O’Keeffe Wins USATF 10 Mile Title in Minnesota; Running #2 U.S. Time Ever

Results

The 2022 USATF 10 Mile Championships were held on Sunday (2-Oct) in Minneapolis, Minn. as part of the Twin Cities In Motion Medtronic TC 10 Mile.  

Seven members of USATF North Carolina competed in the championships with four of them earning top-10 finishes.

Fiona O’Keeffe (Puma) of Chapel Hill won the women's race while Andrew Colley (On ZAP Endurance) of Blowing Rock led the North Carolina men as he finished seventh.

Taking advantage of the cool weather and the opportunity of the extra bonus money ($10,000 gender equalizer bonus as the first athlete, woman or man, to cross the finish line - the women had a five minute, 57 second head start on the men), the women’s race got off to a quick start with O’Keeffe and Emily Durgin quickly heading to the front and pushing the pace through the first half of the race. 

By mile 5 the pack was down to just six athletes with O’Keeffe, Durgin being joined by Aliphine Tuliamuk, Ednah Kurgat, Annie Frisbie and Lauren Goss hitting the timing mats in 25:44. O’Keeffe would continue to push the pace, putting nearly 20 seconds on Annie Frisbie by mile 8 before pulling into the finish line 28 seconds of Frisbie.

O’Keeffe's winning time of 51:42 is the #2 time ever recorded by an American.   The record is 51:23 set in 2020 by Keira D'Amato.  

Fellow North Carolinians Tristin Van Ord (On Zap Endurance; 53:13), Kate Sanborn (Raleigh Distance Project; 56:11), and Emma Spencer (Tracksmith / Raleigh Distance Project; 57:56) finished 9th, 21st, and 28th, respectively. Van Ord's makes her the #31 performer in U.S. history at the distance.

In the men's race On Zap Endurance teammates Andrew Colley and Josh Izewski each ran to top-10 finishes earning trips to the awards podium. Colley ran 46:47 to finish seventh and Izewski finished ninth running 47:06. Colley's time makes him the #23 U.S. performer all-time at the distance while Izewski now sits at #50 all-time.

The complete North Carolina results scoreboard can be found here.