TSR Collaboration
May 16, 202317 min
Written by Maura Beattie, Finn Birnie & Scotty Loughlin
Additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin
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.
Ever since her electric sub-9:40 (steeplechase) mark at the Bryan Clay Invite, New Mexico’s Elise Thorner has exclusively contested flat events on the track. She was part of the Lobos’ 4x1500 meter relay at the Penn Relays back in late April and then went after the 1500/5k double at the Mountain West Outdoor Championships.
It seems that Thorner and the New Mexico coaching staff have opted to rely on her experience and last year's evidence of postseason peaking by holding off on racing over the barriers again until the regional meets.
Despite this one-spot drop, we’re still very high on Thorner. She finished 5th in the steeplechase at last year's outdoor national meet, took a leap in fitness during the 2022 cross country season and showed us that she is clearly a top-25 talent in these rankings when she set the NCAA #3 mark of 9:39 (steeplechase) earlier this season.
Melissa Tanaka of Stanford is shaking things up in the NCAA!
The veteran talent threw down a massive four-second PR of 4:09 en route to a runner-up finish in the 1500 meters at the PAC-12 Outdoor Championships this past weekend. And as a result, she has altered how we view her as a national-caliber contender.
Tanaka’s 2:04 (800) speed came in handy in that championship race as she tried to run down Utah’s Simone Plourde, but she came up just 0.37 seconds shy of the win.
Last year, Tanaka was a surprise qualifier for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 1500 meter finals. She left Eugene, Oregon with a 12th place finish in the finals, but has only used that experience to improve. Tactically, she continues to be exceptional.
If Tanaka can continue to ride her current wave of momentum, then big things will be on the horizon at both the West Regional Championships and the outdoor national meet. This Cardinal runner is no longer flying under the radar on a team that has recently been very deep in the middle distance events.
Instead, she has risen closer to the tier that Zofia Dudek, and maybe even Juliette Whittaker and Roisin Willis, currently reside.
A true dual threat in the middle distances, Rylee Penn now ranks at NCAA #7 in both the 800 meters and the 1500 meters on the national leaderboard, making it impossible for us to leave her out of our rankings.
Her recent 2:01.90 (800) performance came seemingly out of nowhere as the Bearcat sensation left the field in her dust and won the Clark Wood Open by nearly seven seconds! However, after recording the fastest preliminary time in the 1500 meters at the American Outdoor Championships, Penn did not contest the final for unknown circumstances.
And admittedly, that's a slight concern, although one source cited an illness as the reason for her unexpected absence.
Assuming all is fine, the East Regional Championships will be very telling for the Cincinnati star as she’ll be able to iron out which event will give her the best chance at an All-American honor in mid-June (our guess is the 1500 meters.
But in terms of raw talented, Penn is among the best of the best.
On a hot weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina, the newest Wolfpack member, Amaris Tyynismaa, was able to pull off a solid double at the ACC Outdoor Championships. The recent transfer she finished 6th in a loaded 1500 meter field and came back to upset her teammate, Kelsey Chmiel, over 5000 meters.
Chmiel hangs her hat on being one of the better strength-based runners in the NCAA, so being able to grind out the bell lap over someone like her was a huge step for Tyynismaa, showing us that she’s continuing to thrive under Coach Henes’ training.
Admittedly, none of these results are total shocks, but they are certainly solid steps in the right direction, especially that latter performance.
The latter race could be a sign of things to come with Tyynismaa potentially finding a home in the 5k this postseason. And if we know anything about NC State's distance runners, it’s that they are prone to perform at their best come June.
Boston College’s Katherine Mitchell has quickly become one of the best middle distance tacticians in the NCAA.
After making 2:03 (800) look comfortable in the prelims, Mitchell was able to put some daylight between herself and the Virginia Tech duo of Lindsey Butler and Star Price en route to a second consecutive 800 meter ACC title this past weekend, the first being from the most recent indoor track season.
Beyond her tactical prowess, Mitchell has proven that she’s flat-out fast.
Running a mark of 2:01 (800) in a congested field in a conference championship, while showing excellent tactical awareness, suggests that she could be able to navigate the rounds of the NCAA Outdoor Championships and potentially earn an All-American honor to finish up her final season at Boston College.
Oklahoma State star Taylor Roe slips back in our rankings after a somewhat disappointing BIG 12 Outdoor Championship showing this past weekend.
While her performances in the 1500 meters and the 5000 meters weren't by any means bad, they just weren't of the caliber that we are used to seeing from the 2022 national champion over 3000 meters and multi-time All-American. She faded to 4th in the women's 1500 meter finals and then dropped to 3rd in the 5000 meters.
We know that Roe lives for the bright lights, thriving in tactical postseason scenarios. She boosts seriously dangerous race IQ and some underrated turnover. But given her unexciting 2023 spring campaign, it's been harder and harder to keep her highly ranked.
After a solid cross country campaign this past fall, California Baptist's Greta Karinauskaite did not compete during the winter months (the Lancers don't have an indoor track program). But since the outdoor track season has begun, Karinauskaite has taken a substantial leap in her fitness and now owns the NCAA’s top mark of 9:35 in the steeplechase, a time which ranks her at NCAA #18 all-time!
This huge effort was accomplished solo this past weekend at the WAC Championships as no other athlete was within 44 seconds of Karinauskaite. That factor makes it scary to wonder just how fast California Baptist’s ace could run in a field where she’s pushed by her competition from gun to tape.
And if you think that she's just a one-race wonder, be sure to remember that this is the same woman who ran 15:36 for 5000 meters earlier this season. She very much deserves a spot in our rankings.
Due to her inexperience at the D1 championship level, we’ve conservatively opted to slot Karinauskaite at TSR #19. Even so, she has more than proven that, at least in the eyes of our D1 women's team, that she belongs in the national title conversation of the steeplechase.
Harvard star Maia Ramsden picked up two Ivy League titles two weeks ago, winning the 1500/5k double.
After recording a 1500 meter PR of 4:11 in mid-April, the Crimson stud nearly matched that effort with her 4:12 showing at the Ivy League Championships. Ramsden took down the field by three seconds and then turned around and won the 5k in a time of 16:19, four seconds ahead of the runner-up finisher.
As a final tune-up for the East Regional Championships, the Crimson talent raced at the Yale Last Chance Meet. And although she didn’t get the win, she recorded a 5k time of 16:09, one second shy of her PR set earlier in the season.
Ramsden is rounding into shape at the right time, especially when you look at her 1500 meter showing at the Ivy League Championships. She has shown us that she can race unchallenged and still come away with a quick time.
The Harvard ace will enter the East Regional Championships with both marks in the 1500 meters and the 5k, but her best bet at qualifying for the outdoor national meet will be in the 1500 meters, the same event that she finished 10th in last year.
However, this time around, a placement much higher than 10th will be in the cards. As we saw during the winter months, Ramsden is a far more refined and consistent distance talent this year compared to 2022.
Kelsey Chmiel drops one spot in this week's rankings updated after a runner-up finish in the 5k at the ACC Outdoor Championships.
With Katelyn Tuohy opting not to double this past weekend after contesting the 10k, Chmiel was widely viewed as the odds-on favorite to win the conference title. And while silver is not a poor result by any means, Chmiel was unable to match the turnover of fellow Wolfpack star Amaris Tyynismaa over the final stretch as her teammate instead snatched the victory on her new home track.
Traditionally, Chmiel has been more successful over 10,000 meters during the spring months compared to the 5k, so there isn’t too much to be concerned about at this point assuming she prioritizes the 25-lap affair in the postseason.
Admittedly, she hasn't looked insanely sharp this season, but it's also clear that this is someone who peaks in the postseason without fail almost every season. With a sub-33:00 (10k) mark to her name this spring and prior postseason success, Chmiel should still be viewed as an All-American threat in the more strength-based event.
Where do we even start with Izzy Thornton-Bott?
Earlier this spring, the Oregon ace clocked an unbelievable time of 4:08 (1500) at the Australian Championships. However, then an entirely new question arose: Would she be able to replicate that performance?
Well, the Aussie Duck star put those questions to bed last week with an outstanding 4:08 mark for 1500 meters at the Sound Running Track Fest. This performance was some serious validation for her incredible mark from late March. And with the absence of Lauren Gregory this season, Thornton-Bott has become a legitimate contender for the 1500 meter national title later this June.
While her recent showing at the PAC-12 Outdoor Championships, fading to 3rd place in a time of 4:11, forced us to hold greater caution for her in the national title discussion, the idea of Thornton-Bott winning gold in mid-June is still plenty realistic.
Utah Valley’s Everlyn Kemboi has been nothing short of phenomenal this spring, impressing us week-in and week-out.
Earlier this season, we were marveling over her terrific 15:20 (5k) and 32:03 (10k) results. Now, we are in disbelief over her breath-taking 4:12 altitude converted mark for 1500 meters.
This was an outstanding showcase of range from one of the NCAA’s more distance-orientated runners, even if it was converted from a 4:17 mark. Kemboi’s leaps in fitness are mighty impressive, but what's arguably even stronger are the names who she is taking down in the process.
This Wolverine ace has proved that she isn’t afraid to mix it up with the very best and this newfound speed is going to make her a serious competitor as she steps back up in distance for the rest of the postseason.
It’s tough to move West Virginia’s Ceili McCabe back in our rankings, but there were just some key performances from other women this past weekend that hold greater priority.
McCabe has raced sparingly this season, only contesting the steeplechase twice as well as a low-key 800 meter race. When she opened her spring campaign in mid-April with a 9:45 steeplechase mark, we saw that she hadn’t missed a beat in training or competing.
Earlier this month, the junior Mountaineer star ran her first collegiate 800 meter race, finishing in 3rd place with a time of 2:08. That's nothing spectacular, but refining her foot-speed could only benefit her for the always-tactical regional rounds.
Then, this past weekend, McCabe won her third-consecutive steeplechase title at the BIG 12 Outdoor Championships. She won the race in a modest time of 10:12, only finishing five seconds ahead of runner-up Lona Latema of Kansas. Obviously, the West Virginia talent did just enough to win this weekend without overexerting herself. And even though she was well off of her 9:30 steeplechase PR, that’s no point of concern.
The Mountaineer ace was 3rd last year at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and is primed to make a run for the title this year. However, we have yet to see her full talent unleashed during this 2023 outdoor track season.
It's been a breakout year for Virginia’s Margot Appleton and she is proving herself to be one of the most consistent runners in the game. At the ACC Championships this past weekend, she made short work of a very deep 1500 meter finals field to come away with the victory in a respectable time of 4:14.
Defeating the likes of Duke’s Amina Maatoug and NC State’s Amaris Tyynismaa in such a commanding manner should fill her with confidence as we approach the NCAA Championships.
The Cavalier standout has already flexed her phenomenal speed and strength this spring and now she has shown us that she is comfortable in a championship setting. No one has momentum quite like Appleton right now and we are extremely excited to see where she takes this hot streak she is on.
Because if she continues to go up from here, then Appleton may be in the national title conversation depending on who you ask.
Another weekend, another solid result for Alabama newcomer, Hilda Olemomoi.
The Crimson Tide star contested the 5000 meters at the SEC Outdoor Track Championships, finishing in a very respectable 3rd place behind Florida standout, Parker Valby, and Alabama counterpart, Mercy Chelangat.
This performance was about what we expected from Olemomoi. 15:28 for 5000 meters is a great time and it shows us that her form is trending nicely as we approach the NCAA Championships.
In our eyes, Olemomoi is a stronger 10k runner and the fact that she has been competing so competitively over the shorter distances bodes well for when she makes the transition back up to that race. If she chooses to double over the next month, then she will be a sure-fire favorite to pick up some All-American accolades in the process.
The Alabama ace only drops in our rankings due to the performances of others.
Gator superstar Parker Valby is back to NCAA competition and has been firing on all cylinders...well, at least as far as her times are concerned.
The Florida-based distance phenom opened up her 2023 outdoor track season with a 15:32 (5k) mark a few weeks ago in what was an entirely solo effort. No other runner in the field was within 56 seconds of her.
Following that season debut, Valby took on the elite Alabama duo of Mercy Chelangat and Hilda Olemomoi at the SEC Outdoor Championships this past weekend. And when you look at the final results, she didn’t skip a beat. The Florida ace barely held off Chelangat at the line by four hundredths of a second for a conference title and seasonal best of 15:25 over 5000 meters.
Valby’s stock is rising once more and she has now shown her mastery over 5000 meters on multiple occasions this season. Even so, the Gator seemed to have a noticeable hitch in her stride this past weekend and based on her post-race interview, it's clear that she's still not 100% healthy.
We’ve decided to be somewhat conservative with her return to our rankings due to her still-troublesome injury history. But in terms of pure talent, there likely aren't 10 distance runners in the NCAA (women) better than her.
Claire Seymour is riding a tremendous wave of momentum and she is not an athlete you want to toe the line against in the postseason.
The Cougar star was able to replicate her 800 meter PR with another 2:00 result at the Sound Running Track Fest against professional competition. Seymour has also contested the 400 meters multiple times this season, one of which was within a quarter second of her personal best in the event.
With increased foot-speed, impeccable consistency and her consistency at an all-time high, all signs point to this battle-tested veteran being able to perform at a high level on the biggest stage and take home another All-American honor.
And with the way she’s trending, it would not be outlandish to suggest that Seymour possesses an outside shot at winning the national title in a tactical setting.
As she’s done all season long, Emily Venters of Utah came out on top this past weekend.
The redshirt senior hasn’t lost a race to a collegiate competitor this season and she carried that trend into the PAC-12 Outdoor Championships when she won the 10k title with ease.
Venters, who holds a PR of 31:48 in the 10k, won the conference title in a respectable mark of 32:32. After remaining with the field through 4800 meters, the Ute star put in a surge that her competitors couldn’t match en route to her 42-second victory.
As we head into the West Regional Championships, Venters should easily qualify for the outdoor national meet in the 10k. And if she decides to, the Ute ace could attempt the 5k/10k double. However, her best bet at finishing amongst the top women at the NCAA Outdoor Championships will come in the 10k given Venters' strength over the longer distance.
One calendar year ago, we would’ve been shocked if you had told us Simone Plourde would crack the top-10 of our rankings one year from then. But the Ute superstar has put together one of the most elite resumes in the NCAA considering the range it takes to accomplish what she’s done.
Plourde currently ranks at NCAA #2 in the 5000 meters (not counting Katelyn Tuohy’s race at the Sound Running Track Fest) and stormed home to a 4:09 (1500) mark at the PAC-12 Outdoor Championships this past weekend. That latter result slots her in at NCAA #4 on the national leaderboard for that event.
At this point, it’s really difficult to tell which event is Plourde’s specialty…which is a good problem to have! The Utah star has a rare blend of strength and otherworldly finishing speed. Frankly, she has shown little-to-no weaknesses in her skillset.
Plourde looks primed for a top-three finish on the national stage in whichever event she decided to try her hand at in the NCAA Outdoor Championships. And if Tuohy doesn't contest the 1500 meters, then we could be talking about the national title favorite (depending on how you feel about Olivia Howell).
Olivia Howell made it look easy at the BIG 10 Outdoor Championships this past weekend. The Illinois junior doubled up in the 1500 meters and the 5k, leaving with gold and silver medals.
In her main event, the 1500 meters, the standout athlete sat in 2nd place through the first 1000 meters of the race before making a move for the lead. And when she did, she comfortably pulled away from the field to win in a time of 4:20.
Sure, that was well off of her PR, but it was a (big) win, nonetheless.
A few short hours later, the Illini’ ace took the track in a new event. Without ever contesting the 5k before, Howell flexed her endurance by finishing 2nd place overall in a time of 16:12, holding off some charging Michigan women in the process.
After winning the mile at the indoor national meet, Howell isn’t a dark horse anymore. Her name is obviously on the table to win the 1500 meters at the outdoor national meet, but her path won’t be so easy as she how has a target on her back.
Alabama veteran Mercy Chelangat continued to showcase her impressive form with an excellent 2nd place finish in the 5000 meters at the SEC Outdoor Track Championships.
Heading into the bell lap, it looked like the race was done and dusted as Chelangat was nearly 20 meters adrift of race leader, Parker Valby. But the Crimson Tide star wasn’t done yet. In the home stretch, she produced the mother of all closes to reduce the 20-meter gap to just a stride. Valby was able to narrowly hold on, edging out Chelangat, 15:25.03 to 15:25.07 over the 5000-meter distance.
While Chelangat didn’t pick up the victory, this was a top performance from her. The most impressive part about this showing was that she was able to produce such a stellar kick off of such a hot pace.
Chelangat is famed for her unbelievable strength, so to see her showcase some legitimate closing speed validates her as a 10k national title favorite this June.
It feels like Roisin Willis is flying under the radar as the only time over the last month that she has contested the 800 meters was on the third leg of Stanford’s DMR at the Penn Relays. Most of her emphasis during the middle of this season has been on the events surrounding her specialty race – the 400 meters and the 1500 meters.
The reigning indoor national champion at 800 meters flexed her quarter-mile speed three weeks ago with a new PR of 53.41 (400), but admittedly had an “off” day at the PAC-12 Outdoor Championships where she faded to 11th place in the 1500 meter final.
Sliding Willis down one spot is our way of acknowledging that she doesn’t have quite the level of momentum that she had entering the NCAA Indoor Championships while also seeking to avoid an overreaction given how incredibly talented this Cardinal freshman is.
For the first time this season, Notre Dame’s Olivia Markezich got her toes wet (pun intended) in the steeplechase. At the ACC Outdoor Championships, the Fighting Irish standout showed us that she didn’t need a rust-buster in the event to still run a nationally competitive time.
Markezich crossed the line this past weekend with a victory, outdistancing teammates Katie Thronson and Sophie Novak with a mark of 9:40 over the barriers and water pits.
What was impressive about this result, other than the fact that the junior was making her steeplechase season debut, was that Markezich was only five seconds off of her PR!
It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Notre Dame athlete attempt the steeplechase/5k double at the East Regional Championships in a couple of weeks. Her experience in the steeplechase and newfound endurance in the 5k, thanks to a recent 15:33 mark from earlier this season, make her a lethal threat anytime she toes the track.
But truthfully, it's the steeplechase, her presumable main event, where it looks like she could win an NCAA title this spring.
Despite not having a sub-2:00 (800) mark to her name as a collegiate (she did in high school), Juliette Whittaker has continued advancing her reputation of being a lethal racer with a nose for the finish line.
At Penn Relays, the freshman superstar anchored Stanford’s DMR to a victory that further validated their indoor national title. Then, Whittaker impressively pulled away from the rest of the field at the PAC-12 Outdoor Championships this past weekend to notch a seasonal best of 2:01 (800) and add a conference title to her already-decorated resume.
Whittaker has already garnered the respect of the NCAA’s best in her short time thus far in Palo Alto. She will rightfully be feared in the postseason and will again enter the national meet as a title contender just as she did during the winter months where her teammate secured gold.
For the second time this season, LSU’s Michaela Rose has recorded a sub-2:00 mark over the half-mile distance.
At the SEC Outdoor Championships, Rose ran away from the field in her premier event, crossing the line in a time of 1:59. Her result was a clear four seconds ahead of South Carolina’s Sylvia Chelangat. For a conference that boasts some of the best half-milers in the nation, seeing Rose win by that much is head-turning.
As of right now, the Tiger sophomore is a favorite to win the 800 meter national title at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Rose finished 3rd to the Stanford duo of Roisin Willis and Juliette Whittaker at the indoor national meet, but she continues to make her case to stand atop the podium in Austin, Texas come mid-June.
Well, she’s done it! NC State’s Katelyn Tuohy now holds four NCAA records across the indoor and outdoor track seasons: the indoor 1500 meters, the mile, the 3000 meters, and just recently, the outdoor 5000 meters.
At the Sound Running Track Fest, the Wolfpack standout toed the line against a tough field full of professional athletes. Tuohy had Colorado’s Jenny Simpson’s (nee Barringer) 15:07 record from 2009 on her mind and was ready to go for broke.
The Wolfpack runner held her own against the pros on a cool, calm night in California and crossed the finish line four seconds faster than the record, running 15:03 for the 5000 meter distance. Tuohy came up just shy of running sub-15:00 that night of May 6th, but there’s still plenty of time left in her career, be that as a member of the NC State track team or as a professional herself, to smash that barrier.
Less than one week later, Tuohy debuted in the 10k at the ACC Outdoor Championships and, as you probably guessed, she won that event. After biding her time alongside Syracuse’s Amanda Vestri and NC State teammate Gionna Quarzo, Tuohy bolted away and closed hard to finish in a time of 32:56, a clear 17 seconds ahead of the runner-up finisher, Quarzo.
With the NCAA postseason on deck, Tuohy has her choice of events. Does she opt-in for refining her speed in the 1500 meters? Will she look to repeat as the 5k champion? Or, could she surprise us all and focus on the 10k? What about the 10k/5k double? Is the 1500/5k double out of the conversation?
Only time will tell...
Greta Karinauskaite (California Baptist)
Rylee Penn (Cincinnati)
Parker Valby (Florida)
Melissa Tanaka (Stanford)
Katherine Mitchell (Boston College)
Lauren Gregory (Arkansas)
Teagan Schein-Becker (Rider)
Kayley DeLay (Washington)
Alexandra Hays (NC State)
Flomena Asekol (Alabama)
Lindsey Butler (Virginia Tech)
Amina Maatoug (Duke)
Melissa Riggins (Georgetown)
Valery Tobias (Texas)
Grace Fetherstonhaugh (Oregon State)
Yasmin Austridge (Lamar)
Lucy Jenks (Stanford)
Zofia Dudek (Stanford)
Sarah Hendrick (Kennesaw State)
Imogen Barrett (Florida)
Kaylee Mitchell (Oregon State)
Klaudia Kazimierska (Oregon)
Billah Jepkirui (Oklahoma State)
Silan Ayyildiz (South Carolina)
Amelia Mazza-Downie (New Mexico)
Annamaria Kostarellis (Baylor)
Amanda Vestri (Syracuse)
Mia Barnett (UCLA)
Angelina Ellis (Butler)
Katie Thronson (Notre Dame)
Laura Pellicoro (Portland)
Carley Thomas (Washington)
Esther Seeland (Virginia)
Emma Heckel (New Mexico)
Gracelyn Larkin (New Mexico)
Cailie Logue (Iowa State)
Anna Gibson (Washington)
Kassidy Johnson (Rutgers)
Sylvia Chelangat (South Carolina)
Aurora Rynda (Michigan)
Lorena Rangel Batres (LSU)
Rachel Gearing (Penn State)
Abbe Goldstein (New Mexico)
Dorcus Ewoi (Campbell)
Katelyn Mitchem (Wyoming)
Ruby Smee (San Francisco)
Jenna Hutchins (BYU)
Samantha Bush (NC State)
Lexy Halladay-Lowry (BYU)