First Thoughts: Everything Else We Didn't Talk About

Admittedly, most of the top distance action from the last few days of racing was already discussed in our last two articles. There were, however, a handful of key headlines that we have yet to chat about, mainly in the middle distance events.

Today's "First Thoughts" article will be a bit shorter than what you usually read, but that doesn't make the following performances any less impressive...

One of the more underrated names in the SEC over the last few years has been Chris Conrad, a Missouri middle distance talent who, at his best, can be one of the top 800 meter runners that the NCAA has to offer.

Sure enough, we saw Conrad's incredible raw talent shine in Raleigh this past Saturday, leading a very respectable half-mile field for the entirety of the race. The Mizzou standout went wire-to-wire, never relinquishing the lead and ultimately charging down the final straightaway en route to a mark of 1:47.89 (800).

It's no surprise to see Conrad run a fast time. In fact, he's run 1:47 six separate times before Saturday's effort and has made multiple appearances on the national stage. However, Conrad's winning performance this past weekend felt different. The Tiger veteran looked insanely strong throughout the entirety of his race, holding incredible command of a field that didn't have a ton of superstars, but was plenty deep.

Admittedly, Conrad has been a bit inconsistent as of late. We don't always know what we're going to get from him and we're still waiting for this Missouri veteran to have his best race on the national stage.

The SEC middle distance talent was 14th in the 800 meters at the SEC Indoor Championships this past winter and didn't make it out of the prelims with a mark of 1:50. But two weeks before that, Conrad had run 1:47.96 to finish 3rd at the Music City Challenge.

But Saturday's race felt distinctly different, even if it was an early-season effort in the month of March. Out of all of the wins in his career, none have been more commanding/impressive than what he just threw down in North Carolina.

Of course, just because Conrad got the win doesn't mean that he wasn't challenged.

In what had to be the race of his life, Wake Forest's Rynard Swanepoel threw down an unbelievable kick in the final 100 meters of this race. And had he timed that move maybe five meters earlier, then he would have secured the win.

The South African middle distance runner was one of the top recruits in the NCAA when he first joined Wake Forest. And although he has provided very solid value since then, no race of his has been better than what we saw on Saturday.

Swanepoel's 1:47.92 (800) mark is a very encouraging step in the right direction. He was basically half a step away from taking down a multi-time national qualifier and he just ran a PR, cracking the 1:48 barrier for the first-time in his career.

Not only that, but that was one of the better finishing kicks that I've seen from a half-miler so far this year. If you watch the replay, you would have never thought that with 100 meters to go, Swanepoel was going to be 0.03 seconds off from gold.

And to top it all off, we should note that Conrad and Swanepoel ran personal bests of 3:46 and 3:44, respectively, for 1500 meters two days before their 800 meter battle. That is quite the weekend for these middle distance talents.

Yes, the battle between Conrad and Swanepoel was plenty fast and very entertaining. That, however, wasn't the fastest 800 meter race of the weekend. Instead, the fastest half-mile time on the men's national leaderboard is currently held by a little-known name from the likes of Long Beach State.

Allow me to introduce you to Kash Powell.

Powell is a true middle distance runner, staying between the 400 meters and the 1500 meters as his main event disciplines with the 800 meters as his primary race. But prior to this spring, the Long Beach State standout had never run faster than 1:51 (which came at altitude) for the half-mile distance and prior to this acamdeic year, he had never run faster than 1:53.

But then the Aussie ace ran 1:49 over 800 meters two weeks ago. And after running a substantial PR, Powell only got even better, chopping off even more time to post an incredible mark of 1:47.57 this past weekend.

In just four races, Powell has gone from running 1:51 to 1:47 -- and that's just incredible.

There are always a handful of breakout runners over 800 meters who catch us by surprise. Last year, those men were Sebastian Fernandez (BYU), Lorenz Herrmann (Idaho) and Tamrat Snyder (Rider) to name a few.

Could Powell be the 2023 version of those men over the next few months?

He's certainly trending in that direction...
 

Of course, it's important to recognize that Powell didn't just solo that 1:47 mark. He was also flanked by fellow teammate Mohammed Mohamed who finished runner-up in a time of 1:48.

Mohamed ran 1:48 for 800 meters last year and qualified for the West Regional Championships. However, Saturday produced a (small) new PR for the west coast talent, an encouraging sign this early in the season.

There's admittedly not a whole lot to talk about when it comes to these two UCLA stars. Or at the very least, there isn't anything majorly shocking about what they did this past weekend.

After a huge breakout season, Ronan McMahon-Staggs was clearly looking to take advantage of his fitness this past weekend. In doing so, he ran 3:41 for 1500 meters en route to a win over high school megastar and current Stanford commit, Leo Young.

Of course, after running 3:57, 3:56 and then 3:54 in the mile this past winter, no one should be stunned by McMahon-Staggs' performance. However, we did get to see second-year talent Ajani Salcido, a fellow Bruin teammate, run 3:43 for 1500 meters. That's a promising result for a still-developing youngster who is now under the direction of Coach Sean Brosnan.

We should also note that after Friday's 1500 meter effort, McMahon-Staggs returned to action on Saturday, contesting the same 800 meter race where Kash Powell ran 1:47. Sure, McMahon-Staggs "only" ran 1:50, but considering that he was on a two-day double, it's hard to view that result as anything other than some basic speed work.

As for Mia Barnett, the former Virginia distance runner had quite a day of her own, running 4:14 for 1500 meters thanks to some assumed pacing from teammate Rose Pittman. That's a sneaky-fast time for the month of March, although no one should be surprised that someone of Barnett's caliber was able to post that kind of result.

Still, this is someone who ran 4:11 for 1500 meters as a true freshman. And if she's already running 4:14, basically by herself for the second-half of her race in the month of March, then you have think that this west coast miler will legitimately threaten the 4:10 barrier later this season.

The women's 800 meters wasn't quite as top-heavy as the men this past weekend, but a trio of 2:04 marks from Dorcus Ewoi, Yasmin Austridge and Alyssa Balandran was still very solid.

Ewoi ran her time at the Raleigh Relays, effectively giving herself top collegiate honors in that field and finishing 2nd place overall behind pro runner, Angel Piccirillo.

However, what makes that result so impressive is the fact that the Campbell standout also ran 4:15 for 1500 meters on Friday afternoon. And when you step back to evaluate the rest of the country, there might not have been another woman in the NCAA who had two combined distance races better than what we saw from Ewoi.

The mid-major runner has been nationally competitive for a while now, thriving last spring en route to a 2:03 (800) PR which she ran at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. And after a very solid indoor track campaign, it feels like Ewoi is due to convincingly have her best season over the next few months.

We then come to Lamar's Yasmin Austridge and Rice's Alyssa Balandran, two women who battled to a pair of 2:04 (800) marks of their own at a separate meet. Texas A&M's Kendra Chambers also ran 2:04 in this race, but was listed as unattached.

For Austridge, this is a big-time performance. Prior to this past weekend, the Lamar runner had never posted a half-mile time better than 2:09 (yes, you're reading that correctly). But in the span of just one race, this Cardinal middle distance talent dropped FIVE seconds! And not only did she run a five-second PR, but she also took home a very solid win against a field that was fairly competitive.

As for Balandran, she's also experiencing a recent breakout in fitness, although her 2:04 effort from this past weekend is a simple extension of indoor track campaign where she ran 2:04 for 800 meters at the Boston University Last Chance meet in the final days of February.

Running back-to-back 2:04 marks over the half-mile distance after never going any faster than 2:07 is super encouraging to see. It's one thing to have a breakout race, but it's another thing to replicate that performance on a track size that is completely different and in a field that isn't anything like what Balandran faced last month.

It feels like this Rice middle distance runner has firmly established herself as someone who can be regionally competitive. But now the question becomes, how much better can she get as the season progresses? Because if this is only the tip of the iceberg for her ongoing development, then she could be a major problem two months from now.