After a rocky season, Edward Cheserek is back to his winning ways and returning to Eugene for the NCAA Championships next week. The 14-time All-American was also named to the the Pac-12 All-Century men’s team this week to put the icing on his return.
Edward Cheserek’s list of accolades reaches bounds that most runners can only dream of. From 2015 Pac-12 Athlete of the Year, 13-time NCAA champion, two-time Bowerman Award finalist and five-time USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Year, he’s just about done it all.
But coming into his junior season opener at Hayward for the Pepsi Invitational, fans saw something they didn’t expect: a King Ed loss.
Cheserek took second place in the men’s 5,000 meters in 13 minutes and 50.82 seconds, more than a half-minute off his personal best and six seconds behind first place.
After the meet, head coach Robert Johnson said the original plan was not to have Cheserek compete, but he insisted.
It was later revealed that Cheserek had been battling a minor injury but didn’t want to disappoint the fans by not running.
In remaining meets, Cheserek took the Oregon Relays off, but returned to the track for the 3,000 meters at the Oregon Twilight, the Ducks’ last home meet before NCAAs.
Once again, Cheserek struggled, taking a close second place finish to Sam Atkin from Lewis & Clark.
“I just tried to come back today and just run, not fast, just get my legs moving,” Cheserek told the Register-Guard after the meet. “I haven’t raced for a while but I decided I’d come back and see what I can do today, train hard for the next couple weeks and be ready to go.”
Johnson backed up the decision, calling the run “solid” considering the shape Cheserek was in.
“Everybody always wants Ed to win, Ed always wants to win, we always want Ed to win,” Johnson said. “But I think it’s a good foot forward.”
Cheserek went on to recover and win the 10,000 meters at the Pac-12 Championships before heading to regionals.
Jump to last weekend, and Cheserek was right back on track at the NCAA Western Regionals. He earned a bid in the 5,000 when he won his heat in 14:10.66, the second-fastest time in the field. The distance specialist earned another bid in the 10,000 when he ran the fastest time in the field, 29:45.41.
Now, back in the swing of things, Cheserek will return to Eugene to defend his 5,000 and 10,000 meter NCAA titles during the competition from June 8-11.
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