RRW: Wesley Kiptoo, Joyce Kimeli Win NCAA 5000m Titles
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2021 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
(12-Mar) — Iowa State’s Wesley Kiptoo and Auburn’s Joyce Kimeli won the 5000m titles on the penultimate day of the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center at the University of Arkansas today, while the men of Oregon and women of Brigham Young took the distance medley relay titles with superb anchor-leg runs.
Wesley Kiptoo winning the 2021 NCAA Division I Indoor Championships 5000m (photo via cyclones.com)
Kiptoo dominated the men’s race, running away from the field to win in a championships record of 13:23.77. Wearing black knitted gloves (he later said his hands were cold), Kiptoo started the race aggressively, splitting the first 400m in 59.8 seconds, and the first 800m in 2:01.1. Although Arkansas’s Amon Kemboi and Florida State’s Adrian Wildschutt remained within striking distance, Kiptoo felt that they were not going to help with the pace and he decided to leave them behind.