Madness on the track last night. Alex Philipp won his 6th national 10k championship in 28:37. This will almost certainly be faster than the DI winning time. Ethan Gregg (huge kudos to him) led the race through 8k. It took 29:20 to be all-American (8th place). D3 is leveling up!
On the womens side Kassie Parker took care of business, winning in 33:02. 2nd place was Fiona Smith of St. Benedict posting a solid 33:05 effort.
What is going on in D3? The slowest national qualifers in every distance event would have been clear contenders to win just 5-10 years ago. Pretty amazing.
Madness on the track last night. Alex Philipp won his 6th national 10k championship in 28:37. This will almost certainly be faster than the DI winning time. Ethan Gregg (huge kudos to him) led the race through 8k. It took 29:20 to be all-American (8th place). D3 is leveling up!
On the womens side Kassie Parker took care of business, winning in 33:02. 2nd place was Fiona Smith of St. Benedict posting a solid 33:05 effort.
Discus.
Thanks for posting this; I wanted to do something similar. At the front of the women's 10k, in particular, it wasn't just a couple isolated fast times. (It's a little understated to say Parker "took care of business" and Smith had a "solid" effort: I believe those were the 2nd and 3rd fastest times in D3 history, behind only Parker's race at Stanford earlier this year, making them the two fastest performers in history.) In the women's race, the top 3 women all beat the championship record, in some cases by a massive amount; 14 of the top 17 set PRs; and, every racer except one beat the facility record (though that may admittedly have been a modest record given the venue); similar numbers on the men's side. But to see so many PRs in a championship race, and such great times, is really a credit to the athletes and coaches.
At the link, the men's 10k is at 3:57:30, and the women's is at 4:38:00. Both races (though I think especially the women's, given the head-to-head battle between Parker and Smith) are worth watching.
What is going on in D3? The slowest national qualifers in every distance event would have been clear contenders to win just 5-10 years ago. Pretty amazing.
I feel like it tracks the general improvement times in recent history (for whatever reason you wish to give credit), and may also be a bit societal (really solid athletes choosing the small-college academic and athletic life).
These DIII athletes often come from relative affluence and so they are purchasing super duper shoes (this is a bit of a secret) and consequently they are performing in a super duper fashion. Also the doping is rarely discussed in DIII. Some of this began after all this baby nationals talk, and then the boys said, “who you callin’ baby?” and you see what has happened.
D2 meet is in Pueblo, CO at about 5000 ft. The new Colorado soil record was set in both the women’s and men’s 10k. 29:20s was the cut off for qualification.