Bullet Points: Regional Rounds (Day Two)

The second day of regional competition is now wrapped up. Just like yesterday, we're going to highlight some of the key results and performances from the women's prelims as well as the women's 10k final...

1500 Meters

• Let's start with the women's 1500 which was probably the second-most predictable race of the entire regional round so far. I'd like to go into a lot of in-depth analysis and throw around a bunch of fancy terms, but the fact of the matter is that the women's 1500 meters went exactly how we expected it to go.

• Seeing BYU's Heather Hanson not make it to the finals was a surprise, but one of those Cougars was bound not to qualify for the finals. Truthfully, it just felt like a numbers game when you have a total of seven BYU women entered in the field. In fact, seeing six of those seven qualify was wildly impressive. In all, I think Hanson just had a bad day and frankly, she's plenty talented enough to be in this mix. She was, after all, just two spots out from an All-American honor this past winter in the mile. Unfortunately, the numbers just didn't play into her favor yesterday.

• In the East region, we saw the typical suspects advance through to the finals. Katelyn Tuohy showed promised with her "big Q" performance and many of the more experienced women were able to make it through. That's a lot more on par with expectations unlike the men's West and East prelims where a lot of youngsters qualified for the finals. When it comes to the women's races, experience clearly does play a role.

• Seeing both Erin Edmundson (North Carolina) and Nevada Mareno (NC State) fail to make it out of the prelims was a bit of a bummer. Edmundson had such a great ACC meet in both the 800 and the 1500 meters and seemed to be peaking at the right time. I thought she was a sneaky good sleeper pick to qualify for Nationals. Unfortunately, her section didn't play out in her favor.

• As for Mareno, you probably won't find a bigger fan of hers than myself. I think she's super experienced, great in tactical races and knows how to navigate top fields when she's peaking and gaining momentum. All of that was true coming into this meet, but that unfortunately didn't help her qualify for the finals. Instead, she struggled a bit. Her performance at the ACC Championships wasn't ideal, but I figured that it was better for her to have a bad race at that meet than at the regional meet. Unfortunately, it looks like she was having some postseason woes (for whatever reason) and that translated to this meet. If she returns next year and is healthy, then I expect her to be a major force in the NCAA.

800 Meters

• The women's 800 meters had plenty of surprises, although none so big that we were shocked to see them not advance. That mix included a variety of top veterans as well as a mix of some underrated middle distance talents.

• Women like Kansas State's Kassidy Johnson and the USC duo fo Alyssa Brewer and Jemima Russell have all had past success in the 800 meters. However, they struggled a bit this season in comparison to past postseasons in terms of time. Of course, they are just a few examples of veterans not making it past the preliminary rounds.

• In the East region, Duke Leigha Torino, Alabama State's Michaela Lewis and Richmond's Mario Acosta all had recent success either this spring or this past winter...or both. They had been running quick times, were competitive with top fields and just didn't leave us with a lot of reason to doubt them. However, unlike Torino and Acosta, there weren't many instances where Lewis was facing super top-tier competition. Her 2:03 from earlier in the season was promising, but her lack of experience showed in the preliminary rounds. That's not necessarily her fault as that is something that comes with time.

• Also, how about Katy-Ann McDonald? She was one of my favorite names coming into the winter track season, but was a bit quieter on the indoor oval and wasn't exactly electric this spring...until yesterday. The LSU star just threw down a jaw-dropping time of 2:02. That's a big mark that finally validates my suspicions that she's going to be a major problem in the postseason, even during a year where the women's 800 is super deep. She is experienced, has made promising momentum and now has a star-level time to pair with her resume. I really like what she's going to bring to the table.

10,000 Meters

• Gosh, there is a lot to talk about here, so let's settle with the East region when initiating our conversation. The women's 10k saw a bunch of surprises, with Dominique Clairmonte, Kathryn Munks and Purity Sanga all dropping out as DNF results. That's a massive development as all three of those women seemed like fairly safe picks to qualify for the national meet. That, naturally, left open a few spots for a few surprise names to qualify.

• In only her second 10k ever, Michigan's Jessi Larson qualified for the national meet. In a race where experience is needed to thrive, Larson overcame that aspect and produced in a big way. Rarely do you see instances like that happening.

• Even more rarely do you see a star talent like Georgia Tech's Nicole Fegans falter and simply not qualify for Nationals. The Yellow Jacket star just didn't have her best day, although it's unclear what may have happened during her race. She was joined by other surprise misses like Duke's Michaela Reinhart, Virginia Tech's Sara Freix and North Carolina's Paige Hofstad who, on paper, all had enough experience and a slew of fast times to qualify.

• There were naturally going to be some surprises going into this meet, but having Larson, Chandler Horton (Charlotte) and Stephanie Sherman (Toledo) all qualify is shocking. In fact, Sherman was the East region #42 ranked 10k runner coming into this race! If just one or two veterans had faltered in this race, we wouldn't be as surprised. However, so many of these women just didn't have great days and that left the door open for a slew of impressive results from athletes who we had never heard of before. The regional meets are wild, aren't they?

• The women's West region 10k? Well, there were far fewer surprises. If you look at all 12 women who qualified for the national meet, are you at all going to be surprised that they qualified for Eugene, Oregon? In my mind, this was the least surprising race of the day.

• The only fringe qualifiers who got in were Ashley Tutt and Jessa Hanson, but both of those women were more than capable of qualifying and I don't think we can classify them as a surprise. Sure, it was a bummer to see Frentheway or Poe fail to advance, but can we really be that upset when looking at the 12 women who are going? Truthfully, I think this region is sending its best 12 names and I'm not sure there is much of an argument against that.