College Stars To Take On Millrose

The 2013 Millrose Games has just three events specifically staged for collegians, but there is a considerable amount of undergraduate talent coming to compete at the Games.

In fact, five of the 20 athletes named to the initial Bowerman Award watch lists will be competing at Millrose. The Bowerman Award will be given to the top male and female college athlete at the end of the year. Three of those five — high jumper Brigetta Barrett, distance runner Lawi Lalang and hurdler Georganne Moline — hail from the University of Arizona. Barrett, who grew up along the Hudson north of the City, is an Olympic silver medalist. Lalang broke the collegiate 5k record at Millrose last year and will run in the Wanamaker Mile this time around. And Moline, an Olympian in 2012, will test herself in the 400m dash.

The other two Bowerman finalists are each NCAA champions — Dartmouth distance star Abbey D'Agostino, who will run the Wanamaker Mile, and Oregon sprinter English Gardner, a New Jersey native hoping to make a triumphant return to the East Coast.

The University of Colorado will have a pair of standouts in the elite fields with Joe Morris in the 60m dash and Olympic steeplechaser Emma Coburn in the Wanamaker Mile. With Coburn and D'Agostino in the mile will be widely-recognized Oregon standout Jordan Hasay. A final women's collegian among the elites will be long jumper Vashti Thomas of the Academy of Art in the Bay Area. She has been well beyond the Armory's facility record.

On the men's side, joining Lalang in the men's mile will be Ryan Hill of North Carolina State and Chris O'Hare of Tulsa. O'Hare ran in the Wanamaker a year ago.

The three college relays are expected to deliver excitement. The same five teams — Bowie State, Cheyney, Lincoln, Virginia State and Virginia Union — will be lining up in both the men's and women's Historically Black College & University 4x400-meter relays.

And the Byron Dyce College Men's 4x800m relay will feature a Penn State team with some notable members in standout Casimir Loxsom and rookie Za'Von Watkins, who won the high school mile a year ago.

The University of Albany will be running in a number of club relays, including the men's and women's 4x200s and the distance medley.