Courtesy of New Mexico Athletics 

After breaking his own collegiate outdoor 5,000m record in dominant fashion on Saturday at the Bryan Clay Invitational, New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel has been named USTFCCCA Co-National Men’s Athlete of the Week, the organization announced Monday.

Samuel shares the honor with Oregon’s Simeon Birnbaum, who broke the outdoor 1,500m record at the Oregon Team Invitational in Eugene. It’s the fifth National Athlete of the Week award in his career and his fourth this academic year alone — he was named XC Athlete of the Week in October after winning the Nuttycombe Invitational title, Indoor Track Athlete of the Week in December after his season-opening 5K win in Boston and Outdoor Track Athlete of the Week on April 6.

Samuel threw down a devastating kick with a 1:58 clocking over the last two laps as he blew away the fastest field of the night in Azusa, finishing in 13:03.47 to beat his own NCAA Outdoor 5K record and reassert his status as the favorite to win both the 5K and 10K at NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.

The next two fastest finishers, Oklahoma State’s Deni Kipngetich (13:13.43) and BYU’s Tayvon Kitchen (13:16.27) were well out of sight when Samuel crossed the finish line. The fastest 5K in the nation heading into this weekend’s competition was 13:19.73 from Oregon’s Simeon Birnbaum.