(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Published with permission.
NEW YORK (01-Feb) — While he already has national, Olympic and world titles to his name, until tonight Cole Hocker could not call himself a Millrose Games champion. But after a perfectly-executed race in the meet’s loaded two-mile, the 24 year-old from Indianapolis is now an event winner in America’s oldest indoor track meeting, founded in 1908. He didn’t set any records, but he demonstrated superb race-craft, not leading until the final 50 meters when it counted.
“I just felt really good,” Hocker told reporters after clocking 8:07.31. “I knew this was such a stacked field. It’s a regular-season meet, but being here you wouldn’t know that.” He added: “These are moments in my career that I’m going to one hundred percent look back on in the future, and I just want to be fully present in these moments.”
The race began without double-Olympic bronze medalist Grant Fisher who withdrew just hours before with an illness. Nonetheless, the competition was still stiff with world champions Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman of Great Britain and Geordie Beamish of New Zealand, plus national and NCAA champions Parker Wolfe, Ethan Strand, Graham Blanks, Drew Hunter –all Americans– and Habtom Samuel of Eritrea.
Hocker followed the pacemaker Ben Allen right from the gun. A sub-8:00 finish time was still possible through half a mile (2:00.9 split), but the pace sagged in the second half-mile to 2:06.4 (4:07.3 at the mile). That put Josh Kerr’s 2024 world best of 8:00.67 out of reach, and the key protagonists turned to old-school racing.
“Like last year (when he ran the 3000m here and finished second to Fisher), I was ready to go fast,” Hocker said. “Obviously, I was up there at the front and maybe people were expecting me to pull it along.” He continued: “It seemed like everyone here wanted to race, and I think that’s what happens when you get together this kind of talent.”
Samuel, who still competes collegiately for the University of New Mexico, spent the early laps at the back, but moved up and slotted in behind the pacemaker at one and one-quarter miles. Hocker drifted back to third behind Australia’s Ky Robinson, and Kerr was right behind Hocker. Samuel relinquished the lead when Blanks surged and took over at the front with half a mile to go. Blanks brought the tempo back down to around four-minute mile pace, and Hocker knew that the race was playing into his hands.
“I want to win really bad,” Hocker recalled thinking. “I want to win these first 14 laps today with my head then see what I have with my body for the last two.”
Wolfe, the reigning national cross country champion who finished 12th at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships last month, made the biggest move of the race. On the backstretch of the final lap Wolfe went to the lead with Kerr and Hocker close behind. Kerr could not cover Wolfe’s move, and the former University of North Carolina star rolled out of the final bend with the lead. Hocker hit the gas one more time, sweeping around Wolfe at the top of the homestretch to get the win. Wolfe was in lane two, and that gave Kerr a clear shot to the finish on the inside, and he also passed Wolfe to get second in 8:07.68 to Wolfe’s 8:07.83.
“Almost perfect,” said Wolfe when asked if he employed the right tactics today. “I probably just went a tad too early. But, I almost held off a world champ, an Olympic champ. So, I can’t be too pissed about it.”
Kerr, who hadn’t raced since last September’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo where he suffered a torn calf, was disappointed not to win, although he was pleased with the early-season fitness he showed.
“It’s a good season opener,” said Kerr, who was the fastest man tonight through 3000m with a 7:37.34 en route time. “But, I was hoping for a little bit more.”
Down the finish order, Robinson set an Australian indoor record of 8:08.40 in fourth place, and Beamish finished fifth in 8:08.58. Blanks, who drove the pace in the third quarter of the race, was rewarded with a personal best 8:08.60.
Also getting a dramatic victory tonight was Australian teenager Cam Myers. The 19 year-old Australian defeated three-time defending champion Yared Nuguse in the men’s Wanamaker Mile, running a world-leading 3:47.57. Ironically, he ran slightly faster at last year’s Millrose Games, but only finished third. This year he took the lead just before the bell, and neither Nuguse nor Hobbs Kessler –who ran a world indoor record at 2000m last weekend in Boston– could catch him. Nuguse took second in 3:48.31 and Kessler third in 3:48.68.
“I’m just pumped to have won it,” said Myers, who won all three of his indoor races this year. “As awesome as it would have been to run 3:46 I won the race and I beat very top athletes like Hobbs, Yared. Just to win it feels awesome.”
Nikki Hiltz overpowered Olympic silver medalist Jess Hull in the women’s Wanamaker Mile to take the win in an indoor personal best of 4:19.64, which was also a world leader. The reigning national 1500m champion chose to run in the pack most of the race before zipping into the lead with about 300m to go. Hiltz led at the bell with Hull close behind and that is how they finished. Hull ran 4:20.11, and former Oregon Duck Klaudia Kazimierska of Poland ran a national record 4:21.36 in third place.
“No matter what happens in my career my name’s never going to go off of that trophy,” an elated Hiltz told reporters. “I think that’s a really good feeling.”
There were two excellent collegiate records achieved tonight, and both athletes won their respective races. University of Alabama junior Doris Lemngole, a Kenyan from West Pokot County, won the women’s 3000m over a strong pro field in 8:31.39. Her time took four seconds off of Katelyn Tuohy’s collegiate record of 8:35.20 set at the 2023 Millrose Games. Lemngole, the 2025 NCAA cross country champion, beat her Brigham Young University rival Jane Hedengren, who finished third in a personal best 8:34.98. Sandwiched between the two collegians was Great Britain’s Hannah Nuttall, who ran a career best 8:32.94.
“I’m so much happy about it,” Lemngole told reporters while her Alabama coach, Nick Stenuf, observed from a few feet away. “My coach was like, ‘just trust yourself.’
Also setting a collegiate record was Northern Arizona University senior Colin Sahlman. Sahlman, a versatile athlete who finished 16th in last November’s NCAA cross country championships, pulled off an upset win this afternoon in the 800m. Coming from third place at the bell, he ran down Spaniard Mohamed Attaoui in the final 50 meters to win in 1:44.70. That broke the Paul Ereng’s 1989 collegiate record of 1:44.84 which was set some 14 years before Sahlman was born.
“I’m really happy to come away with the win against such a talented field,” said Sahlman, who looked a little shocked. He continued: “It’s amazing. There’s so many great 800 meter runners in the NCAA for so long. To be the fastest now indoors is quite special. I’m really loving this event.”
In the other distance events, Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma, the 2024 world indoor 800m champion, ran a facility record of 2:35.50 in the 1000m. She narrowly beat Addy Wiley (2:35.77) and Maggie Congdon (2:35.91). Seventeen year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus won the men’s 600m in world-leading 1:14.15, a world indoor best for an U20 athlete. That’s also the fastest time ever by an American high schooler, although Lutkenhaus has already turned pro with Nike. The high school miles were won by Jaelyn Williams of Chula Vista, Calif. (4:38.69), and Caleb Ten Pas of Urbandale, Iowa, (4:09.80).
Today’s Millrose Games was the 118th edition of the meet, and the 15th held at the Nike Track & Field Center at the Armory (the meet was originally held at Madison Square Garden). The meet was the second stop among gold-level meetings of the World Athletics Indoor Tour for 2026. The next stop is Ostrava on February 3 where the Czech Indoor Gala will be contested.
PHOTO: Cole Hocker winning the two-mile at the 2026 Millrose Games (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)