First Thoughts: Notre Dame's Big Win, Vissa's Huge Split & Indiana Men Embarrass The Stride Report

Unbelievably, I think our Saturday analysis is actually going to be shorter than our Friday analysis which is a first for The Stride Report! However, just because the analysis may be shorter doesn't mean that there isn't a lot to talk about.

Strap in, let's begin...

Notre Dame Men Fend Off Ole Miss Men 9:21.73 to 9:21.94, Indiana Men Stun w/ 9:22 Mark Via 3:53 Split From Veatch

Coming into this weekend, there was little doubt that the Alex Wilson Invitational was going to be fast...but man, I didn't think it would this fast. In total, nine out of the 10 relays in this race ran under the 9:30 barrier and eight of those relays did so convincingly while Stanford went under with a time of 9:29.

There were eight teams between 9:21.00 and 9:29.00 and seven teams between 9:21.00 and 9:24.00. That is the craziest thing I have ever seen. Seven men's DMR teams running between 9:21 and 9:24? Prior to this season, did you ever think you would see that in your lifetime?

When looking at the live results, it seems that there may have been an issue with recording the splits as the only discernible split I can see was the anchor leg. So, after some searching, I was able to come up with splits for some of these relays (but not all).

Let's start with the Fighting Irish, a team that dropped an incredible mark of 9:21 this past weekend to barely off the Ole Miss men who were very close behind in a time of 9:21 as well.

The Notre Dame men could have put 3:59 miler Bashir Mosavel-Lo on their 1200 meter leg and brought major firepower to their 800 leg with 1:45 man Samuel Voelz. Instead, they took a different approach, moving Voelz up to the 1200 meter leg and bringing in graduate transfer Tim Zepf to run the 800 meter leg.

That plan worked out beautifully as Voelz dropped an excellent 2:52 split on the lead-off leg. With Zepf having arguably the best and most clutch race of his career, splitting a time of 1:47, it seemed like a fair assumption that Notre Dame was going to win.

That, of course, is because they have the best distance runner in the NCAA.

Assuming the first split seen on the live results is the total time through three legs (and I don't know what else that could be), the Irish basically gave Nuguse the baton at the same time as the rest of the field.

And as good as some of these other anchors are, Nuguse's 3:54 split was undoubtedly going to be enough to give the Irish the win and a time of 9:21. He did, however, have to work for his win, fending off Garcia Romo in the final straight.

Let's cut to the chase: Nuguse, what are you running?

Will he try the DMR/mile double? The DMR/3k double? The mile/3k double? Dare I say the DMR/mile/3k triple? The idea of him focusing on one event seems unlikely. If I had to guess, he'll go after the DMR/3k double.

If he did that double, then could still pursue individual glory in the 3000 meters, an event he may be more heavily favored in compared to the mile. At the same time, he could try to help his teammates earn yet another national title in the DMR, an event that Notre Dame has dominated for years now.

One more thing. Not seeing Dylan Jacobs on this relay, which is something that I suspected would happen, basically indicates that the 13:14 runner is going to be all-in for the 5000 meters at the indoor national meet...I think.

We can now transition to the Ole Miss men, a team that was flat-out impressive this past weekend, running a time of 9:21 and keeping things honest with Notre Dame, being in a position to pull off the win in the final straightaway.

If I'm reading this correctly, it looks like John Rivera ran the 1200 meter leg while Tiarnan Crorken ran the 800 meter leg. Naturally, Mario Garcia Romo ran the anchor leg.

Seeing Crorken on the 800 meter leg and Garcia Romo in the anchor spot makes sense. Crorken is fresh off of a mark of 1:47 mark for the half-mile distance while Garcia Romo was always the undeniable choice for the anchor position, running 3:53 in the mile the other weekend.

I'll admit, I didn't see Rivera running the 1200 meter leg. That seemed like a bit of a gamble despite his 1:47 mark for 800 meters earlier in the year. Not only has Rivera never raced a mile in his collegiate career (according to TFRRS), but he has also never raced the 1000 meters in his collegiate career.

Throwing the 800 meter star into the 1200 meter leg on such a large stage seemed like a major risk, at least on paper it did. Of course, this is why Ryan Vanhoy is coaching and I am not. Rivera, according to Ole Miss Athletics, ran a huge mark of 2:51 on the lead-off leg!

That was a monumental time which balanced their 400 meter split of 48 seconds and complemented Crorken's split of 1:47.

With Garcia Romo dropping a fast, but somewhat unsurprising time of 3:54 on the anchor leg, Ole Miss ran 9:21, settled for a narrow runner-up finish and will now shift their sights to the indoor national meet.

Despite not winning this race, the Rebels are very realistic contenders to win the DMR national title come Mach. However, trying to figure out a scenario where they outpace Nuguse on the anchor leg seems challenging, especially if the Notre Dame anchor scratches the mile for the 3000 meters and is then fresh for the DMR.

If that happens, then a doubling Mario Garica Romo (who will probably run the mile and the DMR at the NCAA Indoor Championships) will theoretically put him at a disadvantage when he gets the baton.

Alright, now it's time for the 3rd place team.

Some of my predictions were really good this past weekend. I had a lot to be proud of. However, any good prediction I made was essentially silenced by my atrocious and flat-out embarrassing prediction that the Indiana men would place 9th in this DMR field.

Instead, they placed 3rd.

When it comes to pre-meet predictions, I won't necessarily apologize for getting times wrong and I won't apologize for getting relay orders wrong (if I didn't have that relay information ahead of time).

However, when you expect a team to place second-to-last and they end up placing 3rd in one of the deepest DMR fields ever contested, it's up to me to offer an apology.

And that's what I'll do here.

My apologies to the Indiana men. I doubted you and I rightfully got burned as a result.

Let me walk you through my thinking.

This relay consisted of true freshman Camden Marshall on the lead-off leg, Kenny Benton on the 400 meter leg, Parker Raymond on the 800 meter leg and Ben Veatch on the anchor leg. Earlier this year, that same relay combination ran 9:33 and beat a quietly strong Ole Miss DMR by a few seconds.

In that race, this relay combination split marks of 2:55 (Marshall), 46.60 (Benton), 1:51 (Raymond) and Veatch (3:59).

Those weren't bad splits by any means, but at the time, I didn't see how this relay was going to match the firepower of teams like Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Texas, Wisconsin and Princeton.

Marshall is a true freshman and even if he did improve this weekend, I didn't think it would be enough to put Indiana in the mix early-on.

Benton, for as good as he is, doesn't make the biggest impact in terms of time due to him running the 400 meter leg, the shortest of the four spots.

Raymond, while certainly a solid talent who has run 1:48 multiple times, had just split 1:51 in his last relay race and has never run under 1:50 on the indoor oval (contesting the event three times and finishing twice).

Veatch, for as good as he is in the longer distances like the 3000 meters and the 5000 meters, had only barely broken the four-minute mile barrier earlier this year and had only run 3:59 on his anchor split earlier in the season.

Even if Veatch ran 3:57 on Saturday, he still wasn't going to put this relay amongst the top teams in this field, especially with seven other anchors eventually splitting under 3:57 in this wild DMR race.

In other words, everything needed to be absolutely perfect for this relay to be competitive in South Bend, and even then I wasn't sure if that would be enough.

Marshall securing an improved time of 2:54 on the lead-off leg was encouraging and Benton splitting 46.60 was another step in the right direction. However, when Raymond split 1:48 on the 800 meter leg, the potential of this relay looked fairly bright.

Even so, asking Veatch to run a monster anchor leg, especially after getting such promising results from Marshall and Raymond, seemed like a really big ask. Sure, a 3:57 split seemed reasonable and even a 3:56 mark was in the realm of possibility.

But what if I told you that Veatch split 3:53.94?

Well, that's what happened.

There was no possible way to predict that this Indiana veteran, in a field of elite anchors -- which featured Yared Nuguse, Mario Garcia Romo, Sam Ellis, Morgan Beadlescomb and others -- would have the fastest split in this race despite never running faster than 3:59 (ever).

I said in our meet preview that the Hoosiers could be a "team of destiny" and it looks like that was the only thing I got right about this relay lineup. Major props to Indiana, that was wildly impressive.

As we move down to the 4th place team, we come to the Princeton men who ran pretty well. They secured a time of 9:23 which is an Ivy League record.

Ellis looks like he was on the anchor leg with a 3:55 split and that seemed like a fairly predictable result all things considered.

Conversely, the biggest surprise of this Princeton relay was seeing Ethan Reese on the opening leg instead of 3:57 miler Duncan Miller.

Reese is a solid talent, running 1:49 for 800 meters a few weeks ago at Boston University. However, his 2:52 split was a lot better than I was expecting. Much like John Rivera taking the lead-off duties for Ole Miss, this seemed like a bit of a gamble.

However, it paid off big-time.

Princeton coach Jason Vigilante was smart to go with the "hot hand" (a basketball term) following Reese's recent half-mile personal best. Who knows? Maybe 800 meter runners make better 1200 meter runners than milers do...

I don't have much more to say about Princeton. Samuel Rodman's 1:48 split was encouraging to see from a consistency standpoint. It's nice to know that despite his youth, the Tigers can rely on him to run at (or near) his best on more than one or two occasions.

The Michigan men placing 5th overall, also in a time of 9:23, was a really nice surprise!

I thought they were going to put 3:59 miler Olli Raimond on the opening leg of this relay, but as we have learned from Ole Miss and Princeton, it seems like 800 meter standouts are the better option for the 1200 meter distance.

Cole Johnson, who is coming off of a monster 1:47 performance from last weekend, took over the opening spot for Big Blue while fellow 1:47 man Miles Brown took over the 800 meter leg.

With splits of 2:52 and 1:48, this team did everything they had to in order to put their anchor, Nick Foster, in the best possible position. After running 3:58 in the mile the other week, Foster prospered by being able to contend with the lead pack and split 3:56 in the process.

Overall, this was a really solid relay. Each athlete put together some of the better races of their careers, but in retrospect, I suppose it wasn't impossible for this relay to produce this kind of result.

As good as Foster's anchor leg was, I think it was Johnson's 2:52 result that really gave this relay a surprise boost that I wasn't sure they had.

Speaking of BIG 10 schools, the Wisconsin men ALSO put together a 9:23 result.

But there's a catch...

They did that without Olin Hacker.

The Badger veteran has run 3:56 (mile) and 7:45 (3k) this year, looking like a true All-American contender in multiple events. I would've bet money that Hacker was going to be on this relay, but instead, it was teammate Jackson Sharp who replaced him on the anchor leg.

With 3:57 man Spencer Adams at the lead-off position, putting Sharp on the anchor seemed like the next logical move if Hacker wasn't going to be in this lineup.

Sharp has proven to be a really underrated distance talent over the last few seasons, mainly in the longer distances. However, he has run 3:59 in the mile. In this field, there was certainly potential for him to split faster than that -- which is what happened!

His 3:56 split, while still realistic, seemed like it would need to happen under perfect circumstances and only if the rest of his teammates put him in a position to run with the lead group. That, of course, is exactly how it played out.

With the possible exception of Veatch on the anchor leg, the 2:50.9 mark that we saw from Spencer Adams on the lead-off leg was maybe the best split of the day. As good as Enz (46.8) and Hassan (1:49) were in the middle portion of this lineup, it was Adams who validated his 3:57 mile from the other weekend and ultimately setup this relay for a national-caliber time.

The last team that I want to go in-depth on is Texas.

The Longhorns, despite having what may have been the most complete lineup in this field, finished 7th while also running 9:23 (which is wild to think about).

While I was unable to find splits for this team, I was able to find that Cruz Gomez, the anchor for this team, split 3:56 on the anchor leg. Meanwhile Carrozza ran the 1200 meters and Lindhorst ran the 800 meters. Jon Maas was the 400 meter leg.

This was an interesting lineup combination. I agree that Carrozza, on paper, was the best option for the opening leg, but he could've been just as good on the anchor leg as well. Texas couldn't go wrong on the 800 leg with Lindhorst and Gomez was clearly not a bad call on the anchor leg, either.

But where was Jonathan Jones? He ran 1:46 the other week and has run as fast as 44.64 in the 400 meters. And where is Yusuf Bizimana? He has run 1:46 (800) and 3:57 (mile), so I was a little surprised that he wasn't part of this lineup in one way, shape or form.

Yes, Bizimana was likely preparing for the 800 meters later in the day, but Cole Lindhorst, who was on this relay, was also in that 800 meter field.

I'm not saying that this DMR lineup was wrong. Honestly, I don't even know if there is one singular "correct" DMR combination for Texas given the amount of middle distance depth that they have on their roster.

Even so, I have a feeling that they'll maybe move a piece or two when they contest this event at the indoor national meet.

Quick Hits

• Michigan State finished 8th overall with a time of 9:26. Beadlescomb splitting 3:55 on the anchor leg seems to be on par with expectations. While it may be easy to imagine that Beadlescomb carried this relay with his anchor leg, it's hard to really comment on this group any further without knowing the rest of their splits.

• Interesting lineup combination from Stanford, a team that placed 9th in a time of 9:29. Charles Hicks isn't one of the guys who I thought would be in this lineup, especially not on the 1200 meter leg. Yet, even then, I'm not sure if this team had the proper pieces for a national qualifying DMR.

• A 10th place finish for the Northeastern men is obviously not what they wanted, but this is still a solid team that has a handful of respectable individuals. Unfortunately for the Huskies, it looks like the rest of this field was just way too powerful for them to handle (unless there was a potential trip/fall/miscellaneous factor that I'm unaware of).

Vissa's 4:30 Split Gives Ole Miss Narrow Win Over The Notre Dame Women, Four Total Teams Go Sub-11:00

Before we begin, you'll notice that the women's portion of this article is shorter than the men's portion. This is not intentional.

This is because the women's DMR field at Alex Wilson had only seven teams entered (compared to 10 teams in the men's field) and only six of those seven teams actually recorded a finishing time (the Wisconsin women were a DNF).

Of those six women's relays, four of them are currently in a national qualifying position as opposed to seven on the men's side.

When we look at the top of the women's DMR results, we see that the Ole Miss women secured the victory with a time of 10:57.76. With a lineup combination of Anna Elkin (3:25), Jayda Eckford (54.9), Loral Winn (2:06) and Sintayehu Vissa (4:30), the Rebels had enough firepower, specifically on their anchor leg, to emerge victorious.

Vissa is obviously the MVP of this relay. She has been so good all season long, but a clutch 4:30 split to defeat Notre Dame, after getting the baton six seconds behind the leaders, is a huge statement to the rest of the NCAA and it is arguably the best race of her season (and maybe her career).

Anna Elkin was an interesting choice at the 1200 meter leg. I would have gone with Winn on the opening leg and would have introduced Lydia Van Dijk on the 800 meter leg. However, Elkin held her own at the 1200 meter spot, allowing Winn to flourish in her ideal distance with a 2:06 split.

In the grand scheme of things, this relay combination worked out pretty well, even if Vissa got the baton six seconds behind the lead pack. Yet again, Coach Vanhoy knows better than I do.

Could the Ole Miss women be an All-American relay? Yes, absolutely. However, the probability of that happening largely depends on how well Vissa rebounds from the mile prelims, an event that I assume she won't scratch from at the national meet.

Vissa also needs to be in a better position at the national meet when she gets the baton. She can't be expected to make up six seconds on the rest of the field at the NCAA Indoor Championships against other anchors who are just as good as her.

Maybe there will be a lineup tweak for this relay after all...

The one team that I did not expect to thrive in this field was Notre Dame. On paper, I just didn't know where they would find enough firepower to produce a sub-11:00 result.

Of course, as I learned with the Indiana men, it's best not to doubt an anchor leg who has a history of long distance success and who is capable of cutting roughly six seconds off of their personal best in a DMR (via a split).

Naturally, that's what happened with Olivia Markezich, the anchor for the Fighting Irish this past weekend. Despite owning a mile personal best of 4:39, Markezich ended up splitting 4:33 this weekend is what was a heroic effort that fell short of the win by 0.08 seconds.

That is such a huge relay split and regardless of what the rest of this relay did, I can't help but think that Notre Dame is an All-American lock if Markezich is going to run like that on the national stage.

I'd like to say more about this team, but there aren't any video clips of this race that I could find, nor are there any other splits from this relay. Sullivan and Ryan must have posted some really solid results for Markezich to split three seconds slower than Vissa and essentially have the same finishing time.

But if the Notre Dame women surprised me, then the Utah women shocked me.

I had the Utes finishing dead last in this race. Instead, they finished 3rd overall with a huge time of 10:59, fending off the Michigan women in the process.

Much like the Ole Miss and Notre Dame women, the success of Utah's anchor, Simone Plourde, is what ultimately catapulted this team to new heights. The transfer from BYU, despite running no faster than 4:37 for the mile in her still-young collegiate career, split 4:34 on the anchor leg this past weekend.

That is a huge amount of firepower for a relay that really needed it.

A 3:24 mark on the opening leg from Sophie Ryan, paired with a 2:07 split on the 800 meter leg from Brooke Manson, were really solid results.

Those two women did their job, although they also got a slight boost from a quick 52.2 split on the 400 meter leg (courtesy of Josephine Eriksen). However, a three-second improvement upon Plourde's personal best in the mile (via split) is what really gave this DMR a boost.

If Plourde replicates her 4:37 PR on the anchor leg, then this Utah relay falters to (or around) second-to-place in this field and out of a national qualifying position. In other words, this entire relay couldn't afford a slip-up and their anchor needed to have one of the best races she's ever had.

Luckily for Utah, that is exactly what happened.

The Michigan women are the last team that I want to go in-depth on. They finished 4th overall, also in a time of 10:59, the same as Utah (just 0.22 seconds behind).

I thought the Wolverines would field Ericka VanderLende on their anchor leg following her 4:41 mile personal best. Instead, they opted to put Samantha Tran on the anchor leg (I thought she would've run the 1200 meters) and put Alice Hill on the opening portion of this relay.

In retrospect, adding Hill to this lineup made a lot more sense, but I would've initially put her on the anchor leg given her 4:40 mile PR and Tran's potential fit in the 1200 meters.

That, of course, was yet another great example of why I'm not coaching in the NCAA.

Tran's 4:38 split on the anchor leg certainly beat expectations and kept the Michigan women in the mix. However, with Tran getting the baton four seconds ahead of Utah and splitting four seconds slower than Plourde, we have to think that the first three legs of this Michigan lineup carried this relay.

That would make sense given that Aurora Rynda, who has run 2:02 this winter, was on the 800 meter leg.

Going into this race, I said that the Michigan women could get by and generate a national qualifying time, but that it would likely be thanks to the success of their middle distances legs. Without seeing the splits, I can't say with confidence if that is true, but it would make sense if that was the case...

Quick Hits

• The Indiana women finished 5th overall in a time of 11:02, a result that won't make it to the indoor national meet. The Hoosiers fielded the women who I thought they would, but it looks like Bailey Hertenstein was on the 1200 meter leg while Hannah Stoffel was on the anchor leg...and I don't totally understand that move. Wouldn't swapping those two women make much more sense in terms of potential time-gain and event specialities? Maybe so, but I've been wrong about so many lineup combinations this weekend, so who am I to say?

• The Georgetown women placed 6th overall with a time of 11:04. They fielded a lineup that I was expecting to see, but the Hoyas just didn't have enough to get past some really special anchor legs. Corman split 4:39 on the anchor leg, but without seeing the other splits, it's hard to know what went wrong here.

Furman Teammates Pace Ponder to Converted 7:45 (3k)

When Furman's Cameron Ponder ran 7:52 at the Camel City Elite meet and earned a flat-conversion of 7:47, I figured that he was safe in terms of national qualifying. I mean, in what world does 7:47 not qualify you for the indoor national meet?

Well, at the time of publication, a 7:47 mark could put you anywhere from NCAA #19 to NCAA #24, a range of positions that are out of the qualifying picture, even with one or two scratches.

So, with mounting pressure for Ponder to earn another national qualifying time before the indoor national meet, the Paladins returned to JDL's flat-track and implemented pacemakers (teammates) to set the pace for what would ultimately be a solo finish by Ponder.

Miraculously, the plan worked.

Ponder pushed himself to a time of 7:50.97 which ultimately gave him a flat-track conversion of 7:45.56, a time that now places him at NCAA #11. In theory, that time should qualify him for the indoor national meet. If that somehow changes after conference weekend, then I'm not really sure what to say.

I love this result for Ponder. He's been so good for so long. He's really consistent and has made steady improvements over the last couple of years. He was a star in high school and took a chance on a smaller (but proven) program in Greenville, South Carolina to develop him into a national-caliber stud.

And now, even in a year of historic greatness, Ponder is still making headlines.

Kudos to him and kudos to everyone at Furman. That was a helluva run.

Ramsden & Juul Earn Converted 4:36 Miles at JDL

The Harvard women are picking up a lot of momentum right now in the latter stages of the indoor season. Maia Ramsden just ran a flat-track converted 4:36 mile time at JDL's facility while teammate Anna Juul also earned a 4:36 flat-track conversion.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that either woman is going to make it into the national meet with those times. Juul's conversion isn't even faster than her 4:36.66 mark from earlier this season.

But while it may be easy to dismiss these results since they aren't national qualifying times, it's important to recognize that these two women are slowly getting better and better with each passing week. It's not insane to think that they could run in the 4:34 to 4:35 range at the Ivy League Championships.

Texas' Bizimana & Lindhorst Drop 1:47 Marks at Notre Dame

Coming into this weekend, Texas middle distance star Yusuf Bizimana wasn't in a national qualifying position for the 800 meters. For someone who was a two-time All-American in that event last year, this was a fairly big surprise.

That's why it was totally understandable that Bizimana would contest the 800 meters yet again this weekend, likely with the aim of scoring points at the BIG 12 Championships rather than chasing qualifying times.

Sure enough, in a field that featured teammate Cole Lindhorst, as well as top-level talents like Ackeen Colley (3rd in 1:47) and Bashir Mosavel-Lo (4th in 1:48), it was Bizimana who emerged victorious with a time of 1:47.27 which currently places him at NCAA #4.

When it comes to Bizimana, I don't have much to say here. We knew that he was capable of this result and it seemed unlikely that both him and Coach Pete Watson would let a season of national qualifying get away from them.

However, when it comes to Lindhorst, I have to say that I'm wildly impressed.

The transfer from Air Force has been lights-out for the Texas men this winter. Not only did he finished 2nd in this race to Bizimana, but he was also in the Longhorns' DMR just a few hours earlier (according to the entries).

To see Lindhorst rebound from the DMR with a 1:47.46 (NCAA #9) mark and defeat proven All-Americans is super impressive. He has been phenomenal this year, but this kind of result really validated Lindhorst as a top-tier talent.

However, I now have uncertainty as to what Bizimana's and Lindhorst's postseason endeavors will be. If both men run the 800 meters at the indoor national meet, then will either runner have enough recovery time to be effective pieces in a DMR?

I don't have the answer to that right now, but Texas could certainly get away with finding a replacement 800 meter leg. They're deep enough to do that and still produce national-caliber success.

One last note about this race...

Western Illinois' Ackeen Colley just ran a personal best of 1:47.98 in this 800 meter race to place 3rd. Unbelievably, despite Colley being an All-American at this exact distance, running a near-PR and going under the 1:48 barrier, he only sits at NCAA #20 on the national leaderboard right now.

Wow.