Levins Kicked Past Competition In 5K/10K

Through 4600 meters of the 5000-meter final and 9600 meters of the 10,000-meter final at the 2012 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, it was still anybody’s race. But over the final 400 meters of each competition, Cam Levins of Southern Utah ruled supreme.

Eight years ago, Levins used blistering kicks to complete what was, at the time, the 11th distance double in meet history. It polished off a dream redshirt senior year that ended with him hoisting The Bowerman, as collegiate track & field’s most outstanding male athlete.

Just about six weeks before the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Levins staked his claim as the favorite for both of those events with a pair of all-time marks in late April. First it was at the Mt. SAC Relays where he went 13:18.47 in the 5000 and outkicked Lawi Lalang of Arizona for the fifth best performance in collegiate history. Then, he won a stacked 10,000-meter race at the Payton Jordan Invitational in 27:27.96 for the second fastest mark in collegiate history behind Sam Chelanga’s two-year-old all-time best of 27:08.49.

The first race on Levins’ NCAA docket was the 10K. It just so happened to be the final event of the evening, as if they fully expected to see fireworks to close out the night.

After 22 laps, four athletes were bunched tightly together. That number whittled down to three with 800 meters to go and then it remained that way until the bell. Once the clanging echoed through the seasonably cool summer night, Levins dropped the hammer and blistered the track for a 58.06-second final lap on his way to a 28:07.14 victory, which was the fastest winning mark at the meet since 1984 (Ed Eyestone, BYU).

Two nights later, Levins was more than happy to let a kicker’s race develop in the 5K.

“I just wanted to wait for the last couple-hundred meters, put myself in position, wait for someone to respond and just go – just sorta use my intuition rather than an exact race I might have planned,” Levins told Sieg Lindstrom of Track & Field News.

Patience paid off for Levins as his 54.29-second capper turned what had been six men within one second of the lead at the bell into a one-second victory. Paul Chelimo of UNC-Greensboro tried to go with him – and split 54.89 between 4600 and 5000 meters – but Levins had an extra gear, even after a challenging 10K two nights prior.

“I’m really, really happy,” Levins told Tom Zulewski of The Spectrum & Daily News of St. George, Utah after the race. “To be able to come back from the 10,000 and win the 5000 is awesome. It’s what I wanted all season. To pull off the double is more than I could imagine.”