First Thoughts: Kearney's Versatility, Boothe-Genthe's 1500 Prowess, Tucker's & Heys' 10k Success

The Division Three realm has become increasingly more interesting over the last few seasons. Maybe that's due to the incredible growth in national-caliber depth, the emergence of numerous all-time superstars or the value that other schools in separate divisions are able to find via the transfer portal.

Regardless of the reason, the 2022 outdoor track has gotten off to a hot start for D3. Below, I (your TSR admin, Garrett Zatlin) asked Division Three distance running specialist Brett Haffner a few questions about some of the performances that we've seen so far this season.

Here were Brett's responses...

On a scale of 1 to 10, how surprised were you that Esther Seeland was the overall winner in the women’s 800 meters at the Raleigh Relays?

I gotta go with about a 3. Even though the Raleigh Relays field was loaded with Division One talent, you have to remember that Seeland boasts a 2:02.5 personal best, which would currently rank very highly amongst all divisions in terms of raw talent and firepower.

This result was a positive step to add to Seeland’s momentum from the indoor season and it clearly shows that she can hang with anybody in the NCAA. Fazio and Giesing could have certainly taken down Seeland on the right day, but Seeland is good enough to the point that a win over this field shouldn't necessarily be considered a surprise.

Following an All-American finish at the indoor national meet and recently posting a 2:10 personal best in her outdoor debut, what do you think Elizabeth Donnolly’s ceiling is this season?

For starters, running 2:10 was a very impressive drop in time for Donnolly. She ran 2:11.9 on the indoor oval, but that effort was only her first time ever dipping under the 2:13 barrier.

What makes her 2:10 performance a lot more impressive was that she won that 800 meter race by FIVE seconds, with little competition to keep her in check or push her in the slightest.

Donnolly has proven that she can make a championship final and run fast, but she has now made another jump up in fitness. This is incredibly encouraging, especially since we're only in March. If she continues to build off of this performance during the rest of the spring months, then she could be a scary-good name come late May.

I think that Donnolly could be one of the names at the front of the "chase pack" at the NCAA Outdoor Championships (given that Esther Seeland will be in front). She'll likely be gunning for a top-five to top-three finish at the national meet.

With his recent NCAA-lead of 1:51.51 in the 800 meters, do you see UC-Santa Cruz freshman Eric Anderson qualifying for the national meet with that mark?

That mark should be enough for a national qualifying spot. If we look back at the 2021 outdoor track season, Anderson’s recent mark of 1:51.51 would have ranked him inside the top-20 nationally and qualified him for the national meet -- and that doesn’t even account for scratches!

Considering Anderson’s only 800 meter race from the indoor season was a 1:55 mark, this huge leap into the 1:51 range says good things about him heading into the rest of this outdoor season. If this improvement is for real, then he could end up cutting off additional time from his PR and further solidifying his spot to the national meet.

However, with all of that being said, his 1:51.51 mark is not necessarily a guaranteed qualifier for the national meet. We have good reason to believe that it will qualify him based on last year's performances and the potential scratches that we could see from the event, but that time is still cutting it a little bit on the closer side.

Was Ella Baran’s 4:19 mark for 1500 meters faster or slower than you were expecting?

I’d say, for the most part, it was right on the money. Going sub-4:20 for 1500 meters in an outdoor season opener was a result that I’m not too surprised by. Baran didn't run so absurdly fast that it caught anyone off guard, but it was still a solid time that matched our expectations.

At the Raleigh Relays, Baran finally got another opportunity to compete against a very strong 1500 field, a setup that, depending on who you ask, eluded her for a majority of the indoor track season.

It’s rare to see Baran finish mid-pack during a race, but considering the degree of competition that was at the Raleigh Relays, as well as the fact that this was a four-second PR, it was a very convincing start to the outdoor season for the Johns Hopkins ace.

So far this season, Cassidy Kearney has run 2:10 (800) and 4:32 (1500). Which event do you think is she more likely to pursue at the national meet?

Kearney’s hot start to the season has given her two likely-national qualifying marks already in both the 800 meters and the 1500 meters. However, given her past national meet experience, I’ll have to side with the 800 meters.

Similar to Elizabeth Donnolly who we mentioned above, Kearney has run 2:10 during this still-early spring season in a field that was barren of relevant competition. That result should give Kearney plenty of momentum to eventually go under 2:10 when she’s able to get into a competitive race.

However, to address the counterfactual, I still think Kearney would be incredibly competitive in the 1500 meters as well, as a personal best of 4:32 definitely turns some heads at this point in the season. Not only that, but her 800 meter speed might give her additional turnover and finishing speed that other athletes who move up in distance from the 1500 meters (rather than stepping down in distance) may not have.

We could see Kearney compete for All-American honors in either event. Heck, we could even see a tough attempt at doubling in these two events at the national meet. All of that is possible, but given that she has already had success in the 800 meters, I'd say have to say that she should pursue that event.

True or False: Bennett Boothe-Genthe’s 1500 meter time of 3:47 (mile converted) will still be in the top-five of Division Three by the national meet. Top-three?

True: His recent 1500 meter mark will remain in the top-five, nationally.

False: His recent 1500 meter mark will remain in the top-three, nationally.

If guys like Aidan Ryan, Alex Phillip, Jacob Ridderhoff, Tucker Cargile and Christopher Collet have anything to say about that, then this could likely be an unreal year for the 1500 meters and Boothe-Genthe, with his current mark, could be left out of the top-five...and that's a very real possibility!

What was interesting about Boothe-Genthe’s recent mark was that it was converted from a full mile race in which he ran an actual time of 4:05.87.

All of the guys listed above have already run 4:05 (or faster) during the indoor season in some capacity, which might suggest that a lot more 3:47s (or faster) are in the future for Division Three.

Even so, we have to respect how fast this time is and there's not a guarantee that all of these guys are absolutely guaranteed to run faster than 3:47.66. For that reason, I'll say that Boothe-Genthe's mark will stay in the top-five, but only barely. It will not be in the top-three.

Finish the sentence: Josh Fry’s 3:49 mark for 1500 meters puts him in __________ .

A national qualifying spot, right on the cusp of All-American contention.

In 2021, featuring the deepest and most talented 1500 meter field in Division Three history, it took a stunning 3:49.2 just to earn All-American honors in the championship final. That's crazy fast!

This year, we could see something very similar, or even faster, unfold on the national stage. Fry placed 11th in that aforementioned national meet final, so his experience should stick with him as he prepares for this year’s national meet.

There's no way of knowing exactly how this year's 1500 meter race will play out on the national stage, but given his past experience, it's not unrealistic to think that Fry's 3:49 mark puts him in the All-American conversation.

One-sentence analysis: Take three recent men’s 5k performances of your choosing and offer one-sentence worth of analysis.

Pomona Pitzer’s depth at 5000 meters is simply unmatched with 16 guys, a group which did not include those who were steeplechasing, breaking 15:00 at the same meet!

Stevie Steinberg of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps solidified himself as a lethal presence to pair with teammates Henry Pick and Miles Christensen, running 14:15 to destroy his previous PR of 14:46.

Alexander Kessler of Middlebury has run a handful of 5000 meter races in 2022, but his debut performance on the outdoor oval gave him a major jump in the national ranks, running 14:24 to PR by 19 seconds.

One-sentence analysis: Take three recent women’s 5k performances of your choosing and offer one-sentence worth of analysis.

Evie Miller’s 16:26 mark over 5000 meters was a solid extension of her impressive indoor track season, making her a strong contender for another high-end All-American performance.

Making a jump up to the 5000 meters, Sara Stephenson of Johns Hopkins translated an impressive indoor track season into an equally impressive outdoor debut, running 17:01.

Making a trip out to California, Clara Mayfield’s 16:44 mark over 5000 meters was roughly on par with her indoor season, but she didn’t get the advantage of racing in an incredibly deep Raleigh Relays fields like many others did.

Which sub-30 runner for 10,000 meters will have more success in the postseason if they opt to run this event: Tyler Morris (29:36), Simon Heys (29:38), Colin Monaghan (29:52)?

I’m going to give this one to Simon Heys.

In an incredible year of talent, Heys just barely missed out on the indoor national meet with times of 8:21 in the 3000 meters and 14:32 in the 5000 meters. I don’t think there’s ever been a more talented athlete to not qualify for a D3 indoor national meet.

Heys has always been more of a long range runner in the distance events. A 5th place finish at the cross country national meet makes it hard to argue against that. Not only that, but the 10k has been an event that Heys has succeeded in during 2021 and now, from the looks of it, 2022 as well.

He’ll have a chip on his shoulder this season which should set him up quite well to do some damage throughout Division Three. With the 10k giving an opportunity to race closer to his ideal distance, we'll likely see Heys best talent translate to the national meet better than most.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely is it that Anastasia Tucker will run the 10k at the national meet after running 35:19 in her first ever attempt at the distance?

I’d say around an 8 or a 9.

Tucker’s performance will likely stick as a top-five mark in Division Three throughout the entire season and she has shown that she can stretch well into the longer distances.

Giving the 10k a shot at the NCAA Outdoor Championships could very well be a great rebound performance after a disappointing indoor national meet in which she DNF’d the 5000 meters.

I’m curious to see where she’ll fare in the 5000 meters this outdoor season as well, potentially giving way to a 10k/5k double at the national meet. Yes, it's true, she could opt to go all-in for the 5000 meters and scratch the 10k, but in theory, she doesn't lose a whole lot by giving the 10k a shot.

In your eyes, which of the men who have debuted in the steeplechase so far this season have the best chance of ending up as All-Americans in the event?

Just based on the guys who have run it so far, the duo of Duncan Spiers and Nathaniel Getachew from Pomona Pitzer, as well as Adam Wilkinson of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, have all run incredibly well this early in the season.

All three of these men have run two steeplechase races in 2022, each improving from their first attempt to the second attempt. Yes, I know, it's not even April yet, but any progression is good progression. Momentum, as we like to say at The Stride Report, is a very real thing in distance running.

If these men are able to move their PRs down to around the 9:05 range later this season, then I’d give all three of these men fairly reasonable chances to take home an All-American honor at the national meet.

So far this spring, not a single D3 woman has run faster than 11:08 in the steeplechase. Is that surprising to you at all?

I’m really not too surprised. Fast D3 steeplechase times tend to come from the end of the regular season, especially from the conference meets and during "last chance" weekends.

Since many Division Three athletes are just beginning the turnaround to the outdoor season, we will likely begin to see some quick marks pop up here and there over the next few weeks in the steeplechase.