First Thoughts: Garcia Romo Throws Down 1:46 Mark, Herman Goes 15:52 & 800 Depth Grows (Part Two)

Click here to read our First Thoughts (Part One) article.

Mario Garcia Romo Throws Down Monster 1:46 Mark for 800 Meters, Three Others Go Sub-1:48

The men's 1500 meters at the Joe Walker Invite may not have gone the way that Ole Miss' Mario Garcia Romo wanted it to go. The Rebel superstar ran a solid time of 3:40, although reportedly poor conditions kept the race from becoming much faster than that.

Not only that, but SEC rival Anass Essayi was the one who ended up getting the win.

Luckily, Garcia Romo's comeback effort on day two was far more impressive. The established veteran reminded everyone that he has some of the best range in the country, dropping a mind-blowing mark of 1:46.90 for 800 meters to take home the win over a very underrated field.

While this mark is certainly faster than anything I would have predicted for this weekend, it's still a time that was within reason for someone of Garcia Romo's caliber. The Ole Miss superstar previously owned a personal best of 1:47 and has often shown tremendous turnover in many of his longer races.

It's extremely unlikely that Garcia Romo pursues an event other than the 1500 meters in the postseason. That said, he's also reaching very interesting territory with a 1:46 mark that could open a new postseason opportunity for him if he, for whatever reason, wanted to go down that path.

But in terms of future postseason impact, it's the men behind Garcia Romo in this 800 meter race that gave us plenty to talk about.

The 2nd place finisher was actually not a collegiate.

In fact, he is actually a high schooler.

I am, of course, talking about Cade Flatt. The Ole Miss signee ventured to his future home this past weekend to race against his soon-to-be teammates...and he beat most of them! The high school superstar, who ran 1:48 to win the New Balance Indoor National Championships this past winter, just dropped a mind-boggling mark of 1:47.

Flatt has gone from being an upper-echelon middle distance high school star to one of the best half-milers in prep history. Barring any weird record caveat that I'm not familiar with, Flatt now sits at No. 3 in MileSplit's all-time outdoor track archives.

Few pairings are better than Cade Flatt and Ole Miss. Both parties have had significant elite-level success in the middle distances, specifically the 800 meters. Flatt also seems to thrive in aggressively paced settings, although based on his last two 800 meter races, it doesn't seem to matter who is making the pace hot.

Lipscomb's Jonathan Schwind and Ole Miss' Baylor Franklin each had excellent races of their own, running a pair of 1:47 marks, times that aren't exactly shocking when you consider that 1:47 was already both of their personal bests.

Even so, seeing both Schwind and Franklin near the peak of their powers is exciting. When both men are at 100% and are firing on all cylinders, they can be challenging to take down. Both runners also boast excellent 1500 meter / mile prowess, giving them some underappreciated strength in a race like the 800 meters.

BYU's Claire Seymour (2:03) and Lauren Ellsworth (2:04) Go 1-2 to Defeat Hokanson (2:05)

BYU's Claire Seymour got the job done in Tempe, Arizona this past weekend as she took a very unsurprising win in a time of 2:03. Teammate Lauren Ellsworth was close behind in a mark of 2:04...and I don't really much have more!

These two results were very unsurprising and this is probably what I would have anticipated each woman to run had I seen the entries prior to this weekend.

Nonetheless, Seymour scored a great result and is extending her success from the indoor oval to the outdoor track. Meanwhile, Ellsworth is building off of her excellent 1500 meter effort from last weekend. She's gaining a lot of momentum right now and should absolutely be on your radar.

As for Alexa Hokanson, the Grand Canyon standout finished 3rd in this race with a 2:05 mark, her fourth straight 800 meter race where she's run 2:06 or faster.

The consistency that we're seeing out of Hokanson is encouraging. Not only is she consistently running competitive times, but she's been racing some of the best half-milers in the country more than just once.

On paper, it looks like she's due for a breakout performance where she cracks the 2:05 mark and puts herself in the 2:04 range.

Watch out for this Grand Canyon runner later in the season. She seems to be fairly reliable and is becoming increasingly more familiar with some of the top women in the nation, specifically in the 800 meters.

Christian Noble Runs 3:39 For 1500 Meters On Friday, Comes Back to Run 1:49 to Defeat Nagel on Saturday

Is anyone really surprised?

Like, at all?

Noble's 3:39 mark is probably the least surprising result we've seen all weekend. However, it's the nuances involved with that 3:39 mark, plus his 800 meter race the next day, that really capture your attention.

Noble is rumored to have split 1:53 for the final 800 meters during his 1500 meter race. Not only that, but he then came back the next day to run 1:49.95 to win the 800 meters over D2 All-American and future Virginia Tech Hokie, Ben Nagel.

The caliber of these results is far from shocking, although this past weekend did display more speed and turnover than we may have originally thought was there for the Lee superstar.

If Noble is closing races that fast and is taking down established half-milers during a weekend double, then I have to think that he can probably run something faster in the 1500 meters, especially in a more competitive field.

My guess? Maybe in the 3:37ish range, give or take a second, although my last few estimates for Noble haven't been fast enough, so there's a good chance that I'm underselling him here.

Tori Herman Runs 15:52 in Second Collegiate Track 5k

The longer distance races, mainly the 5k and the 10k, were VERY quiet this past weekend.

That, of course, makes plenty of sense. With the Raleigh Relays and Stanford Invitational often producing the fastest 5k and 10k times in the country each and ever year, it seemed unlikely that we would see a ton of fast times in those events just a week or two later.

That, however, didn't stop Kentucky's Tori Herman from toeing the line and earning a key 5k win at the Joe Walker Invitational this past weekend. She took home the victory by four seconds over unattached runner Katy Kunc, a Kentucky alum who is mainly a steeplechaser.

While I do want to say more about this result, I'm not sure that I really can. This was a respectable 5k field, but Herman very clearly should have won this race (and she did).

Running 15:52 is fairly strong, but it's also far from surprising for her. Considering that she has run 4:14 for 1500 meters and 9:00 for 3000 meters, her stepping up in distance and producing the time that she did seems to be very on par with expectations.

I'm a big fan of Herman. While I do believe that she still has another tier to reach before she's truly competing for All-American honors, her consistency, ongoing improvements, growing experience and versatility makes her a hard name to dislike.

Cargile Runs 1:48 to Earn NCAA #12 D3 All-Time 800 Mark

In one of my favorite podcasts, The Rewatchables, the hosts will watch a certain movie and then give out their made up awards to a variety of actors/actresses within the movie.

One of those awards is the "Dion Waiters Heat Check" award.

A "heat check" is originally a basketball term. When someone is playing a game of basketball and goes on a streak of making numerous consecutive shots and making great plays, they are often considered to be "heating up".

During this "heating up" process, a player will occasionally take a slightly questionable or ambitious shot in an attempt to extend their streak of excellent play.

This is called a "heat check", which essentially checks to see if someone is still on a hot streak.

If the shot goes in? Awesome, keep shooting.

If it doesn't? Well, maybe that's a reminder to pass the ball next time.

Over the last two months, Redland's star Tucker Cargile has called his shot.

Not just once, but twice.

And every time he did, you could hear Mike Breen yelling, "BANG!" in the distance.

Cargile continues to take heat checks, but he has yet to miss.

During the indoor track season, Cargile went on record saying that he was going to run a sub-4:05 mile at Boston University. Sure enough, he did exactly that, running a 4:04 personal best.

Then, this past week, Cargile decided to take another shot from deep.

The end result?

1:48.89 for 800 meters.

The fastest time in Division Three this spring and the NCAA #12 All-Time D3 mark for the men's 800 meters.

Cargile is on absolute fire. He not only ran an outstanding time, but he also took down a very talented middle distance standout in Bennett Booth-Genthe who also ran 1:49 in this race.

If Cargile continues this streak of excellence, then he may have a chance to enter the same tier that Alex Phillip and Aidan Ryan currently reside in by seasons' end.

Who knows? Maybe he could end up as the MVP of Division Three this spring.

Kinda like year's version of Joel Embiid.

Galvydyte Runs 2:04 to Earn Win at Joe Walker Invitational

It was a good weekend for Oklahoma State's Gabija Galvydyte at the Joe Walker Invitational. Not only did she move up in distance to run 4:19 for 1500 meters and placed 3rd overall from the second-fastest heat, but she also ran 2:04 for the 800 meters.

Much like Herman, it's hard to dislike Galvydyte. She was so consistent all winter long and got better as the postseason neared. She barely missed out on the 800 meter finals during the indoor national meet, but that shouldn't take away from her continued excellence.

Galvydyte owns an indoor personal best of 2:03, so seeing her earn a win in a time of 2:04 is hardly surprising. The field, admittedly, didn't have the same national-caliber stars that she has recently faced.

However, Galvydyte does need credit for taking down Kentucky's Jenna Schwinghamer who posted a very solid time of 2:04. The Kentucky youngster had an excellent indoor season, but is very clearly breaking out on the outdoor oval.

She had a lot of momentum coming into this race and still kept things competitive, making Galvydyte's win that much more impressive.

Do the results that we saw from Galvydyte or Schwinghamer really change my opinion of them? No, not really, but I do feel like these were solid efforts that they can build on throughout the rest of the season.

Iowa State Duo of Gomez & Kipyego Run Pair of 1:47s in Season Opening Statements

The 2022 indoor track season that we saw from Jason Gomez left us scratching our heads.

The Iowa State superstar who broke out in a major way last year and then opened up his 2021-2022 indoor track season with a very strong 1000 meter time of 2:21.

However, after that, Gomez ran 1:56 for 800 meters, recorded a DNF, ran 1:51, ran 1:48, ran 1:52 in the prelims of the BIG 12 Championships, ran 1:56 in the finals of the BIG 12 Championships and was the second-to-last 1200 meter leg at the indoor national meet in the DMR.

On paper, Gomez is one of the best in country. However, 90% of his indoor track season this past winter was flat-out bad. It would have been easy to suggest that he was recovering from sort of ailment, but he was still running marks like 1:48 and 2:21, which is why we were so confused by some of his performances.

After all, those are nationally competitive times!

Luckily, Gomez seemed to make a statement this past weekend in his season debut, dropping a monster mark of 1:47 for 800 meters, taking down a high-level teammate in Darius Kipyego in the process who also ran 1:47.

This mark was only 0.10 seconds off from the Gomez's personal best, leaving me incredibly encouraged about what this outdoor track season could be for him. Admittedly, we probably need to see a few more performances from him to really know if Gomez is "back" per say. However, this is easily the best performance that he has had all year long and it's not even close.

If Gomez is able to replicate this kind of performance and reproduce the consistency that we saw from him last year, then he could suddenly thrust himself back into the All-American conversation after essentially being a non-factor in the winter.

As for Kipyego, I love this result for him. He seems to be thriving in an ultra-competitive middle distance environment at Iowa State. This was a big personal best for him and it leaves me very encouraged about how much of a factor he can be in the future.

Kipyego is still incredibly young and he lacks experience, although certainly not talent. He produced great results during the winter months, but he needed to take another step up if he was going to be truly nationally competitive, specifically in the postseason.

A 1:47 time for this Cyclone rookie certainly feels like a massive leap upwards, but now we'll need to see if he can produce this kind of result consistently throughout the rest of the season.

Quick Hits

• NC State's Sam Bush ran 2:04 for 800 meters. 2:04! For a cross country All-American who just ran one of the fastest 5k times in the NCAA the other weekend! The amount of middle distance speed and turnover that Bush boasts is extremely underrated. Tactical settings, in theory, favor her skillset. She may be the most versatile distance runner in the country right now.

• Miami's Ayman Zahafi ran 1:47 back in late March to earn the win on his home track. Then, this past weekend, he ran 1:47 to earn a win on his home track. This is probably amongst the top-three least surprising results of the weekend, but I like the consistency!

• In that same race as Zahafi, we saw Oklahoma's Anass Mghari come out of nowhere to run 1:48. The Moroccan middle distance runner is a sneaky-good talent who didn't fully have a chance to be a standout name on the indoor oval this past winter. That, however, could be changing this spring...

• Really great win by Michigan's Cole Johnson. He ran 1:48 to narrowly take down a field which consisted of Duke's Nick Dahl, Penn State's Domenic Perretta, North Carolina's Kyle Reinheimer, Wake Forest's Rynard Swanepoel and Duke's Beck Wittstadt. All of those men ran 1:48 marks, making Johnson's win that much more impactful.

• Colorado's Eduardo Herrera posted a 1500 meter mark of 3:44 at altitude, giving him a converted time of 3:39 for the distance. That's a solid mark, but we've actually seen him run faster (without a conversion) before. For the most part, this result isn't surprising, but it's a nice start and it deserves to be appreciated.