ALAMEDA — Cooper Teare has won many races in his outstanding running career, including California high school state championships in cross country and track, and a Pac-12 5,000-meter track title.
But the former St. Joseph Notre Dame standout had never won the Alameda July 4th Parade R.A.C.E. … until this year.
Teare, who is training for his junior cross country season at the University of Oregon, placed first in the 5,000-meter road race with a time of 15 minutes, 17 seconds.
“I’ve been doing this every year because (St. Joseph Notre Dame coach) Tony Fong helped set it up, so I just decided to do it again,” said Teare about the 3.1-mile race through the streets of Alameda. The 19-year-old estimates he first competed in the race as a St. Joseph Notre Dame freshman. His personal-best in the 5,000 meters on the track is an outstanding 13:32.73.
A training partner, Evert Silva of the University of Portland, placed second in the July 4th race with a time of 15:20.9.
“We kind of had a hard workout yesterday, and we lifted, so we’re a little sore,” Teare said. The duo did a long seven-mile tempo run on Bay Farm Island, and then another four miles in the afternoon. “This is just kind of to go out and have fun.”
Teare, who was wearing an old St. Joseph Notre Dame singlet, said his race plan was “to go with the front guys and try to get a little lead with a mile to go.” He ended up taking the lead with approximately 1 1/2 miles to go. “Just brought it in. Didn’t want to do anything crazy. Just go for the win and then have a fun Fourth of July.”
Teare said he has not run this race competitively before. “This is kind of my first time just like going out and trying to go for the win,” he said. “Usually I take the first half pretty easy and try to run with my teammates.”
He is pleased with his sophomore year at Oregon, in which he set many personal records.
“I got my first All-American finish indoors. I was hopefully going for another one outdoor, but I got strep throat,” Teare said.
At the Pac-12 track and field championships in May, Teare outkicked Stanford’s Grant Fisher to win the men’s 5,000-meter title in 13:49.77. But before the NCAA outdoor championships, Teare was ailing to the point that he had to get an antibiotic shot.
“I hadn’t run for a week before, so I definitely wasn’t anywhere near 100-percent,” said Teare, who placed 22nd in 15:04.51.”I just went out and just raced and just finished.”
“He lost eight pounds before the race,” said Fong, who said he keeps in touch with Teare “probably weekly.”
But Teare said that a couple days after the race, he finally got better, and now is building up his mileage. He planned to leave for New Mexico on July 5 for high-altitude training.
“It’s going to take a good summer to really get in shape and have a shot to do something big,” Teare said.
Here are the top finishers from the Alameda July 4th 5,000-meter race:
1. Teare; 2. Silva; 3. John Williams, 15:22.8; 4. Nick Sigmon, 15:37.8; 5. Doug Howard, 15:59.1; 6. Noah Battaglia, 16:07.7; 7. Arturo Fernandez, 16:17.2; 8. Sam Robinson, 16:22.5; 9. Cole Ashcraft, 16:51.7; 10. Alex Karwoski, 16:51.7.
11. Jimmy O’Dea, 17:01.9; 12. Adam Elaidy, 17:06.8; 13. Floyd Long, 17:06.9; 14. Emilio Cazares, 17:09.6; 15. Patrick Nguyen, 17:10.1; 16. Ivan Efimov, 17:22.4; 17. Brian Parodi, 17:24.6; 18. Teddy Eusebio, 17:38.6; 19. Kenny Handel, 17:39.0; 20. Jesus Frutos, 17:50.0.
21. Karen Eckberg, 17:57.5; 22. Ramon Valle, 18:07.9; 23. Ian Pang, 18:11.3; 24. Jarrod Rothman, 18:15.1; 25. David Kyle, 18:15.2; 26. Dan Neff, 18:19.6; 27. Kellan Murakami, 18:19.9; 28. Scott Burger, 18:20.7; 29. Adrian Paul, 18:24.1; 30. Ben Ting, 18:27.7.
31. Carlo Gaytan Flores, 18:25.5; 32. Daniel Desmond, 18:35.3; 33. Ellis Cervantes, 18:36.0; 34. Hans Struzyna, 18:44.4; 35. Katie Freed, 18:58.0; 36. Gabriel Jones, 18:58.1; 37. Ralph Kasow, 19:04.2; 38. Ann Marie Pierce, 19:06.3; 39. Carlos Gaytan 19:07.3; 40. Pike Goldschmidt, 19:10.5.
41. Joshua Ballard, 19:12.8; 42. Ryan Chan, 19:14.0; 43. Michael Sontag, 19:14.4; 44. Erik Neider, 19:15.5; 45. Marco Perez, 19:21.9; 46. Thomas McCue, 19:23.7; 47. Andrew Becker, 19:23.8; 48. Nate Turner, 19:29.0; 49. David Kilimnik, 19:31.4; 50. Aila Owens, 19:36.7.
51. Anthony O’Toole, 19:38.0; 52. Alex Darr, 19:38.9; 53. Natalie Perez, 19:42.7; 54. Dylan Mochizuki, 19:49.0; 55. Shawn Shadden, 19:49.7; 56. Justin Yuen, 19:54.2; 57. Langston Hazen, 19:55.3; 58. Kristin Hedstrom, 20:00.5; 59. Thornton Weiler, 20:00.8; 60. Oscar Aparicio, 20:01.4.
