Saruni looks to secure back-to-back 800 crowns for UTEP, make a possible run at coach Ereng’s collegiate record

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Michael Saruni had been knocked down, stepped on and overlooked too many times, so the University of Texas El Paso sophomore decided the best way to distance himself from the criticism and competition was simply to run away from it all.

That’s exactly what Saruni has done this season, putting together one of the best resumes of any middle-distance runner in NCAA history entering the Division 1 Indoor Championships this weekend in College Station, Texas.

Saruni, 22, is a significant favorite in the men’s 800 meters, looking to follow former UTEP teammate Emmanuel Korir in capturing the title.

In addition to running an all-time world indoor best 1 minute, 14.79 seconds in the 600, Saruni has run the fastest 800 time on an oversized track in Division 1 history at 1:45.92, along with the No. 2 collegiate 800 performance on a standard indoor track at 1:45.19.

Saruni trails only the 1989 collegiate indoor standard of 1:44.84 set by his coach and former University of Virginia star Paul Ereng, who captured his first of two World Indoor titles by setting a world record in Hungary that stood for eight years.

“It just shows what I’ve been putting out there, because I’ve been working hard for this,” said Saruni, who ranks third in the world this year behind Korir (1:44.21) and American Donavan Brazier (1:45.10).

“Last year, I was kind of like sit back and kick. But this year, I’m more like a 400 runner and I’m trying to go as hard as I can. I don’t want to sit back and kick anymore. I want to go right to the front.”

Saruni’s freshman year included a disqualification in the NCAA indoor 800 final for making contact with Virginia Tech’s Drew Piazza, followed by being accidentally tripped by Korir and trampled in the Division 1 outdoor 800 final, resulting in an eighth-place finish.

Only adding insult to injury was Saruni not being selected to represent Kenya in the IAAF World Outdoor Championships in August in London, despite finishing third in the country’s national team 800 trials in June in a personal-best 1:44.61 behind Korir (1:43.86) and Kipyegon Bett (1:44.04). Saruni was replaced by 2016 Diamond League champion Ferguson Rotich, who placed 15th in the World semifinals and didn’t qualify for the final.

“I told them last year when they took me out of the Kenyan team, I told everybody that was a major mistake,” Saruni said. “Last year was a bad year for me, so this year, I just have to show the world what I have.”

Although the omission from the Kenyan roster has been a source of motivation for Saruni throughout the year, Ereng views the trials as a turning point in the Conference USA champion learning how to become a more confident racer.

“Last year was his first year actually racing. Most of the time he was trying to figure out what exactly needed to be done in the race or how he would do it, and he was gaining confidence, slowly but surely,” said Ereng, who won the NCAA outdoor 800 title in 1988, along with indoor and outdoor championships in 1989.

“He kind of discovered most of the time in the 800-meter race, you have to put the distance behind you as quickly as possible.

“In his first race at the Kenyan trials, he went ahead and ran from the very beginning and he took control of it and he was comfortable doing it, instead of running in the middle or in the back and getting knocked down, the way he did last season. He ran a very good race, a well-measured race, and ran 1:46, which set him up well for the final.”

It was also a great source of pride for Ereng, watching an individual he had known since birth in Kenya, and an athlete who had yet to break 1:50 before arriving at UTEP holding his own in the deepest national team 800 race in the world.

“I went to high school (in Nairobi) with Michael’s dad, Alfred, and ran track with him, so when I was recruiting Michael and I talked to his dad, he said, ‘Paul, this young man is very talented, he’s really talented.’ When I was leaving Kenya in 2003, he was 7 years old, and I noticed he was very agile and I saw the athletic ability,” Ereng said. “When I was recruiting Michael, I told my colleague, ‘If Michael is half the man his dad used to be, then we have an athlete.’ I’ll tell you, I think Michael has lived beyond that. He’s more of a man (in track) than his dad used to be.”

Saruni achieved his most significant athletic achievement Jan. 19 at Albuquerque Convention Center when he clocked the all-time world best in the 600, eclipsing last year’s global standard of 1:14.91 set by American Casimir Loxsom and the collegiate record 1:14.96 by Penn State’s Isaiah Harris, who placed second in the NCAA outdoor 800 final last year and made the U.S. national team for the World Outdoor Championships.

“It was a moment for me. I was leaning down after the race thanking God because he’s been nothing but nice to me,” Saruni said. “Being the best in the world, setting a world record, that’s a big deal. I’m just thankful for everybody who has been supporting me, my friends, my coaches, everybody who has been there for me.”

Saruni followed his memorable 600 performance by becoming the first collegiate athlete in 17 years to run within a half-second of Ereng’s record Jan. 27, elevating him to the No. 22 indoor 800 performer in history.

“If we want it, we need the right race. For him, all I need is to get someone who can bring him all the way to 500 and then he can do the rest. So far this season, it looks like after 300, everybody else is done, and he has to do the next 500 by himself, and that’s hard in the 800,” Ereng said. “The way I did it is I got into a race where men were running and we ran that race. It was deceiving because I went there with a 1:49.32 as my personal best indoors and ran 1:44.

“You go to a race like that and you are very analytical about how everybody else is prepared and what kind of fitness level everyone is in. I’m sure there were two or three guys in that race who thought we can kill this field, but they didn’t know where the real danger was. That danger was someone who was prepared, but I just never had the opportunity until then.”

Saruni’s primary goal is help UTEP make history as the first program to produce different men’s 800 champions in consecutive years. Villanova had Dave Patrick and Frank Murphy win back-to-back indoor 880-yard titles in 1968 and 1969.

Whether he can break the 2001 championship record of 1:45.33 set by Arizona’s Patrick Nduwimana or challenge Ereng’s all-time mark depends on the pace of the final, with no NCAA winner in the past 16 years running under 1:46.

“In a championship race, you don’t know what so and so is thinking, and it becomes very tactical and in a tactical race, anything can happen, so you never know which way it’s going to go,” said Ereng, the 1988 Olympic 800 gold medalist.

“If we can get him to 500, I think he can go much faster than the time I had that has been hanging around. That record was good, but I think this kid has the tools to do it. It’s just a matter of setting the right race.”

After walking off the track frustrated and disappointed following several big races last year, Saruni isn’t taking any opportunities for granted. His focus all season has been on winning a title and showing that he deserves to be mentioned with Korir, not only as an NCAA champion, but as one of the best middle-distance runners in the world.

“I learned a lot from him because we trained together, and we’re still close,” Saruni said. “It’s crazy, it really is crazy. I’ve been working so hard for this, so it’s an amazement to me. I’m just thankful for all of this.”