Fasil Bizuneh
Age: 27

Bizuneh was a four-time All-American at Arizona State; during his freshman year, he was the top American finisher at the 1999 World Junior Cross Country Championships. He qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon with a 2:18:14 in his marathon debut in October 2006, and then improved his personal best by 1:31 at the Trials to take 13th place.		  

Andrew Carlson
Age: 25

Carlson’s last New York road race was a win at the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run (4 miles) in a course-record 18:12. At the 2008 USA Cross Country Championships, he finished 15th in 36:39; he’d been 11th in that race in 2007, a year in which he also took 10th at the USA 15K Championships, fourth at the USA 5K Championships, and fourth in the USA Half-Marathon Championships (in a personal-best 1:02:44).

   

James Carney
Age: 29

Carney is coming off an excellent sixth-place finish at the 2008 USA Cross Country Championships. In 2007, he ran a 27:43.64 at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational 10,000 meters, which qualified him for the U.S. Olympic Team Trails – Men’s Marathon, and he justified his inclusion by taking 14th in 2:16:54. A graduate of Millersville University, a Division II school in Lancaster, PA, won his first USA title at the 2008 USA Half-Marathon Championships in Houston in January. 

 

Josh McAdams
Age: 28

Following his dramatic steeplechase win at the 2007 USA Track & Field Championships, McAdams won the gold medal at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 8:30.49. With a personal best of 8:21.36, he ended the 2007 campaign ranked #1 in the U.S. by Track & Field News. McAdams won the 2006 NCAA Track & Field Championships steeplechase title with a then-personal best time of 8:34.10. With his victory, McAdams became the first distance-race national champion from BYU since his coach, Ed Eyestone, won the 5000-meter title in 1985.		  

Ed Moran
Age: 26

Moran finished fourth in a top-quality field at this year’s USA Cross Country Championships, behind only Dathan Ritzenhein, Jorge Torres, and Josh Rohatinsky, and he was fifth in the 2007 USA 8K Championship. A four-time All-American at the College of William & Mary, Moran was planning to work full-time in public policy in Washington, DC, before a 13:25.87 performance in the 5000 meters at the 2005 NCAA Championships hinted that he might have a future as a post-collegiate runner. The New Jersey native holds a master’s degree in public policy from William & Mary, and works as an assistant coach of the men’s and women’s cross country and track teams there.		  

Dathan Ritzenhein
Age: 25

Ritzenhein’s marathon debut came in 2006 in the ING New York City Marathon, where he ran near the lead pack through 22 miles, then faded to 11th place in 2:14:01. His second marathon was another story: At the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, he took control of second place after Ryan Hall’s breakaway and held it for the final eight miles to make the U.S. team for Beijing. Ritzenhein has a liking for Central Park, where he set the Central Park record (28:08) at the 2007 Healthy Kidney 10K in May. He dominated the field at the 2008 USA Cross Country Championships to win his second USA Cross Country title.

  

Edwardo Torres
Age: 27

Edwardo Torres is the younger twin brother (by 10 minutes) of Jorge Torres, the 2005 USA 8K champion, who is also entered for this year’s race.  He comes to New York after an excellent ninth-place finish at the USA Cross Country Championships in January. While at the University of Colorado, Torres helped the cross country team win its first NCAA Cross Country Championship in 2001; he earned All-American status at 10,000 meters in 2002. 		   

Jorge Torres
Age: 27

Torres returns to the USA 8K Championship having won the race in 2005 in the first serious road race of his life; he was seventh last year. He is again a definite podium contender after a very strong second-place finish at this year’s USA Cross Country Championships. A native of Chicago, Torres won the 1998 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships before going on to capture the 2002 NCAA cross country title. Last year, he finished fourth at the USA Cross Country Championships in his adopted hometown of Boulder, Colorado; in the 2006 edition of that meet, he placed fourth and second, respectively, in the short and long course races.		  

Alan Webb
Age: 25

The biggest win of Webb’s career came on July 6 in Paris, when he ran a personal-best 3:30.54 for 1500 meters, the fastest time in the world in 2007. Then, on July 21, 2007, Webb broke the American record in the mile, clocking 3:46.91 at the Atletiek Vlaanderenmeet in Brasschaat, Belgium. The mark broke the record of 3:47.69 set by National Track & Field Hall of Famer Steve Scott in 1982 and makes Webb the eighth-fastest man in history. Webb had already broken two of Scott’s records earlier in the year: he set a Drake Relays meet record for the mile with his 3:51.71, and then a USA Championships record of 3:23.82 for 1500 meters at the AT&T USA Track & Field Championships (his third national title).

  

Macharia Yuot
Age: 26

Yout began to develop his talents as a distance runner as a student at Widener University, and he eventually won five NCAA Division III titles, including a three-day span in May 2006 in which he won the 5000 meters, 10,000 metes, and 3000-meter steeplechase. Yuot, who still resides in Philadelphia, qualified for the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials at the 2007 Grandma’s Marathon in Minnesota and gained U.S. citizenship just in time to compete in the Trials last November, where he finished 33rd in an excellent 2:18:56 on the tough Central Park course.