Steve Roland "Pre" Prefontaine was an American long-distance runner who from 1973 to 1975 set American records at every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 meters. He competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics, and was preparing for the 1976 Olympics with the Oregon Track Club at the time of his death in 1975.
Robert Keyser "Bob" Schul is a former American long-distance runner. As of 2016, he is the only American to have won an Olympic gold medal in the 5000 m, at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Henry Rono was a Kenyan track and field athlete who specialised in various long-distance running events. Although he never competed at the Olympics, Rono is remembered as one of the most prolific collegiate competitors in the history of track in the United States, as well as being the former record holder for the 3000 metres steeplechase for over a decade. Rono also set the world record for the 5000 metres twice: once in 1978, then again in 1981.
Dathan James Ritzenhein is a retired American long-distance runner, and current head coach of the On Athletics Club (OAC). He held the American record in the 5,000 metres (12:56.27) from 2009 to 2010, until it was broken by Bernard Lagat. He is a three-time national cross country champion with wins at the USA Cross Country Championships in 2005, 2008 and 2010. Formerly a Nike athlete for the majority of his professional career, Dathan joined the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project team in 2017. In early May 2020, he announced his retirement from competition. He signed with the Swiss shoe brand On shortly thereafter in June 2020 and currently acts as the coach for the OAC in Boulder, Colorado.
Adam Goucher is a retired American cross-country and track and field athlete. He ran for the United States at the 2000 Summer Olympics in the men's 5000 meters. Goucher primarily competed in distance events and is featured in Running With The Buffaloes, a book revolving around the 1998 season of the University of Colorado cross country team.
Craig Steven Virgin is an American distance runner. He was born in Belleville, Illinois, and grew up near Lebanon, Illinois. While in high school, Virgin won 5 state championships as well as setting the national outdoor high school 2-mile record of 8:40.9. Additionally, Virgin held the Illinois Boys Cross Country all-time state championship record for 47 years, running a 13:50.6 in 1972, a record that stood until November 9, 2019, when Josh Methner of John Hersey High School ran a 13:49.86. Virgin was Track and Field News "High School Athlete of the Year" in 1973.
Galen Rupp is an American long-distance runner. He competed in the Summer Olympics in 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2021 in Tokyo. He won the silver medal in the men's 10,000 meters in London and the bronze medal in the men's marathon in Rio de Janeiro. Rupp competed for the University of Oregon and trained under Alberto Salazar as a member of the Nike Oregon Project. He won the 2017 Chicago Marathon, becoming the first American to do so since Khalid Khannouchi in 2002. Rupp won the marathon at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials in Atlanta with a time of 2:09:20, and qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, where he finished eighth.
Chris Derrick is an American distance runner who won 3 consecutive US Cross Country Championships in 2013–15. He attended Stanford University, where he earned 14 All-American honors and holds an American junior record in the 5000 meters.
Scott Bauhs is an American professional distance runner sponsored by Asics and runs for Asics Aggies. He is a former Chico State runner for NCAA Division II athletics. He is the youngest American to complete both the four-minute mile and the 28-minute 10,000-meter run.
Sara Elizabeth Slattery is an American middle- and long-distance runner who mainly competes in track races. Slattery has represented the United States at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships at both junior and senior level.
Donald Cabral is an American cross country and track runner from Connecticut who went on to star at Princeton University. He has been most successful in the steeplechase, but has also been a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) All-American in cross country and the 5000 meters, as well as the Ivy League champion at the 3000 meters. He is a former American collegiate steeplechase record holder and was the 2012 NCAA steeplechase champion. He competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics in the steeplechase. At Princeton, Cabral was an eight-time NCAA All-American and ten-time individual Ivy League champion. He was a long distance running champion in high school for Glastonbury High School, winning two Class LL championships as a sophomore and then open state and New England championships as a junior and senior.
The NCAA Division I Men's Cross Country Championship is the cross country championship held by the National Collegiate Athletic Association each autumn for individual men's runners and cross country teams from universities in Division I. Teams and individual runners qualify for the championship at regional competitions approximately a week before the national championships.
Edward Cheserek is a Kenyan distance runner. He is a 17-time NCAA champion collegiate distance runner for the University of Oregon. Cheserek was the most highly recruited high school distance runner in the nation out of Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in New Jersey where he was named the Gatorade 2012-2013 National Cross Country Runner of the Year. In 2013, Cheserek became the first freshman in Oregon history to win the NCAA National Cross Country Championships. Cheserek repeated this feat in his sophomore and junior years at Oregon before coming in third in the race in 2016 during his senior year. In total, Cheserek has 17 NCAA National Titles, including two indoor distance medley relays and one cross-country team title.
Tracy Evans Smith is a former American distance runner. He was a member of the 1968 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team, competing in the 10,000 meters. He was ranked multiple times by Track & Field News as the No. 1 U.S. 5,000- and 10,000-meter runner in the mid- to late 1960s, and was a six-time AAU National Champion from 1966 to 1973, winning outdoors in the 3-mile, 6-mile and 10,000 meters, and three times in the indoor 3-mile. He was a three-time world record holder in the indoor 3-mile.
Sean McGorty is an American middle- and long-distance runner, who competes mainly in the 5000 meters and 10000 meters. He represented the United States in both events at the 2023 World Championships and in the 5000 m at the 2022 World Championships. McGorty is a two-time gold medalist at the NACAC Championships, securing victories in the Junior Men's 6K in 2014 and the 10000 m in 2022.
Emily Infeld is an American long-distance runner. She regularly competes in the 5000 m and 10,000 m distances during her professional career; in her college career she regularly competed in the 4 × 800 meter relay and 1500 m on up to 5000 m.
Karissa Schweizer is an American middle- and long-distance runner, Olympian and World Record holder in the women's 4x1500 meters relay. She competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 5000 meters and 10,000 meters events finishing 11th and 12th, respectively. In 2020, she set the indoor 3000 meters American Record with a time of 8:25.70.
The 2018 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships were the 97th NCAA Men's Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships and the 37th NCAA Women's Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships held for the sixth consecutive year at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon on the campus of the University of Oregon. In total, forty-two different men's and women's track and field events were contested from Wednesday June 6 to Saturday June 9, 2018.
Sharon Lokedi is a Kenyan middle and long-distance runner. She won the 10,000 meters at the 2018 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Lokedi has been a 10-time All-American & 12-time Big 12 champion, as of March 2019. In 2022, on her marathon debut, she won the New York City Marathon.
Nicolas Young is an American Long-distance runner who competes for Northern Arizona University. He is a two-time NCAA champion having won both the 3000 m and 5000 m at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships. He also holds the collegiate records in the 5000 m (12:57.14) and 10,000 m (26:52.72), both set in 2024.
