On Saturday, Casimir Loxsom narrowly beat the indoor 600-meter American record in Albuquerque. His 1:15.58 broke the previous record of 1:15.61 set by Erik Sowinski in 2013.
“I love running the event,” Loxsom told ϳԹ during a phone call from his team training base in Albuquerque. “It was still a low-key-college-meet, season-opener mentality—we certainly weren’t treating it as any more than that.”
Loxsom, 23, is a at Penn State and a runner-up in the 800 meters at the World Junior Championships, NCAA, and USATF. In his final year of collegiate eligibility, he ran 1:15.42 over 600 meters at the 2013 Big 10 Indoor Track and Field Championships. It was an all-time, all-conditions best by both an American and a collegian, as well as the third-fastest time ever run in the event indoors worldwide. However, due to the oversized 300-meter track, the time was ineligible for record purposes.
“Technically, I don’t even have to [run faster than I ever have before] to set the record,” Loxsom said of his thoughts going into the race. At the Lobo Collegiate Invite, the time was run on a regulation 200-meter banked track.
Loxsom’s record is the first for the fledgling , which formed in 2013 in Seattle. The 600-meter distance will be contested at the , which will take place in Boston from February 27 to March 1.