Maura Beattie
Jan 16, 20208 min
With the first few races of the NCAA indoor season underway, it is time for some of the nation’s best distance runners to see if their winter training has paid off. The University of Washington Preview this weekend in Seattle gives athletes the chance to compete on a 307 meter indoor track and produce fast times in the iconic Dempsey facility.
Three women in the 800 meters are sub-2:10 runners and there are other women waiting in the wings to join that club this weekend.
NCAA Division Two stud Addy Townsend of Simon Fraser University headlines the collegiates in the 800 meters and will look to take down professionals Shea Collinsworth and Marta Freitas this Saturday. Townsend owns a PR of 2:06 and has All-American honors in the 800 meters and 1500 meters. The only point of concern for Townsend is that she has not raced since February 2019 and could be a bit rusty.
Scattered throughout heat one and heat two are the Washington State trio of Jelena Grujic, Zorana Grujic, and Kaili Keefe. Zorana Grujic owns the fastest time of the three Cougars with a 2:08 personal best which was enough to earn herself a spot in heat one. Keefe is close behind with a 2:09 while Jelena Gruijic has previously run 2:10. Both of those women will be running in heat two.
Ruth Cvancara (Alaska Anchorage), Clarissa Garcia (Cal St. San Marcos), and Mairin Shields-Brown (Simon Fraser) are three other athletes to pay attention to in this 800 meter race.
Cvancara has posted a 2:10 time in this event while both Garcia and Shields-Brown are 2:11 runners in their own right. With the majority of the women in this race having almost identical personal bests, the 800 should be an interesting race to watch and participate in.
What so many people love about the indoor track season is that there are a plethora of off-distance races where athletes can shine in something either longer or shorter than their normal racing distance. The 1000 meters is a perfect example of this for distance athletes. Mid-distance athletes are given the chance to test their endurance while the longer distance runners can drop down in distance to refine their speed.
Oregon will be racing Susan Ejore and veteran teammate Amanda Gehrich. Ejore has incredible range from 800 meters all the way up to the 6k on the cross country course. The senior owns PR’s of 2:02 (800), 2:44 (1000), and 4:34 (mile). Ejore was a member of Oregon's 2019 national title-winning DMR last winter, running the fastest 800 meter split in the field. She followed that performance up with a 4th place finish in the 800 meters at the 2019 Outdoor National Championships. With her times and accolades, Ejore should be the favorite heading into this race.
The second Duck in the field to pay attention to is Gehrich. The senior has improved since transferring from Utah to Oregon and has made a name for herself in a variety of events. She already has a 1000 meter PR of 2:50, so a potential sub-2:50 time is very much within reach for her. The Ducks will certainly be eyeing a big performance from Gehrich this weekend as the Oregon roster is in need of replacing the firepower that Jessica Hull left with.
Stanford's Julia Heymach will look to be the main challenger to Ejore and Gehrich this weekend. Heymach has a slower 800 meter PR than the two Ducks, but her 1500 meter time is quicker. The Stanford junior has run 2:08 and 4:17, leading us to believe that with her mix of speed and stamina, Heymach could sneak her way into 1st place.
The three collegiates mentioned above should be in for a fast race as professional athletes Kaela Edwards and Tracee Van der Wyk are entered into the field as well. If Ejore, Gehrich, and Heymach can latch onto these two professionals, quick times and personal bests will certainly be in the cards.
The UW Preview this weekend has a strong mile field led by, once again, the Stanford and Oregon women. No collegiate woman in the field has a mile PR that is out of this world, but rather numerous women with breakout potential who have similar times. That alone should make this a very fun and interesting race.
Jessica Lawson of Stanford is the favorite heading into the mile, as she'll be one of only two collegiates in the "hot heat" of the mile (Portland's Jasmine Fehr is listed as the other). Lawson enjoyed breakout outdoor track and cross country seasons in 2019, earning All-American honors at the national meets in both seasons. During the 2019 outdoor track season, Lawson ran a PR of 4:11 in the 1500 meter and ended the season with a 10th place finish at Outdoor Nationals. The Cardinal ace maintained that momentum into the fall where she ultimately placed 11th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Her mile PR of 4:46 is a bit misleading as her 1500 meter personal best suggests that she can drop that time by quite a bit. With professional athletes Allie Ostrander, Eleanor Fulton, and Sadi Henderson also in this mile field, it is hard to think that we won't see Lawson under that 4:40 barrier on Saturday.
Oregon’s Aneta Konieczek will be making her track debut for the Ducks this weekend and the mile will also be her first NCAA track race since the 2018 outdoor season. Konieczek transferred to Oregon after spending two years at Division Two distance powerhouse Western Colorado University. There, Konieczek was a four-time All-American, twice in cross country, once in indoor track, and once in outdoor track. Konieczek currently holds a mile PR of 5:05, but with an altitude conversion, the time drops to 4:48. If the new Oregon Duck is in tip-top shape, she could make things interesting with the other top collegiates in heat two.
Addy Townsend of Simon Fraser will be doubling up this weekend in the 800 and mile. Townsend has the fastest mile PR for the collegiate athletes in the field with a 4:44. The mile will be contested before the 800, so Townsend will be able to see how she stacks up against some of the best runners from Division One (excluding Jessica Lawson who is running a separate heat) if she doesn't end up scratching the event. Despite the potential rust, Townsend will likely be the favorite to win heat two of the mile given her resume and impressive speed.
Washington State’s Kaili Keefe will also be doubling up in the 800 and mile. If the race goes out hard, Keefe could see an improvement on her 4:46 personal best.
Stanford will also be racing freshman Grace Connolly and sophomore Rebecca Story. Both of these women were star high school athletes and have yet to make their track debuts for the Cardinal. Story owns a mile PR of 4:45 and Connolly has run 4:49. However, both of these times came during their high school careers. These women should be ahead of those times after training with nationally ranked athletes and being coached by highly qualified coaches.
The 3000 meters has to be the highlight of the weekend at the UW Preview because of the depth of talent entered in the race. Between the professional runners and top distance talents from both Stanford and Alaska Anchorage, this race has the potential to become very quick.
Starting with the Stanford women, we get to see Christina Aragon compete in her first track meet since 2018. Aragon is a talented athlete who got unlucky when the injury bug hit her right after the start of the 2018 cross country season. Before that season, Aragon had earned four All-American honors, one in cross country, two during indoors, and one during outdoors. She was on the path to vie for a top three spot in any event she competed in nationally.
Sidelined with injuries, the running world had to wait for Aragon to regain strength and confidence, which she did during the 2019 cross country season. The Stanford standout had a decent cross country season for someone who took extended time away from competition, but she should be ready to make a statement on the track.
Aragon enters the 2020 indoor track season with a 9:01 3k PR and was 7th in said race at the 2018 Indoor National Championship. If she is back in top form, then the Stanford runner could be a major force to be reckoned with as she takes on other respectable talents in the second heat of the 3000 meters this weekend.
But ahead of Aragon in the first heat is teammate Ella Donaghu. The Stanford front-runner came on extremely strong during the 2019 cross country season and the UW Preview will be her first chance at running the 3000 meters. She was runner-up at the PAC-12 XC Championships and won the West Regional XC Championships this past fall. Both of these results came before the Stanford junior placed 8th at the Cross Country National Championships back in November.
Donaghu owns a PR of 4:11 in the 1500 meters and was 6th in the 1500 meters at NCAA’s last spring. With her newfound endurance and confidence, Donaghu should see the same significant success in her first attempt at 3000 meters on Saturday. A sub-9:20 is extremely possible.
Three more key Cardinal athletes who will be toeing the line are Abi Archer, Kristin Fahy, and Jordan Oakes.
Oakes has the fastest 3k PR of the three with a 9:22. She had a solid cross country season this past fall and should use that as momentum to improve upon her times. Fahy is next with a 9:37 PR from high school while Archer follows behind with a 9:44 high school PR. Fahy and Archer will be making their track debuts for Stanford in a field filled with teammates and fellow PAC-12 competitors.
The women of Washington will have the home track advantage this weekend when they take to the 3000 meters in the Dempsey this weekend. Katie Rainsberger will lead the way in heat one for the Huskies with her PR of 9:01. Rainsberger is an accomplished runner and has numerous All-American honors on her resume. Indoors, she has been a member of multiple DMR teams on the national stage and has placed 3rd (2017) and 12th (2019) in the 3k at the Indoor National Championships.
With her experience, accolades, and consistency, Rainsberger is favored to leave the Dempsey with the fastest (collegiate) 3000 meter time of the weekend. Still, she will be tasked with holding off one of the NCAA's most electric distance talents in Ella Donaghu.
Haley Herberg will be making her track debut (in heat two) for Washington after transferring this fall from the University of Oklahoma. Herberg did compete during the cross country season, but she got off to a slower start. At Oklahoma, Herberg ran 9:24 in the 3000 meters and 15:58 in the 5000 meters. She was also runner-up in the 3000 meters at the BIG 12 Championships last winter. With a semester of experience now under her belt, Herberg has the potential to get back to her top fitness that we saw from her at Oklahoma last year.
Washington’s Allie Schadler has yet to race a 3000 meter race, but with her 4:14 1500 meter PR (and 4:37 mile personal best), things could go well for Schadler on Saturday in heat two. She was a member of Washington’s 7th place DMR team at the Indoor National Championships last year and had a respectable cross country season leading up to the national meet.
Teammate Shona McCulloch should also have a strong showing alongside Schadler. McCulloch may not have jaw-dropping times, but she did have a strong cross country season, finishing 12th at PAC-12's and 11th at the West Regional Championships this past fall. Her cross country performances tells us that she can compete with Schadler this winter.
Two D2 runners to pay attention to are Alaska Anchorage’s Emmanuelah Chelimo and Nancy Jeptoo. Both women own 3k PR’s of 9:59 and will look for the chance to improve upon those times. The Alaska Anchorage athletes were All-Americans in cross country this past fall, with Chelimo finishing 5th and Jeptoo placing 10th. Although they may not be ones to contest for the individual victory, they will be going after NCAA DII Indoor Championship qualifying times.
Isabelle Brauer (Oregon), Kaitlyn Neal (Washington), Hannah Waskom (Washington), and Greta Van Calcar (Oregon State) are women who will also look to secure fast times early in the season on an oversized track and in a loaded field.