatively well in an honest race if he's going
37:16
to qualify. That's the Olympic Trials, and
37:18
that exists for dozens of athletes now for the rest of the
37:23
season. Or just interesting.
37:25
Listen to Seduce Mac Podcast and we'll probably keep tabs on all
37:28
the rankings and all that. Preet is right now at home in an
37:31
excel file telling us everything that we need to know.
37:33
Text. Meeting and ask him my yard.
37:35
Yeah, that's yeah. All right.
37:37
So now let's move on over to the women's 1500 meter final, which
37:45
it was another fantastic thrilling finish where it looked
37:51
like going into the Bell Lab, Addie Wiley 800 meter stud like
37:58
winner of the Diamond League earlier this year, going up
38:02
against trying to hold off Nikki Hiltz to the reigning champion.
38:07
And Nikki just was bidding their time, bidding their time,
38:11
bidding their time. And at one point you just turn
38:13
to me and say, I don't think Nikki can wait that much longer
38:18
to make a move. Yeah, I mean, look, this this
38:23
wasn't quite the jog fest of the men's race.
38:25
But at the beginning, we were contemplating starting to slow.
38:28
It down it was not a fast race and you have an athlete who's
38:33
run 156 in it. Yeah, hanging out and this is
38:36
not just like an 800 runner who's moved up to the 1500
38:39
runner. This is also a 359 girl.
38:41
So if you have to beat Addie Wiley, you got to be on like in
38:46
this situation, this is this is tactics.
38:51
This is when are you making your move?
38:52
And I think we kind of nailed in our preview where we all did
38:56
pick Nikki, but we said it is not going to be easy.
39:00
Yeah. And well after the race, Nikki
39:02
was clearly gassed, still catching their breath.
39:06
Yeah, yeah, I mean the crowd went nuts.
39:09
The the trans flag was was thrown out onto to the track and
39:15
Nikki got the chance to to celebrate with that.
39:18
Such a shame, Mumdani. Wasn't here.
39:20
Mamdani would have loved that. Yeah, but then Nikki.
39:24
Would have loved it. But then when, yeah, I think it
39:27
was Don Harper Nelson was interviewing Nikki.
39:29
Like Nikki was still catching their breath.
39:32
So this was a hard effort. And so, Mac, I think you did a
39:36
good job in the stance of kind of explaining what the hell
39:39
happened in that final 100 where like for a second it did look
39:44
like Addie was trying to hold off Nikki.
39:48
And at the same time, Emily Mackay was digging pretty damn
39:51
deep and like, going to the like we saw head Bob I think towards
39:54
the towards the end. But yeah, I mean, what?
39:59
How did they lose the race and how did Nikki win?
40:02
Yeah, I mean. I mean this is this is armchair
40:04
expert here. Yeah, armchair expert.
40:06
I, you know, this is Nikki's 10th US title, including Rd.
40:09
Rd. races with absolutely insane stat at this point.
40:13
I think moving up behind no, we had Jenny cause Jenny's medals.
40:19
Well, we also, I think we had that thing earlier today.
40:21
We, we played trivia at the, the preemie party that we threw and
40:27
one of the questions was like who, which active athlete has
40:31
the most US? It was outdoor titles.
40:33
But if we consider all national titles, I think the answer, what
40:37
was the answer Emma Coburn had? Emma Coburn has 10 in the in the
40:41
steeplechase. And but I mean, if you consider
40:44
indoors and all that kind of stuff, Nikki's now getting up
40:46
there too. Yeah, I think Nikki's got 10.
40:49
Yeah, no, that was a super fun race.
40:51
I right away I'm like, why did Addie run the 800 yesterday?
40:55
You know? Yeah, cuz Addie, Addie Wiley won
40:58
her her heat yesterday in the in the 800 prelim.
41:03
Against Heather, I think it. Was yeah.
41:04
So that was like, we do kind of think about that a little bit
41:08
and then and then just like what's left in the legs for that
41:11
final lap today. But yeah, Addie definitely had
41:14
one of the stronger races I've seen out of her over the last
41:17
like, year, especially over the last lap.
41:20
Addie's an interesting racer, like often finds herself kind of
41:24
just not in the right spot with like 800 to go.
41:27
Is always kind of like on the wrong side.
41:28
Crazy wide turns. Yeah.
41:31
Yeah, like wide moves all that, but like was in the right spot
41:36
with 400 to go and I think did an excellent jump squeezing.
41:39
Yeah. I think we all kind of expected
41:41
Nikki to have a bigger move with like 1:20 to go.
41:43
And it just like there still wasn't there.
41:45
There was still a little bit of a gap some some daylight with
41:48
100 to go. And you're just expecting Emily
41:51
Mackay as well to just have a really strong close and finish.
41:54
And they were all neck. And like, all three of them were
41:57
neck and neck, 50 to go pretty much.
42:01
And then you really, you know, as Chris asked, like, what's the
42:05
difference there? It's as little as the last 10
42:07
meters. You see Addie and Emily both
42:10
start kind of falling forward. And Nikki was the only one that
42:13
seemed to be still running. All three of them were fading
42:16
equally, but Nikki was, I think did the best out of the three of
42:20
them at keeping form all the way through the line.
42:23
And that's, that's the 100th difference that you're seeing.
42:26
And I think that goes back to what we're saying about muscle
42:29
memory of winning and kind of the expectation of winning.
42:32
It's, it's not, it's not something you're grasping for.
42:35
Like you're running through the finish line, not looking for the
42:37
right. It's not something you're
42:38
grasping for trying to win. It's you're in more in control
42:41
and command of it because you're mentally just used to winning.
42:44
So you're used to that fight, to that line to win.
42:47
But what if? It was different thing.
42:49
I don't think that was easy, no. But what if it was easy?
42:52
But what if it was easy? But what if it was easy?
42:55
Just a little added perspective on just how well they closed.
42:59
I think it was the fact that those three were all four O 6
43:02
and then fourth was four O 9 and their last 800 for Nikki was two
43:07
O 1.4. Really.
43:09
Wow. That doesn't make the final.
43:12
It almost makes the final though.
43:15
So they worked. It was, it was.
43:18
Honestly, I think we should have a meet that is almost
43:21
exclusively 1500 championship racing cuz it's too much fun.
43:26
This was life. Yeah, so the results, Sneaky
43:30
Hills, Addie Wiley, I'm and Mackay, Rachel MacArthur also
43:33
solid showing and was one of those athletes where we always
43:38
try and look and see like who's going to do something.
43:40
And and Rachel was someone who like wanted to get up there to
43:42
try and fight in that final lap. And then last but not not least,
43:46
shout out to New Balance NIL athlete Clare Stegall, who
43:50
finishes 5th, who's in the back, I think for like most of the
43:54
race and then just moved up. Like if we're looking at it
43:58
10th, 12th, 11th, 11th, 11th, 12th, 10th place, 10th place
44:02
goes from 9th at 1200 to 5th overall.
44:08
Great bounce back from NCAA's from her.
44:10
Yeah, because horrible NCAA's based on how good, how well
44:14
she's run since then. But yeah, obviously she made the
44:16
U20 team coming up. Here, Yeah.
44:18
So now I'm thinking U20 medal. Potentially.
44:22
I don't know where the depth of the the the Kenyan team is.
44:25
I. Don't know where four O 5 is or
44:26
I don't know where she ran earlier this year but I don't.
44:28
Know where that is on four O 4. Four O 4.
44:30
On this is I think multiple 4 O fours at this point, yeah.
44:33
But yeah, no, I think we're like just she's going to be one of
44:36
our next stars. We're we're watching the, the,
44:38
you know, beginnings of her career.
44:41
It's really cool. All right, so that was the
44:44
women's 1500 meter final. Thanks for joining us, Mac.
44:48
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, final day and it's all finals.
44:54
The meet will start and be broadcast on TV, starting it at
44:59
I believe 4:00 and run all the way through 6:00 PM.
45:07
And on the track, we'll have the women's 8, the men's eight,
45:10
women's 5K, Parker Valby in action men's shop put men's 400
45:14
hurdles, women's 400 hurdles, men's 5K, men's 200, women's 200
45:19
and then the men's 110 hurdles. Which one race are you most
45:23
excited for? I think we talked about it on
45:25
the preview pod. I think that 5K, it has the
45:28
potential to be a good clash between Parker and and Shelby.
45:36
Yeah. How many different ways that
45:38
race can unfold. I didn't know if you were saying
45:39
men's or women's. OK, I'm gonna go the women's
45:44
800. OK.
45:45
Just feels like. Oh, that is a really deep field
45:48
that I. Think deep.
45:48
Yeah, the way I take back, Mac wants to take back the 1:55
45:54
call. Rasheen is still gonna win,
45:55
according to Mac, but not in 155.
45:58
Gonna take it out I just feel like that race can be run in so
46:03
many different ways that result in different winners and one of
46:07
those like if we ran this 10 times we'd have 5 different
46:10
winners so that's that's what I'm looking forward to we're.
46:13
Going to have some good chance tomorrow.
46:15
Rosheen, Willis and then Parker Valley.
46:20
Same exact cadence, slower. No.
46:24
For Parker, no. For Parker, we got to say faster
46:26
so that Shelby is not as being. Contended to keep ramping it up.
46:31
70 and then just like cheer for how close we get.
46:35
To I think every time she runs a 69 we explode.
46:38
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That could be on that note.
46:43
All right. Well, that does it for day three
46:45
of the 2026 USATF Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
46:49
Thanks again to New Balance for supporting all of Sidious Max
46:52
coverage throughout the weekend and outfitting us with these
46:56
amazing shirts that clearly make a stand out on the broadcast.
47:00
And tomorrow, look out for us on the broadcast once again in our
47:04
green sing green tops. Some fatheads as well of the of
47:08
the pro athletes. And if you want more coverage of
47:11
these championships, be sure to follow along on everything we're
47:13
doing on Citius Mag's Instagram, Twitter, and the Citius Mag
47:17
newsletter that David is putting together daily.
47:19
So you can find all that stuff on our channels.
47:23
But on that note, I've been Chris Chavez along with Colin
47:25
Merber. We will see you guys tomorrow.