47 Athletes Raced Both NCAA Indoors & NCAA XC. Here’s How They Did.

By Jonathan Gault
March 17, 2021

The unprecedented 2020-21 athletic calendar created a dilemma for dozens of the NCAA’s top distance runners. With the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships scheduled for March 12-13 and the NCAA Cross Country Championships scheduled for March 15, which event should they run?

Forty-seven of them decided, why not both?

With the cross country meet in Stillwater, Okla., a three-hour drive west from the indoor meet in Fayetteville, Ark., almost four dozen athletes and their coaches decided to run both meets. And a number of athletes showed that it was possible to have serious success at both meets.

Wesley Kiptoo had a very productive weekend (Photo by Andy Hancock/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

On the men’s side, Iowa State’s Wesley Kiptoo was the most successful doubler. He set a meet record of 13:23.77 to win the 5,000 at NCAA Indoors on Friday and doubled back to finish 3rd at NCAA XC three days later. Florida State’s Adriaan Wildschutt was also very successful, taking 4th behind Kiptoo in the 5,000 and finishing 2nd at NCAA XC. On the women’s side, Air Force’s Mahala Norris was 4th in the 5,000 and 4th at NCAA XC, while Taylor Roe of Oklahoma State took 2nd at NCAA XC after anchoring the Cowgirls to 4th in the NCAA DMR. Four of the top five finishers in the women’s race at NCAA XC were doubling back from NCAA Indoors.

In all, eight men and 15 women were All-Americans in XC after running NCAA Indoors. Here are the athletes who were All-Americans in both meets (top 8 in track, top 40 in XC):

Men
Adriaan Wildschutt, Florida State (2nd XC, 4th 5k)
Wesley Kiptoo, Iowa State (3rd XC, 1st 5k)
Amon Kemboi, Arkansas (11th XC, 4th 3k, 13th 5k)
Aaron Bienenfeld, Cincinnati (16th XC, 5th 5k)
Mario Garcia Romo, Ole Miss (30th XC, 3rd 3k, 2nd DMR)
Morgan Beadlescomb, Michigan State (33rd XC, 3rd 5k)

Arkansas’ Krissy Gear (far right) ran four races in four days (Photo by Andy Hancock/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Women
Taylor Roe, Oklahoma State (2nd XC, 4th DMR)
Mahala Norris, Air Force (4th XC, 4th 5k)
Hannah Steelman, NC State (5th XC, 8th 5k)
Bethany Hasz, Minnesota (8th XC, 2nd 5k)
Jenna Magness, Michigan State (16th XC, 7th 5k)
Grace Forbes, Rice (19th XC, 6th 5k)
Krissy Gear, Arkansas (21st XC, 2nd mile, 2nd DMR)
Maudie Skyring, Florida State (23rd XC, 8th 3k, 3rd DMR)
Katelyn Tuohy, NC State (24th XC, 7th DMR)
Kaley Richards, UMass Lowell (30th XC, 4th mile)

A few other interesting notes:

• Three athletes ran a total of four races in four days between NCAA Indoors and XC. Arkansas’ Krissy Gear won her mile prelim and anchored the Razorbacks to 2nd in the DMR on Friday, finished 2nd in the mile on Saturday, and took 21st at NCAA XC on Monday. Ole Miss’ Waleed Suliman was 4th in his mile prelim on Friday, 3rd in the mile final and 15th in the 3k final on Saturday, and finished 50th at NCAA XC on Monday. And Arkansas’ Kennedy Thomson was 5th in her mile prelim and DNF’d her 800 prelim on Friday, 3rd in the mile final on Saturday, and 193rd at NCAA XC on Monday.
• NC State’s Hannah Steelman and Kelsey Chmiel had the biggest turnaround of the weekend. Steelman and Chmiel were 8th and 11th in the NCAA 5k final on Friday but finished 5th and 9th, respectively, at NCAA XC to lead the Wolfpack to a runner-up finish. On the men’s side, Florida State’s Adriaan Wildschutt also improved his finish, going from 4th in the 5k to second at XC (Arkansas’ Amon Kemboi was 13th in the 5k and 11th in XC, but finished 4th in the 3k in between).
• One double that may go overlooked is the one authored by Alamaba’s Amaris Tyynismaa. It shouldn’t. On Friday, she ran the fastest 1600 leg of anyone in the DMR (4:31.11) to lead her Crimson Tide team to a 4th-place finish, only for them to be DQ’d for an infraction on an earlier leg. Tyynismaa bounced back and went one better at NCAA XC, taking 3rd overall as Alabama finished 8th, its best team result since 1988.
• Unsurprisingly, the 5k, which offered an extra day of rest since it was contested on Friday, saw the most athletes doubling back of any individual event. In all, 23 athletes (11 women, 12 men) out of 32 doubled back.
• Sixteen women’s DMR runners doubled back compared to just two on the men’s side. Two reasons for that. One, there’s more crossover in women’s mid-d/XC squads than for men since the championship distance is 6k rather than 10k. Two, in a related note, nine women’s schools that qualified for NCAA XC also qualified a DMR team. On the men’s side, that number was just four.
• The top three men’s teams at NCAA XC — NAU, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma State — went all-in on XC and didn’t double anyone at NCAA Indoors. But the fourth podium team, Arkansas, doubled four of its guys. And two of them — their #1 finisher Amon Kemboi (11th), and #3, Gilbert Boit (40th), ran two races at NCAA Indoors.
• On the women’s side, national champion BYU didn’t double anyone at both meets, but runner-up NC State doubled four of its top five. Third placer Stanford didn’t double anyone, while fourth placer Michigan State doubled only its top runner, Jenna Magness (the Spartans also qualified Lynsie Gram in the 5,000 but decided to scratch her so she could focus on XC).

Here’s a full list of all 47 athletes who competed at both meets over the weekend, along with their results (broken down by track event).

Women’s 800

Women’s mile

Women’s 3000

Women’s 5000

Women’s DMR

Men’s mile

Men’s 3000

Men’s 5000

Men’s DMR

Correction: The initial version of this article stated that Michigan State only qualified one woman to NCAA Indoors. In fact they qualified two, but elected only to enter one, Jenna Magness.