First Thoughts: Spencer, Murphy, Strand & Martin Thrive in Mile While Jallow & Chepngetich Go 2:01 For 800 Meters

Yep! We've got one more "First Thoughts" article before our next rankings update. If you missed Part One or Part Two, you can click on those respective links. For Part Three, we opted to put a heavy emphasis on the middle distance events. Let's dive in, shall we?

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Ethan Strand & Gary Martin Battle to 3:54 Mile Marks

Boston University was not the only place that held a competitive indoor track meet this past weekend. At "the TRACK" by New Balance, a slew of highly competitive mile talents gathered to attack a fast time.

And sure enough, they did exactly that.

At the BC Eagle Elite Invite, North Carolina's Ethan Strand emerged with the overall win, taking home a very strong mile PR of 3:54 to barely fend off Virginia's Gary Martin who also ran a mile PR of 3:54. And when you consider that this ACC duo also had to battle the likes of Brian Musau (Oklahoma State), Ryan Schoppe (Oklahoma State) and Jesse Hamlin (Butler), the quality of their performances become that much better.

Ethan Strand is seemingly employing the same approach that he took during the outdoor track season when he only raced twice prior to the postseason. Except, this winter, Strand's season debut came far later than we expected.

Even so, the Tar Heel star looks just as dangerous as he was last year -- maybe even more so. That was a quietly great win that he just secured and it's a highly encouraging way for him to kick-off his season.

As for Gary Martin, that 3:54 mile effort was huge. The Cavalier ace always held tons of raw talent -- he was incredible in high school -- and his range has continued to be his greatest strength. He has, after all, run 1:48 (800), 3:54 (mile) and 7:47 (3k) this season.

Oh, and his actual half-mile PR sits at 1:47.

In theory, Martin's dynamic skillset should allow him to thrive in pretty much any race scenario when it comes to the mile. That certainly seemed to be the case on Friday and we could see further evidence of that as he guns for a conference title at the ACC Indoor Championships.

As for the Oklahoma State duo of Brian Musau and Ryan Schoppe, they settled for times of 3:55 and 3:56, respectively. Those are solid marks, but I imagine that both men wanted to be within the 3:54 range with Strand and Martin.

Even so, the mile wasn't necessarily going to be a major emphasis for either of these men anyway. The 3k is likely their biggest focus for March and these recent mile efforts are a good way to refine their speed for what could be a tactical affair on the national stage.

Adam Spencer (3:52) & Liam Murphy (3:53) Hold Their Own in Wanamaker Mile Field at Millrose Games

Part of the reason why we opted to have a "Part Three" for our weekend coverage was because the Millrose Games took place on Sunday afternoon. And while we already spoke about the historic mile performance from Maia Ramsden, it's important that we don't overlook that efforts that we saw from Wisconsin's Adam Spencer and Villanova's Liam Murphy.

In that race, Spencer dropped a fantastic 3:52 mile effort while Murphy admirably matched his mile PR of 3:53 (although he ran the slightest bit faster at Penn State).

While the cameras were basically never on Spencer or Murphy, we can still be encouraged by the results that they produced. The former just ran an NCAA #7 all-time mark, a development that likely got lost in the fold of a crazy weekend.

But when you think about it, Spencer's recent mile effort isn't all too surprising. This was, after all, a guy who ran 3:31 for 1500 meters last summer (no, that's not a typo) and was the bronze medalist over 1500 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

The biggest request that we had for Spencer this season was to validate his success from the outdoor oval and translate that fitness to the winter months. And so far, he has seemingly had no issues doing that.

Most of the national discourse when it comes to the men's mile national title conversation has largely featured Anass Essayi, Isaac Basten and the Washington men. However, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to leave Spencer out of that discussion.

As for Murphy, he may not have run a PR, but replicating his 3:53 mile effort from earlier this season is a nice result as we approach the postseason. And in a field that could have chewed him up and spot him out, Murphy stayed composed and salvaged an excellent time.

That, in my eyes, deserves a nod of respect.

Arkansas' Sanu Jallow & Clemson's Gladys Chepngetich Each Improve 800-Meter PRs to 2:01 Marks

During our last rankings update, me and one of our D1 women's writers, Maura Beattie, debated as to which 800-meter talent deserved to be on our list. I argued in favor of Arkansas' Sanu Jallow, she argued in favor of Clemson's Gladys Chepngetich.

In the end, Maura won (she seems to be winning a lot of our arguments recently) and Chepngetich was given a spot in our top-25. But after this weekend, both Maura and myself can take a sigh of relief knowing that we don't have to argue about these two women -- they both ran well enough to be ranked.

On her home track, Sanu Jallow continued her brilliant breakout season, dropping her 800-meter personal best once more, this time to a mark of 2:01. Despite being a sophomore, this Razorback ace has been simply brilliant over the half-mile distance this winter. In fact, you could argue that, outside of Michaela Rose, she's been the best middle distance runner in the NCAA this winter.

Jallow, a transfer from Texas A&M, has gone from 2:05 to 2:02 to 2:01 in her last two races. She also posted an all-time mark of 1:26 over 600 meters. And with all of the momentum in the world, it's hard not to be super high on the newest Razorback ace despite her relative youth.

Video: Arkansas Track & Field via X.com embed

As for Chepngetich, she is further showcasing how versatile she can be. Remember, this Clemson star was a cross country All-American in the fall and ran 4:37 in the mile back in December. To see her continue to drop time over 800 meters has been a welcomed surprise.

We do, admittedly, need to see a bit more of Chepngetich before we have a good idea about what we could expect from her on the national stage. She's brand new to the NCAA this year and her range is extremely unique. Although, in theory, her cross country fitness should allow her to thrive with an early and aggressive pace over the half-mile distance.

Nonetheless, both of these women have been on fire and the only thing that could realistically hold them back is inexperience on the national stage.

BYU Women Dominate 3k as Four Cougars Go Under 8:56

The BYU women continued to be absolutely brilliant this past weekend, crowding the 3000-meter field at the Husky Classic which also featured Stanford's Amy Bunnage, Northern Arizona's Alyson Churchill, Colorado's Ella Baran and Columbia's Phoebe Anderson.

The duo of Lexy Halladay-Lowry and Riley Chamberlain both threw down a pair of 8:51 marks for 3000 meters, comfortably surpassing the 3rd place finisher, teammate Sadie Sargent, who ran 8:54 in the process. Their other teammate, Jenna Hutchins, ran 8:55 as well.

This level of depth is beyond fantastic. Coach Diljeet Taylor has saturated the national qualifying spots for the 3000 meters and the 5000 meters with many of her best women. While their doesn't appear to be one singularly dominant superstar, that doesn't seem to matter. By simply flexing their sheer overwhelming depth, the chances of BYU having multiple All-Americans in the distances events this March are only growing larger.

Both Halladay-Lowry and Riley Chamberlain have been awesome this season. The former has run times of 4:31 (mile), 8:51 (3k) and 15:31 (5k) this season while the latter has run times of 2:03 (800), 4:30 (mile) and 8:51 (3k).

And the best part? All six of those personal bests have come in their last two meets.

As for Sargent (8:54) and Stanford's Amy Bunnage (8:54), those times put them just on the fringes of national qualifying. If the national qualifying window ended today and no one in the women's 3000-meter field scratched, then Sargent would qualify, but Bunnage would not.

Right now, Bunnage sits at NCAA #17, meaning that she needs at least one women ahead of her on the national leaderboard to scratch the event so that she can get in. But as I see it, I'm not sure if any of these women will scratch. And even if one or two of them do, then Bunnage needs to hope that another woman doesn't run faster than her until the end of the month.

That's a tough and anxious position to be put in for the next weeks...

Lucy Jenks, Gracelyn Larkin & Ali Upshaw Position Themselves For 5k National Qualifying Spots

I admittedly don't much to talk about when it comes to the women's 5k race at the Husky Classic. In a field that was led by two pro runners, Briana Scott and WuGa HE, the collegiate trio of Lucy Jenks (Stanford), Gracelyn Larkin (Northern Arizona) and Ali Upshaw (Northern Arizona) produced sub-15:40 (5k) efforts.

More specifically, Jenks ran 15:33, Larkin ran 15:34 and Upshaw ran 15:36.

As of right now, all three of those times would allow that west coast trio to advance to the national meet over 5000 meters. However, no other collegiate woman from that race put themselves in the hunt to advance to the indoor national meet in that event.

That means that the NAU women could very possibly have five women -- Larkin, Churchill, Upshaw, Reiss and Stearns -- all advance to the NCAA Indoor Championships over 5000 meters. That, however, assumes that one woman in the top-16 scratches the event (which would allow Stearns to get in) and that no other women will run fast enough in the coming weeks to qualify.

Neither of those conditions aren't necessarily guarantees, but if that does happen, then there's a scenario where the NAU women and BYU women make up half of the women's 5k field on the national stage.

Oklahoma State Women Run 10:47 DMR Time to Sit at NCAA #2 All-Time

Between the performances of Taylor Roe, Billah Jepkirui and Gabija Galvydyte, it's safe to say that the Oklahoma State women had an outstanding weekend. That's especially true when you tack on the Cowgirls' DMR performance of 10:47 which put them at NCAA #2 all-time.

But truthfully, I don't know if anyone is truly surprised. We knew that Roe was a veteran star, Galvydyte is one of the better middle distance runners in the country and Jepkirui ran 4:29 in the mile this past weekend.

Impressive? Yes, absolutely.

Surprising? No, not really. After all, our fellow TSR writer, Finn Birnie, predicted that they would run 10:47 in his pre-meet predictions.

The Harvard women and Virginia women both ran 10:52 marks in that same race. And given their personnel, their performances aren't too surprising, either. The Crimson had Sophia Gorriaran and Maia Ramsden while the Cavaliers had Anna Workman and Margot Appleton.

On paper, each relay had two high-impact talents. And usually, as long as your middle legs are good enough, those standout names can carry you to a top mark.

Also, strong 10:54 DMR effort from Boston College. However, if I had to guess, I would say that the Golden Eagles aren't safe from a national qualifying standpoint. Luckily, they'll be able to go after one more fast DMR mark later this week.

Wisconsin's Abdullahi Hassan Runs 1:46 (800) in Strong Win Over Villanova Standout, Sean Dolan

When Abdullahi Hassan first came to Wisconsin, expectations were high -- very high.

The Canadian middle distance phenom ran 1:47 over 800 meters as a prep star and capped his first year at Wisconsin with a fantastic summer campaign where he ran 1:46. But in the following years, Hassan seemingly struggled to replicate those results and didn't seem to be a major contender on the national stage.

That, however, all seemed to change at the tail-end of last winter and throughout last spring. The Badger veteran ran 1:46 for 800 meters three separate times on the outdoor oval and advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships where he placed 4th in the 800-meter finals.

And if there were any doubts about how legitimate that spring campaign was (although no one was doubting it), Hassan just dropped a fantastic 1:46.61 mark for 800 meters to earn the NCAA #2 time on the national leaderboard this season.

That was a really encouraging win. Hassan further validated his success from last spring and showed that he could be just as effective on the indoor oval as he was on the outdoor oval. And with numerous years of experience now under his belt, I think it's safe to call him an All-American favorite over the half-mile distance come March.

Iowa's Rivaldo Marshall & Iowa State's Finley McLear Battle to 1:46 (800) Marks at Tyson Invitational

If you were familiar with Rivaldo Marshall's resume prior to this past weekend, and I had told you that he would run 1:46 for 800 meters, I don't think you'd be too surprised. In fact, you can pretty much say the exact same thing about Finley McLear.

However, the context behind that analysis is different for each of those men.

For Marshall, he was a former JUCO star who ran 1:47 for 800 meters and replicated that mark back in December to kick-off his winter campaign. Simply put, he was trending towards a sub-1:47 (800) effort and it looks like he finally came through.

But when it comes to McLear, we always knew that he was exceptionally talented. In the winter and spring of 2021, the former Miami (OH) star ran 1:45 for 800 meters twice -- once at the indoor national meet and once at the outdoor national meet. In fact, McLear nearly won the half-mile national title at the NCAA Indoor Championships, falling just short of gold by an agonizing one hundredth of a second (0.01).

McLear hasn't come all that close to that elite level of fitness ever since then, but this past weekend suggests that he's trending towards that form. So far this season, he has run 1:18 for 600 meters, 1:47 for 800 meters and now 1:46 for 800 meters.

In other words, McLear is a proven 1:45 (800) guy who has shown that he can contend for a national title and is beginning to peak just as we enter the postseason. He may not have won his race this past weekend, but he is one of the last people who I would want to deal with in my preliminary heat at this year's national meet.

New Mexico's Habtom Samuel Runs 7:40 (3k) to Secure Huge Victory at Boston U.

I'm not necessarily surprised that Habtom Samuel got the overall win in this race on Saturday evening. However, running 7:40 for 3000 meters is very impressive. And frankly, I didn't know if he had the turnover to run something that quick.

But Coach Darren Gauson has structured a very solid developmental plan for this Eritrean distance ace which included incrementally stepping down in his racing distances and now seemingly climbing back up.

After running 7:45 for 3000 meters in early January, Samuel just dropped five seconds and now has a bit more turnover that could aid him over 5000 meters. That's all speculation, but I feel a bit more confident about this New Mexico star contending with the very best men over the 5k distance than I did a month ago.

Quick Hits

• The women's 800 meters was exceptionally deep this past weekend with numerous middle distance standouts running 2:02 for the distance. That list included Meghan Hunter (BYU), Maggi Congdon (Northern Arizona), Ainsley Erzen (Arkansas), Lindsey Butler (Virginia Tech), Wilma Nielsen (Washington) and Bailey Goggans (Texas A&M).

• Clemson's Tarees Rhoden ran 1:47.38 (800) this past weekend. And while that mark currently puts him in national qualifying territory, he'll almost definitely need to run faster at the ACC Indoor Championships to secure his spot to the national meet.

• Foster Malleck (Boston U.) and Camden Marshall (Indiana) both threw down sneaky-good 3:55 mile efforts this past weekend. And yet, unbelievably, they weren't all that close to qualifying for the national meet.

• New Mexico's Evans Kiplagat (13:26), Iowa States' Said Mechaal (13:27), Arkansas' Patrick Kiprop (13:27) and North Carolina's Alex Phillip (13:27) currently sit at NCAA #15, NCAA #16, NCAA #17 and NCAA #18 on the current 5k national leaderboard, respectively. There's likely a lot of sweating happening with that group as they await to see if anyone runs faster than them and who will end up scratching the 5k at the national meet.