Amanda Vestri returned to her record breaking ways last weekend, running a 15:01 5k to take 12 seconds off her own ZAP record and personal best. Amanda spent December – March focusing on longer events, racing 3 half marathons, including a 1:07:35 personal best in Houston, and has successfully transferred that winter strength into summer speed. Eric van der Els and Dan Schaffer also competed over the weekend with Eric finishing 2nd in his section of the 5k, running a season best 13:27 while Dan finished 7th in 13:36, just 2 seconds off his personal best.
Dan & Eric kicked things off for the team in the 2nd section of the men’s 5,000m. The opening 2 kilometers were passed in 2:44 and 2:39. The yo-yoing led to a slightly slower 3rd kilometer for both of 2:47, passing 3k in 8:09. At 3k Eric and Dan were in a chase pack of 7 athletes, 7 seconds behind the top 2 racers. With a mile to go Eric began moving up on the outside of the group, slowly ratcheting down the pace. Dan slipped in right behind him.
With 2 laps to go Eric and whittled the chase pack down to 4, and he still remained in 3rd place but was slowly closing the gap. Eric’s penultimate lap of 62 seconds shook him free of the chase pack and planted him right on the shoulder of the 2nd place runner. He quickly went shot into 2nd at the bell and never looked back, closing his final lap in 58 seconds for a final time of 13:27. Dan finished 7th in a tightly bunched group of athletes just 9 seconds back in 13:36.
For both Dan and Eric, the times were the 3rd fastest of their career, and for Eric it was a season best – a clear sign that he is continuing to build momentum similar to the way he did last year before breaking out with his 13:21 Olympic Trials qualifier in June.
On the women’s side, Amanda Vestri was returning to the track after a disappointing 10,000m at the end of March. Fatigued from her half marathon races, Amanda took a bit of a break at the end of March before reloading for the rest of the track season. And her 5,000m race over the weekend showed she is every bit the contender on the track she was last year when she was 5th in the Olympic Trials 10,000m.
From the early stages of the race Amanda locked herself into a top 5 position as the pacers pulled the lead group through the first 1k in 2:59, right on sub-15 pace. Amanda was 3:00, 2:59, 3:00 for her first 3 kilometer splits, remaining in 5th position throughout. By 3k the race was down to 5 women and nothing would change until the final 3 laps when eventual winner Linden Hall began to ratchet up the pace and string the group out.
Amanda ran consistently between 1:11 and 1:13 for every lap of the race, finishing in 71 seconds her final 400m to maintain hold on 5th place and secure a massive 12 second personal best and ZAP record. She finished as the top American in the race and her 15:01 makes her the 4th fastest American outdoors in 2025.
You can catch Amanda in action next at the New York City Mastercard Mini 10k on June 7th. Dan & Eric will join teammate Ryan Ford in Portland for the Portland Track Festival 5,000m on Sunday, June 15th.
Full results from Trackfest can be found here.