Oregon's Simeon Birnbaum breaks collegiate 1,500-meter record

Simeon Birnbaum woke up Saturday morning feeling ready to conquer records. Then he got a call from his coach telling him to do just that. The Oregon junior has never been faster than he has been this spring and he showed it once again April 18 when he broke the collegiate record in the men’s 1,500 meters during the final day of the Oregon Team Invitational track and field meet at Hayward Field.

Paced by teammate Tomas Palfrey and challenged by absolutely no one, Birnbaum crossed the finish in 3 minutes, 31. 69 seconds – more than five seconds faster than his previous best and nearly two seconds faster than the previous collegiate record of 3:33. 02 set by Villanova’s Liam Murphy in 2025.

“I’ve been looking at the national NCAA record for a while now and it was just recently where I was feeling in shape enough to get it,” Birnbaum said. “So I talked to my coach and I said ‘I think I’m ready to do it,’ and he agreed with me. " Not before sleeping on it, however.

Jerry Schumacher said it took a night of contemplation and a clear weather report when he woke up to agree to Birnbaum's request to "run fast" on Saturday. "I was like, it's not a matter of whether you can run fast, it's is this the time? " Schumacher said.