Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Jan 31, 202114 min
Can you remember a busier weekend of action than what we just saw on Friday and Saturday? Between the BIG 10 XC Championships and some of the most talented distance runners in the NCAA making their indoor debuts, TSR has been overwhelmed with results to analyze (in a good way).
Here are the main performances from the indoor oval which caught attention this past weekend...
The Oregon men ran 9:19 in the Distance Medley Relay on Friday night.
Yes, you read that correctly.
After setting the collegiate record last year with a time of 9:24, the combination of Hocker (2:49), Peralta (47), Hunter (1:47) and Teare (3:54) gave us a consistent string of mind-boggling performances. They dominated a field which featured top talents from Iowa State (9:27) and Ole Miss (9:30).
With an all-time world indoor best (technically not a record) now under their belts, it's safe to say that the Ducks are the hands-down favorites to take home the DMR national title if they actually pursue it. Notre Dame is still in the conversation to take home NCAA gold (just like they are every year), but it's possible that they simply focus on cross country and not worry with the logistics that come with an indoor national meet. The same can be said for Oregon.
It's hard to really offer any additional analysis other than us simply saying that Oregon is basically unstoppable. How they run in a more tactical race has yet to be seen, but should that even matter when you absolutely crush the previous collegiate record (held by last year's Oregon lineup)?
As for Iowa State and Ole Miss, we have to give them plenty of credit. All of the attention will rightfully go to Oregon and Hocker's impressive 2:49 opening split, but what some people are failing to realize is that Iowa State's Jason Gomez also split 2:49 and was actually the intermediate leader through the opening leg (according to the results). That's a massive performance which validates his breakout 1:47 personal best from last weekend.
The rest of the Iowa State lineup ran very well, but no one on that relay was more impressive than Gomez.
As for Ole Miss, it feels a bit odd to see the splits from each of their relay legs and think that they were the 3rd place team. Regardless, they should be fairly happy with this result, especially with Garcia Romo splitting 3:58. Having a guy that fast on the anchor usually puts your team in a position to earn All-American honors when it comes to the national meet.
Coming into the 2020-21 academic year, there were concerns about Lauren Gregory. She didn't appear to be at 100% during the 2019 cross country season, was absent from the 2020 indoor track season and she hasn't been great on national championship stages.
Although we don't know for sure how she'll fare at the next national meet, we can recognize that she is at another level of fitness right now, matching her incredible peak that we saw from her 2018.
This past weekend, Gregory posted a double where she ran 15:36 in the women's 5000 meters on Friday night (barely losing to teammate Katie Izzo) and came back the next day to win the mile in a huge time of 4:35.
As for Izzo, she got off to a fairly unexciting start to this indoor track season (by our standards). However, she clearly came into this weekend ready to make a statement, running 15:36 on Friday night and then coming back to run 4:37 in the mile on Saturday.
I feel like a broken record when talking about this Arkansas team. They have been so incredibly impressive on the track so far this season, displaying firepower and depth similar to what we saw out of the Stanford women last year.
Logan Morris continues to produce some of the best times of her career, Kennedy Thomson continues to get better each and every weekend, Krissy Gear continues to show off her range (more on her in a moment) and a handful of other women continue to offer valuable depth to this distance roster.
With Gregory and Izzo looking like title contenders in multiple events, it's hard to say that any other women's distance program has been better than the Razorbacks this winter.
We thought it was realistic that Hunter could run around 3:56 this weekend in the mile. That seemed reasonable for his first official indoor track race in a year. Of course, Hunter blew away our expectations, running 3:54 and proving that his 3:55 from last winter was no fluke.
Despite the incredible success of other elite talents around the NCAA, we now need to start talking about Hunter as a serious and legitimate title contender. Admittedly, it's a bit difficult to know how Hunter would/will run in a tactical championship race. He finished 8th at the 2019 indoor national meet, but it's obvious that the Australian superstar is at an entirely different level of fitness compared to where he was at two years ago.
As for Reed Brown, he was 2nd in this race with a time of 3:56 (a new personal best).
Isn't a bit absurd that Brown can run 3:56 for a mile and yet not be in the varsity lineup for his team's DMR? Regardless, this was a very encouraging performance from Brown and anytime you run faster than 3:57 in the mile, you begin to solidify your position as an All-American favorite.
Brown hasn't been incredible on the national stage when looking at his past results, but running 3:56 in January is hard to ignore.
Finally, we have to talk about Everett Smulders. When looking at both the 800 and the mile, no one has been better than the rising Ole Miss talent this winter. After running 1:48 at the Vanderbilt Invitational and splitting 1:49 on the Rebel's DMR, Smulders took advantage of a fast field and dipped under the four minute mile barrier with a 3:58 personal best.
Between his exciting 800 meter speed and past experience in tactical mile/1500 races, we may want to consider Smulders as a sleeper All-American pick when we get to the Indoor National Championships in March. Time will tell, but few distance runners in the NCAA have more momentum than he does.
Welcome back, Sage Hurta! The Colorado star was amongst the best middle distance talents in the nation during the summer of 2019, running a personal best of 2:00.99 unattached. However, injuries and delays from the Coronavirus forced her out of competition...until this past weekend.
In her season debut, Hurta led wire-to-wire at the Razorback Invitational. She dropped a huge time of 2:02 for 800 meters, taking down the Colorado school record and sending a message to the rest of the NCAA that she is still amongst the middle distance elites.
If Hurta was able to run so well in her season opener, imagine what she can do later in the season in an event like the mile.
Yes, Athing Mu did run 2:01 at the beginning of the indoor track season, but Hurta looks like she could legitimately challenge the Texas A&M youngster for the national title in March.
Oregon's Cooper Teare and Cole Hocker went 1-2 in the men's 3000 meters at the Razorback Invitational this past weekend, each running 7:46 in what was an overwhelming display of elite talent.
For Teare, this performance is truthfully not much of a surprise. We knew he was capable of running this fast given that he also ran 7:46 last winter. After seeing him run 13:17 for 5000 meters back in July, a result such as this is about what we expected.
However, the non-stop rise of sophomore Cole Hocker continues to put myself and the rest of the NCAA in total disbelief. The Oregon youngster finished 2nd this past weekend in a time of 7:46, validating his rumored 3k time trial from November and his 13:32 (5k) from the Sound Running Track Meet.
Hocker is at an entirely different level right now. He has consistently run top marks, has taken down some of the best names in the NCAA and only seems to get better every time he toes the line. He may only be a sophomore, and youth can sometimes be a liability on championship stages, but should Hocker now be placed in the national title conversation?
As we look at the rest of this field, Wesley Kiptoo (Iowa State) running 7:48 seems about right given what he accomplished on the grass and at the Sound Running Track Meet in December. The Cyclone star dominated his BIG 12 competition during the 2020 cross country season and ran an unbelievable time of 27:37 for 10,000 meters on the track.
Kiptoo's recent rise reminds us a lot of what Edwin Kurgat accomplished during his breakout year with the Cyclones. Both men seem better suited for the 5k/8k/10k distances, but are more than capable of dropping down to the mile or 3k and being nationally competitive in those events .
As for Mario Garcia Romo, it turns out that his breakout cross country season was no fluke. Running a massive 17-second personal best, en route to a time of 7:48, is a bit hard to fathom. The Ole Miss runner has taken such a massive leap in fitness and an All-American finish in March seems well within his grasp.
We still need to see Garcia Romo race (and succeed) in a tactical race scenario on the track, but after splitting 3:58 on the Rebels DMR the night before, we now know that the Ole Miss star has enough speed to be dangerous in the latter portions of whatever race he toes the line for.
It is absolutely awesome to see BYU's Courtney Wayment back in action. She was redshirted during the 2020 indoor track season and has since returned with (what appears to be) completely revamped fitness. The long-time veteran just ran a massive personal best of 4:35 in the mile this past weekend, taking down teammate Olivia Hoj (4:37) and Washington's Allie Schadler (4:38) in the process.
Wayment currently sits at NCAA #2 for the women's mile and has now forced us to reevaluate what her best event is. Given her past success on the grass, we would have thought that she was better suited for an event like the 3000 meters or 5000 meters.
However, after running 4:35, there's a good chance that she may pursue the mile at the indoor national meet, especially if enough women opt to focus on cross country this winter.
And how about Olivia Hoj? She's been a talented and very valuable veteran runner for this BYU team for a while now. However, this was the first time where she really had a performance that made us go "Wow." In a year as odd as this one, Hoj's time of 4:37 might be enough to get her into the national meet.
Congrats to both of these BYU women who continue to produce pleasantly surprising performances each and every season.
As for Schadler, this wasn't her best race, but a 4:38 mile isn't bad by any means. She just ran 15:33 for 5000 meters back in December, so we know what her true talent level is. We'll be interested to see what else she races later this year.
The Washington Huskies continue to act as a factory that simply pumps out sub-four minute milers. This past weekend, it was true freshman Cruz Culpepper finally dipping under the legendary barrier with a time of 3:59.
However, if we're being honest, seeing the Colorado native run 3:59 isn't all that surprising. Culpepper had run 4:00 during indoors as a high school senior last year and if his outdoor opportunities hadn't been limited by the pandemic (he still raced a few times), then it's realistic to think that he would have already run 3:59.
As for Sam Tanner, it looks like the New Zealand native is back home for the time being. That, however, hasn't stopped him from running some incredibly fast times. The 20-year old just ran 3:54 in the mile and although that wont count towards NCAA qualifying, we do need to appreciate how quickly Tanner's stature has risen amongst the other collegiate elites.
In the month of January, he has run 3:36 for 1500 meters, 7:54 for 3000 meters and 3:54 for the mile. The future looks very bright for the Washington Huskies.
The Washington State men have a few select names on their roster capable of producing some eye-catching results. Sure enough, they did exactly that this past weekend.
Colton Johnson, one of the more underrated distance talents from the 2020 indoor track season, just ran 7:56 for 3000 meters this past weekend. That's a nice personal best which pairs well with his resume of times such as 4:00 (mile), 14:08 (5k) and 8:57 (3k steeplechase).
Keep an eye on Johnsen as the season progresses. He has made some encouraging improvements in his last few races.
Teammate Paul Ryan doesn't appear to have any indoor track eligibility left, but he is expected to return to the outdoor oval in the spring. Be sure to keep him in mind when we get March, April and May. The Washington State runner just ran 3:58 in the mile this past weekend, essentially matching his personal best.
These weren't the most jaw-dropping results of the weekend, but they were strong performances that needed to be kept in mind as we get into the month of February.
We got see a handful of exciting races throughout the weekend, although one that went under the radar was Georgia's Jessica Drop taking on Arkansas' Krissy Gear in one of the fastest 3k races of the winter season.
After running 4:39 (mile) in her season opener and running 16:13 (5k) last weekend, Drop moving to the 3000 meters seemed like the next logical step. As for Gear, she had a strong cross country season and opened up her indoor track season with a 4:38 (mile). Toeing the line for a 3k this weekend also seemed like the right move.
In the end, it was Drop pulling away from Gear, 9:03 to 9:08.
Despite some inconsistency over the past few seasons, Drop has begun to find her groove this winter. She has been plenty competitive in her most recent races and has (at times) beat talented collegiate distance runners this winter.
It's still early in the season and we would need to see how Drop fares at the national meet. However, I would argue that this is the best string of performances that she has posted since the 2019 outdoor track season.
The men of Texas Tech and Texas A&M have been battling for 800 meter supremacy over the past few years. Although the Aggies have had the upper-hand, the Red Raiders have had plenty of encouraging performances of their own.
This past weekend, we saw Algerian star Takieddine Hedeilli return to the track for the first time since his jaw-dropping NCAA-leading time of 1:45. He took home the win in the "fastest" section of the day, running 1:47 and taking down Texas A&M freshman Allon Clay (from Japan) who ran 1:49.
However, the race would have been more competitive if Hedeilli had been in the second heat where freshmen Brandon Miller (Texas A&M) and Owen Likins (Texas Tech) battled it out in one of the more entertaining matchups of the weekend.
Miller (1:48) held off Likins (1:49) for the top spot in their heat.
Miller has been a star half-miler since his early days of middle school, breaking age group records for the outdoor two-lapper. However, after running no faster than 1:49 throughout his high school career, I truthfully began to question whether or not Miller had maybe peaked too early. He had, after all, been running at such a high level for such a long time.
That thought, however, proved to be invalid. Miller just ran a new personal best, this time on an indoor track, and is now in a position where he could potentially qualify for the indoor national meet as a true freshman. Texas A&M continues to be amongst the best when it comes to developing star middle distance talents and based on this weekend, it looks like their recent success will only continue with Miller.
Each athlete in this race received a small altitude conversion of roughly 0.30 seconds.
At the moment, Clemson is set to lose their men's track and cross country teams after this academic year, but that hasn't stopped the Tigers from producing some big-time performances.
Kameron Jones won't be officially competing for Clemson until the spring, but he just ran a massive time of 1:46 for 800 meters. For perspective, that time would currently rank at NCAA #2 right now if he hadn't run unattached.
That's an incredible performance, especially for a guy who has supposedly only been training for the event for just six months. Keep an eye out for Jones when we get to the spring season, he could end up being a problem for his fellow competitors and maybe emerge as an ACC title contender.
Sarah Hendrick is a junior from Kennesaw State who had a respectable indoor track season last winter, running a solid time of 2:06 at Boston University. That was a respectable mark, but Hendrick was going to have to improve upon that time if she wanted to be in a nationally competitive tier.
Sure enough, the Kennesaw State ace did exactly that, running 2:05 in her season opener earlier this month. That was a big personal best and it caught our attention, but the obvious question lingered as to whether or not she could do it again.
The answer? A resounding "Yes".
This past weekend, Hendrick was pulled by Adidas pro Natoya Goule to a (small) personal best of 2:05.64, validating her breakout performance from earlier this month and further strengthening her national qualifying chances.
We should also note that Clemson's Andra Foster, the ACC runner-up in the women's 800 meters last winter, ran 2:06 to finish 3rd overall.
Speaking of fast 800 times, Baylor ace Aaliyah Miller made her return to the half-mile distance this past weekend, earning the top time in the field and securing a converted mark of 2:04 (which currently ranks at NCAA #3).
Miller has been a solid 800 meter talent for the past few years and actually owns a personal best of 2:02 from the spring of 2018. Throughout her career, she has run under 2:06 a total of 10 times. However, a heavy majority of her best times have come from her underclassmen days.
So what does that mean for her converted 2:04 from this past weekend? Truthfully, it's tough to say, especially since she won in such convincing fashion. Still, it's a nice step in the right direction and she only adds to the unreal amount of depth that we're seeing in the women's 800 meters this year.
After taking down teammate Everett Smulders in his season opener, Ole Miss ace Baylor Franklin continued his winning ways at the Razorback Invitational. He was also able to outmaneuver Arkansas' Kieran Taylor in the final moments of the race, earning a very small personal best of 1:48.59. Taylor finished with a time of 1:48.66.
This is the second-straight win for Franklin over a talented half-miler. Back-to-back wins, both resulting in new personal bests, is very encouraging. Winning, progression, fast times, consistency and tactical prowess is what we've seen out of Franklin over the past two meets and truthfully, we can't ask for much more.
Notre Dame's Samuel Voelz had a resume with (almost) everything you could want in a star half-miler. He split 1:47 on one of Notre Dame's distance medley relays last winter, helped the Fighting Irish win a national title and won the 2020 ACC indoor 800 meter title in a tactical race against top competition.
The only knock on Voelz is that his open 800 meter personal best of 1:49.22 from last winter didn't really match up amongst the best in the NCAA. However, seeing him run 1:48.81 at the Notre Dame Invitational finally gives his overall resume the spark we knew it could have.
The middle distance ace from South Bend won't have to worry about cross country this winter. In that case, he may be able to go all-in for 800 meters at the indoor national meet (assuming he qualifies) if Notre Dame doesn't want to seriously pursue a DMR.
The Florida State veteran had a very quiet 2020 cross country season, but just opened up her indoor track campaign with a pair of promising performances. At the Bob Pollock Invitational, Skyring ran 4:40 in the mile and 9:19 in the 3000 meters, winning both races by narrow margins.
Those times may not be as fast as some of the other marks that we saw this past weekend, but the fact that Skyring took home two wins with two respectable times is impressive. Not only that, but she beat some talented competition in the process!
In the 3000 meters, Skyring took the win over Auburn standout Joyce Kimeli by a second. In the mile, she took down unattached Toledo ace Petronela Simiuc by 0.34 seconds.
In other words, Skyring didn't just cruise away from her competition. She worked for both wins this past weekend, something that boosts her stock relative to some of the other top talents in the NCAA.