One Sentence Previews: 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships Men's 5k (D3)

Additional contributions by Garrett Zatlin

NOTE: Athletes are listed in order of their seed position. Final predictions are at the bottom.

This is a tough field for someone who is doubling back from the 10k, but Alex Phillip is the only man who has gone sub-14 in this field and aerobically, he's probably the best in this field.

Round two of the 5k battle between Ryan and Phillip should be very exciting as Ryan’s 14:01 PR is just slightly slower, although he has the necessary 1500 meter speed that can be utilized to kick down Phillip if the scenario allows for it.

I don’t think we can technically call Jamie Dailey a dark horse, but all eyes will be on Aidan Ryan and Alex Phillip, so he might be able to slip through and be a shock winner here given his well-rounded resume.

A heavy favorite for "Freshman of the Year ", Tuohy-Gaydos has a tough double in front of him as both long distance fields are packed very closely together, and although he's young, he has shown tremendous upside in the 5k this year.

Despite his seed, Obroin is coming in as an underdog as we have all seemingly forgotten about his runner-up finish behind Alex Philliip in the 5k at the NCAA Indoor Championships (and he's only gotten better since then).

One of four men who are separated by less than a second, Csiki-Fejer has been fine-tuning his 800/1500 speed in recent weeks in hopes that he can pull out a lethal kick which, in theory, would make him one of the more dangerous runners in this field.

Freiburger is only focused on the 5k this national meet in the hopes that he can improve upon his 5th place finish from last year, and while he hasn't quite reached the same level as last year, a completely fresh veteran is hard to ignore.

Less than a second from earning national qualification in the steeplechase, Andrews should use that to fuel him at his first outdoor national meet as he is definitely in contention with his 14:11 seed time and underappreciated consistency.

Collet is a ridiculously talented name, but we saw Collet falter in his second race at the indoor national meet (20th in the 3k), leaving us a little nervous on how he will perform in the second race of his steeple/5k double.

Monaghan has slowly been lowering his 5k time all season long and is looking to complete the 10k/5k double at only his second contested national meet, although given how often he has doubled this year, he may have a good chance at handling that heavy workload fairly well.

The Bison Outdoor Classic gave five men their national qualifying times in this event, including Matthew Lecky who has been earning All-American awards every time he goes to a national meet this year, becoming a reliable postseason runner with sneaky-good mile prowess.

Florsheim’s qualifying time of 14:13 came over two months ago at the Occidental Distance Carnival, so hopefully scratching the 10k to focus on this race will pay off with a shiny new PR as he's been very consistent up until his last race.

You don’t often see Elizabethtown on the national stage, but senior Christian Schaaf hasn't had a bad race since the cross country national meet where he finished 251st place, a result that isn't at all representative of the reliability that he has shown on the indoor and outdoor ovals.

Another freshman who got their qualifying time at the Bison Outdoor Classic, Jaster has taken down a few talented names this year, but this race will likely serve as an experience builder for the Case Western standout.

An outside favorite to vye for the national title in the steeplechase, Patzka is talented enough to be an All-American in the 5k, but a quick turnaround from the steeple is far from easy.

More of a cross country guy, this is Steinberg’s first track national meet and his 14:15 mark is only four seconds off of the seed time of the eighth-seeded man, meaning that the gap between him and his first All-American honor is within a reasonable reach.

This has been a breakout season for Stracke who has dropped 28 seconds from his PR at the Portland Distance Carnival just a few weeks ago to qualify for his first national meet, a performance that could give him a massive surge of confidence going into this race.

Henry Pick comes in with a shiny 5k PR of 14:15 that he just ran at a last chance meet to secure his spot to the national meet and that is momentum that will be need to be capitalized on if he wants to earn All-American honors.

After setting new personal bests in everything from the 800 meters up to 10k, George Karamitsos is coming in on a massive hot streak, but he will have to work past his inexperience if he wants to thrive in this field.

The seed times from Jamie Dailey to Elias Lindgren are separated by nine seconds which is good news for Lindgren as it means that this is anybody’s race, especially for an accomplished standout who finished runner-up at the cross country national meet.