Katie Rainsberger begins her final lap, one which would see her climb four notches to an eventual fourth-place finish. Photo by Steven Pisano.
After struggling a little with issues of low iron this spring, Katie Rainsberger seems to have found her mojo back.
In a field as good as the folks at the Adidas Dream Mile could make it, Rainsberger finished fourth at 4:40.92 with three steady laps and a very strong closing lap. In so doing, she trimmed 0.15 from her personal best in the mile and the Colorado high school outdoor record (not limited to in-state competition).
Interestingly, Rainsberger is still chasing Elise Cranny. Cranny's indoor mile record of 4:40.62 withstood Rainsberger's charge. At least it did this time; Rainsberger takes one more crack at it next weekend.
In another of the ongoing stories of Rainsberger's racing, she took a win here over Arizona's Dani Jones, giving Rainsberger a 6-4 edge in that series and breaking up a recent string of Jones triumphs.
In other Colorado news from the meet, Shayna Yon (second from left, above) finished sixth in the Dream 100 at 11.97 (-1.5). And, Widefield High School graduate Boris Berian continues to impress in the 800. Running in the professional part of the Diamond League meet, Berian clocked 1:43.89 to take second behind David Rudisha. That time took nearly a second-and-a-half off of Berian's PR and marks him as a serious 2016 Olympics candidate at 800 meters.