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First Thoughts: Parker Valby Breaks Her Own 5k Record, Nico Young Wins First NCAA Title & Riley Chamberlain's Big Kick Gives BYU Women DMR Gold
- Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
- Mar 9, 2024
- 15 min read
Well that was entertaining, huh?
Day one of the indoor national meet was an absolute thrill. We got to see an all-time star win his first national title, a collegiate record holder break her own collegiate record, reigning DMR national champions defend their win from last year and a DMR national title be decided by a last lap kick.
Oh, and there were tons of shocking omissions from the 800-meter and mile finals that we will most certainly address.
With so much to discuss, it's time to set aside this intro and jump right into it...
Parker Valby Runs 14:52 (5k) to Break Own Collegiate Record & Win NCAA Gold
No one is surprised that Parker Valby won the NCAA 5k title and no one is surprised that she went wire-to-wire to win gold.
And frankly, depending on who you ask, some people may not be surprised that Parker Valby cracked the 15-minute barrier on Friday night (which may not be be a consensus opinion). She did, after all, run 14:56 in this event to set a new collegiate record back in December.
But to think that this Florida megastar would more or less solo (after Taylor Roe fell off) a jaw-dropping time of 14:52 for 5000 meters to win a national title is almost beyond comprehension.
And the biggest takeaway that I have from her race? It looked effortless.
I don't know what more I could say about Parker Valby that hasn't already been said. She's absolutely unbelievable.
The Gator ace may have a legitimate case of being the most naturally gifted long distance runner to ever step foot in the NCAA (not necessarily the greatest ever, but the most talented). To run as little mileage as she does and to rate the exertion of her recent gold medal effort as a "six or seven [out of 10]" is beyond comprehension, at least for mere mortals like myself.
This time last year, debates regarding the fan-induced rivalry of Tuohy vs Valby seemed one sided. The former had run multiple NCAA records, secured multiple national titles and had beaten the latter name in a head-to-head matchup on the national stage more than once.
Simply put, the Tuohy vs Valby rivalry seemed to clearly favor the NC State phenom.
However, after the last three seasons of competition, that talking point has become less of a discussion and more of a debate, even if you believe that Tuohy still has the better resume (and I still do).
Valby has now won a national title across all three seasons of competition and could very easily win NCAA gold (again) on Saturday over 3000 meters. She has not only broken the collegiate 5k record twice, but she has run under the 15-minute barrier twice as well, posting an other-worldly time of 14:52 on the biggest stage of all (collegiately, that is).
Three years ago, that kind of mark would have seemed impossible to produce.
Heck, maybe even four months ago that time would have seemed impossible to run.
As for the rest of this field, I loved Taylor Roe's decision to go with Parker Valby and at least apply some level of pressure on her Gator counterpart.
In reality, Valby was going to win this race one way or another. And while Roe was almost definitely not going to hang with her in a straight-up battle of aerobic fitness, she was at least going to separate herself enough from the rest of the field to position herself for silver -- which she earned.
It could have been very easy to be more conservative and let Valby simply run away. But instead, this Oklahoma State veteran at least made it honest. And as a result, she ran 15:15 (5k) and comfortably pulled ahead of two Alabama women who, in theory, were better suited for a more aggressive pace set by Valby than anyone else.
Speaking of which, the Alabama duo of Hilda Olemomoi and Doris Lemngole didn't catch Roe, but they weren't far behind, finishing 3rd and 4th, respectively, with a pair of sub-15:20 marks as well.
I'd like to give you some analytical insight on their performances, but there isn't much to say. This is exactly the kind of race that you would expect the Crimson Tide duo to thrive in.
In fact, you could argue that BYU's Lexy Halladay-Lowry (15:20), Oklahoma State's Molly Born (15:20) and Georgetown's Chloe Scrimgeour (15:21) were the other three women in this field who benefitted more from this kind of race than anyone else who we haven't mentioned.
That juggernaut trio are all aerobic-centric stars. The former specializes in the steeplechase, the middle name is arguably at her best over 10,000 meters (prior to 2024) and the latter is quietly one of the best 5k runners in the country. And if you don't believe me, then consider the fact that all three of those women ran new personal bests on Friday night, specifically Halladay-Lowry!
However, in the grand scheme of things, this was a super predictable race. I did, after all, correctly list seven out of the eight 5k All-Americans in my predictions. And the only name who I didn't correctly predict was Amy Bunnage, someone who scratched from the national meet entirely after our predictions were submitted.
Of course, even if we did know about her scratch before we submitted our predictions, I still wouldn't have guessed that NC State sophomore Grace Hartman would place 8th in this race. The second-year standout has been spectacular this winter, seemingly jumping ahead of her projected fitness and now running a 15:28 (5k) PR in the most high-stakes meet of the season.
While Katelyn Tuohy and a handful of veteran stars may be gone come the start of the next academic year, Grace Hartman should be able to plug a significant scoring gap on this roster. She has been everything that we could have asked for this winter and then some.
Nico Young Finally Wins NCAA Gold As Parker Wolfe Hangs On For Silver
Finally.
Nico Young is a national champion.
That just feels like the right thing to type, ya know? This guy has been one of the most iconic distance runners in the NCAA over the last few years. He does, after all, hold all-time elite pedigree and has had considerable success since coming to NAU.
But being the most iconic distance runner in the NCAA of the last three-ish years, at least on the men's side, and not having an individual national title to show for it admittedly felt awkward. How could someone be so revered, yet not be able to snag gold when it mattered the most?
This is someone who, as TSR has grown, has more or less grown with us. From a racing perspective, we've witnessed the highest highs (i.e. this entire season) and his lowest lows (a small selection of national meet performances). And throughout that time, I have been plenty critical of Nico Young, citing his lack of late-race turnover and seemingly vague understanding of tactical nuance on the national stage.
But after this season, and more specifically, after this national meet, those concerns have largely fallen moot.
Nico Young did more than just win a national title on Friday night in the 5k. In that race, he showcased tremendous patience, a clear understanding of what his competitors were capable of, responded to moves only when he needed to and employed a surge from a bit further out than most title contenders would maybe try.
Seeing the NAU star burst past Wolfe with 250 meters to go was absolutely the right call. Young had been moving up in the two laps prior and made sure to lean on a kick that was strength-based, but still required rapid turnover.
I wasn't sure if I was ever going to say this, but here we go: Nico Young ran the perfect race. In fact, that may have been one of the more perfectly executed races that I have seen on the indoor oval in the last few years (Fouad Messaoudi winning 3k gold last year was up there).
Congratulations, Nico Young. You deserved every bit of this moment.
As for Parker Wolfe, he may have had to settle for runner-up honors, but I LOVED his decision to be aggressive and try to get a gap when he did.
At 800 meters to go, most title contenders aren't quite ready to get separation from the rest of the field. Instead, they want to wait it out and lean on their kick with one or two laps to go. But Wolfe's move to the front (where he hit the gas and then tried to create a gap) clearly caught numerous men in this field off guard.
The UNC star opened up a decent enough lead where you questioned if he was going to pull off gold. And while he had to settle for runner-up honors, you have to applaud someone who recognized their strength-based skillset and then leaned into it.
If Nico Young didn't run the smartest race, then Parker Wolfe most certainly did.
This was, for the most part, a strength-based race, and that was very evident when looking at the results. Stanford's Ky Robinson took 3rd, New Mexico's Habtom Samuel was 4th, Arkansas' Peter Maru placed 5th, Oklahoma State's Alex Maier crossed the line in 6th, NAU's Aaron Las Heras earned a 7th place effort and Wisconsin's Jackson Sharp settled for 8th.
With the exception of Sharp and maybe Robinson, you could argue that most of those All-Americans are better suited for the 10k, at least in theory. And maybe that's why this race felt very predictable.
There were multiple men who could make this an honest effort and in the end, it was the athletes who were aerobically the strongest that came out on top...which seems like a "no duh" statement, but you get what I'm saying.
Oh, and by the way, only one of our writers correctly predicted all eight men who would be All-Americans in the 5k on Friday night (*cough* me *cough*).
Riley Chamberlain Throws Down Huge Last Lap Kick to Help BYU Women Win DMR National Title
I could try to go through each and every leg of this race and detail all of the moves that happened. That, however, would largely be fruitless.
This race wasn't exactly the prettiest in terms of how it unfolded. The field was fairly crowded at a handful of points and at other times, it was a bit spread out. Certain star-caliber names who we expected to double back to the DMR did not (mainly Roisin Willis and Juliette Whittaker) while other top-tier names who we didn't expect to double back did just that (such as Flomena Asekol and Sanu Jallow).
Oh, and there was a fall which sent three teams to ground: Providence, Washington and Oregon.
In the end, the race came down to Notre Dame star, Olivia Markezich, in the lead as the field approached the final lap. However, close behind her was BYU sophomore Riley Chamberlain, a runner who threw down an unreal kick that, as soon as she passed Markezich, more or less secured the DMR national title for BYU. Chamberlain ended up splitting 4:27 on the anchor leg while Markezich split 4:30.
Make no mistake, Chamberlain is a highly accomplished name who is having a tremendous season, going from "good" to "great" over the last few months. Even so, few women in the NCAA held as much momentum going into Friday as Markezich, someone who had split 4:22 on the anchor leg last month.
With both women essentially next to each other with 200 meters to go, I would have put my non-existent house on the Fighting Irish veteran, not the second-year Cougar sophomore, to take home gold.
Thankfully, I still have a roof over my head.
Moments like what we saw on Friday night can be defining turning points in someone's career. Chamberlain just took down someone who has been debated as possibly being our TSR #1 runner going into this weekend...and at the most important meet of the season!
Even so, we viewed the BYU women as legitimate national title contenders. If Notre Dame didn't win, then the Cougars were a very popular choice to take that spot.
However, what was surprising was seeing the Florida women, despite being the last seed, take 3rd place overall! Part of our surprise was largely because we didn't expect 4:26 miler Flomena Asekol to anchor this relay, especially after running the mile prelims and having the 3k finals on day two.
But the other reason why we were surprised was because the rest of Florida's relay wasn't as complete a few other DMR lineups. Of course, having someone like Laila Owens splitting 52 seconds on the 400-meter leg certainly doesn't hurt.
Thankfully for the Gators, Elise Thorner put forth an admirable and competitive effort, splitting 3:20 on the opening leg of the DMR. And with a 2:07 (800) split from Jessica Edwards being surprisingly on par with the rest of the field, Asekol was in a great position to secure bronze.
As for everyone else, it's hard to be too critical of Providence, Washington and Oregon given the tumbles that they had. That fall didn't necessarily take those teams out of the All-American hunt, but it certainly put them at a disadvantage.
Alright, a few other quick notes...
Gosh, the Arkansas women always find a way to have a national-caliber DMR. Finishing 4th in this field with the two most impactful legs not being individual national qualifiers is fairly impressive. We did say that they had one of the more complete lineups in this field going into the national meet, but this was definitely on the better end of expectations.
Oklahoma State ran surprisingly well to finish 7th overall despite not having Billah Jepkirui, Gabija Galvydyte or Taylor Roe in their relay. Nice 4:35 anchor split from veteran Sivan Auerbach.
Stanford faded in the results, but they didn't have Roisin Willis or Juliette Whittaker double back like they did last year. And truthfully, I'm a little surprised that Willis didn't double back after not making it out of the 800-meter prelims.
Ryan Schoppe & Oklahoma State Fend Off Camden Gilmore & Georgetown For DMR National Title
I have to admit that I'm not too surprised with how this race played out. Sure, my predictions would suggest a different story, but not knowing these DMR lineups prior to the national meet can make our All-American picks for this event a bit challenging.
Seeing the Virginia Tech men hold a small lead going into the anchor leg wasn't necessarily a shock. On paper, they probably had the best first-three legs in this field and they backed that up. Really impressive 1200-meter effort by Nick Plant who was one of the most talented legs in this race despite doubling back from the 800-meter prelims.
However, Virginia Tech's anchor leg simply wasn't as strong as a few other home run hitting milers that other teams boasted. Ethan Coleman is going to be an individual national qualifier one day, but he'll need at least another year of development before he reaches that level.
For the most part, the Oklahoma State men and the Georgetown men hung just behind the Hokies for most of this race. There really wasn't a lot of change in terms of the top contending teams in this field, although the Virginia men did put themselves going into the anchor leg. And when Ryan Schoppe got the baton in the lead, it felt pretty safe to say that the Cowboys would would their second-straight national title.
However, the Hoya's anchor leg, Camden Gilmore, simply refused to be shaken by an experienced and upper-echelon distance talent that is Schoppe. And on the last lap, it looked like Gilmore was potentially going to out-kick his OSU counterpart, pushing hard on the back straightaway.
But what Schoppe would do from there, push as hard as he could to maintain his lead position going into the final curve, was ultimately what pushed Gilmore to the outer side of the lane and allowed the Cowboys to hang for gold.
In the grand scheme of things, no one should be surprised by Oklahoma State's win. They were favored to secure the national title and they did exactly that, boasting one of the more complete lineups in this field.
And frankly, the Georgetown men also had one of the more complete lineups in this field, although the reinforcements that Tim McInerney and Camden Gilmore provided in the latter-half of this race was massive. I felt confident saying that the Hoyas had the best substitution options in this field, but I didn't think that their depth would translate to a silver medal.
The Virginia men rallied to an impressive 3rd place finish behind a fairly even and balanced relay structure. Having an underrated mile talent in Yasin Sado on the final leg certainly helped as well.
As for the North Carolina men, they finished 4th. And to be honest, I'm completely shocked. Given the personnel that they entered in their lineup, I wouldn't have even put them in the top-eight of my predictions. Of course, Jack Gebhardt had one of his classic surprisingly clutch moments as he split 3:56 to give the Tar Heels an upper-half All-American honor. Brilliant racing by him.
When you look at the rest of the teams in this field, I can't say that I'm too surprised, but...where on Earth did a 3:54 split by Silas Winders come from?
The Iowa State talent has been a respectable long distance runner for the last year or so, recently producing times of 3:59.88 (mile) and 7:49 (3k). However, dropping down in distance to split 3:54 on a DMR that had no business being in an All-American spot is unbelievably clutch. Kudos to him.
Overall Thoughts On Mile & 800-Meter Prelims
Men's Mile
Let me be the first to acknowledge that Isaac Basten, a top-tier miler from Drake, actually works for The Stride Report as our "Beyond the Stride" athlete interview host. As such, I fully acknowledge that I am biased and partial towards him.
But on Friday evening, in heat two of the men's mile, Furman's Carson Williams seemingly stumbled, although I couldn't exactly tell why or how. And when he did, his fall was not-so-conveniently timed with Isaac Basten trying to get around him. Naturally, the Drake star fell to the ground as well.
Let's first address Carson Williams. His protest to be moved to the finals was denied. And after watching the replay, I can't say say with confidence whether or not someone impeded his stride or forced him to trip.
Considering the lack of evidence that I have (remember, I may not have all of the angles), I can at least understand why Williams wasn't advanced. Not necessarily because it was his fault or anything like that, but simply because there wasn't enough evidence to reverse the decision.
Basten, however, is a different story.
Based on conversations that I had with the Bulldog ace after the prelims, there was an overwhelming belief, both from myself and his coaches, that he would be pushed to the finals. It only made sense. After all, the Drake veteran didn't initiate the contact and was very clearly the victim of someone else's misfortune rather than anything that he did.
And if you watch the replay, there is truly nothing more he could have done.
Naturally, you could imagine the shock of both myself and Basten when news broke that his protest had been denied.
Their reasoning?
"Apparently I wasn’t impeded."
Below is a screenshot of the race. The red circle shows Carson Williams' foot very clearly hitting Isaac Basten's leg and tripping him up. That leaves me with just one question...
IN WHAT WORLD IS THAT NOT AN IMPEDIMENT???
Again: I personally know Isaac. We have a good relationship. He works for us. I am 100% biased in his favor and I recognize that (although I didn't pick him to win gold in my predictions, sorry Isaac). If you wanted to take these thoughts with a grain of salt because of that dynamic, I certainly wouldn't blame you.
Even so, this is now the second time in less than a year where NCAA officials have denied a crucial protest despite clear evidence suggesting otherwise. The first one came at the outdoor national meet last spring when Mia Barnett was racing in the 1500-meter prelims and she was clipped from behind to no fault of her own. And despite the fairly clear evidence, her protest to go to the finals was also denied.
But this time, Basten wasn't even directly involved in the "Whose fault was it?" guessing game that comes with these protests. Instead, he was just a bystander who fell as a result of whatever happened with Carson Williams.
If there was a separate argument suggesting that Basten could have avoided the fall or that he was too close to the guy in front of him, then I could maybe see a justification for the protest denial. However, to simply say that there was no impediment, when there very clearly was, is absolutely baffling to me.
And now, an NCAA title contender no longer has his shot at gold.
As for everyone else, there weren't too many surprises other than Anass Essayi stepping off the track of the mile prelims with a lap to go. The wildest part is that this was not his first head-scratching DNF on the national stage.
In fact, Essayi did the same thing in the 1500-meter prelims at the 2022 outdoor national meet and he didn't even toe the line for the men's 3k at the indoor national meet last year despite running the mile finals a couple of hours beforehand.
Women's Mile
There isn't much to discuss here. The heavy favorites advanced to the mile finals and most of the lower seeds fell out of contention, largely as expected. The only tough omission is Washington's Chloe Foerster, a 4:28 miler who is still learning the nuances of the national stage. She'll be back next year and will very much be an All-American favorite.
Men's 800 Meters
Did you ever once think that we would be going into the men's 800-meter finals without Yusuf Bizimana or Nathan Green in the field, much less both? Tack on the fact that Georgetown rookie Tinoda Matsatsa didn't advance to the finals either and this is probably the most stunning series of omissions from the national meet 800-meter finals that I can remember.
For Green, it simply looked like he waited too long to make his move. He very clearly had another gear that he was trying to unlock, but the field was simply too far ahead to put himself in a competitive position.
It's a slightly different story for Texas star Yusuf Bizimana. He put himself in a higher spot in the pack and tried to make certain moves. However, the field around him consistently got in his way, specifically Tinoda Matsatsa. And by the time the final curve came around, Bizimana had used so much energy trying to jump around certain guys that he didn't have enough turnover to put himself in the top-three.
Do I view Bizimana or Green any differently than I did before this weekend? No, at least not from a talent perspective. But tactically, I was surprised to see them upended by a few less established names.
Women's 800 Meters
While the top-two seeds in the women's 800 meters may have advanced to the finals, there were still multiple surprising misses. Women such as Kelly-Ann Beckford (Houston), Carley Thomas (Washington), Sophia Gorriaran (Harvard) and Roisin Willis (Stanford) ended their seasons early in the 800-meter prelims.
Unlike Bizimana and Green, I'm not sure that I can point to a tactical miscue for many of these women. Instead, I think a lot of these runners, specifically Beckford and Thomas, simply had bad days and nothing more.
Gorriaran and Willis could have been a bit smarter with their race execution, but they didn't necessarily run poorly, either. The former name is still young and will need to develop greater strength for the future -- we're not worried about her.
Willis, meanwhile, opted to be the pack leader at the beginning of her race, but didn't do anything to gain significant separation. And at the end, Kitching just barely got the defending indoor national champion for the final spot to Saturday's title bout.
