Bullet Points: Thursday & Friday Action

Plenty has happened over the last two days at numerous conference meets. While we can't necessarily cover all of the results, we did want to discuss a few key performances in a bullet point format. Here are a few highlights from the action that we saw on Thursday and Friday...

Note: This article does not exhaust all of the distance results from Thursday & Friday.

• Texas A&M freshman Brandon Miller was flat-out incredible in the SEC 800 meter prelims. The rookie dropped a huge time of 1:46.06 to advance to the finals. Despite his youth and inexperience, Miller is showing that he can navigate out of prelims better than most veterans. His time is flat-out incredible and he seems to have no problem running an aggressive pace. Miller is only getting better with each passing week and he may be the most dangerous half-miler in the NCAA right now in terms of momentum. We'll see how his SEC final goes...

• Gosh, Eliud Kipsang is just incredible. Running 1:46.99 (800) in the prelims and then coming back the next day to run 3:36.60 (1500), also in the prelims, is just an incredible display of raw fitness, versatility and durability. He just continues to surprise me with each passing week. He's been beyond impressive.

• Nice race for Missouri's Christopher Conrad. The Tiger standout just ran 1:47 in the prelims after months of hanging around the 1:48 and 1:49 range. He's got some nice momentum and experience under his belt. He may be able to sneak into the NCAA Championships if he can carry this success into the regional meet.

• Texas A&M's Devin Dixon has seemingly returned to a competitive form once again. He ran 1:48 in the prelims of the SEC 800 meters and will be moving onto the finals. After a season of struggles where he hasn't run faster than 1:51, it's encouraging to see the guy who was once considered a title contender to be back under the 1:50 barrier. We'll see if he can continue this peak in the finals and can carry this recent rise into the regional meet.

• A lot of talented names didn't make it out of the prelims in the men's SEC 800 meters, including Everett Smulders, Baylor Franklin, Kieran Taylor, John Rivera and a few of the Tennessee men. That's not a major concern as they'll likely be back for vengeance later on.

• The women's SEC 10k was quite the treat as Alabama's Mercy Chelangat just ran 32:13 in a completely solo effort, dominating the field by over a minute. The runner-up finisher was Arkansas standout Katie Izzo who just couldn't hang with the Crimson Tide runner, settling for a silver medal and a time of 33:17. Overall, Chelangat is showing that she can dictate how any 10k race unfolds whenever she toes the line for the event. Could we see this same aggressive, front-running approach at the NCAA Championships? If so, then that might be enough to get her a gold medal.

• Tough races for women like Samantha Drop and Jessica Pascoe. They're proven top talents, but just didn't have their best days. They've been fairly quiet this season, but the aggressive pace may have gotten the best of them on Thursday night.

• Vincent Kiprop is...a steeplechaser? The Alabama runner just ran 8:47 in the steeple to win the SEC title over Arkansas' Andrew Kibet (8:50) and Tennessee veteran Alex Crigger (8:51). Does this mean Kiprop will run the 10k and the steeplechase at the NCAA Championships? It's doable at the regional meets, but there's two hours between the steeplechase prelims and the 10k at the NCAA Championships. Is that something that Kiprop would seriously pursue? I'll be fascinated to see what happens there.

• We got the Gear vs Kimeli battle that we had been hoping for! Arkansas' Krissy Gear ran 9:38 in the steeplechase to take down Kimeli who settled for runner-up in 9:47. Alabama's Leah Hanle (9:55) and Missouri's Melissa Menghini (9:56) settled for 3rd and 4th, respectively.

• Gear running as fast as she did while also taking down Kimeli has now put her in an interesting spot. Does she go after the steeplechase or the 1500 at the NCAA Championships? It's not a doable double at the national meet, so she'll be forced to choose one over the other. If I had to pick for her, I'd say that she may want to do the steeplechase. She just took down a national title winner and ran a time that can at least keep her within striking distance of Wayment. The steeplechase is also a super variable event and a lot of different things can happen.

• I want to say that there was a ton to analyze in the women's 800, women's 1500 and men's 10k...but there wasn't. For the most part, it was all fairly predictable. However, seeing Imogen Barrett miss the finals in the 1500 meters was quite the surprise.

• Before we jump into the ACC, let's briefly talk about BYU's Conner Mantz running an NCAA-leading time of 27:41 for 10,000 meters at the latest Sound Running Track Meet. I think I'm supposed to be surprised by this, but for an aggressive front-runner who thrives off of fast paces, this wasn't really too big of a stunner. He was in a loaded 10k field and was the cross country national champion over Wesley Kiptoo. Seeing him run this kind of time is admittedly something that we were expecting.

• Alright, now let's get to Yared Nuguse. What can we say about him that hasn't already been said? Running a new collegiate record of 3:34.68 in the PRELIMS in a completely solo effort is just other-worldly. Nuguse is the class of the NCAA right now when it comes to the metric mile and frankly, he's the class of the USA in this event, too. He has shown us that he can run incredibly fast times when facing elite competition or when there's no one else around him. He can employ lethal kicks and has never given us a reason to doubt him.

• There was a lot to take away from the women's 1500. Notre Dame's Katie Wasserman ran 4:11 to win the prelim, but more importantly, we saw NC State freshman Katelyn Tuphy run 4:12! That's a new personal best and yet ANOTHER step in the right direction. It's super encouraging to see the kind of momentum that she has right now and after having an All-American level of success at the NCAA XC Championships, I have a feeling that she'll be just as big of a threat at the regional and national meets a few weeks from now as she was back in March.

• It was also nice to see Wolfpack veterans Elly Henes and Nevada Mareno make it to the finals. Henes is working on refining her speed before the regional and national meets while Mareno is one of the more underrated 1500 meter runners on the East coast.

• The women's ACC 10k was quite the treat. Nicole Fegans running 32:45 for the victory validates her early-season success in the 5000 meters as well as her overall breakout year. She's someone who clearly does better in the longer distances. Although I would argue that her 5k time is more impressive than her 10k time, I do think that her best chance for All-American success will be in the 10k.

• Louisville's Purity Sanga (32:49), NC State's Dominique Clairmonte (32:50) and Syracuse's Amanda Vestri (32:52) all dipped under the 33 minute barrier as well. I love this result for Clairmonte as she has typically been labelled as a miler for most of her career. Seeing her translate her cross country success has been exciting to see and I actually love this event choice for her. If the women's 10k turns tactical at the national meet, then she'll have the necessary speed and experience to produce an All-American finish.

• Also, shoutout to Gionna Quarzo. The NC State freshman was probably the least-talked about distance recruit of her class, but just ran 33:24 in her 10k debut. She's now emerging as one of the more dangerous young talents on this Wolfpack roster.

• The men's 10k didn't produce many headlines, but seeing three men finish within 0.70 seconds of each other for the win has left me wishing that I was there to see that race in person. Ian Shanklin took home the victory in a time of 29:11.

• Nothing too crazy in the women's 800, but Virginia's Michaela Meyer just ran ANOTHER 2:01 mark in the prelims. I love that consistency and she's now forcing me to believe that maybe the 1500 isn't her best option in the postseason.

• Alright, let's get to the men's steeplechase. This race was insane. In total, we saw 16 men run under 9:00. That's incredible! However, what was even more insane was seeing six men run under 8:40.

• Virginia Tech's Fitsum Seyoum had the race of his life to take home the title in a mark of 8:31 while Duke's Alex Miley was runner-up in 8:32. Louisville's Albert Kosgei (8:34), Virginia's Derek Johnson (8:36), Virginia Tech's Ben Fleming (8:37) and North Carolina's Alex Milligan (8:39) were amongst the sub-8:40 talents.

• For Seyoum, this is a massive performance. He's had so much success in this event before and has run plenty of fast times. He was already an ACC champion in this event and is plenty experienced. However, this VT runner now has the elite-level time to not only put him in the national qualifying conversation, but also the All-American conversation. In fact, after taking down the field that he just did, some of us have to wonder if he can win the national title. He leads the NCAA right now with this mark and has plenty of experience under his belt. With a handful of wins on his resume, it's hard to dislike what Seyoum brings to the table.

• As for Kosgei, he has been on the verge of a breakout performance for a while, but I didn't expect him to run 8:34. Steeplechasers do tend to peak in the postseason, and I like the experience that this guy has in this event, but this was a huge leap that I wasn't at all expecting.

• The same can be said for Alex Miley, Derek Johnson and Alex Milligan. They've all had success in this event before, but they're still new enough to the steeplechase where they haven't hit their ceilings yet. That seemed to be more than evident this past weekend.

• Keep an eye on Milligan. I like his experience and his speed in other events. I think he can be a key name to watch when it comes to the national qualifying conversation.

• The women's steeplechase wasn't quite as deep, but seeing Hannah Steelman get a win and a 9:43 personal best was great. She's still making progress in her overall fitness and just took down arguably the most underrated steeplechaser in the country in Notre Dame's Olivia Markezich.

• The Notre Dame freshman just ran 9:45 to finish runner-up to Steelmaan. Markezich may be relatively inexperienced, and I don't often trust youth on national stages, but her consistency and ongoing progression is amongst the best in the NCAA. I see her as a massive threat in the postseason.

• As we transition to the BIG 10 Championships and BIG 12 Championships, things were largely quiet through Friday. The men's 10k did produce some exciting battles (BIG 10) and some fast times (BIG 12), but the results were generally not that surprising given who was in the field. That said, seeing Indiana's Ben Veatch get a win over a fairly deep field was a really solid indicator of where his fitness and tactics are currently at.

• At the PAC-12 Championships, the men's and women's 1500 meters were fairly quiet, although it was nice to see Oregon's James West run 3:42 and make it to the prelims. He's been struggling a bit this year, so it was encouraging to see him pick up a half-decent performance.

• Wow. Stanford's Charles Hicks is the real deal. Seeing the second-year freshman run 28:39 en route to a win over Colorado veteran John Dressel (28:42) is so impressive. Hicks remains undefeated this season and has handled every challenge thrown at him with such incredible poise despite his youth. These kind of results are the ones that lead me to believe that he'll be an All-American.

• Dressel had a really nice 10k performance in his own right and this means that he'll probably pursue the 10k/5k double, even though I think the 5k is probably his best chance at earning All-American honors.

• I loved seeing the Washington men of Andrew Jordan (28:43) and Tibebu Proctor (28:49) and Talon Hull (28:51) post the results that they did. This was Hull's first race back since cross country, Jordan's first 10k of the season and Proctor's second-time under the 28:50 barrier this spring. Overall, there are a lot of good (but different) takeaways for all three of these men. Hull is healthy, Jordan may have found his ideal event and Proctor is showing consistency.

• Also, shoutout to Stanford's Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau. He ran 28:49 to finish ahead of Hull. He's been overlooked these past few seasons, but this was a result that finally put him on our radar despite the Cardinal roster being so crowded with talent.

• In the women's 10k, Carmela Cardama Baez improved upon her seasonal best, taking home the win in a time 32:38, a mark that is much more on par with our expectations. She took down Colorado's Abby Nichols (32:49) in the process. We were a little underwhelmed by Cardama Baez after a semi-quiet 10k season opener, mainly because we knew that she had more in the tank. She later proved exactly that with a fast 5k performance, so it was nice to see her validate our suspicions of her actual talent with a fast 10k this past Friday over an underrated field.

• If Abby Nichols is half as good in the 10k as she was in cross country, then she should be able to qualify for the NCAA Championships in this event. The West region 10k isn't super deep and Nichols should be able to put herself amongst the top-12 women two weeks from now in order to return to Eugene, Oregon for the national meet.

• New Mexico's Charlotte Prouse may be in the best shape of her life right now. So far this season, she has run 15:29 (5k), 9:39 (steeplechase) and now 32:38 (10k). She has a ton of momentum right now and can seemingly find major success in any event she toes the line for. I know some women have run faster than her in the steeplechase, but if anyone is going to take down Wayment, it's going to be this New Mexico veteran.

• Speaking of fast women in the steeplechase, Air Force's Mahala Norris finally had the breakout performance in this event that she had seemingly been looking for all season long. The Air Force star just ran 9:44 to take down Adva Cohen who ran 9:46. It's one thing to run a time as fast as she did, but to also hand a loss to someone like Cohen is downright impressive. Norris doesn't have a ton of experience in this event, but she clearly feels strong enough about this race to pursue it on a consistent basis.