Mead wins 5,000m crown at NACAC Championships

By Curtis Anderson | Aug 13, 2018

EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon Track Club Elite’s Hassan Mead used a blazing 54-second final lap to capture first place in the 5,000 meters at the 2018 NACAC Senior Track & Field Championships at Varsity Stadium in Toronto on August 11.

The 5,000-meter field of five athletes was tightly bunched at the bell lap before Mead surged into the lead and crossed the finish line in 14:00.18. It was a 1-2 finish for Team USA as Riley Masters took second in 14:01.04.

“Hassan is fit and healthy, so it was nice for him to get out and compete,” OTC Elite coach Mark Rowland said. “With such a limited field, I told him to just go out and enjoy racing.”

Elsewhere, OTC Elite’s Ben Blankenship is scheduled to compete in the Falmouth Elite Mile in Massachusetts on Saturday.

In his only other Falmouth appearance, Blankenship won the 2013 mile with a time of 3:56.27. Jordan McNamara, a former member of OTC Elite, holds the Falmouth mile record at 3:54.89.