First Thoughts: Sharman-Newell Runs Jaw-Dropping Converted 1:46, Curtabbi Posts 10:16 Steeple Mark

Despite a few smaller meets taking place over the last few weeks, this past weekend felt like the true unofficial start of the outdoor track season. With so many big-time performances to be had, there is quite a bit to talk about!

We already spoke about SOME of the results that we saw at the Raleigh Relays. That means the 13:24 (5k) mark that we saw from Christian Noble and the pair of 10k times that we saw from Celine Ritter and Jessica Gockley won't be analyzed today, although you can certainly read out past content by clicking here!

So with that, let's begin...

Reece Sharman-Newell Runs Jaw-Dropping Mark of 1:47, Which Converts to 1:46, Out of Nowhere

There is absolutely zero chance that anyone in the NCAA, outside of maybe Sharman-Newell and his coaches, believed that he would run 1:47 for 800 meters at altitude in late March. With a conversion, that mark became a time of 1:46.

This was an unreal personal best. Sure, the race featured former CSU-Pueblo runner Thomas Staines, so we knew that this was going to be fast, but to drop a personal best by well over four seconds in an event like the 800 meters is wild.

Tack on the fact that he's only 19-years old, and this performance somehow gets more impressive.

It's not like Sharman-Newell was running 1:59 and suddenly dropped down to 1:55. Yes, even a leap like that is pretty rare, but it's far more doable than going from 1:51 high to 1:47 low.

So now I'm let to wonder...what's next?

This 800 meter result was incredible. It completely blew away my expectations and it forced us to reevaluate everything that we previously knew about Sharman-Newell. He had never run under 1:50 before this past weekend and had never qualified for the national meet. He's still fairly young, so how he handles stronger and deeper competition will be fascinating to monitor.

Otherwise, things look good for Sharman-Newell right now. He also ran an altitude converted mark of 3:43 for 1500 meters back in mid-March. That performance validates his 800 meter mark a good bit, although there was still no way anyone was expecting him to run a converted 1:46 this season...or even next year!

Hernandez Runs Converted 2:07, Jessica Simon Runs Converted 2:10

CSU-Pueblo's Yasmine Hernandez ran an altitude converted 2:07 this past weekend on her home track. I want to say more, but is anyone really surprised? Hernandez has done fairly well at altitude throughout her career and she's no stranger to posting top times during the regular season.

Don't forget, this is also someone who is recently coming off of running 2:05 at the NCAA Indoor Championships from just a few weeks ago, so she still has some of her winter postseason fitness available to her.

However, maybe the bigger development was that Adams State's Jessica Simon has now emerged as a potentially nationally competitive name in the 800 meters. Because why would the Grizzlies not suddenly get stronger?

Simon ran 2:11 at altitude to earn a 2:10 conversion this past weekend. After running in the 2:13 to 2:14 range all winter long, it seems as though Simon was better suited (or more comfortable) for the outdoor oval. After running 2:12 for 800 meters at altitude a couple of weekends ago, she improved her PR once again to a mark of 2:11, also at altitude, this past weekend.

Keep an eye on Simon moving forward. She is making a lot of encouraging progress.

The same goes for CSU-Pueblo's Helen Baybrook. She's been in the past two 800 meter races that Simon has been in, running marks of 2:11 at altitude both times and of course, getting a 2:10 conversion in both instances.

This is a fairly big jump for Baybrook. She never ran faster than 2:15 during the indoor track season and now suddenly, she's emerging as one of the better half-mile talents in D2. Crazy how a move to the outdoor oval can do that...

Rugenerwa Runs 1:49 at Texas Relays

Well, uh...I don't really have much to say here. Butare Rugenerwa running 1:49 during a regular season meet is probably one of the most predictable things that happened this weekend. I mean, heck, is anyone really surprised?

Still, it's a really solid performance and it helped him win his section of the men's 800 meters at the Texas Relays. If he was in the fastest section, I like to think that he would have run 1:48.

Let's move on...

Chapko Throws Down 2:09 Mark, Seventh Time Under 2:10

At the Raleigh Relay, Grand Valley State middle distance star Taryn Chapko utilized her fitness from the indoor oval and translated it to her outdoor track debut. The Laker standout posted a very strong mark of 2:09 for 800 meters, marking the seventh time that she has gone run under the 2:10 barrier.

However, much like Rugenerwa, I don't really have much to say here. This was a fairly predictable performance. After running 2:07 at the indoor national meet a few weeks ago, Chapko was clearly aiming to take advantage of her fitness by entering a strong field at the Raleigh Relays.

Does this performance tell us anything new? No, not really, but it was also too strong of a result to be ignored. Let's go to the 1500 meter races now...

Sayen Emerges As Top D2 Runner in Raleigh Relays 1500

When you looked at the performance list for the Raleigh Relays 1500 meters, who did you have emerging as the top D2 runner? Maybe Caleb Futter? How about Terrell Patterson? If Mitch Cox hadn't scratched out of the event, maybe he would have been an option, too.

However, instead of those three established D2 runners, it was Michigan Tech's Clayton Sayen emerging as the top D2 runner in this race with a solid 3:45 mark. For perspective, that result would have ranked Sayen at NCAA #28 in the event last spring, so while his result is certainly nationally competitive, it's also not a time that is going to put him into the national meet.

Even so, there are so many other aspects of his race that need to recognized and applauded. Sayen not only ran 3:45 to emerge as the top D2 runner in this field, but he also won his heat, taking down a few fairly respectable D1 talents in the process such as Nick Miller (Ohio State) and Sully Shelton (North Carolina).

And if that wasn't enough, Sayen also ran 1:52 for 800 meters at the same meet! Even better, he also won that heat as well, taking down names like Olli Raimond (Michigan) and Jake Toomey (NC State).

Sayen didn't necessarily throw down any Earth-shattering times this past weekend, but he did make a statement in more ways than one. He is absolutely someone who should be on your radar moving forward.

Ludge Emerges As Top D2 Runner in Raleigh Relays 1500

I gotta say, I'm really happy for Allie Ludge. After a tough outing at the indoor national meet a few weeks ago, she bounced back in a really encouraging way at the Raleigh Relays. The GVSU veteran emerged as the fastest D2 1500 meter runner at the meet by posting a time of 4:23.

Her personal best sits at 4:18 and her mile PR sits at 4:39, but I think this race was all about rebuilding momentum and confidence. The fact that she ran faster than teammates Klaudia O'Malley (4:26) and Taryn Chapko (4:29) is nice to see and frankly, I think that's all Ludge really needed out of this race.

I'll be interested to see what she does in the 5000 meters this season, but something tells me what she'll try to build off of this result and attack the 1500 meters in the postseason.

Alanis Runs Narrow 5k PR of 16:04, Sandoval, Moore & Brown Runs in the 16:30s

Fatima Alanis running 16:04 for 5000 meters should be headline news...but, much like many of these other results, it was somewhat expected.

Yes, this was a personal best for the Queens (NC) star, but running 16:04 on an outdoor track in a loaded field featuring D1 runners just two weeks after running 16:06 at the indoor national meet is far from surprising.

However, what this does tell us is that Alanis is still building upon her fitness. In theory, Alanis has the potential to be a better 10k runner than a 5k runner. With her personal bests still dropping as she moves up in distance, I could see this Royals ace throwing down a sub-34 mark in the 10,000 meters a few weeks from now, likely in the 33:20 to 33:40 range.

Of course, at the end of the day, even if that does happen, I'm not sure our perspective (or our mindset) will really change that much. Alanis will still be a title contender, but not so much more or so much less than she was during the winter.

But hey, that's just one man's opinion...

Harding, Becker & Chada Go Sub-29, Total of 15 D2 Men Go Sub-30 in 10,000 Meters This Past Weekend

Alright, let's slowly break this all down...

I came into the Raleigh Relays saying that nine men would run under 29 minutes in the 10k. I included Isaac Harding in that mix. And for the most part, I think that seemed reasonable! After all, last spring was a historic year for the men's 10k and only five men ran under 29:00 at the Raleigh Relays that year.

Saying nine, in my mind, seemed super reasonable and even slightly ambitious.

However, as it turns out, I know absolutely nothing about anything and I'm not nearly as good at my profession as I thought I was.

In the end, 19 (!) different collegiates ran under 29:00 for 10,000 meters at the Raleigh Relays. That's insane! For perspective, when looking at just Division One alone, there were only 18 men who ran under 29:00 in the 10,000 meters during the spring of 2018.

In other words, one meet in late March pretty much matched the amount of national-caliber firepower that the NCAA D1 level had in one event just four years ago.

Wild.

Anywho, Isaac Harding running under 29-minutes wasn't necessarily a surprise, but the fact that he ran 28:25 was somewhat surprising. I could've seen him running in the 28:40s, but a time in the mid 28:20s? Honestly, that was just flat-out better than I was expecting.

So what does this mean for Harding?

Well, largely, not a ton. He was already a title contender in this event and if one stride went differently at last year's outdoor national meet, then Harding would be then defending D2 10k national champion, not Mutai.

However, at the very least, I think there is a lot more confidence that Harding can now hang with anyone who asserts an aggressive pace at the outdoor national meet. Whether that's Mutai or the Colorado Mines men, I see fewer scenarios where Harding isn't in the mix for a national title in the final 400 meters of a championship race.

But for as good as Harding was this past weekend, it was Queens ace Jan-Lukas Becker who blew away my expectations with an incredible 10k time of 28:27. Suddenly, he's in the mix for a 10k national title, although maybe not in the same way Harding is.

Becker has been excellent for multiple seasons now. He's been a steady, consistent and reliable distance talent who has found ways to be nationally competitive. However, the indoor track season didn't seem to give him a racing distance that was long enough to truly put his best fitness on full display.

I think the biggest question for Becker moving forward is how this result translates to the national meet. In theory, he should be able to stick with most aggressive paces based on his new PR, but adding in the nuances of championship racing is not easy.

Becker has always been a fringe All-American contender on the track, but he has yet to truly deliver on his potential, at least not since the winter of 2021 when he placed 6th in the 5000 meters at the national meet.

Even then, that result doesn't quite reflect the national title contention category that Becker's 28:27 mark now puts him in. I think we need to see more from him this season, but he certainly has my attention now in a way that he didn't have it before.

As for Tanner Chada, he ran well! His time of 28:46 was impressive, although it was a bit more realistic and a bit less surprising than Harding and Becker running under 28:30.

I don't know what else there is to say here.

Yes, it was a big PR by 21 seconds for Chada, but does his performance really tell us anything new? Does Chada running 28:46 make Ezra Mutai, Isaac Harding or the guys from Colorado Mines any less of a factor on the national stage in the 10k? Does this result make Chada any more of an All-American threat than he already was?

Honestly, I don't really know what Chada's ideal racing distance is. Is it the 5k? If so, then is his next-best event the 3k or the 10k? I have zero clue.

If I had to give a guess, I'd say he probably leans towards the 10k, but at the end of the day, I'm not sure if we learned anything new from Chada this weekend...other than he's still really darn good.

As for everyone else...well, there are a lot of you!

Some of the men who ran under 30 minutes at the Raleigh Relays were somewhat obvious and established names, even if they didn't previously have a PR within striking range of what they actually ran.

Guys like Illinois-Springfield's Blake Jones (29:01), Saginaw Valley State's CarLee Stimpfel (29:08), UNC Pembroke's Joshua Chepkesir (29:25) and Saginaw Valley State's Dayton Brown (29:32) all ran times where I shrugged my shoulders and thought, "Yeah, sounds about right."

However, let's quickly chat about Findlay's Noah Fisher. Where did this guy come from?

The Findlay ace ran 29:19 for 10,000 meters at the Raleigh Relays, surprising us by posting a time that would have ranked him at NCAA #18 last year, right on the cusp of national qualifying.

But if you look at what Fisher had done prior to this past weekend, you would have never guessed that he would run well under 29:30. His 3k personal best sits at 8:29 and his 5k personal best sits at 14:30.

And yes, if you do the math, that means he had to come through 5k in around 14:39 to 14:40...and then run that split AGAIN to reach his PR.

Basically, Fisher ran back-to-back 5k times that were near his personal best to run his 10k PR.

This was a massive breakout race for Fisher, and while it is clear that he gets better as the distance gets longer, there is still so much that we don't know about him. Can he replicate this performance? Could he hold his own on the national stage? How will this result translate to other races?

We'll be watching what Fisher does on the track over the next couple of months.

Nine Total D2 Women Runs Sub-36 in the 10k, Thompson Emerges With New Personal Best

We already spoke about Celine Ritter and Jessica Gockley in a prior article, so let's take a look at everyone else, shall we?

The only other woman in D2 who ran under the 35 minute barrier this past weekend is Hannah Thompson. The long-time Malone veteran has been a solid and steady distance talent in the D2 world for the past few years. Now, she's back, and from the looks of it, she's in the best shape of her life.

After running 34:36 in this event and qualifying for the outdoor national meet last year, Thompson was able to make the most of her 10k effort this past weekend and run a PR of 34:28 at the Raleigh Relays.

I love the consistency that we've see out of Thompson in past seasons and it's great to see her reemerge as a national-caliber name.

However, I do have to question what she will do this spring to make her standout as a legitimate All-American contender. She's been an All-American on the grass before and her she also boasts a backend All-American honor in the 5k as well from a few seasons ago.

Despite all of that, the last few national meets have not gone Thompson's way in terms of earning All-American honors, especially in the 10k. She clearly favors the longer distances and owns sneaky-good marks in other events, but translating all of that to the national stage is the more important aspect to consider.

The good news is that Thompson is an established and a highly experienced distance runner who just so happens to still be improving. You don't often see that in collegiate athletes who are this late in their NCAA career.

Futter Runs 8:49 Steeplechase Mark to Lead NCAA D2, Ledesma & Bishop Go Sub-9:00

After a somewhat underwhelming 1500 meter race on Thursday, Futter bounced back in a big way in the steeplechase. The Grand Valley State standout and the defending D2 steeplechase national champion stuck with a fast pace, did the small things right and let a fast field carry him to a mark of 8:49.

No, that's not a personal best, but considering that Futter owns an 8:44 PR, this was still a very solid result. And yes, I do think it keeps Futter in the national title conversation...depending on what Christian Noble chooses to contest in the postseason.

I don't really know if there's a lot to say here. I think we all know how incredible of a talent Futter is when it comes to water pits and hurdles, but I think we'd also all be lying if we said that Futter was more of a steeplechase title favorite than Noble right now.

Yes, last spring suggested otherwise, but Noble is very clearly a different runner now than he was in the spring of 2021.

We then come to Ayrton Ledesma (Azusa Pacific) and Jacob Bishop (Alabama-Huntsville). These two men ran 8:51 and 8:58, respectively, with Ledesma venturing to the Bob Larsen Distance Carnival and Bishop going to the Raleigh Relays.

These were two huge breakout performances for these two men. Yes, Ledesma ran a solid 8:09 mark in the 3000 meters this past winter, but that time doesn't necessarily translate to him running 8:51 en route to one of the fastest steeple times in D2.

For perspective, that mark would have ranked him at NCAA #10 in D2 last spring and Ledesma has never been in that tier before.

The good news, however, is that his past performances, specifically that aforementioned 3k time, do suggest that his latest result is the real deal and that he should be able to replicate a similar performance in the near future.

As for Bishop, it's hard to say that we really saw his 8:59 mark coming. He boasts a 4:09 mile time PR, but I'm not sure that 4:09 mile fitness translates to an 8:59 steeplechase mark. In the D2 world, those times aren't super equivalent.

For as solid and as encouraging as this result was, Bishop will likely need to do more if he wants to qualify for the national meet in this event. An 8:59 mark, while certainly a nationally competitive time, puts him at the tail-end of the NCAA's top D2 marks for the steeplechase.

The good news is that the spring season is still very young and Bishop will likely be able to build off of this mark. A mark in the low 8:50s is within his striking range.

Curtabbi Runs 10:16 for NCAA Lead in Steeplechase, Leppelmeier (10:25) and Lawrence (10:31) Post Strong Marks

Eleonora Curtabbi was a very underrated and potentially overlooked JUCO addition that the West Texas A&M coaching staff made a few seasons ago. Curtabbi was a strong steeplechaser in the junior college ranks, a great long distance talent and a talented miler.

Curtabbi can contest most distances at a high level. she recent ran 2:11 for 800 meters, owns a 5k personal best of 16:55 from this past winter and is now boasting an outstanding steeplechase time of 10:16 which she ran this past weekend.

That is an absolutely fantastic mark. While we knew that she was due for a personal best reset in the steeplechase, I'm not sure we anticipated her to run a time that would have ranked her at NCAA #2 in the event last spring.

With the Flanagan sisters no longer in the collegiate realm, the women's D2 steeplechase title feels entirely wide-open (barring any obvious name I may be missing). With Curtabbi running as fast as she did this past weekend, the West Texas A&M ace feels like she has made a statement, indicating that she will be controlling the title talks for the women's steeple this spring.

With a well-rounded resume, it's admittedly hard to dislike anything about Curtabbi right now.

As for a few other names, I'm pretty high on Walsh's Alexa Leppelmeier. I thought she was excellent during the winter months and in my mind, she might be at her best in the steeplechase.

With the event feeling so wide-open this year, I would hopee that she pursues the event in the postseason. Leppelmeier ran 10:25 at the Raleigh Relays this past weekend, which is fine, but I thought she was due for a better performance -- and I still believe that!

The same can be said for Queens (NC) runner Stevie Lawrence. Her improvements in the mile, 3k and 5k this past winter feel like they would translate fairly well to the steeplechase. She owns a personal best of 10:26, and I thought we would see her newfound fitness reflected in the steeplechase this past weekend.

However, a time of 10:31 will have to do for now.