By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
EUGENE (02-Aug) — On the penultimate day of the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon, Nikki Hiltz and Jonah Koech won ultra-competitive 1500m finals with sizzling kicks. Hiltz, 30, a former Arkansas Razorback, won their third straight title in 4:03.15, winning a two-up sprint against Sinclaire Johnson. Koech, 28, was an upset winner in a championships record and personal best 3:30.17. He beat both Olympic medalists in the race, Cole Hocker (who finished third) and Yared Nuguse (who was fifth). Both Hiltz and Koech locked-in team berths for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo next month.
HILTZ WINS AGAIN
Hiltz, who finished seventh in the Paris Olympics in 2024, saw the race set up exactly as they like. Hiltz was happy to have Laurie Barton take the field through the first 400m in a gentle 67.9 seconds, and Hiltz was tucked in third position with key rival Johnson one place ahead. With Barton still on the front, Hiltz stayed in the front-third of the pack through 800m (2:15.9) and knew that the pace would heat up soon.
“I knew it was going to be, like, a really fast last four (hundred meters),” Hiltz told reporters. “It was going to come down to positioning. I just got a good position.”
Johnson came to the front at the bell, and Hiltz, Emily Mackay, Heather MacLean and Dani Jones all reacted. Johnson led through 1200m with a 63.9-second lap with Mackay and Hiltz close behind. Johnson knew she needed to keep the pace high to take away some of Hiltz’s advantage in closing speed.
“I figured it was going to be more (a) sit and kick race,” Johnson told reporters. “Just wanted to stay out of trouble and be ready for any moves.”
Johnson led Hiltz around the final bend, then the defending champion shifted into high gear. Hiltz passed Johnson to win by 62/100ths of a second, 4:03.15 to 4:03.77. Mackay was a clear third in 4:04.38, more than a second ahead of her former training partner Heather MacLean (4:05.60). Jones finished fifth in 4:05.62, her highest placing at a national outdoor championships.
“I knew we were going to go hard on the backstretch,” said Hiltz. “Sinclaire definitely pushed it. I just told myself, be patient, be patient, be patient. Then with 150 to go that’s where my coach was like, with 150 to go you can let it rip. I was kind of holding back until then.”
Johnson, who made the World Athletics Championships teams for both 2022 and 2023 but finished fourth at last summer’s Olympic Trials, was very pleased to make another national team, her second this year (she finished sixth in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in the 1500m last March).
“My main goal was to win today,” said Johnson, who is coached by her fiancé Craig Nowak. “I felt like I did the best that I could to hold Nikki off, especially on that backstretch.” She continued: “I’m really stoked with it. The goal was always to get to Tokyo.”
KOECH UPSETS OLYMPIC MEDALISTS
The men’s 1500m figured to be a rematch between the Olympic medalists Hocker (gold) and Nuguse (bronze), and the race began with Nuguse controlling the pace from the front. The American record holder for the mile went to the front early in the first lap and took the field through 400 meters in an honest 56.3 seconds. Then with laps of 58.4 and 56.0 Nuguse stayed on the front through 1200 meters. That was his plan, he said.
“I ran it how I wanted to,” said Nuguse. “Going out there, grinding it. I’ve done it before. I felt confident doing it again.”
With 200 meters to go, Nuguse still had the lead. Lined up behind him were 2024 Olympian Hobbs Kessler, Hocker, and 3:48 miler Ethan Strand, who just finished his NCAA career at the University of North Carolina. Koech was only in sixth position, but was coming fast.
“If it was slow or faster I was ready for that because I trained for that,” Koech said. “I was trying to everything, whatever was needed, to be up with these guys.” He added: “It was my day.”
Koech, who was only in seventh place with a lap to go, blazed a 52.91-second final lap, and moved from third to first in the final 100m. Nuguse struggled in the final 50 meters and would finish fifth, but Strand had the race of his life. He held off the final charge from Hocker to finish second in a personal best 3:30.25. Hocker got third in 3:30.37, and Kessler was fourth in 3:31.12.
“Maybe went a little too early, but I’m strong enough right now to get to the finish line in the top three,” said Strand, whose father Scott was a four-minute miler. “I definitely went for the win.”
ROOKS AND HALLADAY-LOWRY TAKE STEEPLECHASE TITLES
In the two other distance finals today Kenneth Rooks and Lexy Halladay-Lowry, who are both from Utah and both went to Brigham Young University, won the 3000m steeplechase titles. Rooks, 25, the 2024 Olympic silver medalist, controlled the race from the halfway point, squeezing down the laps until he ran the final circuit in 59.1 seconds. He managed to hold of a hard-charging Daniel Michalski –who trains with Rooks under coach Ed Eyestone– to win in 8:26.58 to Michalski’s 8:26.77. Benard Keter got third in 8:29.00, beating 2024 Olympian Matthew Wilkinson by 32/100ths of a second.
“It was slow, so I just stayed relaxed as long as I could,” Rooks said. “I realized that nobody was going to start squeezing it down so I started squeezing it down, spreading it out a little bit towards the end, and I had the finish to get the win.”
Michalski’s second place finish was a surprise. Five men came into the race with the World Championships entry standard of 8:15 under their belts, but Michalski was not one of them. But Michalski, who is part of the U.S. Air Force World Class Athlete Program, had run 8:18.40 last month and trusted his training.
“I’m just kind of flabbergasted,” Michalski told reporters, wearing a cowboy hat. “I’m trying to have fun with this and I’m just so grateful for Air Force WCAP for supporting me and this lifestyle I get to have as a professional athlete with an active service time.”
Halladay-Lowry, who just finished her NCAA career at BYU, allowed 2024 Olympian Courtney Wayment to lead the first four laps and tried to remain patient. She had worked out a hand signal system with her coach, Diljeet Taylor, who would hold her hands like two pistols when it was time to go. Taylor flashed the signs just before the bell, and Halladay-Lowry surged ahead.
“When she gave me the guns then I could go,” said Halladay-Lowry, holding her hands like pistols. “When I saw that, I took it and didn’t look back.”
Halladay-Lowry ran a fast 9:09.14 to take the win. Behind her, North Carolina State’s Angelina Napoleon was chasing hard and held second position to the line. Kaylee Mitchell, who went to Oregon State University and now lives in Eugene, got third in 9:11.36, barely holding off Krissy Gear, who ran a personal best 9:11.64.
Napoleon is only 20 and just finished her sophomore year at NC State. Hailing from the Upstate, N.Y., village of Allegany (population 1773), her best steeplechase time last year was only 9:54.08. Now she’s headed to the World Athletics Championships.
“Absolutely insane,” said Napoleon when asked how it felt to make a national team. She added: “Just being here was such an experience. Like I said on Thursday (after the prelims) I think that it is anybody’s game. I think that the people that made it really showed that. It’s a young field going (to Tokyo).”
Indeed, all three Paris 2024 Olympians –Val Constien, Courtney Wayment and Marisa Howard– will not be on the team. Constien, the defending champion, finished seventh today; Wayment was sixth; and Howard did not compete. Gabbi Jennings, who was having an excellent year with a season’s best of 9:06.61, only finished ninth.
“You can’t forget about the women who really paved the way for us in steeple,” Napoleon added. “That was one of the most insane races I’ve ever been in in my life.”
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The 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships continue tomorrow at Hayward Field with finals in the men’s and women’s 800m and 5000m.
PHOTO: Daniel Michalski (left) and Kenneth Rooks competing in the 3000m steeplechase final at the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon (Photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
PHOTO: Lexy Halladay-Lowry winning the women’s 3000m steeplechase at the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon (Photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
PHOTO: Jonah Koech winning the men’s 1500m at the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon (Photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
PHOTO: Nikki Hiltz winning the women’s 1500m at the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon (Photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
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