Lawi Lalang will not win the men’s 800-meter run at the 2014 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship.

Compatriot Edward Kemboi of Iowa State heads into the championship meet with the fastest time run on the year by a collegiate athlete. The junior’s 1:45.98 from the Iowa State Classic is also the seventh fastest time run in the world for 2014. In that same race, Kemboi took down the likes of Sean Obinwa, Billy Ledder, Sam Ellison, and Andres Arroyo. Ledder previously beat him at the Penn State National Invitational to open the indoor season. 

Kemboi is the favorite and since his 1:45, he has run relaxed 1:50’s and 2:20‘s to win the Big 12 conference 800-meter and 1,000-meter crown. He ran 4:09 for the mile at Notre Dame’s Alex Wilson Invitational. 

His strength and closing speed have made big progress as just a year ago, he ran 1:47.43 and did not run during the outdoor campaign. 

Quite possibly his biggest threat raised eyebrows with a surprising indoor and outdoor breakout season as a freshman. Brannon Kidder is just the latest middle-distance star to emerge from the middle distance powerhouse that is Penn State.

Kidder’s fastest time on the year is 1:47.45 run at the Sykes and Sabock Challenge Cup on Feb. 7. That was just one week after he was a part of the NCAA-leading DMR squad that ran 9:26.59 at the afore mentioned PSU National Meet. That weekend, Kidder also set a new personal best in the mile shaving .99 of a second to run 3:58.49. 

In their lone head-to-head match of the year, Kidder lost by .20 seconds to Kemboi at the Nittany Lion Challenge. A race not totally dictated by pace or chasing a faster time, Kidder may be ready to stick with the Kenyan. Just to put things into perspective a little more, that is a similar margin to that which separates Kidder’s fastest time of the year and 2013 World Championship silver medalist Nick Symmond’s fastest indoor time. 

Symmonds was just able to hold off Eliud Rutto of Middle Tennessee State, when he opened his season at the Hilton Garden Innvitational on Jan. 31. He has raced 14 times this season, but being in the Conference USA he may not have had to push as hard in the last few weeks, so that could be to his advantage. 

Mississippi State’s Brandon McBride is the third sophomore with a shot of taking down Kemboi. The Canadian import ran 1:47.51 at the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 14. He has not raced since Alex Wilson, so he should be well rested for Albuquerque. He could be looking to rebound after a disappointing end to last year’s indoor season. He ran 1:47.74 at Meyo and then failed to make it out of the preliminary round. 

The opposite was the case for Sean Obinwa of Florida as he ran his fastest time of the year in the NCAA final. The senior Gator is the top returner from last year’s finalists after his fourth place finish behind Elijah Greer (Oregon -> OTC), Casimir Loxsom (Penn State -> Brooks) and Declan Murray (Loyola, Ill. -> NJ*NY Track Club). He was seventh as a sophomore. Could this finally be his year?

Other runners to watch:

Billy Ledder (Junior, Georgetown) - 1:47.89, 3rd at Iowa State
Andres Arroyo (Freshman, Florida) - 1:47.97, 4th at Iowa State
Patrick Rono (Junior, Arkansas) -  1:47.96, 7th in 2013