Transfer Market (Part 25)

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The University of Pennsylvania has announced that Queens (NC) star Fatima Alanis will be finishing her eligibility with the Quakers starting next fall. She is expected to be a regular transfer and hold at least two years of eligibility in all three competitive seasons with the potential for more eligibility.

Alanis follows in similar footsteps as fellow D2 superstar Titus Winder. The Queens Royals, much like the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles, are now moving to the D1 ranks. As a result, Queens will enter a four-year transitionary period where they are unable to qualify for regional or national meets sanctioned by the NCAA.

Alanis has quickly become one of the most impressive D2 distance talents in the NCAA, showing tremendous promise, encouraging poise and the potential to be a true star, even at the D1 level.

The soon-to-be Ivy League ace finished 3rd at the NCAA D2 XC Championships last fall and has since run strong times of 4:24 (1500), 9:21 (3k flat-track converted), 16:04 (5k) and 33:39 (10k). She finished 2nd (5k) and 3rd (10k) at the most recent outdoor national meet and also finished 5th (3k), 2nd (5k) and 10th (DMR) at the most recent indoor national meet.

Alanis is still getting better and all of her personal bests have come in the last two seasons. She clearly favors the longer, more aerobic-based disciplines and has proven to be one of the few women capable of truly competing with the traditional D2 title contenders of this era.

Penn has a quiet history of producing solid and underrated longer distance runners, but on paper, Alanis is now the marquee name, as well as the main face, of this distance program. She also ran faster times than all of the Quakers' distance runners this past year (winter and spring).

With the top Penn finisher at the Ivy League XC Championships only placing 15th this past fall, Alanis has the chance to not only be a true low-stick for this group, but also a true Ivy League standout who could, eventually, compete a conference title and national qualifying spots.

After sitting on the transfer portal for a few weeks, former high school standout London Culbreath is now on the move. After originally joining the Arkansas Razorbacks for two years, she is now taking her talents to Texas Christian University (TCU).

The Texas native will return to her home state with four seasons indoor track eligibility left as well as three seasons of both outdoor track and cross country eligibility remaining.

Culbreath was a high school star, joining a loaded Razorback recruiting class in the fall of 2020 which featured numerous high-caliber prep runners, including Taylor Ewert.

As a high schooler, Culbreath ran outstanding marks of 2:12 (800), 4:43 (mile), 9:36 (3k), 10:03 (two miles) and 16:36 (5k). She was also a major force to be reckoned with on the grass, securing multiple national meet berths.

Those marks, on paper, would typically be good enough to be competitive in most D1 conferences.

But Culbreath has been fairly quiet since coming to Fayetteville, Arkansas, posting modest times of 9:56 (3k) and 17:27 (5k) on the track. She also finished 30th place in the Pre-Nationals "Open" race this past fall.

Even so, there is clearly so much more potential and upside within Culbreath given her history. And from the looks of it, TCU is willing to buy into that theory.

However, this isn't the first notable distance running transfer who the Horned Frogs have landed as of late. TCU also secured Graydon and Grace Morris earlier this year, two standout talents who have produced excellent marks during their limited times as collegiates.

Admittedly, compared to the rest of the BIG 12, TCU's history of developing distance runners is poor, to say the least. Even so, there have been enough head-turning headlines over the last few weeks to suggest that new coach Lisa Morgan-Richman, who joined TCU in 2020, isn't willing to sit idly by and let the BIG 12 run around her team.

And even if London Culbreath doesn't reach a competitive level within the BIG 12, her addition to this roster is a subtle signal to the rest of the conference that the Horned Frogs are going to become a more active distance team in the future.

This addition may be the flat-out best transfer / offseason addition of the entire year. And yes, I mean that from a raw talent standpoint, not just based on roster fits. That's because Polish distance star Klaudia Kazimierska will be joining the Ducks later this year. Her official/actual eligibility is still unknown.

Kazimierska is an absolute juggernaut runner who can make a major splash on the national stage if everything works out over the long term. The 20-year old has run 2:04 (800), 2:49 (1k), 4:07 (1500), 4:34 (mile), 9:14 (3k) and 16:37 (5k).

That is an INSANE level of speed and raw fitness that could elevate Kazimierska into the national title contender category at the Division One level.

With names like DeGenero, Heymach, Gear, Mackay, Aragon and a few others now out of the collegiate realm, the competitors capable of taking down Vissa in the mile or 1500 meters, who will actually run those events on the national stage, seem slim.

Or at least, they did seem slim until Kazimierska was introduced to Eugene.

Kazimierska not be as complete of a runner as Vissa, but she isn't far off from the Ole Miss superstar by any means. There is still some refinement that needs to happen before Kazimierska can be picked as a realistic title winner, but that scenario seems almost probable instead of just possible.

At the same time, there are now legitimate questions that need to be answered regarding the future of Oregon's women's cross country team. The Ducks were far from great in 2020 and the winter of 2021, but they rebounded fairly well this past fall.

But what kind of contribution will Kazimierska make to this team later this fall? What about over the long term? If she a non-factor? A top-seven support piece? A middle-lineup contributor? A legitimate true low-stick?

There are too many unknowns surrounding Kazimierska to properly her gauge her potential on the grass, but her raw speed and turnover on the indoor and outdoor ovals is too impressive to ignore.

Arizona has announced that Boise State's Sailor Hutton will be joining the Wildcats later this year as a graduate transfer. She is expected to have at least one full year of eligibility across all three seasons with the potential for an additional season of cross country eligibility.

Hutton is a respectable, and possibly underrated, distance runner who could provide a strong and steady scoring presence for Arizona next year.

The Bronco-turned-Wildcat owns personal bests of 4:27 (1500), 9:41 (3k) and 16:30 (5k). While those marks don't necessarily jump off the page, there is still a level of promising competitiveness that could be beneficial for Arizona if Hutton progresses.

There are also plenty of encouraging signs that Hutton could be a competitive name on the grass. During the 2021 winter cross country season, she placed 30th at the Battle Born XC Challenge, 23rd at the Mountain West XC Championships and 119th place at the NCAA Winter XC Championships.

Those marks aren't necessarily anything crazy, but for Arizona, those are competitive results. Most nationally competitive teams would love to have someone who finished in the top-120 of the NCAA XC Championships. In many instances, that's a top-five scoring performance.

We didn't quite see the same caliber of results from Hutton in 2022, but the potential is clearly there for her to have a positive and noticeable impact for Arizona. The only question is...what does that impact actually look like?

The Stride Report has confirmed that Princeton's Jakob Kintzele will be finishing his eligibility at Portland next fall as a graduate transfer. He is expected to have one season of cross country eligibility remaining as well as two track seasons remaining, although it's unclear how those two track seasons will be divided between the indoor and outdoor track seasons.

Kintzele, much like his former teammate Kevin Berry, joins a group of Princeton distance runners who have flown under the radar as of late despite their incredible progression and improvements.

On TFRRS, Kintzele owns modest personal bests of 8:09 (3k), 14:29 (5k) and 9:14 (3k steeple). However, Kintzele has actually evolved into a legitimate 10k threat, running 28:55 in mid-May and recently running 28:47 at the Portland Track Festival, unattached.

Kintzele is still new to this tier of competitiveness and there's no saying for sure how he'll translate his late-season success to his time as a Pilot. However, with those 10k results, Kintzele has validated that he is the real deal and that he could be a massively valuable scoring piece on the grass.

On paper, the soon-to-be Portland graduate student fits perfectly into the structural confines (and the history) of the Pilots' roster. With Jacob Klemz, Stan Niesten and George Duggan now gone (according to TFRRS), the need for a lock-down, long distance scoring veteran is certainly needed within the Pilots' top-seven.

And the best part is that Kintzele doesn't necessarily need to replace the entire scoring prowess of all three of those men. At the most recent cross country national meet, Stan Niesten finished 93rd overall, the best finish amongst that aforementioned trio of Portland distance veterans.

Relative to who Portland is losing, Kintzele could be a significant net-gain, especially if he's paired with another talented athlete who is rumored to be looking at Portland as well...

The JUCO level doesn't often get much attention, but Jacob Lawrence certainly deserves some recognition. The Chabot College talent is expected to have three years of eligibility remaining (although that isn't entirely clear yet) when he joins Portland State later this year.

Lawrence is a unique name, not necessarily for his credentials on the track, but because of his past challenges. The California native suffered a major seizure the summer before his senior year of high school, had surgery for a brain tumor and has been working to rally and recover ever since.

Additional details can be found in this article:

If Lawrence was able to recover (shockingly fast) from such an aggressive obstacle and still run 14:38 for 5000 meters, what will he be able to do in a much more competitive environment in the second-half of his collegiate career? A collegiate career that could be far longer and far more prosperous than his first-half?

Portland State has quietly developed a reputation for securing respectable recruits and transfers over the last few seasons. Part of that can be attributed to a somewhat young coaching staff that has been active in landing runners who can help them standout in the underrated BIG Sky Conference.

Running 14:38 (5k) is promising, but there is still far too much upside and far too much uncertainty to know what Lawrence can truly do at the next level. Still, what we have seen from him is encouraging (all things considered) and when you look at the Viking's roster, the need for new talent is a must with so many veterans soon departing the program.

The Stride Report has learned that Mount Olive's Cas Kopmels will be transferring from to Wingate starting this fall. The D2 distance talent is expected to have two seasons of eligibility remaining in both indoor track and outdoor track. Kopmels will also have at least two seasons of cross country eligibility remaining with the potential for a third season.

Kopmels is a respectable, and maybe unfairly overlooked, runner when it comes to east coast D2 distance standouts. As an underclassman at Mount Olive, Kopmel showed promise by producing personal bests of 8:18 (3k), 14:15 (5k) and 29:32 (10k).

On paper, those are very competitive marks, especially at the D2 level. And when you look at his accomplishments across all three seasons of competition, it's clear that this former Mount Olive ace can be a legitimate problem for most of his D2 competitors, even at the national level, once he develops and peaks in the future.

Kopmels still has work to do before he gets to that point, but it's a tier that he's certainly capable of reaching.

With Wingate returning a large handful of now-somewhat developed distance runners -- many of whom led the Bulldogs to a monster 6th place finish at the NCAA D2 XC Championships this past fall -- there's a good possibility that Kopmels contributes in the scoring to a podium team four-ish months from now.