First Thoughts: Parker Valby Makes Elite 10k Performance Look Easy While Shannon Flockhart & Maia Ramsden Headline Fast 1500m Prelims

Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Jun 7, 2024
10 min read

Day two of the NCAA Outdoor Championships is a wrap, leaving us with a large handful of women’s headlines to discuss.

Let’s not waste any time with an introductory paragraph and instead jump into the analysis. Oh, and if you haven’t already, be sure to read up on our day one men’s “First Thoughts” analysis by clicking here!

Parker Valby Makes Elite 10k Run Look Easy, Runs Meet Record of 31:46 While Hilda Olemomoi Runs 31:51 For Silver

Was there ever even a doubt?

The women's 10k at the NCAA Outdoor Championships on Thursday night was a race headlined by Parker Valby. The Florida phenom had run 30:50 (10k) earlier this season over the same distance and had gone under 15 minutes for 5000 meters more than once during this academic year.

To say that she was the national title favorite would be a significant understatement.

We could talk about all of the nuances of the race, the lead changes, etc. But none of that felt as important as how Parker Valby looked throughout her 10k race.

It's one thing to win NCAA gold and run 31:46, one of the faster 10k times in collegiate history. But to look as strong and as carefree as Valby did was hard to believe...despite seeing it with my own eyes. Between waving to the crowd/her coaches and simply smiling her way through a race that should have been a physical and emotional exhauster for anyone truly shows you how much better Valby is compared to the collegiate realm.

There is simply no one on her level.

And that's why Alabama's Hilda Olemomoi deserves a ton of credit. The Crimson Tide star hung tough with the top pack for quite some time. In fact, she didn't truly begin to fade from Valby until there was roughly a mile to go. To still hang tough and grab silver just five seconds behind an all-time superstar is wildly impressive.

But maybe more importantly, this performance felt like a clear indication that Olemomoi can win an individual national title one day and be more than just a great time trial specialist/All-American lock.

We then come to Oklahoma State veteran Taylor Roe who wrapped up her career with a bronze medal and a 10k time of 32:17. Teammate Molly Born posted a strong 4th place finish in 32:27.

Roe opted to be the aggressor early on in this race -- and I actually liked that move. After sitting behind Valby at the indoor national meet over 5000 meters, the Cowgirl runner took a different approach, choosing to dictate how this race unfolded.

Sure, it didn't end with a gold medal, but I can at least appreciate that Roe gave it a shot.

When we look back at this star-studded era of women's NCAA distance running, I hope that Taylor Roe is remembered for her impact. She has been such a key name who has been a consistently excellent All-American despite an "off" season in the spring of 2023. And thankfully, her 3000-meter national title from the winter of 2022 gives her resume an edge that many long-time veterans of her caliber can't always boast.

It's a similar story for Molly Born. While she hasn't had a resume as decorated as her teammates, the fact that this Oklahoma State star rallied back from significant injuries to become one of the best aerobic-centric talents in the NCAA has been inspiring. When we recall this era, we'll be sure to say, "And you know who else was really good? Molly Born."

As for the rest of the All-Americans -- Georgetown's Chloe Scrimgeour (5th), BYU's Jenna Hutchins (6th), Arkansas' Sydney Thorvaldson (7th) and NC State's Grace Hartman (8th) -- it's hard to be too surprised by those results.

Scrimgeour has been a reliable All-American standout over the last year while both Hartman and Thorvaldson have begun to develop similar reputations. But seeing Jenna Hutchins earn her first individual All-American honor was huge. There has never been a question about how talented she is, but establishing consistency and showing up on the stages that truly matter the most have been tough for the still-young Cougar star.

Thankfully, Hutchins proved on Thursday night that she belongs among the best women in the NCAA. And if you really think about it, this aggressively-paced race essentially turned into a time trial to test everyone's all-out fitness, something that was going to benefit Hutchins and every other eventual All-American in this field.

The women who had proven to be the best 10k runners this season didn't have to worry about a lagging pace that would have allowed any underdogs in the field to truly threaten them -- and that's probably why this race seemed to be mostly chalk.

Arkansas freshman Paityn Note deserves tons of kudos for a fantastic outdoor track season. She was brilliant over the 5k and the 10k distances and a 9th-place finish is an applause-worthy effort for the rookie. Sure, she didn't earn a top-eight All-American finish, but it's good to know that she found success on the national stage in a race that was only going to benefit the women who were the most fit.

For the most part, there weren't a ton of surprises as to where certain women finished, although there were three major DNF results from a trio of women who I predicted to be All-Americans.

I'm not quite sure what happened to Amaris Tyynismaa (NC State), Andrea Markezich (Notre Dame) and Lily Murphy (Penn), but not having them cross the line is tough to see. Each of those women were more than capable of being All-Americans on the right day and in theory, an honest pace should have played into their strengths/skillsets.

Shannon Flockhart & Maia Ramsden Lead Fast 1500m Prelims, Billah Jepkirui Does Not Toe the Line

Similar to the men's 1500-meter prelims, the first rounds of the women's metric mile seemingly lacked balance. In our eyes, the first heat featured noticeably more star power, especially when it came to proven All-Americans.

And yet, despite that, many of the best women in the top heat were able to survive and advance to the finals.

With Lindsey Bulter (Virginia Tech) and Flomena Asekol (Florida) opting to be the aggressors early on, the rest of the pack simply waited for their time to strike. And when they did, it was Oregon's Klaudia Kazimierska attacking the final moments of the race before Providence's Shannon Flockhart put together an incredibly smooth kick en route to a 4:05.99 (1500) PR and the heat win.

Flockhart, Asekol and Kazimierska were joined by Washington's Sophie O'Sullivan and Georgetown's Melissa Riggins as the automatic qualifiers to the finals. Butler and Texas ace Olivia Howell would both get into the finals on time.

It makes sense that the two-time qualifiers of the 1500-meter prelims came out of this heat. This was a very quick race which had someone pushing the pace throughout most of it. And when you look at the women who didn't advance to the finals, it's hard to be stunned. Texas Tech's Juliet Cherubet is still young and inexperienced, BYU's Riley Chamberlain has not been able to relocate her momentum from the winter months and the rest of the women in this heat simply weren't as good as those who did advance.

The second heat, however, was far less eventful.

Providence's Kimberley May and Harvard's Maia Ramsden were the main leaders throughout this race, sitting on each other's shoulders for most of the time. But right behind that group was Rider's Teagan Schein-Becker, Northern Arizona's Maggi Congdon and NC State's Sam Bush who very calmly put themselves into the finals.

In a field that featured arguably the two best metric milers in the NCAA this spring, Schein-Becker, Congdon and Bush showed remarkable poise. They didn't try to make any unnecessary moves and in the end, that composure led to both Bush and Congdon recording blistering new PRs of 4:07 (1500) each! Watch out for Bush who has put together yet another momentum-boosting performance.

As for those who missed the finals, it was hard to see Washington's Chloe Foerster not advance. She was having a really solid season and simply looked better than she did during the winter months despite recording a 4:28 mile PR on the indoor oval. But we can largely chalk up Thursday to a simple "off" day for Foerster who was out of the mix fairly early on. She just didn't look like herself.

South Carolina's Judy Kosgei is the other notable omission from the finals. She's another example of why championship experience and an understanding of tactics are arguably just as important as raw fitness.

The Gamecock runner had been excellent this year, especially during the spring months. However, when the top pack began to make their moves, Kosgei was at the tail-end of that pack and simply couldn't stick with them. She was effectively lost in "no man's land," causing her to fade before being caught by TCU's Gracie Morris.

However, despite everything that we just discussed, the biggest development from this race came from a woman who didn't even toe the line. I am, of course, talking about Oklahoma State's Billah Jepkirui.

The Cowgirl veteran has been beyond fantastic this year, running jaw-dropping PRs, taking down top names, showing an improved understanding of championship tactics and further flexing her range. Her spring season wasn't quite as exciting compared to her winter campaign, but this was still someone who ran 4:08 (1500) earlier this spring and could have finished as high as 2nd place in the 1500-meter finals.

Why was Jpekirui not on the line? Truthfully, I have no idea (maybe it was for an injury?), but simply not having her for that second heat was huge for Schein-Becker who would have been out of the finals had she placed one spot worse in her heat.

Seven of Top-Nine Finals Qualifiers Go Sub-2:01 (800), Lauren Tolbert Advances Out of Prelims While Bossong, Paige, Beckford & Chepngetich Do Not Advance

For the most part, I don't think anyone was too stunned by the women who advanced to the finals of the 800 meters...well, except for two.

This has been a huge breakout season for Ohio State's Aniya Mosley. The Buckeye middle distance talent has been on fire since running 4:12 for 1500 meters at the Penn Relays and has since thrived over 800 meters to eventually make it to the national meet.

However, despite her momentum, expecting Mosley to advance to the finals of the NCAA Championships would have been a stretch. Yes, she did just match her 800-meter PR of 2:01 in the prelims on Thursday, but Mosley had never run faster than 2:04 over the half-mile distance prior to the regional meet!

The other "surprise" name is Duke's Lauren Tolbert who has continued to have tremendous growth in the middle distances. In fact, she was someone who I even mentioned in our latest Blue Oval Podcast episode as someone who could be a "sleeper" pick to make it out of the prelims. And sure enough, with a 2:01 mark in the first heat, Tolbert was able to get the edge on North Carolina's Makayla Paige and Clemson's Gladys Chepngetich.

In retrospect, that result makes sense given that Tolbert has excellent 400-meter speed, boasting a 52-second PR en route to the ACC title a few weeks ago. With the best turnover in that heat (which was also the slowest section), it's no surprise that the speed of the Blue Devil talent gave her a better finish than more established athletes.

I think you could also make the argument that Harvard's Sophia Gorriaran was an underdog to make the finals, especially after struggling at the Ivy League Championships, taking 2nd place in an upset loss.

But Gorriaran looked awesome on Thursday. The freshman's late-race strength allowed her to overtake fellow teammate Victoria Bossong as well as Houston's Kelly-Ann Beckford en route to an excellent time of 2:00.87, the fastest 800-meter time of her still-young collegiate career (but not quite a PR). That was only good enough for 3rd place in her heat, but the time comfortably gave her a bid to the finals.

Alright...now let's talk about some of the misses.

Harvard's Victoria Bossong not making the finals would have been a surprise back in March and early April given how well she had been running. However, since then, the rest of the nation had caught up to the breakout talent in terms of time and fitness. That's not necessarily to say that Bossong had been running poorly (although her East regional meet performance wasn't great), but her advancing to the finals was going to be a close one -- and it was.

Kelly-Ann Beckford, the middle distance star from Houston, also didn't make it to the finals. I thought that was a bit surprising as I figured that the aggressive front-runner would do well in a heat featuring another front-runner (Michaela Rose). But with Arkansas' Sanu Jallow not losing form and running a great time of 2:00, as well as Gorriaran putting together a great second-half of her race, Beckford seemed a bit tired after trying to fend off her competition at the front of the field.

And then there is Gladys Chepngetich, the Clemson ace who looked like she could do no wrong this spring. After running 2:00 (800) and then 1:59 (800) at the East regional meet, Chepngetich seemed like a very favorite to be an All-American. However, in a tricky first heat that was, a) slower than expected and, b) headlined by a huge race from Lauren Tolbert, the Tiger talent was unable to fend off her competition and faded to a narrow 4th place.

Out of the four women who I just highlighted, Chepngetich seems like the best name who didn't advance, but Beckford is arguably the most important. She is not afraid to be ultra-aggressive (as we saw at the BIG 12 Championships) and having someone who could be just as much of a front-runner as Rose could (in theory) create chaos in the finals.

As for everyone else, there isn't much to discuss, although the top women look as good as ever as seven women ran under 2:01 (800). Make no mistake, Rose is still the favorite and I would still pick her over the entire field as far as odds are concerned. Even so, there are an awful lot of contenders who could cause some challenges late in the finals.

Women's Steeplechase Prelims Go Chalk as Nearly All Top Favorites Advance to Finals

I'm not sure where to start with the women's steeplechase...mainly because I don't know if there's a whole lot to discuss.

For the most part, the women's steeplechase prelims gave us very few surprises -- almost none at all! Nearly all of the top favorites advanced to the finals and the times weren't insanely fast.

Sure, you could make the argument that certain women like Oregon's Katie Clute, NC State's Angelina Napoloen, West Virginia's Mikenna Vanderheyden, South Carolina's Teresa Cherotich, Western Michigan's Kayla Scheira, Penn's Olivia Morganti and Colorado State's Yasmin Austridge were names who could have realistically made the finals.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that Morganti was favored to do so.

And yet, when you look at all of the names who did advance to the finals, it feels like everyone who advanced mostly had spring seasons that have been flat-out better than those who didn't make It out of the prelims (again, Morganti maybe being the only exception).

Keep an eye on Karrie Baloga (Northern Arizona) and Laura Taborda (Arkansas). The former is a true freshman who is becoming increasingly more comfortable with the steeplechase while the latter is an experienced veteran who just ran a PR.

If Baloga continues to ride this streak of youth-based upside, then she could be a massive problem for her opponents in the finals. Similarly, Taborda has already been one of the more reliable steeplechaser veterans in the NCAA. With a recent personal best under her belt, the chances of the Arkansas talent becoming an All-American have seemingly risen in my eyes.