Four years ago they were fierce rivals, producing their share of memorable 800-meter races together on the high school track scene in Rhode Island, and often beyond.
On Friday, at the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Track & Field Championships, Conor Murphy and Darius Kipyego will be among the 16 qualifiers in the 800m. It marks the first time the former schoolboy stars have competed together in an individual event at the collegiate level.
And what better stage than the biggest one of the season.
“It’s crazy,” said Murphy, the onetime Classical star and University of Virginia senior. “It should get more attention. Two guys, who really have a chance to do well in this meet from this little state, who raced each other so much.”
“It is super cool,” said Kipyego, the former Saint Raphael Academy standout and University of Iowa junior. “We’re both very competitive and hoped we’d see each other again at the NCAAs to race against each other. I think one of the really cool things is, yes, it’s NCAAs, but it’s in Boston, too. It’s kind of where we raced a lot. It’s good to go back home and see everybody there…I kind of did expect this and have been waiting for this type of moment.”
The TRACK at New Balance is the site for this weekend’s meet, which will be held from Thursday through Saturday at the Boston venue. Along with Murphy and Kipyego, the D1 nationals will include four more athletes with R.I., ties – Harvard freshmen Sophia Gorriaran (Moses Brown), Mississippi sophomore Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan (Woonsocket), Virginia senior Margot Appleton (Portsmouth Abbey) and UMass-Lowell senior Kenzie Doyle (La Salle Academy).
In the 800m, Kipyego comes in as the No. 4 seed after clocking a PR of 1 minute, 46.71 seconds at the Iowa State Classic on Feb. 3. Murphy is listed as a No. 10 seed with his best of 1:46.95 from the Penn State National Open on Jan. 26. Just 1.51 seconds separates the top 16 with Texas’s Yusuf Bizimana leading the way with a time of 1:45.88.
The semifinals are set to start at 4:50 p.m., on Friday. The finals are on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
If the expected happens and the two runners make it to the finals, it will be the first time they’ve raced together in an individual event since the 2019 New England Championships, a race where Murphy was able to get the best of his rival.
Both are not looking at this weekend’s competition as a renewal of their rivalry; rather an opportunity to potentially race against an equally talented runner in a loaded field where anyone can come out on top, including each other.
“The preliminaries will be everybody’s finals,” Murphy said. “No one has a safe spot for the finals. It’s going to be interesting for everybody. Once it’s the finals, it’s anybody game.”
Murphy will be making his third straight appearance at the NCAAs. The two-time All American was sixth in the mile last winter and was fifth in the 800m during the outdoor season.
He believes his experience at the NCAAs may work to his favor this weekend.
“For sure,” he said. “I’ve done well in both previous nationals and in the finals I did pretty well. I think it’s an advantage because I raced against this caliber of people before and have gone through this tough prelims before, I think it will help me.”
Kipyego has manufactured his best season since donning the maroon and yellow singlet of the Cyclones. He’s established PRs in the 600m (1:17.58), 800m and the 1.000m (2:18.53). His effort in the 1K earned him a first-place finish at the Cyclone Open on Jan. 19 and is the third fastest time in NCAA history.
Held a week before that meet, he classifies his 600m performance, which he did to win the Hawkeye Invitational on Jan. 13, as the turning point to his season.
“It just showed where my speed was at and how it felt, and seeing where my strength was,” he said. “It just came together, and then I ran a really nice 800.”
That “really nice 800” came at the Razorback Invitational (Jan. 26-27) where he ran his first sub-1:47, crossing the line in third with a time of 1:46.86. The race was won by reigning world outdoor champion Marco Arop of Canada in 1:45.50.
“I went out in 53.4 (for the first 400) and came back in 53.4,” he said. “That was a really nice way to see where my strength was. I was able to close hard.”
At the Arkansas Qualifier on Feb. 16, Murphy and Kipyego had a chance to race against each other as leadoff legs for their respective DMR squads. Kipyego was the first to hand the baton off to his teammate with 2:50 1,200m split. Murphy was right behind in 2:51.
If the finals feature Murphy and Kipyego is not about a rivalry between these two runners, who certainly made their share of headlines throughout their outstanding high school careers. While it makes good fodder for the media, what’s more important, more impressive, is the fact that our small state has two among the 16 that have qualified. Two athletes that have qualified in an event where less than two seconds separates the No. 1 and No. 16 seed! In other words, come this weekend, it’s anybody’s race.
“I’m going in there with a lot of confidence that I have the talent, speed and strength to win it all,” Kipyego said. “It’s just a matter of getting it done. Bizimana is the favorite, but anybody is beatable on any given day. You have to go in there with confidence and knowing you can do it.”
Murphy also feels he has a shot to strike it rich.
“My first goal is making the finals,” he said. “I don’t want to think too much about the finals until I’m there. Once I get to the finals, it’s anybody’s race. In the finals, I want to win. I’m just going to take it one race at a time.”
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In her first season as a collegian, Gorriaran earned the No. 6 seed in the 800m (Friday at 7:50 p.m., semifinals). She solidified her spot by winning her speciality at the Boston University DMR Challenge on Feb. 16 in a best of 2:01.68. Her most recent competition was a victory in the 800m at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships the weekend of Feb. 24-25. It was meet she also ran a leg on the Harvard’s triumphant DMR squad. She will have few familiar faces in this race with former HS rivals Roisin Willis and Juliette Whittaker also scheduled to answer the gun.
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Just like last year’s meet as a freshmen, Robinson-O’Hagan qualified in both the shot (Saturday at 2:45 p.m.) and the weight throw (Thursday at 6 p.m.). He’s the No. 2 seed in the shot with a PR of 66-10.5 from his victory at the SEC Indoor Championships (Feb. 23-24). In the weight throw, the Villa Novan alum is a four seed with a season best of 77-4.75 from his win at the Music City Challenge. Last year in this event, Robinson-O’Hagan was third overall at the NCAA meet.
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Doyle continues her resurgence to the elite level. After making two straight appearances in cross country, the former La Salle star will be making her first NCAA appearance on the track this weekend. She’s seeded 11th in the 5,000m (Friday at 8:20 p.m.) with her best of 15:27.42 from the BU Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Dec. 2. Doyle has momentum her side. She recently captured three events at the American East Championships where she broke the tape in the mile (4:44.46), 3,000m (9:22.05) and the 5K (16:12.40).
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Appleton is a No. 12 seed in the mile (Friday at 7 p.m., semifinals) with her PR of 4:30.87, an effort that placed her second overall at the Penn State National Open (Jan. 26-27). She was recently second overall in the 3,000m at the ACC Championships where she raced to an all-time best of 8:57.53.
