First Thoughts: Beadlescomb's Impressive Weekend Double & Fast Women's 1500 Meter Times

Click here to read Part One of our weekend analysis

Beadlescomb Runs 3:38/1:47 During Weekend Double

Despite losing to Brian Fay in the Bryan Clay 5k by virtue of an unbelievable kick, Beadlescomb should still be viewed as one of the most dynamic and talented distance runners that the NCAA has to offer.

After running a 3:52 mile during the indoor track season, it feels hardly surprising to see Beadlescomb run 3:38 for 1500 meters. He seemed to cruise to the win in that race, so while we would expect him to be faster, it's not like he was necessarily challenged in any significant way.

However, the one thing that not a lot of people knew about Beadlescomb coming into this year was that he had also run 1:48 for 800 meters before.

As someone who was predominately viewed as a 5k and cross country specialist prior to the indoor track season, it was sometimes easy for people to forget about Beadlescomb's speed and turnover.

But what Beadlescomb did this past weekend is beyond impressive. After running 3:38 on Friday, the Michigan State star came back and threw down a huge time of 1:47 for 800 meters, earning a one-second PR in the process.

At the end of the weekend, Beadlescomb posted two nationally competitive times and two wins. That's one heck of a weekend double.

The 1500 meter field that Beadlescomb faced was admittedly not crazy competitive, although teammate John Petruno continues to post strong results in his own right. However, Beadlescomb taking down a proven Notre Dame 800 meter specialist in Sam Voelz certainly catches your attention.

Admittedly, Voelz hasn't necessarily been at the absolute top of his game this year (although he hasn't been bad, either). With Beadlescomb clicking on all cylinders, this victory, while maybe initially surprising, seems to make sense.

I'm not sure what I can really say about Beadlescomb that hasn't already been said. He's super versatile and a dominant distance talent. This weekend was clearly designed for speed work and if that was the case, then I think that means that he'll pursue the 5k in the postseason...I think.

Aziza Ayoub Puts Together 2:03/4:21 Weekend Double, Also Runs On Winning 4x400m Relay

The Ohio State veteran has been a solid and promising middle distance talent for a while now, offering great consistency and reliability throughout her career. However, after a while, I wasn't sure if she would ever truly reach this level.

What makes me say that?

Well, if you look at Ayoub's resume, you'll see that between indoor and outdoor track, she had run under 2:10 for 800 meters FOURTY FIVE TIMES (!) throughout her collegiate career.

However, her personal best prior to this weekend was a respectable 2:05.06.

After learning of the fact that Ayoub had run in the 2:05 range six different times throughout her collegiate career, part of me thought, "Well, this might just be who she is."

And that would not have been a bad thing! 2:05 is pretty darn good!

But after years of stalling at the same PR, this veteran was rewarded for her patience with an outstanding 2:03 personal best, just ahead of teammate Mary Figler who ran 2:04.

This is a monumental breakthrough performance for Ayoub. Coming into this weekend, her resume held all of the factors that you'd like to see in an elite athlete. Reliability, consistency, experience, respectable times, some level of range, etc.

The only thing that Ayoub was missing was a PR that could theoretically earn her All-American honors.

Well, now she has exactly that.

Her 1500 meter time of 4:21 was also promising, essentially validating the improved 800 meter personal best that we saw from Ayoub.

That's why I feel so encouraged about this Ohio State standout.

This race doesn't feel like a fluke. It feels legitimate.

Kipsang Flexes Speed With 1:47 Result & Victory

The grass is green, the sky is blue and Eliud Kipsang ran a fast time.

These are the constants that you can expect to have in your life.

The Alabama star dropped down in distance to refine his middle distance speed, posting an impressive 1:47 mark for 800 meters. He won the race by over a second and after running 3:33 for 1500 meters en route to the collegiate record last weekend, a speed tuneup like this isn't all that surprising.

After all, Kipsang already owns a personal best of 1:46.99 in this event.

It'll be interesting to see what Kipsang's next plan of attack will be with a month left to go until the regional meets begin. A fast 5k would be perfect for him as he is almost certainly due for a personal best in that event if he were to give it a go.

The only question is...how fast could he go?

Eusila Chepkemei Runs 4:13 For 1500 Meters to Take Down Bailey Hertenstein (4:14) and Ellie Leather (4:15)

Eusila Chepkemei came out of absolutely nowhere when she ran a 4:32 mile time at Boston University this past winter, shockingly cutting off 16-seconds from her personal best and qualifying for the indoor national meet.

And I'll admit, I had serious reservations about the legitimacy of Chepkemei's fitness after that race. Heck, 16-second personal bests in the mile don't just happen! Not when there were zero indicators that she was at this level.

However, my doubts were quickly erased when Chepkemei not only ran 4:36 and 4:37 in the mile prelims and the mile finals at the indoor national meet, but she also showed tremendous poise in those races, almost like she had been there before.

In the end, she settled for a 6th place All-American finish.

So far this season, all Chepkemei has done is validate her recent success.

She's run 15:57 for 5000 meters, has dropped down in distance to the 800 meters where she's run 2:06 and now, just this past weekend, Chepkemei ran one of the fastest 1500 meter marks in the country with her 4:13 personal best. She took down Indiana star Bailey Hertenstein and Cincinnati star Ellie Leather in the process.

Right now, it's hard to find anything to dislike about this MTSU standout. Her sudden rise is, admittedly, still perplexing. It's like she suddenly flipped a switch and said "Alright, I'm going to be an All-American-caliber distance runner now."

But put the shock aside. For now, we have good reason to believe that Chepkemei can be an All-American once more in June.

No, she's certainly not guaranteed to earn that same honor, especially with so many new women entering the fold this spring, but at the moment...why would you not expect her to have postseason success?

As for Hertenstein, I gotta admit, this result is spot-on with my expectations. She ran 4:15 in her last race before this one, so a 4:14 mark isn't too surprising, especially since she ran 4:34 in the mile this past winter.

I also want to continue my "Hertenstein should be a 5k runner" campaign, but let's move on before I go too deep into that conversation...

As for Ellie Leather, I'm not going to lie, she seems a little "off" this season compared to her winter performances. Don't get me wrong, her marks of 4:14 and 4:15 aren't bad at all and she has been working on her speed with a few decent 800 meter efforts.

However, this past weekend, Leather was in a field that, personally, I thought she was going to beat. Yes, Chepkemei and Hertenstein are excellent in their own right, but I feel like Leather, when she's at her best, is the best of this group based on her indoor results.

I may be overthinking this and I may be coming off as too harsh. In the grand scheme of things, Leather is still holding her own fairly well. I suppose I was just used to seeing her take down so many top-tier women during the indoor track season...

Abduhalli Hassan Runs 1:47 at Oregon Relays

Another week, another wicked fast 800 meter time from Wisconsin's Abduhalli Hassan. The second-year Badger ace ran 1:47.66 this past weekend, finishing as the top collegiate at the Oregon Relays and coming just 0.15 seconds off from his collegiate personal best.

His personal best of 1:46 came during his prep days in Canada.

This was a great result and Hassan should feel super encouraged about his fitness with a month to go until the regional meets. However, this is what we've come to expect from Hassan. Him running 1:47 is something that we've seen him do multiple times before.

There's no question that this Wisconsin runner is capable of running faster (as seen by his prep days) and there's no question that he can be a national qualifier in this event.

However, this Badger youngster still needs to further refine his fitness and build momentum if he wants to be in the All-American conversation.

Could Hassan still be an All-American this spring?

Absolutely, I'm not saying that he can't.

But would he be one of the first eight names that I choose to be an All-American? What about the top-16? Top-20? In a season where 65 men have run 1:48.99 or faster with still one month left until the regional meets, those feel like fair questions.

There is still another tier for Hassan to reach, but I feel extremely confident that he'll eventually breakthrough to that next level. The only question is...when?

Tori Herman Matches 1500 Meter PR By Running 4:14

I feel like we've been talking about Tori Herman quite a bit since the end of the indoor track season. That, however, is because I really like her trajectory. She was excellent in the 3k during indoor track season, was excellent in the DMR and ran a strong sub-16 mark for 5000 meters earlier this season.

On paper, there was a lot to like about Herman and what she brings to the table.

However, seeing her run 4:14 for 1500 meters, which matches her personal best, makes me feel like everything we're seeing from Herman this season is legitimate. Herman really is as nationally competitive as I thought and the fact that she was able to replicate a fairly quick PR is encouraging.

It's one thing to run a PR and put yourself at the top of the national leaderboard. But the fact that Herman has now done that twice makes me think that she can be a factor on the regional, and dare I say national, stage...

Tamrat Snyder Comes Out of Nowhere to Run 1:47

Coming into this weekend, the extent of my knowledge about Rider University was that Teagan Schein-Becker is an underrated distance runner...and that's about it!

However, little-known middle distance talent, Tamrat Snyder, made sure to further educate me about Rider University by running an incredible mark of 1:47 for 800 meters at his home invitational. Snyder took home the win by over three seconds.

Snyder came out of nowhere. Absolutely nowhere.

Just how much out of nowhere?

Prior to this weekend, the Rider ace had never run faster than 1:50 for 800 meters.

Now, he has a 1:47 personal best.

Which he basically ran all by himself!

This is the part where I give some fancy insight and analysis, but what can you say about a guy who has never been anywhere close to this level of competitiveness before?

It's hard not to be excited for breakout runners like Snyder and while this performance is impressive, I still need to see more from him to truly get a gauge of his future.

Essayi Drops Down in Distance to Run 1:47 to Earn Win

For those counting at home, this South Carolina star is now 4-0 in collegiate finals in his very, very, very young NCAA career. This weekend, he posted a time of 1:47 for 800 meters, further flexing his fitness as an elite middle distance runner.

Admittedly, this result is too big of a shock. Anass Essayi has run 3:34 for 1500 meters before, so a 1:47 mark was well within his wheelhouse.

What does this five-second victory tell us about Essayi? Honestly, not much. We do know that his turnover and speed is at an ultra high-level, but I feel like we could've just assumed that and it wouldn't have been much of a hot take given his past successes.

Maddy Denner Runs 33:27 For 10,000 Meters

Notre Dame's Maddy Denner is such a challenging runner to figure out.

During her freshman indoor track season, she was far from being nationally competitive. Then, that spring, she surprisingly qualified for the national meet in the 10k.

Fast forward to the fall and Denner was phenomenal during the regular season. However, she ended up struggling in the postseason.

Denner would go on to have a few up-and-down races over the next few seasons of competition...but would then rally to qualify for the 2021 outdoor national meet in the 5k.

This past fall, Denner proved to be a fairly decent name, but then she flipped a switch and suddenly became one of the best cross country runners in the NCAA during the postseason.

She then began her 2022 indoor track season with a monster time of 15:27 for 5000 meters at Boston University. And then, as fate would have it, Denner would struggle throughout the rest of the season, including the national meet.

This Notre Dame veteran has seen every high and every low when it comes to her collegiate performances. So while I do want to be encouraged by her recent 10k personal best of 33:27, I also don't know what to expect from her a month from now.

And honestly, I don't know if anyone else does, either.

Cheruiyot Shows Off Range, Runs 3:38 For 1500 Meters

Hillary Cheruiyot sometimes feels like the forgotten and underappreciated star on this Alabama distance roster. Between Eliud Kipsang's 1500 meter dominance and Victor Kiprop's recent 10k/5k success, Cheruiyot hasn't had his moment to standout.

However, his recent 3:38 effort for 1500 meters should certainly turn some heads. That's an outstanding mark for someone who, historically, has been identified as true long distance runner.

Cheruiyot was recruited to Alabama because of his rumored 13:27 endurance in the 5000 meters. Admittedly, his two most recent races in the 5k and 10k, while solid, weren't exactly stunners or reflections of that PR.

This 3:38 mark, however, does validate some suspicions that Cheruiyot can be a competitive name on the national stage. Frankly, I can't believe that I didn't already come to that conclusion following his 7:48 (3k) from this past winter, but that is just the nature of the NCAA this year.

Here's a thought: Does Cheruiyot go after the 1500 meters in the postseason this spring? I think that largely depends on how his future 10k and 5k races go, but right now, I think that may be his best bet.

I wouldn't usually make that suggestion for someone whose identity is in the longer distances, but I think there's greater potential for national qualifying surprises to happen in the 1500 meters compared to the 5k.

I guess we'll have to see what next month holds...