2021 NCAA Outdoor Women’s 5K/10K/Steeple Preview: NCAA Champs Mercy Chelangat & Courtney Wayment Try to Add to Their Title Hauls

By Jonathan Gault
June 8, 2021

Doubling is suddenly in vogue in the NCAA. While Cole Hocker earned props from us for even contemplating the 1500/5k double at NCAAs, that double is downright ordinary on the women’s side, with three women trying it, led by BYU’s Whittni Orton, who could join Villanova’s Sheila Reid as the only women this century to win both events.

Meanwhile, in the 10,000 and steeple, the two most dominant runners of the winter — NCAA XC champ Mercy Chelangat of Alabama and NCAA DMR/3k champ Courtney Wayment of BYU — will attempt to extend their reigns to late spring. Previews of all the long distance events at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships below.

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Women’s 10,000: Mercy Chelangat looks to add to XC title

(final Thursday, 9:08 p.m. ET)

Chelangat with her NCAA XC trophy (Photo by Shane Bevel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

The woman to beat is Alabama’s Mercy Chelangat, who announced herself by winning the NCAA XC title in March and has been on a roll ever since. Chelangat swept the 5k and 10k titles at SECs — she won the latter race by 64 seconds in an NCAA-leading 32:13 — and ran the fastest times at either regional in both the 5k and 10k. It’s quite the turnaround for a woman who had never competed at an NCAA championship before this year, but the Kenyan Chelangat is very clearly one of the big dogs in the NCAA now.

She’s also the only woman in this field with an NCAA title. Everything is in her favor.

But this event has had its share of upsets, from Molly Seidel in 2015 (trust me, it was a shocker at the time) to Sharon Lokedi taking down Karissa Schweizer in 2018. The woman most primed to play spoiler to Chelangat is Oregon’s Carmela Cardama Baez, who almost pulled an upset of her own in 2019 before Weini Kelati rallied to beat her on the final lap. Baez wound up the runner-up in that race, making her the top returner in this year’s field, won Pac-12s by a comfortable 11 seconds, and her 32:26 pb makes her competitive with Chelangat. But Baez also got handled by Boise State’s Clare O’Brien and Weber State’s Lexie Thompson back in early April, finishing 14 seconds behind O’Brien and eight back of Thompson. Those women shouldn’t be overlooked.

Aside from Chelangat, Rice freshman Grace Forbes, who was sixth in the 5k at NCAA indoors, is the only other woman under 32:30 this year. A few others have run faster in previous years, however, including Big 12 champ Cailie Logue of Iowa State (32:19) and Maria Mettler of Air Force (32:09), both of whom did so at the Sound Running Track Meet in December (though Mettler was only 5th at the Mountain West champs last month).

JG prediction: Chelangat hasn’t provided a reason to pick against her since winning NCAA XC, so I’m taking her FTW.

Women’s 5,000: Will anyone strike double gold?

(final Saturday, 7:55 p.m. ET)

It’s not uncommon for an athlete to double up in the 5k and 10k at NCAAs. And in the last few years, we’ve seen athletes like Allie Ostrander and Hannah Steelman give the 5k/steeple a whirl. But in 2021, it feels as if everyone is doubling. Maybe they’re trying to make up for the fact that the 2020 meet was cancelled?

Whatever the reason, there’s a decent chance we see a double champion in 2021. It would be a rare feat: since the NCAA scrapped the 3k in 2001, only three women have won two distance titles at the same NCAA meet.

NCAA outdoor double champions, 2001 – present

This year, however, three of the top four seeds in the 5k will be doubling back from other events: BYU’s Whittni Orton and Stanford’s Ella Donaghu are running the 1500, and Alabama’s Mercy Chelangat is running the 10k. Add in Pac-12 champ Julia Heymach of Stanford (1500) and NCAA indoor 5k champ Joyce Kimeli of Auburn (steeple) and a bunch of top women will be running on tired legs.

If either Orton, the NCAA leader at 15:12, or Chelangat (#2 at 15:17) were fresh, they would be the favorite, and considering Chelangat will have had 46 hours of rest compared to 100 minutes (Orton), she probably deserves the slight edge, especially if she can win the 10k on Thursday. Then again, if Orton looks great in winning the 1500, you could easily make the case for her as well.

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If either falters in their first event, there will be a number of athletes ready to pounce. NC State’s Elly Henes pulled off an impressive same-day double of her own at ACCs — 4:10 for third in the 1500, then a 15:34 win in the 5k — but will only be running the 5k at NCAAs. As one of just three women in the field under 15:20 this year — and the only one running fresh — Henes, who was third in the 5k indoors, is a serious threat. A win would create some neat history and cool storyline: her mom, NC State coach Laurie Henes, won the same event at NCAAs 30 years ago, also in Eugene.

If you’re looking for another good story, how about Notre Dame’s Katie Wasserman, who also ran 4:10 to finish just behind Henes in the ACC 1500? A grad transfer, Wasserman never ran a 5k during four years at Columbia. But in her very first race for the Irish, she ripped a 15:33 at the Raleigh Relays, missing Molly Huddle‘s school record by less than a second.

I need to at least mention NCAA indoor champ Joyce Kimeli, but considering the tight turnaround from the steeple and the fact that she was just 3rd in the SEC 5k, I’m discounting her.

JG prediction: If everyone was running fresh, I’d pick Orton. The 1500 earlier in the day scares me, but nobody peaked their athletes better during the winter season than BYU coach Diljeet Taylor, and I’m going to trust she knows what she’s doing with Orton here. Whittni Orton FTW.

Women’s steeplechase: BYU star Courtney Wayment leads a surprisingly strong field

(prelims Thursday, 7:02 p.m. ET; final Saturday, 6:24 p.m. ET)

Wayment anchored BYU to NCAA DMR glory in March (Photo by Andy Hancock/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

The traditional knock on the steeple is that it’s a refuge for athletes not quite good enough to cut it in the flat events. But that hasn’t always been true (see: steeplers Emma Coburn and Leah Falland winning NCAA mile titles and Jenny Simpson running the NCAA 1500 record) and it’s certainly not the case at the top of this year’s field, which features the NCAA DMR/3k champ, BYU’s Courtney Wayment, taking on NCAA indoor 5k champ Joyce Kimeli of Auburn. Air Force’s Mahala Norris, 4th in the 5k indoors and at NCAA XC, is also entered.

This is the best NCAA steeple field we’ve seen in some time, perhaps ever. New Mexico’s Charlotte Prouse, the runner-up in this event in 2018 and 2019, ran a personal best of 9:39 in May and is only seeded fifth. NC State’s Hannah Steelman, third two years ago, also ran a pb this year (9:43) and is seeded just seventh.

As good as Kimeli and Oregon’s Polish star Aneta Konieczek are (both rank among the NCAA’s top 10 all-time), this race is Wayment’s to lose. Let’s not forget: she was the best runner in the country just three months ago. She has terrific pbs at other distances (4:30 mile, 15:17 5k) and the fastest time in the NCAA this year by 5+ seconds. Perhaps the bigger question should be whether Wayment can become just the fifth collegian to break 9:30 and challenge Courtney Frerichs‘ collegiate record of 9:24.41.

JG prediction: If you read the section above, you know I’m picking Wayment FTW.