TSR Collaboration
Jan 25, 202110 min
TSR contributors may value certain aspects and criteria differently between men and women when constructing our Indoor rankings. Scoring potential and potency at the national meet is taking into consideration for these rankings, although not entirely. Eligibility is based on TFRRS or roster information. Unless told otherwise, TSR is assuming that all D3 athletes will have chances to compete this season, even if an athlete's indoor conference meet does not take place.
Keklak is a well-rounded middle distance runner who is experienced, can move up in distance and had an outstanding indoor track season last year. What's not to like?
The Johns Hopkins veteran ran 4:54 in the mile last winter which pairs nicely with her 800 meter PR of 2:15. She is the third-fastest returner in D3 when it comes to the mile, but also boasts an All-American honor in cross country. Her extensive championship experience and exposure to tap talents in big-time meets gives Keklak enough of an edge to make it into our rankings.
Admittedly, we're not sure whether or not we'll see Johns Hopkins at all this winter. The Centennial Conference cancelled conference competition and championships for all winter sports during the 2020-21 academic year, although it is technically still possible that the Blue Jays could still compete this winter.
Either way, Keklak is an accomplished talent and we felt like she was plenty deserving of being in these rankings.
The sophomore from Wartburg was one of the few athletes who was able to compete this past fall and she did not waste that opportunity. She only lost one meet and that was to her teammate Carina Collet and Loras star Kassie Rosenbum. She also ran a new 6k personal best of 21:32 which is almost 45 seconds faster than her best time from last year.
While her times last year on the track weren’t ground breaking, her improvement is what put her on this list. After a great (shortened) cross country season this past fall, the expectations are high for Fisher. She comes into this season with personal bests of 5:03 in the mile and 10:05 in the 3k.
In fact, she already slightly lowered that 3k best to 10:04 at the Chelsey M. Henkenius Triangular last weekend. We expect those times to continue to drop as Fisher dials up her fitness.
It’s been more than a year since we have seen Therese Olshanski from Johns Hopkins race and for now, we will have to keep waiting. Olshanski specifically struggled with a presumed injury at the end of the 2019 cross country meet, so she did not race last winter.
Even so, Olshanski has not missed a national meet when healthy and actually competing. In fact, she he has never finished outside of the top-12 of any national meet that she has attended. In 2019, she contributed to Johns Hopkins' 9th place finish in the DMR during indoors and later finished 5th in the 1500 meters at the outdoor national meet. She also has another All-American honor from 2018 indoor meet, finishing 7th in the mile.
We should also note that the Centennial Conference has decided to cancel conference competition and championships for all winter sports during the 2020-21 academic year. That doesn't necessarily mean that Johns Hopkins can't compete on their own accord, but whether or not they actually do is a different story.
Even though she won’t be able to compete in her conference this year, it felt wrong to leave this vet off of the top-15 list if competition is still technically cleared for her. Like many others on this list, she'll drop out of our rankings if she doesn't compete this winter.
Clara Mayfield is coming into this season with no national meet experience on the track, but that doesn’t mean that she should be left out of the All-American conversation. The sophomore had her season cut short last year before she was able to race two events at the indoor national meet.
Mayfield was listed at NCAA #11 for the 3k with a time of 9:55 and NCAA #9 in the 5k with a time of 17:16. Her 5k mark was very impressive as she ran it at the MIAC Championships, finishing almost 45 seconds ahead of 2nd place. With more experience under her belt and hopefully a national meet this year, Mayfield will get to race in her first national meet on the oval.
*MIT's schedule currently lists their indoor track meets as cancelled. We have included Collins in these preliminary rankings off of merit, but will adjust at a future date assuming that she does not compete this winter.
Collins was a case where it was difficult to figure out exactly where to rank her. On one hand, she boasts some of the best times in all of D3, having gone 9:49 (3k) and 16:53 (5k). When you consider that those times were run on back-to-back days at the 2019 D3 New England Championships on Bowdoin’s flat 200 meter track, then those performances become even more impressive.
On the other hand, however, she has not finished any higher than 10th at a national meet in any season that she has competed in.
We do think that this is the year where Collins can have a good day when it matters the most. A top-five finish in the 5000 meters seems not only feasible, but fairly likely, and in our eyes, that is enough to earn the MIT senior a spot just outside the top-10 of our rankings.
One of the most impressive freshmen from last year was Ana Tucker from Hope. After finishing an impressive 24th at the 2019 cross country national meet, Hope took her fitness to the track. She ran a 9:54 (3k) which put her at NCAA #9 in D3. She never got the chance to race for an All-American spot last year, but that shouldn't take away from her overall talent.
While she has been strong in past seasons, the reason she is so high up in this list is because of what she has done so far this season. At the GVSU Mike Lints Alumni Open, Tucker ran a 9:41 (3k), securing a massive new personal best. Clearly, she used the quarantine period to work on her fitness.
That time would have ranked her at NCAA #2 last year behind only Parley Hannan. If she can stay healthy and keep her fitness on an upwards trajectory, then she has a very good chance of getting on the podium.
Some may have expected to see Cardi ranked higher. She did, after all, finish 3rd at the NCAA XC Championships in 2019. Still, she hasn’t done quite enough on the oval to merit ranking her ahead of some of the other athletes on this list, at least from our perspective.
With that being said, Cardi has been phenomenal in her own right. Her best times of 9:47 (3k) and 17:08 (5k) are very competitive at the national level and she will continue to be a contender in those longer events. In 2019, she also placed 7th in the 3000 meters at the indoor national meet.
Cardi can certainly be an All-American again this year, and potentially even a dark horse for the 3k title. That's admittedly a bit of a stretch, but she's a strong talent and has accomplished a lot during her career at Dickinson.
We know the Centennial Conference isn't having conference competition or a conference meet this year, but Cardi could theoretically still race. If she doesn't, we'll ultimately have her removed from the rankings along with a plethora of other women in a similar position.
The junior from Chicago comes to the track with some speed. Even though she is a cross country All-American, when it comes to the oval, Elgamal often drops down to the mile and 3k.
The Chicago senior has run personal best times of 5:02 (mile) and 9:46 (3k). Her only track national meet was the indoor meet in 2019 where she finished 3rd in the 3000 meters. Admittedly, she had a bit of a rougher indoor season last year as she did not get all that close to her 3k personal best, running 9:59 as her fastest last winter.
Hopefully we can see her transition back to her former fitness this winter and see her finish as an All-American in the 3k and the DMR.
The senior has not missed a national meet since the winter of her freshman year. She is consistently a top-20 runner in both cross country and track. With personal bests of 9:57 (3k) and 16:51 (5k), it's hard to ignore the Wartburg veteran's consistency, experience and fast times.
Collet did have a bit of a rough indoor season last year, only running 17:31 (5k) which ranked her at NCAA #25 in D3 for the event. However, she clearly bounced back this past fall. Wartburg was one of the only schools in D3 that had a 2020 cross country season. Luckily, Collet made the most of her competitive opportunities, securing a 6k PR of 21:28.
The fitness is obviously there for Collet to run some fast times this winter and we don't have much of a reason to doubt her place amongst the D3 elites.
The Tufts standout was already an established star following her 6th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships, but she continued to make a name for herself throughout the indoor season. Her 9:55 (3k) and 16:51 (5k) were among the fastest in the country and she entered the national meet seeded third in the 5000 meters before it was cancelled.
Although Page was incredible last year, she is likely to be even better this year.
Her unofficial 16:40 (5k) from the "NED3.org Challenges" this past fall displayed ridiculous fitness. It also presented the question of what she will be able to do in a field full of high level competition.
Page seems poised to carry that momentum into this indoor season, continuing a collegiate career where she has steadily improved since the beginning of her freshman year. She will be hard to beat in the longer events and may even give the likes of Hannan and Mooney a run for their money. Stranger things have happened...
Five-time All-American Evie Bultemeyer is the owner of the highest ranking amongst non-national champions. She has made several appearances in the finals of national meets on the track in 2019, finishing 4th in the mile during indoors and then 8th in both the 800 meters and 1500 meters two months later.
Later that fall, Bultemeyer also recorded an impressive 8th place finish at cross country national meet. Then, after an outstanding 2020 indoor season, came to Winston-Salem as the top seed in the mile. She may have been in a position where was going to earn her first national title if not for the spread of COVID-19.
The Trine standout has been a highly versatile talent throughout all three seasons, with track personal bests of 2:10 (800), 4:29 (1500), 4:53 (mile), 10:00 (3000) and 10:54 (3k steeplechase), along with her top-10 national meet finish on the cross country course.
Bultemeyer has had an excellent career at Trine thus far, and all that’s missing is an individual national championship victory. This is the year that she can do it, as she will probably be the overall favorite in the mile this winter, as well as a dark horse in the 800 meters if she elects to double.
The highest middle distance runner on this list is junior Esther Seeland from Messiah. She earns this spot for a reason as she is the reigning 800 meter champion from the outdoor oval. Sure, that was in 2019, but she claimed that win as a freshman and that result wasn’t out of nowhere as she had finished 4th in the indoor 800 meters that same year.
Seeland kept the momentum going in 2020 as she came into the indoor national meet with an NCAA #2 time of 2:10 in the 800 meters. She was slightly upstaged by Sydney Packard from WPI last year, but Packard has run out of indoor eligibility and Seeland is now the favorite to take the 800 meter title if she can continue to run at such a high level.
Kassie Rosenbum of Loras certainly has run impressive times, but they don’t necessarily jump out when comparing her to the best athletes in the nation. What does jump out, however, is that she is a national champion and a five-time All-American.
Rosenbum had a massive performance at the outdoor national meet in 2019, winning the 10k and finishing 5th in the 5k, both of which were significant improvements from her original seed. She went on to finish 5th at cross country national meet and was one of the top distance talents in the nation last winter.
This fall, despite limited competition, she was able to face the Wartburg duo of Carina Collett and Aubrie Fisher twice, going 2-0 against Collett and 1-1 against Fisher. Rosenbum’s consistency and clutch gene ultimately earned her a top-three spot in these rankings.
Kaitlyn Mooney is the most decorated returning athlete in the country, having earned an indoor 5k national title along with a staggering seven other All-American honors. She does not receive the number one ranking largely because we haven’t seen her perform at that level as of late. She has not competed in an official event since the fall of 2019 where she found a way to finish in an All-American spot at the NCAA XC Championships despite not being 100%.
Mooney seems to carry the mentality of simply competing regardless of her fitness level. Should she race this winter, the Coast Guard star can be highly competitive in the 3000 meters where she holds a 9:27 personal best which pairs well with her 5k personal best of 16:23.
The Bears also look like they can threaten to qualify for a national berth in the DMR if everything comes together. If that happens, Mooney would surely be the anchor.
Parley Hannan at the number one spot should not surprise many people. She was the breakout star of the 2019 cross country season and continued her dominance on the indoor track.
Speaking of her dominance, the graduate student led all of D3 in the mile, 3k, 5k and DMR at one point in February last year. Hannan is the current D3 5k record holder which she set last season running 16:05. She also holds personal bests of 4:53 in the mile and 9:34 in the 3k.
If her fitness is anywhere near last year, then she should be able to contend for more than one national title.