First Thoughts: Washington's NCAA DMR Record, Bizimana Impresses & Howell Fends Off Markezich

This weekend's racing schedule is admittedly more Saturday-centric. And although we had a handful of excellent results on Friday, we're opting to also highlight a few already-finalized performances from today in addition to what we saw last night.

We'll be saving the main results from Boston University and Camel City for tomorrow's analysis. Let's begin...

Washington Women Set NCAA DMR Record in 10:46.62

Another week, another embarrassing whiff on my predictions.

I was well aware that the Washington women were going to run a fully-stacked DMR lineup on Friday night at Boston University. I also felt confident that they could run something fast and that they would win.

All of those things came true.

But if I had told you that the Huskies were going to win by more than 12 seconds over the next-best team, then would you have thought that they'd run 10:46? Probably not...right?

Well, that's what I thought, and that's why I predicted that the Huskies would go under the 11:00 barrier by only a few seconds. It's not that I thought they were incapable of running the nation's top time, I just wasn't sure if this was the field that would help them reach that point.

Of course, what do I know?

What I loved about this performance is that everyone was fantastic. All four legs. Everyone made a significant contribution. However, in my eyes, Sophie O'Sullivan was the hero of this relay. After being paced by pro athlete Alli Cash, the Irish collegiate runner came through 1000 meters in a stunning time of 2:44 before passing off the baton in a time of 3:16 (which Washington says is an "unofficial" split).

Preigh ran 54.2, Thomas ran 2:01.9 and Gibson ran 4:34.2. But despite the impressiveness of those efforts, O'Sullivan's lead-off leg may be one of the single greatest relay performances I have ever seen. Most women go all-out to run 2:44 for 1000 meters and that's usually one of the better times in the country. To run that fast and then run another lap is beyond incredible.

The Washington women have often boasted nationally competitive distance medley relays over the last few years. However, they've never been true contenders for the national title and have never fully delivered on their (perceived) relay potential.

But in 2023, that is very clearly not the case.

This Washington distance group already seems to be the most complete that they have been in a while. Gibson is the best that she's ever been (which is saying a lot), O'Sullivan is just starting to reach her true potential, Carley Thomas is seemingly returning to her 2020 form and Marlena Preigh is slowly making the transition from "solid" to "good" to maybe even "great".

Of course, we can't wrap up this section of analysis without mentioning Coach Maurica Powell.

The Huskies just broke a DMR record that had stood since 2017. The former record of 10:48.77 was previously held by Oregon, a team that was under the direction of Coach Powell before she ventured to Seattle a year and a half later.

It's one thing for a coach to lead their women to a national record once. But it's another thing for that same coach to then set another national record in that same event with an entirely different group at an entirely different school.

That is the stuff of legend. And now, Powell is positioning herself to (potentially) win The Stride Report's "Best Distance Coach" award at the end of March (which, as we all know, is the most important collegiate honor to win in a single season).

Bizimana Runs 1:46 (800) NCAA Lead En Route to Win, Zahafi (1:46) & Carlson (1:47) Earn Strong Conversions

Here is what I said about Texas ace Yusuf Bizimana in last week's rankings...

"...we have a feeling that this English middle distance runner is going to eventually post a time that makes us regret ranking him outside of our top-20."

And surprise, surprise! We were right.

At New Mexico, the Longhorn middle distance star toed the line against one of the more competitive 800 meter fields that we've seen this season. That, however, seemingly didn't faze him.

Despite having to face the likes of ACC champion Ayman Zahafi (Miami (FL)), All-American Dayton Carlson (Arizona State) and Brooks Beats pro Devin Dixon, it was Bizimana who came out with a fairly comfortable victory.

The English speedster ran a monster time of 1:46.62 for 800 meters, comfortably taking down Zahafi (1:47.44) and Carlson (1:48.50) in the process. After conversions, Bizimana now sits at NCAA #1 in the 800 meters with a 1:46.03 mark. Zahafi and Carlson earned 1:46.84 and 1:47.90 conversions, respectively, of their own.

Truthfully, we should have seen this coming. And as you can tell by the above quote, we kinda did. Bizimana had run 1:02.91 (500) and 1:15.79 (600) coming into this weekend. Those events aren't contested all that often, but those are still incredibly fast times.

And given his history in this event, it made sense that Bizimana would only get better as he moves up in distance to his ideal race.

Tactically, Bizimana is really solid. He has won numerous BIG 12 titles in a variety of different events and is a multi-time All-American between the 800 meters and the mile. On paper, he is one of the more dynamic and complete middle distance runners in the NCAA.

Bizimana certainly has a history of sub-1:47 performances, although the past year was relatively quiet by the standards of his own resume (which was still plenty competitive). He ran 1:46.93 in the summer of 2020 before coming to Texas, eventually running a pair of 1:46 marks at the 2021 outdoor national meet.

But this latest result suggests that this now-established star truly has taken his fitness to a new level. An unconverted 1:46.62 time is an outright personal best for Bizimana and his conversion of 1:46.03 puts him at the top of the national leaderboard.

So what does this mean for Bizimana's postseason hopes? With varying amounts of uncertainty still lingering around Jonathan Jones and Navasky Anderson, is there a world where Bizimana could be viewed as a national title contender?

I don't know if we can answer that question convincingly just yet, but it's not a ridiculous suggestion to make.

Texas now has the top-two men's times in the nation over 800 meters. Bizimana sits at NCAA #1 while Crayton Carrozza sits at NCAA #2. Does this top-heavy dominance from the Longhorns create a greater incentive for Texas to diversify their points and have Jonathan Jones pursue the 800 meters instead?

From a point scoring standpoint, that makes the most sense.

Either way, Bizimana looks like he's the sharpest he's ever been. And when you consider how good he already was over the last few seasons, that could be problematic for his competitors on the national stage come March.

We then come to Ayman Zahafi, a guy who ran ran a blistering fast 1:46.84 conversion which now places him at NCAA #4. The Miami middle distance standout has proven to be one of the more naturally talented half-milers in the nation over the last few seasons. Seeing him run this kind of time, while certainly one of his better efforts, is admittedly not super shocking

Zahafi is clearly trending in the right direction with this kind of result, but tactics and postseason execution still need to be a priority for him. Of the two D1 national meets that he qualified for last year, he never made it out of the prelims. And although he did win an ACC title last spring, that 800 meter field wasn't necessarily the most competitive that it historically has been.

Of course, those critiques shouldn't take away from what Zahafi has done and is doing. He just showed us that he's at/near his all-time peak. He just took down a national-caliber name in Dayton Carlson and he now has a full year of D1 experience under his belt.

If Zahafi can continue to refine his racing approach, then he will likely be an All-American lock with very few weaknesses. Now, it's just a matter of where he goes from here...

As for Dayton Carlson, this is a solid step in the right direction, although even with a 1:47.90 conversion, the Arizona State star will likely need to run faster if he wants to be racing on this same track in March.

It's easy to forget that Carlson is only a sophomore. As a true freshman last year, he ran 1:46.72 (800) and finished 6th overall at the outdoor national meet. He's still working on building some career-long momentum and translating that spring success to now, but Friday's race was still a good one for him.

When Carlson gets hot (as we saw last spring), he's capable of beating basically any non-title contender. And after running a 1:48.77 mark (unconverted) at altitude, his latest performance suggests that he's slowly ramping up his fitness.

Could he peak just as effectively as he did last year?

It certainly seems possible...

Annika Reiss Continues to Attack Mile at Altitude, Runs Converted 4:33 Mark

Earlier this season, Northern Arizona's Annika Reiss made her season debut in the mile. That race took place on her home track, giving her an altitude conversion all the way down to 4:36.

That performance was encouraging. We knew Reiss was talented after she had a breakout cross country season, but her 4:36 conversion validated the idea that her recent rise would carry over to the indoor oval.

Of course, in that moment, we knew that Reiss would need to run a little faster if she wanted a chance to qualify for the indoor national meet...so she did.

After returning to her home track this past Friday, Reiss dropped a huge 4:43 mile time at just under 6900 feet of elevation. As a result, she gained a monumental 4:33 mile conversion. And suddenly, her prospects of extending her season into mid-March look very good.

Admittedly, we still don't know a ton about how Reiss performs on the track. Yes, she has run two excellent mile marks this season, but mile races at altitude are very different than ones run at sea level. We've never seen Reiss race at this level before (on the track) and we don't know how she'll perform in other events, mainly the 3000 meters.

However, maybe the biggest question for Reiss is...are we sure that she's going to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships with this mile conversion?

As I'm writing this, Reiss sits at NCAA #10 in the women's mile. But following Maia Ramsden's recent 4:30 mile effort at Boston University, as well as Amina Maatoug's unconverted 4:32 mile time, the rising NAU talent will now move back to NCAA #12 in the event.

That, of course, doesn't take into consideration any other mile efforts at other meets that may end up being faster.

With three weekends of NCAA competition remaining, it seems plenty realistic for five or more women to run faster than Reiss' recent 4:33.66 conversion (which feels like such an absurd statement). And when you look at everyone ahead of Reiss, there is a good chance that most of those women will end up contesting the mile at the indoor national meet.

Is this emerging Lumberjack talent probably safe in terms of national qualifying? Yes, probably, but I wouldn't necessarily say that she's a lock, either.

Aurora Rynda Returns to Peak, Clocks 2:02.99 Mark Over 800 Meters to Win Meyo Invitational

Few women are more experienced than Aurora Rynda over 800 meters. The Michigan half-miler has recorded 28 races at that distance (collegiately) and has qualified for the indoor and outdoor national meets four separate times (three individually).

And like most nationally competitive veterans, Rynda was able to match her peak from last year almost perfectly. I say that because the Wolverine ace ran a 2:02.89 mark at this same exact meet last year. For her to run just 0.10 seconds slower on Saturday at the same venue is some nice reliability.

This is undoubtedly one of the better results that we'll see this weekend, but I also don't know if Rynda's performance tells us anything that we didn't already know. That's not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, but I don't think anyone is going to look at this result and say that Rynda is definitively a finals qualifier, upper-half All-American, national title contender, etc.

Rynda owns a 2:01 PR from last spring. And after seeing what she ran at this meet last winter, her recent 2:02 effort is simple validation that she's going back to the national meet.

The Ann Arbor-based middle distance talent has competed at three national meets in the open 800 meters. In two of those instances, she has missed making it to the finals. But last winter, she cracked the top-eight and finished 7th overall to be emerge as an All-American.

A backend All-American seems like the best way to describe Rynda's potential/ceiling this season. She has a history of building momentum as she enters the postseason, but she's by no means a lock to get out of the prelims, especially not in a year that seems super top-heavy.

The next goal for Rynda will be to either, a) refine her tactics even further, b) build on her fitness to the point where she can simply overwhelm (most of) her competition, or c) all of the above.

What she does over the next few weeks of racing will likely determine where in the national 800 meter conversation she belongs.

Nick Foster Continues to Thrive, Runs 3:56 Mile PR to Secure Overall Win at Meyo Invitational

The Meyo Invitational at Notre Dame used to be one of the more impactful distance-centric meets in the entire NCAA on the annual basis. That's not necessarily the case anymore, but there are still plenty of fantastic results being produced from midwest programs on the Fighting Irish's 300 meter indoor track.

In one of the more quietly deep mile fields of the weekend, Michigan's rising star Nick Foster threw down a fantastic 3:56 mile PR. As a result, he secured a key win over the likes of Eastern Michigan's Baldvin Magnusson (3:57), Notre Dame's Carter Solomon (3:57), Michigan teammate Arjun Jha (3:58), Kent State's Brady Bai (3:59) and Cincinnati's Tyler Wirth (3:59).

Foster has grown quite a lot as a competitor this year. He showed significant signs of improvement on the grass this past fall, but then ventured to the oval where he is historically at his best.

So far this season, Foster has run 2:22 (1k), 3:59 (mile), 7:53 (3k) and now 3:56 (mile). In most of those races, he was simply racing against the still-rising pro group, Very Nice Track Club. This is the first race of Foster's season where, for the most part, he faced competition that wasn't based in Ann Arbor.

Baldvin Magnusson is having a much more consistent and complete season than some people may realize. Taking him down is no joke. Meanwhile, Carter Solomon is fresh off of a breakout cross country season and theoretically had more momentum than anyone coming into this race.

Other names such as Jha, Bai and Wirth are all highly respectable distance talents in their own right. They didn't necessarily pose as the same mile threats to Foster that Magnusson and Solomon were, but they certainly didn't make life easier for anyone, either.

Simply put, Foster is showing a ton of encouraging signs right now. He's flexing some strong versatility, he's probably been the most consistent that he's ever been and now he's securing key wins over competitive fields.

He'll need to run faster to qualify for the indoor national meet, but if he can produce a 3:54 mark or potentially a 3:55 low result, then he may be a great sleeper pick to make it out of the mile prelims when making your predictions in March.

We should also note that Butler's Jesse Hamlin faded in this race to a mark of 4:04. That was a bit surprising as you could probably make the argument that he was favored to take home the overall win. Hamlin did, after all, run 7:44 for 3000 meters back in December and has run 3:38 (twice) for 1500 meters throughout his career.

Olivia Howell's 4:33 Effort Proves To Be Too Much For Olivia Markezich's 4:34 PR, Four Others Go Sub-4:40

There were naturally a lot of great head-to-head matchups that we hyped up this weekend. The women's mile at both Boston University and Camel City were two races that featured some exciting fields (and they also produced some of the most exciting results).

But in South Bend, Indiana, midwest distance running fans got to see a fantastic mile battle between Illinois veteran star Olivia Howell and rising Notre Dame ace, Olivia Markezich.

On paper, Howell was viewed as the favorite. She was easily the most experienced miler in the field, holds an All-American honor in this event and had already run times of 4:33 (mile) and 4:09 (1500) coming into this weekend.

Markezich, meanwhile, just went through a massive breakthrough season this past fall. She finished 8th at the NCAA XC Championships and then proceeded to drop a massively impressive time of 8:50 for 3000 meters back in December, barely losing to Ceili McCabe.

Both of these women had different things going for them heading into Saturday. Howell had the experience and event specialization. Markezich had her home track, greater momentum and maybe better overall fitness.

But in the end, it was Howell who got the edge over the Irish distance ace, posting a time of 4:33.77, just 0.02 seconds off of her personal best which she ran around this time last year.

Markezich instead settled for a 4:34 runner-up result, a still-significant personal best by over five seconds. Butler's Angelina Ellis (4:37), Notre Dame's Katie Thronson (4:37), Bradley's Tiana Lostracco (4:39) and Toledo's Lou Trois (4:39) all ran under 4:40 as well.

For Howell, this is a key result. Not only did she essentially match her personal best, but she also took down a really impressive field which featured a true superstar and some underrated depth.

Despite only emerging as an All-American in one out of her three tries, Howell still feels like a safe bet to be among the top-eight women on the national stage. Everything about her resume suggests that she'll be in that position. She has the times, she has the experience, she has the recent success and she has a marquee win.

As for Markezich, this may not have been a win or a mile time that she was capable of hitting (I thought she could have run as fast as 4:32), but it's still a nice display of speed. For someone who will almost certainly compete in a tactical 3k on the national stage, her recent display of turnover felt almost necessary.