The Millrose Games: The Wanamaker Mile

The Millrose Games is upon us yet again and as expected Meet Director Ray Flynn has put together world class fields. Having seen the athletes assembled for this marquee event has my mind swirling as to how these races are going to play out. The following is a breakdown of the men's and women's fields for the mile.

Rudin Wanamaker Women's Mile

In my eyes the women's Wanamaker Mile will come down to a duel between Nikki Hiltz and Laura Muir. They are clearly the class of the field. Muir has been a force to be reckon with at the 1500/mile distance for a number of years now. Along the way she has won medals at both the World Championships and the Olympic Games. Her last appearance in NYC was at the Fifth Avenue Mile this past fall, which she won going way, setting the course record at 4:14.8. This past weekend Muir opened up her indoor season at The TRACK, running 8:40.34 for 3000m. Even though 8:40 isn't anything to write home about these days, it does show Muir is in decent form. Given that and the consistency of her performances over the years I'm giving Muir the nod as the race favorite.

Historically, Nikki Hiltz is someone typically on the cusp of making a national team. Some years they make it, but others they don't. I believe that's all about to change. As of spring of last year Hiltz started working with Mike Smith of NAU. The man appears to have the Midas touch. Even though they only started working together roughly a year ago, Hiltz showed some promise last summer and has picked up right where they left off this winter. Hiltz opened up their indoor season at the Lumberjack Team Challenge on January 20th, running 4:32.23 at 7,000ft elevation. If one converts that time to a sea level performance that translates to roughly a 4:20 mile. Given that Hiltz ran this three weeks ago (not to mention it was a season opener) I anticipate they will be able to go sub-4:20 should the race call for it. Thus making Hiltz a contender for the win.

The way I would describe the rest of the field is a bunch of middle distance runners for whom the mile is a long event for them, barring Josette Andrews. Andrews has an intersting skill set in that she has run sub-2 for 800m, sub-4 for 1500m and sub-15 for 5k. Normally this would warrent one to discuss her as a potential contender. There are a few reasons I haven't. The first being that her performances last year were not consistent. The second is that she recently joined the On Athletics Club and it takes time to dial in a new athlete's training. The third is that her coach, Dathan Ritzenhein recently scratched her from the Dr. Sander Invitational mile due to a hamstring niggle. Now that's not to say that Andrews or one of these women couldn't emerge from the pack to challenge Muir and Hiltz. In fact, I would love it if one of them did. Who doesn't love a good plot twist?

Rudin Wanamaker Men's Mile

The men's Wanamaker Mile is essentially the On Athletics Club racing themselves. This team is just doing some next level shit right now. You've got the defending champion, Ollie Hoare, coming back to defend his title. Hoare being a 3:47 miler and the Commonwealth Games 1500m champion. Then there's Yared Nuguse, newly minted American indoor 3000m record holder at 7:28.24 and former NCAA record holder for both the 1500 and the 3000, not to mention multi-time NCAA champion. Last but not least there is Mario Garcia Romo, NCAA mile champion, World Championship 1500m - 4th placer and he just notched a huge 3000m personal best, running 7:34. Imagine if this was the crew you trained with day in, day out... You'd be coming into this meet with SWAGGER. The only questions I'm asking myself are, which one of these studs wins? And, does the winner take down Yomif Kejelcha's indoor world record of 3:47.01 in the process?

There are two people in the field that could upset the applecart. The first being Cole Hocker. Hocker is a 3:50 miler, an Olympic 1500m - 6th placer, has a 5000m personal best of 13:08 and a world-class kick. Hocker has quite the skill set. The unknown coming into this meet is, has he returned to form after a tumultuous 2022? He raced a 3000m a couple of weeks ago at the Lilac Grand Prix, going unchallenged, finishing in 7:51. While encouraging, this result doesn't indicate he's ready to bang with the likes of the OAC. The only other piece of information providing any indication of his fitness is that post-race Hocker indicated he'd be trying to break Bernard Lagat's American indoor mile record (3:49.89). What better place to give it a shot than Millrose? Especially considering the field assembled. Hocker will likely have plenty of company to pull him along, but in the process does Nuguse beat him to it?

The second person to consider is Sam Prakel. Prakel is also a 3:50 miler, has a 5000m personal best of 13:15 (which he just set this past December) and, much like the guys of the OAC, has the synergy of his team to drawn from. For those not aware, Prakel is a coach at the University of Washington, where just two weeks ago 8 of its memebers broke 4 minutes for the mile, all in the same race. The fastest of the bunch running 3:51?!? Between recently running a 5000m best and then witnessing your athletes absolutely run a train on the 4 minute mile barrier, Prakel has got to be thinking he can throw down with anyone stepping to the line with him on Saturday.