‘Such an honor’

PARKER COTTON

Chronicle Sports Editor

The distance between Brisbane, Australia, and Eugene, Oregon, is vast, but Harvey Cramb has traversed it with impressive speed.

The Montana State sophomore is headed to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships this week in the 1,500 meters. Despite growing up a world away, Cramb always knew to have the University of Oregon’s historic Hayward Field on his list of goals.

“Eugene is one of the Meccas of distance running, and I feel like it’s something you’ve got to do in your lifetime at least once,” Cramb said last week. “This is the sort of thing you dream of when you think about going to the NCAA. And so to get that opportunity, I’m really pumped about it.”

Cramb, who also qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the mile earlier this year, will be joined in Eugene by veteran Rob McManus. A senior who still has a year of indoor and outdoor eligibility next year, this is the third season in a row McManus has qualified for Outdoor Nationals in the 3,000 meter steeplechase.

McManus first raced at Outdoor Nationals in 2023 in Austin, Texas, where he placed 16th. He qualified for Nationals that year with a time qualifier at the regional.

“And I think there was a little bit of uncertainty as to where I fit in at the national stage,” McManus recalled.

In 2024, running at Nationals at Eugene, McManus placed 13th — one spot out of making the final. He’s held onto that result, and he expects it to “fuel” him as he competes this week.

“Last year, getting the (automatic qualifier) at regionals, making the national meet, I think I felt a lot more secure,” McManus said of his standing in the event. “And this year, just coming back again, I feel even more confident in myself and my ability. I’ve run PRs this season, and so I’m just super excited to get back.”

Cramb and McManus will both race Wednesday in the national semifinals of their events. The meet will be broadcast on ESPN. The 1,500 meters is at 5:21 p.m. MT, and the steeplechase follows at 5:38 p.m. If they advance to their respective finals, Cramb would compete at 6:12 p.m. and McManus at 6:24 p.m. on Friday on ESPN2. Coverage is also available on ESPN+.

Montana State’s Har vey Cramb celebrates qualifying for Nationals in the 1,500 meters at the NCAA West First Rounds on May 30 in College Station, Texas.

MSU ATHLETICS

Cramb reached this point by placing fourth in his heat of the 1,500 on May 30 at the NCAA West First Rounds in College Station, Texas. He ran 3 minutes, 47.28 seconds that day, making his seed time the second-slowest of the 24-man field. However, Cramb’s personal- and season- best time of 3:37.31 from April 18 is the second-fastest in school history and only four seconds behind the nation’s leaders in the event.

“It’s such an honor,” Cramb said of qualifying. “To do it in my sophomore year is a great opportunity to put your name with some of the best in the country.

“It’s a crazy good field, but I have no reason to believe that I won’t be competitive.”

Cramb also qualified for the West First Rounds in the steeplechase (where he had the 13th-fastest time in the region this year) and the 800 meters (18th, in a school-record time of 1:47.22), but he only ran the 1,500. Because all of those events require a prelim and then a final, an attempt to race two distances or all three would have meant racing four or six times total — which is a lot of running to plan for and recover from in a short span.

“If you commit to one, you kind of don’t give yourself an out,” Cramb said. “You’re all in on that.”

In discussions with head coach Lyle Weese, the decision also came down to which race Cramb was the most comfortable with.

“I think being able to qualify in the steeple suggests that, being a longer race, I have the strength, and also being able to qualify in the 800 suggests I have the speed,” Cramb said. “And so whether it was a tactical 1,500 or hard from the gun, I thought I was suited for both scenarios.”

Regardless of how his time in Eugene ends, the growth during his sophomore year is undeniable. In the fall, Cramb improved his placing and his time from one season to the next in the Big Sky Cross Country Championships. Then he earned Big Sky runner-up in the 800 and became an indoor second team All-American at that distance. And in the outdoor season, he was the Big Sky 1,500 champion and 800 runner-up.

Cramb said he’s proud of the way he has improved throughout the whole year.