WESTWOOD — Parker Valby announced her return to the top of the American women's distance running world and 2022 world champion Michael Norman continued his comeback from injuries Saturday at the LA Track Festival at UCLA's Drake Stadium, the eighth stop on the 2026 USATF Tour and a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meet.
Valby, an Olympian in the 10,000 at Paris in 2024 and a five-time NCAA champion from 3K to 10K for Florida, hadn't run a race on the oval since Feb. 2025, but she showed no signs of rust as she confidently cruised to a lifetime best of 14:49.41 to win the 5000 by more than four seconds with the fastest time by an American this year. Four other women broke 15:00, with former Northern Arizona star Elise Stearns making a big breakthrough with a 13-second PB of 14:55.24 in third. Margot Appleton also set a PB of 14:59.40 in fifth.
The seventh-fastest man in history in the 400 and winner of a famous victory at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Norman took his second straight win of the season with a convincing 44.94 that put him almost a half-second up on the rest of the field. A Los Angeles area native who was eighth at the 2024 Olympics, Norman didn't compete at all in 2025, and he ran more cautiously than usual over the first half of this race but demonstrated good fitness to yield no distance down the stretch.
Opening her outdoor campaign after three months away from the track, indoor American record holder and reigning USATF outdoor champion Roisin Willis staved off a late challenge from Poland's Klaudia Kazimierska to win the women's 800 in 1:58.08, the fastest outdoor time in the world this year. Kazimierska, who ran collegiately for Oregon and was sixth in the 1500 at this year's World Indoor Championships, notched a PB of 1:58.18 in second after a spirited dash down the final 100.
A speedy first lap in the men's 800 set Brandon Miller up for a 1:44.26 win that saw him take down a pair of former World Championships 1500 gold medalists in Britain's Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman. Miller, who was third at the Shaoxing Diamond League meet last week, hit the bell at 50.37 and was just quick enough through the final circuit to beat Abe Alvarado, who used a 52.52 last 400 to clock 1:44.59, his second fastest time ever. Kerr, the 2023 world 1500 champ, was third in a PB 1:44.60, with 2022 world champion Wightman fourth in 1:44.74.
Vincent Ciattei was the best of a blanket finish in a stacked men's 1500, emerging with a 3:33.41 win in a race that had four men dipping under 3:34. Ciattei closed in 53.96 and edged a season best from Nathan Green and a PB from Parker Wolfe. Two-time NCAA champion Green, the USATF Indoor Championships winner in February and sixth at the World Indoors, and Wolfe both clocked 3:33.46, with Green getting the nod for second by .009 seconds. Last year's World Indoor Championships bronze medalist, Luke Houser, set a PB of 3:33.93 for fourth. BYU redshirt senior Riley Chamberlain won the women's 1500 with a last lap of 62.19 to pass early leader Maggi Congdon and cross the finish line in 4:04.59.
Contrasting finishes in the 3000 steeplechases had Parker Stokes winning the men's race in 8:23.88 after a 60.44 last 400 kept him ahead of a fast-closing Yasin Sado and Canada's Aaron Ahl, who were a stride behind. Olympic silver medalist Kenneth Rooks put on the jets at the end with a 59.04 final lap but could manage only sixth in 8:28.54. Britain's Elise Thorner ran away with the women's race, carving almost seven seconds off the PB that she set last year at the World Championships to win in 9:07.39. Gabbi Jennings was second in 9:21.57, with 2017 world champion and former American record holder Emma Coburn third in 9:23.87. It was the first time Coburn finished a steeplechase since the 2023 World Championships.
New Mexico's Habtom Samuel broke his own outdoor collegiate record in the men's 5000 with an outdoor world-leading 12:57.22, also claiming an Eritrean national record. India's Gulveer Singh set a national record in second at 13:03.93, while Drew Hunter (13:05.60 in fourth) and Dylan Jacobs (13:09.09 in fifth) had lifetime bests.
In other action on the track, former world record holder Keni Harrison beat Alaysha Johnson by .02 in the women's 100 hurdles with a 12.53, and Jamar Marshall easily captured the men's 110 hurdles title in a season best of 13.23. Tamari Davis (11.08) and Max Thomas (10.12) earned victories in the women's and men's 100, and Bailey Lear won the women's 400 in 51.41.
The sole field event on the card saw Payton Phillips set a PB in the women's pole vault to beat two-time world indoor champion Sandi Morris as both cleared 4.55/14-11. Phillips made that height on her first try, while Morris needed three attempts.