Men’s Track: Sam Tanner sets record 6

From the time he was little kid running Wednesday night races on grass tracks in the New Zealand coastal city of Tauranga, Sam Tanner dreamed of competing in the Olympics.

Olympic Ticket Punched

New Zealander Sam Tanner sets new records setting UW and NCAA track ablaze

BY MARK MOSCHETTI A“ FOR GOHUSKIES MAGAZINE bsolutely fizzing.” “Frothing.” “Buzzing.”

“Super over the moon.” On a mid-February evening in New York, Sam Tanner was spinning out adjectives with a Down Under accent as fast as he was spinning around the track. When the 20-year-old New Zealander, now in his second year competing for the Washington Huskies, hit the finish line at the end of his 1500-meter race in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, the clock stopped at 3 minutes, 34.72 seconds. That beat the old indoor collegiate record of 3:35.46. It beat the collegiate outdoor record of 3:35.01. It beat the New Zealand indoor record of 3:35.80.

Most important of all, it beat the automatic qualifying time of 3:35.00 for this summer's Tokyo Olympics. “Fizzing, frothing and buzzing” indeed. “I was just focused on the Olympic standard. I didn’t really think about the collegiate record at all until I got it, and then I thought, ‘Wow — that’s kind of cool,” Tanner said. Oliver Hoare of Australia won the race in 3:32.35, and Tanner was third.

But the primary competition for Tanner, adorned in his purple Washington uniform, was the stopwatch — and while runners won’t always check the clock during a race, Tanner did sneak a peek. “I actually looked at it with about 100 meters to go,” he said. “I looked and I was trying to do some quick math, and I said, ‘Oh man! I’m really close to this time. I think I’m actually ahead of the 3:35 pace. All I have to do is hold it.’ “I got a bit excited,” he added, “and I think that actually helped me in the long run.”

Grass Tracks To Championship Venues

From the time he was little kid running Wednesday night races on grass tracks in the New Zealand coastal city of Tauranga, Sam Tanner dreamed of competing in the Olympics. “My mom and dad put me in kids athletics, and it was really fun,” said Tanner, who was just as good at surfing as he was at running. “I just kind of started from there and found out I had a bit of (talent). I did a couple of races in cross country, and later on, I won a couple of national titles. My mom helped me out with training a little bit, I got coached toward the end of high school — and the rest is history.”

Tanner started making his mark in the Oceania region. He was a junior national cross country champion, became the first New Zealand high school athlete to break four minutes in the mile when he ran 3:58.41 in March 2019, and placed 13th in the 1500 at the 2018 World U20 meet in Finland. Head coach Andy Powell, who came to Washington in June 2018, wanted his first recruiting class to be an impactful one. He was intrigued enough by Tanner that he went all the way to New Zealand for a visit. “I thought he could be one of the great runners at the UW and in the NCAA,” Powell said. “We have a donor who always spoke highly of New Zealand and the talent that comes out of there. I got to know Sam and his family. He ran a really good time the summer before he got here and I thought, ‘Wow, this kid is going to be really good. He’s got the right mindset, and he wants to be good.”

“It was one of those feelings that is kind of hard to come by, and you only get those a few times in your life. “It was such an honor to get that time, and then look up and, my goodness — a (New Zealand) national record and a collegiate record at the same time was really cool.”

Fast Start At UW, Fast Finish In NY

Powell’s instincts about Tanner were spot-on. During the 2020 winter season, he broke the UW freshman record for the indoor mile, going 3:59.01, the seventh-fastest overall time in school history. He posted the No. 2 all-time Husky mark in the 1000 meters with a 2:21.78.

He never got an outdoor race in 2020, as the season was canceled by the coronavirus before Washington’s first meet. Tanner went home to New Zealand. “I just got to train and enjoy the rest of summer, then had a good winter time from May through about September or October,” he said. (New Zealand’s weather seasons are opposite those of the United States.)

Tanner returned to Seattle on Jan. 31 and began final preparations for the New Balance meet and his shot at Olympic qualification. “We thought if there was a time to take a crack at it, it would be there. He would be able to get good competition,” Powell said. “The timing was right. We thought he would come close.”

As the race inside Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex got going, Tanner, with a split of 58.23 seconds, was seventh in the field of 12 at the 400-meter mark. He started to make his move. By 800 meters, Tanner was sixth, having split 57.39 for those two laps. His next two were even faster at 56.34, and now he was up to third place at 2:51.96 with 300 meters to go.

To meet or beat the Olympic qualifying standard of 3:35.00, Tanner needed to split 43.04 or better around the final 1½ laps.

He went 42.76.

“A smile came to my face. I had pretty much just secured my spot in the Olympics, which was my childhood dream,” he said. “It was one of those feelings that is kind of hard to come by, and you only get those a few times in your life. “It was such an honor to get that time, and then look up and, my goodness — a (New Zealand) national record and a collegiate record at the same time was really cool.”

Back in Seattle, UW coach Powell and his team had finished their day in the UW Invitational at Dempsey Indoor five minutes before Tanner’s race. Powell rushed back to his office just in time to catch the start on television. “I timed it with my own watch, and I was pretty nervous watching it,” Powell said. “It was going to come down to a couple tenths of a second.”

A Student Of Racing

“I get to live my dream and I’m really happy with that. Those things keep me enjoying it and keep me wanting to add more.”

With the ongoing pandemic, there’s still plenty of uncertainty about the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to begin July 23. As of now, everything is ‘go.’ Ditto for the upcoming college outdoor season.

For Tanner and Powell, the spring schedule will be about striking just the right balance between that and Olympic preparation. “I’m going to use the college season to get fit, get some fast times under me, and get some good race experience,” Tanner said. “Whatever comes through college, whether that be an NCAA title, the (awards) podium, or AllAmerican, I think all of those things would be helpful.”

From his coaching perspective, Powell is looking at more than just results. “The college season just sets him up really well for the Olympics. It’s one of the things we’re realizing,” said Powell, who coached Matthew Centrowitz when both were at the University of Oregon, and Centrowitz later went on to win Olympic gold in the 1500 meters. “You take advantage of a lot of different scenarios to refine your skills. Then when you get to bigger meets, you’ll have a lot of knowledge about how to run different scenarios.”

Tanner is ready to soak up that knowledge. It’s one of the things that make him run. “I still have dreams that I want to achieve. But also, I’m just running because I feel I’ve got a calling,” he said. “I feel God has called me to run and express the joy I get from running and share that with other people. I get to live my dream and I’m really happy with that. Those things keep me enjoying it and keep me wanting to add more.”

Small wonder then — that Sam Tanner is still feeling “super over the moon.”