Track Opens Season in Arkansas, Boston

AMES, Iowa – Track is back! The Iowa State indoor track and field season gets going this weekend, with members of the men's squad in action at a pair of competitions. A group of middle distance and distance student-athletes will head to Fayetteville, Arkansas for the Woo Pig Classic on Friday, while ISU star Wesley Kiptoo will begin his indoor 5,000-meter run title defense on Saturday as part of a loaded Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener in Boston.

Running competition at the Woo Pig Classic will begin on Friday at 3 p.m. All running events will be streamed live on SEC Network+, here. Live results will be provided by Flash Results, here.

Kiptoo's 5,000-meter run will be at 5 p.m. Central on Saturday, with FloTrack providing video coverage, here. Lancer Timing will have live results, here.

Woo Pig Classic
A group of 13 ISU men's middle distance and distance runners will be making the trip to the Tyson Track Center this weekend. For the men's distance squad, their focus will be on fast-times in the 5,000-meter run, with a strong field awaiting them. Headlining the group is cross country All-American Thomas Pollard, who will look to continue to build off his 21st-place finish in Tallahassee two weeks ago. Gable Sieperda got All-Big 12 and All-Midwest Region in cross country and just missed joining Pollard and Kiptoo as All-Americans by one spot and is also entered. All-Big 12 cross country performer Ezekiel Rop and Chad Johnson are also entered. Ryan Ford, ISU's fifth finisher at the NCAA XC Championships and another All-Big 12 and All-Region performer, will compete unattached as he prepares for his final season of outdoor eligibility.

ISU's men's middle distance squad will be taking on the 600 and 1,000-meter runs this weekend with an eye on running some fast, NCAA-qualifying-level marks at next week's ISU Holiday Invitational in Ames. Headlining the group is two-time All-American Jason Gomez, ISU's school record holder in the 1,000-meter run who is entered in that field. Joining him from the Cyclones will be another two-time All-American in Alex Lomong, and two other members of ISU's Second Team All-America indoor distance medley relay squad in Joe Schaefer and Nehemia Too. David Thompson and Darius Kipyego are also in the 1,000m field.

Kipyego, a freshman from Warwick, Rhode Island, had a decorated prep career before coming to Ames, earning a silver medal in the outdoor 800m run at the 2019 PanAmerican U20 games in Costa Rica and finishing fifth in the outdoor 800m run at last year's Nike Outdoor Nationals.

The group in the 600m run is headlined by two-time All-American Cebastian Gentil, who has been a member of ISU's last two indoor DMR squads that have broken school records and become All-Americans. Also in the group is the return of Frank Hayes, who is back wearing Cardinal and Gold after spending three seasons at Ohio State. Tanner Anderson joins them in the competition.

Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener
Wesley Kiptoo's indoor 5,000-meter run national title defense begins with a really strong test against a field that will be aiming to go in the 13:20s or faster this weekend. Kiptoo is the headliner of a field that includes 10 men who earned All-America honors at the NCAA Cross Country Championships two weeks ago. Kiptoo's biggest competition will come from NCAA XC team champions Northern Arizona, who has four entries, all of whom were All-Americans in Tallahassee, Florida.

Kiptoo has the bar set high, with his 13:23.77 he ran en route to winning the NCAA Indoor title in 2021 not only being a school and NCAA Championships meet record, but also the 11th-fastest indoor 5K run in NCAA Division I history. The BU Season Opener has been good to the Cyclones over the years. In 2019, Edwin Kurgat ran to the previous school record and what is currently No. 12 on the all-time NCAA D1 indoor 5,000m ranking of 13:24.04 at this meet.

Iowa State Entries
Woo Pig Classic
600m Run (M): Tanner Anderson, Cebastian Gentil, Frank Hayes
1,000m Run (M): Jason Gomez, Darius Kipyego, Festus Lagat (Unattached), Alex Lomong, Joe Schaefer, David Thompson, Nehemia Too
5,000m Run (M): Ryan Ford (Unattached), Chad Johnson, Thomas Pollard, Ezekiel Rop, Gable SIeperda
4x400m Relay (M): Two Teams

Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener
5,000m Run (M): Wesley Kiptoo

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Tanner Anderson

Cebastian Gentil

Jason Gómez

Chad Johnson

Wesley Kiptoo

Edwin Kurgat

Festus Lagat

Alex Lomong

Thomas Pollard

Ezekiel Rop

Joe Schaefer

Gable Sieperda

David Thompson

Nehemia Too

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