TSR Collaboration
May 6, 202114 min
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.
Say what you will about altitude conversions, but Lawrence put together a pair of great races this past weekend. After finishing with the second-fastest prelim mark in the 800 meters, the Adams State sophomore matched that result with a runner-up finish in the RMAC final.
Lawrence ran a season and personal best of 2:10, converting down to 2:09 and placing her at NCAA #9 for the event. Even more impressive was the fact that she finished ahead of Jessica Cusick (TSR #16) and Bailey Sharon (TSR #7), two women who have been consistent veterans at this distance.
Lawrence is peaking at the right time and with two top-10 marks on the national leaderboard, she looks to be a real contender in either the 800 or 1500 at the end of this month. Her performance at the RMAC conference meet this past weekend bodes well for her with more tactical championship races on the horizon.
As of these rankings, Leppelmeier has set a personal best every time she has raced this spring. Coming off an 11-second personal best for her steeple season debut, the Walsh senior knocked off another seven-seconds en route to an NCAA #3 mark of 10:28. That performance all but guarantees her a bid to Nationals -- the first time she has ever qualified for the meet on the outdoor oval.
Although her steeple time is well behind NCAA leader Eilish Flanagan, her 10:28 mark solidifies Leppelmeier as an All-American contender. She leads a group of five women who are all within 10 seconds of one another, but the Walsh ace should take comfort in how her season has been trending thus far. If her personal best trend continues, then Leppelmeier could be looking at a top-three finish at the national meet.
Speaking of women who are on personal best streaks, enter Brianna Robles of Adams State. A big performance in the 10k at the Drake Relays moved Robles into our rankings this week and also booked her a trip to the NCAA Championships. In her debut at the event, Robles clocked a time of 34:15 for the distance, eclipsing the NCAA auto-qualifying mark by 12 seconds and moving up to NCAA #3 on the national leaderboard.
Given her success in cross country this fall, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Robles is finding success over the longer distances. Having only run the event once, it seems like the sky's the limit when it comes to what she might do in the future. We like the up-side that she brings to the table.
Just as May (the month) arrived, May (the runner) arrived. After finishing 5th at the NCAA Indoor Championships over 800 meters, expectations were high for the Lincoln sophomore. She started the outdoor season a bit rocky, consistently running 2:12 to 2:14. However, May finally saw her breakthrough happen at the Rock Chalk Classic this past weekend, running four seconds faster than her season best and clocking the NCAA #5 mark at 2:08.
Now that May is solidly under the 2:10 barrier, she should start hearing her name in the title conversation. Although she is still a ways off the NCAA lead, the typical chaos that ensues during championship 800s means May could easily find herself in the mix with a title on the line.
She may have some of the best speed out of any of the 800 meter contenders this year and that could benefit her if she's in the mix for the win over the final 100 meters at the NCAA Championships.
Andrus might be one of the most overlooked runners in the distance world. She currently ranks sits at NCAA #7 over 800 meters which is solid, but only tells half the story. See, Andrus is really a sprinter who just happens to also be very good at the 800. Last weekend, the Alabama-Huntsville junior clocked a time of 55.29 for 400 meters to win the Gulf South Championships. She also ran the 200 meters and competed in the 4x100 relay.
Andrus currently ranks in the top-10 for both the 400 and 800, while also being on the NCAA #13 ranked 4x100 relay team. Her biggest challenge moving forward might end up being balancing which events make the most sense for her come Nationals.
After being taken off on a stretcher at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Ludge made her return to competition this past weekend at the GVSU Extra Weekend meet. The GVSU senior finished as the top collegian in the 1500 meters, finishing in 4:23 and moving up to the NCAA #5 mark.
Ludge is obviously a bit hard to gauge with such limited competition, but her talent is undeniable and the odds are that she bounces back to be a title contender. Her 1500 this weekend was only a second off of her personal best which should inspire plenty of confidence in her ability for the remainder of the season.
Add Comastri to the list of women who continue to set personal bests every time they step on the track. After setting personal bests in the 1500 (twice) and 10k this outdoor season, Comastri took 12 seconds off her 5k when she clocked an outstanding time of 16:15 at the GVSU Extra Weekend meet. That performance places her at NCAA #5 and was only five seconds short of a D2 auto-qualifying time.
Having run solid marks in both the 5k and 10k this season, Comastri is likely seriously contemplating the double at the NCAA Championships. Neither of her marks look to be contending for the win, but she could have a shot at All-American honors in both events. Her experience will be a massive asset for her come the end of this month.
Keeping with women who might try the double at Nationals, how about Jessica Gockley? She also ran a personal best in the 5k at GVSU, finishing in 16:20 and taking nine seconds off if her indoor mark. That run sits at NCAA #10 on the national leaderboard and pairs nicely with her NCAA #6 mark in the 10k.
Gockley’s situation is very similar to Comastri. She is well off the leaders in both distance events, but could still be looking to finish as an All-American in both the 5k and the 10k. If she does stick to a single event, the 10k seems like the more realistic option given her early-season success and sky-high potential in that race.
Cusick’s weekend went a bit backwards compared to our expectations, but still saw her put together a pair of solid finishes. Doubling between the 800 and 1500 at the RMAC Championships, Cusick finished in 5th for both prelim races and earned bids to the finals.
Coming in ranked at NCAA #6 in the 800 meters, logic said that that would be her better event. However, as things often do at conference meets, results played out differently.
The Western Colorado senior ended up finishing only 6th in the 800 meters, but came away with a 3rd place finish over 1500 meters. When you consider that she was doubling this weekend, there should be little concern about her postseason prowess and potential.
If anything, competing in four races over the weekend should be solid preparation for preliminary rounds at the NCAA Championships.
Hannah Thompson would have likely been in that same situation had it not been for her huge personal best in the steeplechase at the Annual Hillsdale College “GINA” Relays. Finishing with a time of 10:36, Thompson inserted herself at NCAA #7 after spending almost three years away from the event. The last time she raced in the steeple was May 10th, 2018.
Our general thought process is that steeplechase runners typically get better as the season goes on because they become more accustomed to the barriers and what not. If that’s the case, then Thompson should be a particularly interesting case. Her mark at Hillsdale was a 20-second personal best and is only eight-seconds off the NCAA #3 mark. If she continues to improve, she could be a dark horse for a strong finish at Nationals.
Uwajeneza dropped a few places this week after falling a bit short of expectations over the weekend. In what became the perfect opportunity for a fast 5k at GVSU, Uwajeneza only ran 16:31, a mark that was 21-seconds off of her personal best.
Despite a less than stellar weekend, the West Texas A&M junior is still one of the best distance runners in the country. She sits at NCAA #4 in the 10k and NCAA #15 in the 5k. However, if she has her eyes set on doing the 10k/5k double, then she may need a faster 5k mark than 16:29 to allow her that opportunity.
Burgos dropped four spots this week after continuing to struggle in the 1500 this season. At the Drake Relays, Burgos won her heat, but finished in only 4:35, four-seconds off of her season best and eight-seconds off if her personal best. She was slightly better at the Kansas City Qualifier where she ran a new seasonal best of 4:31 and took home the win yet again. Considering the conditions for the race were particularly hot and windy, her performance was probably worth more than the time suggests.
Regardless of how she continues to run in the 1500, her real focus looks to be on the 800 and that's why she is still ranked so highly. Burgos is sitting at NCAA #3 in the 800 meters with her mark of 2:08.
After failing to qualify for an individual event during indoors, Burgos looks poised for redemption this spring. With her top-ranked half-mile mark and a ton more upside in the 1500 meters, we like where she's at heading into the postseason.
The key to going from unranked to TSR #13 is to run the NCAA #2 mark in the steeplechase as your season debut and then run the NCAA #8 mark in the 5k as an encore. Coming off of a strong indoor track season, Roeske figured to be a player during outdoors, but had been absent from our rankings due to an absence from the track. Of course, she quickly proved that nothing has changed since we last saw her and is once again a name who we need to put in the national contender conversation.
It’s worth considering that Roeske might have a shot at a steeplechase title. Eilish Flanagan has a massive NCAA lead of 27 seconds right now, but isn’t guaranteed to run the event. Why? Because Flanagan is ranked at NCAA #2 in the 1500 and NCAA #1 in the 5k, meaning there will be numerous choices for her made when it comes to entries for the NCAA Championships.
If Flanagan opts out of the steeple, Roeske will be the immediate favorite as she sits nine-seconds ahead of the NCAA #3 mark. Her versatility and speed in other events makes her a super dangerous name who many women will not want to face in the postseason.
Parsons has had two solid races under her belt since our last update. The first being at Hillsdale College’s “Gina” Relays where she finished runner-up to the Stanford signee in Audrey DaDamio in a time of 16:18. The second effort being a time of 2:10 for 800 meters which is a second faster than her lifetime best at a meet hosted by Pitt-Johnstown.
These results tell us that Parsons is rounding into shape quite nicely as she has three top-13 marks in the 800, 1500 and 5k. She will have another shot to make a name for herself before she heads off to New Mexico as the PSAC Championships are this week.
We don’t know what it is about the Colorado School of Mines track, but it produces fast times. Streff knows that firsthand as she ran her fastest 800 there in a solid mark of 2:09. With the conversion, that mark stands at 2:08.
Streff has looked like a different runner in 2021 as she’s developed a knack for perfectly positioning herself where she needs to be late in races. There’s no better example than that than the RMAC Championship 800 where she won by seven-tenths of a second. She’s developed that winning attitude and it's very clearly translating in her results.
Since our last update, Cotter has run the 1500 meters three times and has even been crowned an RMAC champion in the event. Yet, her fastest time out of those three races came out of the prelim at the RMAC Championships where she ran 4:29. Even though that mark converts down to a 4:23, it still feels like an underwhelming result from someone who won multiple D2 national titles in the 1500/mile.
Still, we can’t question that time as long as it gets her to the National Championship as she's proven time and time again that she can never be counted out of a race.
We hadn’t seen a lot of O’Malley since her 1500 meter effort at Raleigh Relays at the end of March. However, she has contested two 5k races since and has improved in each which really is a testament to her overall fitness level, showing that she has range from the 1500 to the 5k.
Being more of a miler, she moved up in distance to the 5k this past weekend and ran a very respectable mark of 16:17 which was good for 3rd in the race. This effort now has her in the top-eight in both the 1500 and 5k.
She has the GLIAC CChampionships coming up this week and with the Lakers having one of the deepest teams in all of D2, she should get her pick of which events to run.
Novak came away from the PacWest Championships as a double winner, taking titles in both the 800 and 1500. She executed both finals races to perfection as she won by at least two seconds in each race. In championship season, there is no better way to win.
With an automatic bid to the NCAA championships already in hand, it will be interesting to see how the junior does as she's never competed at a national meet before. She did qualify in the mile at the 2020 indoor national meet, but that was canceled due to COVID. What will prove to be the bigger difference maker? Her inexperience or raw talent?
Sharon had a busy day at the RMAC championships. She ran three events, but competed five times due to the 400 and 800 having preliminary heats. After a weekend of racing, she came away with a gold, silver, and bronze in the 400, 4x400 and 800, respectively.
Right now, Sharon boasts firepower, speed and experience that very few women in any distance event can match. She is surely a title contender and someone who seems to handle multiple rounds of racing incredibly well. Sharon may be dropping one spot in our rankings, but we're very high on her potential right now.
Flanagan shot herself up to the top of the 1500 meter leaderboard with her performance at the Don Kirby Open hosted by New Mexico. Her 4:23 effort at 5000 feet was good enough to beat out a bunch of Lobos, as well as her national champion teammate in Stephanie Cotter. With the conversion, she now replaces her sister for the fastest 1500 time on the Grizzlies' roster with a mark of 4:17.25 (which is an NCAA-lead).
At this point, it seems fairly clear that Roisin will/should pursue the 1500 meters at the NCAA Championships. The 5k is super crowded and her sister Eilish is likely the title favorite in that event. With teammate Stephanie Cotter also in the title conversation, Adams State could go 1-2 in this event come late May.
Narbuvoll is fit. She’s raced twice in the past three weeks and she’s come away with two huge personal bests. In our last rankings update, we talked about her 10k, so this time we will shine some light on her recent 5k performance from this past weekend.
The women's 5k at Grand Valley State was absolutely loaded this past weekend. The field featured multiple runners who have been All-Americans in the past, including the Grand Valley State trio of Klaudia O’Malley, Hannah Roeske, Jessica Gockley as well as Southern Indiana’s Jennifer Comastri, West Texas A&M’s Florance Uwajaneza, Augustana’s PJ English and Illinois-Springfield’s Taryn Christy.
However, it was the U-Mary star who took home the win in an outstanding time of 16:03. With that performance, she now has two automatic bids to the national meet (5k & 10k). That mark also shows us that she has the ability to hang with a faster race that we may see at the NCAA Championships.
Flanagan and Ritter will surely not make things slow come late May, but Narbuvoll seems more than capable of establishing and/or sticking with an aggressive pace if that's what happens.
With solid times in the 800 and 1500, Hernandez used the RMAC Championships to test her speed by running the 400 and 4x400. While she didn’t win, she used this effort to gauge fitness and measure herself against fellow 800 meter runner Bailey Sharon (Western Colorado) who took home the title.
Hernandez is another runner who is going to have to decide between two events, the 800 and 1500. Of course, she has the fastest time in the 800 and that's where she's had the most success this year.
The half-mile seems like her best option, especially with Cleyet-Merle running unattached and Addy Townsend unable to compete at the NCAA Championships this year. On paper, that makes Hernandez the clear top option for NCAA gold.
Interesting move here by Sandoval as she decided to only run the prelim of the 1500 at the PacWest Championships. And when we say that she only raced the prelim, we're saying that she won the prelims, qualified for the finals, but didn't race the finals. Maybe this was just an effort to work on her speed without putting too much work on her legs?
Could we see Sandoval attempt the 5k/10k double in late May? Or will she put her entire focus on the 10k? She’s got the fastest 10k by about 30 seconds while the 5k is quite competitive with the likes of Eilish Flanagan and Celine Ritter holding times faster. Still, if the 10k is her priority, then she could still try the double and not sacrifice being fresh for the 10k.
Celine Ritter has never lost a Gulf South Conference race, whether it be cross country or track and field. Not only that, but this past weekend, she decided to switch things up a bit by running the 10k instead of the 5k in addition to the 800 and 1500. Of course, her event selection didn’t matter as she still won all of those races.
Now, she just needs to decide on what event(s) she’s going to run at the NCAA Championships. She currently holds auto marks in the 1500 and 5k, but if you think back to the indoor season, she qualified for the mile and 3k and chose to focus solely on the 3k.
Obviously that strategy worked last time as she won her first national title, but what will she do this time around? Either way, she'll be in contention for NCAA gold. Her mix of speed and stamina is matched by only Eilish Flanagan.
The Adams State senior ran the steeplechase at the prestigious Drake Relays, finishing 10th overall in a largely pro field, earning a three-second personal best in the process.
For the Irishwoman, this was a huge result in her first steeple of the year as she nabbed the D2 automatic qualifying mark with her PR of 9:52. As it looks right now, she has two auto marks in the 3k steeple and the 5k, so she could be doubling in those two events like she did at the 2018 and 2019 NCAA Championships (and that seemed to work out for her the last time around).
Either way, she seems to be trending upwards right now and appears to have the most momentum of anyone in the NCAA right now, at least at the D2 level. That probably makes her the most dangerous name to face in the postseason.
Nicole Lawrence (Adams State)
Brianna Robles (Adams State)
Chrissani May (Lincoln (Mo.))
Allie Ludge (Grand Valley State)
Jennifer Comastri (Southern Indiana)
Hannah Roeske (Grand Valley State)
Lauren Bailey (U. Indy)
Berenice Cleyet-Merle (U. Indy)
Addy Townsend (Simon Fraser)
Taryn Chapko (Grand Valley State)
Fatima Alanis (Queens (N.C.))
Franziska Althaus (Wingate)
Toni Moore (Lee (Tenn.))
Zoe Baker (Colorado Mines)
Layla Almasri (UC-Colorado Springs)
Fatima Alanis (Queens (N.C.))
Franziska Althaus (Wingate)
Kaylee Bogina (Adams State)
PJ English (Augustana)
Rebekah Rairdon (Augustana)
Kaycee Rypma (Grand Valley State)
Sesila Dala (West Texas A&M)
Madison Brown (Dallas Baptist)
Mackenna Curtis-Collins (Malone)
Lauren Bailey (U. Indy)
Taryn Chapko (Grand Valley State)