Traverse City Record-Eagle

Sports

July 14, 2012

Houghton: Mile races should be competitive

Olympic Trial qualifiers headline today's field

BY DENNIS CHASE dchase@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Olympic Trial qualifiers Daniel Clark, Kelley Miller and Betsy Graney headline the field for today's Fifth-Third Golden Mile.

The women's race starts at 10:15 a.m., the men's race follows at 10:30. The mile starts on Union, near Ninth Street, and ends on Front, near Wellington.

"We should have some competitive races," director Eric Houghton said.

Clark, a Notre Dame alum, is coming off a strong showing in last month's 1,500-meter Trials.

"I did really well," the 26-year-old said. "I made it out of prelims and into the semifinals. Twelve guys made it to the finals and I was (13th) .08 seconds away from making it. I was still happy with it."

Clark set his PR in the 1,500 last month in 3:39.11.

"I'm really fit," he said.

That's a different scenario from a year ago when Clark finished fifth here in 4:12.8. An accountant, Clark said he had been putting in a lot of hours at work and not training as much. Clark quit his job to focus on the Trials this summer.

The men's field will also include Kenyans Richard Kandie and Festus Kigen, who were third and fourth last July (4:07.77 and 4:12); Tony Filipek, who won the Firecracker Mile in Clawson on July 4 (4:03); former Traverse City Central and Hillsdale College runner Jacob Secor; and former Ohio State Buckeye Rob Myers, who spent six years running for Reebok and three for Saucony.

"I'm pretty much finishing up with my career," the 31-year-old Myers said. "Now I'm having fun with it. The last couple years I've been struggling with an Achilles injury and I haven't been able to compete as much or as competitively as I've wanted."

Myers did run a 3:42 in the1,500.

"That's not blazing fast, but it's decent," he said.

Miller won the women's 1,500 in 4:23 at the Mid-American Conference championships in May.

She qualified for the Olympic Trials, but did not make it out of preliminaries.

"I ended up having a pretty unfortunate race and not making it to the second round," the Miami of Ohio runner said. "I was bummed after coming off such a high in May."

Miller, who is working on her masters in speech pathology, will be running her first road mile.

"I'm very excited to see how everything will turn out," she said.

"I heard the half mile is at Kilwins, which is my favorite chocolate place. So if I'm not at the finish line that's where I'll be," she added, laughing.

Graney, who ran at William & Mary and Grand Valley, reached the semifinals of the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Trials. Graney finished 18th overall, six seconds behind the last qualifier for the finals.

Sarah Boyle, who was third last year (4:52.13) returns. Benzie Central's Theresa Warsecke, bound for the University of Toledo, is entered, too.

The winners will receive checks for $1,000.

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