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BOSTON (19-Apr) — With well-timed long kicks, American Casey Comber (Under Armour) and Kenyan Dorcus Ewoi (Puma Elite Running) took the wins at the 15th B.A.A. Invitational Mile on the streets of Back Bay. The 28 year-old Comber, who competed collegiately for Villanova, successfully defended his title from last year, running 4:06.2. Ewoi, 28, who ran for Campbell University during her NCAA career, won in her debut at the race, clocking 4:42.6. Both athletes won $3000 in prize money.
Comber’s experience on the course played to his favor today. When he first ran the race in 2023, Olympian Hobbs Kessler got the best of him in the final two turns of the three-loop course. Last year Comber did a better job positioning himself on those turns, and it paid off with a win. He basically did the same thing this year, getting the inside line turning from Newbury to Exeter Streets, then punching the gas for the final left-hand turn onto Boylston Street for the finish. Canada’s Aaron Ahl was close behind, but just didn’t have Comber’s finishing speed.
“I’ve been here three years in a row,” Comber told reporters. “Hobbs got the best of me that first year… kind of got a better angle on me on one of those turns. And now every year I come down I look at where the cones are laid out, and it always kind of comes into play on that last lap. Everyone is trying make a move on the corners.”
Ahl was timed in 4:06.4, and Australia’s Mick Stanovsek (Puma) took third in 4:06.6. Nick Willis’s 2013 course record of 4:03.3 stood up for the 11th straight year.
Ewoi made a similar move to Comber. On the third and final lap, she made sure she was near the front on Newbury Street (essentially the backstretch) then surged hard before those final two turns. She emerged onto Boylston Street with a comfortable lead, and was able to relax her stride through the finish line where she smiled and raised her right hand as she broke the tape.
“I was just going to stay with the people and run with them,” Ewoi told reporters. “Whatever move they make, I’m just going to cover every move. Then, how I feel the last lap, do whatever I want.”
Laurie Barton (Atlanta Track Club Elite) won a tight sprint for second over Kate Mitchell (New Balance Boston), 4:44.0 to 4:44.4. Nicole Sifuentes’s 2017 record of 4:33.7 was never under threat.
In the invitational high school miles, which featured athletes who live in the eight towns and cities which the Boston Marathon transverses, the winners were Ciara Evans of Newton (5:12.1) and Altamo Aschkenasy of Brookline (4:25.7). Evans is the daughter of two-time Irish Olympian Sinead Evans (née Delahunty) who had a mile personal best of 4:27.38. Evans ran shoulder to shoulder with defending champion Sasha Lamakina of Framingham for most of the race, but pulled away from her rival in the final quarter mile to win easily by more than seven seconds.
“Having both my parents, especially my mom who ran professionally, is very inspiring, always looking out for me,” said Evans. “I’m very lucky to have two parents who understand the sport, how disappointing it can be but also how rewarding it can be.”
Aschkenasy overwhelmed the competition in the final quarter, running away from Bilal Elhaji of Boston, to win by nearly six seconds. Aschkenasy, who ran the race for the first time, came very close to Sam Burgess’s 2022 high school course record of 4:25.4.
“The last corner I just turned up the heat,” said Aschkenasy with his sunglasses perched on his head. “I know I have a really good kick.”
