SU’s Benne Anderson reaches 1,500-meter finals at NCAA Outdoor Championships
In his second appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Syracuse's Benne Anderson reached his first 1,500-meter final. Courtesy of SU Athletics
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Three Syracuse athletes reached the NCAA Outdoor Championships this week in Eugene, Oregon. Hurdlers Jamir Brown and Elijah Mallard, as well as distance runner Benne Anderson, all punched their tickets nearly two weeks ago at the NCAA Division I East First Rounds.
Anderson was the sole SU racer to pass the preliminary round in Eugene after running a personal-best 3:36.15 in the men’s 1,500-meter, the fourth-best time overall. However, his performance in the final didn’t fare the same way.
He stuck around for two laps, but on lap three he tried to make up ground and was blocked by a pair of Oregon runners. He didn’t recover from there, finishing last with a time of 3:40.06.
“It was harder on my legs than I thought it would be,” Anderson said. “It didn’t help that these guys can all close like crazy.”
Anderson’s preliminary time would’ve placed second in the final heat by one-tenth of a second. The silver lining is he’s Syracuse’s only racer to make the championship in back-to-back years and has two years of eligibility left.
“The goal is to get here to the championship meet, obviously,” Anderson said. “The further you go up the mountain, the higher you look. You start thinking, maybe I can win this race, that race and the next, or even be an All-American.”
As for Brown and Mallard, their seasons concluded Wednesday when they failed to qualify for the finals in their respective events. In the open preliminary races, the top two runners in each heat and the next three fastest participants across all three heats advance to the finals.
In 2025, Brown won the Division III 110-meter hurdles national title as a freshman at Rowan University, but this year, a pair of Florida State racers obstructed him in the first heat of the 110-meter hurdles, preventing a repeat.
Brown crossed the line in fourth in 13.37 seconds, a tenth of a second behind FSU’s Andre Korbmacher. As a result, Brown had to wait for the other heats to end with his season at stake.
In the last heat, the Seminoles’ Zach Extine ran a 13.36, stealing the final qualifying spot from Brown by one hundredth of a second. The result was disappointing for SU’s sophomore, who posted a personal best and top-10 national time to win the gold medal at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships a few weeks ago.
In the 400-meter hurdles preliminaries Wednesday, Mallard wasn’t much better, placing fifth to be eliminated. His 50.03-second time was nearly one second slower than his showing last meet.
After three years of falling short, Mallard finally broke through at the East Regionals this year to qualify for his first national championship. But after breaking records throughout the indoor and outdoor season, he remained short of the coveted national title this weekend.
Digital Managing Editor Quinn Postman contributed reporting to this article.
