2021 D1 Indoor Top 25 Rankings (Women): Update #3

TSR has made the decision to remove any athletes who have not yet competed on the indoor oval this year from these Top 25 rankings.

Was not ranked in our last update.
 

First number indicates how much the individual has moved in the rankings.

The second number indicates where they were ranked in our last update.

The past few weeks have been kind to Wheeler. She ran a flat-track converted 15:50 for 5000 meters at Camel City, taking down cross country All-American Kelsey Chmiel. She later came back and ran 9:17 for 3000 meters, fending off a dynamic talent in Lotte Black.

Wheeler was one of the more underrated names in the nation last winter despite quietly putting up solid marks and encouraging wins. She seems like someone who will continue to stay under the radar until she inevitably erupts for a big-time performance on the national stage.

When you earn two runner-up finishes at the BIG 10 Indoor Championships, you get to stay inside our rankings. Michigan’s Ericka VanderLende placed 2nd to standout runners Bethany Hasz (Minnesota) and Jenna Magness (Michigan State) in the 3k and 5k, respectively, this past weekend.

The 9:12 and 16:04 finishing times show that VanderLende is in a great position heading into the championship races for both cross country and track. Even without experience of racing at the indoor national meet, VanderLende competes against some of the nation’s best in the BIG 10 and could see plenty of her conference competitors at NCAA’s, allowing her to be somewhat familiar with the field and what it will take to earn a top finish.

Before this indoor season, Seymour had a personal best of 2:07 for 800 meters. Her 2021 season began with a DNF, but just two weeks later, Seymour matched her 2:07 at the UW Preview. It was interesting to see that Seymour recorded another DNF at the UW Invite, but yet again, two weeks after that result, the junior dropped a massive personal best of 2:02.

Seymour’s five second PR placed her just behind professional runner Hannah Green in the results and landed her at NCAA #4 on the national leaderboard in an event that is extremely top-heavy this year.

Seymour's result was super exciting, but what should we expect from her moving forward? This was such a big time performance and it was so unexpected, so we're not entirely sure how she'll respond on the national stage where half the field has run as fast as her (or faster) this winter.

After a big personal best of nearly two seconds, Wilkinson enters our rankings for the first time this season. Coming into conference weekend, the Florida redshirt sophomore had a personal best of 2:04 which she ran during the 2019 outdoor season. Her fastest mark this winter was 2:05.57, but she had been making steady improvements and was taking home clutch finishes over some respectable talents.

In a historic race that was headlined by Athing Mu, Florida's sophomore talent was able to hang on to the fast pace and set a massive personal best of 2:02.85 to finish runner-up. She was also a member of Florida’s DMR team which ran 11:00 and now sits at NCAA #6.

Despite being only a sophomore, Wilkinson has past national meet experience and seems primed for major success given that she is peaking in the postseason.

It’s hard to drop Magness this week after she picked up her first conference title in the 5k, but there were some other performances that stood out which is why she falls in our rankings.

Since her 46th place finish at the 2019 cross country national meet, Magness has been quickly proving that she can compete with the nation’s best. Michigan State will almost certainly earn a spot to the NCAA XC Championships in March, a meet where Magness could compete for her first All-American honor.

However, the junior also has the potential to challenge for a top finish in the 5k on the track as she currently sits at NCAA #3 for 5000 meters with a time of 15:42 and has a conference title under her belt.

The Michigan State standout probably has an equal chance of being an All-American in whichever races she decides to pursue. We're not sure if she's in the individual national title conversation, but she has been incredibly consistent this season.

Skyring raced once since our last rankings update and only drops thanks to the performances of others. She was the runner-up in the 3000 meters at the ACC Championships, running 9:04, which lands her at the NCAA #13 position for the event.

That mark gives Skyring plenty of versatility as she is also ranked at NCAA #9 in the mile and is part of the NCAA #3 DMR team. However, having those national qualifying marks could actually create some logistical racing issues.

With both the mile prelim rounds and the DMR final on Friday, doubling down could hinder Florida State’s chances in the DMR. Conversely, with Skyring ranked so highly in the mile, pulling her from that event also seems counter productive. The 3k, in theory, should have no impact as it is the last event of the weekend.

With NCAA entries coming up, keep an eye on what event(s) Skyring is entered in.

In theory, Maloney could be running four events at the NCAA Championships. She is ranked at NCAA #16 in the 400 meters, NCAA #8 in the 800 meters and is on the NCAA #2 4x400 and NCAA #1 DMR.

The idea of actually competing in all four seems audacious, especially since three of the four events have preliminary rounds. Still, it speaks to the season that Maloney is having.

Not only has she been amongst the elites in a handful of events, but the Arkansas senior just set a big personal best in the 800 meters, clocking a time of 2:03.12 at the SEC Championships for a 3rd place finish.

That time knocked two seconds off of her personal (and seasonal) best and makes her a podium contender come Nationals. She has made non-stop improvements in the 800 meters this year and other than Athing Mu, no one has more momentum than Maloney in this event. Almost every time she toes the line for this race, it's almost always a new PR.

However, the biggest potential issue for Maloney will be what Arkansas decides to enter her in at the NCAA Championships. If she does enter multiple relays and/or the 400 meters, it may hinder her chances of getting on the podium in the 800 meters.

Steelman didn’t compete at the ACC Indoor Championships likely because she was racing in the 3000 meters a week before at the Camel City Invitational. At that meet, she ran a flat-track converted 9:00 and placed 2nd overall to top American professional runner Rachel Schneider. This time places Steelman at NCAA #9 on the national leaderboard.

Since transferring to NC State from Wofford at the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year, Steelman has seen steady improvements and has seemingly developed an edge that has allowed her to contend with top names on a more consistent basis. Besides her recent 3k performance, in early February, Steelman ran a strong time of 15:47 (5k).

Although the Wolfpack star is in the hunt for the team title at the cross country nationally meet, Steelman is in contention for potentially three All-American honors across the various distances and the two national meets.

A pair of top-five finishes at the SEC Championships keeps Chelangat up in the rankings this week, although they didn't create much excitement. The Alabama junior finished 4th in the 3k and 3rd in the 5k, with all of the women who finished ahead of her sitting in the top-10 of these rankings.

However, what's easy to miss without looking deeper is just how close Chelangat was to those other women. In the 3k, she was less than a second behind Lauren Gregory and was only a second off of her personal best. In the 5k, Chelangat was right with the leaders until the final laps, ultimately finishing within two seconds of the winner.

Closing speed could hurt Chelangat at the national meet, but she has a decent chance in the 5k given her proven aerobic fitness. In fact, the fastest time in the NCAA this season is 15:36, only a second better than Chelangat’s personal best.

The Alabama senior is headed to NCAA's in both events, but should be a dark horse contender in the 5000 meters depending on how that race plays out.

Forbes has been quietly putting together a solid season even though she hasn’t raced a ton of top NCAA talents. As a freshman, she broke onto the national stage late in the 2020 indoor season when she ran an eye-popping 8:56 (3k) in Boston.

Since then, Forbes has been on a roll, winning the Conference USA XC Championships, recording a personal best of 15:50 (5k), winning the mile at the Conference USA Indoor Championships in a time of 4:37 and soloing a 9:04 (3k) at the H-Town SpeedCity Series IV. On paper, she can do no wrong.

Between her range and consistency, it's hard to find a fault with Forbes. Now, admittedly, she hasn't raced against a ton of top-tier competition this season, and that could be a bit of shock for her when she goes to the national meet. Still, Forbes is incredibly accomplished and hasn't given us a reason to doubt her.

Miller breezed through the BIG 12 Championships this past weekend, winning the 800 meters by almost four seconds. Currently sitting at NCAA #5 in the event, Miller has looked like her “old” self this season and is going to be a legitimate contender for a top-three position at Nationals.

The Baylor senior was once one of the top young middle distance runners in the country, but went through a couple of years where she wasn't the most consistent. In fact, she has never made an 800 meter final at the national meet despite holding a handful of top times in the event. This year, however, could be different.

In 2021, Miller has found her form and has consistently run in the 2:02 to 2:04 range. She has been one of the best in the NCAA and looks destined to make her first national meet final.

Bethany Hasz drops a few spots this weekend, which may come as a surprise, but that is largely due to the performances that we've seen from others. She has still been solid each time she has competed this winter and hasn’t lost a race since the 2020 BIG 10 Indoor Championships.

At the 2021 BIG 10 Indoor Championships, Hasz was entered in both the 3k and 5k, but opted only to contest the 3000 meters. She won that race in a comfortable 9:06, six seconds faster than Michigan’s Ericka VanderLende.

Hasz now has two top-16 times on the national leaderboard, sitting at NCAA #7 in the 3k with an 8:59 and NCAA #11 in the 5k with a 15:50. She will be a contender in either (or both) of these events at the national meet, but the dilemma for Hasz is that she is also a top-10 contender for NCAA XC Championships.

We're not sure what her plan is, but the redshirt senior will be equally dangerous regardless of the race(s) that she chooses to pursue two weeks from now.

Tyynismaa continues to be the biggest breakout athlete of 2021. A top runner in both the mile and the 3k, the Alabama sophomore added two more notable results to her resume this past weekend with a runner-up finish in the SEC mile and a win in the DMR.

The mile came down to the wire with Arkansas’ Krissy Gear holding off Tyynismaa for the win. When you consider that that pair currently sits at NCAA #5 and NCAA #6 in this event, the finish seems pretty fitting.

As for the DMR, Tyynismaa had a massive performance for Alabama. She anchored the team with a 4:31 split for 1600 meters and helped the Crimson Tide secure a national qualifying time of 10:59.

Tyynismaa will have some tough decisions to make when it comes to which events she will compete in at the NCAA Championships, but that’s never a bad thing, especially when you started the season unranked.

She drops a few spot in our rankings to no fault of her own. This was simply due to the performances that we've seen from others.

In the fastest mile of the indoor season, Schadler ran an NCAA #2 mark of 4:31.21 to smash her previous personal best by six seconds and vault herself into the "national title favorites" category.

In the strange season that 2021 has been, Schadler was coming off of a disappointing cross country race at the Battle Born Collegiate Challenge and seemed to be looking for a bit of redemption. She had just run 8:58 in the 3k a week prior, so the fitness was clearly there.

Enter the Husky Classic. A perfect opportunity featuring professionals and top BYU athletes. Schadler had only run 4:38 this season, but shattered that time this past weekend. Her closest relative mark is a 4:14 (1500) she ran in the spring of 2019.

For the first time in her collegiate career, Schadler will go into a national meet as one of the title favorites, although this is a weird year where it feels like five women could be considered title favorites. Still, Schadler just got a massive boost in confidence and that could make her plenty dangerous on the national stage.

Even though Barton picked up a new shiny 800 meter personal best of 2:01.99, she was still 0.03 seconds away from winning her second ACC title. Barton has been a top name in the half-mile all winter long and was the favorite heading into this race. However, she got nipped at the line by Lindsey Butler of Virginia Tech.

Barton does have a lot of momentum heading into the indoor national meet as she has been consistently proving her experience and strength on countless occasions, and not just in the 800 meters.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see her challenge for a top-five finish at NCAA Championships as she has all of the tactical skills and the elite fitness to contend with pretty much anyone (other than Mu) in this national field.

Butler of Virginia Tech makes the biggest jump in our rankings after coming out on top at the ACC Championships in the 800 meters. Many expected Clemson’s Laurie Barton to earn the title, but Butler had other plans as she ran 2:01.96 to barely edge the Tiger star.

The sophomore began her 2021 campaign with a 2:07 personal best before quickly knocking off three seconds at the Doc Hale Virginia Tech Invite and then another three seconds at the ACC meet. That 2:01 time only gave Butler a 0.03 second victory over Barton, but it shows that Butler knows how to race all the way through the line and that she's strong enough to hold off top veteran talents who make hard moves in the final moments in the race. That's a lot more important than some people realize.

Butler doesn’t have any experience racing at an NCAA Championship since COVID-19 halted the remainder of her freshman year in 2020. However, given the way that she has looked in recent meets, Butler could contend for a top-three finish in the 800 meters two weeks from now.

Over the last two weeks, Henes has continued to do some damage at an individual level and in the DMR. At both the Camel City Invitational and the ACC Indoor Championships, Henes anchored NC State’s DMR to times that should/will qualify them for the indoor national meet.

At the ACC meet, Henes won her second 3k conference title in a new personal best of 9:00. She beat Florida State’s Maudie Skyring by four seconds and jumped up to NCAA #8 on the national leaderboard. Her current 5k season best of 15:49 also ranks her at NCAA #8 this season.

Henes has competed at numerous National Championships before and this season, she appears ready to challenge for a top-five finish. She has proven that she can double without an issue and she even made some attempts to improve her mile speed before going into the postseason. Overall, we like what she's going to bring to the table in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Gregory has been consistently posting top marks and finishes throughout the course of the indoor season, but she faltered at the SEC Championships. Her performances weren’t poor by any means, she just didn’t win a title and lost to some women who she had beaten earlier this year.

The Razorback senior finished her conference weekend with two 3rd place finishes, one in the mile and and the other in the 3k. Her times of 4:35 (mile) and 9:03 (3k) would win most races on a given day, but the talent in the SEC is becoming far more challenging and sometimes it takes just a little bit more to pull out the victory.

Gregory is still a name in the conversation to place top-three at the indoor national meet on her home track in a few weeks. All the work has been put in, now Gregory just needs to rebound and refocus. If anything, it may be good that she didn't have her best race(s) this past weekend rather than two weeks from now.

Kimeli makes a big jump in our rankings after winning two individual titles at the SEC Championships. The Auburn senior had been pretty quiet this indoor season, recording respectable times of 9:14 (3k) and 16:04 (5k) prior to her conference meet.

That, however, all changed in the span of two days.

The Auburn star began her SEC weekend with a win in the 5000 meters, out-kicking pre-race favorites Katie Izzo of Arkansas and Mercy Chelangat of Alabama. Kimeli’s 15:46 was less than 10 seconds off of her PR and it was also a new meet record. And she didn’t stop there.

Kimeli earned a new 8:56 (3k) PR and recorded her second win of the weekend one day later. Her margin of victory was just over a half-second, once again over Izzo, and it puts her in contention to compete for an NCAA title later in March.

Taking down an established Arkansas star who was seen as a potential title contender in two events is wildly encouraging if you're Kimeli and the Auburn coaching staff.

Gear holds her place at TSR #6 this week after a strong showing at SEC’s in her premier event. The middle distance ace for Arkansas continues to dominate the mile, as she has yet to be beaten this season in a final. Gear held off Alabama’s Amaris Tyynismaa with a time of 4:34, her third sub-4:40 of the 2021 season.

Gear currently sits at NCAA #5 on the national leaderboard in the mile with her 4:31 from the Tyson Invitational. With the indoor national meet on the horizon, it can be assumed that Gear will choose to focus on the mile and DMR. Both national fields will be deep, but Gear has the experience to compete against the best and has shown that she has all of the necessary racing tools to compete for a gold medal.

Moving up in the rankings this week after recording a very strong 2:08/4:31 double at the Husky Classic is BYU’s Olivia Hoj. The veteran hadn’t contested a mile prior to the 2021 indoor season, but she immediately made a splash upon toeing the line.

A few weeks ago, Hoj ran 4:37 and just took an astonishing six seconds off of that time to put herself at NCAA #3. Aside from that strong mile showing, Hoj ran her 8:56 (3k) personal best only two weeks earlier.

The BYU Cougar has a lot of momentum heading into the indoor national meet. She has the potential to earn All-American honors in both the mile and 3k, as well as the DMR. Hoj probably won’t triple, so which events will Hoj choose to toe the line for?

It’s hard to be overly excited by Izzo’s weekend. One of the NCAA favorites in both the 3k and 5k was upset in both events at the SEC Championships. Izzo was in contention to win both races until the final laps as Auburn’s Joyce Kimeli was able to close faster over the final 200 meters in both races, fending off Izzo’s title bids.

What does that mean heading into NCAAs? Well, it definitely doesn’t look fantastic for Izzo. Losing races in a fast close is the same way that NCAA Championship races typically finish. That said, Izzo is still the NCAA leader in the 5k and sits at NCAA #3 in the 3k. With a chance to refine her tactics and reset before the national meet, Izzo should be just fine.

Hurta has not raced since our last update.

Wayment has displayed some serious range from the 800 meters up to the 5k. Although the 15:37 (5k) runner has not contested the 5000 meters this season, her performances in the mile and 3k prove that she is ready to compete for her first national title in either of those two events.

Earlier in the month of February at the UW Invite, Wayment recorded a wicked fast time of 8:54 for 3000 meters. That was a stellar 18-second PR and it currently sits as the top time in the country.

In her next race, the Husky Classic, Wayment somehow got even better, throwing down a 4:30 mile personal best, beating a few professionals, talented collegiates and placing her at the top of the NCAA leaderboard. She capped off her weekend with a time of 2:05 for 800 meters.

Wayment’s mix of speed and endurance makes her incredibly lethal. She can seemingly compete for a national title in an all-out affair or a tactical race. The BYU veteran has yet to falter this season and has been able to effectively pull off multiple weekend doubles this season.

On paper, it's hard to find a true longer distance runner in the NCAA who is better than her.

Mu is the undisputed queen of the NCAA. She has been flat-out dominant in every race this season and is now the national title favorite in three events. Oh, and she’s only a freshman.

The big news of the weekend was Mu smashing the previous NCAA record for 800 meters when she clocked 1:58.40 at the SEC Championships on Saturday. Not only did she destroy the previous record, she also sits 3.5 seconds faster than anyone else in the NCAA. Her race didn’t just make her the favorite to win an NCAA title, it also made her a strong contender to make the US Olympic team in 2021.

Not only that, but she also leads the NCAA in the 400 meters by almost a full second and her 4x400 team has the top-ranked time in the country. When you factor in those events, Mu is now in a position to win three national titles.

On one hand, it sounds absurd. She would have to run preliminary rounds in all three events on Friday before (hopefully) racing three times (again) on Saturday. For most runners, that triple would be out of the question. Of course, Mu isn’t like most runners. She is so good at both the 400 and 800 that the idea of this triple is actually realistic.

Maybe she plays it safe and only runs the 800 meters and the 4x400. There are three women tied for the NCAA #16 spot in the 400 meters, one of whom is a Texas A&M teammate. If Mu opting out means her teammate makes the event, maybe she goes that route.

Then again, maybe not.

Grace Forbes (Rice)

Abbey Wheeler (Providence)

Claire Seymour (BYU)

Gabrielle Wilkinson (Florida)

Logan Morris (Arkansas)

Jessica Drop (Georgia)

Kennedy Thomson (Arkansas)

Aneta Konieczek (Oregon)

Lotte Black (Rhode Island)

Aneta Konieczek (Oregon)

Kayla Johnson (Miami)
 Sarah Hendrick (Kennesaw State)

Nicole Fegans (Georgia Tech)

Lynsie Gram (Michigan State)

Logan Morris (Arkansas)

Jessica Drop (Georgia)

Kennedy Thomson (Arkansas)

Alyson Churchill (Florida State)

Andrea Foster (Clemson)

Kaley Richards (UMass Lowell)

Imogen Barrett (Florida)

Gracie Hyde (Arkansas)

Valery Tobias (Texas)

McKenna Keegan (Villanova)

Brooke Fazio (Richmond)

Heather Hanson (BYU)

Kate Hunter (BYU)
 Simone Plourde (BYU)

Kelsey Chmiel (NC State)

Grace Fetherstonhaugh (Oregon State)

Mahala Norris (Air Force)

Lynsie Gram (Michigan State)

Hannah Reinhardt (Oregon)

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