Luke Puskedra

Background

He grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and attended Judge Memorial Catholic High School before studying business administration at the University of Oregon.

Education

Puskedra graduated from Judge Memorial Catholic High School in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2008. He was an eight-time state champion in high school winning Utah state track championships in the 1600 meters and 3200 meters as a sophomore, junior and senior and winning the state cross country championships as a junior and senior. He set all-classifications records his senior year in track at 3200 meters (8:5440) and 1,600 meters (4:0940) and cross country (14:5460).

He was also the first Utah high school runner to break 9:00 in the 3200 meters.

He was the 2007 Nike Cross Southwest Regional champion winning the race in 14:48 breaking the meet record. He went on to place fifth at the 2007 Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships.

He ran the fastest high school indoor mile time in the country (4:0877) in 2008 at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games. On March 16, 2008 at the Nike Indoor Nationals Puskedra ran the sixth fastest high school indoor two mile time in United States. history winning the race in a time of 8:49.58.

In 2008 as a senior he placed second in both the mile (4:0660) and two mile (8:4706) at the Nike Outdoor National meet.

He placed tenth in the two mile at the 2008 Prefontaine Classic in a time of 8:46.41. As a junior he finished fourth in the Penn Relays high school boys mile in 4:25.11. Puskedra was a three-time Utah Boys Gatorade Athlete of the Year recipient (2006-2007 and 2007-2008 in track and 2007 in cross country).

He was the 2007-2008 Salt Lake Tribune Athlete of Year (all sports) and a United States of America Today All-American at one and two miles.

High school bests:

800 m - 1:58.37

Mile - 4:06.60

1600 m - 4:09.29

Two mile - 8:46.41

3200 m - 8:54.40.

Career

He competed for the Oregon Ducks track and field and cross country teams and was a 10,000 meter finalist at the National Collegiate Athletic Association level four years running from 2009 to 2012. High school Collegiate Puskedra was recruited to University of Oregon where coach Andy Powell had him specialize in various long distances spanning from the 3K to 10K. He placed fourth overall in the men"s 10,000 meter final at the 2012 National Collegiate Athletic Association DI Outdoor T&F Championships. Post-collegiate After graduating from Oregon, Puskedra signed a professional contract with Nike and joined the Nike Oregon Project.

There he was coached by Alberto Salazar, and the training regimen was very similar to the college program as Salazar was largely influential in Powell"s training philosophy at the University of Oregon.

However, at the end of 2014, his contract with Nike expired, and Puskedra did not anticipate continuing a professional career in running. In spite of the time elapsed from his graduation, college coach Andy Powell remained in contact with Puskedra and gradually convinced him to return to running.

In his marathon debut, he ran 2:28:54, but given his half marathon personal record it was widely seen as a disappointing result. Although discouraged by his experience in New York City, he proceeded to train for the 2015 Grandma"s Marathon, where he ran a significantly faster result of 2:15:27.

Achievements

• In 2015 Puskedra won the Vancouver Sun Run. He was an eight-time state champion in high school winning Utah state track championships in the 1600 meters and 3200 meters as a sophomore, junior and senior and winning the state cross country championships as a junior and senior. He was the 2007 Nike Cross Southwest Regional champion winning the race in 14:48 breaking the meet record.