Lopez Lomong (photo by Jeff Benjamin) produced another powerful performance on Friday night to take victory in 3:53.86 over a mile at the Sir Walter Miler meeting in North Carolina, clocking the second fastest time ever run in the state to defeat Johnny Gregorek and Sam Prakel. Lomong led 13 men under the four-minute barrier.

“I held good position and was able to take advantage of it,” said the Bowerman Track Club athlete, who also noted how near he came to the North Carolina State Record (he missed it by 0.03), and his hopes to be able to break that record himself. “Next time,” said the newly minted Sir Walter Miler Champion.

It continues a resurgent 2018 for Lomong, who earlier this summer became US champion over 10,000m and has since competed across a range of distances, finishing fifth at the US road 10K championships before a second-place finish at the Morton Games in Ireland where he ran a 3:56.58 mile.

Full result below:

1 Lopez Lomong NIKE/Bowerman 3:53.86 3:39.40 1500m
2 Johnny Gregorek ASICS 3:54.53 3:39.91 1500m
3 Sam Prakel Unattached 3:54.64 3:39.52 1500m
4 Pat Casey Under Armour 3:54.66 3:39.80 1500m
5 Ben Blankenship NIKE/Oregon Tr 3:54.88 3:40.34 1500m
6 Craig Engels NIKE/Nike Oreg 3:55.12 3:40.44 1500m
7 Sean McGorty Unattached 3:55.21 3:39.97 1500m
8 Hassan Mead NIKE/Oregon Tr 3:55.91 3:40.35 1500m
9 Charlie Marquardt Bryn Mawr Runnin 3:55.97 3:40.96 1500m
10 Robert Domanic Unattached 3:56.66 3:41.40 1500m
11 Graham Crawford HOKA NJNYTC 3:56.79 3:41.80 1500M
12 Jacob Thomson adidas/Boston At 3:57.07 3:41.08 1500m
13 Cristian Soratos adidas 3:59.16 3:43.20 1500m

ongrats to Lopez Lomong, on his 3:53.86 mile win, leading 13 Under 4:00, and setting State record!!

Shalane Flanagan had another impressive showing at the UW Invitational in Seattle, Washington on Saturday afternoon, the 36-year clocking a season’s best of 8:43.28 to finish second in the women’s 3000m behind Dutch middle distance star Sifan Hassan, the reigning world indoor 1500m champion.

Flanagan has recently begun preparations for the Boston Marathon in April, where she will seek to win her first title at the race to add to her historic victory in New York last November. A fortnight ago she opened her 2018 campaign with an 8:55.11 clocking for 3000m to win in Seattle, and today she carved 12 seconds off that time, something that will leave the Bowerman Track Club athlete high on confidence as she returns to heavy mileage ahead of Boston. Both Hassan’s time of 8:34.45 and Flanagan’s were under the previous meeting record.

Also in action in Seattle was Lopez Lomong, who finished fifth in the men’s mile in 3:59.75. That carved more than four seconds off his previous season’s best, which he ran in Seattle in his opener a fortnight ago.

In her first race in 10 months, Shalane Flanagan was the easy winner of the 10,000 at the Portland Track Festival on Saturday.

After passing halfway in 16:00, Shalane started cranking out 75-second laps to finish in 31:38.68, 29 seconds ahead of runner-up Rachel Cliff.

It was a solid-and-then-some return to action for Shalane in her first race since placing sixth in the Olympic Marathon last August. Shalane suffered a slight fracture in her back over the winter and had to withdraw from the Boston Marathon. Saturday’s race came after just three weeks of workouts.

In Sunday’s action at the Portland Track Festival, Lopez Lomong was third in the 1500 (3:38.52), Jess Tonn was second in the 5,000 (15:33.13) and Natalja Piliusina was seventh in the 1500 (4:11.04).

Shalane will return to the track in less than two weeks for the USATF championships in Sacramento, California. She’s also slated to run the Peachtree 10K in Atlanta on July 4.

It was a busy weekend for KIMbia’s track athletes, with runners doing indoor miles at three different meets, highlighted by a huge Colleen Quigley PR and a resurgent Lopez Lomong.

Colleen got things off to an exciting start at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational at Boston University on Friday. She ran 4:24.88 for second in the fast heat of the mile, just behind her Bowerman Track Club teammate and fellow 2016 Olympian Shelby Houlihan (4:24.16). The two times were, briefly, world-leading marks until Saturday’s Millrose Games. More important, Colleen notched a 4-second PR.

At Millrose, Nicole Sifuentes placed 7th in the Wanamaker Mile in 4:29.27, and Izaic Yorks ran 4:01.64 for 10th in the men’s Wanamaker mile.

Later on Saturday, Lopez Lomong and Evan Jager went 1-2 in the fast heat of the mile at the Husky Classic in Seattle. Both were time in 3:56.55, with Lopez getting the nod on place. Lopez’s run was his best race of the past year and an encouraging sign for 2017.