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Camel City Elite Releases Final Roster of Pro AthletesPublished by
$40k in prize money and bonuses available for indoor events on January 31, 2015
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – January 19, 2015 – JDL Fast Track is releasing the final roster of professional athletes who will be competing for $40,000 in prize money and bonuses. Camel City Elite will be held on Saturday, January 31, 2015, as part of the Hilton Garden Innvitational college meet. The Camel City Elite portion of the meet will begin at approximately 2:00 pm and will last about 2.5 hours.
Women’s Mellow Mile presented by Mellow Mushroom Winston-Salem
The women’s field for the mile includes two-time Olympian and American Recordholder at 2 miles, Shannon Rowbury of Nike’s Oregon Project. Rowbury is coming off a 4:27 mile effort on January 17 at the UW Preview meet in Seattle. Morgan Uceny of Adidas is another Olympian in the field of 6 professionals. She was a 2012 Olympian at 1500m and was ranked #1 in the world in 2011 at that distance. Heather Kampf, winner of the 2014 Camel City 800m event at JDL and owner of a 4:30 mile PR, will be moving up to her preferred distance in 2015. Furman Elite from Greenville, SC, will be sending three athletes to the event. Heidi See and Stephanie Garcia will be rounding out the field, with teammate Melissa Salerno taking on the pacing duties.
The facility record of 4:35.07, set last year by Brooks’ Sara Vaughn, is definitely in jeopardy, according to JDL Fast Track facility director Craig Longhurst. “Not only would I not be surprised to see that record fall based on the field we have assembled, but the North Carolina all-time mile record for women, which stands at 4:34.04 set by Heidi See this past summer, could also go down!”
The women will be competing for a $4,000 first place award and a $1,000 bonus if they break the existing facility record.
Camel City Elite presented by Salem Sports
The men’s mile field is as deep or deeper than the women’s field. The early favorite, based on past credentials, has to be Leo Manzano (Hoka One One), the 2012 London Olympic silver medalist at 1500m and owner of a 3:50.64 mile PR. Will Leer (Nike), the 2014 Wanamaker Mile champion and owner of a 3:51.82 PR, will make sure that Manzano doesn’t have it easy. Cory Leslie of Furman Elite and Nike will be on hand to defend his facility record, which stands at 3:57.81. Leslie also has a 3:53 mile PR to his credit. Leslie’s training mate at Furman Elite, Michael Hammond, will also be competing.
Matt Elliott of Brooks and In the Arena will be competing in his third Camel City Elite mile, where he has finished third and second the last two years. Elliott owns a 3:36 1500m PR. Riley Masters of Brooks Beasts and owner of a 3:56 mile PR rounds out the field. Masters finished third in this event last year. Finally, local favorite Donnie Cowart of Crazy Running will be rabbiting the field. Cowart is no stranger to the mile, breaking 4:00 this past summer.
Like the women, the men have a legitimate shot of not only breaking the facility record, but also the North Carolina all-time record, which stands at 3:57.30 set by Ken Popejoy from 1973. “Breaking the facility record would be nice, but being able to say the fastest men’s mile ever run in North Carolina occurred at JDL would be a great honor for our facility,” said Longhurst.
The men will be competing for a $4,000 first place award and a $1,000 bonus if they break the existing facility record of 3:57.81.
Camel City Elite 60m Hurdles – presented by RHFitPro
The addition of the men’s 60m hurdles didn’t get finalized until early January, but the field is one of the strongest in the U.S. during this early indoor season. Headlined by Olympic medalists and World Champions David Oliver and Jason Richardson, this race should be a scorcher. Oliver was the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist and 2013 World Champs gold medalist, while Richardson owns a 2011 World Champs gold medal and a 2012 Olympic silver medal at 110m hurdles.
They will be bringing with them training mates Dwight Thomas and Caleb Cross, both good hurdlers in their own right. Thomas also owns an Olympic gold medal from his time on Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Cross was a multiple All-American at Arkansas. There to defend his facility record will be Eric Keddo, a member of Jamaica’s 2012 World Indoor team.
Keddo’s facility record of 7.73 is almost sure to go down, according to Longhurst. “I would say this one is the safest bet to go down because there are no tactics involved like in the distance races, but it is also going to be the first race for a few of these guys.”
The hurdlers will be competing for a $1500 first place award and a $500 bonus if they break Keddo’s facility record of 7.73.
Camel City Women’s 800m
“This may be one of the most wide open races,” according to Longhurst. Returning to the field is Phoebe Wright, who finished second last year. A Tennessee grad competing for Nike, Wright owns a 1:58.22 PR. Geena Lara, the only Olympian in this field, owns a 1:59.24 PR. Both Wright and Lara opened up last weekend at the UW Preview, Wright running the mile and 400, while Lara ran the 1000m. Also in the field will be Latavia Thomas of the NJNY Track Club. Thomas is an LSU grad who also owns a sub 2:00 PR. Jenna Westaway of Brooks Running Canada will be traveling south this winter to take on this field and try to better her indoor PR of 2:01.89. The rabbit for this race will be Melissa Salerno of Furman Elite, who is pulling double duty as she is also rabbiting the mile.
The women will be competing for a $2,000 first place award and a $1,000 bonus to the winner if they break Heather Kampf’s facility record of 2:04.28, set last year.
Camel City Men’s 800m
After saying that the women’s race may be the most wide open, Longhurst retracted that statement and indicated that the men’s race is even more of a toss-up. “We have 5 professional athletes, all with PRs that are not too far from each other. The 800 can be so unpredictable, and it’s early in the season, any one of these guys could win.”
Brandon Johnson (Nike) comes in with the fastest PR (1:43.84) and the only Olympic or World Champs experience, having been a member of the 2013 World Champs team. Tyler Mulder of Oregon Track Club Elite was the 2008 NCAA champ at this event while attending Northern Iowa. His PR is 1:44.34. Mulder’s OTC Elite teammate, Harun Abda, will be joining him in the field. Abda was a multiple All-American at Minnesota and owns a 1:45.55 PR. Ryan Martin of Asics has a 1:44.77 PR and was 4th at the 2012 Olympic Trials, missing the Olympic team by 0.25 of a second. Richard Jones (unattached) may have the slowest PR in the field by 0.01 of a second, but he is also the only world record holder in the field. Jones was on the relay team that set the world record for the indoor 4x800m in 2014 in Boston. Logan Roberts will be handling the pacing duties again this year, after leading the race perfectly through 400 meters in 2014.
The men’s field will be competing for a $2,000 first place prize and a $1,000 bonus if the winner can break Nick Symmonds’ 1:48.64 facility record set here in 2014.
Camel City Women’s 3,000m
The women’s 3,000m race has the largest pro field of any of the Camel City races. Aisha Praught of Oregon Track Club Elite, the 2012 NCAA runner-up in the indoor mile, has the fastest PR in the field at 9:00.67. Lauren Paquette of Breakaway Race Team, 6-time All-American at Baylor, ran 9:08 indoors in 2014. Nicol Traynor of NJNY Track Club is a University of Richmond grad with a 9:10 PR. The Adidas Rogue Racing team from Austin, TX, is sending three athletes, Kristen Findley, Mary Goldkamp and Sarah Pease. Findley is a Vanderbilt grad with a 4:14 1500m PR. Goldkamp, who ran at Bradley, has a 9:54 3k steeple PR, while Pease, an Indiana grad, has run 9:48 for the steeple. Carmen Graves of Brooks will be handling the pacemaking duties.
The women will be racing for a $2,000 first place prize and a $1,000 bonus to the winner if they break Deb Maier’s facility record of 9:02.79.
Camel City Men’s 3,000m
The men’s 3,000m field is the smallest pro field of any of the Camel City races. Miles Batty (unattached) has the fastest 3k PR in the field. Batty was a two-time NCAA champ while at BYU and held the NCAA indoor mile record. He has a 3k PR of 7:49. Sean Keveren of Ragged Mountain Racing is a Virginia grad who ran a 13:39 5k PR in 2014. The field also includes Sandy Roberts, running for Salming. Roberts is a graduate of NC State and holds a mile PR of 4:01. Isaac Presson of Furman Elite will be pacing the race. Presson is a North Carolina grad and holds the JDL Fast Track collegiate record for the mile at 4:02.28.
The men will be competing for a $2,000 first place prize and a $1,000 bonus to the winner if they break Craig Forys’ facility record of 7:58.07.
Camel City sponsors
Camel City Elite has benefited from the generosity of its corporate sponsors and crowd fund supporters who have contributed over $30,000 of the prize money and bonus pool. In addition to Salem Sports and Mellow Mushroom Winston-Salem as title sponsors of the men’s and women’s mile races, JDL Fast Track has secured 19 sponsors who have contributed to the prize money pool or assisted with providing products to assist with the meet’s hospitality. These sponsors include:
Champion Daggett Shuler First Tennessee Bank Foothills Brewing Company Gregory Poole Power Systems Hampton Inn Hanes Mall Johnson Controls Keiger Graphic Communications Medallion Athletics Mondo USA Norman & Young Group – Merrill Lynch Panera Bread The Phoenix Company RHFitPro Sammy Phillips Electric Toshiba Twin City Track Club UCS Visit Winston-Salem
Without the generous support of these sponsors, Camel City Elite would not have been able to attract the caliber of athletes who are set to compete.
About Camel City Elite Camel City Elite is a set of elite races held within the larger college Hilton Garden Innvitational. The Camel City Elite races will be held on Saturday, January 31, 2015. The races set to be contested include the men’s and women’s 800m, mile and 3000m races, as well as the men’s 60m Hurdles. The mile races have prize money of $4000 for 1st place, $2000 for 2nd place, $1000 for 3rd place and $500 for fourth. The 800m and 3000m races have $2000/$1000/$500 prize breakdown. Each of the distance events have an additional $1000 bonus to the winner if they break the current facility records. The hurdles race will feature a $1500 prize to the winner and $500 facility record bonus.
About JDL Fast Track (www.jdlfasttrack.com) JDL Fast Track, one of the premier indoor track and field facilities in the southeast, is a privately owned, dedicated indoor track and field facility, that opened in January 2012, houses a 200-meter oval track with a Mondotrack FTX surface—the same surface used at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. JDL Fast Track has current seating capacity of approximately 1,700, with future expansion possibilities more than 3,000 spectators.
JDL Fast Track will also play host to multiple NCAA Division I and Division II conference meets in 2015, as well as serving as the host for the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships and USATF Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships.
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