Four season bests in two days at the Electric Forest: Edwin Siuda runs 8:51.65 in the steeplechase — a second off his lifetime best — and Daniel Carr doubles with season bests in the 1500m and 800m.
Nosotros Track Club came north for the Portland Track Festival and left with four season bests in two days. Edwin Siuda ran 8:51.65 in the 3000m steeplechase, within a second of his lifetime best, and Daniel Carr backed it up with season bests of his own in the 1500m and 800m. For a mid-season weekend, that’s exactly the kind of sharpening NOS came for.
The Portland Track Festival is a fast late-June fixture run by Portland Track at Lewis & Clark College’s Griswold Stadium, known as the “Electric Forest,” and it carries World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze and USATF Tour billing. The High Performance heats are where the meet’s quickest fields go to chase standards and fast times, exactly the company Siuda lined up against on Saturday night.
Steeple: one second from the PR
In the High Performance section of the 3000m steeplechase on Saturday, June 20, Siuda ran 8:51.65 for fifth: a season best, and roughly a second off his personal best of 8:50.09. It was a controlled, aggressive ride over 28 barriers and seven water jumps in a deep field, and it leaves him knocking on a PR he looks ready to break. The mark clears the USATF Outdoor entry standard of 9:35.00 with room to spare.
1500s and an 800
Siuda was back on the track Sunday, June 21, for the 1500m, running 3:55.42 for 52nd across the High Performance heats: his second season best in as many days, in a different event entirely.
Carr had a strong weekend of his own. He ran 4:11.93 in the open 1500m for 34th, then came back for the 800m and ran 2:07.19 for 37th in the open section — season bests in both, the kind of double that pays off once championship season rolls around.
Both Siuda and Carr left Portland faster than they arrived, which is the point of a trip like this one: sharpen up mid-season, bank a few good marks, and get back to work.