The Group Chat: Detailing the NCAA D3 Championships

The NCAA D3 Championships are all wrapped up. The national meet gave us plenty to talk about, so our D3 crew put together some great prompts and went to work on their analysis of the meet. Let's begin...

Both 10,000 meter races ended up similarly as the #1 seeds of Parley Hannan and Jared Pangalozzi established solid gaps over the rest of the field. Were there any surprises in how the races played out?

Brett: When I mentioned in our preview last week about how Lucas Mueller was back, he spoke that into existence in the early stages of the race, taking the reins of the race after the first mile. I wasn’t surprised to see him take the lead, but there was pretty much no doubt about Pangalozzi bringing it home in the final mile. I tip my hat off to Mueller for taking the brunt of the race in some hot and sticky conditions.

As for Parley Hannan, the race was pretty much decided around 10 minutes in. After she gapped Kassie Rosenbum, there was no turning back. Her winning margin of 32 seconds wasn’t that shocking since she’s leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of DIII.

Now, the battle for the remaining All-American spots was quite an exciting battle. Seeded 12th coming in, Katie North of Illinois Wesleyan ran an incredible race to finish of 4th place, running a 42-second PR in the process. Considering none of us predicted her to finish inside the top-eight, her 4th place finish was probably the biggest surprise of this race.

Kevin: I agree with Brett that Katie North had an incredible day coming in under the radar and I also think Matthew Sayre of SUNY Geneseo's 3rd place finish on the men's side was a surprising performance. Although he is a household name, he has been more known for his 5k performances this year up until this weekend. I was the only one of us to predict him to finish in an All-American spot and I only had him at 8th.

As far as Parley Hannan and Jared Pangallozzi, they were the favorites coming in and they got the job done despite having targets on their backs, which is easier said than done. Neither of their victories necessarily surprised me, but I did think the women's race would be a little more competitive, and that Kassie Rosenbum would have given Hannan a little bit more trouble. But Hannan's win ended up being a dominant one as she gained separation early and never gave an inch.

Hannah: An interesting note about Parley Hannan’s win was that she had gotten a really painful side stitch around mile three which she said in an Instagram takeover for the DIII Glory Days podcast. This was after she had already gapped the field, so it didn’t seem to impair her too much, specially when you see that she still ran 34:33, only 21 seconds off of her PR, in not the best weather conditions for a 10k. I was pretty confident that no one could beat Hannan this weekend and she proved me right.

One of the surprises on the women's side is that Alex Ross from Johns Hopkins had a tough night. She came into the meet ranked 4th and all three of us had her finishing 3rd, but she struggled and finished one spot outside of All-American honors in 9th place. Her 37:12 is almost two minutes slower than her PR of 35:14. Her last race before the national meet was the Centennial conference meet on May 2nd, so I wonder if it was injury, the heat or if it just wasn’t her day that played a role. Either way, the junior has at least one more year of eligibility to return and avenge this race.

For the men, I think the race played out how we thought it was going to. The man with the fastest seed, Jared Pangallozzi, won the race and most of the top contenders were able to finish in the top-eight. I would say the most surprising performance was sophomore Ethan Gregg showing up at his first national meet and grabbing that last All-American spot. He came in ranked 13th, but outperformed his seed, finishing in 8th place in 30:48. His one point helped UW-L finish 5th overall as a team, only two points out of getting a team trophy.

Mike Jasa and Esther Seeland have been the faces of the 800 in DIII this year as the reigning #1 seeds and accordingly took home their national titles. Whose performance was more impressive?

Brett: It feels kind of nuts that seeing a 57/53 negative split to win the National Championship doesn’t get my vote in this scenario, but Esther Seeland’s performance was simply unreal. Holding Emily Pomainville on the ropes, Seeland ran a blistering 2:02.5, setting the DIII national meet record along the way which was held by former DIII legend Emily Richards.

Splitting 60/61, Seeland took the race out like mad and held on in dominating fashion. If Pomainville had been more fresh, it likely would have been a closer battle, but for her to run 2:05 in her fourth race of the weekend was wildly impressive.

In Jasa’s case, he flexed his prowess extremely well in the final 250 meters, but faced some pretty steep competition with the guys behind him, namely Iddriss Iddriss of Stevenson and Steven Potter of UW-Oshkosh.

Iddriss charged home hard in the final 100 meters, nearly catching Jasa, and also closing his final 400 in 53 seconds. It was still enough for Jasa to come away with his first national title, along with a runner-up finish in the 4x400 relay.

Kevin: I have to say Esther Seeland’s performance was more impressive. Running 2:02 at a national meet is absolutely insane and there isn’t much more that needs to be said about that. I do wonder if a fresh Emily Pomainville could have given her more of a race, which would have been a lot of fun to see as I’m not sure there has ever been a year in D3 with two 800 runners as fast as those two.

Mike Jasa also deserves a ton of credit for closing as fast as he did, as does runner-up Iddriss Iddriss. It’s not easy to run a fast negative split in the 800, especially one as significant as 57.8/53.8.

I’ve said before that Jasa has 1:49 fitness, and I believe thaat if he wanted to set a fast pace, he could have won and also taken two or three other guys under the 1:50 mark. That would have been fun to see, but there was really no reason to do that a national meet.

Hannah: I have to say Esther Seeland without a doubt had the best 800 race this weekend. It was a great battle against Emily Pomainville, who pulled a Yared Nuguse and broke the 1500 DIII collegiate record in the prelims. For Pomainville to be able to bounce back and even compete with Seeland deserves props, but Seeland's 2:02.52 was the standout performance of the weekend for me. It is a PR, but was an agonizing 0.02 seconds away from the Olympic Trials qualifying time. If Seeland can find another fast race before the Trials, she has a chance to be in Eugene later this month.

This weekend had so many great races and the mens 800 was no exception. While the women’s race was all about time, I would say the mens went the more traditional tactical style of racing that we are used to seeing at championships. That being said, Jasa dropping a 53.8 over the last 400 meters was insane. And for Iddriss Iddriss, who came in seeded 7th, to almost nip Jasa for the title added that extra dose of drama.

Gabe Pommier led pretty much 1500 meters of the 1500 final, bringing home the national title. Was that strategy smart or risky?

Brett: I thought it took a lot of guts to lead the entire final, but Pommier proved that he could do it in a convincing fashion. With 250 meters to go, I thought Jacob Ridderhoff was going to give him a run for his money, but getting tripped up with 200 meters to go which cut off some of his momentum and forced him to get back on track. Still, he hung on for a 2nd place finish in a very impressive run.

Just looking at the times as a whole, this was by far the fastest 1500 of the season, with the top-five guys all breaking 3:48 and the top-nine all breaking 3:50. A killer fast 1500 wouldn’t always be expected from a national meet, but this field was likely one of the most impressive national fields we’ve seen in recent history from DIII.

Hannah: I think it was a risky strategy. Pommier had one of the fastest 800 PRs in the field with a 1:51, so he could have sat and waited for a last lap sprint, but that brings a certain set of risks as well. I can’t really criticize his strategy, as clearly he made the right call for him as he won the race. There is pressure when you come into the national meet as the favorite to win the title, but Pommier looked calm while showing everyone that it was his race to win or lose.

Kevin: Whether Pommier's strategy was smart racing or not doesn't really matter because at the end of the day, he won. Going wire to wire at a national meet is always a bold call, but he had the confidence in his ability to hold everybody off, and it worked.

He ultimately made the race what it was, forcing everybody else to go fast with him. Five men under 3:48 is amazing, especially when you consider that Pommier was the only one to run that fast in the regular season, and it wouldn’t have happened without him.

The women’s steeplechase was wild with Aubrie Fisher narrowly squeezing out the win over Melissa Rowland. What were your thoughts on the only upset of the #1 seed of the weekend?

Brett: It was looking like a done deal for Melissa Rowland to earn the national title with 200 meters remaining, but in the steeplechase, you never know what’ll happen. Aubrie Fisher had a good last water barrier and brought home a thunderous kick over the final hurdle to seize the national title. Maybe that 800 she ran earlier in the year came in handy!

Also, it was cool to see Rowland and Anna Slager of Tufts control the front of this race in the early stages, akin to a certain prediction made a few days ago. It ended up paying off in the end, as both Rowland and Fisher ended up running some sizable PRs.

Kevin: The last straightaway of the steeple was very entertaining, as Aubrie Fisher found a second gear to kick past Melissa Rowland. They both ran solid PRs of 10:30 and 10:31, respectively, and also brought five other runners under 11 minutes, including Emma Malooly of UW-Lacrosse in 3rd who had a very solid outing in 10:42.

Although Fisher beating Rowland was officially an upset based on seed times, it was probably 50/50 going in. Fisher had the edge when it came to national meet experience, versatility and name recognition, but Rowland came very close to winning it after making massive improvements since her Pre-COVID college career.

Hannah: I think this was my favorite race of the weekend. I was cheering for Fisher as I had her winning in our predictions article. When she made the move over the last 100 meters, I was screaming at my phone.

I know we said anything can happen in a steeple as things get tricky over the barriers and water jumps and we saw it play out this weekend. Early on, we saw a pack of six break away from the rest of the field. Leading that pack was Rowland and her Tufts teammate Anna Slager. Unfortunately for Slager, she tripped over a hurdle and that ended her hopes of going 1-2 with her teammate. She still finished in 5th place, but she was looking strong until her fall.

This race truly had all of the drama I was wanting in a championship steeplechase.

Running his final race as a Carleton Knight and DIII athlete before heading to the University of Minnesota as a graduate transfer, Matthew Wilkinson took home two national titles in the steeplechase and the 5000 meters. Was either title really a surprise?

Brett: In the steeplechase, there was no chance anyone not named Wilkinson was winning, barring some sort of freak fall. The 5000 was much more open, but once the race got fast, it seemed evident that Wilkinson was going to win. His expression after nearly missing the DIII Championship record by 0.27 was priceless.

For him to run 8:47 and 13:55 in pretty much solo efforts...well, this bodes really well for his future on the DI scene. He’s run pretty much all of his deadly times alone this year and pretty much destroyed the rest of DIII through it all.

Hannah: I don’t think it’s a surprise that Matthew Wilkinson won two titles this weekend. The fact that one athlete had the chance of breaking a D3 record in two different events this weekend speaks of Wilkinson’s dominance this year. The steeple was clinched pretty early on for him and with the 5000 the next day, it looked like he wasn’t pushing to break the record that he is painstakingly close to.

In the 5000, we all thought Joe Freiburger might be able to hang on to challenge Wilkinson, but it was actually Alex Phillip of John Carroll who was the closest to him. And by closest, I mean he was still 15 seconds behind him. You could tell, especially over the last mile, that Wilkinson was pushing for the record and again he barely missed it.

The good news for us is that all but two runners from the 5000 field have eligibility remaining and are set to return (barring transfers) next year.

Kevin: Neither national title was a surprise. Wilkinson was a massive favorite in the steeplechase, and a fairly clear favorite in the 5000 as well. Throughout the regular season, he had put in some dominant solo performances that put him in the top-five all time for Division 3 in both the steeple and the 5k, so it would have taken something extraordinary to challenge him.

He should make an immediate impact when he moves to the University of Minnesota, as the times that he ran this season, while already wildly impressive, should drop even further when he begins to race in more competitive fields. The Gophers certainly got a big addition in Wilkinson.

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Speed Round

Men’s Most Impressive Performance

Brett: Matthew Wilkinson, Carleton, 5000: 13:55.27, just misses the meet record

Hannah: Matthew Wilkinson, Carleton, 5000: 13:55.27, just misses the meet record Kevin: Matthew Wilkinson, Carleton, 5000: 13:55.27, just misses the meet record

Women’s Most Impressive Performance

Brett: Esther Seeland, Messiah, runs 2:02.50 for 800 meters, sets the DIII meet record Hannah: Aubrie Fisher, Wartburg, comes back in the last 100 of the steeplechase and passes Melissa Rowland over the last barrier to win Kevin: Emily Pomainville, SUNY Geneseo, runs 4:13.69 in 1500 prelims (DIII Record)

Men’s Best Newcomer (Freshman Eligibility)

Brett: Alex Phillip, John Carroll, 5000 & 10000: 14:10 (2nd) & 30:27 (5th) Hannah: Alex Phillip, John Carroll, 5000 & 10000: 14:10 (2nd) & 30:27 (5th) Kevin: Alex Phillip, John Carroll, 5000 & 10000: 14:10 (2nd) & 30:27 (5th)

Women’s Best Newcomer (Freshman Eligibility)

Brett: Aubrie Fisher, Wartburg, Steeplechase & 5000: 10:30 (1st) & 17:06 (10th) Hannah: Aubrie Fisher, Wartburg, Steeplechase & 5000: 10:30 (1st) & 17:06 (10th) Kevin: Aubrie Fisher, Wartburg, Steeplechase & 5000: 10:30 (1st) & 17:06 (10th)

Men’s Most Exciting Race

Brett: 800 -- Jasa sneaking out the win over Iddriss & Potter Hannah: 1500 -- Pommier winning the 1500 after leading gun to tape, five men under 3:48 Kevin: 1500 -- Pommier winning the 1500 after leading gun to tape, five men under 3:48

Women’s Most Exciting Race

Brett: Steeplechase -- Fisher out-kicking Rowland in the final 100 meters Hannah: Steeplechase -- Fisher out-kicking Rowland in the final 100 meters Kevin: Steeplechase -- Fisher out-kicking Rowland in the final 100 meters