The Group Chat: Reacting to the D3 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships

The indoor national meet may be over, but there is still A TON to talk about. Below, our dedicated D3 team analyzed some of the key performances from Friday and Saturday, giving their thoughts on certain individuals and relays.

Let's begin...

What was the most exciting race of the weekend?

Brett: I’d have to go with the women’s DMR which featured a lot of drama and surprises. First off, Kassie Parker did decide to come back from the 5k, despite being pushed to her limits in order to win that race, and run the DMR an hour later. That was surprising enough as it was.

I expected this race to be a two-team battle between Wartburg and UW-Oshkosh, but as fate would have it, the Titans were nowhere to be seen after the 400 meter leg and ultimately recorded a DNF next to their name.

As Wartburg and the U. of Chicago women dominated the first three legs, out of nowhere you began to see the purple of Loras inching near the front as the Duhawks’ 800 meter leg, Alyssa Pfadenhauer, split an unreal time of 2:09 on her leg to hand the baton off to Parker right behind conference foe Aubrie Fisher (Wartburg).

The lax pace of the mile leg, as dictated by Parker, allowed for EIGHT teams to catch up and be in contention with just a few laps to go.

And yet, even so, Parker still had something incredible in her legs left after that 5000 meter race, employing a maddening kick to try and win. However, her efforts fell just short as Fisher just barely out-kicked her to bring home the title for the Knights.

This race was an incredible battle that I would have never expected to unfold in the way that it did. Parker coming back from the double, Oshkosh recording a DNF, Pfadenhauer splitting 2:09, an entire pack of contenders coming back into frame and Fisher out-kicking Parker...all of it was stunning.

Just when you thought you knew what was going to happen, there was an unexpected twist. For those reasons, I think the women's DMR was the most exciting race of the weekend.

Kevin: There were a lot of great races, but I have to give the edge to the DMR on the men’s side. Aidan Ryan put in a herculean effort to take the lead for Williams after getting the baton in 9th place, but Jacob Ridderhoff found another gear to respond and he ultimately gave Washington U. the national title with a 4:05 split.

This race was equally as entertaining to watch as it was impressive, and it had major implications in the team battle as well. It's also pretty wild to see a 3:56 miler like Ryan be out-kicked, even if he had to come back from 9th place when he got the baton.

On the women’s side, the open mile was more tightly contested than I would have expected it to be...or really anyone expected it to be. John Hopkins' Ella Baran opened up an honest pace to make it clear that she wanted to drop the field and not leave anything up to chance.

Evie Miller, however, had other plans as she hung around for longer than many expected and made Baran give everything she had to just squeak out the title.

This thrilling battle between heavy-hitting D3 mile stars was awesome and it was nice to see that Baran didn't just run away from the field or that her competition let her go uncontested. Miller has a lot to be proud of and yet again, the unexpected made this race very exciting.

Hannah: Honestly, every race this weekend was exciting, even though most of the favorites did end up winning.

I think one of the most exciting races was the women's 3k. As the last distance race of the weekend, it had the national champions from the 800 meters, the mile, the 5k and the DMR (I’m counting Aubrie Fisher).

Surprisingly, the main pack was a group of seven women that broke away and were all still together with 400 meters to go. Surprisingly, strength-based aerobic runners like Kassie Parker, Ari Marks and Fiona Smith dropped mile champion Ella Baran as they came through the last lap together. I think that was a little unexpected, mainly because something a bit more tactical would theoretically favor Baran.

At the same time, Baran was coming back from the mile finals earlier in the day.

I sincerely thought Ari Marks was going to get revenge on Kassie Parker from her 5k loss. Alas, Parker was the class of the field and held off Marks and Smith to take home her second win and her third All-American honor of the weekend.

Not only did Parker show incredible fitness, but her ability to handle a variety of different race scenarios was very encouraging to see, only adding her to her overwhelming dominance.

What was the most surprising result of the weekend?

Hannah: I think the clear answer here was seeing Mike Jasa finishing in 4th place in the 800 meters. He was the heavy favorite, but after a savvy move by veteran Steven Potter to not let him in on the inside rail with 100 meter to go, Jasa just never looked the same.

It was a smart move and it almost got Potter the national championship, but Ryan Wilson led most of the race and wasn’t going to let go of the win.

Overall, this was a stunning turn of events and not seeing Jasa amongst the top-three was a major upset given that he was, debatably, one of the heaviest favorites of the national meet in his respective event.

Brett: I think everyone was absolutely shocked to see Jasa lose the 800 meters. There were many audible gasps at my watch party in that final 100 meters as we realized what was going to happen.

Outside of Jasa, I think the next-most surprising result, in my mind, came in the men’s 5000 meters. In that race, we saw Joe Freiburger fall from a nearly-locked 2nd place finish to 8th place in the span of the final 600 meters.

Barring any disasters, with 600 meters to go, Freiburger was looking strong, sticking right on Alex Phillip’s tail. He seemed to have locked up 2nd place and given his past history of success, it was unlikely that a veteran was going to falter in the final moments.

However, looks can be deceiving. Unfortunately we weren’t able to clearly see his final three laps, as the camera was fixated on Phillip, I was shocked to hear the commentators remarking that the pack was eating up Freiburger on the final lap.

The chase pack was closing hard, but Freiburger really had nothing left. His final three 200 meter splits were 35.8, 38.0 and 41.7. That was a bit surprising as it's rare to see athletes in that high of a position so late in the race hit such a hard wall with such little distance left.

On the women’s side, I did not at all expect the 5000 meters to be such a hotly contested race! Wellesley's Ari Marks really gave Kassie Parker a run for her money.

Parker was running solo for a large majority of this race, looking easy and controlled throughout. However, just before the 3k mark, Marks started to throw down some 37-second splits and then surged from being EIGHT seconds back to right on Parker’s shoulder.

This was a real race now and the honest pacing clearly benefitted a strength-based runner like Marks who we have said before would benefit from an aggressively paced scenario.

Marks was relentless in the final 800 meters, taking over the lead at 4200 meters and putting the question in everyone’s minds: Could she defeat Kassie Parker?

Ultimately, Parker’s final two laps were unable to be matched, giving her the win, but Mark’s tenacity and boldness sent Parker to a much harder effort level than she was likely expecting in that race.

This all-out affair really tested the aerobic capacity of the best women in this field. Although we figured Marks would thrive because of that, I don't think we were expecting her to make challenge Parker like she did which is what made this race so surprising.

Kevin: I agree with Hannah here. Mike Jasa falling back to 4th was shocking, and the winners in most of the other races were fairly unsurprising. The 800 meters is always unpredictable to an extent, but Jasa has been so consistently dominant in that area that seeing him be human in the last 100 meters is a little bit weird.

On the flip side, you have to give a lot of credit to Ryan Wilson. This was his first career appearance at a national meet on the track, but with the level of composure that he raced with, you would have thought he had been there several times before.

Back in December, not many people outside of MIT could have predicted him winning a national title in March, but he put it all together at the right time. Great racing by him.

Who was the MVR (Most Valuable Runner) at the national meet on both the men's and women's sides?

Hannah: For the women, I have to give it to Kassie Parker. The 5k/3k double winner and the 2nd place finisher in the DMR, almost beating Wartburg, is an outstanding triple.

And it’s not like any of her races were runaway victories. Both wins were very close and Ari Marks made Parker work for the title. Plus, in the DMR, for her to bring Loras back into the title contention after being so far down was wildly impressive.

For the men, I am going to choose someone a bit different than who Brett and Kevin will go with. I am, of course, talking about Jacob Ridderhoff.

The veteran miler helped Washington U. take the DMR title by upsetting the best miler in D3 history, Aidan Ryan. He did it in dramatic fashion with a sprint finish and out-leaning Ryan at the line.

Then, in the 3k, it again came down to a sprint finish where Ridderhoff crossed the line in 4th place. That’s big considering that he came into the meet ranked at NCAA #11.

A big reason why I am giving him our MVR award is because without his heroics on the anchor leg of the DMR, Washington U. does not tie for the team title. Heck, they came into the national meet ranked 16th!! Talk about clutch...

Brett: On the women’s side, the MVR was Kassie Parker without a doubt. As I already delved into above, that 5k/DMR double on day one turned out to be an incredibly good decision (which was bold) and she still came back to win the 3000 meters as well.

What an incredible weekend for her. 28 team points isn’t too shabby, either, helping the Loras women clinch a national team title.

On the men’s side, it’s a tough call between Alex Phillip and Aidan Ryan, but Phillip navigated his races with nearly-flawless tactics throughout. I have to hand him the MVR for cruising to two national titles. He looked great this weekend.

Phillip looked dominant and in control during both of his national title wins, even having enough time and space to celebrate on the final stretch of both the 5000 meters and the 3000 meters. There’s no doubt in my mind that Phillip has ensnared his dominance over Division Three championship races.

Kevin: I also have to give the MVP to Kassie Parker for women and Alex Phillip for the men.

Parker held on to win the 5k despite Ari Marks making it harder for her than it was expected to be. Parker then went on to run a gutsy DMR leg an hour later to help Loras to a runner-up DMR finish. For her to come back the next day and win the 3k was massive, even if it wasn’t surprising, and Loras ultimately won the team crown in large part due to her performances.

Yes, Parker won a lot, but the courage and grit she displayed over the weekend was hard not to admire.

Aidan Ryan deserves a lot of credit for racing four times this weekend and helping to earn 26 points of Williams’ 32 team points...but national titles arguably mean more and Alex Phillip captured two of them.

As Brett said, Phillip executed his race plan perfectly in both the 5k and the 3k. His career resume was already wildly impressive going into this weekend, but he has used this opportunity to take it another step further now.

Highlight one better-than-expected performance and one underwhelming performance for both the men and the women.

Brett: In the men’s 5000 meters, Michael Obroin’s final 200 meters was faster than anyone else’s, covering the final stretch in 28.8 seconds to kick past David Fassbender, Sam Craig and Christian Patzka to take home national runner-up honors.

I don’t think many people, not even myself, considered Obroin to even be an All-American in this race, let alone him being the 2nd place finisher behind Phillip. Major props to him on having a huge breakout performance and establishing himself as a national elite.

As for the underwhelming portion, I unfortunately have to go with the Claremont-Mudd Scripps men who were very disappointing in this meet as a whole.

Kai Dettman in the 800 meters had the unfortunate circumstance of tripping on the rail on the homestretch, but even so, he wasn’t in a qualifying position at the time.

Then, in the 3000 meters, Henry Pick and Miles Christensen were some of the most potent and fresh guys in the field, but they ended up finishing 16th and 19th, respectively. I wouldn’t have been surprised if these two guys had finished as All-Americans in the event, but they weren’t even in contention when the pace picked up in the back-half of the race.

On the women’s side, Esther Seeland deserves some major credit for doubling back in the 3000 meters just 40 minutes after running 2:05.75 in the 800 meters.

For someone who is much more middle distance-based, Seeland put herself in great contention in the 3000 meters, ultimately running a seven-second PR and finishing 7th in a loaded field. She came into the national meet as the NCAA #18 runner for this distance, but outperformed her seed by a wide margin.

Even if some people (myself included) questioned this odd 800/3000 double, it clearly paid off for Seeland in a big way.

As for the underwhelming women's result, it stinks to harp on this, but UW-Oshkosh’s women’s DMR not finishing was an unfortunate outcome. Many of the women on that relay dropped individual events to pursue this all-star relay, so it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t see the full strength of what they could accomplish.

Zanzie Demco, however, was able to make up for that disappointment with a 3rd place finish in that star-studded mile.

Kevin: After being initially seeded at 9th in the mile and eventually qualifying for the final, Molly Fitzgibbons seemed like a fringe All-American. However, she then ran a four-second PR in the finals to finish 5th place overall in a star-studded field.

This was her first full indoor season, but she did not let her inexperience affect her at all. Not bad for someone who was ranked at NCAA #16 in the mile coming into this weekend...

On the men's side, I am going to agree with Brett.

Michael Obroin exceeded everybody’s expectations in the 5000 meters. He had a breakout season to get him to the national meet as the 7th seed, but he didn’t have the same pedigree as some of his opponents.

But Obroin took advantage of the opportunity and went from 6th place to 2nd place in the final 200 meters of the race. When you finish behind only Alex Phillip, that’s pretty good company to be in.

As far as the underperformances go, I expected the Johns Hopkins women in the 3k to be a bit more competitive. Granted, Ella Baran and Alex Ross not being fresh didn’t help, but when you have six women entered, including the official D3 record holder, it’s tough to only get four points out of the event.

On the men’s side, I’m going to say Grahm Tuohy-Gaydos in the 5k for the underperformance. He came in seeded 2nd, but was disconnected from the leaders by the 3k mark and ended up finishing 14th.

Now, in fairness to him, he is a true freshman, and he did bounce back to earn All-American honors with a 7th place finish in the 3000 meters. Still, I expected him to do more this weekend.

Tuohy-Gaydos has a bright future ahead of him, and he can definitely use this national meet as a learning opportunity to contend for future titles.

Hannah: When it comes to better-than-expected performances, I am going with the UW-Whitewater men as my choice.

They had three entries in the 5000 meters with David Fassbender listed at NCAA #3, Christian Patzka listed at NCAA #13 and Gunner Schlender listed at NCAA #14. In the end, they finished 4th place, 5th place and 6th place, albeit in a different order.

Patzka, who is just a freshman, ran a personal best to finish 4th while veteran Fassbender was just off of his PR to place 5th. Freshman Schlender also earned a PR to finish 6th pace overall.

Patzka and Schlender, despite being inexperience rookies, made massive improvements from their initial seeds and Fassbender wasn't far off from his initial seed at all. There is a lot to be proud of in this race and this team ran together incredibly well. Congrats to them.

For the women's side, this might be controversial to say. However, what Ari Marks did this weekend should be considered as an "overperformance".

Mark came into the national meet ranked at NCAA #6 in the 3k and NCAA #2 in the 5k. The end result? She finished national runner-up in both events.

The reason why I call Marks an overperformer is because no one expected her to be such a major factor near (or at) the front of these races. The 5k was almost a 20 second PR for her and she gave Kassie Parker a scare, just four seconds behind her.

The two of them were more than 20 seconds ahead of the next finisher.

In the 3k, it was even closer. Marks lost by only one second in a sprint finish, but beat notoriously fast finishers like Ella Baran, Evie Miller and Esther Seeland.

This has been a massive breakout year for Ari Marks and I am just excited to see what she can do during the outdoor season.

For the men’s underperformance, I will have to say the Wartburg men in the 3k.

Christopher Collet was ranked at NCAA #7 in the event and Joe Freiburger was ranked at NCAA #9, both with marks of 8:16 for the distance.

I understand that this was the last distance race of the weekend and that both of them were doubling back from other events, but finishing 18th place and 20th place is a bit of a bummer. As the race was unfolding, they were nowhere to be found and when they did show up on the stream, they just looked gassed.

Both men were well-off their seasonal bests with Freiburger running 8:33 and Collet finishing in 8:50.

On the women's side I have to agree with Brett and choose the Oshkosh DMR for the women’s underperformance of the weekend.

It pains me to say this, because (spoiler alert) I’m an alum and I love them, but coming in ranked at NCAA #2 and then not even giving Zanzie Demco a chance to run hurts.

Libby Geisness has said that the baton was bumped out of her hand on the 400 meter leg which is heartbreaking. I would have loved to see the battle between Kassie Parker, Aubrie Fisher and Zanzie Demco as Demco is probably the best pure miler of the three.

Luckily, the Titans should return three of their four relay members which is the silver-lining for this team.