Weekend Review (12/3/18) (Women)

Amy Piccolo from Northeastern won the meet with a sub 2:10 result of 2:09.83. This is a PR for Piccolo who had a previous best of 2:11. Gianna Bender of Boston College finished in 2nd in 2:10.92. These were the 2nd and 3rd best times of the weekend.

Shannon Murdock of New Hampshire continues their history of strong women’s milers after winning in 4:47 as Murdock now leads the NCAA through its first weekend. Murdock beat New Mexico Lobo Hannah Nuttall who ran 4:49.96. Nuttall is also 2nd in the NCAA.

Believe it or not, the meet did include races other than the 5k, but there were some impressive marks in the 3k as well. Molly Sughroue of Oklahoma State won in 9:18.36 over Millie Paladino of Providence in 9:19.50. Both athletes were absent from the cross country season and now have great starts to their indoor seasons. Rebekah Topham of Wichita State was 3rd in 9:36.36 which is also good for 3rd in the NCAA.

With such a stacked 5k field, there’s no way that you can say there was a better meet this weekend. The top heat featured some unbelievable talent with four top 10 XC finishers, plus finishers 11, 13, 14, and 18. Oh yeah, the 25th, 26th, 27th, and 32nd finishers were also in the race. Those stats don’t even take into account the later heats or the addition of Sharon Lokedi. With such a stacked field, fast times were sure to follow and they certainly didn’t disappoint.

Ednah Kurgat of New Mexico avenged the loss of her NCAA XC title by putting down one of the fastest times in NCAA history. 15:14.78 moves Kurgat from the #6 All-Time performer to the #3 spot, jumping ahead of Molly Seidel, Sonia O’Sullivan, and Karissa Schweizer. While Kurgat was fighting for the NCAA record that slipped a few seconds out of her grasps, she had a more pressing challenge from the other individuals in her race.

Teammate Weini Kelati finished only half a second behind at 15:15.24 for NCAA #5 All-Time, cutting 22 seconds off her personal best. NCAA 10k champion Sharon Lokedi finished 3rd in 15:15.47 for NCAA #6 All-Time while Allie Ostrander of Boise State ran 15:16.38 for NCAA #7 All-Time honors. With four Top 10 All-Time honors, this race becomes the fastest in NCAA history with only the 2017 version of this same meet holding two results in the top 10 (Schweizer and Kurgat).

With such amazing performances from the four, it would be easy to forget about the rest of the fantastic performances. Elise Cranny (unattached) ran 15:24, Dorcas Wasike (Louisville) dropped a 15:25, and Charlotte Prouse (New Mexico) finished in 15:26. All three would have been Top 10 All-Time performances had they won the race. Jaci Smith of Air Force was the final athlete under 15:28. Aubrey Roberts (Northwestern), Lauren LaRocco (Portland), and Jessica Pascoe (Florida)* also broke 15:35. Militsa Mircheva (Florida State) and Taryn Rawlings (Portland) closed out the sub-16 finishers while Jessica Drop ran 16:12 which is still the 18th fastest time in the nation.

*Note: Jessica Pascoe’s time is not included in the TFRRS 2019 Indoor Performance list. It appears this was due to an internal issue as results indicate Pascoe ran attached.

The later heats were headlined by performances from Adva Cohen (New Mexico) and Emily Venters (Boise State) who ran 15:42 and 15:53 respectively to lead the second heat. Overall, the BU 5k races account for the 10 best times of the weekend (if you include Pascoe). 35 of the top times reported so far are coming from Boston (as of 4PM 12/2). For reference, the 16th spot on the 2017-2018 Indoor List was 15:46.85. 12 women bested that mark on Saturday (which does not include Cranny).

Sophomore Eleni Daughters took the early season win for the Davidson Bulldogs in 2:15.20 ahead of competition from across all NCAA Divisions. Dawnel Collymore of Division II Benedict finished 2nd in 2:16.69, while Lenoir-Rhyne’s Paiton Fair finished 3rd in 2:17.00. Daughters’ is NCAA #9 in Division I.

Davidson earned another victory in the mile as Sophia Mills won in 5:01.91, converting to a sub 5 minute run, also good for 9th in the NCAA. Campbell’s Roshae Jackson finished 2nd in 5:04.79, converting to 5:01. Keaton Grace of High Point finished in 5:07 on the flat track.

Davidson’s third victory came from Caroline Yarbrough who broke 10 minutes with a 9:58.44, good for 12th in the NCAA upon conversion. Yarbrough won by almost 30 seconds.

In the marquee race of the day, Elly Henes of NC State dropped a monstrous 15:41 on the flat track converting to 15:34 and 11th in the NCAA. Behind Henes, Hannah Steelman of Wofford and Emma Grace Hurley of Furman battled to times of 16:05 and 16:07 which dip under the 16:00 barrier on the conversion. Dominque Clairmonte of NC State and Morgan Ilse of North Carolina rounded out the top five with flat track times of 16:14 and 16:18.

Abike Egbeniyi of Middle Tennessee State blew away the competition this weekend, not only at Vanderbilt, but throughout the country. The outdoor NCAA runner-up ran 2:07.74 to lead the NCAA by two full seconds and to win the meet by seven seconds! Finishing 2nd was Patience Akanwogba also of Middle Tennessee State who ran 2:14.12.

Middle Tennessee State earned themselves a second winner in Eusila Chepkemei who won in 4:55.54, the 5th best time in the nation. Reagan Bustamente of Vanderbilt finished in 5:00 while Shanieke Watson of Arkansas-Little Rock ran 5:04 to lead the top Division I finishers. Bustamente earned an NCAA #10 time, while Watson doubled with a 2:15 in the 800. In a rare Division II finish, Quincy McSweeney of McKendree was actually the 2nd overall finisher, breaking 5-minute in 4:57.

Plot twist, Middle Tennessee State wins again! Joice Jebor won with a 10:16 while teammate Julia Jelagat was 3rd in 10:22.86. Janet Kwambai of Tennessee Tech split up the teammate duo with a 10:19.

This wasn’t a contested race, but Morgan State went 1-2 with Rowe Infinnatie and Valencia McDowell taking the top two spots. Rowe finished in 2:11.00 and has been a 2:09 performer in the past. Her teammate McDowell ran 2:13. Rowe is the NCAA #4.

The Georgetown women dominated the race with a trio of runners up front. Freshman Sami Corman opened up her collegiate track career with a victory in 2:49.39 and was ahead of senior teammate Kennedy Weisner in 2:50.22. Freshman teammate Rachel Sessa was 3rd in 2:55.02.

We talked about Rowe Infinnatie in the 800, but that was not her only run of the day. Infinnatie won the mile in 5:07. Combined with her victory in the 800, this is an impressive opener from the Morgan State athlete.

Mount St. Mary’s finished 1-2 in this race led by senior Erin Jaskot and Madeline Kole 10:06 and 10:09. Behind these two, this was not much of a race, but this is a good result from the Northeast Conference school.

Adriana Hooks of American won a very sparsely contested race in 17:32. For a race with only three finishers, this is a nice result.

The race was won by an unattached Sarah Feeny in 4:59.23 while Weber State’s Michelle Pratt took the top collegiate finish in 5:04, which converted down to 4:55.38 from both altitude and flat track moving her to #4 in the NCAA. Scarlet Dale of Utah moved to NCAA #6 with a converted 4:56.09, while Savannah Neuberger (Utah Valley) and Cara Woolnough (Utah) moved into the 8th and 10th spots respectively with 4:57 and 4:59 converted times. Their official times were 5:05, 5:06, and 5:08.

Summer Harper of Weber State ran a 10:02 to win the meet, earning a conversion of 9:43.72 for NCAA #6. Hannah Branch of Utah Valley also jumped into the top 10, running 10:08 for a 9:49.70 conversion.

Kelsi Lasota cruised to victory running 17:15.66 for Montana State. With both a 200 flat track and altitude conversion, Lasota’s result drops all the way down to 16:40.89 as she moves to 24th on the Indoor List (as of 12/2 4PM), the best result not from Boston.

The Cornell duo of Taylor Knibb and Annie Taylor ran away from the rest of the competition by 25 seconds as they finished in 9:42 and 9:47 respectively. These convert down 5 seconds each from the flat track as the Ivy League athletes move to the 4th and 5th spot in the NCAA rankings respectively.

The Penn women led the way at the Armory in this race with Melissa Tanaka and Caroline O’Sullivan. The duo finished in 2:52 and 2:53 beating the rest of the field by five seconds.

If the 1000 was the Penn show, the mile was the Delaware show. The Blue Hens took the top four spots with Jeanette Bendolph winning in 5:01. Teammates Lauren Zodl, Valerie Romero, and Susanna Weir finished off the podium sweep at 5:02, 5:05 and 5:06 respectively. Penn’s Olivia Ryan ran 5:07 for 5th.

Penn’s Alyssa Condell beat the field by 27 seconds to finish in 17:14, a minute PR for the sophomore.

Columbia’s Terri Turner opened her track season with a 2:54 ahead of teammate Jillian Murray only a half second behind.

Bianca Alonzo kept the Columbia Tigers’ streak alive from the top of the podium with a 5:07. Coppin State’s Tatiana Ogundeko finished 2nd in 5:12.

Lindsey Oremus of St. Joesph’s (PA) was the first collegiate finisher in 10:00 with Princeton’s Laura Hergenrother right behind in 10:06.

Lehigh and Temple faced off with Brooke Schaeffer of Lehigh taking the win in 2:15.85 converting down to 2:14.31 for 12th in the NCAA. Temple followed up with Ashton Dunkley who ran 2:16.79, converted to 2:15.23 for 13th in the NCAA.

Two runners broke 2:20 here, as Gemma Finch of Troy wins in 2:15. Ukeyvia Beckwith of Embry-Riddle ran 2:18.91.

Mckenzie Melius of Tulane edged out Erin Woodward of Central Arkansas, 5:08 to 5:09 in one of the closest races of the weekend.

Three runners broke 10:00 in one of the few races to achieve that in the first weekend. UAB’s Emily Drouin came out on top in 9:52.42 while Kennedy Thomson of Chattanooga snuck ahead of Emma Newton of Tulane, 9:57 to 9:58.

Only three people ran, but freshman Laura DeVito of Notre Dame won in 2:17.78 to open up her collegiate track career.

Mikayla Schneider of Notre Dame ran the NCAA #3 mile with a 4:52.90 to win by 16 seconds over her teammates. Primarily an 800 runner during her first two years at Penn, Schneider adapted well in her first race at Notre Dame.

Courtney Griffiths of Kansas took the win in 2:15.60.

Karly Forker and Gianna Mincone dropped under 2:20 for host Bucknell, finishing in 2:18 and 2:19 respectively. Kirsten O’Malley of Division II Bloomsburg finished in 2:20.

Colleen Buckley dropped under 10 minutes with a 9:51.45 which converts to 9:46.43 due to the flat track conversion. This time leaves Buckley at the 7th spot in the NCAA.

Clare Schoen ran a solo 17:21 for Division III Misericordia to place her at 2nd in the division. Her converted time is 17:13.

Minnesota stole the show in the 800 with some of the best times in the nation. Kelli Schmidt led the way with a 2:11.64, ahead of teammates Val Larson and Paige Peschel who both ran high 2:12's. These three are 5th, 6th, and 7th in the NCAA. Mallory Fine of South Dakota and Sophie Schmitz of Minnesota finished in 2:15 and 2:16 respectively to round out the top five.

Megan Billington lead teammate Madeline Huglen to a top two finish in 10:02 and 10:05 as South Dakota finished with the top six.