OTC Elite’s Piazza, Green headed to Music City Distance Carnival

By Curtis Anderson | May 31, 2019

EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon Track Club Elite’s Drew Piazza and Hanna Green are both scheduled to compete in the upcoming Music City Distance Carnival at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

Piazza is entered in the 800 meters on Friday (May 31), while Green toes the line in the 1,500m on Saturday (June 1).

Piazza comes into the meet with an 800m season best of 1:47.74 which he set at the USATF Distance Classic in Los Angeles on May 16. He established his PR of 1:45.69 in 2017.

Green, an 800m specialist, has run the 1,500m twice this year. She posted a PR of 4:09.33 at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, Calif., on April 19, followed by a 4:09.73 performance at the USATF Distance Classic.

Piazza and Green are both graduates of Virginia Tech.

Elsewhere, OTC Elite’s Ben Blankenship opened his 2019 season with a 21-second PR of 13:33.07 in the 5,000m at the International Flanders Athletics meeting (IFAM) in Oordegem, Belgium on May 25. Blankenship, a finalist in the 1,500m at the 2016 Rio Olympics, last ran the 5,000m in 2014.

“It was a solid performance for Ben,” OTC Elite coach Mark Rowland said. “He closed well and it was encouraging just to see him out racing again.”

Blankenship is entered in the 1,500m at the Josef Odlozil Memorial meet in Prague, Czech Republic, on June 3.

Harun Abda also ran at the IFAM in Belgium.

He finished third in his heat of the 800m with a time of 1:47.34. Five days later, Abda placed second his heat of the 800m (1:49.32) at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm on May 30.