Evan Jager’s first steeple of the year and Chris Solinsky’s debut as a USATF.tv broadcaster are among the highlights of the Hoka One One Middle Distance Classic, which will be held Friday night at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

KIMbia athletes will run in many of the meet’s events. Here’s who’s doing what, in order of race schedule:

• Evan Jager, 3000-meter steeplechase
• Lopez Lomong, 800 meters
• Natalja Piliusina, 1500 meters
• German Fernandez, 1500 meters
• Tom Farrell, 1500 meters
• Jess Tonn, 5,000 meters
• Sean Quigley, 5,000 meters

The meet will be broadcast live on USATF.tv here. The broadcast is scheduled to begin at 6:15 p.m. Pacific/9:15 p.m. Eastern.

Chris Solinsky and fellow former Bowerman Track Club member Alan Webb will be adding their expertise to the broadcast. Although this will be Chris’ first USATF.tv broadcast, he’s not a neophyte; he was part of the announcing team for several Nike Cross National webcasts and also helped with an NBC broadcast of the Boston Indoor Games.

“This is a perfect job for me because I am a track junkie and am always reading all I can about the sport,” Chris says. “I am pretty good at knowing what people have done in their career.  I was always the person to inform my teammates about what their competition has done.”

Chris Solinsky, seen here after setting the U.S. 10,000-meter record in 2010, will be on the other end of the mic at Friday’s Oxy Meet in Los Angeles.

Evan Jager continued his clear, convincing run as America’s best steepler — not that anyone was doubting his status there.  The American record holder confidently claimed his third consecutive national title in the event, clocking an 8:18.83 and a solid one-second victory.

In another display of remarkable consistency, Lopez Lomong came home in third place in the 1500m with his time of 3:39.10, marking the sixth time in the last seven years that he has taken a medal home from the US Championships. Meanwhile, their teammate Andrew Bumbalough produced a quality showing in the 5000m, going up against four runners with PB’s of 13:16 or better… and beating all but one. Bumbalough made a late bid for the win with two laps to go, and hung on for a runner-up finish to perennial champion Bernard Lagat. The Tennessee-native posted a 13:32.01 in his bid for his first track national title, marking one of the quicker efforts in recent USATF 5000m races.

Sean Quigley also showed nicely with a fourth-place finish in the 10,000m. Quigley was one of the last men standing in a deep field, as he hung in with the small breakaway pack that winnowed the pretenders from the contenders. His final time was 28:29 and his fourth-place finish represents his best showing at a US Championship on the track.

Shalane Flanagan placed second in the women’s race at the 36th Annual Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day… despite being fresh — or, more accurately, particularly “un-fresh” — off her personal best marathon run in Boston just weeks prior. With a 10k performance of 33:05, Flanagan was 34-seconds clear of 3rd place — captured by top road runner Risper Gesabwa of Kenya — and 53-second ahead of Deena Kastor, who took fourth.

Over on the men’s side, local resident Sean Quigley claimed the top finish among all Americans in his own backyard. Against a solid international field, Quigley placed 7th overall — ahead of top compatriots Ryan Hall, Bobby Curtis and Ben Bruce — clocking 30:04 over the challenging 10k course.

Brent Vaughn also placed in the top 25, as a member of Team USA – Blue. Despite Quigley’s strong run, his “White” squad only took 7th place in the team result. However, Shalane led Team USA – Red to tie Team Kenya in second place with 22 points.

The Payton Jordan Invitational is renowned as the place to go for fast 5- and 10-thousands on American soil and 2014 solidified that reputation even further. Among KIMbia athletes, the most head-turning performance came from Boulder Track Club’s Laura Thweatt who ran 15:04 for fourth place for an absolutely massive PB of 30-plus seconds. That time ranks her #5 in the world so far this year… heady stuff for an athlete whose highest conference finish in college was third. The Lee Troop-coached athlete will have a quick turn-around next run the pro mile event at the Twin Cities Marathon on Thursday.

Lopez Lomong was the top KIMbia finisher in a hot men’s 5000, setting a new lifetime best on the outdoor oval. His 13:07.95 was good for 3rd place and stands less than a second away Read the full article

In Bend, OR, Sean Quigley grabbed runner-up honors at the USATF Club National Cross Country Championships, clocking 31:11 over a tough European-style 10k course.

In snowy and cold conditions, Brent Vaughn led his new club Champions League Athletic Performance to the team title with a fourth place finish. With Vaughn running 31:20, just nine seconds separated the pair of former housemates who spent the summer of 2009 together at the KIMbia training camp in the Netherlands.

With both now headquartered in or around Boulder, expect to see the two Colorado-based athletes to mix it up at the US Cross Country Championships to be held there on February 15th, 2014.