Nike Outdoor Nationals Recap
While it’s more common for Mercer County’s star athletes to finish their season as New Balance Nationals Outdoor in Philadelphia (recap here) or Adidas Track Nationals (recap here), two locals made the long flight out west for Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Oregon. Both girls had very successful trips!
Blair Bartlett Is All-American with 2nd Place Finish in 3000m
Blair Bartlett (Lawrenceville) runs away from chase pack in the championship 3000m. | zoemedranda for MileSplit
Lawrenceville’s Blair Bartlett capped her historic sophomore season with one more legendary, gutsy performance at Nike Outdoor Nationals.
After racing at several prestigious races such as the Penn Relays, the Millrose Games, and the HOKA Festival of Miles, Bartlett has already faced most of the top competition on the East Coast. This past week, Bartlett, who is a member of the Nike Elite Development program, got a chance to fly across the country and take on the best girls on the West Coast. She represented New Jersey well, to say the least.
Bartlett’s big race — and her preferred event — was the 3000m on Saturday night. The race was headlined by Utah’s Jane Hedengren, who went wire-to-wire and set yet another national record in 8:40.03. But running in 2nd place behind Hedegren the whole way was Bartlett!
While the rest of the field was content to pretend Hedengren wasn’t in the race, Bartlett stuck with Hedegren as they went through the first 600m at breakneck pace. Bartlett eventually let Hedegren go and backed off the pace a bit, but she continued to extend her lead over the chase pack, who showed no urgency in catching Bartlett as she built a 10-second gap over 3rd place. The chase pack apparently underestimated Bartlett’s strength, because although they chipped away at the gap over the second half, they couldn’t catch her. Her final lap of 74.9 secured 2nd place in 9:21.83, three seconds ahead of 3rd place.
While that’s not quite as fast as the 9:13 she ran to win the Penn Relays in April, her result and place is at least as impressive. There’s no shame in losing to the GOAT of high school distance running, and the girls she beat boast some incredible resumes.
Bartlett took a victory lap on her season by running less than 24 hours later in the championship girls mile, where she finished in 4:54.41 for 29th place. After running unbelievable times for the last 7 months, Bartlett will now get some well-deserved rest this offseason. Watch DyeStat’s post-race interview with her here.
Bartlett and Hedengren congratulate each other after the finish. | Kevin Henneman for Athletic.net
Sydney Young Comes Home with New Mile PR
Bartlett wasn’t the only Mercer County sophomore dropping big times in Eugene. Hopewell Valley’s Sydney Young, running for the Trenton Track Club, also traveled across the country for Nike Outdoor Nationals. She made the trip worth it by running a big PR of 5:00.55 in the emerging elite division of the mile. Young ran a smart negative-split race, sticking on the rail in the front pack for the first 1200m before launching into a great kick at the bell. She ended up 3rd in her heat and 15th overall. That’s a 4-second PR, and it’s #4 in Mercer County this spring. She’s just the eighth Mercer County girl in the last ten years, indoors or outdoors, to go sub-5:00 in the 1600m.