TSR Collaboration
Feb 13, 202315 min
Written by Scotty Loughlin & Garrett Zatlin
Do you have an interest in writing for The Stride Report? We're looking for D1 women's writers, high school writers and potentially NAIA writers. Want to know more? Read this and send us an email at contact@thestridereport.com to let us know!
Click here to see our Just Missed and Honorable Mention names.
Listed eligibility takes redshirts and Covid-related extensions into consideration.
TFRRS is used as a general guide when determining eligibility.
Was not ranked in our last update.
First number indicates how much the athlete has moved in our rankings.
The second number indicates where the athlete was ranked in our last update.
It feels a little silly to drop Kaylee Mitchell down to our TSR #25 spot after the season that she's been having. But based on how everyone else has performed, this simply feels like the right spot for her.
The Oregon State veteran has run 8:55 (3k) and 4:32 (mile) this season, clearly making her one of the top distance talents in the NCAA. Sure, her 3k/mile two-day double this past weekend wasn't ideal, posting times of 9:07 (3k) and 4:39 (mile), but it wasn't horrendous, either.
Mitchell is clearly more talented than what we saw this past weekend. She has also done enough this season for us to look past a pair of unexciting results from Friday and Saturday.
Welcome to the rankings, Emily Venters!
After kicking-off her 2023 indoor track season with a respectable 9:00 (3k) mark at the Washington Invite, Venters blasted off on the same track two weeks later by recording a 15:20 (5k) PR at the Husky Classic. Both efforts are significant personal bests and the latter time comes in at NCAA #5 for 5000 meters.
The Ute superstar was one of the most consistent and lethal talents on the grass over the fall. Now, her stock is rising closer to that level on the track with each subsequent race. If she is able to peak in the postseason like she did in cross country, then Venters will be a strong contender for an All-American honor in the 5k come March.
Don't be mistaken, just because Sam Bush falls in our rankings doesn't mean that she's not one of the most well-rounded and valuable distance talents in the NCAA.
Her 8:54 (3k) mark from December is hard to ignore. And when you see that she has also run 2:44 (1k) and a flat-track converted 4:35 (mile), it would be ridiculous to suggest that she's not been running well.
But the NC State distance talent is also capable of running 2:43 (1k) and 4:32/4:33 (mile) rather than what she has posted this winter. She tried running the mile yet again in Boston this past weekend and recorded another 4:37 mile time (although this mark didn't receive a conversion).
The good news is that Bush, in terms of skillset, is probably one of the women who we would trust the most on the national stage.
Carley Thomas has one of the most loaded middle distance resumes in the country right. So far this winter, she has run 4:36 (mile), 2:02 (800) and ran a huge 2:01 (800) split on Washington’s NCAA record-breaking DMR at Boston University the other week.
The fact that Thomas has run 2:02 or 2:03 three times this season and currently holds the NCAA #6 spot in the 800 meters tells us that the Husky star is primed to utilize her consistency during the postseason where she’ll need to string together a series of strong marks over the rounds.
There was no way Thomas was going to miss out on this edition of the rankings as she slots in at a well-deserved TSR #22 spot. Sure, she's consistently running fast, but when you pair that with her incredible in-race tactics, this Aussie middle distance ace be a problem.
We would argue that there hasn't been a miler in the NCAA more consistent than Anna Gibson this season. The Washington veteran has toed the line for the event three different times this season, posting times of 4:35, 4:31 (converted) and 4:33. Then, this past weekend, she ran a new personal best of 2:04 for 800 meters.
Generally speaking, Gibson hasn't really done a single thing wrong this season. Yes, she is moving back in our rankings, but that's more because the rest of the NCAA has caught up to her in the mile.
If there was a "End of Season Award" for consistency, Gibson would likely be the front-runner to win that honor.
There's admittedly not much to talk about with Wilma Nielsen. She caught our attention earlier this season when she ran 2:03 for 800 meters and then she really impressed us with a monster 2:38.95 mark over 1000 meters.
That 1k mark suggested that this Bradley ace could run around the 2:01 or 2:02 barrier for 800 meters. And sure enough, Nielsen ran 2:02.91 this past weekend, mostly validating her insane 1k effort from last month.
On paper, this overseas talent could probably run a bit faster over that distance, but she has still been running very well and is experiencing a fantastic breakout season (or comeback season depending on how you look at it).
Sarah Hendrick just looks flat-out better than she ever has been.
She has run a 4:43 mile PR this winter and has gone on to post times of 2:03, 2:02 and 2:02 over 800 meters. The Kennesaw State star showed phenomenal poise and patience in her battle against Carley Thomas the other week which resulted in her securing a marquee win.
Hendrick isn't just more fit and more refined than she was last year. She's also showing incredible growth as a tactical and positional runner. And as someone who has some of the best raw fitness in the women's 800 meters this winter, this half-mile veteran could end up being a legitimate challenge for a handful of true national title contenders in March.
A highly underwhelming 16:00 (5k) effort back in December was not an encouraging sign for Amelia Mazza-Downie, a 5k All-American from last winter.
The New Mexico ace has been so darn reliable and consistent over the longer distances throughout the past year, but it was hard to know what to expect from her after an extended hiatus from racing this season.
But after toeing the line in Seattle against Emily Venters this past weekend in the 5000 meters, and simply sitting on Venters' shoulder throughout most of the race, Mazza-Downie pulled away over the last lap. In a display of phenomenal strength, the Lobo standout dropped a monster time of 15:18 (5k), forcing us to change how we view her as a national-caliber contender.
Mazza-Downie, despite her eligibility, is experienced and well equipped to handle the ultra-fast 5k (and maybe even 3k) field that we'll see on the national stage. But a 15:18 PR puts her in a completely new tier. And if she posts another validating result soon, then she'll fly up our rankings.
Since our last update, Alexandra Carlson has added a new PR of 2:06 (800) to go along with an elite mark of 2:42 (1k) and a blistering 8:56 (3k) time, the latter of which is currently slated at NCAA #14.
None of that has changed the fact that Carlson seems to be a true miler. Even so, these recent performances have displayed a level of range that cannot be ignored and it keeps her in this coveted range of the rankings despite the rocket-fast performances of other women in the NCAA.
The Scarlet Knight’s 4:31 (mile) PR from a weeks back still holds a high spot of NCAA #6 in the event, so it should be anticipated that she pursues that event on the national stage. And when she does attack that event in March, her dynamic skillset should give her a massive advantage in most race scenarios despite her youth.
Get ready for an epic BIG 10 battle later this month between Carlson and Illinois’ Olivia Howell!
At the Meyo Invitational, the Fighting Irish distance ace, Olivia Markezich, flexed her speed with a 4:34 (mile) PR where she finished less than a second behind All-American veteran, Olivia Howell.
And while she did settle for a runner-up result, it's important to recognize that Markezich is seemingly more of a 3k runner. So a 4:34 mile mark only signals that she developed her speed and turnover, a useful tool for tactical championship\ races.
Markezich moves up a few spots in the rankings after adding this respectable middle distance performance to her jaw-dropping 8:50 (3k) PR from December. She continues to get better and better with every outing and has quickly become one of the most dangerous 3k runners in the entire country.
In her first race back since December, Kelsey Chmiel competed in the 3000 meters at the Camel City Invitational where she went toe to toe with her former Wolfpack teammate Hannah Steelman, who now runs professionally for On.
Although Chmiel came up just short of Steelman, she finished as the top collegiate and ran a converted mark of 8:54 (3k) which currently sits at NCAA #9 on the national leaderboard. And while that is a super impressive result, it's hardly surprising for someone of her caliber.
Coupling that result with her 15:27 (5k) performance from December (which slots in at NCAA #7) shows us that Chmiel is an All-American threat at both distances, although we already knew that.
She drops a few spots in our rankings due to the performances of some other athletes, but don’t be surprised if Chmiel returns to the top-10 by season’s end.
Arkansas veteran Lauren Gregory takes a fairly significant tumble this week in our rankings. And yet, despite that, you have to commend this Razorback star for her risky and brave effort in the 3000 meters this past weekend.
In Seattle, we saw Gregory follow a pacer and then aggressively attack the lead once the pacer stepped off. For a while, it looked like she was going to run away from the field, but a brutal last lap or two sent her fading backwards towards a time of 9:00 (3k).
Gregory is undeniably one of the more fit women in the NCAA this winter. A couple weeks ago, she split 4:29 on the anchor leg of her DMR and then came back the next day to run 4:31 in the open mile, securing an overall victory.
Running like Gregory did this past weekend obviously carries risk, but we can't be too critical of someone being bold in an effort to run an absurdly fast time. And with a couple of weeks left in the season, there is still time for her to post a national qualifying mark in the event.
We don't have much to say about Mercy Chelangat, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. After running 15:18 for 5000 meters back in December, we didn't see this Alabama veteran toe the line for a race until this past weekend.
In the 3000 meters at the Millrose Games, we saw Chelangat ride the momentum of a fast field en route to a strong 8:54 mark. But truthfully, that's where our conversation ends. Chelangat holds an 8:53 (3k) PR from last winter and no one was surprised to see her post this result.
Still, it feels safe to say that she'll be a double All-American yet again a month from now.
Imogen Barrett has been one of the most consistent middle distance runners in the country over the last calendar year and now has recorded a mark of 2:01 (800) this season...which she had done only once on the outdoor oval, previously.
In an epic duel with Michaela Rose, Sophia Gorriaran and Kristie Schoeffield, the Aussie middle distance star was able to rise to the occasion and finish 3rd place in what will presumably be the most challenging 800 meter affair that she’ll compete in until the NCAA Indoor Championships (depending on how you feel about the SEC meet).
Now that Barrett has paired her incredible consistency with a blazing fast time (which now sits at NCAA #4) and a statement race, the Gator star has to be in the "fringe" national title conversation.
This Florida veteran has gotten better and better as the season has progressed and she is beginning to feel like a “lock” for an All-American honor.
If we had a hypothetical TSR #26 spot in the previous edition of our rankings, it would have gone to Duke's Amina Maatoug.
Her combined personal bests of 8:55 (3k) and 2:04 (800) showcased a rare balance of middle and long distance range, but both marks were overmatched by the women who made our rankings. It was one of the more brutal rankings decisions that we had to make.
Then, everything changed when Maatoug went head-to-head in a legendary mile battle at Camel City against Huntington’s Addy Wiley. Once there, the Dutch middle distance runner demolished expectations by running a converted 4:29 mile mark.
Even unconverted, her raw time of 4:32 that she posted on a 200 meter flat track would have placed her at NCAA #8 in the event. But with the conversion, she sits behind only Katelyn Tuohy’s NCAA record of 4:24.
That kind of result redefines the already-impressive range that we knew Maatoug had. Assuming Tuohy scratches out of the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships, it seems more than likely that Maatoug could be the national title favorite heading in...depending on how you view our TSR #10 runner.
For essentially the same reasons that we outlined for Maatoug, we see Harvard’s Maia Ramsden spring-boarding up our charts for the incredible versatility that she has exhibited this winter.
The Ivy League ace has paired her range shown throughout the early part of the season with a massive 4:30 (mile) PR at Boston University from the other weekend. That kind of result simply jumps off the page and it redefines Ramsden as a legitimate national title favorite.
It was difficult choosing between Ramsden and Maatoug for the last top-10 spot, but given her one-second edge in the 3k and the fact that her mile time is 0.28 seconds off Maatoug’s converted mark, the accolade goes to Ramsden in this edition.
Another 3k race, another masterclass showing of tactics by Taylor Roe.
It looked like Arkansas' Lauren Gregory was going to run away with the women's 3k victory at the Husky Classic in Seattle this past weekend. It simply looked like Oklahoma State's Taylor Roe, the defending national champion over 3000 meters, was too far back.
Of course, slowly but surely, Roe began to put in an assertive surge. And by the final lap, she had enough to burst past Gregory, leaving her competition in the dust and securing a clutch win with a time of 8:56 (3k).
Is Roe the favorite for the 3k national title this winter? No, especially not after seeing what Tuohy has done. But this Cowgirl veteran is probably better than what her 8:56 personal best indicates and tactically, she may be the most complete 3k runner in the NCAA.
Yes, she moves back a few spots, but that's not really because of anything that she has done this season. The women's 3k is just insanely loaded and the women ranked ahead of her have proven to be just as dynamic over the last few months.
Ceili McCabe has not contested an open event since our last rankings update. She did, however, toe the line for an anchor leg on West Virginia's DMR which ran 10:59. According to the live results, McCabe split 4:33.60 on that relay, roughly two seconds off from her mile PR that she ran at the Armory a few weeks back.
A lot of people will probably read too much into Parker Valby's recent 8:49 (3k) effort at Boston University this past weekend.
On paper, that is an incredibly fast time, but I'm sure there were expectations for her to dip under 8:45 (3k) and remain as a national title contender...if Tuohy has an "off" day or doesn't contest the event on the national stage.
Valby went to the front of this 3k race and hammered the pace, clearly taking the responsibility of making this a hard effort from the gun (behind the pacer). And although she paid for her aggressive approach, you can hardly blame her. She wanted to go after something historically quick and just like we saw with Lauren Gregory, there are risks that come with that.
With a couple of weeks left in the season, Valby does fall a few spots in our rankings. But after the SEC Indoor Championships, we imagine that she'll have a good shot of climbing back into our top-five.
Hilda Olemomoi took the NCAA by storm during cross country season, but she’s already proven that she isn’t simply a “specialist” on the grass -- she can perform on the track at the very highest level.
Despite racing seldomly this season, both of Olemomoi’s races have been out of this world. In a world without Katelyn Tuohy, Olemomoi’s personal bests of 15:17 (5k) and 8:45 (3k) would be LEADING the NCAA!
Additionally, her more recent mark came in a victory over Parker Valby who most have considered the NCAA’s best long distance talent outside of Tuohy. While we can’t say that narrative has completely changed, or that we know what to expect from this Alabama runner tactically, we can definitively say that Olemomoi is at a completely different level right now.
We’ve kept this Cardinal duo together in our rankings since the preseason, but you may have noticed that they’ve swapped positions.
Although Juliette Whittaker now comes in one spot below her teammate, the Stanford rookie deserves massive kudos for cracking the top-five in her first NCAA season. While her 4:33 (mile) gave her the edge over Roisin Willis in the previous edition of our rankings, that mark has faded outside the top-16 on the national leaderboard. Plus, her teammate got the better of her at the Windy City Invite despite Whittaker dropping a season’s best of 2:00 (800).
Whittaker’s performances have been incredible, but with Willis now breaking 2:00 in a Stanford singlet (running 1:59.95) and taking down her teammate in the process, she deserves the edge in these rankings at this point of the season.
The hype was enormous for these freshmen entering their NCAA journey, and they have more than answered the bell. Both women are well-deserving of top-five rankings and have the potential of moving up as they battle the other 800 meter-centric athletes ahead of them in postseason competition.
This may be met with some opposition given Willis’ faster mark and Whittaker’s mile range.
But Michaela Rose just took down an elite field that featured the top prep runner in the country (Sophia Gorriaran) as well as five women who have been NCAA All-Americans in the 800 meters. Two of those ladies are now running professionally, including the reigning NCAA outdoor champion, Kristie Schoeffield!
Rose didn’t just show tactical prowess, though. Her 2:00.18 (800) mark more than validates the 2:01 mark that she soloed at the Razorback Invitational earlier this season. And at this point, it’s hard to picture her not breaking the two minute barrier by the end of this academic year.
Is Rose the favorite to win the women's 800 meter national title this winter? Well, that honor may still belong to our TSR #2 runner, but it’s feeling more and more likely that the LSU star is the top contender to dethrone Lindsey Butler.
Despite not being seeded in the "fastest" mile heat at Boston University, we were able to see Virginia Tech megastar Lindsey Butler emerge with the fastest NCAA mile time of the weekend, posting a huge 4:31 PR.
Cameron Ormond of Guleph (in Canada) was technically the fastest collegiate in the field with a time of 4:29 in the same field as Butler.
Despite the incredible result, it's hard to be too surprised by Butler's performance. She has split 4:29 on the anchor leg of a DMR before and she has run 2:01 over 800 meters (as well as 2:42 for 1000 meters). We also predicted that she would run 4:32 this weekend, so this result, while certainly a touch faster, is still in-line with our expectations.
With the women's 800 meters looked incredibly top-heavy and historically competitive, the opportunity for a national title in the mile may actually be greater for Butler than it would be in the 800 meters.
But would the reigning indoor half-mile champion really forgo her main event for the mile? That feels unlikely, but crazier things have happened before.
The English language does not have words that measure up to the accomplishments amassed by NC State’s Katelyn Tuohy this season.
After opening up her indoor track campaign in December with a top-10 all-time mark of 15:15 (5k), Tuohy decided that simply cracking the top-10 all-time list would no longer be sufficient. She shifted into record-breaking mode once the 2023 calendar year began and since then, it’s been open season.
The first record to go down was the mile as Tuohy was able to eclipse the 4:25 bar set by Jenny Barringer (Simpson) back in 2009 by running 4:24 in an exciting contest with professionals Alicia Monson and Whittni Morgan (née Orton).
But even after a historic effort like that, distance running fans weren’t quite ready for the unimaginable firepower that Tuohy would display at the Millrose Games.
Once again facing off against the likes of Monson and Morgan, Tuohy was able to navigate a loaded field of professionals and completely obliterate Karissa Schweizer’s former record by straining the stopwatch with an 8:35 (3k) mark.
It’s no surprise that Tuohy retains the throne as our TSR #1 runner. And at this point, it feels like she is the most sure-fire lock of anyone that we've ever seen for a 3k/5k national title double come March.
Emily Venters (Utah)
Carley Thomas (Washington)
Sarah Hendrick (Kennesaw State)
Amelia Mazza-Downie (New Mexico)
Amina Maatoug (Duke)
Claire Seymour (BYU)
Natalie Cook (Oklahoma State)
Valery Tobias (Texas)
Flomena Asekol (Alabama)
Gabija Galvydyte (Oklahoma State)
Natalie Cook (Oklahoma State)
Valery Tobias (Texas)
Flomena Asekol (Alabama)
Gabija Galvydyte (Oklahoma State)
Grace Fetherstonhaugh (Oregon State)
Izzy Thornton-Bott (Oregon)
Elise Stearns (Northern Arizona)
Ella Baran (Colorado)
Laura Pellicoro (Portland)
Sophie O’Sullivan (Washington)
Riley Chamberlain (BYU)
Olivia Howell (Illinois)
Aurora Rynda (Michigan)
Katherine Mitchell (Boston College)
Silan Ayyildiz (South Carolina)
Annika Reiss (Northern Arizona)
Klaudia Kazimierska (Oregon)
Margot Appleton (Virginia)
Simone Plourde (Utah)
Aubrey Frentheway (BYU)
Claire Seymour (BYU)
Sadie Sargent (BYU)
Brynn Brown (North Carolina)
Cailie Logue (Iowa State)
Jasmine Fehr (Tennessee)
Taylor Rohatinsky (BYU)
Alena Ellsworth (BYU)
Esther Seeland (Virginia)
Madison Martinez (Villanova)
Marlena Preigh (Washington)
Hayley Kitching (Penn State)
Sydney Seymour (NC State)
Mia Barnett (UCLA)
Katy-Ann McDonald (Georgetown)
Gracelyn Larkin (New Mexico)
Gabrielle Wilkinson (Florida)
Kassidy Johnson (Rutgers)
Jenna Schwinghamer (Kentucky)
Melissa Riggins (Georgetown)