TSR Collaboration
Mar 2, 202313 min
Written by Brett Haffner, Kevin Fischer & John Cusick
Additional edits and commentary Garrett Zatlin
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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.
Since our last rankings update, Ellie Rising has put down marks of 2:12 in the 800 meters and 4:56 in the mile. The catch? Those are her only two races this winter.
Despite not racing much, she has performed when she needs to and because of that, she is certainly an All-American contender in the 800 meters. The fact that she doesn’t have a lot of racing under her legs this winter may actually benefit her when she toes the line at the indoor national meet.
She’ll compete against athletes who have raced multiple times this indoor track season and her quiet winter campaign make her a prime candidate for a top-eight finish if you're a subscriber to the "fresh legs" theory.
Rising’s indoor track season may have gotten off to a late start, but she is in full swing now.
Windsor Ardner has been on a roll these last few weeks and finds herself back in our rankings following a fantastic stretch of performances.
After running a personal best of 9:43 over 3000 meters at the David Hemery Valentine Invite, she went down to the 800 meters and ran a converted 2:12 mark that is tied for NCAA #6 on the national leaderboard. She then split a 4:52 (mile) in the DMR at the SUNYAC Indoor Championships on a flat track before coming back and running a 4:59 open mile for the win the next day.
What’s interesting with Ardner is that the mile may be her strongest distance when you consider what she did over 1500 meters last spring and her DMR leg. And yet, she is sitting at NCAA #21 on the national leaderboard. With one more weekend of competition before the national meet, it’s possible that she may not qualify for the mile.
That might not matter too much to her as the plan for her may be a DMR/3k double like last year. But it would still be nice to see her put down a faster mile time in the week leading up to the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Admittedly, Christine Albrecht’s last few weeks haven’t been quite as impressive as her start to this indoor track season.
Most recently, she finished 4th in the mile at the MIAC Indoor Championships in a time of 5:09, a whopping 19 seconds back of champion, Clara Mayfield. Although there is a little bit of concern with Albrecht’s recent form, it's likely not a major issue. She was, after all, in top form not too long ago.
Make no mistake, this is still somebody who can earn an All-American spot at the indoor national meet, but we’d be lying if we said our confidence wasn’t wavering.
Ella Ball was already having a very solid season, but then she took yet another step forward this past weekend, running 16:55 in the 5000 meters on Friday. She later came back on Saturday with a 9:47 effort over 3000 meters.
Both of those times were good enough for 2nd place at the New England DIII Championships. These were also personal bests of five seconds and three seconds, respectively.
This Williams sophomore is showing that she can not only replicate her 17:00 (5k) performance from December off of her cross country fitness, but that she is in an even better position now than she was before winter break -- and that's a big deal.
She will be a force to be reckoned with in Birmingham in just under two weeks.
Since our last update, Lexi Brown ran a converted 16:55 (5k) at North Central and then competed at the ARC Indoor Championships. There, she won the mile in a personal best mark of 4:57 and then ran 10:14 for a 2nd place finish in a tactical 3000 meter race behind teammate Aubrie Fisher, closing in a 71-second last 400 meter surge.
As of now, Brown is listed at NCAA #9 in the mile, NCAA #15 in the 3000 meters and NCAA #12 in the 5000 meters. Those spots virtually make her a lock to qualify for the national meet in all three of those events unless something biblical happens during the "last chance" meets.
This versatility will serve her well at the championship level and regardless of what event she chooses, Brown will be an All-American threat.
Brooke Wellhausen has been a solid 800 meter athlete for a long time, running plenty of times between 2:15 and 2:16 over the years. However, she’s never been anywhere near the level that she’s at now.
At the WIAC Indoor Championships, she ran a 2:13.01 (800) mark that was good for 2nd place. It converts to 2:11. That time is good enough for the NCAA #5 spot on the national leaderboard and puts Wellhausen in position to qualify for the indoor national meet.
Wellhausen's lack of national meet experience could come into play, but her latest endeavors deem her worthy of being inside our top-20. She’s not only in a position to compete in her first national meet on the track, but she's also in a position where she could finish inside the top-five of the 800 meters at the national meet.
Yes, that half-mile field is deep this year, but it's also very variable.
Genna Girard is officially back.
This winter has been similar to some of her other seasons in that her availability to race has once again been on and off. She has raced three times over the last few months -- once in December, once in January and now once in February. But she has shown us before never to count her out and she reminded us again this past weekend, running a huge 5000 meter PR of 16:47.
Girard is not only back to her best, but she is also operating at an even higher level than ever before. It will be exciting to see what she is able to accomplish when the indoor national meet rolls around.
We don't always know what to expect, but she's at her best, Girard is incredibly dangerous.
Aubrie Fisher had a pretty busy weekend at the ARC Indoor Championships, running a DMR anchor leg, the mile and the 3000 meters.
She didn't drop any blockbuster tines, but she did her job in a championship setting, leading the DMR to a victory, winning the 3000 meters and finishing 3rd in the mile. When the indoor national meet comes around, it seems likely that we will see her run the DMR/3k double.
The Wartburg star can certainly finish in one of the All-American spots and is one of several runners who could maybe even give Fiona Smith a scare if everything goes right.
Morgan Lee never looked in doubt when winning both the 3000 meters and the mile at the Liberty League Indoor Championships.
Despite not having anyone to push her at the front, her marks with conversions applied were pretty close to her 3k (9:40) and mile (4:55) results at Boston University from earlier this season. Her fitness level right now is really high and it is likely that she will be able to run even better when she gets into a national-caliber field.
Lee has yet to earn All-American honors on the track, but at this point, it looks like it is only a matter of time before that happens.
Coming off of a 4:54 mile effort, Gillian Roeder put together another big race at the David Hemery Valentine Invite, running 4:52 in only her second collegiate mile ever.
It's true, she has been fairly quiet since then, running a respectable, but not eye-catching, 5:05 (mile) and 2:17 (800) double at the New England DIII Championships. Either way, we know the kind of fitness she is in. Roeder can run with pretty much anyone in the country over the course of a mile.
And the craziest part?
She probably has one of the highest ceilings of any woman in D3 over this distance.
Even though this is Roeder's first indoor track season, she had an outdoor national meet appearance last spring. The bright lights won't be as much of a concern as it will be for a few other first-time indoor national meet qualifiers.
The UAA is probably the toughest league for D3 distance running in the country, and that was on full display this weekend.
Emily Konkus, despite running a converted 9:31 mark for 3000 meters and anchoring a DMR that posted a converted time of 11:33, she did not come away with any conference titles. In fact, she was twice denied by our TSR #5 runner, Maddie Kelly.
Even so, Konkus ran exceptionally well and her results should not be overshadowed just because they did not result in wins. Ultimately, Emily Konkus is an elite competitor with range from 800 meters to 5000 meters and she has definitely showed that she deserves a top-10 spot in our rankings given her consistency and ability to take-on top-tier names.
When she is running against the most talented women in the country in two weeks, Konkus will fit right in, although it will be interesting to see how close she can get to the title contenders.
Gosh, it certainly feels wrong to move Maddie Hannan backward three spots after seeing her post a converted 2:10.87 (800) time at the Midwest ELITE Invitational.
However, despite slotting in at NCAA #4 on the national leaderboard, you’ll see two of the top-three times this season came at the same meet where she ultimately placed 3rd. The three-spot slide is more so because of the competitors she faced and not because we aren’t impressed with Hannan.
Hannan has raced two more times since that result, helping UW-La Crosse’s DMR to a converted mark of 11:40.72 in the event. That time is good enough for NCAA #5 on the national leaderboard. She also contested the 800 meters at the WIAC Indoor Championships where she took home the gold for the first time in her career.
Hannan now has top-15 marks across the half-mile, the mile, the 3k and the Eagles' DMR team. She’s tasked with picking events where she’s a national title threat and if you asked us, then we would say that the 800 meters, the DMR and the 3k triple seems the most likely.
Hope Murphy joins our rankings inside the top-10 for good reason.
At the Ed Finnigan Greater Cleveland Meet, we saw the Baldwin Wallace ace post a converted 2:09.25 mark for 800 meters. She now sits at NCAA #2 on the national leaderboard. Her raw time of 2:10.74 was an outright personal best by more than a second, leading us to believe that Murphy has had a major breakthrough as we near the indoor national meet.
Talk about good timing...
At the OAC Indoor Championships, we saw a lot of Murphy on the track. She helped Baldwin Wallace to a victory in the DMR. She won the mile and the 800 meters as well as finished 2nd in the 500 meters. She then helped Baldwin Wallace to a 2nd place finish in the 4x400 meter relay to cap off a ridiculously heavy workload.
One thing is for certain, Murphy will be able to handle the rounds of the 800 meters just fine and with it being her only event next weekend, she’ll be primed to make a run at the national title.
We mentioned earlier that the Midwest ELITE Invitational saw three of the top-four times this season in the 800 meters.
Aoife Dunne was the 2nd place finisher at that meet and she now currently sits at NCAA #3 on the national leaderboard with a converted mark of 2:10.70. Just one week later, at the Illinois College Hilltop Invite, Dunne opted to contest the mile on fresh legs and she was greatly rewarded for it.
She ran a converted 4:51.80 mile time and sits at NCAA #5 on the national leaderboard in the mile, giving her two top-five marks, nationally, this season. That raw time of 4:54.68 was also a personal best by eight seconds.
To cap off her season before the national meet, Dunne finished 2nd in the mile at the UAA Indoor Championships before coming back to win the UAA title in the 800 meters.
Dunne has things rolling in the right direction and this feels like the year she’ll finally finish inside the top-eight and earn that elusive All-American honor. She has been so consistent, so dynamic and has clearly taken a step up in her fitness.
Few women in D3 are on the hot streak that she is on.
Ana Tucker is getting the short end of the stick in this edition of our rankings -- and we sorely apologize for that.
Tucker has now set three personal bests during this indoor track season. She ran 9:36 (3k) and 16:29 (5k) in early December to start her season and now she’s run 4:53 in the mile to knock three seconds off of her previous personal best. After the conversion, Tucker’s time moves to 4:50.33 and sits at the NCAA #3 spot on the national leaderboard.
That now means that Tucker has four top-10 marks to her name when you include Hope’s DMR time of 11:47. This leaves the veteran superstar with the challenge of figuring out what she wants to race at the national meet.
If she opts for the DMR, then she would likely need to opt out of the 5k. And if she does that, depending on the team aspirations of Hope College, then she could also opt out of the mile, leaving Tucker with the DMR and the 3k as events to contest.
Regardless of what Tucker chooses, she’s going to be a problem for her competitors. She’s a legitimate national title threat in any individual event and will bring All-American honors to her DMR lineup if she stays on that relay.
Maddie Kelly has put together a really strong end to her regular season.
At the GVSU Big Meet (Friday), we saw Kelly run a new personal best of 9:33.08 for 3000 meters. That was a 20-second improvement from her previous personal best and it certainly has caught our attention.
After a quick tune-up at the Margaret Bradley Invitational, the U. of Chicago star was ready for the UAA Indoor Championships. There, she anchored the Maroons to an NCAA #1 mark in the DMR after posting a converted time of 11:31.73. The following day, she would win the 3000 meter title in a converted mark of 9:30.34 as she now sits at NCAA #4 in the event.
The UAA Indoor Championships felt like a glimpse into Kelly’s future at the national meet. With that good of a DMR squad and being a national title threat in the 3k, the odds of her just contesting those two events seems rather high.
We’ll know for sure next week, but what we do know now is that Kelly is a top-five athlete in Division Three. On a team that holds ton of high-value pieces to a powerhouse roster, it's Kelly who emerges as the true ace.
With a successful UAA Indoor Championship appearnce under her belt, winning both the 5k and mile titles over some talented competition, Annika Urban is well-set heading into the indoor national meet.
We’ve postulated previously on what Urban could/should run in come a week and a half from now -- but she’s truly spoiled for choice!
Coming in with a ranking of NCAA #4 in the mile and NCAA #2 in both the 3k and the 5k leaves her in a very unique position. Depending on scratches, she likely won’t be the sole favorite in any event. However, she is easily one of the top challengers in any of those three races to win a national title.
If someone like Fiona Smith, Clara Mayfield or Ana Tucker isn’t performing at 100% against Annika Urban, then that race would be Urban’s to snatch up and bring home as her mile/1500 abilities would come in very handy for that type of situation.
After seeing Emma Kelley’s ridiculous exploits in the open 400 meters over the past few weeks, it’s getting extremely difficult to bet against her in the final stretches of any 800 meter race.
Considering that she’s held her NCAA #1 position in the 800 meters for a good month now, Kelley has been honing in on her speed, running a converted 55.41 mark in the 400 meters at the Illinois College Hilltop Invite. She then followed that up at the UAA Indoor Championships with wins in the open 400 meters and the 4x400 meter relay.
She is ranked at NCAA #1 in the 800 meters and NCAA #4 in the 400 meters!
Are you kidding me?!
Like Mike Jasa on the men's side, Kelley could be tripling in the 800 meters, the DMR and the 4x400 meter relay at the indoor national meet. That would help Washington U. score a heaping handful of points as they aim for team gold.
Clara Mayfield has fantastic range, but that’s nothing new when talking about her career exploits.
Running a converted 4:47.36 time in the mile at the MIAC Indoor Championships only exemplifies how great of an all-around runner she is. That performance also put her at NCAA #1 on the national leaderboard in the mile, making her the de facto favorite heading into the indoor national meet.
Considering that she opted for the mile/3k double at last year’s indoor national meet, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see her opt for the same double again. After her NCAA-leading mile effort, Mayfield was able to also PR in the 3k at the MIAC Championships, running a converted time of 9:30.13 to put herself at NCAA #3.
With that in mind, we like Mayfield’s odds of running a strong double at the NCAA Indoor Championships in whatever events she decides to enter. And maybe, just maybe, she can come away with her first national title.
Not much has changed for Fiona Smith since our last update as she added three more MIAC titles to her name in the 3k, the 5k and the DMR this past weekend.
Heading into the indoor national meet, Smith is in a fantastic position as she sits at NCAA #1 in both the 3k and the 5k. She also sits NCAA #2 in the mile behind destined rival, Clara Mayfield. However, it seems unlikely that she’ll enter that event, instead favoring the 3k and the 5k where she has the best chances of winning her first national title(s).
The Saint Benedict star has grown tremendous and refined her already-great tactical skills over her racing career against many talented women. In 2023, Smith looks like a complete and elite talent, but a week and a half from now will also be her greatest test.
Will she walk away from the indoor national meet with NCAA gold? Only time will tell...
Brooke Wellhausen (UW-Stevens Point)
Hope Murphy (Baldwin Wallace)
Ellie Rising (George Fox)
Windsor Ardner (SUNY Geneseo)
Kenadee Wayt (Mount Union)
Sofia Carlson (St. Olaf)
Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel (U. of Chicago)
Cyna Madigan (UW-Oshkosh)
Sofia Carlson (St. Olaf)
Caroline McMartin (Central College)
Alyssa Rafuse (Elmhurst)
Alex Ross (Johns Hopkins)
Ella Behrens (Washington U.)
Molly Fitzgibbons (Williams)
Katarina Birmac (U. of Chicago)
Cyna Madigan (UW-Oshkosh)
Anna Kenig-Ziesler (U. of Chicago)
Frances Schaeffler (U. of Chicago)