First Thoughts: The Greatest Weekend of NCAA Distance Running Ever (Part One)

I'll be honest, when I first hit publish on our recent "Friday Frenzy" article, which analyzed all of the major action from Friday's distance races, I felt a small sense of relief. While I surely expected numerous big-time performances to take place on Saturday, I figured that most of the jaw-dropping, headline-grabbing performances wouldn't be as plentiful on Saturday as they were on Friday.

And I was wrong.

So very, very wrong.

This was, without question, the greatest weekend of NCAA distance running that I have ever witnessed in my nearly seven years of covering this sport. To say that it's not even close would be an understatement.

This weekend completely redefined what it means to be "good" in the NCAA. It has also completely redefined what we should talk about in our articles. So unfortunately, there are going to be a lot of athletes who hit milestone marks that we just won't be able to touch on in these First Thoughts articles...because so many other athletes just ran that much faster.

Also, we're going to split our "First Thoughts" analysis into two parts for two obvious reasons. 1) There is so much to talk about that putting all of that analysis into one article would probably overwhelm our readers and 2) the Super Bowl is on later tonight and as a Steelers fan, I need to pretend that I don't like Joe Burrow and root for the Rams (I know, I'm not happy about it either).

If you want to read our analysis from Friday, click here.

Before I ramble on too much, let's cut to the chase and get started...

Texas Tech's Moad Zahafi Runs 1:46.29 for 800 Meters, Earns 1:45.99 Conversion, Vilca Gets Converted 1:48.19

I know what you're thinking.

"Garrett, don't you mean Ayman Zahafi? The 800 meter runner who actually goes to Miami?"

Believe it or not, that isn't who I am referring to. I am actually talking about his brother, Moad, a graduate student who appears to have recently joined the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Moad just ran a monster time of 1:46.29 at minor altitude, ultimately getting the sub-1:46 bump of 1:45.99. He is the first man to own a sub-1:46 time on the national leaderboard in the 800 meters this year.

Honestly, I don't really know what to say here. There is undoubtedly tons of talent in the Zahafi family and there's a small chance that both Moad and his brother Ayman end up challenging each other for the NCAA title race if Brandon Miller isn't at the peak of his powers by then.

And if you think that I may be exaggerating, keep in mind that Moad Zahafi has run 1:44 for 800 meters on the outdoor oval before. In other words, we KNOW that he has the raw fitness and elite-tier firepower to challenge the likes of Miller and co.

In that same race was Red Raider veteran and underrated middle distance talent, Marco Vilca. He ran 1:48.50 which earned a small altitude conversion of 1:48.19. That was probably one of the better results that we've ever seen from Vilca, but it was also well within his capabilities.

The problem, however, is that his time puts him at NCAA #22 on the national leaderboard, meaning that Vilca will almost certainly not make it to the indoor national meet with that performance.

Shafiqua Maloney Solos 2:01 Mark, Leads NCAA 800 Meters

Is Arkansas' Shafiqua Maloney the national title favorite in the women's 800 meters this year? With women like Laurie Barton and Athing Mu now out of the NCAA picture, and Aaliyah Miller not currently at the same level as last year, someone like Maloney looks like the clear favorite for NCAA gold.

The Arkansas star just ran 2:01 at the Tyson Invitational, dominating her competition by nearly three seconds. This, however, isn't much of a surprise. We've seen Maloney throw down elite-level solo marks before. In fact, that's pretty much how she built her reputation as an 800 meter superstar last winter.

For as often as Maloney has soloed great times, she is also plenty experienced when facing top-tier competition. She knows the racing tendencies of the best women in the NCAA and she is no stranger to navigating through championship prelims.

On paper, I don't see any woman in any distance event who is a national title favorite as much as Maloney is in the 800 meters.

Rookie Allison Johnson Upsets Sarah Hendrick As Each Woman Runs 2:02, McDonald & Tachinski Each Run 2:03

I have been SUPER high on Penn State's Allison Johnson this winter and that has been the case since the early-portion of the season. If you don't believe me, you can go back and listen to a few of our January podcasts. In fact, I even discussed with fellow podcast co-host Ben Weisel how Johnson is completely unafraid of her competition.

That couldn't have been more true this past weekend as Johnson scored an upset win over Kennesaw State star, Sarah Hendrick, 2:02.84 to 2:02.87.

Right now, Johnson can do no wrong. She's run 2:43 for 1000 meters, 4:37 in the mile, 2:04 in the 800 meters and now 2:02 in the 800 meters (in that order). Despite being an inexperienced rookie, Johnson has shown so much poise this season and continues to deliver major results.

Taking down a true 800 meter star in Hendrick is huge and it validates Johnson as a household name in the half-mile event. It also leads me to believe that despite her inexperience, she could be a factor on the national stage.

As for Hendrick, I'm torn. On one hand, I would have liked her to earn the win over Johnson this past weekend. That would have made me feel more confident about her chances of contending for NCAA gold.

On the other hand, this is still an excellent time for Hendrick and it's another building block that adds to her quietly great consistency. Her time of 2:02.87 is also an indoor personal best. In fact, it's the first time that she has ever run under 2:03 on the indoor oval. Prior to this weekend, she had only ever run under 2:04 once on the indoor circuit.

So although Hendrick didn't get the win, she still kept things tight with Johnson and she is, historically speaking, having the best indoor season of her career right now. And honestly, you could probably frame this performance as the potential start of her postseason peak.

In other words, I think there's more good to take away from Hendrick's result than bad.

As for Katy-Ann McDonald (LSU) and Victoria Tachinski (Penn State), they both had great results of their own, each running 2:03.

For McDonald, we saw this trend of regular season progression happen last spring. She first appears as a respectable, but unexciting 800 meter talent during the early-portion of the season, but begins to rally in the latter portions of the season, eventually throwing down a super quick mark.

Sure enough, that's what happened this past weekend as a 2:03 mark should be enough to get McDonald into the national meet. However, the question still remains if this LSU star can deliver at the national meet.

As for Tachinski, she is your classic veteran 800 meter runner in a middle distance powerhouse program who is having a breakout season after years of steadily improving. She has followed the momentum of teammate Allison Johnson and is working her way up the national leaderboard.

I don't know what to expect from her in the postseason, but Tachinski has been consistent this season and as any frequent TSR reader knows, I like seeing consistency.

Maier Continues to Flex Dominance Via 3:56 Mile, Houser Improves PR to 3:56, Stallings Makes Promising Improvements to Run 3:57

Oklahoma State's Alex Maier might be in the top-five of my favorite distance runners in the NCAA right now based on what he has done in every distance event this winter. Maier was already one of the nation's best long distance talents in cross country, but had yet to translate that success to the oval...until this season.

After having a breakout race in the 3000 meters earlier in the season, where he threw down a mark of 7:46 for the distance, Maier went to Washington this past weekend and lit up the track. After running 13:25 in the 5000 meters on Friday, Maier doubled back on Saturday to not only run 3:56 in the mile, but to pull off the upset victory

And yes, we know that Maier's overall resume as an NCAA distance runner was arguably better than most of the men coming into this mile race. That's why I can understand anyone who says that Maier's victory wasn't an "upset".

However, what you have to realize is that Maier was coming off of a grueling 5k battle the night before. Not only that, but he had never run a mile faster than 4:10 at the collegiate level before!

It would've been one thing if Maier barely dipped under four minutes and walked away with some renewed sense of self-confidence in his speed.

However, running 3:56 to take down guys like Luke Houser and Zach Stallings, who have specifically built their athletic reputations in the mile (and maybe a little bit in the 3000 meters), is wildly impressive.

As for Houser, we've known for a few seasons that he was the real deal and that he was going to be a major player on the NCAA circuit in future years.

This Washington Husky ace is super talented and has shown a lot of consistency in his early days as an inexperienced youngster. Honestly, I think I like Houser more than a few names who will automatically qualify for the indoor national meet in the mile.

Despite running 3:56 this past weekend, Houser only sits at NCAA #20 on the national leaderboard. With a couple of weeks left for athletes to improve their national qualifying marks, it's unclear if Houser will be able to qualify for the indoor national meet even after scratches.

At the moment, Houser could probably get in with four scratches, but he may be further back on the NCAA leaderboard two weeks from now. I guess we'll see...

With that in mind, I have to wonder if Houser will go after the 3000 meters again. He's run 7:52 in that event and while an automatic national qualifying mark of 7:47 may seem challenging, this past weekend forced us to reset expectations for what is and isn't an aggressive time to hit.

Washing State's Zach Stallings was 3rd in this race. It was a really solid time for the Cougar standout who has been a consistent miler for a while now. He's made steady improvements over the last few seasons and after running 3:39 for 1500 meters last spring, Stallings now has an indoor mile mark that seems to be on par with his outdoor accolades.

Also, shoutout to Weber State's Tracen Warnick. His 3:58 mark, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't really make him a national contender in the mile this year. Even so, he's a quietly great talent who has run 8:43 in the steeplechase.

Watch out for him in the spring. He's sneaky good...

Katie Camarena Validates Superstar Status w/ Stunning Win via 4:32 Result, Gibson (4:32), Gregory (4:32), Heisterman (4:33), Wayment (4:33) All Go Sub-4:34

Coming into this season, we knew that Camarena was a really solid talent. She had, after all, run 4:13 for 1500 meters during her time at UC-Santa Barbara. However, the Portland State graduate student has gradually improved her stock over this winter season, consistently producing surprise performance after surprise performance week after week.

Seeing her make a bid to qualify for the national meet? Not at all surprising.

Seeing her run under 4:35? Maybe a little surprising.

Seeing her run 8:57 in the 3000 meters? Very surprising.

Seeing her come back the next day, run 4:32 and upset an elite field? Downright stunning.

There was no question that Camarena had a ton of momentum coming into this weekend, but she has now reached a peak where she is taking down established NCAA superstars who are viewed as All-American favorites and potential national title winners.

There's an argument to be made that this Portland State star is a top-five distance runner in the NCAA right now. Binghamton's Emily Mackay might be the only collegiate woman in the country who has more momentum than Camarena right now, and even that I'm not totally sure about.

So now we have to start asking the tricky question...is Katie Camarena a national title favorite in the mile? After this weekend, I can only think of more reasons why that answer is a "yes" rather than a "no".

As for the rest of this field, I gotta hand it to Anna Gibson. The Washington ace ran 4:37 earlier this year in what was a breakout race at the time. However, as it turns out, her REAL breakout race took place this past weekend.

Gibson ran a monster PR of 4:32 on her home track to upset a handful of elite names such as Gregory, Wayment and her teammate Madison Heisterman.

With yet another improvement on her resume and a proven ability to take down top-tier names, Gibson looks like she could be a dangerous name on the national stage. Her ability to stick with an aggressive pace wasn't what I was expecting, but she held her own and I really admire how she didn't back down from this field.

When it comes to Lauren Gregory's mark of 4:32, I'm not sure I have a whole lot to say here. This result basically matched her personal best and she was able to stay competitive in this race. While it would've been nice to see her potentially pull ahead of Camarena and Gibson, I can't necessarily fault her for not doing so after running a PR.

However, what this result does tell me is that Gregory needs to aim for the 3000 meters at the national meet and avoid the mile. She's been really solid in the mile this season, but she already lost to Taylor Roe a few weeks ago and wasn't able to get the edge on a few of her competitors this past weekend.

That, of course, may be a moot point. With Arkansas' DMR likely eyeing gold come March, a DMR/3k double would be the perfect option for Gregory, especially after her 3k performance from the night before.

Washington's Madison Heisterman ran 4:33 in this race, which was encouraging, but when you consider that she ran 4:34 earlier in the season and was in a super fast field, a one-second improvement seems about right for her.

It's nice to see her still progressing in the latter portion of the season, but I don't have much more to say here.

Finally, we have BYU's Courtney Wayment.

Is it crazy to suggest that her 4:33 was a not-so-great race? Of course, I'm only saying that it was a "not-so-great race" relative to Wayment's past results.

The BYU superstar owns a mile PR of 4:30 and has often done very well in top-level fields. Seeing her falter behind numerous collegiates, despite having a significant PR advantage, was a little surprising.

However, I don't know if that result really matters in the grand scheme of things. Wayment will almost certainly run the 5000 meters and the 3000 meters at the national meet (or the DMR/3k double instead).

So as much as I wanted to see more out of Wayment in this mile race, her result likely isn't going to change how we view this BYU veteran in the NCAA's hierarchy of superstar talents.

Virginia Tech Puts Three Men Under Four, Tewalt Goes 3:59

This past weekend, we saw the Virginia Tech men venture to Liberty's 200 meter banked track to attack a fast mile time. Sure enough, they achieved their presumed goal of sub-four results, although I'm sure certain men would have liked to run faster.

Antonio Lopez Segura, after running a jaw-dropping flat-track conversion of 7:43 for 3000 meters at Camel City, just threw down an outstanding mark of 3:56, beating his teammates and the rest of the field by a comfortable two and a half seconds.

Teammates Seb Anthony and Ben Fleming each ran 3:59 as well, as did Wake Forest's recent 3000 meter U20 record holder, Luke Tewalt.

Lopez Segura is on another level right now, and seeing him run a 3:56 mile makes me feel a little better about the heavy conversion that he received at Camel City. Even so, we should have known coming into this weekend that Lopez Segura was already one of the best mile/3k runners in the country.

As good as his 3:56 mile result is, it was also fairly expected.

As for Anthony, Fleming and Tewalt, these results were fairly predictable. I'm sure Fleming likely wanted a faster time and I think Anthony probably had another second in him as well. Either way, these results don't dramatically alter how we view these athletes.

The only issue is that Anthony, for as good as he is, isn't in a position to qualify for the indoor national meet this winter in any event. That's pretty insane considering that he ran 2:20 for 1000 meters earlier this season and took down Lopez Segura in that race.

Expect Anthony to toe the line for the 800 meters, likely at the ACC Indoor Championships, as he battles what will surely be a superstar field en route to a national qualifying mark.

Olivia Howell Runs 4:33 at Music City, Avenges Prior Loss Over Ellie Leather Who Runs 4:34

Can we officially say that Olivia Howell and Ellie Leather have a rivalry? Or at least pretend like they do? It would certainly be a fun narrative to have going into the national meet.

At the Music City Challenge, Illinois star Olivia Howell toed the line to face Cincinnati's Ellie Leather in the mile for the second time this season. In their first meet, Howell took a surprising loss to Leather, a rising Bearcat star who has proven in the ensuing weeks that her earlier win wasn't a fluke.

However, in round two of the Howell vs Leather saga, it was the Illinois runner who pulled away for the win in a blistering time of 4:33. Leather, meanwhile, ran 4:34.

Georgia Tech's Nicole Fegans finished 3rd in 4:36.

I love this win for Howell. It's a great redemption victory over Leather who, in her own right, has been on absolute fire as of late. After taking down Auburn star Presley Weems earlier in the season, Howell is now amassing a very impressive list of wins against top-ranked talents.

As for her 4:33 mark, I'd like to say that I'm surprised, but Howell ran 4:09 for 1500 meters last spring. Seeing her run 4:33 seems to be on par with expectations.

I'm a big fan of Howell and I may even be ready to say that she's an All-American lock, which is a dangerous assertion to make with a few weeks left in this crazy season. She has the top-tier times, she has the experience, she's peaking at the right time and she's earning major wins.

What's not to like?

As Leather, it would've been nice if she got the win, but that was very clearly not the goal for her. Running 4:34 in the mile...might?...get her into the national meet. Leather currently sits at NCAA #14 and with roughly two weeks remaining in the regular season, this Cincinnati ace may be on the border of national qualification assuming other women run faster and certain names scratch.

The good news for her is that between the 5000 meters, the DMR and people wanting to be fresh for the 3000 meters, there is a good chance that Leather sees enough scratches to make it into the national meet...I think.

Also, just while we're on the topic, everyone is talking about how fast the men's mile has been this year, but the women's mile has also been historic. Last year, 29 women broke 4:40 in the mile. This year, that number is 56 (nearly double) with a couple weeks left to go in the season.

Since TFFRS began collecting data in 2010, the largest total of sub-4:40 women's mile times in a single season, before this year, was 41 sub-4:40 marks back in 2017. The lowest total in TFRRS' database was 13 sub-4:40 results back in 2010.

Wisconsin Freshman Adam Spencer Runs 3:57, Foster, Akers, Raimond Go Sub-Four

Here at The Stride Report, we like to take pride in being thorough in our research. For the most part, we can talk about most teams with a fairly solid understanding of their roster structure.

But Adam Spencer? Well, I'll be just honest, he wasn't even on our radar.

Wisconsin's true freshman from Mckinnon, Melbourne in Australia lit up the track this past weekend, running 3:57 in the mile, taking home the win after having a fairly modest indoor season campaign leading up to this race.

On one hand, we should've seen this coming. Spencer owned a high school personal best of 3:39 for 1500 meters, a time which suggested that he was capable of running 3:57 in the mile. On the other hand, his last three races leading up to his recent 3:57 result were an 8:20 mark for 3000 meters, a 1:50 mark for 800 meters and a 4:04 mile.

Truthfully, those times didn't exactly scream "I'm going to be a 3:57 miler" this season.

But hey, what do I know?

So what does this mean going forward?

Well, if Spencer can find another fast mile race then MAYBE, he can dip low enough into the 3:56 range to contend for a national qualifying spot after scratches. That, however, may seem like an ambitious goal given how much time he just dropped from his previous season best of 4:04...but it's not an unrealistic challenge, either.

As for the rest of this field, I'm pretty happy for the Michigan guys and Akers. I'm especially happy for Michigan's Nick Foster, a guy who doesn't get enough credit for how good he is. He's been chasing a sub-four mile for a while now and even in high school I figured he would eventually reach that point.

It took him a little longer to reach this point, but I'm happy that he finally did.

Notre Dame's Yared Nuguse Runs 3k Collegiate Record of 7:38.13 in Boston While Jaziri, De Caro, Magnusson & El-Sandali Run Sub-7:50

Alright, let's just rip off the bandaid and get to Nuguse's record because, honestly, that was the probably the major highlight of the weekend (unless you're a bigger fan of the 5k).

Notre Dame's Yared Nuguse toed the line for the 3000 meters in a race that was designed for him to go after the record, although there were apparently some pros who were supposed to be in this race that didn't toe the line.

Nonetheless, a few pacers ultimately put Nuguse on a trajectory to hit the record, with the last few laps essentially being an effort entirely on his own. When the clock was stopped, Nuguse finished with the collegiate record of 7:38.13.

Alright, I'll just be honest here: I'm not super surprised by this result.

Nuguse was already the collegiate record holder in the 1500 meters and a fast 3000 meter time was certainly in his arsenal. Certain names have been within reasonable striking distance of Alistair Cragg's record for a few seasons now and with athletes now getting an extra year of eligibility, it made sense that an NCAA superstar had a realistic shot at the record.

Plus, if Cole Hocker had opted to stay in the NCAA like Nuguse did, then I like to think that Hocker would have had a good chance at hitting the record as well.

Of course, let's not confuse my somewhat lack of surprise with a feeling of being unimpressed. It's entirely the opposite.

At this point, I think we have to sincerely question if Nuguse is one of the top-five collegiate distance runners of all-time. Heck, maybe even top-three. After all, this man now holds TWO, I repeat, TWO collegiate records.

Do you know which other male collegiates hold two NCAA records in different events?

The answer is Florida's Grant Holloway (110m hurdles & 60m hurdles) and Washington State's Henry Rono (outdoor 5000m & steeplechase). If you want to include the 600 meters, then UTEP's Michael Saruni holds two collegiate records as well (indoor 600m and outdoor 800m).

So now the question is...what does Nuguse run at the national meet? He'll probably run the DMR later in the coming weeks, leaving us to wonder if Nuguse will do the ambitious DMR/mile/3k triple at the indoor national meet.

Honestly, he could, but with Dylan Jacobs throwing down a monster 5k time, individual glory may become a priority for the Fighting Irish this year. That could mean that a true mile/3k double is in the cards for Nuguse.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

The other collegiates in this 3k field also had incredible races as Eastern Kentucky's Ahmed Jaziri (7:47), Boise State's Dario De Caro (7:47), Eastern Michigan's Baldvin Magnusson (7:47) and Iona's Ehab El-Sandali (7:48) all ran times that would basically make them All-American locks in any other year.

But this year? Well, there's a good chance that NONE of those men even make it into the national meet.

None!

That's insane!

I'm really at a loss for words.

Jenna Magness Scorches 5k Field at Music City, Runs 15:36 En Route to Win

It is no secret that Michigan State's Jenna Magness is, without question, a 5000 meter runner. I think she would be a phenomenal 10k talent, but she has yet to contest that event on the track (according to TFRRS).

But I digress..

With the national qualifying window beginning to narrow, Magness went to Vanderbilt this past weekend and, based on the results, seemingly soloed a time of 15:36 for 5000 meters, a time that puts her at NCAA #10 on the national leaderboard right now.

To see Magness solo that kind of effort is super encouraging. She's always held her own in top-tier fields and has occasionally been the beneficiary of aggressively-paced races. However, this was an effort that was entirely her own.

Seeing that Magness can go out and run a time that is four seconds off of her personal best (from outdoors) is really encouraging. Magness is going to sneak her way into the All-American conversation and I feel pretty confident about that.

My only question is...where in that All-American mix will she finish?

Wildschutt Barely Misses Collegiate Record via 13:09 (5k), Jacobs Runs 13:14, Muhumed Goes 13:26 While Carmody Runs 13:27, Zouhair Talbi Obliterates NAIA Record via 13:18 Performance

Florida State's Adriaan Wildschutt has always been better in the longer distances, dominating the 5k and 10k events and emerging as a superstar in cross country. He is outstanding in aggressively-paced settings and is no stranger to time-trial scenarios.

On paper, the idea that Wildschutt was going to run under 13:30 this weekend in Boston seemed like a guarantee, especially when you look at the field that he was in. Heck, I would have even said that sub-13:20 was a reasonable goal.

But 13:09? Well, I'll be honest, I never saw Wildschutt scaring a collegiate record that is held by Arizona legend Lawi Lalang.

Now, admittedly, if there was any field that was going to push him to a time as fast as that, it was going to be in a field of world-class superstars which featured Bowerman Track Club's Grant Fisher who ran the American 5k record of 12:53 (what a thrilling finish by the way).

Here's the thing: Usually, in super fast time-trial settings such as these, I don't always believe that the result will fully translate to the national meet. After all, we usually see fairly tactical races in the 5000 meters when athletes are competing on championship stages.

However, I'm not convinced that the 5000 meters is going to be tactical at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Between Wildschutt, Kiptoo and the NAU men, someone is bound to push the pace and keep things honest.

In theory, that heavily favors Wildschutt, making his 13:09 mark much more valuable for the Big Dance in March.

We also can't ignore the fact that Notre Dame's Dylan Jacobs ran 13:14 for 5000 meters in the same race as Wildschutt

And I can't lie, I wasn't totally convinced that he had a sub-13:20 in him.

Sure, Jacobs has been an incredible talent and his personal best before this weekend was 13:25. After running a 3:57 mile earlier in the year, I felt confident about his ability to at least run in the 13:20's this winter.

However, 13:14 result is a next-level mark which truly validates Jacobs as an all-time talent. The two best performances in his collegiate career, depending on who you ask, have been two 5k races, each of which have been paced fairly aggressively.

The first 5k race was at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last spring when he ran 13:25 to finish as an All-American. The second 5k race was this past weekend when, yet again, a super fast pace carried Jacobs to the NCAA #4 All-Time mark in the men's indoor record books.

Much like Wildschutt, a fast and aggressive pace at the national meet is going to benefit Jacobs quite a bit. That kind of setting has proven to be wildly beneficial for Jacobs and there's past history to support that assertion.

As for the rest of this field, Florida's State Ahmed Muhumed ran 13:26 while Notre Dame's Jack Carmody ran 13:27. Just like a 90% of everyone who toed the line this weekend, I didn't at all expect these two men to run anything remotely close to sub-13:30 in the 5000 meters this weekend.

Carmody, despite making some really encouraging progress as of late, didn't have anything on his resume to suggest that he would run 13:27 on an indoor oval. His prior personal best was 13:41, he wasn't an All-American this past fall and his fastest 3k time was a 7:59 mark from last winter.

Carmody was due for a breakout race, but I didn't think his breakout race would keep pace with the massive surge in times that we've seen from the rest of the NCAA this winter.

It's a very similar story for Muhumed who ran 13:26. The Florida State runner had only run as fast as 7:54 in the 3000 meters (which he ran earlier this season) and his fastest 5k prior to this race was 13:42.

Muhumed has certainly been better with FSU than he was during his time at Boise State, and although he placed 20th at the NCAA XC Championships this past fall, there wasn't much on his resume to suggest that he would run 13:26.

Also, shoutout to NAIA star Zouhair Talbi who ran 13:18 in this race, The Oklahoma City ace broke his own NAIA record of 13:44 from last year. Teammate Shimales Abebe also ran 14:02 to now sit at NAIA #2 All-Time in the 5000 meters.

Hilariously, the third-best 5k time in the NAIA prior to these two OKC stars joining the all-time leaderboard was 14:27, a mark that is well over a minute slower than the newly-minted NAIA record.

Oh, and by the way, Georgetown's Andrew Jordan sits at NCAA #16 with a time of 13:28.10 while Iona's Ehab El-Sandali sits at NCAA #17 with a time of 13:28.79. With no one in this 5k field projected to scratch from this event, there's going to be multiple sub-13:30 guys (at least two) are not going to be able to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships this event. Here's a fun fact: The NCAA #1 time in the 5000 meters from 2019 was Tyler Day at 13:31 (converted). In other words, title contenders from three years ago wouldn't even be in the national qualifying picture this year.