Friday, June 12
Eugene, OR
All Day
University of Oregon
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NCAA Championships
Photo by: GoDucks.com
Birnbaum Dominates On Way To 1,500 Title
06/12/26 | Track and Field
The Men of Oregon finished fifth Friday in the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field, helped by an iconic win from Simeon Birnbaum.
EUGENE, Ore. — Carving out a place in the annals of Oregon men's distance running is no easy task. Simeon Birnbaum has managed to accomplish it this spring.
Two months after setting a collegiate record in the 1,500 meters, the UO sophomore unleashed a furious finishing kick Friday to gap the field and win the NCAA Outdoor title over that distance at Hayward Field. Birnbaum crossed in 3:36.05, nearly 5 seconds slower than his collegiate record set in the Oregon Team Invitational in April, but enough to provide his first national title Friday.
The Men of Oregon who have worn the NCAA Outdoor 1,500-meter crown include names like Dellinger, Burleson, Cruz, Wheating, Centrowitz, Fleet and Hocker. And now, the list's latest addition: Birnbaum.
"I'm just going out there trying to achieve what I want to achieve, and I love contributing to a legacy, you know, something bigger than yourself," said the sophomore from Rapid City, S.D. "That kind of takes your ego out of it. I mean, you're just contributing to something bigger than yourself, and that's really, really special."
It takes a special performance to carve out a page in the history of UO men's distance running, and that's what Birnbaum provided Friday. Just off the lead at the bell, he eased in front entering the Bowerman Curve, then absolutely dropped the hammer — his lead entering the homestretch might have been 20 meters before the field closed the gap as Birnbaum reveled in the moment.
"The last lap was a dream," he said. "I felt incredible that entire race. I looked at the big screen with about 150 to go, and I couldn't even see the chase pack. I knew in that moment I had it won. And then I just saw the crowd erupt and get on their feet, and it just gave me so much energy. It was such a fun moment."
Birnbaum's 10 points for the victory helped Oregon to 40 points and a fifth-place finish in the team race Friday, after also taking fifth in cross country and then finishing as national runners-up at NCAA Indoors. The Ducks got points in the shot put and javelin Wednesday, when Ben Smith won the national title in the shot, and they added 22 on Friday from Birnbaum and Elliott Cook in the 1,500, Benjamin Balazs in the steeplechase and Tre Betts in the triple jump.
Birnbaum said he was so nervous for Friday's race, he barely slept Thursday night, not wanting a repeat of his frustrating third-place finish a year ago. His plan once the gun fired was not to "burn any matches" until there were at most 700 meters to go. Once he started burning them, though, he smoked the field.
"I knew he was gonna probably do something like that today," said Cook, who took sixth in 3:37.80. "He's a legend."
Birnbuam's surge seemed to cause havoc for the race plans of the other runners. As he led them through the backstretch on the final lap, Cook tried to go wide and stick with the lead group, but the field stretched out and he ended up in 11th out of 12 runners entering the final turn.
While Birnbaum was soaking in the cheers, Cook was swinging out wide in the homestretch and chewing up ground to finish sixth.Â
"The race got ahead of me with like 400 to go," Cook said. "Everyone just kicked into gear, and unfortunately I just didn't feel like I had that strength in my legs to really respond and put myself in position with 200 to go. I made kind of a stupid move on the back stretch that put me in lane three, hoping for something. I was kind of scraping for something, but at that point I could already tell I was using too many gears to get to that point; I had to slide back in and then swing way back out in the last 100 meters."
Cook's three team points helped provide a glimmer of hope to Oregon's chance in the team race. Balazs further fueled them by taking fifth in the steeple in 8:23.03, and Betts bolstered them a bit more by soaring to fourth in the triple jump on his final attempt. But the Ducks didn't get any points from two entries in the 5k — Birnbaum stepped off mid-race less than two hours after his 1,500 heroics — after earlier not scoring in the discus, in which Smith doubled back following his shot put title, or in the 4x100 relay due to a missed exchange.
Betts moved up from eighth to fourth on his final triple jump. The three-time Division-II national champion at Pittsburg State soared 16.56m/54-4 feet, surpassing his national-title winning effort last spring of 16.46/54-0.
"It means the world to be able to even perform and get there," Betts said. "A week ago I was jumping 14 meters; I was hobbling off of regionals (and) conference, wondering what was gonna happen. Just turned things around and took advantage of the health that I have."
Friday also saw Liisa-Maria Lusti get out to 3,542 points on the first day of the heptathlon, with top-five marks in the field in the high jump (1.75m/5-8.75 feet) and 200 meters (23.82) and the No. 7 time in the 100 hurdles (13.71).
Lusti wraps up the heptathlon Saturday, when the meet concludes with women's event finals. Notably, the Ducks will have another three runners in the 1,500, a day after Birnbaum's iconic moment Friday.
"I think Oregon distance running is a really, really cool and iconic thing, and I want to keep Oregon distance running great," Birnbaum said. "And so I'm just really, really grateful that I get to be a part of that, and Oregon distance running continues to have the aura and the legacy that it does."
As of Friday, Birnbaum has his own moment of lore to add to that legacy.
Two months after setting a collegiate record in the 1,500 meters, the UO sophomore unleashed a furious finishing kick Friday to gap the field and win the NCAA Outdoor title over that distance at Hayward Field. Birnbaum crossed in 3:36.05, nearly 5 seconds slower than his collegiate record set in the Oregon Team Invitational in April, but enough to provide his first national title Friday.
The Men of Oregon who have worn the NCAA Outdoor 1,500-meter crown include names like Dellinger, Burleson, Cruz, Wheating, Centrowitz, Fleet and Hocker. And now, the list's latest addition: Birnbaum.
"I'm just going out there trying to achieve what I want to achieve, and I love contributing to a legacy, you know, something bigger than yourself," said the sophomore from Rapid City, S.D. "That kind of takes your ego out of it. I mean, you're just contributing to something bigger than yourself, and that's really, really special."
It takes a special performance to carve out a page in the history of UO men's distance running, and that's what Birnbaum provided Friday. Just off the lead at the bell, he eased in front entering the Bowerman Curve, then absolutely dropped the hammer — his lead entering the homestretch might have been 20 meters before the field closed the gap as Birnbaum reveled in the moment.
"The last lap was a dream," he said. "I felt incredible that entire race. I looked at the big screen with about 150 to go, and I couldn't even see the chase pack. I knew in that moment I had it won. And then I just saw the crowd erupt and get on their feet, and it just gave me so much energy. It was such a fun moment."
Birnbaum's 10 points for the victory helped Oregon to 40 points and a fifth-place finish in the team race Friday, after also taking fifth in cross country and then finishing as national runners-up at NCAA Indoors. The Ducks got points in the shot put and javelin Wednesday, when Ben Smith won the national title in the shot, and they added 22 on Friday from Birnbaum and Elliott Cook in the 1,500, Benjamin Balazs in the steeplechase and Tre Betts in the triple jump.
Birnbaum said he was so nervous for Friday's race, he barely slept Thursday night, not wanting a repeat of his frustrating third-place finish a year ago. His plan once the gun fired was not to "burn any matches" until there were at most 700 meters to go. Once he started burning them, though, he smoked the field.
"I knew he was gonna probably do something like that today," said Cook, who took sixth in 3:37.80. "He's a legend."
Birnbuam's surge seemed to cause havoc for the race plans of the other runners. As he led them through the backstretch on the final lap, Cook tried to go wide and stick with the lead group, but the field stretched out and he ended up in 11th out of 12 runners entering the final turn.
While Birnbaum was soaking in the cheers, Cook was swinging out wide in the homestretch and chewing up ground to finish sixth.Â
"The race got ahead of me with like 400 to go," Cook said. "Everyone just kicked into gear, and unfortunately I just didn't feel like I had that strength in my legs to really respond and put myself in position with 200 to go. I made kind of a stupid move on the back stretch that put me in lane three, hoping for something. I was kind of scraping for something, but at that point I could already tell I was using too many gears to get to that point; I had to slide back in and then swing way back out in the last 100 meters."
Cook's three team points helped provide a glimmer of hope to Oregon's chance in the team race. Balazs further fueled them by taking fifth in the steeple in 8:23.03, and Betts bolstered them a bit more by soaring to fourth in the triple jump on his final attempt. But the Ducks didn't get any points from two entries in the 5k — Birnbaum stepped off mid-race less than two hours after his 1,500 heroics — after earlier not scoring in the discus, in which Smith doubled back following his shot put title, or in the 4x100 relay due to a missed exchange.
Betts moved up from eighth to fourth on his final triple jump. The three-time Division-II national champion at Pittsburg State soared 16.56m/54-4 feet, surpassing his national-title winning effort last spring of 16.46/54-0.
"It means the world to be able to even perform and get there," Betts said. "A week ago I was jumping 14 meters; I was hobbling off of regionals (and) conference, wondering what was gonna happen. Just turned things around and took advantage of the health that I have."
Friday also saw Liisa-Maria Lusti get out to 3,542 points on the first day of the heptathlon, with top-five marks in the field in the high jump (1.75m/5-8.75 feet) and 200 meters (23.82) and the No. 7 time in the 100 hurdles (13.71).
Lusti wraps up the heptathlon Saturday, when the meet concludes with women's event finals. Notably, the Ducks will have another three runners in the 1,500, a day after Birnbaum's iconic moment Friday.
"I think Oregon distance running is a really, really cool and iconic thing, and I want to keep Oregon distance running great," Birnbaum said. "And so I'm just really, really grateful that I get to be a part of that, and Oregon distance running continues to have the aura and the legacy that it does."
As of Friday, Birnbaum has his own moment of lore to add to that legacy.
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