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Three Sentences Or Less: 2023 D3 NCAA Indoor Championship Women's Mile Preview
- Hannah Thorn
- Mar 7, 2023
- 6 min read
Written by Hannah Thorn, edits and additional commentary by John Cusick & Garrett Zatlin
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Editor's Note: Our TSR writers were asked to produce three sentences or less of analysis on every entrant in every distance event for every division. We will be slowly rolling out these previews leading up to the indoor national meets. Stay tuned!
Predictions coming soon
The below list is ordered by seeding
1. Clara Mayfield (Carleton)
Coming in with the top seed time by over three seconds, Clara Mayfield is the obvious title favorite to win this event, but she isn't guaranteed a gold medal, either. She has plenty of experience at national meets, but she has also never finished higher than 4th at this stage on the oval. This is her best chance to finally grab an individual national title, but has her fitness grown enough to fend off a really impressive field behind her?
2. Ana Tucker (Hope)
Ana Tucker is coming into this race hoping to play spoiler. As someone who normally runs longer races like the 5k and the 10k, this is going to be a shorter and faster discipline than what Tucker is used to on this stage. But with a 4:53 mile PR, we have no doubts that Tucker can handle this field, especially if this turns into a strength-based race.
3. Annika Urban (Emory)
Annika Urban is one of many women doubling between the mile and the 3k, but she is also in the best shape of her life right now, so she should have no issues navigating those two races. The Emory star has run an unconverted 4:50 mile this winter. And when paired with her unreal endurance, she should be able to handle (and even counter) any aggressive pacing from her competitors.
4. Blakeley Buckingham (Williams)
One of the few non-cross country ladies in this race, we don’t really know what to expect from Blakeley Buckingham. She earned her national qualifying time at a "last chance" meet where she produced three-second PR. The Williams runner looks to be peaking at the right time, but can she replicate her fantastic result from last week?
5. Gillian Roeder (MIT)
Gillian Roeder’s season has been well-documented in our rankings as she has thrived in her two mile efforts at Boston University this winter. However, the MIT runner has never made a final at a national meet before and she is coming off of a not-so-great showing at the New England D3 Indoor Championships. It will be interesting to see how she handles the pressure later this weekend.
6. Lucy Gagnon (Williams)
Lucy Gagnon has gone under the radar fairly often as her 4:53 mile qualifying time is converted from a raw mark of 4:56.16. This isn’t her first national meet, but her last time out was at the NCAA Outdoor Championships where she finished 22nd in the 1500 meters. Luckily, Gagnon has experience and has been catching fire at the tail-end of this season.
7. Amelia Lehman (UW-Oshkosh)
Amelia Lehman ran a four-second mile PR to earn her qualifying time at the Wartburg "Last Chance" meet. Her 4:56.97 mile effort converted down to a 4:54 mark and it puts her right in the chase for her first All-American honor. The UW-Oshkosh distance talent has built a ton of encouraging momentum since mid-February that could translate to the national stage.
8. Lexi Brown (Wartburg)
Lexi Brown isn’t on Wartburg’s DMR team (which is an interesting choice), so she will have all of her energy focused on individual events this weekend. She has set PRs in the 800 meters, the mile, the 3k and the 5k this year. But more importantly, three of those personal bests came within the past month, meaning that Brown may not even be at her peak yet.
9. Marcie Hogan (SUNY Geneseo)
Marcie Hogan has upgraded from being a DMR team member to an individual qualifier this year. This is also her only event at the national meet, so she should be able to put all of her energy and focus into making this final. She is yet another name who has caught fire at the right time.
10. Carolyn Schult (UW-Eau Claire)
We got a little nervous for Carolyn Schult when she opened up her season with a modest 5:10 mile time (which, in her defense, led to a win). But since then, she has consistently been working that time down, eventually running 4:57.46 (mile) which converts to 4:55.54. This weekend could be Schult’s first shot at making the finals at a national meet, and truthfully, there isn't much on her resume to say that she can't.
11. Alyssa Rafuse (Elmhurst)
The crazy thing about Alyssa Rafuse's national qualifying mile time of 4:57.59 is that her mark came in the midst of a quadruple at the CCIW Indoor Championships! That example alone shows us that she has the strength, endurance and durability to conquer the multiple-round format this weekend.
12. Molly Fitzgibbons (Williams)
Molly Fitzgibbons is attempting to run the mile/DMR/3k triple this weekend. That’s a really tough workload, but it shouldn’t take away too much from her mile results. She did place 5th last year in the mile, so she has the pedigree to outdo her seeding position here...although by how much is the real question.
13. Cat Wimmer (U. of Chicago)
One of the many great mile runners who U. of Chicago has developed this indoor track season is Cat Wimmer. Her previous mile personal best before this winter was 5:22, so the fact she has come down to a 4:56 mile PR is wild. Any placement for Wimmer this weekend should be considered a win.
14. Maddie Hannan (UW-La Crosse)
Maddie Hannan is another runner who is attempting the mile/DMR/3k triple. She could have also qualified in the 800 meters as she has a PR of 2:12 in that event. Watch out on the final lap as Hannan has a lethal kick as well as all of the necessary racing tools to be a problem for even the highest seeded women.
15. Christine Albrecht (St. Olaf)
The second beneficiary of scratches, Christine Albrecht is running in her first national meet on the track and is hoping to make a splash. It is, however, worrying that her converted 4:55 mile time is from over six weeks ago and that her last mile yielded a modest 5:09 mark. We're not sure which version of Albrecht we're going to get, making her a legitimate wild card heading into this weekend.
16. Deyanneira Colon Maldonado (Aurora)
Deyanneira Colon Maldonado needed a seven-second PR and a "Last Chance" meet to qualify for her first NCAA Championship. It would be a Cinderella story if she could make the finals as she has only run sub-five minutes in the mile once before. But in the event that she does advance, this Aurora distance ace could be plenty prepared for the multi-round format as few women in this field have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled as often as she has this season.
17. Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel (U. of Chicago)
After running her national qualifying time of 4:56.33 (mile) at the end of January, Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel has not contested a mile race since then. The Maroon standout has been busy running the 800 meters, the 3k, the DMR and even a rogue 4x400 meter relay. With that kind of well-roundedness, we think Battleson-Gunkel could upset some people and sneak into the finals.
18. Mary Blanchard (Carleton)
With Clara Mayfield expected to be in the second heat (which is not yet confirmed), will she try to slow down her prelim race to try and get Mary Blanchard in from heat one with a faster time? Blanchard has slowly been chopping her mile time down all season long, so we could see another PR from her given how well she has been running as of late.
19. Christina Crow (MIT)
Christina Crow is a very consistent miler, running around 4:59 and 5:02 for the distance several times this season. She will have to run faster than that to make the finals (which is certainly possible for Crow), but it will be a tough task. At the very least, the consistency of this MIT runner theoretically gives her a high floor going into this weekend.
20. Leila Trummel (Bowdoin)
Sitting at NCAA #32 on the national leaderboard, Leila Trummel is thanking every woman who scratched from the mile. Last year at the indoor national meet, the Bowdoin distance runner placed 16th overall in the mile. She'll come in with valuable experience -- and we know that she can run faster -- but it will be interesting to see how she handles this field.
