Pair of Elite Athletes Lead More Than 3,500 Competitors Through the 1-Mile Downtown Course

Published by Drake Relays on April 26, 2016

Heather Kampf successfully defended her Grand Blue Mile title on Tuesday evening, winning the women's 1-mile invitational race in 4:37.52. Chad Noelle, competing in his first race as a professional, took the men's title in 4:12.11.

"Any time you're successful somewhere, when you come back and try it again, it breeds confidence," Kampf said. "It was great to come back and have a good race. Knowing the course is great, it's logical, I like the course and it's easy to understand how to race it."

Kampf held off Nicole Sifuentes, who finished second in 4:37.95, while Nikki Hamblin was third in 4:38.78.

Noelle narrowly edged the talented men's field as Frezer Legesse finished just one one-hundreth of a second off the winning pace while Riley Masters was third in 4:12.34.