Schweizer, Monson, Rogers rise to occasion in 10,000m championships

Karissa Schweizer (left), Alicia Monson (middle) and Natosha Rogers (right) finish first, second and third respectively in the women’s 10,000m championships on Friday. Photo by Mikeisha Kelly

By Caela Fenton

The Prefontaine Classic is an international meet, but American talent was on display for the first two track events of the meet, as it played host to the USATF 10,000 meter Championships. There was no more fitting track for America’s best to compete for the opportunity to represent their country, as the World Championships themselves will be touching down at Hayward Field this July.

Twenty athletes took the line for the women’s championship race. Emily Durgin led the early stages of the race, followed by Weini Kelati and Karissa Schweizer. At just over 5,000m, Steph Bruce briefly moved to the lead in what she has announced as her final US championship after a stellar career. At 6,000m, Alicia Monson moved to the lead, with Schweizer on her heels. Both Olympians in the event, Monson and Schweizer proceeded to build a 30 second-plus gap over a chase pack of five runners–all of whom had secured the world standard, setting up an epic battle for the bronze medal position. 

It was Schweizer who took the top spot on the podium with a scorching kick–one that she admitted to working on in her post-race interview “I’ve just been working on my strength this year,” she said post-race, “especially my finishing kick. I don’t usually wait that long to take the lead, it was kind of like a new tactic I was trying and I was really excited how it played out.”

For Schweizer and Monson, this 10,000m at Hayward was quite different from their last, which happened during recording-breaking heat at the Olympic Trials last June. Especially for Monson, who had to be hospitalized post-race for heat-exhaustion and then hypothermia, as she was dunked in a cold tub post-race. “[This experience was] wayyyy different,” Monson said laughingly post-race, “like 50 degrees cooler! It also felt a little more low key, I’ve got more experience, last year was my rookie year, so I’m feeling more comfortable about running a 10k and I just have more confidence and came into this knowing I could put down a good race.”

Both Monson and Schweizer went in with race plans to stay relaxed for the first half. According to Monson, coach Dathan Ritzenhein told her from the sidelines to go when she felt like it after 5K, “to go and not leave the door open! I didn’t really want to have a seven person footrace right at the end.” And the door was closed to everyone except Schweizer, who kept on Monson’s heels, sticking to her plan to trust her speed at the end. 

The crowd held its breath as Natosha Rogers narrowly outkicked 2016 Olympian Emily Infeld for the final podium spot.

While for Monson and Schweizer the podium at Hayward might feel familiar, for Rogers, this race represented something different. The 31-year old finished second at the Olympic Trials in the event in 2012, though she did not have the Olympic standard and did not compete in London that summer. She admitted to having a chip on her shoulder since. “[I wanted to] prove that I belong at that world class level,” Rogers said, “It just took me 10 years to prove that again.”

Her own Olympic Trials experience wasn’t inherently positive. “I wasn’t happy, and [running] is not going to work like that for me. [Training felt like] life or death and it shouldn’t feel like that,” she said post-race. To hit the reset button, she went to Colombia mid-track season and by her own admission, “got really out of shape, came back, ran Mt. Sac, did really horrible, got back to work.” Work that seems to have paid off, with a stellar start to 2022.

Natosha Rogers (front) outlasts Emily Infeld (back) to capture the final spot on the U.S. team for the World Athletics Championships, Oregon22 in July. Photo by Mercedes Oliver

Emily Infeld’s fourth place finish marks a return to form after a rollercoaster of injuries over the last few years. Infeld, who left the Bowerman Track Club earlier in the year to be coached by Jon Green, was enthusiastic about the progress she has made “I feel so good, I feel like I’m back to my old self,” Infeld said post-race, “I hadn’t been feeling good for years and I really wanted to prove a lot of people wrong that said “She’s old!” I’m like, I’m 32! [...] I’ve still got this!” 

Like Rogers, for Infeld, this race was also redeeming after a disappointing experience at the Olympic Trials, “[compared] to where I was last year this is a huge step up. Last year I was hobbling, I felt terrible, I was dealing with overtraining, not running well, not feeling like myself, my hip felt terrible every single day. Now I’m feeling good, I’m moving well, I’m feeling healthy.”

Despite acknowledging that every year it gets harder to make the US team, Infeld is confident she has more years left in her. “I want to do this for three, four, five more years at least, maybe have a baby and do it more!” she said post-race. 

Such candor about the potential to have a child and then return to competition is newly emerging in women’s running, thanks to the openness and activism of cohort of athletes including Allyson Felix, Alysia Montaño, and perhaps for Infeld, seeing Steph Bruce in the same race, ending her career on her own terms at age 38 with two sons.