Freshly-turned pro Cole Hocker wins 3,000 meters at USATF Indoor Championships

Cole Hocker is running well these days – and running lucky, too. He has no intention of messing with either.

So while competitors at the USA Track and Field Indoor Championships battle for the stipulated grail– a spot on the American team to next month’s world championships – Hocker acknowledged Saturday that he has other priorities and that there’s a good chance he’ll pass on the opportunity.

Won’t stop him from running to win in Spokane, however.

After a sensational freshman year at Oregon ended with a fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics, Hocker’s debut pro season continued his upward trajectory with a mostly no-doubt victory in the men’s 3,000 meters in front of a nearly full house at the Podium. On Sunday, he’ll try to make it two by tackling the 1,500 – a double that’s only been successful twice in this meet in more than 50 years.

But not everyone is quite so big-picture about punching a ticket to Serbia.

That much was clear in the women’s 1,500 that ended in a blanket finish, Heather MacLean’s last lap surge carrying her home first in a race that saw the first three runners separated by just .05 of a second – and the second worlds berth decided by a mere .01.

All in all, a sensational setup to Sunday’s final session, which resumes with the finish of the men’s heptathlon at 9 a.m. and the rest of the program at 11 – including the appearance of 2020 Olympic gold medalists Ryan Crouser and Katie Nageotte.

The lone two track finals of the day were competitive in disparate ways.

Olympian Elle Purrier St. Pierre had designs on the same double Hocker is attempting, and announced it with some trademark front-running through the first 6½ laps of the 1,500.

Then it got wild.

Josette Norris made the first move – “honestly, I tried to go around Elle like three times,” she said – but was held off. MacLean, meanwhile, had slipped back to fifth at the bell, but the surged mightily – running 29.71 seconds over the last 200 .

She finished in 4:06.09 – the first time she’s beaten St. Pierre, her New Balance teammate.

“I’m lucky to train with her every day,” said MacLean, who was also an Olympic teammate. “But I just tried to be patient and trust myself and believe if I put myself in it, I’d have as much of a chance anybody else.”

It was that much more shocking to learn that MacLean’s win came after fall surgery.

“I got an organ removed,” she reported, with a laugh. “Everybody has to guess which one – I’m not telling you.”

Norris made a fourth and final thrust to get by St. Pierre in the final meter – and then sweated out the announcement.

“It was so scary waiting at the finish line for the results to come up,” she said. “I’m just so happy that I made the team.”

The pace in the men’s 3,000 was more of a community effort – first Drew Hunter, then Emmanuel Bor, then Conner Mantz, Hocker and finally Bor again. But the pace was never fast enough to suggest Hocker and his kick wouldn’t prevail – and a 26.69 final 200 brought him home in 7:47.50.

He was expecting more competition Sunday in the form of training partner Cooper Teare, the collegiate mile record holder. But Teare announced Friday that he’d tested positive for COVID-19 – leaving Hocker feeling fortunate he’d avoided it.

“It’s just a fluke,” he said.

As for passing on worlds – he said it’s still a discussion to have with his coach – Hocker noted that the main goal of 2022 is the outdoor worlds on his home track in Eugene in July. Minimizing travel – and more exposure to COVID – fits into that.

“It’s hard to turn your nose up at any world championships – they only come around so often,” he said of the qualifying for the indoor meet. “So I’m not taking this for granted. I’d be happy to run it. But at the same time, I know where my big goals lie.”

There was one other shocker on the track, in the qualifying. American 800 record holder Donavan Brazier, dropping down to run the 400 in hopes of making the relay team for Belgrade, was disqualified for running out of his lane while scorching the day’s second-fastest time, 46.68 seconds. He had scratched himself out of the 800.

JuVaughn Harrison, who turned in the remarkable double of winning the high and long jumps at last summer’s Olympic Trials, launched his bid for the same pair with an easy clearance of 7 feet, 5¾ inches in the high jump. Former Utah State standout Chari Hawkins posted lifetime bests in the first three events and won the pentathlon by nearly 100 points over Olympian Kendall Williams. And Maggie Ewen banged out a world-leading 64-11¼ effort in the shot put, her four measured throws all beating the competition.