Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Apr 18, 202110 min
There was so much to talk about this weekend that we're opting to split things into two parts when it comes to our First Thoughts analysis. Here are a few of the top-level results that we wanted to highlight...
Is this really even all that surprising? I want to say that it is, but when you consider that the Texas A&M freshman already ran 1:58 on the indoor oval a little over a month ago, it's hard to think that this was unexpected.
The Aggie rookie took down a loaded field of high-level collegiates and professionals, including Baylor's Aaliyah Miller -- the NCAA winner in the women's indoor 800 meters this past winter. Miller also ran 2:00.87, a time that would typically cause major headlines.
Right now, Mu is so far ahead of the her most elite competition (at the collegiate level) that she'll be a lock to win NCAA gold if she wants to. The problem with that, however, is that we don't even know if she will. Mu ran the 400 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships and could very well run that event yet again later this spring.
However, this recent mark, followed by her silver-medal performance on the indoor oval, has to give Mu greater incentive to try this event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Even on an "off" day she can still take home the 800 meter national title. She is leaps and bounds better than her collegiate challengers at the half-mile distance.
Yes, trying to balance that event with enough rest until the 4x400 relay isn't easy, but given what we've seen out of this young woman, we have no reason to think that she couldn't do it.
As for Aaliyah Miller, I'd like to offer some new and refreshing insight on her race, but none of this was a surprise. She ran a very solid time that was close to her personal best, but Miller just simply isn't on the same level as Mu, I think we understood that coming into this weekend.
Of course, if Mu opts not to contest the half-mile distance later this year, then Miller will be the clear favorite (although not overwhelmingly so) to take home the win.
Outside of Mu and Miller, the women's 800 continues to grow even more top-heavy and FAR deeper than we could have ever fathomed. We mentioned in an article last week that the 2:01 mark from Kennesaw State's Sarah Hendrick was an excellent result, but that it wasn't going to dramatically move up her the national leaderboard.
That assertion seems to be even more true after this past weekend. Not including Mu and Miller, we saw three women run 2:01 this over the past few days. Those women include Michaela Meyer (Virginia), Amber Tanner (Georgia) and Gabrielle Wilkinson (Florida).
Meyer was the overwhelming winner over top-ranked talents like McKenna Keegan and Lindsey Butler by almost three seconds. We knew that this UVA graduate student was talented after having a breakout race in the winter of 2020 as a Delaware Blue Hen, but she has solidified and validated her 2020 performances with a recent 4:11 effort for 1500 meters and now a huge victory over some top-level names with a 2:01 mark.
Oh, and the best part? Those two results came over the same weekend.
Meyer is now emerging as the All-American threat that I truthfully didn't know if she would ever become. Her 2:03 came out of nowhere and the pandemic could have very easily thrown her out of rhythm.
However, seeing her effectively move up to the 1500 meters was a shocking display of range and her ability to take down accomplished names with ease in the half-mile distance was beyond impressive. Even in a top-heavy field, the newest Cavalier talent is still finding a way to standout.
As for Amber Tanner and Gabrielle Wilkinson, there is a ton to take away from their battle this past weekend. Tanner has been out of collegiate competition for quite some time prior to this spring, but she was a name who I highlighted last week as one of the few returnees who could realistically enter the fray of the women's 800 meters and be a true challenger.
That prediction came after she ran 2:03 last week. Now? She just ran 2:01.36 to hold off an underrated half-mile standout in Gabrielle Wilkinson who ran 2:01.45.
Tanner is a veteran name with a plethora of experience, arguably just as much as someone like Aaliyah Miller. Her recent return has been encouraging, mainly because she has shown that she can still take down top-ranked names and can still run fast enough to contend with an 800 field that is arguably the best it has ever been.
Wilkinson's performance is also outstanding, but this feels like her trying to keep pace with the rest of the field. We know that she's capable of being in the upper-echelon of middle distance talents and this performance validates that, but much like I mentioned with Hendrick, this result also doesn't dramatically change our view of what Wilkinson is or isn't capable of.
We should also note that other women like Shafiqua Maloney (Arkansas) and Imogen Barrett (Florida) also ran 2:02 and 2:03, respectively, this past weekend. For Maloney, this isn't too big of a surprise, but this was an outstanding result for Barrett. I was confident in her recent rise and momentum, but she didn't strike me as someone who was going to run 2:03 for the half-mile distance.
I still think Barrett should pursue the 1500 meters later this season given how top-heavy the women's 800 meters is this year, but Barrett just put herself into that national qualifying conversation if she does toe the line for this event.
Texas A&M has more than one freshman who is making major noise at the half-mile distance. Brandon Miller continues his steady rise to the top of the leaderboard, chopping off a second from his half-mile PR seemingly every time he toes the line.
The freshman just ran 1:47 this past weekend en route to the overall win at the Michael Johnson Invitational. This was a huge performance for Miller. Yes, the win was great, but the time is impressive and it finally validates his resume as a someone who could potentially be an All-American candidate later this year.
His win at the SEC Indoor Championships was encouraging, but he didn't have the top-level mark that would really put his name in the national spotlight. Now, he has exactly that, and I'm happy to take him more seriously in the national picture at this point in the season, especially because he has been able to ideally navigate a handful of meets and take home clutch wins.
However, Miller wasn't the only one to run 1:47 this past weekend.
After running 3:36 for 1500 meters the other weekend, Waleed Suliman finally dropped down in distance to the 800 meters after an indoor track season where he was consistently contesting the mile and the 3k.
Suliman took home the win this past weekend at the UNF Invitational, running 1:47 in the process. That, however, isn't the major surprise, mainly because we've seen him run 1:47 before and we would expect him to run that fast after posting a time of 3:36 for 1500 meters.
The real surprise was seeing North Florida's Timothy Doyle come out of absolutely nowhere en route to a massive personal best of 1:47. Sure, Doyle had run 1:49 earlier this season, but this was a guy who floating around the low-1:50's prior to this season. This is a fairly significant jump and it shows us that he has a ton of momentum, especially after cracking the 1:50 barrier.
Doyle joins men like Adam Swanson, Theo Woods and Leon Clark as names who have risen up the national leaderboard this spring without us expecting them to. Of course, now we have to wonder which of these men will be able to translate this recent success to the postseason.
After running 3:38 for 1500 meters at the Joe Walker Invitational, Adams decided to go after the OTQ mark of 3:37.50 once again. Unfortunately, he came up just a bit short, this time running 3:37.82. Even so, this was an outstanding mark and a time that is closer to what his true potential.
However, I do want to see how Adams handles another field like we saw at the Joe Walker Invitational. Yes, he did take down a very competitive and fast group of men this past weekend, but seeing him better position himself in a crowded race of established veterans would be ideal.
As for the freshman from Butler (who would technically be a sophomore if it weren't for COVID), Jesse Hamlin was the surprise of the weekend after posting a jaw-dropping time of 3:38 for 1500 meters this past weekend. That is one heck of a performance for the Indiana native who had only finished 23rd at the BIG East XC Championships this past fall.
Yes, Hamlin did run 13:55 for 5000 meters a few weeks ago at the Raleigh Relays, but that kind of result didn't at all suggest that we were going to see him run 3:38. This was a huge breakout performance and it was arguably the biggest one of the season so far, at least on the men's side.
Can he replicate this kind of result in the future? Will his inexperience impact him on the regional stage? There are still a lot of unknowns about Hamlin, but that's what makes his rise that much more exciting and interesting.
As for the other Bulldogs in this race, we saw Simon Bedard and Euan Makepeace continue to post some underrated marks. This duo ran 3:39 and 3:40, respectively, in the same race as Adams and Hamlin. That is a huge display of speed -- something that I admittedly didn't think that these two men had, or at least not to this extent.
Those results make me feel a lot more comfortable about Bedard and Makepeace in tactical races. That speed can be super useful when it comes to the NCAA Regional Championships, especially in longer races like the 5k and 10k which can be more tactical.
I've been a big fan of Florida State's Maudie Skyring since the 2020 indoor track season. That year, she grew into a very consistent miler who only got better as the season went on. I think she would've been an All-American that year had the pandemic not cancelled the indoor national meet.
Skyring chose to run the 3000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships this past winter, mainly because that event made more sense with her DMR responsibilities. However, with no distance relays to worry about, Skyring can put all of her attention on the 1500 meters -- and so far, that focus has done wonders for her.
The Seminole star now leads the nation with a huge time of 4:11 for 1500 meters, earning a clutch win over Arkansas standout Kennedy Thomson who ran 4:12 to finish runner-up. This was a promising win for Skyring, mainly because she just took down a very high-level contingent of Razorback runners including Carina Viljoen (4:14), Abby Gray (4:15) and Logan Morris (4:17).
I now have a ton more confidence in Skyring. She displayed surprisingly great range by stepping up in distance this past winter and just ran a very fast time en route to a big win over the mile bronze medalist who has seen a dramatic (and consistent) rise of her own. She's beginning to show consistency and the lack of poor performances leaves me to believe that Skyring will be a problem and an All-American contender come June.
Let's briefly talk about Kennedy Thomson. I know this sounds weird considering that she finished 3rd at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the mile this past winter, but this was the first race where I really thought of her as a high-level talent. She ran 4:12 for 1500 meters and now sits at NCAA #3 on the national leaderboard for this event. Right now, we're seeing a ton of consistency out of her and her progress has been far better than we may be giving her credit for.
No, she didn't get the win, but I think this was probably the most encouraging performance that we've seen out of Thomson so far this year.
Who is Katie Camarena? Honestly, I had never heard of her prior to this past weekend, but she just ran 4:13 at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Sure, the UC Santa Barbara talent just ran 4:17 at the Sound Running College Invite a few weeks ago, but now taking the leap into the 4:13 range is pretty wild.
This is a woman who was running in the high 4:20's and the low 4:30's for most of her career. Sure, she was a respectable talent, but she was by no means a nationally competitive name. And to make matters even more interesting, she recently posted a personal best of 2:08 for 800 meters.
Seeing someone have one breakout performance will certainly catch my eye, but the ongoing progression and the ability to transition that improvement to other events should not go unnoticed.
As for Ella Donaghu, she won the 1500 meters at the West Coast Classic with a time of 4:14. Truthfully, that result is far from surprising as Donaghu was an All-American during the spring of 2019 in this exact event.
However, seeing her being challenged by Oregon's Hannah Reinhardt is an interesting development. Reinhart is traditionally a longer distance runner. Yes, she is very talented, but much like I mentioned with the Butler men, I wasn't expecting her to have this kind of speed.
The 5k and 10k are almost always tactical, but seeing Reinhardt run 4:14 makes her a contender in those races. In fact, one now has to ask if Reinhardt would actually want to pursue the 1500 meters in the postseason after that performance. I'm inclined to say no, but that distance is fairly wide-open right now and the West region isn't quite as crowded at that distance as the East region is.
We should also note that Virginia Tech's Sarah Edwards ran a weekend double of 2:06/4:15 at the Virginia Challenge. That's a solid double, but she's capable of doing more. Running 4:32 for the mile this past indoor track season (unattached) indicates that she has more in tank in both events.
When we think about distance depth, it's easy to think of teams like Northern Arizona and BYU. However, the Stanford men just had three men run under 13:40 for 5000 meters with a fourth runner earning a time of 13:45.
The group of Charles Hicks (13:34), Alek Parsons (13:36), Callum Bolger (13:39) and Devin Hart (13:45) put on an absolute show this past weekend at the West Coast Classic, taking the top four spots in the race. Now, admittedly, this race was essentially going to be the Stanford show and it's no surprise that they went 1-2-3-4.
It's also no surprise that Hicks ran 13:34. He was a stud during cross country and is just coming off of a monster 10k time. However, seeing Alek Parsons and Callum Bolger each dip under 13:40 is something special. They've been reliable veterans for a while now, especially Parsons, but they have clearly reached a new echelon, translating the peak of their fitness to this race.
Of course, we now need to see just how consistent they'll be in this race and in other events. They don't need to run that fast every time they toe the line, but it would be nice to see what their middle distance speed is like and how often they can contend with top names in the NCAA.
It's one thing to run that fast, but to effectively translate that fitness to multiple race scenarios and disciplines is where the real challenge lies.