Marissa Kuik
Mar 1512 min
Written by Marissa Kuik & Garrett Zatlin, edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin
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Listed eligibility takes redshirts and Covid-related extensions into consideration.
TFRRS is used as a general, but not strict, guide when determining eligibility.
EDITOR's NOTE: Please keep in mind that these rankings are a reflection of an athlete's overall season, not just how they performed at the national meet. Numerous factors such as personal bests, range, consistency, proven tactics, competition, postseason peaking and more are all considered when crafting these rankings.
Was not ranked in our last update.
First number indicates how much the individual has moved in our rankings.
The second number indicates where the individual was ranked in our last update.
Admittedly, Mercy Chebet wasn't really on our radar going into the national meet. After all, she wasn't even in the top-20 of the NAIA leaderboard in either the 3000 meters or the 5000 meters.
That's why her recent 3rd place finish in the women's 5000 meters at the NAIA Indoor Championships came as such a surprise. Part of that is because Chebet ran a new personal best en route to that bronze medal.
Ranking Chebet is a challenge. She obviously peaked incredibly well and she earned a top-three placement in an individual event on the national stage. However, with a regular season resume that was fairly quiet, a TSR #20 spot felt like a good middle ground.
For someone who just finished 3rd place overall in the 3000-meter finals at the NAIA Indoor Championships, this ranking may seem a little low. And frankly, we wouldn't argue with anyone who wanted us to list Hiebert higher.
However regular season times that never cracked the top-10 on the national leaderboard and no double duty to handle on the national stage, we felt like a TSR #19 spot was appropriate for Reagan Hiebert.
Even so, few All-American contenders peaked as well as Hiebert did relative to expectations. We certainly knew that she was a nationally competitive name and that she could be an All-American, but this latest result is certainly on the better end of our expectations and she should be incredibly proud of that.
Going into the indoor national meet, Geraldin Correa had the NAIA #1 time for 800 meters. With her veteran status and her peaking process seemingly following a good trajectory, we definitely thought Correa would shine on the national stage.
All in all, Correa still had a decent national meet, making it to the 800-meter finals, but ultimately fading to 8th place. However, she did help her team out in the 4x800-meter relay, pushing the squad to 3rd place overall. At the very least, that limits her from dropping too far in these rankings.
Even if 8th place was not what Correa (or us) had in mind, she did exceptionally well with the amount of half-mile races that she did have to run. Holding the fastest time on the national leaderboard going into the national gives her some staying power on our list.
Sage Martin is a runner who has dipped in and out of our rankings throughout the winter months. However, after salvaging a strong national meet weekend following a tough mile prelim, we felt like she deserved a spot in our top-20.
The College of Idaho runner was unable to get out of the mile prelims, but she navigated the 3000 meters incredibly well, taking 4th place overall. And when you tack on the fact that her DMR placed 4th as well, this junior distance talent was surprisingly effective after a mile prelim that could have very easily stunted her momentum.
Despite dropping six spots in our final set of rankings, we don't really have much to say about Alex Ebetino. The St. Francis talent was 4th place overall in the women's 3000 meters and her DMR squad also placed 6th on the national stage.
Sure, we maybe expected the slightest bit more from this long-time NAIA veteran, but two All-American honors (one individual, one relay) is far from a poor set of results. The biggest reason why she drops in our rankings is more so based on the women around her rather than anything she did in particular.
A key component to The Master’s relay teams was Ellen Palmgren who ran on her 4x800-meter relay as well as the opening leg of her team's DMR. As a result, the middle distance veteran helped those relays to outstanding 2nd and 1st place finishes, respectively.
However, a challenging 1000-meter final saw her fade to 8th place, a fairly obvious sign of fatigue from her large racing workload. Of course, her weekend as a whole proved to be far more productive than that lone result would suggest.
Although she does drop in our rankings, Palmgren's reliability as a strong relay member was extremely impressive this winter. Plus, she still ran one of the fastest 1000-meter times during the season in 2:50. And when looking at her resume, she was an absolute work horse, making it challenging to drop her in our rankings more than this.
In retrospect, we probably should have been giving more attention to Maria Tirado coming into the NAIA Indoor Championships. She had run a 2:56 (1k) PR at her conference meet and also ran a then-PR of 2:14 (800) on that same stage.
In other words, momentum was heavily in Tirado's favor and she proved that with a fantastic runner-up finish over 800 meters at the indoor national meet! The William Carey rookie not only matched her half-mile PR in the prelims (exactly, I may add) but she also ran a 2:12.59 personal best in the finals!
When it came to late-season momentum and the ability to peak for the postseason, few women were better than this freshman. Admittedly, her regular season performances, while strong, weren't quite as potent as her peers and she didn't have any other events to worry about at the national meet. That's mostly why we kept Tirado no higher than TSR #14.
Even so, this middle distance standout just positioned herself to be a national title winner (maybe multiple times) over the next few years of her career.
Absolute brilliance from Rylee Haecker at the NAIA Indoor Championships. The Concordia product matched her 2:53 (1k) PR in the prelims on the national stage and later ran a 2:52 personal best in that event to snag bronze! And let's not forget, Haecker was also a leg of her team's 4x800-meter relay which won the national title.
Haecker was incredibly reliable this winter and she seemingly got better with each passing race. She also ran personal bests of 2:17 (800) and 5:04 (mile) which gave her resume versatility alongside her consistency.
Her bronze medal over 1000 meters was probably on the better end of expectations, Haecker delivered and also secured relay gold as an added bonus.
This indoor track season was a little underwhelming for Kylie Sauder after she ran so well during the outdoor track season last spring over the half-mile distance. What Sauder did at the indoor national meet, however, was proof that she is still a top name to look out for in the women's 800 meters.
Running no faster than 2:18 prior to the indoor national meet, Sauder put together one of the better two rounds of racing, running 2:16 in the preliminaries and then 2:13 in the final to place 3rd overall. Then, just like some of the other names on here, she helped her team to a 4th place finish in the 4x800-meter relay.
Clearly, Sauder is best on championship stages. Her season leading up to the national meet wasn't quite as strong as few others, but no one is denying her talent.
After running PR after PR at the CCAC Indoor Championships, we had very high expectations for Ana Pineda going into the national meet. She seemed to be peaking at the right time and was looking to ride the wave of momentum that had she created for herself.
However, the best way to describe Pineda’s performance at the national meet was "good," but not stellar. She failed to make the 800-meter finals which was a little bit of an upset. However, on the flip side of things, she did come back quite well and finished 4th place overall in the mile.
Though Pineda seemed to be in top form to make it to the podium in both events (especially without relays to take up some of her time and energy), we did decide to drop Pineda a few spots, but not overly so. Her overall indoor track season was still plenty impressive and she was still one of the better women in the country this winter.
Running a personal best on the national stage is always a positive, but running a PR while also finishing runner-up is a dream come true (well, for most runners that is).
Kylahn Freiberg ran a seven-second mile PR a the NAIA Indoor Championships take home a huge 2nd place finish, just behind Lisa Voyles. Then, she to continued her strong weekend, guiding her relay team to a national title victory in the 4x800-meter relay.
Freiberg peaked at the right time, arguably better than most women relative to expectations. She clearly had some untapped upside going into the postseason and she delivered on that potential beautifully. Naturally, you can see why she enters our top-10.
What better way to kick-off someone’s first indoor national meet by winning an individual title! Emaline Delaville did just that a few weekends ago, crossing the finish line in the women's 800-meter finals as the victor and recording an excellent mark of 2:12 in the process.
What makes this win even more impressive is how Delaville improved throughout the season to get to this point. In fact, she dropped eight seconds from her first half-mile race to her national title-winning performance! And despite her youth, she navigated through the preliminary rounds like a veteran.
Trying to find the right spot for Delaville in these rankings is a challenge as certain women who are ranked ahead of her have, on paper, more complete resumes. Even so, a national title victory and the fastest time of the indoor track season deserves a top-10 spot, no doubt.
Knowing how to peak for the national meet is one of the best assets for a runner and Noel VanderWall completed her peak perfectly, finishing 3rd in the mile and the DMR at the NAIA Indoor Championships.
In the preliminary rounds, VanderWall ran a PR of 4:55 in the mile. Sometimes, running a personal best in the first round can be positive as it suggests that there is s higher ceiling to reach. However, it can also nerve-wracking someone (and us at TSR) are left to wonder how much is in their legs for the final.
However, those concerns were largely negligible for VanderWall who executed the mile finals flawlessly, responding to the moves in the race and setting herself up to cross the line in 3rd place.
VanderWall is only a sophomore, so she is (in theory) only going to improve as she grows. Her underrated tactical prowess and flat-out great mile fitness should make her a formidable opponent for years to come.
Going into the NAIA Indoor Championships, Alina Boshchuk had the best 5000-meter time of any NAIA woman all season long. She continued to back up her 16:58 (5k) mark by posting exceptionally good times for 3000 meters and helping her team in the relays.
And thankfully, that steadiness and consistency beautifully translated to the national stage.
Boshchuk ended up finishing 2nd place overall at the NAIA Indoor Championships over 5000 meters. That's incredibly impressive considering that it was first trip to the national meet. In fact, Boshchuk made it through the preliminary rounds with no issue and just got out-kicked at the end for the title!
Maybe her championship racing could improve, but for someone who is only a rookie, she backed up her indoor track season and the impressive times better than most veterans do. That kind of reliability is extremely rare in athletes as young as herself.
Ellen-Mary Kearney took on an interesting double at the indoor national meet, running the 5000 meters and the mile. In some ways, this was a very manageable double for Kearney as she held the aerobic capacity and the turnover to run well in both events. She had also put up some of the best marks in many events in all of NAIA, giving her some of the flat-out best talent in the country.
Kearney ended up having a tough time over 5000 meters on the national stage as she did not make it out of the preliminary round. However, she did make it to the mile finals where she finished a respectable 5th place.
Though this double was an interesting choice and it still leaves us scratching our heads. Yes, the 5k can be thankless and we all know that the mile can be unpredictable. And frankly, suggesting that Kearney isn't a top-10 talent this winter would be a mistake.
We do have to drop in our rankings after a "just okay" national meet showing, but this is someone who sat in the top-10 on the national leaderboard in all five individual distance events! That kind of value is why we kept Kearney at TSR #6.
With her total focus on the 3000 meters, Caitlin Dominy definitely ran well at the national meet, although we did feel like a national title was very much in reach for her. Dominy ended up taking home the silver in the 3000-meter finals, a race that turned into a tactical affair with some fast last laps.
With so many middle and long distance events to choose from at the national meet, it is very rare to see a runner just choose one race. That is why we figured that Dominy would be the clear favorite to win the 3k national title.
Though she did just miss gold, Dominy had an incredible indoor track season, running personal bests and also running one of the fastest times over 3000 meters in the entire NAIA. Dominy is a distance superstar who proved herself numerous times this winter. Plus, no one is going to critique a silver medalist.
That is largely why she stays right where she was in our rankings.
Though the season started off a little slow for Abbey Shirts, she put on an incredible showing at the national meet, coming in 2nd place over 1000 meters and then helping her team to a 4th place finish in the DMR.
In her one individual event, Shirts ran a huge 1k PR of 2:51, good enough for 2nd place in one of the more competitive events on the women’s side. She also put together a couple of great legs for her team in the preliminary and final rounds of the DMR. Pair that with a season where she display sneaky-good versatility and it's hard to dislike anything about this College of Idaho product.
Despite the somewhat unexciting start to the season for Shirts, we can't help but wonder if she is just building up for an even stronger outdoor track season.
After The Master’s women put together an incredibly fast DMR time earlier in the season, they seemed prime for another good mark at the national meet. Sure enough, Hannah Fredericks played a significant role in not only the team winning the national title, but running an all-conditions record of 11:38!
On top of running two great anchor legs for her team in the prelims and the finals, Fredericks also took home the 3k national title, beating out some stiff competition despite racing on tired legs
Fredericks has a great balance of turnover and strength, making her very dangerous in events like the 3k. That is mostly why she was able to cross the finish line victorious in the tactical 3k affair that we saw.
Similar to her teammate Abbey Shirts, Ellyse Tingelstad took a slower approach to the start of the indoor track season. She put up a couple of good marks in the 5k and the 3k, but only raced twice before the national meet. For the runner-up finisher at the cross country national meet, we were wondering if that would be enough racing and rust-busting under her belt before the indoor national meet.
Spoiler: It was.
Tingelstad finished emerged with the national title over 5000 meters, beating out a handful of tough competitors. And in retrospect, it seems like the College of Idaho likes to take the approach of a slower start to their winter season with the potential of prioritizing outdoor track.
With two separate wins this season, one in the 5k and one in the 3k, there isn't really anything on Tingelstad's resume that we can be too critical of.
I do not know what is more incredible: Lisa Voyles winning multiple national titles or how fast she ran over 1000 meters to earn one of her national titles. Voyles ran a blazing fast mark of 2:46 for the 1000-meter at the NAIA Indoor Championships, improving upon her personal best time by four seconds!
She later then went on to win the mile in 4:51, almost tying her personal best, and then anchored her team to a 2nd place finish in the DMR.
Voyles is definitely in a class of her own. Not only did she come away with multiple All-American finishes, but she did so with incredibly fast times. To have the stamina to complete such a feat is amazing and it's why she is our TSR #1 runner in these rankings.
Maria Tirado (William Carey)
Reagan Hiebert (St. Mary (KS))
Sage Martin (College of Idaho)
Mercy Chebet (Goshen)
KICKED OFF
Jessica Kampman (Dordt)
Mollie Gamble (Taylor)
Maddy Walter-Sherretts (St. Mary (KS))
Alauna Carstens (Evergreen State)
JUST MISSED (in no particular order)
Jessica Kampman (Dordt)
Mollie Gamble (Taylor)
Audrey Brinkruff (Taylor)
Veronica Pinkerton (Hastings)
Allison Ramsay (St. Francis (IL))
Annika Alderfer Fisher (Goshen)
Jenna Esch (Concordia (NE))
Cailen Jolley (Oklahoma City)
Maddy Walter-Sherretts (St. Mary (KS))
Riley Hiebert (St. Mary (KS))
Alauna Carstens (Evergreen State)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)
Hasnae Goulamzi (Texas Wesleyan)
Ahna Niedeck (Taylor)
Anna Martin (Huntington)
Suzie Johnson (The Master's)
Kate Madsen (St. Mary (KS))
Kahea Figueira (College of Idaho)
Jaqueline Albo (Lawrence Tech)
Elizabeth Barrett (Indiana Wesleyan)
Haley Nieuwkoop (Cornerstone)
Addi Dewey (Indiana Wesleyan)
Notes
- N/A