Mt SAC: 10,000-meter results, 29:45.81!

Will Griffin ran a tremendous race late last night -- around 2 a.m. back home time! -- in the 10,000-meters at Mt. SAC.

The conditions were laboratory perfect, one of the main reasons you fly all the way out here to race: Once the sun set behind those awesome hills, the temperature drops like a rock and there is a stillness in the air. It was chilly, around 45-50, and not a hint of wind, and low humidity.

In other words, perfect for distance running.

Perfect is the key word, as that is exactly how Will raced.

The plan was to roll 72s as long as possible, which would give him a shot at cracking 30:00.

But as usual, the 10k is as much about racing in packs as it is hitting splits. So I was pacing nervously as Will was rolling 71s in order to stay in the big pack toward the front as opposed to the big pack that was trailing by about 25 meters.

Much like Conor Shelley at Princeton a few weeks ago, Will committed to that pack and there was no turning back. Maybe the pace was a little too peppy, but he was in for the duration and he had to hang on for the ride.

What ensued was a thing of beauty, as Will exceeded all expectations and ran 29:45.81. Among many things, this is:

--An IC4A qualifier.
--A school record, eclipsing Girma Segni's one-year-old mark of 30:08.28 from Bucknell last year.
--The first sub-30:00 for 10km in school history.
--A strong possibility that he has punched his ticket to the NCAA East Regional at Indiana University next month.
--A pretty amazing debut at this distance.

Here are the splits:

Mt. SAC Relays
10,000-meter run
University/Open Division
9th place
Will Griffin 29:45.81 *school record, IC4A qualifier

73, 2:26 (73), 3:37 (71), 4:48 (71)
5:59 (71), 7:11 (72), 8:22 (71), 9:33 (71)
10:44 (71), 11:56 (72), 13:07 (71), 14:18 (71)
15:29 (71), 16:39 (70), 17:50 (71), 19:02 (72)
20:14 (72), 21:25.7 (71.7), 22:38.5 (72.8), 23:51.3 (72.8)
25:03.6 (72.3), 26:16.9 (72.3), 27:27.6 (71.7), 28:38.0 (70.4)
29:45.81 (67.81)
1600-meter splits: 4:48, 4:45, 4:45, 4:44, 4:49, 4:47
5km splits: 14:53 and 14:52