Habtom Samuel doubles at the NCAA Championships and Arkansas takes the men's title
The New Mexico junior won the 10,000 m and 5000 m in Eugene; Simeon Birnbaum won the 1500 m, Colin Sahlman the 800 m, and Arkansas scored 56 points.
Photograph: Colin Sahlman racing at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships, by Habst, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHabtom Samuel of New Mexico won the men's 10,000 m on Wednesday night and the 5000 m on Friday at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene. The 10,000 m went in 27:51.31 from Louisville's Elsingi Kipruto, 27:54.04, and Ernest Cheruiyot of Arkansas, 27:58.62. The 5000 m was closer: 13:38.93, with Rocky Hansen of Wake Forest a second back in 13:39.91 and Kipruto third again. Samuel, an Eritrean, won this 10,000 m title in 2024 and the cross country title in 2025, and set the collegiate 5000 m record of 13:03.47 in April.
Simeon Birnbaum of Oregon, who ran the collegiate 1500 m record of 3:31.69 on this track in April, won the championship in 3:36.05. Trent McFarland of Michigan was second in 3:37.18 and Gary Martin of Virginia third in 3:37.21, with four men inside 3:37.50.
Colin Sahlman of Northern Arizona won the 800 m in 1:44.22, a personal best, from the Arkansas pair Tyrice Taylor, 1:44.30, and Rivaldo Marshall, 1:44.93. Geoffrey Kirwa of Louisville won the steeplechase in 8:17.46 from Tulane's Silas Kiptanui.
Those Arkansas points mattered. The Razorbacks won the team title with 56, ahead of Georgia on 49, Tennessee 46, LSU 42 and Oregon 40.
Two titles on consecutive days, 12.5 km of racing, and Samuel's margins were three seconds and one. Doubling at a championship is not about speed; it is about how much is left on day two.
Sources: Flash Results; Flash Results; Flash Results; Wikipedia; FloTrack.
