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Shelby Houlihan Gains Experience, Seeks Record At NYRR Millrose Games - RRW

Published by
DyeStatCOLLEGE.com   Feb 14th 2015, 3:07am
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SHELBY HOULIHAN GAINS EXPERIENCE, SEEKS RECORD AT NYRR MILLROSE GAMES
By Chris Lotsbom, @ChrisLotsbom
(c) 2015 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

NEW YORK (13-Feb) -- Arizona State University senior Shelby Houlihan looks at tomorrow's NYRR Millrose Games and the Wanamaker Mile for Women as two highly sought after opportunities. One, it's a chance for the 22-year-old to gain valuable racing experience against professionals. And two, it's an opportunity to better the existing NCAA indoor mile record of 4:25.91.

"That's exactly what I'm trying to do, and trying to break 4:25," said Houlihan, a native of Sioux City, Iowa. On Saturday evening, Houlihan will face off against the nation's top milers, including current world leader Shannon Rowbury and her Nike Oregon Project teammates, Mary Cain (the event's reigning champion), Treniere Moser, and Jordan Hasay. Also included in the field is Olympian Morgan Uceny and Team USA Minnesota's Heather Kampf.

Over the last year, Houlihan has left her mark on both the NCAA and national levels. Indoors in 2014, Houlihan placed third at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the mile, then continued her momentum on the outdoor oval with wins at the Pac-12 Conference and NCAA Outdoor Championships 1500m races. For the metric mile, she set a personal best of 4:10.89.

Yet since then, Houlihan has progressed even further under the coaching of Louie Quintana and Jeremy Rasmussen. She ran 2:01.12 for seventh in an extremely tough USA Outdoor National Championships 800m last spring, and took home All-American honors last fall thanks to her ninth place showing at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.  That 6 km distance was long for Houlihan, a natural 800/1500m athlete.

While her indoor mile personal best sits at a respectable 4:38.45, Houlihan expects to go much faster tomorrow. Considering The Armory's banked track, and the field assembled, Houlihan strongly believes a sub-4:25 clocking can be run. That would break the current NCAA record of 4:25.91, set by Jenny Simpson (then Jenny Barringer) while at the University of Colorado in 2009.

"My coach thinks I can probably run 4:22 right now. My workouts have been going really well and I'm just really excited to get the chance to do that," said Houlihan, sporting a maroon Arizona State jacket.

Since taking a week off following the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November, Houlihan has been hammering workouts with the aim of achieving records and taking home NCAA titles. Opening her indoor season at the Texas A&M Quadrangular Meet in January, Houlihan ran a solo 9:03.71 for 3000m, feeling comfortable the entire way.

"I had a great cross country season, that was a great base of mileage under my belt. [The 3000m] gave me a lot of confidence going into this weekend," she said. Her time in the 3000m remains an NCAA leading mark.

With tomorrow's pacer designated to go through halfway in roughly 2:09, Houlihan plans to put herself in the mix of elites. She figures the field will pull her along at a collegiate-record pace. With a lap to go, anything can happen.

"A lot of people want to run really fast, so I think we're just going to go after it. I'm totally fine with that, I want to run fast," Houlihan told Race Results Weekly. "I don't want to come out here and not run a PR or run as fast as I'm capable of."

Records aside, Houlihan views her cross-country trip from Arizona State University's campus in Tempe to here in New York, where the temperature is an unusually cold 19F, as a learning experience. While her short term goals are winning NCAA titles indoors and outdoors as a senior, she'd very much like to run professionally after graduation.

"It's a really great experience to get a taste of this while not being a pro yet. I'm just getting the experience," she said. "It's going to be that much easier [transition] in the future."

Houlihan isn't the only student-athlete competing on Saturday. Iona College's Rosie Clarke will also be in the NYRR Wanamaker Women's Mile; she is currently the fourth-fastest miler in the NCAA with a personal best of 4:35.01 run in January. Her teammate Kate Avery, the reigning NCAA Cross Country Champion, will race in the 3000m against Providence College's Emily Sisson.  Both Clark and Avery are British.

Quiet yet confident, Houlihan answers pre-race questions with a smile and nod. It is clear that she is prepared for what's to come.

"I'm ready," she affirms.



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