Caelin Sloan (23, South Florence, SC) took a big chunk off of her 3000m PR today in Columbia, SC at the Rams Winter Challenge on the campus of Columbia International University. Wearing hip #1, Sloan finished 2nd overall to the men’s winner Frank DeVar, in a tight finish, 15:45.04 to 15:46.33. Prior to today, her best was 16:12.63 from the NSAF HS Nationals in 2019. Sloan raced intelligently, working her way up from the chasing pack to briefly take the lead with a lap to go, only to be held off at the line.
In what is likely to be a sparse winter season with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Sloan has set a formidable US #1 early season performance. She also excels in XC and distance running for her HS team, so it’s possible she could be the next dual event crossover star in the mode of Taylor Ewert.
Not to be outdone, her younger sister Brittany dipped under 20 for the first time with a fine 19:52.98 time, which was good for 5th woman in the race with mostly collegiate competitors.
On the men’s side, the performance by former professional runner, Frank Devar was promising to say the least. With PRs of 1500m – 3:48, 3000m – 8:13, 5000m – 14:03, 10000m – 29:22, Half Marathon – 1:06:32 under his belt, he is a seriously talented athlete who has taken up Race Walking only recently. A debut race like this, with no technical issues being observed means he could be a serious force in the US scene should he undertake the training for 20km/50km racing, which is already something he’s accustomed to from his running days. We’ll be watching him progress in the future.
Full results, separated by gender: Men and Women.
Lastly, video was taken of this race. It will be posted to our YouTube channel, so please make sure to subscribe for notification when it is published.
