Running

Kodiak's Dunbar earns 5,000-meter qualifier for U.S. outdoor track nationals

Kodiak's Trevor Dunbar generated a 5,000-meter qualifying time for the 2017 USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships with his personal-best performance Sunday night at the Portland Track Festival in Oregon.

Dunbar, 26, the former University of Oregon runner who was a multi-time All-America, clocked 13 minutes, 26.27 seconds at Lewis & Clark College to finish fourth among 20 runners in the 3.1-mile race.

Dunbar's time marked a personal record (PR) by .63. It was also his second PR inside the last two weeks. Earlier this month, Dunbar, the only Alaskan to eclipse the four-minute barrier in the mile, ran that iconic distance in 3:55.54 at a meet near Boston to trim 1.65 seconds off his PR.

Dunbar's 5,000 time Sunday was well inside the 13:32.00 "A" standard necessary to qualify for the national outdoor championships, June 22-25 in Sacramento, California.

Dunbar, who currently lives and trains in Boulder, Colorado, was among at least five Alaskans who competed in the Portland Track Festival.

Ketchikan's Isaac Updike, who last summer finished 12th in the steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic Trials, fell negotiating the water pit and did not finish his signature event. Updike, 25, is nonetheless headed to nationals. His 8:32.34 earlier this season. less than one second off his PR, is well within the qualifying standard of 8:40.00.

Updike's twin brother, Lucas, finished 10th overall among 23 steeplechasers who raced in two sections. He clocked a season-best 8:46.25. The Updike brothers ran in college at Eastern Oregon University, where they were coached by Ben Welch, a former Alaska state cross-country champion for Wasilla High.

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The Updikes run for Team Run Eugene and live in Eugene, Oregon.

Maggie Callahan, 28, of Fairbanks, a former University of Arizona runner, took fifth place among 23 finishers in the 5,000 meters in 16:17.01. That time was less than four seconds off her PR of 16:13.71. Like Dunbar, she runs for Boulder-based Hudson Elite.

And Anchorage's Hans Roelle, 25, who like the Updikes competed in college for Eastern Oregon, won his heat in the 800 meters in 1:49.99. That was just .08 shy of his season-best (1:49.91) and just .58 shy of his PR (1:49.41). Roelle is a teammate of the Updikes with Team Run Eugene.

 

Doyle Woody

Doyle Woody covered hockey and other sports for the Anchorage Daily News for 34 years.

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