BYU legend looking to do ‘something pretty special in Chicago.’
Conner Mantz, the former BYU collegiate champion from Smithfield, Utah, has made no secret of his plans for Sunday’s Chicago Marathon: he will pursue the American record, one that has stood for 23 years, even surviving the arrival of the carbon fiber-plated super shoes that have advanced performances by light years.
“I want to get the American record,” Mantz said in June after announcing that he would compete in Chicago. “I’m well prepared. On the right day you can do something pretty special in Chicago.”
“As good as his (training) build has been, as good as he’s raced, it’s not whether he’ll break the American record, it’s how much he breaks it by.”
BYU track coach Ed Eyestone on Conner Mantz
The record is 2:05:38 set by Khalid Khannouchi in 2002. Khannouchi twice set the marathon world record. The Moroccan-born runner became a U.S. citizen in 2000 after leaving his homeland’s federation in a spat over expenses. Galen Rupp is the fastest American-born marathoner, running 2:06:07 in 2018. Mantz is tied for fifth-fastest among American marathoners, 2:07:47, which he produced in the 2024 Chicago Marathon.
His coach, Ed Eyestone, made a bold prediction ahead of Sunday’s race.
“I think he’ll run under 2:05. As good as his (training) build has been, as good as he’s raced, it’s not whether he’ll break the American record, it’s how much he breaks it by,” Eyestone said. “I know that’s pretty big talk when I understand very well the fickle nature of the marathon.”
A lot can go wrong over the 26.2-mile distance, in other words.
“He’s had probably the most seamless build (a 16-week training period leading up to a marathon) we’ve had going into any marathon,” said Eyestone. “And he’s been so consistently good (in races), other than Boston (in 2023) when he went out too hard.”
This build has been an uninterrupted, months-long streak that has been uninterrupted by setbacks (injuries, illness, etc.), as was the case with his previous marathon builds. Notwithstanding, no American has ever been so consistent since Mantz took up the marathon after winning the second of two NCAA cross-country championships at BYU in 2021. To wit:
- 2022 Chicago, 7th, 2:08:16 (first American)
- 2023 Boston, 11th, 2:10:25 (third American)
- 2023 Chicago, 6th, 2:07:47 (first American)
- 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials (first, 2:09:05)
- 2024 Olympic Games, 8th, 2:08:12 (first American)
- 2024 New York City Marathon, 6th, 2:09:00 (first American)
- 2025 Boston Marathon, 4th, 2:05:08 (first American)
Note the time of his last marathon: 2:05:08. That is superior to Khannouchi’s American record, but it doesn’t count as a record because the Boston Marathon is run over a point-to-point course. Point-to-point courses potentially could provide advantages — decline in altitude from start to finish, or tailwinds. Records can only be recognized on loop courses (they start and end in the same place). Regardless, Mantz’s performance at Boston was sensational; it is the second-fastest ever run by an American when considering all courses (loop or point to point), trailing only Ryan Hall’s 2:04:58 from 2011.
Eyestone reasons that if Mantz can produce those performances with training builds that were less than ideal, then what can he do after a flawless build, one that has been punctuated by a phenomenal streak of racing that includes two American records.
- January: Mantz ran an American record of 59:17 while running to a second-place finish in the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon, breaking Hall’s 18-year record by a whopping 26 seconds.
- March: Mantz ran even faster to place second again in the United Airlines New York City Half Marathon, clocking a time of 59:15. It does not count as an American record because it was run on a point-to-point course.
- April: Mantz ran to a fourth-place finish in the Boston Marathon, clocking a personal record of 2:05:08 (see above).
- May: For the third-consecutive year Mantz won the BolderBoulder 10K in Boulder, Colorado, one of road racing’s biggest (50,000 runners), most prestigious events. Mantz entered the stadium trailing Kenya’s Olympic silver medalist Simiu Ebenyo, but ran him down to claim a two-second victory.
- August: Mantz became only the second American ever to win the Beach to Beacon 10K in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, breaking a 22-year course record with a time of 27:26.
- September: Mantz not only won the USA 20K road running championships in New Haven, Connecticut, but he set an American record of 56:16.
“That’s three really good races since Boston, and he ran great at Boston, as well,” said Eyestone.
That brings us to Sunday’s race in Chicago, set to begin at 6:20 a.m. MDT. Mantz passed up a place on the U.S. marathon team that competed in September’s world track and field championships in Tokyo to focus on the Chicago Marathon and the American record.
“After Boston, where I finished with guys who have run 2:02 and 2:03, it doesn’t feel like a stretch to say I can run 2:05:30 on a looped, flat course,” Mantz told the Chicago NBC affiliate in June.
Eyestone said the plan is for Mantz to go out at a 62-minute pace (for the half-marathon), which of course would set up a time of 2:04-flat if he can hold it.
Eyestone will be in Chicago to provide TV commentary for the local NBC affiliate while also monitoring the progress of Mantz and six other marathoners who belong to his training group — former BYU All-Americans Casey Clinger, Creed Thompson, Aidan Troutner, McKenna Myler and Aubrey Frentheway, as well as former University of Utah All-American Emily Venters. It’s the marathon debut for Clinger, Thompson and Troutner. Myler placed seventh in the U.S. Olympic Trials last year, and Frentheway placed second in the 48th annual Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn., in June.
Rory Linkletter, another former BYU All-American, will also compete in Chicago. He has announced his intention to break the Canadian national record of 2:05:36 set by Cam Levins, a former two-time NCAA champion at Southern Utah University.
Clayton Young, Mantz’s training partner who finished ninth in last summer’s Olympic Games, won’t compete in Sunday’s race. He elected to compete in the world track championships rather than the Chicago Marathon, and there wasn’t enough recovery time to do both.
Category: General Sports
