First Thoughts: Kemboi's Statement 10k Title, Plourde & Barnett Miss 1500m Finals, Hunter's BIG PR

At this point, you know the drill. Results happen, we write about them, you read and we do it all over again! Let's get to all of the distance action from Thursday, shall we?

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Women's 1500 Meters (Prelims)

The men's 1500 meter preliminary rounds held essentially zero surprises, leaving us with very little to talk about. But the women's prelims? Well, that's a different story...

Like I said in our last article, we should almost always anticipate a top contender or two not advancing out of the prelims. If there aren't any surprises, then that, in a way, is actually even more surprising!

The women's 1500 meter finals on Saturday will not include Simone Plourde (Utah), Mia Barnett (UCLA), Amina Maatoug (Duke), Flomena Asekol (Alabama) or Silan Ayyildiz (South Carolina). That is an insane amount of talent that will be left on the sidelines unable to even contend for an All-American honor.

Of course, it's those first two names who are the biggest stunners.

In the first heat, it was Mia Barnett who opted to take control of the pace, asserting herself as the same front-runner who made things plenty fast at the West Regional Championships. And through 1000 meters of her race, this UCLA star looked like she was, for the most part, largely in control.

But with 500 meters to go, as Tuohy flanked her right shoulder, Barnett suddenly got tripped up, forcing herself to regain her balance while the surrounding pack quickly dashed around her. And by the time that this Bruin sophomore was able to recollect herself, she had not only lost all of her momentum, but she had lost contact with the main pack.

It's extremely hard to tell what happened via replay. However, after numerous rewinds, it looks like Barnett's foot hit the knee of Sophie O'Sullivan who was directly behind her. This, in turn, left Barnett's foot to come back down behind her own leg, effectively tripping herself -- or at least, making it look like that.

How Barnett didn't win an appeal is beyond me (I'm assuming one was filed). I have no idea why she wasn't able to advance to the finals after being taken out of contention simply because a competitor was too close to her pre-swing gait.

Yes, there was a protest that was filed, but that seemingly applied to Oregon's Maddy Elmore (via the live results at the time) and not anyone else.

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UPDATE (4:12 PM EST on 6/9/23): According to one source who The Stride Report was able to speak to, a protest arguing that Mia Barnett was impeded by Sophie O'Sullivan was filed to the officials. The protest was initially denied by a pair of two officials and when the protest was later sent back via an appeal, the officials continued to deny the protest.

One source noted that multiple coaches from other schools were in favor of Barnett moving on to the 1500 meter finals. It was also noted that "multiple camera angles" were used for reevaluation, although the protest was denied despite those options.

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That's a brutal omission from the women's 1500 meter finals. Not just because Barnett is extremely talented and a legitimate All-American favorite, but because a) she had a somewhat similar incident at the East Regional Championships last year, and b) I don't know why she wouldn't win an appeal if you slow down the replay enough and saw what happened.

For Plourde, the story is distinctly different.

The Utah star, who I fully supported as the 1500 meter national title favorite in a world without Katelyn Tuohy, was in a great top-three position with 400 meters to go behind Sophie O'Sullivan and Tuohy.

However, with roughly 250 meters to go, Plourde just couldn't navigate around the taller O'Sullivan who was already making a move of her own. Tuohy was opening up her stride while in the lead, allowing O'Sullivan (who had the inside rail) to navigate more easily in front of Ploude who was already trying to get around her PAC-12 rival on her outside shoulder.

As a result, O'Sullivan got in front, Plourde's stride was interrupted and the chase pack behind her took advantage of her faltering momentum.

This was a very surprising development for someone like Plourde. One of the biggest breakout runners of this entire academic calendar had proven to not only be an elite talent, but she also flexed great versatility and subtly-excellent tactics.

If there is a silver lining to this series of results, it's that Plourde still has the 5k finals on Saturday that she'll be able to contest. And while I had concerns about her being able to double back for that race on tired legs, she'll now have two full nights of rest to prepare for that event without also having to worry about the 1500 meter finals.

And with Katelyn Tuohy set to double back from the 1500 meter finals on Saturday...could Plourde's national title chances in the 5k have actually just gone up? Potentially by a lot?

I also don't think that we can wrap up this section of analysis without recognizing what Sophie O'Sullivan has done. She ran 4:09 for 1500 meters to win her heat and she earned the fastest overall time in the prelims. That is now the second time in two weeks where she has run under 4:10 in the metric mile and she has been imposing while doing so.

It's so hard to gauge women like O'Sullivan and Oregon's Maddy Elmore (who also advanced to the finals). We've known that both of those women were talented, and it wasn't a shock to see them make it to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in this event.

But what we didn't expect was either of those women to run 4:08 (1500) personal bests the other week. And prior to the postseason, they weren't favored to make it out of the prelims on this stage. Of course, after their last few efforts, we are now in a position where we are forced to take them more seriously as top-tier All-American threats.

Because even though they don't have resumes as established or as lengthy as some of the other women in this field, they arguably have just as much (or maybe even more) momentum.

Women's 3k Steeplechase (Prelims)

Generally speaking, the women's 3000 meter steeplechase prelims were largely chalk. When it comes to women who didn't advance into the steeplechase finals, there were only one or two major surprises.

One of those surprises? Notre Dame's Katie Thronson.

The Fighting Irish graduate student built a reputation for herself this year as one of the most reliable and valuable distance athletes in the East region. While she certainly wasn't favored to win NCAA gold in this event, Thronson felt like the safest bet of all non-title contenders to emerge as an All-American.

But despite building a reputation of great stability and consistency, Thronson took a tumble on one of the water barriers (during the commercial break) at a rather inconvenient time. From there, the Tennessee-turned-Notre Dame ace ultimately faded in the first heat after putting herself in the top group for a good portion of the race.

In terms of her actual performance, there's not a whole lot to analyze. Even so, I think it's important to give massive kudos to someone who was one of the NCAA's most valuable transfer pickups of the past year.

In fact, relative to expectations, you could argue that Thronson was THE most valuable transfer addition for any team from last summer. Sure, she didn't make it past the prelims on Thursday night, but the utility and talent that she brought to South Bend, Indiana across all three seasons this year was likely more than what Notre Dame was expecting.

Columbia's Victoria Patterson, a personal favorite of mine as far as a sleeper picks go, didn't have enough to truly contend with the top group in heat one (she finished one spot ahead of Thronson). The good news is that this Lion standout is still fairly young and she should be able to contend for a spot to the steeplechase finals in the future.

When I look at everyone else who wasn't among the top-12 advancing spots, I can't say that I'm too shocked. Sure, I would have thought that Katelyn Mitchem (Wyoming) would have had a better chance of qualifying for Saturday's final over Calli Doan (Liberty) and Maisie Grice (New Mexico), but it's not like those two women qualifying was an unrealistic scenario, either.

Also, how about Pauline Meyer?

The Arkansas State standout put together a MASSIVE breakout race at the West Regional Championships, putting together a near 24-second PR in this event. And while that was an incredible performance, I silently thought to myself, "Can she do it again?"

Meyer may not have replicated her 9:44 PR over the barriers last night, but she did run 9:51 to secure one of the two at-large spots to the finals. And now, I can't help but commend this rising distance talent who continues to run well above what her seasonal resume suggested that she is capable of.

Women's 800 Meters (Prelims)

Alright...where do we start?

Just like I mentioned with the men's 800 meter preliminary heats, there were more finals-worthy women in this year's national 800 meter field than spots available for said finals.

Of course, that's usually the case every year.

But in 2023, it felt especially difficult to watch some of these top-tier middle distance stars end their outdoor track seasons two nights earlier than they probably wanted to.

Imogen Barrett? Out.

Carley Thomas? Out.

Lindsay Butler? Out.

Sarah Hendrick? Out.

Rachel Gearing? Out.

All of those women had been having excellent seasons, but most of them also held cautionary aspects on their resumes that made us legitimately question if they would be able to advance out of the prelims.

Barrett, while insanely talented, has been very hit-or-miss on championship stages. Thomas is a highly refined and experienced runner, but she has yet to truly return to her fitness level that we saw from her in the winter of 2020. Butler is a national title contender at her best, but her late-race moves weren't nearly as convincing this year as they have been in the past.

Hendrick and Gearing may have actually been the most reliable middle distance runners of this group, at least in 2023. But Gearing's fitness simply needed to be one step higher if she was going to get to Saturday's final round. Hendrick, meanwhile, has been relatively quiet this spring in comparison to her winter campaign (although she has still been plenty strong).

But maybe the most surprising development of this entire preliminary round was the improvements that we saw from two underdogs, one more so than the other.

Dorcus Ewoi (Campbell) has always been a very strong and highly underrated name in the collegiate distance running realm. Her versatility is sneaky-good, she has put together great consistency, she is tactically refined and she continues to improve.

Even so, this distance standout had run no faster than 2:03.17 for 800 meters coming into the national meet. And in a field where numerous women had run between 1:59 and 2:02, it was going to take a significant 800 meter PR for Ewoi to make it to the finals.

So what did she do?

She ran a two-second 800 meter PR of 2:01 and qualified for the finals.

This former JUCO star had all of the intangibles and racing tools to be a nationally competitive name this year (and she already was). But her raw fitness and times simply weren't at a strong-enough level to have her favored for a spot to the 800 meter finals this weekend.

That, of course, has now changed. With a 2:01 PR, the narrative surrounding Ewoi has evolved from her being a fringe contender to one of the most complete middle distance talents in this entire field.

But what if I told you that Ewoi wasn't the biggest stunner in this field from Thursday night? In fact, what if I told you that she didn't even run the biggest personal best in this event?

Well, that's because BYU veteran Meghan Hunter had the single-greatest race of her life...and it wasn't even close. The Cougar middle distance runner previously held an 800 meter PR of 2:04.08 going into Thursday night and she had run no faster than 2:05.35 in the event throughout the entirety of this academic calendar.

Naturally, you can understand my surprise when Hunter threw down a strong finish in heat three to run a two-and-a-half second personal best of 2:01.53 for 800 meters! She joined fellow teammate Claire Seymour as one of the three time qualifiers to the finals.

Hunter had never run faster than 2:04 for the half-mile distance. But on a stage where she was a MASSIVE underdog, and even someone who I would have predicted to finish last, this BYU runner put together one of the most impressively clutch performances that I've seen from anyone this year. I don't even know how to properly express how unexpected that result was.

Coach Diljeet Taylor just can't do anything wrong, huh?

Women's 10,000 Meters (Finals)

Here's the thing: I could try to detail every single lead change or notable move made by the top women in this field. That, however, largely wouldn't provide anything of value.

The only thing that you have to know about this race is that a large group of women -- Emily Venters, Mercy Chelangat, Hilda Olemomoi, Everlyn Kemboi and Ava Nuttall -- all exchanged the lead pacing duties at various points throughout this race.

And in the latter-half of this 10k battle, we also saw women such as Amanda Vestri, Amelia Mazza-Downie, Kelsey Chmiel, Anna Kostarellis, Cailie Logue and Aubrey Frentheway keep themselves in the mix, shadowing the leaders and refusing to fade.

It wouldn't be until the last two or three laps where a clear group of five women found some legitimate separation from everyone else. That group featured Chelangat, Kemboi, Venters, Olemomoi and Mazza-Downie (although not necessarily in that order).

With roughly 800 meters to go, Kemboi slowly began to pull away from Chelangat and the rest of the pack. And because the move was gradual rather than immediate, certain women didn't full recognize her surge until a gap was more apparent (or at the very least, that's what it seemed like).

Venters eventually did recognize that a gap was forming, but she was just a bit too far behind to close the gap which was beginning to grow, exponentially. If she had been a couple of spots higher in that pack, then she may have been able to respond more effectively.

But with 500 meters to go, the race was basically over. Kemboi was displaying turnover that the rest of this field just simply didn't have. On the last lap, the Utah Valley star had put a rough 40 meter gap on the field, locking up NCAA gold in a time of 32:39 (10k).

Venters would cross the line in the runner-up position while Chelangat settled for bronze.

Coming into this weekend, everyone at The Stride Report had four women who were viewed as the national title favorites: Venters, Chelangat, Olemomoi and Mazza-Downie. However, we also made it very clear, especially on the Blue Oval Podcast, that although Kemboi wasn't viewed as a national title favorite, we at least thought that she could be a national title contender.

In other words, we didn't think the title odds fell in her favor, but it was still plenty realistic to think that she could have won the 10k gold in Austin, Texas.

And in retrospect, it makes sense that Kemboi was able to come away victorious. On paper, she was more well-rounded than the four women who we viewed as the "favorites". She was just as good in the 5k and the 10k distances, but her 4:12 (1500) altitude converted mark gave her turnover that other women in this field just didn't have.

As a result, Utah Valley has their first national champion in program history.

Here are the rest of the All-American results...

1. Everlyn Kemboi (Utah Valley)

2. Emily Venters (Utah)

3. Mercy Chelangat (Alabama)

4. Amelia Mazza-Downie (New Mexico)

5. Hilda Olemomoi (Alabama)

6. Cailie Logue (Iowa State)

7. Amanda Vestri (Syracuse)

8. Kelsey Chmiel (NC State)

Truthfully, I'm not sure there is anything more to say. I was fairly convinced that Chmiel was going to be an All-American and it doesn't at all shock me that Vestri was an All-American in this field given her success since the indoor national meet.

As long as Venters, Chelangat, Mazza-Downie and Olemomoi were next to each other, they could have finished in any order and I wouldn't have been surprised.

Cailie Logue was the biggest "surprise" All-American in this field, but calling her a "surprise" feels like a pretty big stretch. No one had her earning a 10k All-American honor in our predictions, but she was more than capable of a top-eight finish and I don't think anyone is blown away by her result.

That said, I want to give nods of respect to both Emily Venters and Mercy Chelangat, two true long distance juggernauts who had two very different careers.

Venters faced so much adversity throughout her time in the NCAA. She went from being one of the best true freshmen in the nation at Boise State to a consistently-injured runner at Colorado. And when it seemed like her running career was done, Utah revived her, turning Venters into the sixth-fastest collegiate 10k runner ever.

Chelangat, meanwhile, was dominant ever since she first came to Alabama. After taking the 2019 cross country season to get adjusted, this Crimson Tide veteran would go on to win two national titles, garner a total of 10 All-American honors, run 8:53 for 3000 meters, run 15:17 for 5000 meters and run 31:55 for 10,000 meters.

In a distance running era that has been headlined by Dani Jones, Whittni Orton, Courtney Wayment, Katelyn Tuohy and Parker Valby, it feels like Chelangat's greatness has been underappreciated. In my opinion, she's closer to that tier of women who I just listed rather than whoever resides in the next-best tier.