Seven things to watch in the Bix 7 elite races

Here are things to watch:

Another Morocco victory?

Runners from Morocco don’t appear in the Quad-City Times Bix 7 that often. But when they do, they seem to do very well.

The last time the Bix served as the championship race for the Professional Road Runners Organization, in 1997, the winner of the race was Morocco’s Khalid Khannouchi.

When the Bix serves as the PRRO championship final again on Saturday, for the first time in 29 years, one of the favorites will be Mohammed El Youssfi, who was born in Morocco on July 25, 1997, the day before Khannouchi raced to victory in Davenport.

He could not only become the second Moroccan to win the Bix, but he also could be the first runner to do it on his birthday.

Like Khannouchi, who won 11 American road races in 1997, Youssfi already has had a very strong season on the road racing scene. He won two previous PRRO races — the Gate River Run 15k and the Cherry Blossom 10-miler — as well as the Pittsburgh Half-marathon. He has finished in the top 10 in three other major races.

Youssfi is a relative newcomer to the U.S. racing scene. Last year, while running for Odessa (Texas) College, he was named national junior college runner of the year after winning both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in the NJCAA meet, both in record time. The 10,000 record he broke had stood for 38 years.

Other Moroccan men who have done well in the Bix 7 in recent years are Mohamed El Araby, who finished second in 2024, and Zouhair Talbi, who was fifth in 2022.

Kiptoo is back

If Youssfi is not the favorite to win the men’s race, Wesley Kiptoo probably is.

Kiptoo, a former Iowa State University All-American, cruised to victory in the 50th anniversary Bix 7 in 2024 and followed that up with a second-place finish last year, running the course 13 seconds faster than when he won the race. He also was seventh in the Bix 7 in 2022.

Very few runners in the men’s elite field know the course as well as he does.

Kiptoo, 27, hasn’t run as many races as usual this year but he did dash to a 15-second victory in the USA Track & Field Half-marathon on March 1. He also is in the top five in the PRRO points standings, which means he could win as much as $22,500 by winning the Bix, including the $12,500 first prize plus PRRO’s $10,000 super bonus.

40-somethings still competitive

Sara Hall, Priscah Cherono and Kellyn Taylor all are old enough to win the women’s masters division in Saturday’s Quad-City Times Bix 7. But all three of the 40-something runners have their sights set much higher in the 52nd annual romp through the streets of Davenport.

Cherono, a 46-year-old who has run for Kenya in the World Cross Country championships 10 times, won the Los Angeles Marathon earlier this year. Just a week ago, she finished third in the prestigious Utica Boilermaker 15k.

Taylor, 40, finished second behind Cherono in the L.A. Marathon.

The 43-year-old Hall has a very long and impressive distance running resume that includes the fourth fastest marathon time and second fastest half-marathon time ever by an American woman. And she’s still going strong. She finished second in the Houston Marathon in January.

Cherono never has run the Bix 7 before, but Taylor and Hall have a history of success in Davenport. Taylor finished first in the 2023 Bix 7 in her only previous visit. Hall was second in 2014 and third in 2017. She has a chance to make history with a victory Saturday. Her husband, Ryan, won here in 2010 and they would be the first husband-wife Bix 7 champions.

The oldest runner of either gender ever to win the Bix 7 was Edna Kiplagat, who was 41 when she won the race in 2021.

Aiming high

Kassie Parker has been remarkably consistent in the four times she has run the Quad-City Times Bix 7.

The former Loras College star finished eighth in the women’s field in 2022 and 2023, then was seventh in 2024 and 2025. In three of her four visits, she was the 101st runner to cross the finish line. If she duplicates those performances Saturday, she will be bitterly disappointed.

Parker, 26, has emerged as a genuine star on the PRRO circuit this year, winning two major races in impressive fashion, and she figures to have something of a home-course advantage in the Bix 7. Not only has she become a regular in the field, she has developed a legion of supportive local fans as one of the few native Iowans on the pro racing scene.

Keeping up with Sis

Young runners sometimes take several years to adjust to road racing after leaving college, but that’s not the case with Graydon Morris. The 24-year-old Texan has hit the ground running this year. Literally.

A former star at Texas and TCU, Morris won the American 10-mile champion at the Cherry Blossom race in Washington D.C. — he was second overall, just one second behind Youssfi — and also has recorded top-10 finishes this year in the Steamboat Classic 4-miler, Bolder Boulder 10k, USATF Half-marathon and USATF 5k.

He admits he is spurred on by a friendly rivalry with his twin sister Gracie, who also starred at Texas and TCU. Gracie is the reigning U.S. 2k cross country champion.

“We have been competitive since we were little kids,’’ Graydon said after winning the USATF 10-mile crown. “I don’t want her to outdo me. So, I stepped it up and added a title to my name.”

Looking for a repeat

Veronica Loleo of Kenya will be trying to win the PRRO championship for the second year in a row.

Loleo, 28, won the title last year at the Utica Boilermaker 15k. She qualified for the championship by winning the Lilac Bloomsday 12k a few months before. What is amazing is that Loleo insisted she had never run either a 12k or a 15k prior to last year.

Loleo has enjoyed most of her career success running the half-marathon, which is approximately 21 kilometers. Her career best at that distance is an hour, 5 minutes, 35 seconds, recorded earlier this year in Berlin, Germany.

Darkhorse candidate

If you’re looking for a sleeper pick to win the men’s race, you needn’t look any further than Getinet Gedamu, a 35-year-old Ethiopian runner who never has run the Bix 7 before.

Gedamu has run the marathon in less than 2 hours, 10 minutes twice and had an amazing finish at the recent Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn., catching another runner in the final 200 meters to grab third place.

Gedamu isn’t quite as experienced at shorter distances but he ran a 10k in Miami in fewer than 28 minutes late last year and is in the top four in the PRRO point standings. Davenport’s Don Fish, who serves as his agent, drove Gedamu over the Bix 7 course when he was in the Midwest last month and he seemed unfazed by the hilly terrain.

“I told him ‘This is not an easy race and the weather is usually horrible,’’’ Fish said. “He said ‘It’ll be fine, Don, it’ll be fine.’’’