Mile posts: Items on Abby Kohut-Jackson, Wesley Kiptoo, Adam Fogg, Justin Metzler, Matt Hanson, Blake Whalen, Helen Gould, Natalie Paulson

Abby Kohut-Jackson is making up for time lost during her final outdoor track and field season at the University of Minnesota.

The former Ballard of Huxley prep triumphed in a 10-woman field at the Ryan Shay Mile on the streets of Charlevoix, Mich., on Saturday. Kohut-Jackson ran 4 minutes, 26.5 seconds on the straight, flat and fast course to top Madeline Strandemo of the Oiselle team by 2.6 seconds and leads off this edition of the best performances by Iowa-based collegiate and postcollegiate distance runners and triathletes.

Kohut-Jackson had her season this spring mostly wiped out by tendon injuries. She finished seventh in a heat of the 3,000 steeplechase at the Big Ten Championships in her only outdoor college meet. She continued to train and made the final of the 3,000 steeplechase at U.S. Outdoor nationals, placing 12th in that race.

The future medical school student at Saint Louis University then started a small winning streak by taking the victory by more than nine seconds in the 3,000 steeplechase at the Sound Running Sunset Tour #3 event held in Los Angeles on July 15. Kohut-Jackson dominated cruised to victory in 9:52.43 before returning to win Saturday.

Also running in the Ryan Shay Mile for men was former University of Iowa All-Big Ten runner Nathan Mylenek. The school record holder in the 3,000 steeplechase who runs Very Nice Track Club finished 11th in 4:04.8. Mylenek picked up a bonus for leading at the halfway point. His Very Nice teammates Ben Flanagan and Hobbs Kessler finished 1-2 in 3:53.8 and 3:54.0, with Flanagan setting a course record.

Former Iowa State NCAA 5,000 indoor champion Wesley Kiptoo finished fourth in the Wharf to Wharf 6-mile race on Sunday in Santa Cruz, Calif. The HOKA Naz Elite athlete ran 27:20, a 4:33 pace per mile. NAZ Elite runners finished in the top four, with Emmanuel Bor leading the way in the tightly contested race in 27:17. Diego Estrada (27:19) and Reid Buchanan (27:20) were next.

Former Drake University All-American Adam Fogg ran a personal-best time of 3:37.96 in the 1,500 meters in a meet Tuesday, July 26 at TSV Pfungstadt in Pfungstadt, Germany. Fogg finished third overall, with the winning time of 3:36.09 set by Belgium's Jochem Vermeulen . Fogg's previous best had been 3:38.15 at the Bryan Clay Invitational in April. Fogg nows represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland in World Athletics competitions.

Former University of Iowa student Justin Metzler appeared on the way to his first full Ironman triathlon victory and a berth at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in October. Metzler led almost the entire way through the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and much of the marathon on the run. Metzler, a member of the TriHawks triathlon club while in Iowa City, pushed his lead to 4:30 over Canada's Cody Beal. But Metzler began to cramp from possible dehydration and slowed to a walk. Metzler also got passed by Austria's Michael Weiss and Belgium's Pamphiel Pareyn in the final 10K before holding on for fourth place in 8:27:28. Beals took the victory in 8:15:11.

Metzler was among a group of four, with Pareyn, Beals and American James Capparel, in the lead pack after the swim. Metzler closed well at the end of the scenic bike leg and opened a 1:33 advantage over Weiss early in the marathon. Metzler then lengthened the gap before suffering his problems near the end. Metzler owned the best bike leg of 4:26:44, but his run was only 3:05:30.

"Best ever lifetime race for 95 percent of that and 5 percent some of my worst work," Metzler said in an Instagram video. "I led the race for about 7 1/2 hours and couldn't bring it home in the end. I wanted that win badly. I just didn't have the legs to bring it home. Definitely a challenging race for me out there."

Metzler was coming off his first career Ironman victory just two weeks earlier, at Ironman 70.3 Oregon in Salem on July 10.

Former Storm Lake resident Matt Hanson was hoping to make a big splash in the debut race for the Professional Triathletes Organisation on Sunday in Edmonton, Canada. The PTO Canadian Open offered a $1 million purse that included $100,000 to the men's and women's winners.

The former Buena Vista University student and professor was never in contention, however, finishing 22nd overall in the 100-kilometer race in 3:23:01. Hanson, 37, was 31st after the 2K swim at Hawrelak Park Lake in 28:45. He came through the hilly 80K bike leg 29th among the men's professionals in 1:52:17. Hanson made up seven spots in the transition and during the four-lap, 18K run by producing the sixth-best run of 1:00:32. Hanson, who was coming off a victory at the inaugural Ironman Des Moines event last month, earned $2,000.

Norway’s Gustav Iden held off a hard-charging and PTO top-ranked Kristian Blummenfelt by 27 seconds to take the $100,000 top prize in 3:10:48.

Moving to the track, where former Dowling Catholic prep star Karissa Schweizer faced a challenging 5,000 final at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Ore., on Saturday. The Bowerman Track Club athlete was competing just three days after qualifying for the final and a week after placing ninth in the 10,000-meter final at this same event at Hayward Field.

Schweizer was among the lead pack through almost 4,200 meters before falling back. The six-time NCAA champion at Missouri ultimately stepped off the track with an apparent ailment. The NBC announcing team speculated she was having calf issues.

"Heartbroken. This sport can be brutal sometimes," Schweizer wrote on Twitter. "I’m proud of the way I competed, but sometimes your body doesn’t cooperate. Thank you for all the kind messages and I’ll share more details as they come. I’ll be back."

Schweizer was trying to pull off the difficult double of running 12.4 miles over a week's time. Nevertheless, she ran the third-fastest time ever by an American in the 10,000 - a 30:18.05 on July 16 - while running a personal-best time by an amazing 31.51 seconds.

Shifting now to cross country and the State Games of America cross country races held in conjunction with the Des Moines Corporate Games. Runablaze's Iowa's Blake Whalen was gunning for a pair of victories, but the former Dubuque Senior and Iowa Central athlete settled for taking a victory in the first race, a 7.5K (4.7-mile) event. Competing for American Enterprise, Whalen took the victory at Iowa State's cross country course in hot and humid conditions in 26:08. Whalen, 26, was 10 seconds ahead of Isaac Bryant, 20, who finished 14th in the 10,000 at the recent NJCAA Division I outdoor championships competing for Indian Hills. Bryant, who competed for Grinnell-Newburg High School, will be running for Indiana State in the fall. Ali Ali, who wrapped up his senior year at Wartburg College, finished third in 26:45. Ali, 23, is a former Iowa City West prep. Kyle Miller, a former Carlisle High runner now competing for Buena Vista, was fourth in 26:48.

Former Valley High standout Helen Gould was a two-time winner, taking the women's victory in the longer 7.5K race in 34:25. Gould, competing for F&G in the Des Moines Corporate Games, won the Summit League 3,000 steeplechase title while running for South Dakota in May.

Gould, 19, returned only 25 minutes later to take the women's 4.4K (2.7 miles) victory in 18:42. The men's winner was Zach Sporaa, who will be a senior at North Polk this fall, in 13:58. Fellow future North Polk senior Max Sporaa was runner-up in 14:34, with Whalen running 15:50. Whalen had the best total time of 41:57.

Former Dallas Center-Grimes star Natalie Paulson, 21, captured the women's victory at the sweltering Grace's Lemonade 5K run in Ames on Saturday. The Wartburg College runner ran 18:12.60. She was third overall. Ames High's Claire Helmers, 16, was runner-up in 19:15.70.

Runablaze Iowa's Samantha Wingert, a former Northern Iowa student, was the women's winner at the Fast Track Trail Race in Cedar Falls/Waterloo. The Cedar Falls resident ran 50:29 for the nearly 7-mile race. Wingert was fifth overall. Collin Day, 23, of Cedar Falls was the men's winner in 47:40, topping Scott Gall, 48, of Cedar Falls by 28 seconds.

MISSING A TOP DISTANCE RUNNER OR TRIATHLETE?: Let me know at bergeson@registermedia.com.

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This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Mile posts: Items on Abby Kohut-Jackson, Wesley Kiptoo, Adam Fogg, Justin Metzler, Matt Hanson, Blake Whalen, Helen Gould, Natalie Paulson