In Section 4 of the women’s 1500 at Saturday’s Occidental Invitational in Los Angeles, Aeron Arlin Genet of California’s Central Coast ran 4:54.74. Not that impressive until you know she turned 50 last June. That puts her 3 seconds behind the listed American age-group record of 4:51.86 by Marisa Sutera Strange in 2015. With the season still young, Aeron could snag the AR yet. (The W50 WR is a stretch, though — 4:36.79 by Britain’s Clare Elms in 2014.) According to mastersrankings.com, the best 50-plus woman in the world this year is Sally Gibbs of New Zealand, who clocked 4:48.49 down under. So Aeron is No. 2 worldwide. She was entered at the Mt. SAC Relays 800 a couple weeks ago but didn’t show. Not sure why. But at least she’s fit for a mile. Hope to see her dominate the middle distances the way she did a decade ago, when first she crossed my radar. (The W50 mile American record, BTW, is Kathy Martin’s 5:15.55 in 2002.)

Here’s how she fared against the kiddies:

Event 5 Women 1500 Meter Run

Section 4
1 Gillispie, Hailey SR Rogers State 4:43.82
2 Davis, Amanda FR Northwestern 4:45.51
3 Jensen, Casey FR Westmont 4:46.33
4 Melendez, Jennifer SO Unattached 4:47.93
5 Jensen, Janna SR Westmont 4:48.55
6 McCullough, Bevin JR Santa Clara 4:49.91
7 Ereso, Rachel SO Cal Lutheran 4:49.92
8 Genet, Aeron Arlin Hoka Aggie R 4:54.74
9 Hopkins, Hannah SO Concordia (Cal.) 4:57.03
10 Wayne, Gabi FR Occidental 5:02.74
11 Espindola, Karla SO Unattached 5:03.17

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