Maura Beattie
Apr 21, 202113 min
Updated: Apr 22, 2021
These rankings do take some indoor track performances from this past winter into account. However, the introduction of events like the 10k and the steeplechase, as well as the return of certain seniors who have not raced in over a year, has forced us to reshuffle our rankings and leave out some highly accomplished distance talents.
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.
Has not raced since our last update.
Weems joins our rankings for the first time in her career after she ran a super impressive 2:04/4:14 weekend double at the Pepsi Florida Relays. She then matched that 2:04 at the Joe Walker Invitational, flexing her consistency and showing her prior weekend double wasn't a fluke. That 800 meter performance was a massive five-second PR for Weems and the 1500 meter performance was a 16-second PR.
The Auburn ace has a lot of momentum heading into the later portion of the outdoor track season. She is currently ranked at TSR #18 in the 800 meters and TSR #11 in the 1500 meters on the national leaderboard for those events. Right now, the only thing that could possibly affect Weems’ would be her inexperience at an NCAA Championship.
Maloney has remained consistent since deciding to focus on the 800 meters during the 2021 indoor season. The Arkansas Razorback has been near the front in every race she has contested and has produced top times to match those performances. On paper, she has never had a bad race this year.
As a tune-up to her first 800 meter race of the season, Maloney raced the 400 twice and saw a PR come at the Texas Relays with a time of 51.72. In her first 800 meter race this outdoor season since finishing 3rd at the indoor national meet, Maloney recorded a strong 2:02 performance, only one second shy of her current personal best. With this mix of speed and consistency, as well as newfound championship experience (and success), Maloney should be able to progress towards the top of the NCAA.
Tanner has posted strong results during her career, but had yet to put everything together to reach an elite level...until this past weekend at the UF Tom Jones Invitational. Georgia’s middle distance ace was coming into this season after a long layoff from racing. Tanner hadn’t raced since winning the 800 title at the 2020 SEC Indoor Championships.
The Bulldog veteran opened up her outdoor season with a modest time of 4:27 for 1500 meters and later ran a 55-second 400 before dipping into the 800, her primary event. A promising mark of 2:03 at the Spec Towns Invitational prepared Tanner for a breakthrough 2:01 performance over the weekend. She narrowly took down Florida star Gabrielle Wilkinson and a rapidly rising talent Shafiqua Maloney of Arkansas.
Tanner may not have the same jaw-dropping accolades like many of her competitors in the 800, but she is proving that she will be one to watch for as the season progresses. To see her standout and take down numerous top-ranked half-mile talents, in a year that is unbelievably top-heavy in this event, is super impressive.
Primarily a 5k/10k runner, Henes dropped down in distance at the Virginia Challenge this past weekend and ran 4:15, a three-second PR from the 2018 season. Although she was never really in the race up-front, this was a solid performance for Henes and sets her up well for a strong 5k or 10k performance in the coming weeks. We like the extra speed she is showing and that will surely benefit her in a tactical setting.
It should be noted that Henes recorded a DNF in the 5k at the Virginia Challenge, but this was due to Henes pacing her teammates to fast times. With teammate Hannah Steelman recording a stellar 15:30, it can be assumed that Henes did her job quite well.
NC State has the West Coast Relays in Fresno, CA next on their schedule and Henes should either toe the line in the 5k or 10k. She has run 15:27 for 5000 meters and 32:12 for 10,000 meters, two times that would catapult her to the top of the NCAA if she can replicate those performances this spring.
Has not raced since our last update.
Skyring has been a roll this year, specifically in the winter and early in this spring season. After earning All-American honors in the 3000 meters and in cross country, Skyring hasn’t wasted anytime jumping to the top of the NCAA in the 1500.
Over the weekend at the UF Tom Jones Invitational, the Seminole ran a great 800/1500 weekend double. She began her weekend with a win and five second PR in the 1500, running an NCAA-leading time of 4:11 which also resulted in her taking down a slew of Arkansas women, including indoor mile bronze medalist Kennedy Thomson. The next day, Skyring matched her 2:06 personal best in the 800 meters.
There’s no doubt that Skyring will be in the conversation to win the NCAA title in the 1500 meters at the end of the season if she stays on her current path. Sure, someone like Sage Hurta may have something to say about that if/when she runs a 1500, but we like Skyring's experience and it's not unrealistic to think that she can put herself in the mix for NCAA gold.
Clemson’s Laurie Barton, the NCAA indoor runner-up in the 800 meters, has yet to contest the half-mile this outdoor season. However, in her two individual races so far this spring, she has recorded a pair of personal bests. Those new PRs include a time of 4:18 for 1500 meters (which is a big eight-second improvement) and she just dropped a 54.53 for 400 meters, a two-second PR.
The 800 is getting VERY crowded up-front with a massive group of 12 women recording results between women 2:00 and 2:03. Barton’s personal best of 2:01 puts her near the top of the NCAA, but it won’t be an easy path to the NCAA Outdoor Championships or to All-American honors despite being the indoor runner-up. Within the next few weeks, we should see Barton compete in the 800 meters as she'll try to replicate her indoor success.
The 2021 calendar year has been fruitful for Hasz between cross country and track. The Minnesota veteran has done an excellent of job of running top times in solo efforts on multiple occasions and that skill was on display at the BIG 10 Invite #2 in the beginning of April. In that race, the Golden Gopher ran 15:43 and won the race by 43 seconds.
We won’t get to see Hasz contest the 5k, and potentially the 10k, against anyone other than her BIG 10 rivals due to conference protocols this outdoor track season. With a current 5k personal best of 15:25, Hasz is on a different level than her conference competitors, but she will still get the chance to see some of the nation’s best in Jenna Magness (Michigan State), Bailey Hertenstein (Indiana) and Ericka VanderLende (Michigan).
However, what Hasz has that these ladies don’t is a silver medal from the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 5k and an 8th place finish from the NCAA XC Championships, as well as a pair of recent BIG 10 titles. It's one thing to run fast, but earning numerous All-American finish on the national stage certainly means a lot in our book.
In her first outdoor season as an Alabama Crimson Tide runner, Tyynismaa impressed in the 1500, but that truthfully wasn’t surprising after her breakout cross country and indoor track races.
At the Crimson Tide Invitational, Tyynismaa ran 4:12 and won the race by six seconds over a solid group of distance runners. This time ranks the freshman at NCAA #5 on the national leaderboard and she still has the potential to improve upon that time with a dip under 4:10. She has yet to have a poor race this year despite her relative inexperience and surprising rise into the upper-echelon.
Alabama has the LSU Invitational on the schedule next prior to the SEC Outdoor Championships. Tyynismaa could dabble on the 5k and post a strong time or she could focus solely on the 1500.
Has not raced since our last update.
Out of anyone on this list, Virginia’s Michaela Meyer has the most momentum going into the second-half of the outdoor season. She has been picking up win after win in the 800 and 1500 since mid-March.
Meyer just dropped two personal bests in less than 24 hours at the Virginia Challenge after running the 800/1500 weekend double. Her pleasantly surprising 2:01 mark ranks her at NCAA #7 right now, but it’s her 1500 that takes the cake. Meyer’s 4:11 ranks her at NCAA #2, forcing us to reevaluate which event she should pursue in the postseason. With the women's 800 being so absurdly fast this year, it may make more sense for her to move up in distance.
Since transferring to Virginia from Delaware as a graduate student at the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year, Meyer has taken off 18 seconds off of her 1500 meter best from 2019. This is a remarkable feat and sets Meyer up for a strong remainder of the season.
Rivers has competed a few times this outdoor season, recording two finishes the 800 and two finishes in the 1500. She has been consistent with her 800 times, posting a pair of 2:05 marks, and has gone 4:16 and 4:14 in back-to-back weeks in the 1500. When it comes to consistency, she's amongst the best in the nation.
Neither of these seasonal bests are all that close to her personal bests of 2:02 and 4:10 during. Not only that, but both the 800 and the 1500 are seeing experienced veterans and rising newcomers flood the top of the leaderboards.
Even so, between those two events, Rivers probably has the best shot at winning an NCAA title in the 1500. She may not get to race against some of the nation’s best prior to the regional meet due to BIG 10 protocols, but her rivals from Indiana, Illinois and Michigan will provide some tough competition in the middle distance events.
Has not raced since our last update.
Jennings makes a small jump in our rankings following her big victory in the 1500 at the Joe Walker Invite. The Furman senior took down a slew of up-and-coming NCAA competitors en route to an encouraging 4:12 personal best.
The Furman Paladin veteran has typically put more focus into the steeplechase as she owns a PR of 9:47 and was 9th in the event at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Jennings had a solid steeplechase opener at the Raleigh Relays a few weeks ago, but now that she has a nine-second 1500 meter PR under her belt, a faster steeplechase race could be in the future. It may also create complications as to which event she should pursue in the postseason as the title race in the 1500 (at least right now) is more wide-open than the steeple.
Since recording a stellar mark of 32:31 (10k) at the Raleigh Relays, Alabama’s Chelangat backed that performance up with a promising time of 4:19 for 1500 meters at the Crimson Tide Invitational. This was Chelangat’s first 1500 of her collegiate career, but don’t expect the Crimson Tide runner to focus on the event later in the season. Still, this was a promising display of speed, especially for someone is more longer distance based.
Chelangat, the NCAA XC champion, will be a force to reckon with in the 5k and 10k as we reach the middle portion of the outdoor track season. A 5k has to be on the calendar for Chelangat soon and given that she has run 15:37, a faster time could be in the cards with the momentum that she currently has.
After a modest, and admittedly underwhelming, time of 4:21 at the Hayward Premiere, Gear took to the steeplechase at the UF Tom Jones Invitational and she didn’t disappoint.
The Razorback junior chopped seven seconds off of her PR and ran her way to a 9:45, which also happens to be the NCAA #2 time. Gear qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in this event back in 2019 while competing for Furman and she surely has gained more national experience the last few seasons that will prepare her for a second go-around.
And of course, no one can argue that Gear has elevated her fitness to a new level this year. When you consider that she was already a dynamic distance talent, it's not much of a surprise that she has shifted that fitness to the steeplechase.
Not only that, but Gear still has the potential to improve upon her 1500 result from earlier in the season as she has run 4:31 for the full mile. A time like this would predict a mark somewhere in the low-4:10s.
Has not raced since our last update.
Donaghu maintains her spot at TSR #7 this week after she held onto the victory in the 1500 meters at the West Coast Classic in Oregon. The Stanford distance runner was coming off a stellar 5k debut of 15:36 from a few weeks prior, but the 1500, historically, has been Donaghu’s main event prior to this season.
The West Coast Classic was expected to be a matchup between Donaghu and Oregon’s Aneta Konieczek, but Konieczek didn’t end up racing. However, even without Konieczek in this race, Donaghu was pushed by Oregon’s long distance star Hannah Reinhardt and ended up taking down the Duck by just over 0.70 seconds in a finishing time of 4:14.
As the season progresses, it’s going to be interesting to see what Donaghu chooses to focus on. Back in 2019, the Cardinal ace ran her PR of 4:11 and was an All-American in the 1500. So will she choose to focus on this event or will she go all-in on the 5k? Admittedly, Reinhardt was closer to Donaghu in this 1500 than we expected her, so maybe the 5k is the better option.
Making a move in our rankings this week after two back-to-back standout performances is NC State star Hannah Steelman. This is Steelman’s first outdoor track season with the Wolfpack after transferring from Wofford at the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year. She has seen major success since arriving in North Carolina and is continuing to reap the benefits of having fast teammates.
Steelman ran a solo 9:46 steeplechase at the Tobacco Road Challenge, taking down the next competitor by a 47-second margin. This performance was only 0.27 shy of Steelman’s current PR from the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships when she ran to a 3rd place finish in the steeplechase.
If you thought the 9:46 was noteworthy, then you'll be equally impressed by her 5k performance as Steelman just ran an NCAA-leading time of 15:30 for the 5k. This ended up being a 17-second PR for the senior and she again won by a large margin over top-tier names after being paced by teammate Elly Henes.
Steelman has her choice of events moving forward, but given that she ran the 3k steeplechase/5k double at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships, it’s safe to assume that that will be the plan going forward.
It’s hard to drop Miller after she recorded her second 2:00 mark of the 2021 calendar year, but there were some performances that deserve more recognition.
Of course, the Baylor senior continues to impress after winning the indoor national title in her main event. The fact that Miller was able to run 2:00 at the Michael Johnson Invite shows her consistency, especially after we were a bit surprised to see her run that kind of time (somewhat out of nowhere) on the indoor oval. With some newfound speed in the 400 and respectable endurance in the 1500, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Miller eventually run sub-2:00.
She may not be able to hang onto Athing Mu, but Miller is definitely someone who will be after 2nd place later in the season if the Texas A&M rookie does contest the half-mile distance.
At this point, Kimeli is in the conversation to win the steeplechase at the NCAA Championships and in the 5k, assuming that she runs it at some point this season. Although, the steeplechase/5k double is by no means an easy double to pull off at the national meet.
The Auburn junior just recorded a massive 15-second PR in the steeplechase at the War Eagle Invitational, winning by 37 seconds. This came one week after Kimeli ran 4:13 for 1500 meters. She has yet to debut in the 5k, the event she won the indoor national title in.
Right now it’s hard to bet against Kimeli when she takes to the track, especially if the race plays to her tactics, slow from the beginning or a solo effort.
Hurta hasn’t competed in a distance since we last released our rankings. However, she was clearly working on her speed this past weekend at CU Invitational where she ran 54.84 for 400 meters at altitude while also contributing to the Buffaloes 4x400 relay.
Has not raced since our last update.
Mu holds down our TSR #1 spot this week and rightfully so as she just ran an eye-popping 1:57 and change. Besides the time being impressive, what really stands out from the Aggies’ performance at Baylor was that she ran a negative split. Mu went 59 seconds for the first 400 meters and then closed in 58 seconds to take down NCAA indoor champion Aaliyah Miller by three seconds.
This was Mu’s first outdoor 800 on the NCAA scene and came after she ran a 4:16 1500, a time that currently ranks her #19 on the TFRRS Descending Order List. It can be safely assumed that Mu won’t contest the 1500 at the end of season. The 800 though is getting crowded upfront, but Mu is on a different level compared to her collegiate competitors.
Presley Weems (Auburn)
Amber Tanner (Georgia)
Maudie Skyring (Florida State)
Michaela Meyer (Virginia)
Mahala Norris (Air Force)
Olivia Hoj (BYU)
Adva Cohen (New Mexico)
Lauren Gregory (Arkansas)
Julia Heymach (Stanford)
Lotte Black (Rhode Island)
Gabrielle Wilkinson (Florida)
Katie Izzo (Arkansas)
Mahala Norris (Air Force)
Olivia Hoj (BYU)
Adva Cohen (New Mexico)
Lauren Gregory (Arkansas)
Carmela Cardama Baez (Oregon)
Kaley Richards (UMass Lowell)
Nicole Fegans (Georgia Tech)
Lindsey Butler (Virginia Tech)
Claire Seymour (BYU)
Esther Gitahi (Alabama)
Jenna Magness (Michigan State)
Kennedy Thomson (Arkansas)
Abby Wheeler (Providence)
Savannah Shaw (NC State)
Clare O'Brien (Boise State)
Jessica Lawson (Stanford)
Jessica Pascoe (Florida)
Imogen Barrett (Florida)
Taylor Roe (Oklahoma State)
McKenna Keegan (Villanova)
Amanda Vestri (Syracuse)
Jessica Drop (Georgia)
Katie Camarena (UC Santa Barbara)
Hannah Reinhardt (Oregon)
Bailey Hertenstein (Indiana)
Grace Moore (Temple)
Grace Mancini (La Salle)
Sarah Edwards (Virginia Tech)
Lauren Ellsworth (BYU)
Allie Schadler (Washington)
Haley Herberg (Washington)
Gracie Hyde (Arkansas)
Taryn O'Neill (Northern Arizona)
Jeralyn Poe (Northern Arizona)
Aoibhe Richardson (San Francisco)
Aurora Rynda (Michigan)
Ruby Stauber (Vanderbilt)
Olivia Markezich (Notre Dame)
Alissa Niggemann (Wisconsin)
Kelsey Chmiel (NC State)
Lexie Thompson (Weber State)
Maria Mettler (Air Force)
Devin Clark (Arkansas)
Carina Viljoen (Arkansas)
Rachel McArthur (Colorado)
Alena Ellsworth (BYU)
Heather Hanson (BYU)
Kate Hunter (BYU)
Simone Plourde (BYU)
Grace Fetherstonhaugh (Oregon State)
Logan Morris (Arkansas)
Alyson Churchill (Florida State)
Ericka VanderLende (Michigan)
Allie Guagenti (Ohio State)
Abby Gray (Arkansas)
Aneta Konieczek (Oregon)
Poppy Tank (Utah)
Cailie Logue (Iowa State)
Kelsey Harris (Indiana)
Katie Rainsberger (Washington)
Katelyn Tuohy (NC State)
Summer Allen (Weber State)
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