Thomas Pollard is a national champion.
The Iowa State, and former Gilbert High School, distance runner won the United States Track and Field 10,000-meter race at the junior national championship on Friday night.
Pollard won in 30 minutes, 46.04 second. The victory qualified him to run in the 10,000 at the International Association of Athletics Federation U-20 world championships in July.
Levi Thomet jumped out front for the first half of the race. When he slowly fell back to the pack Pollard was there, fluctuating between second and fourth as part of a 12-runner lead group.