Notre Dame grad Nuguse sets American record in 3,000-meter run

Notre Dame graduate Yared Nuguse set an American record in the men’s 3,000-meter run when he clocked 7:28.24 Friday during a race in Boston, Mass. 

Nuguse ran track and cross country for the Irish from 2017 through 2022. During Friday’s Boston University’s Terrier Classic, he shattered Galen Rupp’s previous American record of 7:30.16, which had held for the past 10 years. 

Notre Dame's Nuguse wins national title

Though Nuguse’s time counts as an indoor track record, he also ran faster than Grant Fisher’s outdoor mark of 7:28.48. 

Nuguse won by more than three seconds, covering the last 1600 meters in 3:56.96. In doing so, he pulled five other runners under the 7:40 mark, making it the fastest 3,000-meter race ever run. 

 "I didn't really come in thinking, 'I'm gonna break the record, I'm gonna break the record,'" Nuguse said afterwards in a YouTube interview with CitiusMag. "It just kinda happened." 

Among other things, Nuguse won a huge plush stuffed animal from his training teammates for breaking the 7:30 mark.  Now a professional runner, he admitted that training has become easier since he doesn’t have to worry about classwork at Notre Dame at the same time. 

“The lack of school gives you a lot more free time to relax and rest,” Nuguse said in the YouTube interview. “That was the one thing I was missing. I never had a consistent sleep schedule or all this other stuff that I was forced to lay off when I was at school.” 

Nuguse, now a member of the On Athletics Club, is training these days in Boulder, Colo. “I think the altitude definitely helps. No secret there,” he said. 

The Notre Dame All-American was a member of the US Olympic team in 2020. He won an NCAA title in the men’s 1,500-meter run in 2019 and was runnerup in 2021. 

Nuguse, who holds the NCAA record in the 1500-meter run (3:34.68), is entered in the Wanamaker Mile at the prestigious Millrose Games on Feb. 11.  He also held the NCAA record in the 3,000, but that mark was broken by Northern Arizona’s Drew Bosley in that same Boston race Friday night. 

Also Friday night, in the same meet, former University of Portland star Woody Kincaid set an American indoor record of 12:51.61 in the men’s 5,000-meter run.