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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Mario Garcia Romo to Run in Prestigious Wanamaker Mile at 114th Millrose Games
1/12/2022 | Track and Field
Garcia Romo is Lone Collegian in Field that Includes Professionals, Olympic Medalists
NEW YORK – Ole Miss track & field senior Mario Garcia Romo will be the lone collegiate athlete represented amidst a powerful field of professional runners in the prestigious Wanamaker Mile later this month at the 114th Millrose Games. The meet, run each year at The Armory in New York City, will be held Sat., Jan. 29, with the Wanamaker Mile set to run live on NBC at 3:20 p.m. CT.
Garcia Romo will be among the best milers on the planet, such as Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Josh Kerr of Great Britain, fellow Olympic finalist Ollie Hoare of Australia, and even several time All-American and Ole Miss legend, Craig Engels. Others in the field include: five-time Olympian and two-time medalist Nick Willis of New Zealand; 2016 Olympic 800-meter bronze medalist Clayton Murphy of the United States; 18-year-old American phenom Hobbs Kessler; Olympic semifinalists Andrew Coscoran of Ireland and Charles Philibert-Thiboutot of Canada; and additional Americans Colby Alexander and Henry Wynne.
Garcia Romo is the first Rebel to run in the Wanamaker Mile since All-American Robert Domanic finished 10th in the 2018 edition.
A native of Salamanca, Spain, Garcia Romo enters his redshirt junior year on the track indoors and his senior season outdoors in 2022, and he stands as one of the finest distance runners in Ole Miss history. Garcia Romo is coming off a spectacular track season in 2021 that saw him earn three First-Team All-American honors, two SEC titles, 12 total NCAA points and 17.5 SEC points.
The 2020-21 calendar, already compressed due to COVID-19, proved to be sublime for Garcia Romo, who went right from winning the 2020 SEC Cross Country title and earning cross country All-American honors right into an indoor season for the ages. Garcia Romo ran anchor on the Ole Miss men's distance medley relay team that finished NCAA runner-up at the fourth-fastest time in world history at 9:20.75, which only finished behind the world record holders of Oregon. Garcia Romo split an incredible 3:53.28 on the 1600-meter anchor leg, his second sub-3:55 leg after running 3:54.69 to help the Rebel men win their seventh SEC title in the DMR in the last eight years at a meet record time of 9:29.35.
Garcia Romo also earned First-Team All-American status with a third-place finish in the 3K, an event he also won the SEC individual title in and set the Ole Miss record in earlier that indoor season at 7:48.40. Garcia Romo's mile PR was run at Vanderbilt's Music City Challenge on Feb. 12 at 3:56.46 (No. 2 all-time at Ole Miss), where he was one of four Rebels to break the four-minute barrier that night alone.
Outdoors, Garcia Romo was right in the thick of it nationally in the 1500-meter as well. He won his third First-Team All-American nod of the year after a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Just two weeks later he finished third at the Spanish national meet in the hopes of qualifying for the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and two days later on the final day of global qualifying he ran an Ole Miss school record of 3:35.79 at a last-chance meet in Spain. Garcia Romo closed his summer out with a silver medal at the European U23 Championships in Tallinn.
More recently, Garcia Romo was a key part of the 2021 Ole Miss men's cross country team that finished 15th at the NCAA Championships, won its fifth NCAA South Region title in the last seven years, and individually he was the SEC bronze medalist at the conference meet.
One of the most storied indoor meets on the calendar worldwide each season, the Millrose Games are in their 114th edition, and will once again be held at The Armory in New York City, which has been self-dubbed the "Fastest Track in the World." This past summer in Tokyo, Millrose Games alumni earned 29 medals, including 13 golds. For more information, visit www.millrosegames.org.
Men's Wanamaker Mile Field • Sat., Jan. 29
Colby Alexander • USA • Indoor PR: 3:55.99
Andrew Coscoran • Ireland • PR: 3:56.85
Craig Engels • USA • PR: 3:53.89
Mario Garcia Romo • Spain • PR: 3:56.46
Ollie Hoare • Australia • Indoor PR: 3:54.83
Josh Kerr • Great Britain • Indoor PR: 3:53.65
Hobbs Kessler • USA • Indoor PR: 3:57.66
Clayton Murphy • USA • Indoor PR: 3:53.30
Charles Philibert-Thiboutot • Canada • Indoor PR: 3:55.33
Henry Wynne • USA • Indoor PR: 3:51.26
Nick Willis • New Zealand • Indoor PR: 3:51.06
About The Armory
The Armory has had a special place in New York City for over 100 years. Built originally to house local units of the state's volunteer militia and later the National Guard, The Armory later became the hub for the city's track and field enthusiasts. The building was repurposed in the early 1980s as a homeless shelter, and for ten years its famed track became lost behind painted black windows and under 1,800 beds. Today, with the help of private contributions, the spirit of The Armory as a place of competition, education, and fellowship has been restored. Now recognized as one of the fastest tracks in the world, The Armory annually hosts over 100 track & field competitions, training for more than 220,000 athletes, and 300,000 visitors ranging from elementary school youth to senior citizens. The Armory is home to over 57 high school and 13 professional American records, making possible stories like Alan Webb's sub-four-minute-mile in 2001, the first ever by a high schooler, which was bested by Drew Hunter at The Armory in 2016. For more: Please visit Armory.NYC and ArmoryTrack.com.
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.
Garcia Romo will be among the best milers on the planet, such as Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Josh Kerr of Great Britain, fellow Olympic finalist Ollie Hoare of Australia, and even several time All-American and Ole Miss legend, Craig Engels. Others in the field include: five-time Olympian and two-time medalist Nick Willis of New Zealand; 2016 Olympic 800-meter bronze medalist Clayton Murphy of the United States; 18-year-old American phenom Hobbs Kessler; Olympic semifinalists Andrew Coscoran of Ireland and Charles Philibert-Thiboutot of Canada; and additional Americans Colby Alexander and Henry Wynne.
Garcia Romo is the first Rebel to run in the Wanamaker Mile since All-American Robert Domanic finished 10th in the 2018 edition.
A native of Salamanca, Spain, Garcia Romo enters his redshirt junior year on the track indoors and his senior season outdoors in 2022, and he stands as one of the finest distance runners in Ole Miss history. Garcia Romo is coming off a spectacular track season in 2021 that saw him earn three First-Team All-American honors, two SEC titles, 12 total NCAA points and 17.5 SEC points.
The 2020-21 calendar, already compressed due to COVID-19, proved to be sublime for Garcia Romo, who went right from winning the 2020 SEC Cross Country title and earning cross country All-American honors right into an indoor season for the ages. Garcia Romo ran anchor on the Ole Miss men's distance medley relay team that finished NCAA runner-up at the fourth-fastest time in world history at 9:20.75, which only finished behind the world record holders of Oregon. Garcia Romo split an incredible 3:53.28 on the 1600-meter anchor leg, his second sub-3:55 leg after running 3:54.69 to help the Rebel men win their seventh SEC title in the DMR in the last eight years at a meet record time of 9:29.35.
Garcia Romo also earned First-Team All-American status with a third-place finish in the 3K, an event he also won the SEC individual title in and set the Ole Miss record in earlier that indoor season at 7:48.40. Garcia Romo's mile PR was run at Vanderbilt's Music City Challenge on Feb. 12 at 3:56.46 (No. 2 all-time at Ole Miss), where he was one of four Rebels to break the four-minute barrier that night alone.
Outdoors, Garcia Romo was right in the thick of it nationally in the 1500-meter as well. He won his third First-Team All-American nod of the year after a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Just two weeks later he finished third at the Spanish national meet in the hopes of qualifying for the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and two days later on the final day of global qualifying he ran an Ole Miss school record of 3:35.79 at a last-chance meet in Spain. Garcia Romo closed his summer out with a silver medal at the European U23 Championships in Tallinn.
More recently, Garcia Romo was a key part of the 2021 Ole Miss men's cross country team that finished 15th at the NCAA Championships, won its fifth NCAA South Region title in the last seven years, and individually he was the SEC bronze medalist at the conference meet.
One of the most storied indoor meets on the calendar worldwide each season, the Millrose Games are in their 114th edition, and will once again be held at The Armory in New York City, which has been self-dubbed the "Fastest Track in the World." This past summer in Tokyo, Millrose Games alumni earned 29 medals, including 13 golds. For more information, visit www.millrosegames.org.
Men's Wanamaker Mile Field • Sat., Jan. 29
Colby Alexander • USA • Indoor PR: 3:55.99
Andrew Coscoran • Ireland • PR: 3:56.85
Craig Engels • USA • PR: 3:53.89
Mario Garcia Romo • Spain • PR: 3:56.46
Ollie Hoare • Australia • Indoor PR: 3:54.83
Josh Kerr • Great Britain • Indoor PR: 3:53.65
Hobbs Kessler • USA • Indoor PR: 3:57.66
Clayton Murphy • USA • Indoor PR: 3:53.30
Charles Philibert-Thiboutot • Canada • Indoor PR: 3:55.33
Henry Wynne • USA • Indoor PR: 3:51.26
Nick Willis • New Zealand • Indoor PR: 3:51.06
About The Armory
The Armory has had a special place in New York City for over 100 years. Built originally to house local units of the state's volunteer militia and later the National Guard, The Armory later became the hub for the city's track and field enthusiasts. The building was repurposed in the early 1980s as a homeless shelter, and for ten years its famed track became lost behind painted black windows and under 1,800 beds. Today, with the help of private contributions, the spirit of The Armory as a place of competition, education, and fellowship has been restored. Now recognized as one of the fastest tracks in the world, The Armory annually hosts over 100 track & field competitions, training for more than 220,000 athletes, and 300,000 visitors ranging from elementary school youth to senior citizens. The Armory is home to over 57 high school and 13 professional American records, making possible stories like Alan Webb's sub-four-minute-mile in 2001, the first ever by a high schooler, which was bested by Drew Hunter at The Armory in 2016. For more: Please visit Armory.NYC and ArmoryTrack.com.
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.
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