ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Cole Hocker has been on track and field’s world stage so long, skeptics forget he is 22.

He is putting them on alert in this Olympic year.

In a virtuoso performance at the USA Indoor Championships, Hocker ran to a dominant victory and set a meet record in the 1,500 meters Saturday at Albuquerque’s 4,959-foot altitude.

It was his second indoor nationals victory in the 1,500 in three years. The Cathedral High School graduate clocked 3:37.51 to break his own record of 3:39.09 from 2022, and he won by 1.25 seconds — a huge margin in a championship race.

“It’s not often you get to walk away from a race and feel like you 100% executed the plan,” Hocker said. “That was pretty damn close.”

On a day featuring two of the sport’s superstars, Noah Lyles and Ryan Crouser, Hocker was as impressive as anyone. Hocker will try to join the two others on podiums at the World Indoor Championships, set for March 1-3 at Glasgow, Scotland, and August’s Paris Olympics.

Hocker will be one of four athletes with Indiana ties on Team USA.

Others are Notre Dame’s Yared Nuguse, winner of Friday night’s 3,000 meters, plus Indianapolis resident Allie Wilson and Huntington’s Addy Wiley, who finished 1-2 in Saturday’s 800 meters.

A fifth Hoosier, Indiana State graduate Erin Reese, won the 20-pound weight throw to become No. 2 in history. The event is not part of the worlds schedule.

Off a modest pace in a crowded field of 12, Hocker ran his closing 800 in 1:52.04.

Twenty-year-old Hobbs Kessler was second in 3:38.76 to take the other Glasgow spot. Henry Wynne was third in 3:38.81 and Cooper Teare, who is Hocker’s training partner,, was fourth in 3:38.99. Defending champion Sam Prakel was fifth in 3:40.04.

Hocker stayed near the front as planned, took off as planned and finished perhaps better than planned. He said he felt like he did at the 2021 NCAA Championships, in which he ran a 3:53.71 mile to win by 2.2 seconds.

High altitude? He said he could endure 3 ½ minutes anywhere.

“That might have been naïve,” he said, “but I feel that was the case today.

“Once I got the lead, I knew I was not going to relinquish it.”

Kyle Merber, a former 3:52 miler who is now a personality covering the sport, called Hocker a five-tool miler: runs comfortably in a pack, winds it up from the front, raw top-end speed, strong, changes pace effortlessly.

Six days before, Hocker broke the American record in the two-mile at New York with a time of 8:05.70 but finished third. Yet it underscored his level of fitness.

He has reunited with his former Oregon coach, Ben Thomas, and trains in Blacksburg, Va. Hocker said he and his coach reviewed film of the past five championship races at Albuquerque in preparation for this one.

Hocker was sixth at the 2021 Olympics and seventh at the 2023 World Championships. He has repeatedly called himself a contender for global medals, and there was no reason to contradict in Albuquerque.

He said his confidence has been enhanced “knowing I can win a race and run it the way I want to, even if conditions are different from what I’m used to.”

Reese and Wilson are operating at a world-class level despite holding down full-time jobs.

Reese, 28, threw the weight 84 feet, 5 inches, less than a foot from the world record of 85-4 ¼ set by DeAnna Price here last year. Reese is a former NCAA runner-up in the hammer, in which she will try to make it to Paris.

Reese is a volunteer assistant coach for the Sycamores and works full-time as a mental health case manager.

Wilson, 27, a native of Wallingford, Pa., graduated from Monmouth (N.J.) and became a pro runner. She recently relocated from Atlanta to Indianapolis, following coaches Amy Begley, a Hoosier Olympian in the 10,000 meters, and Andrew Begley.

Wilson is unsponsored and said she is employed as a nanny.

“Hopefully now, my name will be out there,” she said. “Maybe someone will pick me up.”

She picked it up over the closing steps to overtake Wiley and win, 2:00.63 to 2:00.70.  The 20-year-old Wiley is a new Adidas pro after winning eight NAIA titles in 2023 for Huntington.

“I felt really in control of the race,” she said. “Unfortunately, things started to tie up those last five meters.”

A half-hour later, Wiley started the 1,500 but dropped out with a little more than three laps left.

“I want to push myself,” she said. “I want to do things nobody else has ever done.”

Crouser set a meet record with a world-leading shot put of 74-9 ¾. Lyles beat world record-holder Christian Coleman, 6.43 to 6.44, in the 60 meters.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: USA Indoor Track Championships: Cole Hocker looks primed for huge 2024