Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Mar 1015 min
Updated: Mar 11
And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes the NCAA indoor track season.
First off, thank you to everyone followed along with our coverage this winter! If you're a reoccurring subscriber, thanks for continuing to join us in this journey of growth and expansion. And if you're a new subscriber, welcome to the party! We're super excited to show you all the things that we have in store.
Of course, just because the indoor track season has now officially ended (collegiately) doesn't mean that our content will be stopping. In fact, we have an insane amount of analysis on day two of the NCAA Indoor Championships below!
Let's dive in, shall we?
Going into the national meet, Washington's Luke Houser was viewed as the national title favorite in the mile, although he wasn't necessarily alone in that conversation. However, saying that Houser was the man to beat solely because he had won this same national title last year would be a reductive statement.
This Seattle-based mile star was the man to beat not only because he won gold last year, but because he had been incredibly consistent this season, had run numerous personal bests, held one of the fastest mile times in the country, held extensive championship experience and was tactically one of the most complete milers that the NCAA had to offer.
And sure enough, all of those qualities showed up in his race execution on Saturday afternoon.
The men's mile finals was initially led by Wisconsin's Adam Spencer (who did everything in his power to ensure that he stayed in that lead group). But with 800 meters to go, Luke Houser took over. And according to Houser via our post-race interview, that was the plan all along.
Slowly but surely, Houser ramped up the pace over the last half-mile, at times incentivized to do so by a relentless Ethan Strand who tried to get around his Husky counterpart multiple times.
It was a similar story in the final moments of the race as Adam Spencer made a hard charge to try and get an edge on Houser. But each time that he was challenged, Houser refused to give up his rail position. He fended off everything that was thrown at him. And by the time he reached the last 50 meters, he had more or less secured another NCAA gold medal.
I don't know if there was any middle or long distance runner this weekend who was challenged, tactically, as much and as often as Houser was on Saturday. The men who he faced all held racing tools in their arsenal that could have given them national titles. And while most national champions usually don't win gold in the mile by going to the lead with 800 meters to go, Houser knew exactly what he, and this field, could do in that scenario.
Sure enough, the plan that Houser and Coach Andy Powell concocted worked to perfection. Brilliant racing once more from the man in purple and gold.
As for the rest of the field, you have to admire Adam Spencer doing everything in his power to position himself for a national title. He was very aggressive at certain points, maybe even too aggressive, but I really commend him for recognizing how this race was unfolding.
In an event where it's traditionally been better to be more conservative, the Wisconsin star recognized that him being more assertive, at least with defending his position, was the right call. And sure enough, that led to the Aussie distance ace snagging a well-deserved silver medal.
In the few races that we've seen Spencer in this year, he just looks physically stronger than everyone else that he has faced. His stride is incredibly powerful and his ability to change gears is a bit underrated. When he goes to the outdoor oval and has far more room to operate, Spencer should be just as much of a national title threat as he was this winter.
Also, what a season it has been for BYU's Lucas Bons!
After multiple years of struggling to return to his top form, the Cougar veteran did so this winter -- and then some. After running 3:54 in the mile a month back, Bons found enough holes in the madness of the men's mile final to secure a 3rd place finish.
In a race where spots 3rd through 7th place were all within a second of each other, it was the BYU veteran whose turnover in the final 50 meters was the most noticeable. In turn, he was rewarded with a bronze medal.
North Carolina's Ethan Strand deserves a lot of kudos. He was another name who recognized that it might be better to be more aggressive earlier than usual. He tried multiple times to surge past Luke Houser (and Spencer), but with the Washington star holding off Strand's challenges each and every time, the Tar Heel ace didn't have enough in the end to stay in contention for gold.
And yet, despite the unsuccessful surges, I still think he made the right call. Strand was able to hang for 4th place which is not something that most guys can do when they take risks like he did. That's really impressive strength and something that we shouldn't overlook.
As for everyone else, I can't say I'm too surprised.
Georgetown's Abel Teffra was definitely better than his seed position, but I didn't see him getting 5th place, so this was definitely a successful weekend for him.
Some people may not view a 6th place from Northern Arizona's Colin Sahlman as a success, but I still thought it was fairly solid for someone who had never been at the indoor national meet before. Sure, his positioning and timing probably needs to improve, but this was a very nuanced race for someone who is just a sophomore.
Florida's Parvej Khan may have settled for 7th place, but that result isn't as important as the validation that he simultaneously obtained this weekend. After a promising winter campaign, Khan upset Anass Essayi at the SEC Championships in the mile. And following an encouraging mile prelim and an All-American result, the future looks very, very bright for this Gator rookie.
As for Gary Martin, he was tripped and took a hard fall at the end. However, it's hard (from my perspective) to see exactly what happened. It seems like he maybe ran up on the back of Lucas Bons as both men tried to make a move, leaving Martin to awkwardly adjust his foot placement/stride and eventually fall.
Even so, I can't say with 100% certainty if that was the case even after reviewing the replay (multiple times).
There has been no denying that Harvard superstar Maia Ramsden was the most complete miler in the NCAA this year. The Kiwi distance ace had already shown the previous winter that she was one of the more well-rounded runners in the nation and this year, she continued to display the same dynamism -- just at a higher level.
Given how fast this race ended up being, there wasn't necessarily a lot of tactics to discuss. Throughout most of this battle, Providence's Kimberley May went to the front and made it an honest race. She was followed by Ramsden and Oklahoma State standout, Billah Jepkirui.
That trio ultimately broke away before Ramsden took to the lead over the final 400 meters. And from there, the mile national title race was essentially over. A 4:25 mile mark, which isn't even her PR (it's 4:24), was a new meet record and it dragged FIVE other women under the 4:30 barrier in the process -- all of which were new personal bests (some by small margins).
With a 1500-meter national title, a mile national title, the second-fastest mile time ever by a collegian and tons of promising success at the international level, Maia Ramsden is building an argument of potentially being the greatest miler in NCAA history (which comes with the caveat that Addy Wiley was in the NAIA).
Certain women like Elinor Purrier and Jenny Simpson (née Barringer) probably have good arguments of their own for that title, but I don't think it's ridiculous to put Ramsden in that conversation given what she has accomplished.
As for Billah Jepkirui, anyone who listens to the Blue Oval Podcast knows that I am a massive fan of hers. She has quietly great range, is insanely fit, fully recognizes what her strengths and weaknesses are (the latter of which are few) and continues to get better with each passing season.
This race played out perfectly for Jepkirui. It was essentially a strength-based affair and a test of who could hang on for the longest. If this was a more tactical battle, then the final outcome could have been very different.
That, of course, was not the case.
Kimberley May likely could have thrived in any race scenario, but she chose to be aggressive and I don't really mind that. I don't know if it was her best option, but getting separation from a top-heavy field and only having to deal with two other contenders turned out to be a pretty good way to secure bronze.
Georgetown's Melissa Riggins (4th), Virginia's Margot Appleton (5th) and West Virginia's Ceili McCabe (6th) all ran 4:29 in this mile final. The former two women likely would have benefitted from a slower race, especially Riggins who boasts lethal turnover, and McCabe is someone whose best event is the 3000 meters (at least in my opinion).
Of this group, the real winner is Margot Appleton. She is proving to be a reliable name on the national stage, specifically on the track. She had a very solid winter campaign, but it wasn't quite as strong as what she did last spring. And yet, despite that, she still rallied for an admirable 5th place finish, once again showcasing some underrated poise.
With top stars such as Yusuf Bizimana, Nathan Green and Tinoda Matsatsa out of the men's 800-meter finals, the men who we saw toe the line for this event on Saturday almost seemed out of place. That's not to say that they weren't talented or weren't deserving to be there, but simply that they weren't my first picks to be in the finals.
And truthfully, that showed in how this race played out.
Tarees Rhoden went to the front and tried to spread out the field, which he did, but it didn't necessarily take anyone out of contention, either. Certain guys were swinging out very wide to the edge of lane two throughout this race and the order of the field was constantly changing.
Oh, and Rivaldo Marshall, a guy who placed 5th overall in this event at the BIG 10 Indoor Championships, was the person who overtook Sean Dolan on the last lap to eventually pull away for gold.
On the national stage, the 800 meters has typically been an event that you need to take risks in. Maybe's that employing an aggressive front-running approach or maybe it's trying to perfectly time a late-race comeback. But on Saturday, if you look at the final results and the men who emerged with top finishes, most of them (although not all) actually ended up being the most conservative.
Marshall, for instance, didn't really make any major moves or dramatic surges. He simply stayed in lane one, let the race unfold in front of him and then ideally positioned himself take over Sean Dolan going into the last lap.
Sure, it wasn't the flashiest race , but it was incredibly smart, controlled and poised.
It's a somewhat similar story for Iowa State's Finley McLear. He ended up finishing in 3rd place despite consistently being in the back of the pack, usually in last place. Of course, there's a reason why McLear is on this stage and why is a veteran. The Cyclone star found a path on the inside rail, going from last place to 3rd place by the time that the field reached the final straightaway.
Again, it wasn't pretty, but it didn't have to be. It was smart and collected.
Other men like Villanova's Sean Dolan (2nd) and Virginia Tech's Nick Plant (4th) did make some key moves throughout that race. However, both men have displayed better-than-expected strength this winter which is largely why they were able to hang on for top-half All-American finishes.
Watch out for Dolan later this spring and Plant over the next few years. If I had to guess, I'd say that it's fairly realistic for one of these men to win a national title over the next two years (and yes, Dolan's eligibility is done after this spring).
As for everyone else, I can only shrug my shoulders and say, "Yeah, that's about right." Clemson's Tarees Rhoden placed 5th, Iowa State's Darius Kipyego placed 6th and Penn State's Handal Roban placed 7th. Wisconsin star Abdullahi Hassan had an "off" day and faded back to 8th place.
This race was very straightforward. LSU's Michaela Rose immediately jumped to the lead at the start of this race and Stanford's Juliette Whittaker basically shadowed the aggressive front-runner throughout.
Things didn't really change until the final 100 meters as you could see Whittaker begin to climb closer to Rose's shoulder. And on the final straightaway, the Stanford sophomore clearly had the momentum to give her NCAA gold in a meet record time of 1:59 (which also now sits at NCAA #3 all-time for the indoor 800 meters).
If you were looking for me to give you any detailed analysis, I'm not sure that I really can. Michaela Rose was certainly favored to win the national title, but if anyone was going to beat her, then it was going to be Juliette Whittaker.
While we thought that Rose's aggressive front-running would ultimately drop her Cardinal counterpart, that style of racing inherently comes with its own risks. And unfortunately for the Tiger middle distance star, she couldn't shake off her half-mile rival before the lactic acid caught up to her.
The only other analytical aspect to consider in all of this is that Juliette Whittaker is also an accomplished miler -- a very good one at that. With a 4:30 PR, she may have had the best aerobic strength in that 800-meter final with the possible exception of Maggi Congdon.
As for everyone else, how can you not like Meghan Hunter? This woman was a significant underdog at the outdoor national meet, but peaked when it mattered the most en route to a 2:01 (800) PR.
The BYU star was a much more complete and consistent half-miler this winter, but her 3rd place showing is tremendous validation that she can peak perfectly for the postseason. She did, after all, run an indoor 800-meter PR of 2:02.15 on Saturday night. And in a lot of ways, she's reminding me of former BYU middle distance standout, Claire Seymour.
Penn State's Hayley Kitching (4th) was incredibly reliable this winter. She was metronomically consistent and always showed up. On the national stage, the Nittany Lion standout was aggressive when she needed to be, but also respected the mostly unmatchable talent that Rose and Whittaker held.
And maybe it's that race IQ and understanding of her competition that allowed Kitching to be such a steady name in what can sometimes be a chaotic event.
Oklahoma State's Gabija Galvydyte (5th), Washington's Wilma Nielsen (6th) and Virginia Tech's Lindsey Butler (7th) mostly matched expectations. I don't have too much to offer there as far as analysis is concerned. And while Northern Arizona's Maggi Congdon did fade to 8th place, the fact that she made it to both the mile and the 800-meter finals this weekend was plenty impressive in it's own right.
Let's not make the recap of this race any more difficult than it needs to be. Oklahoma State's Ryan Schoppe led early-on and was followed by Nico Young as well as Brian Musau, Habtom Samuel and Parker Wolfe.
With roughly 650 meters to go, Young took over, a move that only Musau and Wolfe opted to cover. And with two laps to go, it was Parker Wolfe chasing Nico Young around the track, relentless trying to close on his NAU rival who, in the very end, had simply given himself too much of a cushion.
Nico Young would secure yet another national title, his second of the weekend, while UNC's Parker Wolfe would take home another silver medal.
Everything that we said about Nico Young in the 5000 meters can largely apply to his 3k national title victory, specifically when it comes to tactics. The Northern Arizona megastar executed an almost identical race plan compared to what we saw the night before. The only difference was that he was the first to make a race-defining move rather than Parker Wolfe.
With that, Nico Young has just completed a mostly perfect season. He soundly broke the 5k collegiate record, became the first collegian to break the 13-minute barrier over that distance, emerged as one of the fastest-ever 3k runners in NCAA history, threw down a historic mile time at altitude and took home two gold medals.
If the Bowerman Award was just for the indoor track season, then I'd be stunned if Young wasn't listed among the top-three finalists.
As for Parker Wolfe, he put together an absolutely incredible season. After this weekend, it was abundantly clear that the highest tiers of NCAA distance runners this season were Young and himself. He took calculated risks this past weekend that didn't end in gold, but they were absolutely the right moves. His turnover was so much better this season and he was able to beautifully blend it with his aerobic strength, something that we saw in the final 600 meters of both the 5k and the 3k at the national meet.
Not winning a national title despite having a historic season certainly has to sting a little bit. I won't disagree with that. But this North Carolina star completely redefined what the expectations for him should be moving forward.
As for the rest of this field, how about Alex Maier? The Oklahoma State veteran had been running fairly well this winter, but he wasn't quite as strong as we had seen from him in previous seasons. However, after stringing together a handful of great results over the last few weeks, I felt like he was going to be an All-American this past weekend.
That turned out to be the case, although I couldn't have predicted that he would be a double All-American and place 3rd overall in an absolutely stacked 3k field.
The rest of this field produced results that were VERY predictable. The quintet of Liam Murphy (Villanova), Ky Robinson (Stanford), Brian Musau (Oklahoma State), Habtom Samuel (New Mexico) and Ryan Schoppe (Oklahoma State) went 4-5-6-7-8, respectively, all running under 7:50 for this distance and finishing within three seconds of each other.
In fact, that's such a predictable series of results that it wouldn't have made sense to list all eight of those names in our All-American predictions because national meet races are almost always more variable than that.
I could try and give you some analysis on their tactics and what not, but this was another aerobic-centric, strength-based race that was fairly quick which, in theory, favored many of the top contenders in this field.
Just like the men's race, the women's 3000-meter final was very straightforward.
Florida's Flomena Asekol immediately went to the lead to essentially act as a pace setter for her teammate, Parker Valby. And when Asekol stepped off the track, Valby could be found sitting right on Olivia Markezich's shoulder (for a surprisingly long time). That lasted until roughly 900 meters were left. The Alabama duo of Doris Lemngole and Hilda Olemomoi were also in that initial lead pack.
Slowly but surely, Valby would pull away from Markezich en route to a meet record 3k time of 8:41 (which is a PR) as well as a national title. Markezich would cross the line in 2nd place while Lemngole, BYU's Lexy Halladay-Lowry and Olemomoi would round out the top-five.
I could sit here and endlessly type away about how great Parker Valby is and discuss all of the fine details about her battle with Olivia Markezich. That, however, seems unnecessary. We all know how incredible Valby is and we figured that if anyone was going to be competitive with her, then it was going to be the Notre Dame superstar.
And frankly, I can't say that I'm all too surprised about the Alabama women, either. Sure, our reflections may not reflect that, but in a strength-based race, it was only natural that these endurance-heavy Crimson Tide stars were going to hold on for strong finishes. History suggested the same as well.
Instead, the runners who I think we learned the most about were Lexy Halladay-Lowry (4th) and Riley Chamberlain (6th), two BYU standouts who had outstanding weekends.
Halladay-Lowry just completed a top-five 5k/3k weekend double while Chamberlain split 4:27 on the anchor leg of BYU's title-winning DMR before placing 6th in this race. That is an amazing set of performances for two women who very clearly peaked perfectly this season.
Tack on a 3rd place finish from Meghan Hunter over 800 meters and two 9th place finishes between Jenna Hutchins (5k) and Sadie Sargent (3k) and you get an overall successful weekend for the Diljeet Taylor-led Cougars.
Yet again, the star distance coach from Provo has put herself in contention to win TSR's "Best Distance Coach" title in our "End of Season Awards."
Georgetown's Chloe Scrimgeour won't get a lot of attention for a 7th place finish over 3000 meters, but that was her second All-American honor of the weekend after also placing 7th over 5000 meters the night before.
The Hoya sophomore continues to be a national-caliber talent and has proven that time and time again. Her reliability in the postseason has been outstanding over the last year and I'm no longer willing to doubt her for any national meet race that she toes the line for.
As for everyone else, we can somewhat easily explain most of these results.
Oregon's Maddy Elmore, for instance, placed 8th to secure the final All-American honor in this field. That makes sense given that she only had the DMR in her legs from the night before. It's a similar story for the aforementioned Sargent who placed 9th.
Riggins and Jepkirui were on the double from a fast mile final, Asekol was simply there to pace her teammate, Roe had a tough fall early-on in that 3k race, Maatoug was a DNF (I'm being told that she's healthy) and Ramsden didn't toe the line for the 3k after winning the mile national title.