Let's Get Caught Up (Part One)

Phew! The first full week of our relaunch is now in the books.

See? We didn't have too much rust...at least, I don't think so.

Our preseason rankings are now complete, our TRANSFERS page has been updated and one other project is in the works. With the main items checked off on our "to-do" list, now feels like the time to essentially freestyle this article as we review the results that have headlined the month of December.

*Cracks knuckles*

*Sits up straight*

*Pulls up 87 different tabs of TFRRS results*

Let's get started...

I'm sure everyone wants to chat about the results that we saw at Boston University. However, I actually want to delay that conversation until Part Two. Instead, let's shift everyone's attention to a handful of non-BU races.

Earlier this month, the Notre Dame men, with a revamped, new-look 800 meter squad, opted to put their top guys on the track and have them go head-to-head in their season debuts. Leading the way was Bashir Mosavel-Lo, the graduate transfer from Virginia Tech, who took down Fighting Irish veteran Samuel Voelz, 1:48.52 to 1:48.82.

Based on last year's results, Mosavel-Lo should be able to barely sneak into the indoor national meet with that time. Voelz will likely need to run a bit quicker in order to qualify for the national meet, and he almost certainly will.

It should come as no surprise that these two finished as close to each other as they did. Mosavel-Lo and Voelz have gone back and forth at the ACC Championships and the NCAA Championships over the past few seasons, splitting their head-to-head battles somewhat evenly.

At first glance, these results, while solid, don't really tell us anything new.

However, we need to keep in mind that Voelz ran 1:45 for 800 meters this past summer, placing 6th at the Olympic Trials. Yes, it's true, he's not aiming to peak in December, but seeing Mosavel-Lo secure a win over his newest teammate who has recently been racing at an incredibly high level has to be very encouraging.

In fact, that win could spark a streak of momentum for the rest of Mosavel-Lo's season, making him more of an All-American contender than he already was.

Or maybe I'm just overreacting to one race in early December.

I'll let you guys decide that.

Before we move on, I also want to make a quick note about Dartmouth graduate transfer Tim Zepf who finished 3rd overall in that race with a time of 1:49.18.

I like Zepf quite a bit. He is super experienced and boasted a personal best under 1:50 before he made his commitment to Notre Dame. He finished up his 2021 outdoor track season with a 1:48 personal best.

In fact, he ran 1:48 multiple times in the postseason, suggesting that he was peaking at the perfect time last spring.

Running a time of 1:49 on an indoor track in early December, which was less than one second off of his personal best, makes me excited for Zepf this winter. Not only is he off to a great start, but Coach Sean Carlson has a history of helping his athletes peak for the postseason and Zepf already showed that he can time his peak perfectly.

Watch out for the former Dartmouth runner moving forward. All of the tell-tale signs are there for him to be a key name in February.

I do want to keep chatting about the men's 800 meters, but let's briefly talk about the women.

Admittedly, the women's 800 meters hasn't produced the same kind of nationally competitive marks that the men's 800 meters has this season. Even so, there have still been a few notable marks.

Richmond veteran Brooke Fazio got off to a nice start earlier this month, running 2:06 (flat-track conversion) which now leads the country. That mark won't get her into the postseason, but it's a decent result and a nice way for an experienced middle distance standout to start her season.

Fazio is a stud and she is oftentimes overlooked given how insanely top-heavy the women's 800 meters has been as of late. I mean, how often is it that someone runs 2:02 and finishes 8th at the NCAA Outdoor Championship?!

The Richmond ace will surely be a factor later in the postseason, but this winter will be the season where we see if she can go from being "good" to "great".

Also, quick shoutout to Boise State's MaLeigha Menegatti who ran 2:07 the other week. That mark isn't going to set the world on fire, but it's a respectable time and it's fairly close to her personal best time of 2:06.

Ever since Kristie Schoffield ran 2:02 for Boise State back in 2019, I just like to assume that any Boise State women's 800 runner who posts a halfway decent time is going to be a nationally competitive name in the future.

Whether or not that's the case for Menegatti has yet to be seen, but she had a nice start to her season and she's in a position to run faster as the season progresses. If she can use her latest result as momentum and drop into the 2:05 range, then she may be able to sneak into the national meet.

Also, while we're on the topic of women's middle distance runners, I feel pretty confident that a lot of people overlooked the women's 1000 meter results at the Hoosier Open earlier this month.

In that race, Indiana seniors Kelly Mindak and Hannah Stoffel charged to the line, going 1-2 and each earning a mark of 2:47 for 1000 meters. Those two results are outstanding. In my mind, any woman who runs under 2:50 for 1000 meters has the potential be a nationally competitive name in the middle distances.

Seeing the Hoosiers have two women run as fast as they did this early in the season is incredibly encouraging. Stoffel has proven to be a very solid talent, but her recent personal best in the 1000 meters suggests that she is capable of lowering her personal bests of 2:07 (800) and 4:44 (mile).

As for Kelly Mindak, this result is incredibly exciting, mainly because it validates her success from last spring when she ran 2:05 for 800 meters. This result also indicates that Mindak should be able to fully translate her success on the outdoor oval to the indoor track.

Keep an eye on these two once we hit January. Indiana is a team that races fairly often, so Mindak and Stoffel should have plenty of opportunities to capture our attention more than they already have.

Alright, let's go BACK to the men's 800 meters. However, instead of talking about Notre Dame, we're going to chat about Iowa State.

It should come as no surprise that the Cyclones are still really good in the middle distances. However, the men who are having national-level success so far this winter aren't the names who we were expecting.

At the ISU Holiday Open, the Iowa State men were paced by Cyclone-turned-pro runner Festus Lagat who won the 800 meters in a time of 1:46. However, behind him, he brought with him Cebastian Gentil who scored a strong personal best of 1:48. Fellow teammates Nehemia Too, Darius Kipyego and Alex Lomong each ran marks of 1:49.

We should also note that 1:47 man Jason Gomez was in this race, although he faltered to a mark of 1:56. We'll breakdown his result in a moment.

This was an outstanding race for Gentil as he left us with plenty of positive signs. He just ran a fairly strong personal best in December and took down a handful of accomplished middle distances talents (i.e. his teammates) in the process.

On paper, Gentil's 1:48.95 mark probably won't qualify him for the national meet, but it's not impossible, either. Regardless, that probably won't matter as Gentil will surely aim to run faster after the break.

As for everyone else, these results are hardly surprising, although I'll admit, I didn't expect to see Nehemia Too running 1:49 for 800 meters. He always struck me as a longer distance runner, boasting personal bests of 8:08 (3k) and 14:09 (5k).

Of course, after his 1000 meter performance from earlier in the month, we should have seen this coming.

At the Woo Pig Classic back on December 3rd, the Iowa State men sent their top middle distance talents to Fayetteville to toe the line for a fast 1000 meter effort.

Sure enough, "fast" is exactly what they got as the Cyclones had FOUR different men run 2:21 for 1000 meters. Jason Gomez, Nehemia Too, Alex Lomong and Darius Kipyego all posted sub-2:22 marks in that race, showing off a balance of middle distance firepower and depth that few teams in the NCAA can currently boast.

Seeing Gomez run 2:21 for 1000 meters and then come back to run 1:56 for 800 meters is admittedly perplexing. One result is great and the other result is bad. Of course, everyone is human and everyone is allowed to have an off day. It happens to even the most elite athletes.

While running 1:56 isn't ideal, we're not too concerned about that result given that Gomez finished as the top collegiate in the 1000 meters just one week before that. Come mid-January, he'll likely be lighting up the national leaderboard once again.

Alright, let's move up to the mile and wrap up this article before it gets too long.

I wanted to save most of my analysis from Boston University for Part Two, but the women's mile feels like it should be an exception. Let's briefly chat about them first.

Boston College veterans Lauren White and Anna Oeser put together a pair of strong results in the mile earlier this month. White now leads the NCAA in the mile with a time of 4:44 while Oeser posted a time of 4:48.

Admittedly, neither of those results are going to drastically alter the NCAA landscape, but they are still solid performances, nonetheless.

Over the past few years, White has proven that she is going to be competitive with most fields that he is entered in. She's fairly consistent and has been one of the better names in the ACC for a while. Seeing her run 4:44 is very encouraging, especially because she is more of a 3k and 5k runner.

In other words, we would expect her personal bests of 9:16 (3k) and 16:01 (5k) to drop by fairly significant margins this winter. However, the real challenge will be seeing if White can drop enough time to make it into the national meet.

As for the men, we have to talk about Isaac Basten.

The Drake standout has proven to be one of the better 1500 meter / mile runners in the NCAA, especially after running 3:39 for 1500 meters last spring and qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships where he made the finals.

Of course, in a spring season where it seems like everyone had grand success in the 1500 meters, it was hard to figure out where Basten truly sat amongst the best names in the NCAA.

As it turns out, he sits pretty highly.

The Bulldog star just ran 3:58.88 for the mile earlier this month, taking down Villanova All-American and recent Under Armor professional Casey Comber in the process.

Basten is at another level right now and admittedly, he probably should have been a "Just Missed" name (or at least an "Honorable Mention" name) in our preseason rankings.

I imagine we'll probably make that adjustment during our next update (sorry, Isaac).

Basten has now proven that he can run nationally competitive times on multiple occasions. He can peak in the postseason and he has taken down some accomplished distance talents.

What's not to like?

With that 3:58 mark under his belt, I'll be curious to see what he can do in the 3000 meters and the 5000 meters this winter. His current personal bests in those events are 8:16 and 14:19, respectively. In theory, those times should get crushed in January and February.

As for the other mile performances that we've seen this winter, the Princeton duo of Sam Ellis and Duncan Miller each posted a mile time of 4:02 back on December 4th. For Ellis, this kind of mark is hardly surprising as he has run 3:57 in the mile before.

However, the more important takeaway is the fact that he's actually racing again. Prior to this past fall, Ellis hadn't run collegiately since the 2020 Ivy League Indoor Championships.

4:02 may not be all that close to his personal best, but when given enough chances, Ellis could return to his 3:57 fitness.

And in this era of collegiate milers, he's probably going to have to run that 3:57 mark again.