INDIANAPOLIS — Crater senior distance standout Tyrone Gorze added another award to his name this week when he was recognized as the USA Track & Field Athlete of the Week.
Gorze was the star of the show at the NXR Northwest Regional last Saturday, running away with the win — and the course record — at Eagle Island State Park near Boise. Gorze’s time of 14 minutes, 51.6 seconds on the 5,000-meter course crushed the previous course record by seven seconds.
Gorze was in second through the first kilometer before assuming the lead for good, and stretched his lead to almost 16 seconds with just more than a kilometer remaining. He won the race by more than 12 seconds.
Gorze’s win at NXR came a week after the University of Washington-bound senior won his second straight Class 5A individual state title while also leading the Crater boys to back-to-back team titles. Gorze also set the course record at Lane Community College.
He is the second Rogue Valley runner to win the Northwest regional in the last four years. Ashland’s EJ Holland captured the regional title in 2019, which came two weeks after he won his second straight 5A title.
Recording the lowest winning score since 2013, Gorze’s Southern Oregon Project squad — which is comprised of his Crater teammates — earned advancement to the Nike Cross Nationals, scheduled for Dec. 3 in Portland. In June, Gorze won the USATF U20 5K title and was the runner-up in the 3K. He went on to place 12th in the 5K for Team USATF at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia.
Crater’s Tyrone Gorze, seen here during the Class 5A state cross-country meet, was named the USATF Athlete of the Week after his win at the NXR Northwest Regional. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune]
