TSR Collaboration
Apr 14, 20219 min
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.
NOTE: The listed eligibility for these athletes takes into account the eligibility extension granted by the NCAA to make up for the discontinued 2020 outdoor track season.
Pomainville came out of nowhere in the middle distance events this season, opening up with very impressive performances in the 800 meters (2:11) and 1500 meters (4:35). She hadn't officially toed the line since February of 2020, but clearly made the most of the gap between competition. Her previous personal bests in those events before the last couple of weeks were 2:24 and 4:55.
Nobody, except for maybe herself and her team, could have predicted her meteoric rise onto the scene nationally. However, now that we've all learned her name, Pomainville is likely a future All-American and potentially even a dark horse title contender. We still need to see how she continues to progress, that will certainly be key, but she's a rapidly rising talent.
Trine’s Evie Bultemeyer did not race this past indoor track season, but her return to the oval will be highly anticipated. Bultemeyer boasts personal bests of 2:10 (800), 4:29 (1500) and 4:53 (mile). She has also earned All-American honors multiple times.
One of the best 800/1500 runners in the country, the Trine veteran will be right near the top of the D3 national leaderboard in both of those events this outdoor season, assuming she is healthy and able to toe the line. We are a little unsure how her extended absence and early-season rust will affect a potential debut, but she's too talented for that to be a major concern.
Fiona Smith, TSR’s "Best Freshman" Award winner, has already come out during this spring season running times that could challenge seasoned veterans. Smith opened her season with a 4:43 effort for 1500 meters which ranks her at NCAA #12 in D3 right now. She then followed that mark the very next week with a 17:29 (5k) which ranks at NCAA #5.
One of the more effective distance talents in all of D3 (regardless of the distance), Smith will aim to follow-up on her strong indoor season where she was ranked in the top-10 nationally for the mile (5:00, NCAA #7), 3k (9:55, NCAA #3) and 5k (17:23, NCAA #4).
While she may be light on national meet experience, this freshman has performed incredibly well against All-Americans standouts like Kassie Rosenbum, Ana Tucker and Carina Collet...and did not back down from those distance running stalwarts.
One runner who is looking to decimate her outdoor times is junior Zanzie Demco from UW-Oshkosh. It won’t come as a surprise that Demco has set new personal bests and was ranked in the top-25 nationally of every distance from the 400 meters up to the 5k this past indoor track season.
Demco's highest ranking came in the mile when she ran a blazing fast time of 4:57 to be ranked at NCAA #2 (by 0.6 seconds) behind Maeve Roach. Her indoor 800 meter time is four seconds faster than her outdoor PR of 2:19.
The Oshkosh sophomore opened up her outdoor track season at the Rex Foster Invitational at UW-Whitewater with a time of 4:45 for 1500 meters. She was also on her team's 4x400 relay. That 1500 meter time is a PR...because it’s the only one that she has ever run it.
As we saw this past winter, Demco could compete in the 800 meters, the 1500 meters, the 5000 meters or even the steeplechase. She has a ton of upside, is clearly making notable improvements and should be able to transition that success to the outdoor oval this spring.
Some people may be scratching their head, wondering why an eight-time All-American and a 5k national title winner is ranked at only TSR #11. Truthfully, Mooney's ranking isn't necessary influenced by her talent, but rather her lack of races.
The Coast Guard star has competed since the 2019 cross country season and she truthfully wasn't in top form back then. She also toed the line for a mile and a 5k (both on an indoor track) back in early March, but Mooney was listed as a DNF in both of those races. The Coast Guard veteran might be talented, but her ongoing absence from competition makes it difficult to gauge where (or if) she should be ranked.
We're also unsure if her future move to Rutgers will impact her decision to race this spring. We don't have a reason to believe that that is the case, but it is something to consider.
Regardless, Mooney is exceptionally talented and one of the most accomplished distance runners in all of D3. She'll eventually drop out of our rankings if she doesn't race soon, but we couldn't leave a marquee name out of our rankings...at least not yet.
One runner who we have been waiting to see return is Danielle Page from Tufts.
In December of 2019, she then ran the third-fastest 5k time in the country for the indoor season with a huge mark of 16:51.97. However, the indoor national meet was eventually cancelled and we never got to see her compete during outdoors.
We know her fitness hasn’t left as Tufts ran a virtual competition where Page ran an outstanding personal best of 16:40. She did not compete in Tufts's season opener against Connecticut College on April 11th, but hopefully we’ll soon get a chance to see what her fitness level is. When she's at her best, Page feels like a clear favorite (and borderline lock) to finish as an All-American despite her limited outdoor track experience.
The Blue Jays had an electric day this past weekend. On the same day as teammate Ella Baran's breakthrough race, veteran Ariel Keklak ran an excellent time of 4:31 for 1500 meters, six seconds faster than the previous week and a five-second personal best.
Since transferring from Wake Forest, Keklak has consistently been a force at the D3 level, but she clearly took herself to a higher level this past weekend. It will be fun to see how far she can go throughout the rest of the season if she is able to maintain this kind of momentum in the latter portion of April and the month of May.
Aubrie Fisher was impeccable this past indoor track season, running 2:18 in the 800 meters, 4:59 in the mile and 9:59 in the 3k. Those times had her ranked at NCAA #19, NCAA #4 and NCAA #5 in D3, respectively.
The sophomore (who is a freshman by eligibility) had never run during outdoors in college, but she looks to be adapting quickly. She opened her season with a 4:38 effort for 1500 meters at the Loras Easter Midweek Meet where she beat TSR #3 runner Kassie Rosenbum by over two seconds. Fisher later ran an impressive 3k steeplechase debut in 11:00.
A win over someone like Rosenbum, even if it was a step down in distance, along with a promising steeplechase performance helps raise her stock in our rankings.
TSR’s "Most Improved" Award winner from the indoor track season looks to continue her breakout season over the next two months. The Coast Guard veteran earned a pair of top-three times nationally in the 800 and mile this past winter. Her 800 PR of 2:14 and mile PR of 4:57 from this year are very impressive.
In fact, her mile PR is actually faster than her 1500 meter PR of 5:02. Her outdoor personal bests of 2:20 for 800 meters and 5:02 for the 1500 meters are sure to drop dramatically this spring based on the massive leap in fitness that we saw from her a few months ago.
The 800 meters looks like it's going to be highly competitive this year. Along with Maeve Roach from Coast Guard, Ether Seeland from Messiah and Ariel Keklak from Johns Hopkins, WPI standout Sydney Packard is back this year as a graduate student to also contest the half-mile distance.
Packard was just 0.01 seconds away from getting the D3 indoor national record last winter. She boasts personal bests of 2:06.54 in the 800 meters and 4:31 in the 1500 meters. Like many athletes, she did not race during indoors this past winter, but will be looking to make a major splash this spring.
Her rust-buster effort was a 1500 meter race at the UMass Dartmouth vs Worcester Polytechnic Dual Meet. Her time of 4:44 is well off of her personal best, but it's that bad for her first time racing in over 13 months. The following week is when she gained some real momentum with a 2:13 win in the 800 meters in a tri-meet against Wheaton (MA) and Roger Williams.
Packards looks to be headed in the right direction and we feel like she can eventually reach her top form from the 2020 indoor track season. However, her early-season times are a bit slower than expected which is why we have her at TSR #6. Still, we shouldn't read too heavily into those marks as we're sure improvements will be made over the next few weeks.
TSR's "Most Valuable Runner" from the indoor track season returns to the outdoor oval this spring after setting the track on fire during the winter months. The sophomore (who we believe is actually considered to be a freshman based on the pandemic-extended eligibility) ran 4:57 in the mile, 9:39 in the 3k and 17:04 in the 5k this past winter, all of which were very solid improvements over last year. Tucker also was a part of Hope’s winning DMR at the DIII Elite Indoor Championships.
While Tucker has yet to race outdoors collegiately, she does hold personal bests of 5:00 in the mile and 10:42 in the 3200 meters from high school. She has improved massively since then and is sure to set new bests this outdoor season. The idea of her being a national title contender isn't too far-fetched as she surely has massive confidence coming off of a huge indoor track season.
One of several Johns Hopkins stars, Baran finds herself in these rankings due to a big start to her outdoor track season. She ran 4:33 in the 1500 meters at the Towson Invitational where she took the win over established and nationally competitive teammates like Ariel Keklak and Therese Olshanski. Baran then followed up that performance with a massive 16:40 (5k), proving that her 1500 meter win was no fluke.
The rising Johns Hopkins ace currently finds herself ranked at NCAA #3 on the national leaderboard for the 1500 meters and NCAA #2 in the 5000 meters behind only Parley Hannan. If she continues to build upon these kind of results, then she could be a sneaky pick for a national title in either event.
Someone who really excelled this past indoor season was Kassie Rosenbum from Loras. She finished in the top-five of the national leaderboard in three different events. Those distances included the 5k (NCAA #2, 16:50), the 3k (NCAA #2, 9:44) and the mile (tied NCAA #5, 4:59).
Rosenbum has great championship experience as she won the 10k at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships and also finished 6th in the 5k that same weekend. The Loras star held personal bests of 35:34 in the 10k and 17:03 in the outdoor 5k going into this spring season.
She started this season in the 1500 meters at the Loras Easter Mid Week Meet. Then, this past weekend, she dropped a 5k PR of 16:45, putting her at NCAA #3 in what looks to be a deep 5k field early-on.
Rosenbum has some tough competition this year, but should be looking to defend her 10k national title come May.
Somehow, Esther Seeland from Messiah is often overlooked, but she is one to watch out for this spring. Seeland is the NCAA #3 all-time outdoor D3 800 meter runner with a blistering time of 2:05.24. The only D3 athletes to have ever run faster is current Hoka One One athlete Emily Richards and multi-time national champion Christy Cazzola of UW-Oshkosh.
Not only did Seeland do that as a freshman in 2019, but she also did it in the final at the outdoor national meet, beating the runner-up finisher by over four seconds. This year, she opened her season with times of 2:13 (800), 4:53 (1500) and a split on the 4x400 relay.
Those times were clearly rust-busters as we saw her run 2:07 in the 800 meters and 4:27 in the 1500 meters, solidifying herself as an instant title contender in both events, but more specifically the 800 meters.
We might be a little redundant at this point, but Parley Hannan of Ithaca is once again ranked at TSR #1 on this website. The 2019 cross country champion has raced only once this indoor season, but she made the most of that opportunity.
At the Nazareth Mini Invite, she won the 5k in a D3-leading time of 16:40 and ran a 5:04 anchor on Ithaca’s DMR team. This will be Hannan’s first outdoor season and she could win multiple national titles. The Ithaca star opened her season with a massive time of 16:17 (5k) at the Cortaca Dual Meet, which ranks NCAA #6 all-time in D3. She could also win a title in the 1500 meters after she ran a 4:28 at Rochester-Ithaca-RIT Triangular.
There is a lot of season left, but Parley Hannan looks to be at the top of D3 once again.