2023 NCAA Indoor Entries: Katelyn Tuohy Running 3K/5K, Washington Will Have 6 Men in Mile

By Jonathan Gault
February 28, 2023

The 2023 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships begin 10 days from now in Albuquerque, N.M., and coaches were required to submit their entries for the meet by 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday. While the official list of qualifiers is not yet published, the list of declared and scratched athletes is published, meaning we can project who will be competing at this year’s meet (the top 16 declared athletes in each event qualify for NCAAs).

You can find the full list of declarations here. A few quick takeaways from the declarations:

Katelyn Tuohy isn’t going to the mile/3k/5k triple – she is entered in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters

North Carolina State’s Katelyn Tuohy, the biggest star in collegiate distance running, is the NCAA leader in the women’s mile (4:24.26), 3,000 (8:35.20), and 5,000 (15:15.92) this season, setting the collegiate record in the first two events. She had her pick of the events at NCAAs and no NCAA athlete has ever won the mile, 3000 and 5000 at the same NCAAs (Oregon’s Edward Cheserek came close on the men’s side in 2017 as he won the 3000 and 5000 and was 2nd in the mile). That will still be the case after 2023 as Tuohy has opted to run the same two events she ran at NCAA Indoors last year: the 3,000 and 5,000.  Tuohy finished second in each of those races in Birmingham in 2022 and will try to go one better in Albuquerque. The last woman to win both events at the same NCAA meet was Missouri’s Karissa Schweizer in 2018. An NCAA indoor title is the only item missing from Tuohy’s collegiate resume as she has already won NCAA crowns in cross country and outdoor track.

Tuohy could also feature on NC State’s distance medley relay (seeded #2 in the country) but that seems unlikely. Even with Tuohy splitting 4:23 on the anchor leg, the Wolfpack only finished 3rd in the DMR at last week’s ACC championships. And with the women’s 5,000 starting at 5:05 p.m. on Friday at NCAAs and the DMR starting just 40 minutes later, there would be very little time for Tuohy to recover between the two races.

Washington will have six men in the mile

The University of Washington men have had a season for the ages in the mile, with seven men running under 3:57 this year, including five under 3:53. Did Oregon coach Andy Powell enter all seven in the mile at NCAAs? No. Washington scratched the fourth fastest miler in the NCAA this year, Kieran Lumb (3:52.62), presumably to keep him fresh for the DMR (Lumb is also entered in the 3,000 as the #9 seed at 7:43.27). But the other six Huskies are all running the mile: Joe WaskomBrian FayNathan GreenLuke HouserAidan Ryan, and Aaron Ahl (Fay is also entered in the 3,000, which takes place after the mile concludes). How many UW runners make the final and how many points they can score will be one of the storylines of the meet.

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The Husikies are seeded 2-3-4-5-7-16 in the mile.

SEC champ Will Sumner makes it as the last guy into the 800

One of the most impressive performances from conference weekend was true freshman Will Sumner of Georgia taking down a stacked field to win the SEC 800m title. Sumner’s season’s best of 1:47.28 ranked him 18th in the country, meaning he needed two athletes ahead of him to scratch — and that’s exactly what he got. That means Sumner, who was the third-fastest US high school 800 runner in history (1:46.53) will get to compete in his first NCAA championships.

Parker Valby is entered in the 3,000

Valby, the runner-up in the NCAA outdoor 5,000 and cross country in 2022, did not run at SECs last weekend for Florida, but she is entered in the 3,000 at NCAAs, where she is the #3 seed at 8:49.71. Oklahoma State star freshman Natalie Cook, who was 7th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships but hasn’t finished a race since December 3 and sat out Big 12s, is also declared in the 5,000.

Update: Valby is medical scratch from NCAAs

Defending 800 champ Lindsey Butler will run the mile; Britton Wilson stays in 400

Virginia Tech’s Lindsey Butler won the 800 at last year’s NCAA indoor meet but her season’s best of 2:03.13 (converted) ranked her just 16th in the NCAA this year. She’s running the mile instead, where her 4:31.41 sb ranked 5th. Arkansas’ Britton Wilson, the NCAA 400 hurdles champ last year outdoors, has dabbled in the 800 this indoor season, finishing 2nd at SECs, but she ultimately opted to scratch the 800 and run the 400 at NCAAs.

Oregon star Micah Williams is not running the 60

Williams, who was 4th at USAs in the 100 last year, was the #2 seed in the 60 this year after running 6.49 at altitude on January 26. But he hasn’t raced since and is a scratch for NCAAs (he’s not running the 200 either).

What times did it take to qualify in the distance events?

Here’s what it took to qualify for NCAAs in each of the distance events — the season’s best of the 16th declared athlete in the individual events and 12th declared teams in the distance medley relay.

Event Men Women
800 1:47.28 2:03.20
Mile 3:56.20 4:33.82
3000 7:44.69 8:57.08
5000 13:29.31 15:42.48
DMR 9:22.74 10:54.49

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