Bullet Points: Friday & Thursday Action

Just when we thought that they couldn't get much better, the BYU women found a way to catch our attention. At the Husky Classic, BYU's Courtney Wayment took down a field of accomplished professionals, running a jaw-dropping time of 4:30 after beautifully positioning herself in a crowded field late in the race and making a clutch surge in the final moments to land the win. Not only that, but we also saw Olivia Hoj run 4:31 while teammates Heather Hanson, Kate Hunter and Simone Plourde ran 4:36, 4:37 and 4:37, respectively.

The Cougars now have five women who are in automatic qualifying positions for the women's mile for indoor national meet this season. That is an insane number as I can't remember a women's national mile field consisting of five women from the same school. The development that we've seen out of this team is unbelievable and Wayment has shown that she can still combine her tactical prowess with her newfound fitness to emerge as a title contender. Kudos to Coach Taylor on the depth and firepower that she has built within this team.

We should also mention that Washington's Allie Schadler ran 4:31 in that same race, a mark that is more indicative of her true talent based on her 15:33 (5k) personal best from December. This was a clutch performance for the Husky ace and it has since revived our confidence in her as we enter the postseason. Long-time veteran Katie Rainsberger was also entered in the women's mile, but she quietly finished with a 4:38 while teammate Madiso Heisterman ran 4:39. At this point, I'm not too confident that Rainsberger will be going to the indoor national meet as an individual. That is not at all something that we were expecting to say at the start of the season.

The men's 3k at the Husky Classic didn't have the same spark as that women's mile field, but Washington State's Colton Johnsen has continued to flex his range. He just ran 7:53 for 3000 meters and convincingly took down Washington's Andrew Jordan in the process. Few guys in the NCAA have the range that Johnsen does and he'll likely have the luxury of being able to toe the line for essentially any distance race he wants at the indoor national meet. It's not often that guys go into the national meet and simply choose the event that gives them the best chance of success.

Let's stay out west and talk about the West Coast Conference XC Championships. We saw the BYU men go to work on Thursday and easily take down their conference rivals. That wasn't a surprise. However, what was a bit surprising was seeing Gonzaga upset Portland for 2nd place. Usually, the Pilots don't always put a ton of emphasis on their conference meet, but with the NCAA selection committee putting the most weight into conference performances this winter, we thought the Pilots would come out guns blazing in this race. But that didn't happen. Evert Silva ran well, but the rest of their lineup was a bit flat. Gonzaga simply had better firepower and the backend of their top-five was right in the mix with Portland's supporting scorers.

It seems hard to believe, but we now have to ask ourselves...will the Pilots qualify for the NCAA XC Championships this year? If the Oregon men run well at the PAC-12 Championships, then Portland may be able to argue that they deserve to be on the starting line in Stillwater. The Pilots beat a non-varsity Oregon squad earlier this season and the NCAA selection committee isn't differentiating between "A" squads and "B" squads this year. So, in other words, the Portland men should be cheering for the Oregon Ducks at the PAC-12 XC Championships. A good performance from Oregon could actually help the Pilots when it comes to earning a national qualifying bid.

The women's WCC race had a little less drama. BYU scored 28 points to comfortably take home the win, although we still haven't seen Whittni Orton. That's not a great sign with the national meet now fast approaching. If the women from Provo want to put themselves in the national title conversation, they'll need a healthy Whittni Orton in that top-seven. Still, the Cougars got the job done on Thursday and won fairly comfortably despite Haley Johnston and Lexy Halladay finishing a bit further back than we expected them to.

Let's switch over the SEC Indoor Championships and talk about the DMR. My goodness did this event produce some fireworks. The Ole Miss men extended their historical dominance with a convincing 9:29 to secure gold. With Garcia Romo dropping a 3:54 split on the anchor leg while an established star like Suliman led-off for the team, it's easy to see why the Rebels took home the victory.

However, the performance that we really need to talk about is Alabama's runner-up finish in the DMR. Truthfully, most of the legs on this relay were relatively unexciting, but when you get to the anchor leg, you may do a double take. Eliud Kipsang, who has run 3:56 and 3:57 so far this season, split an unbelievable time of 3:51 on the anchor leg! That's truthfully a bit hard to fathom as not even Cooper Teare ran that fast when he helped Oregon set a new national record in the DMR.

Kipsang has now reached a point where he can dictate the pace of any race he toes the line for. And what's even crazier is that he is seemingly able to sustain it. So far this winter, Kipsang has gone from being a relative unknown, to a solid talent, to a national qualifier, to an All-American candidate, to someone who could potentially vie for a top-five finish in the mile at the indoor national meet in March.

Speaking of Alabama in the DMR, how about the Crimson Tide women? They were incredibly impressive on Thursday night. Rising star Amaris Tyynismaa has been racing with such incredible confidence and poise as of late and I keep waiting for her inexperience to catch up to her...but it never does. She split 4:31 on the anchor leg of Alabama's DMR the other night to give the women from Tuscaloosa the SEC title. I have been so impressed by Tyynismaa's consistency this year as she seems completely unfazed by this new tier of national contenders that she has entered.

The 5000 meters at the SEC XC Championships also produced some upsets. Cole Bullock ran 13:59 to fend off a top talent in Gilbert Boit (as well as the rest of his Arkansas teammates) which was super impressive. That was a big win for Bullock who just took down a TSR-ranked name and a very respectable field. On paper, that Arkansas group was simply better than Bullock was, but the redshirt freshman didn't seem to care about what the paper had to say.

As for the women, we saw a fairly significant upset in the women's 5k as Auburn's Joyce Kimeli took home the stunning win over Katie Izzo, 15:46 to 15:47. That was a very surprising outcome as we figured a race as fast as that would benefit Izzo the most.

This has to be a massive confidence booster for Kimeli who had been solid this winter, but had not yet posted anything as eye-catching as that 5k performance. Not only did she take down Izzo, but she also took down Alabama's Mercy Chelangat who finished 3rd overall in a time of 15:48. Based on what has happened around the country, I would argue that no one (except maybe Wayment) had a bigger statement win on Thursday or Friday than Kimeli did.

Thursday was probably a great day for the Minnesota women. Bethany Hasz ran 9:06 for 3000 meters to win the BIG 10 title before a Hasz-less Minnesota DMR went on to barely edge Michigan for the win.

At the BIG 12 Indoor Championships, Iowa State's Wesley Kiptoo threw down an outstanding mark of 13:42 for 5000 meters. That, however, was done at altitude, so he now has a converted mark of 13:31. That time puts Kiptoo at NCAA #4 in the 5000 meters this season and gives his resume a bit of a spark after staying relatively quiet on the indoor oval following his 7:48 (3k) from earlier in the season.

Nice wins for Antonio Lopez Segura (Virginia Tech) and Amanda Vestri (Syracuse) in the 5000 meters at the ACC Championships. Lopez Segura has been quietly strong this entire season, throwing down respectable marks in pretty much every distance event. He just ran 13:49 to hold off an underrated talent in Andrew Kent for the ACC title. As for Vestri, her competition wasn't quite as strong, but she has looked like a new runner this year ever since she finished runner-up at the ACC XC Championships this past fall.