New Mexico junior Habtom Samuel has rewritten the NCAA outdoor 5000 metres record book for a second successive spring, crossing the line at Azusa Pacific's Bryan Clay Invitational in 13:03.47 on Friday night to take more than two seconds off the collegiate mark he set on the same track twelve months ago. Samuel, a 22-year-old Eritrean who took out the final mile at close to four-flat pace, pulled clear inside the last 800 metres to break a field stacked with professionals and NCAA contenders and leave the outdoor collegiate record in a category of one.
The record-breaking race unfolded in textbook fashion. Samuel's pacemakers towed the lead group through 1000 metres in 2:37 and 3000 metres in 7:50, splits that had Valby-era record pace dialled in from the gun. When the rabbits stepped off with a mile to run, Samuel took the lead himself, ticking off a 63-second penultimate lap and then a 61-second closer to drag the leaders well under 13:10. Crossing the line, he slumped to the track, then sprang up to check the scoreboard before being mobbed by Lobos teammates on the back straight.
For Samuel, who won the NCAA indoor 5000m title in Virginia Beach last month in 13:14, the performance represents the capstone of a historic collegiate career. He had already become the first man to break 13:05 in collegiate competition when he ran 13:05.87 at the same meet in April 2025, eclipsing the previous mark of 13:06.32 set by Oklahoma State's Abdi Nur. Now, with a 13:03, he is within striking distance of the 13:00 barrier and sits inside the top handful of collegiate distance performances ever produced, on any surface.
Samuel's coach at New Mexico, Joe Franklin, described the run as the natural payoff for a winter block that has included altitude camps in Flagstaff and a careful indoor campaign targeting this single date. Franklin said Samuel had wanted the record badly enough that he asked his pacemakers to drop him with two full laps to run, a gamble that paid off when he found the rhythm to hold pace alone through the final 800m. Samuel himself pointed to the 13:03 as preparation, not an end point, highlighting the NCAA outdoor championships in Eugene in June and the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest later this summer as his primary 2026 goals.
The performance capped a blockbuster opening night at Bryan Clay, with a deep second section of the men's 5000m also producing a string of sub-13:20 clockings from collegians and post-collegiate professionals chasing Worlds standards. The meet continued into Saturday with elite mile, 10,000m and steeplechase sections, and Samuel's run reset the benchmark for everything that followed. For the college distance ranks, the message was the same as it has been throughout the Samuel era in Albuquerque: if you want the outdoor 5000m NCAA record, you are going to have to run 13:03 or faster.