Grijalva gets preview of next level

Armijo senior, Northern Arizona commit will race unattached against college athletes, looking to challenge California state 1,500-meter record belonging to Ryan Hall

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Armijo CA senior Luis Grijalva recently committed to Northern Arizona University and now the reigning Division 1 state cross country champion and Foot Locker All-American is getting a head start on racing at the collegiate level.

Grijalva is scheduled to run unattached against college competitors in the third section of the men’s 1,500 meters Friday at the 42nd Stanford Invitational.

Grijalva hasn’t run a 1,500 since his freshman year, but has a 1,600 personal best of 4:07.68 from last year’s state meet and ran the mile last season in 4:12.98 at the Mt. SAC Relays.

Grijalva ran a season-opening 4:18.47 in the 1,600 on March 4 at the Dan Gabor Invitational, before clocking 14:35.78 in the 5,000 on March 18 at the Texas Distance Festival.

“We started doing our first track workouts of the season two weeks before Texas, so that was really encouraging to run 14:35 with a few workouts under my belt,” Grijalva said. “After Texas, we had a couple of days of recovery runs and went straight back to work and these past two weeks have been great.”

Grijalva will square off with Arkansas sophomore Ethan Moehn, who has a 1,500 personal-best 3:44.60, and Cal junior Eugene Hamilton III, with his PR 3:44.76.

“Training has been going good with (coach Karl Wurzbach),” said Grijalva, who anchored Armijo to victory in the boys distance medley relay at last year’s Stanford Invitational.

“The reason why we started our workouts so late in the season is because Karl has his eyes on June and wants my legs feeling fresher and peaking at that time.”

The California state 1,500 record is 3:42.70 by Big Bear’s Ryan Hall in 2001. Only seven California boys prep athletes have run under 3:47.