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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 8, 2021)
A3 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2021 Northwest clubs stock Olympic-bound hopefuls By TOM BANSE Northwest News Network The Pacifi c Northwest is famous for churn- ing out jet airliners, computer software and huckleberry syrup. The U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team Trials beginning June 18 in Eugene will showcase another local product: Olympic distance runners. It’s a safe bet that a sizable portion of the U.S. Olympic track and fi eld squad bound for the Tokyo Olympics will have ties to the Northwest. This region is shaping up as a ver- itable factory of Olympians in distance run- ning, thanks in large part to fi ve thriving elite training groups. To be fair, many of the top American dis- tance runners who train in the Northwest aren’t originally from the area. Middle dis- tance runner Vincent Ciattei moved clear across the country to join Nike Oregon Track Club Elite in Eugene when he turned pro after graduating from Virginia Tech in 2018. “Tracktown USA is like a mecca for run- ning,” Ciattei said, using Eugene’s motto. “I knew that OTC and being a Nike athlete came with great resources, like great physio, good facilities to use. I knew that the new Hayward Field was being built, which was a big, big draw.” Ciattei, a Maryland native, said his deci- sion to relocate to join Oregon Track Club Elite was validated by subsequent per- formances that qualifi ed him for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in the 1,500 meters. At the Portland Track Festival on May 29, his time of 3:34.57 improved on his previ- ous personal best by nearly two full seconds. U.S. 1,500 meter champion Craig Engels hails from North Carolina and competed in college for Ole Miss, but now calls Port- land home. He trains with coach Pete Julian’s group based at Nike headquarters in Beaverton. “It’s a tough adjustment if you come from somewhere else,” Engels said. “Like I came from Mississippi, where it’s sunny. In the win- ter here it’s real rough, but now I love it.” Nike sponsors two separate pro running teams at its main Beaverton campus. The group Engels trains with lacks a name, while the second one is called the Bowerman Track Club. “Growing up since high school, watching them compete, it was something that was like, ‘I really want to be there,’” said middle dis- tance standout Elise Cranny, whom Nike and the Bowerman coaches recruited from Stan- ford in 2019. “I feel like I will get the most out of myself because of the team atmosphere and every- one pushing one another,” Cranny said. “I feel so grateful to be here and to be training with these women.” Tom Banse/Northwest News Network Karissa Schweizer, in white top, is a Bowerman Track Club recruit from the Midwest. She carries high expectations to nab an Olympic team slot in the 5,000 meters. ‘IT’S A LITTLE ANNOYING WHEN IT IS GRAY, BUT IT IS ONE OF THE ONLY PLACES IN THE COUNTRY WHERE ALL YEAR ROUND, YOU MIGHT HAVE ANNOYING TRAINING, BUT IT’S NOT STOPPED. IT’S NOT TOO HOT AND DOESN’T GET SNOWY IN THE WINTER.’ Danny Mackey | head coach, Brooks Beasts Track Club The background for how the Pacifi c North- west became a magnet and fi nishing school for future Olympians involves several big person- alities, and of course, the deep pockets of the shoe companies headquartered in the region. Foremost, that’s Nike. Seattle-based Brooks Running sponsors a team as well, the Brooks Beasts Track Club. There’s also Seattle sports- wear company Oiselle, which sponsors the newest pro training group on the scene. It’s a women’s team based in Bend called Oiselle Littlewing, coached by Lauren Fleshman. The Bowerman Track Club pro team coached by Jerry Schumacher has 22 runners on its roster, including 2016 Rio Olympics gold medalist Matthew Centrowitz and silver medalist Evan Jager. The Bowerman club’s Nike campus neighbors, coach Pete Julian’s unnamed group, supports ten runners. Ore- gon Track Club Elite’s current roster shows 11 names. Brooks is feeding around 14 Beasts, while Oiselle Littlewing has seven women in its nest. Track and fi eld beat writer Ken Goe watched the rise of the elite training groups from his perch at The Oregonian, from which he recently retired. “This all started because of Alberto Sala- zar,” Goe said. “He was at Nike and was dis- tressed to see no Americans who were medal contenders or threats at the international level in the distances. It had pretty much been taken over by East African runners.” Salazar, a top marathoner in his day, founded the Nike Oregon Project in 2001. The goal was to bring respectability back to Amer- ican distance running using the best technol- ogy, sports medicine and advanced training techniques. Salazar is no longer coaching because of anti-doping allegations lodged against him and an associate, though not his athletes. Sala- zar received a four-year ban from the sport in 2019, which he is appealing. The Nike Ore- gon Project was disbanded, but many of its runners stuck around and continue to train as a group under the guidance of Julian, who was Salazar’s assistant previously. Another name Goe credits is Vin Lananna, a former coach and assistant athletic director at the University of Oregon. Lananna oversaw the establishment of the Oregon Track Club Elite branch in 2006 to help pro runners stick around Eugene and improve after college. Goe said it was amazing to peek behind the curtain and see the resources the top training groups provided their chosen athletes. “Oh, they’ve got everything,” Goe said. “They have underwater treadmills, they’ve got weight rooms. They’ve got physiologists, psychologists, weight coaches. Whatever they want, whatever they need, they have. They spend months of the year training at altitude. They fl y all over the world.” Brooks Beasts head coach Danny Mackey said the pandemic took a lot of those resources away temporarily. “Every group was aff ected a little diff er- ently because the cities had diff erent lock- downs,” Mackey said. “Seattle was really restricted. So, there was a point where we talked about going to a state that was really open just to be able to have the training needed.” Mackey said even with things going smoothly at home again, he experienced stress from the feeling of having to catch up. While there are rivalries between some of the stars on the diff erent Northwest squads, Mackey said the coaches of the top-level Northwest teams are friendly to one another. However, they are also competitors when wooing the brightest prospects within each year’s new class of NCAA cross-country and track champions. Sports agents are also involved sometimes as matchmakers. “One thing I have learned over the last eight and half years is that the NCAA is the best predictor of talent,” Mackey said. Mackey mentioned Nike co-founder and former CEO Phil Knight’s fi nancial support of competitive running as an explanation for why the elite training ecosystem fl ourished in Cascadia, and also credited the region’s tem- perate climate. “It’s a little annoying when it is gray, but it is one of the only places in the country where all year round, you might have annoying training, but it’s not stopped,” Mackey said. “It’s not too hot and doesn’t get snowy in the winter.” At this point, the Northwest-based train- ing groups are not only stocking the shelves of Team USA, but more than half a dozen for- eign countries, too. That’s by virtue of admit- ting top runners from such places as Canada, Japan, Botswana, Portugal, the United King- dom and Australia. PROTECT YOUR FAMILY FROM UNEXPECTED AMBULANCE COSTS. ONLY COVERS HOUSEHOLD $ 59 PER YEAR MEMBERSHIP WEBSITE TO SIGN UP: ambulancemembership.com/medix or call: 503-861-5558