Caleb Brown returned to live action over the weekend for the first time since he captured the Division 2/3 3200 indoor state title back in March.
The soon-to-be Wisconsin Badger lined-up near his new home turf at The WISCO Mile 5k track event, hosted by Lutheran High School.
Despite the lengthy lay-off, Brown did not show signs of rust. In the men's elite race, which featured a mixture of high school and college standouts, he crossed the line in second place, behind his future UW teammate, Shuaib Aljabaly and narrowly ahead of Evan Bishop (East Grand Rapids, MI), who's also an in-coming Badgers recruit. Aljabaly led the way in 14:46.41, while Brown and Bishop trailed in 14:51.36 and 14:51.51, respectively.
Brown's mark goes down as a new personal best for 5,000m on the track. He had officially contested the event just once prior, where he produced a 14:53.59 clocking at Nationals in 2019. Out in the XC fields, Brown owns a career best of 14:51.20, which he achieved during District competition during his senior year.
MileSplit Ohio reached out to Caleb for more context on his return to action.
"I went up to Wisconsin to run the WISCO Mile Elite 5K just to have fun with some of the guys on the team."
"Prior to the race, there were pacers for 14 minutes flat and 14:30, but 3k into the race that all went out the window. The humidity was pretty intense, so it was all about racing for the win."
"My teammate, Shuaib Aljabaly gapped everyone the whole race by a good amount and ended up taking the victory. I slowly made up ground, but it ended up being too late."
"It was a lot of fun to lace up the spikes again and race against my new teammates."
-- Caleb Brown
Elite 5K Race Results
Event 14 Men 5000 Meter Run Elite
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Wisco Mile: * 14:49.82 6/8/2019 Matthew Meinke, Neenah, WI
Name Age Hometown Finals Points
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1 Aljabaly, Shuaib 20 Madison, WI 14:46.41*
2 Brown, Caleb 19 Shelby, OH 14:51.36
3 Bishop, Evan 18 Grand Rapids, MI 14:51.51
4 Liking, Bob 18 St. Charles, IL 15:05.52
5 Ellenberg, Rowen 19 Sherwood, WI 15:11.10
6 Kuhlenbeck, Gavin 18 Menomonee Falls, WI 15:12.24
7 Truchon, Joshua 17 West Allis, WI 15:13.59
8 Sobczak, Chris 21 South Milwaukee, WI 15:27.01
9 Bareikis, Arturs 34 Crestwood, IL 15:47.62
10 Fassbender, David 22 Slinger, WI 15:51.77
11 Thornburg, Timothy 31 Stevens Point, WI 16:01.34
12 Selbach, Max 20 Glendale, WI 16:25.71
13 Siltman, Riley 17 Brooklyn, WI 16:31.83
-- Holmes, Nicholas 18 Glendale, WI DNS
-- Meinke, Matt 19 Neenah, WI DNS