Hannah Thorn
Mar 17, 202211 min
Additional contributions by Garrett Zatlin
Click here to see our Just Missed and Honorable Mention names.
Listed eligibility takes redshirts and Covid-related extensions into consideration.
TFRRS is used as a general guide when determining eligibility.
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.
Alex Ross ran a really solid 5k at the national meet to finish 5th place overall, matching her initial seed and not losing to anyone who came in with a slower seed time. Her positioning was strong and the race unfolded in a way that truly benefitted her aerobic strength as a true long distance runner.
While Ross did produce a 5k result that was on par with expectations, the 3k ended up being a much tougher race for her.
Her tired legs during her second race of the weekend proved to be too much as she couldn’t go with the field when they picked the pace up in the second-half. She ended up finishing 17th overall.
Although the 3k may have left a bitter taste in her mouth, earning All-American status on the track for the first time, after placing 12th and 9th place at the outdoor national meet last spring, is a significant accomplishment.
Ross proved that she was clearly one of the better distance runners in the nation this year and the upcoming outdoor season will surely produce plenty of strong results with the introduction of the 10k.
Magill came in just a fraction of a second behind Ross in the 5000 meters to finish 6th overall and earn the second All-American accolade of her career.
This race from the Brandeis standout was an incredibly clutch performance when you consider that she came in with a personal best of 17:09...and then proceeded to shatter that PR by 15 seconds on the biggest stage.
For further perspective, she had yet to break 18:00 for a 5000 meters on the track prior to this winter season. Since then, she has made a massive leap in fitness this year and she inserted herself into the realm of the most elite names in D3, peaking when it mattered the most and validating her two 5k wins from from February.
Molly FitzGibbons is a talented young miler who has really found her footing in the D3 scene. Last spring, as a true freshman, FitzGibbons ran a 1500 meter personal best of 4:48. That was a solid time, but it was nowhere near national qualifying contention.
10 months later, FitzGibbons comfortably earned All-American status in the mile, running 4:55 in the national meet mile final, a mark that was a four-second personal best.
This was a huge breakout season for FitzGibbons who, despite her relative championship inexperience, fully embraced that opportunity and never shied away from her competition for a second. She was fairly consistent this year and peaked when it matted the most. That's impressive for someone as young as her.
FitzGibbons still has a lot more to do in her career as an Eph, but it will be fun to watch her progress over the next few years.
Elise Lambert took a fairly cautious approach to the 800 meter final, but you truly can't blame her. If she had gone with the hot, early pace set by Esther Seeland and Emma Kelley, then she very well may have hit a wall and finished in 7th or 8th place.
Ultimately, Lambert's patience helped her finish in the top-three, the highest national finish the two-time All-American has ever achieved. It also doesn't hurt that she peaked at the right time this season and her performances at Boston University essentially told us that she thrives in competitive environments.
The Bates senior has had an illustrious career as it stands, but she took yet another step up this past weekend. Her veteran status clearly made a difference on Friday and Saturday.
In a 5k that was headlined by Kassie Parker's dismantling of the championship record, and Ari Marks' valiant effort to challenge her, it was McCarey's 3rd place finish is not bound to get a ton of attention.
But McCarey's performance does deserve some time in the spotlight. She found herself on a bit of an island after Parker and Marks separated, but she was able to stay awake and keep Fiona Smith (and others) at bay. That is very impressive, especially given how challenging of a position she was in.
Several of the stars who were doubling back in the 3k struggled to respond to the lead pack's mid-race injection of pace, and McCarey was certainly one of them as she ended up falling back to 16th place.
The SUNY Geneseo star will likely be disappointed by the 3k, but a bronze medal in the 5k behind two of the three fastest D3 runners in the event's history gives her something to be seriously proud of.
Sadie Heeringa is my favorite type of D3 runner. She is very consistent and makes notable improvements each and every year.
After making her first national meet on the track last spring (and finishing 15th), she came into this meet qualified in three different events. She ended up scratching the mile to focus on the DMR and the 3k.
Let’s talk about the 3k, first. She was in the pack of seven that broke away from the field and even though Heeringa has tremendous mile speed (4:50), she wasn’t against slouches who would be unable to respond.
Down the last straight away, she was racing against Seeland, Baran and Miller. Those are the last three distance runners who I would want to have a foot race with.
But Heeringa is better than me (we already knew that) and she ultimately earned a 5th place finish in a time of 9:47, an upgrade from her NCAA #7 seeding.
Her other race of the weekend was the DMR. Calvin squeaked into the national meet in this event, coming in ranked at NCAA #11 at 11:56.
Calvin did have Delaney Sall on their 1200 meter leg, which was a great decision, but everyone knows that the DMR comes down to the anchor.
Lucky for Calvin, they had Heeringa on that final leg. Coming into the last leg, eight teams were in contention which makes for a big pack. Despite the crowded nature of that field, Heeringa navigated her competition like a true veteran and kicked to a 5th place finish in a time of 11:46.
That result was a big improvement and a great justification for anyone questioning the decision to scratch the mile.
Two 5th place finishes at the national meet was a great way for Heeringa to finish the season. She showed us that her leg speed is easily one of the greatest racing assets in her arsenal and she gave us very little reason to doubt her all season long.
I feel like we have been talking about Clara Mayfield at national meets forever despite only being a sophomore in terms of her eligibility.
Part of that is because of the pandemic. The other part is because she has made every national meet that has been held while she has been in college.
That experience clearly pays off as she knows how to race like a true veteran. That showed in the mile as she navigated the chaos of prelims and finals successfully. She finished 4th place overall in a time of 4:52.92, only 0.2 seconds shy of her personal best.
By the time the 3k came around, Mayfield was just gassed, and you could tell. She finished 14th overall in 10:01, well over her PR of 9:35. That race, however, isn’t at all representative of her season.
Even though she has always raced at a high level, this season was different. Mayfield set new personal bests in the 800 meters, the mile, the 3k and the 5k. Normally, we see her in the 5k and 10k during outdoors, but this indoor season showed us that she can contest most distances and be majorly successful.
Fiona Smith was in two of the toughest races that took place this past weekend.
In the 5k, she did not make the move with Parker and Marks when they separated from the field which left her out of the race for title. Even so, she still ran 16:48 for 4th place, which is an improvement from her 5th place finish in the 5k from last year's outdoor national meet.
In the 3k, Smith was not going to make the same mistake that she made in the 5k. When Parker and Marks made their move, Smith latched on. Eventually, she didn’t have the speed to get around them in the last straightaway, but she did grab a clutch 3rd place finish.
After setting personal bests this indoor season in the 1k, the mile, the 3k and the 5k, Smith showed off unreal value as a distance runner. She was nationally competitive in numerous events, was able to take down start talents on multiple occasions, was able to effectively make tactical adjustments and boasted a tremendous amount of range.
It’s easy to overlook Emma Kelley’s performance from this past weekend as Esther Seeland ran 2:05 in the same 800 meter final as Kelley. However, Kelley’s outstanding mark of 2:09.77 is also blazing fast and only 0.3 seconds off of her PR.
Not to mention, she ran most of the race in "no man's land", chasing Seeland with the rest of the field three seconds behind her. That effort ultimately gave her a silver medal.
She also was on Washington U.’s 4x400 which finished 3rd. Not a bad weekend at all.
After not advancing to the 800 meter finals or the 4x400 meter finals last spring at the outdoor national meet, this past weekend was definitely redemption for Kelley.
In fact, not only was it redemption, but it also feels like it was validation as it was obvious how talented Kelley was this winter. In a world without Seeland, we're likely looking at Kelley in a different light.
Oh, and she’s only a sophomore, so she’ll have plenty of chances to take home a title in the future.
Zanzie Demco definitely had a rollercoaster of emotions this weekend. After qualifying for the mile finals, she was set to race in UW-Oshkosh’s DMR, which was seeded as the second-best team in the field. On paper, they were set to have a great battle with Wartburg.
Unfortunately, Demco never got the baton and the team was forced to DNF. She must have used that disappointment to fuel her mile final...
In that mile final, Baran, Miller and Mayfield made their moves away from the field, forcing Demco to use her underrated strength to stick with the group. That decision paid off as she finished 3rd place overall, her first true All-American honor on then indoor oval.
Not only that, but Demco's clutch 4:51 performance was a four-second PR for her.
Demco was outstanding. In a race that forced many women to tap into their aerobic strength, Demco was still able to hang with the leaders while also utilizing her middle distance speed at the end. She showed strong positioning and did the small things right.
Taking down Mayfield is also impressive and it's also something that helps her case in these rankings.
No race was easy for the favorites this weekend and in the mile, it was Evie Miller who gave Ella Baran a run for her money in the finals.
Miller was on the heels of Baran the entire race and was out-leaned to finish runner-up in a blistering time of 4:48. In the 3k, Miller was in the pack of four that finished all-together, ultimately settling for a 4th place finish and an excellent mark of 9:47.
These performances were her fifth and sixth All-American honors on the track and they pair nicely with her two from cross country. It's clear that the veteran's experience is allowing her to be comfortable in numerous race scenarios, even with the NCAA getting faster as a whole.
Yet, more so, the fact that Miller was able to push an all-time star in Ella Baran to the line and still come back for an All-American finish allows us to better appreciate her dominance from this winter.
Yes, she does drop one spot in our rankings, but that's not necessarily because of anything that she has done.
Ari Marks gave title favorite Kassie Parker a scare in both the 3k and the 5k.
The 5k was really a two-person battle for most of the race, with Parker taking the win by four seconds. Marks, however, was rewarded for sticking to the fast pace with a new PR, bettering her former mark by almost 20 seconds.
And although she lost by four seconds, Mark was the one who made things fairly interesting with Parker for a good portion of the race.
In the 3k, she finished in a time of 9:44 (although her PR is 9:36), only one second behind Parker and earning runner-up honors.
Marks was hunting down Parker for the last three laps, but could not get past her on the last straightaway. Still, it was a valiant and a well-timed effort that nearly resulted in a stunning upset.
Marks was very consistent this year, never having a poor race. She thrived in all-out races and aerobically, was clearly one of the best distance talents in the country. I know we have said it time and time again, but this was truly a breakout year for the Wellesley star and we know that she is hungry for that national title.
We’ll see what she can do during outdoors and if she chooses to move up to the 10k distance, an event that, in theory, favors her racing prowess.
Ella Baran came in as the heavy title favorite in the mile. However, we weren't entirely expecting her to have to hold off a tough challenge from Evie Miller to win gold with a sprint finish and a lean. Nonetheless, her win validated her regular season success.
Baran didn’t fare as well in the 3k, making the break with the pack of seven, but not doing much from there. We kept waiting for her to kick away from the pack, but that speed never came.
She came across the line with a group of four women and ended up in 6th place with a time of 9:47. We are simply chalking that performance up to the fact that she had a tough mile final in her legs.
Baran is still the D3 mile record holder and she is still one of the fastest women in Division Three history for the 3000 meters. We can't take that away from her.
Let’s be honest, we all thought that the 800/3k double was a weird choice for Seeland. However, it ended up paying off.
She won the 800 meters by breaking away from the field with 400 meters left, and even though Emma Kelley tried to chase her down, there was no catching Seeland.
In the 3k, she was in the pack of seven that broke away which was a huge move for Seeland. She showcased some surprising strength and held on to the pack. She was with the four other women who all crossed the line basically at the same time.
Seeland finished 7th in that 3k race which way outperformed her NCAA #18 seed. Her 9:47 mark was also a PR for her, which you love to see at the national meet, especially for a runner who is known for her middle distance speed.
Kassie Parker was half a second away from pulling off the 3k/5k/DMR triple win this past weekend. That’s an insane sentence.
Regardless of her close loss in the DMR, the Loras veteran won the 5k and 3k titles against some very strong competition. In the 5k, her time of 16:15 was a championship record and only 10 seconds off of the D3 record. She also holds the "all-conditions" best time in the 5k when she ran 15:58 earlier this year.
In the 3k, she faced the 800 meters, the mile and the DMR champions and still came out victorious. It was 30 seconds off of her 9:13 mark from earlier this season, but it was also her third race of the weekend, so we're not exactly concerned about that.
Parker was simply incredible this season. She dominated the 3k and the 5k, proved to be one of the most reliable names of the national and held off honest efforts from her competition, mainly from Ari Marks. She was flat-out dominant and there is no other way around that.
We can’t wait to see her on the outdoor oval as the 10k record of 33:21 is officially on watch.
Elise Lambert (Bates)
Molly Fitzgibbons (Williams)
Erin Magill (Brandeis)
Aubrie Fisher (Wartburg)
Elizabeth Donnelly (Gustavus Adolphus)
Claudia Harnett (U of Chicago)
Maeve Hoffman (Wesleyan)
Meredith Bloss (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps)
Aubrie Fisher (Wartburg)
Katherine Geist (Carleton)
Sara Stephenson (Johns Hopkins)
Delaney Sall (Calvin)
Claudia Harnett (U of Chicago)
Maddie Kelly (U of Chicago)
Elizabeth Donnelly (Gustavus Adolphus)
Anna Schueth (UW-Eau Claire)