This race was absolutely loaded from the beginning. Nearly all of the state's top milers showed up to this thing in an attempt to run fast. On the first lap we saw Matthew Fernando take the lead in while the rest of the group kind of sat around. He would open in just under 64 seconds through the first lap, which meant if they wanted fast times they'd have to negative split it. It also meant he'd have to start getting some help as he had a small gap on the rest of the field.
And it was at this point that Ethan Ashley realized this and took it upon himself to push the pace as he took the lead 500m in with fellow Eastbay nationals qualifier Nathan Solomon right on his heels. And by 700m into the race now they had a small gap on the rest of the field. They hit the halfway in 2:05 mid, and just like that, the race was on...
Watch the finish in the video above that saw great times run by Fernando, Ashley, Solomon, and also William Carlton, Joe Sapone, Evan Prince, and Sumner Kirsch