New England Boasts 1500m Olympians Elle Purrier St. Pierre (VT) & Heather MacLean (MA)

Is the Quad at UMass/Amherst overflowing with revelers? Are the cows mooing in Montgomery, VT? Should be.

 

Two-thirds of the women’s Olympic 1500 team are New Englanders, members of Team New Balance Boston and graduates of UMass/Amherst and UNH.

 

 

In 94-degree heat, VT’s Elle Purrier St. Pierre does what she does – lead start to finish in 3:58.03 to break Mary Slaney’s 1500m Trials record of 3:58.92 from 1988.

 

Third was tight, former Umie and Peabody, MA native Heather MacLean had to lean and made the Olympic team by .09 in an Olympic qualifying 4:02.09.

 

 

Cory McGee (MS) isn’t a local but supplied New Balance the trifecta with her second place 4:00.67 finish.

 

Ironically, Purrier St. Pierre was almost shoved off the track to the inside at the outset and said, “Screw it,” and took the lead.

 

We say ironically because in the prelims, MacLean placed 13th out of the allowed 12-person field following both semi-finals. It was close and MacLean had been impeded not once (almost going down) but twice. A protest ensued and she was allowed into the finals.

 

 

Big surprise with Olympian Jenny Simpson placing 10th. Simpson won Olympic bronze at 1500m in Rio five year ago but admitted she wasn’t ready to run the pace needed to finish around 4:00.

 

Another surprise was reigning 800m world champion Donovan Brazier not making the cut. Brazier was in super shape before the pandemic,

 

It was a memorable day at Hayward Field. So along with suds at Southwest and the cuds in Montgomery, Congrats to our New England Olympians!