Another solid meet distance wise will be the Wash U distance carnival. This won't produce quite as many top marks as the other two meets, but should be pretty competitive especially on the women's side.
The 10k on the men's side will feature Ryan Heline and Dominick Beine from St. Mary who could both have outside chances of being All-Americans. Some athletes to keep an eye out for with potential to qualify are Taylor Vallangeon from Olivet Nazarene and Alberto Fernandez-Arango from St. Francis. Taylor Vallangeon has not looked like himself for the past year but he is still a 2x All American in cross country with some fast 5k PRs. Fernandez Arango has no races on his TFRRS (or anywhere I could find for that matter) but is seeded at 31:15 which would be a B standard.
The big name in the 5k will be Donovan Denslow who has a PR of 14:29. I wouldn't count out some big race potential from either of Tommy Baker or Liam Neidig from St. Mary. They're both in a bit slower of heats but both had good indoor season in mid distance and the 3k. Sam Mickleson is in a slow heat but was also a finalist in the 3k indoor. David Olmos from Olivet Nazarene is seeded at 14:43 and while I haven't seen a performance from him that reflects that fitness in a 5k, he did run a B standard 3k indoor and was on Olivet Nazarene's All-American 4x800 team.
The 800 will feature Chris Misrendino and Dillon Callaway who both narrowly missed out on the 1k final at indoor nationals.
The women's side will have some firepower with Hailey Niuewkoop in the the 10k along with Kate Madsen from St. Mary. Riley Jo Ford was just outside of an All-American finish in cross country and will be racing as well.
The fast heat of the 5k will have both of Reagan Hiebert and Ana Pineda. Pineda ran some incredible mid distance times during indoor and placed just outside for the top 10 at cross country nationals only a year ago, so her 5k should be fast. Hiebert had a third place finish in a tactical 3k final indoor and finished 6th in cross country this year. I'd expect both of these women to go under 17 if the weather permits.
The second heat has the potential for some fast times as well. Riley Hiebert would be my pick to finish first, she was an All-American cross country runner and is coming off of a 10:54 steeple last week.Allison Ramsey had a fantastic mid distance season during indoor, while the 5k might not be her event she was able to make the final in outdoor last year. Maddy Walter Sherretts is similar to Ramsey as a mid distance runner moving up in distance. She's coming off of an indoor where she broke 5 in the mile, unlike Ramsey though she has shown a lot of range from her cross country season where she was also an All-American. Danielle Allison is a stud mid distance runner trying to hit a 5k standard (seems to be a pattern here) and Josie Tyrell has a PR that would put her in the qualifying range as well.
The steeple will feature Mia Reed who had a strong mid distance season with a 2:55 1k and an All-American finish. Reed was a finalist in the event during outdoor the past two seasons.
Really excited to see what Chris and Allison can do this outdoor season. They looked completely different during the indoor season. Also, anyone know what happened to the Montana Tech coach? Saw they have a new interim out there.
This post was edited 4 minutes after it was posted.
I think all of the National races have the potential to be close even with Silva since he’ll probably be running 3 events.
With tripling how confident can you be that he’s going to easily beat Mauldin, Santorum, Asslouj, and Kipkurui especially if they’re fresh or if Mauldin or Santorum get him in a tactical race
I don't know what Silva would run for outdoor but I don't know that he would run the open 800. I would think it's most likely a 1500/5k/4x8 triple but I could see a 1500/800/4x8 triple.
Mauldin is probably more of a threat to Silva in the 800 than Asslouj (or anyone else for that matter) is in the 5k. There is a shot that Maudlin would be gassed by the 800 final since he would be on his 5th race of the weekend by that point. Prior to this indoor it seemed like he had this happen pretty often.
Maudlin does have a faster 800 PR than Silva but based on what we saw at indoor nationals I think Silva is in the best shape of his life and I could see him beating Mauldin.
Didn’t have any competition either. I wouldn’t be surprised if he chose to focus on the 400 over the 800 at nationals. He’d be the favorite and wouldn’t have to deal with Silva or Santorum.
Also saw that they used him to get their 4x100 qualified. The kid’s a stud.
It’s unfortunate that Mauldin had to be in the NAIA at the time that he is.
He had 2 years straight indoor where he only lost to guys who are from programs with doping allegations in the 600.
Outdoor he’s always had to deal with Senzo in the 800 who was a generational talent in mid distance. Now he has Santorum and Silva potentially running it.
There’s a huge possibility Mauldin is still the favorite for the 800 even with those 2. Seriously I could see Mauldin running under 1:48 if he gets in the right race on the right day, his 600 and 400 times say it’s in the realm of possibility.
I don’t really have a dog in the fight for 800 but I would really want to see Mauldin go out with another win if he goes that route.
Life University athletes do not have doping allegations against them. Coaches who worked with outsiders do. Yes it’s not a good look but no allegations towards the university athletes.
Life University athletes do not have doping allegations against them. Coaches who worked with outsiders do. Yes it’s not a good look but no allegations towards the university athletes.
Definitely NOT a good look for those athletes, especially considering the news about their coach being involved in a doping scandal came out about 6 months after they won the outdoor team title last year. Definitely suspicious.
Life University athletes do not have doping allegations against them. Coaches who worked with outsiders do. Yes it’s not a good look but no allegations towards the university athletes.
Definitely NOT a good look for those athletes, especially considering the news about their coach being involved in a doping scandal came out about 6 months after they won the outdoor team title last year. Definitely suspicious.
I have insider information that there was some sketchy stuff going down at Life the year they won. Can’t believe the athletes got away with it and no one even got tested.
What happened in the 4x8 final? I thought Dordt would be a pretty heavy favorite and Oklahoma City ran away with it.
A bit late here but if anyone still doesn't know...
Dordt's first runner (Davelaar) was expected to hand off in first and ended up handing off in 4th with a sizeable gap from the top two.
Their second leg (Becker) tried to close the gap a bit too quick and ended up paying for it, they ended up handing off in third still with a gap between them and Oklahoma City. At this point I expected Dordt would have the lead by at least a second. Coming in it looked like Davelaar was the best of all the lead off legs and Becker was going to be better than everyone else's second leg. At this point with OKC having Silva at anchor it looked like unless Smithart completely died out in the third leg they had the win in the bag.
The third leg is where the gap became insurmountable. Again, Dordt's third leg (Zevenbergen) tried to close up the gap between them and Oklahoma City a bit too quickly and Smithart ran a very even 800. Zevenbergen ultimately got caught by a lot of the field and handed off in 5th. Smithart extended the lead in his last 200m to about 5.5 seconds over Dordt.
Mauldin and Silva never were close to each other in the race so "Silva happened" isn't a good explanation.
Mauldin just aimed for 2nd because 1st was impossible at this point, which is why their time was nothing too fast. He still was by no means a slow anchor leg and it didn't look like he just jogged it out either. He managed to beat out some of the best 800 runners in the NAIA while coming from behind.