Graham Blanks Makes History, Wins Second Consecutive NCAA Title

For the second consecutive year, Harvard’s Graham Blanks is a national champion. With a course-record finish last Saturday, Blanks defended his title in the 10,000 meter race at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, becoming just the 13th runner in NCAA history to win consecutive titles.

Running at the Zimmer Championship Course in Verona, Wis., the senior entered as the defending champion after he became the first Ivy League athlete to win the 10,000 meters at the 2023 NCAA Championships. In that race, Blanks rode a late surge to a three-second margin over New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel, finishing with a time of 28:37.7.

Adding to his historic achievements, this year Blanks was named the USTFCCCA Northeast Region Men’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year for an unprecedented fourth time, making him the first in NCAA history to receive this honor on four occasions.

In Wisconsin, New Mexico's Samuel — the 10,000m at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June — was hot on Blank’s tail for a second straight year. Blanks made his signature late move with about 1500m left in the race, overtaking Samuel and Furman University’s Dylan Schubert and ultimately edging Samuel by 1.7 seconds. After looking back to make sure Samuel and Schubert wouldn't catch him, Blanks clutched the Harvard logo on his shirt and waved at the cheering crowd as he crossed the finish line.

His final time of 28:37.2 broke the previous course record of 29:08.0. The 10,000m is Blank’s most decorated race at the NCAA level, but the distance runner was also an Olympian earlier this year competing in the 5,000m, the distance at which he set an NCAA record last December (before the record was topped by Northern Arizona’s Nico Young in January).

Saturday's race began with the tightly packed start typical of most cross country meets. During the first 3,000 meters, Blanks maintained his position within the lead pack. By the 5,000 meter mark, he strategically began to surge, climbing the leaderboard and positioning himself in third place.

“Most cross country races at the national level get out to a really fast start,” Blanks explained. “You get off really fast from the start line to try to get to a good position. I spent a lot of the first two minutes just sprinting to get to the front, and then from there the pace kind of settled down throughout the next 20 minutes.”

A true running tactician, Blanks highlighted the crowded nature of the race when reflecting on his path to victory, explaining how the congestion not only hindered several of his competitors but also posed significant challenges for him throughout the meet.

“There were a couple falls throughout the middle of the race just because it’s so crowded and because everyone's so good that they can actually stay with the front pack,” the senior said. “I almost got caught up in a fall halfway through the race around 5k.”

The race did not truly intensify until the final two kilometers, when the pace began to pick up significantly.

“At two kilometers left a guy from Oklahoma State started pushing the pace and from there it was just the two of us who went off the front of the pack,” Blanks said. “We hit this hill on the back end of the course with about a kilometer left — around three minutes left in the race — and I just started sprinting to try to break off from the front.”

Blanks credits his victory to the decisive move he executed with one kilometer remaining, a strategy he had planned weeks in advance.

“With how good everyone is in the NCAA, when you make a strong move, you have to be very intentional about it, you can't leave any doubt,” Blanks explained. “If I were to make a half measured move, one of those guys in the back could have hung on to me and maybe would have been able to beat me. So I started sprinting from about a kilometer out and just sprinted for the rest of the race. I had enough of a gap that I knew I had won the race from about 100 meters out.”

Blanks explained that his typical race strategy is to practice strength running: long, hard running close to the end of the race instead of trying to make up ground right before the finish line, when it is an all out sprint. Blanks also plots out the course on a topographic map before the race to determine where he should make his moves.

“I knew I had a better shot of winning if I made the race really hard in the last five minutes,” Blanks explained. He summarized his pre-race strategy as "basically just make everyone hurt, and try to make the race honest.”

At the conclusion of the race, Blanks and second-place finisher Samuel exchanged jerseys, taking inspiration from the jersey swaps commonly seen in other sports. The Harvard star and the New Mexico runner have represented the pinnacle of long-distance college running on the men's side for the past two years. With Blanks set to graduate in May, the Lobos' star will have one fewer rival to chase at the end of races.

With his collegiate cross country career now behind him, Blanks is now focused on savoring the final moments of his college experience before transitioning to professional running.

“I'm not looking too far forward, just trying to enjoy the moment,” Blanks said. “Next year I'll be running professionally which is a lot different from collegiate running, so I'm trying to enjoy these last seasons that I have because collegiate running has been a lot of fun.”

The Athens, Ga. native, who spoke openly after last year’s NCAA win about his doubts during the recruitment process that he could win a national title at Harvard, has now added two trophies to the Crimson’s mantle, with this year’s win representing the 23rd national title in program history.

Blanks’ performance at the NCAA championships headlined a solid all-around performance from the Crimson, with a 27th-place finish on the men’s side and a 28th-place performance from the women. With top-five finishes from both squads at the NCAA Northeast Regionals and the Ivy League Heptagonals earlier in the month, the Crimson has continued its dominance of recent years.

For most Crimson runners, the first meet of the indoor season will be the HBCU and Ivy Challenge in Cambridge, held on Saturday, Dec. 7. However, Blanks will compete that day at Boston University's Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener, the same race where he broke the NCAA 5,000m record last year. He will aim to continue smashing his own records before the clock hits zero on an incredible collegiate running career.

—Staff writer Natalie T. Weiner can be reached at natalie.weiner@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Jack Silvers can be reached at jack.silvers@thecrimson.com.