Day 1 NCAA Drama – Super Fast Sprint Times, DQs, NCAA Champs Eliminated

Great 1500 Final Set

The men’s action got underway at the  2023 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and the sprint times were super impressive (5 sub-10s, 6 sub-20s, 6 sub-45s) as would be expected in the Texas heat. But not everything went according to form as two-time NCAA 400 hurdles champ Sean Burrell of LSU failed to make final and Princeton’s Sondre Guttormsen, the winner of the last three NCAA pole vaults (2 indoors, 1 out) was only 6th in pole vault.

But let’s be honest.  Letsrun.com is a distance-focused website. Below we recap what happened in the prelims of the men’s 800, 1500 and steeplechase in the order that it occurred.

The men’s 10,000 has its own recap here: LRC CARDINAL RULES: Stanford’s Robinson & Hicks Go 1-2 in NCAA 10K Final

Men’s 1500: All Set For A Fantastic Final

The men’s 1500 prelims very much went according to form as all of the expected major players advanced to Friday’s final. The nine fastest guys on the starts lists today all advanced to the final with the lone casualty from the top 10 being the #10 seed, NAU freshman Colin Sahlman.

Two of three guys who made the 12-person final from outside the top 9 seeds were already established names – NCAA Indoor mile champ Luke Houser of Washington and Penn Relays 4 x mile anchor star Liam Murphy of Villanova. The final qualifier for the final was Penn State redshirt junior Evan Dorenkamp. While Dorenkamp was just the 49th fastest man in the NCAA during the regular season at 3:40.30, the Big 10 runner-up did run a 3:55.02 indoor mile in 2022.

Heat 1 went out fairly controlled but not too slow, covering 400m in 58.5 seconds and 800m in 2:01. True freshman from NAU, Colin Sahlman, went to the front along with freshman from UNC, Ethan Strand. On the other end, experienced runners from UW, NCAA indoor mile champion Luke Houser and last year’s 1500m champion Joe Waskom, went straight to the back of the pack. Experience won in the end, as the UW runners both made a decisive decision with 600m to go and went straight to the front. Waskom threw in another big kick with 300m to go and won the heat and came away with the fastest time of the day, running 3:39.50. Other than Waskom and Houser, Ezekiel Rop out of Iowa State, Liam Murphy who famously anchored Villanova to the 4xMile Penn Relays championship this year, and Ethan Strand from UNC advanced with the auto Q. Penn State’s Evan Dorenkamp was the last time qualifier and also advanced to the final. Sahlman finished 8th in this race and did not advance to the final. 

Heat 2 opened up with NCAA leader over 1500m this year, Fouad Messaoudi from OK State, not wasting any time at all and going straight to the front to control the race. The race played out very similarly to heat 1, going through 400m in around 59 seconds and 800m in 2:00. Contenders to win the national championship, Nathan Green of UW and Anass Essayi of South Carolina, were both mid-pack for the first part of the race. The race slowed a little bit over the third lap, allowing there to be 8 men in contention with 200m to go. However, the class of the field showed itself as all the favorites moved on. This included Adam Spencer of Wisconsin who anchored his school to win the Penn Relays DMR this year and Isaac Basten of Drake University who finished runner-up to Luke Houser this year in the indoor mile along with Green of UW, Essayi of South Carolina, and Messaoudi of OK State. The one time qualifier from Heat 2 was senior Jesse Hunt of UNC. UNC will send two to the final as UW sends all three of their men to the final. 

Quick Take: Despite missing the final, Colin Sahlman was pleased with his freshman year at Northern Arizona

Sahlman was the biggest name not to advance to the final, and while he said he didn’t close the way he wanted – he ran his last lap in 56 seconds; the six finalists from his heat all ran 54 – he was pleased overall with his first year in Flagstaff. Sahlman, the only true freshman to qualify in the 1500, ran pbs in the 800, 1500, and 5k this spring, and says the lesson from coach Mike Smith has been to “compete” while getting exposure to different racing styles.

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“In high school, I usually would want to go to the front and try to just lead the whole thing,” Sahlman said. “Here, we’re trying to play around with different types of racing – front-racing, kicking, sit-and-kick, just different types of races that I think is good experience to have.”

It may have taken Sahlman a few months to adjust to Flagstaff’s altitude (he was only 151st at NCAA XC) but Sahlman has done two big things this spring: stayed healthy and made it to NCAAs. That is a pretty solid freshman year for the top recruit in the high school class of 2022.

Quick Take: Joe Waskom just wanted to run hard and didn’t know how far ahead he was

After watching Waskom blast to the lead in heat 1 and win in 3:39, we wondered if maybe he was doing it to protect his world ranking. Right now Waksom has a world ranking at 80, with 1158 ranking points, easily enough to get into Worlds (the 123rd ranked runner, Ryoji Tatezawa is the last person in right now) but he’s going to lose his NCAA results from laast year and needs more points. Since he won his semi in 3:39 last year at NCAAs, we wondered if he was aware of that and trying to protect points. He said his only focus was this race and he just wanted to run hard, as if he did that he’d move on.

Adam Spencer post-race

Men’s 3000mSC: 8 of Top 10 Advance

The men’s steeplechase prelims are usually pretty anticlimactic and that was the case today as 8 of the 10 fastest seeds advanced to the final, with the two lone casualties being Montana State’s Rob McManus (8:31.13 sb) who ran who ran 8:47.86 and placed 8th in heat 2 and New Mexico’s Awet Yohannes (8:33.80 sb), who ran 8:57.86 in heat 2 and was 10th.

Heat 1

Heat 1 of the steeplechase went out very slowly, with the men looking like they were jogging over the first lap of the race. Duncan Hamilton of Montana State, the 2nd fastest collegiate runner ever in the steeple, controlled the entire race. Former Princeton runner and Australian Olympian Ed Trippas, now representing UW, advanced as well and looked extremely smooth. Parker Stokes, who ran 8:18 last year to place 3rd at NCAAs, did not advance out of the first heat, after just missing out on the time qualifier (Stokes’ best time this year is 8:34). Other qualifiers include Victor Kibiego of UTEP, Peter Herold of UCLA, and Nathan Mountain of UVA. 

Heat 2

The other favorite to win the steeplechase, Kenneth Rooks of BYU, immediately took the lead at the start of Heat 2. Rooks has run 8:17 this year and is looking to improve upon his sixth place finish at the championships from last year. The top 5 in this race got well clear of the rest of the field and the race was generally relaxed throughout. The lead pack was so comfortable that with 50 meters to go, Rooks took the time to fist bump UVA’s Derek Johnson, as both men secured their spot in Friday’s final. Another interesting storyline is Eastern Kentucky trying to cement themselves as “Steeplechase U” by sending a man to the steeplechase final in 10 out of the last 11 seasons. This year, junior Abdelhakim Aboouzouhi will represent Eastern Kentucky in the final. Other qualifiers include the third fastest NCAA steeplechase runner this year, Matthew Wilkinson of Minnesota, and Victor Shitsama of OK State. Both time qualifiers came from the second heat, including Carson Williams of Furman and Kevin Robertson of Syracuse. 

*Steeple results

Quick Take: Ed Trippas and many of the runners were talking about the outside water jump after this one

The track at the University of Texas features a rare outside water jump. Some of the competitors had never competed on one as most tracks feature an inside water jump. Washington’s Ed Trippas, the Australian Olympian who is a Princeton grad, grew up training on an outside water jump. He explained he thinks they are slower as you have a jump very early in the race so things are quite chaotic and then the water jump actually comes on a turn and isn’t perpendicular to the track like on an inside pit.

Trippas is focused on NCAAs, then he’ll turn his focus to Worlds and then to figuring out what he’s going to do as he’ll be out of collegiate eligibility.

Quick Take: Duncan Hamilton wanted to let it rip at regionals, but Friday’s final is all about the W

Hamilton turned heads at regionals when he ran 8:16.23 – the second-fastest time by an American this year (and #2 in NCAA history behind only the legendary Henry Rono). Of course Hamilton didn’t need to go that fast – he won his prelim by 19 seconds – but coach Lyle Weese encouraged Hamilton to let it rip.

“Pretty much the instructions from my coach were, well it’s a good opportunity to run fast, conditions are good, so go for it,” Hamilton said. “We still have two weeks before nationals, so plenty of time to recover, build some momentum.”

Last year, Hamilton went in with the plan to run fast in the NCAA final, in part to chase the World Championship standard and while he was successful in that respect (his 8:18.88 was #3 in collegiate history at the time), he wound up second behind Eastern Kentucky’s Ahmed Jaziri. This year Hamilton has a high enough world ranking to get to Worlds so he doesn’t need to worry about time.

“I’m not thinking about that,” Hamilton said. “I’m just thinking about a title.”

Quick Take: Kenneth Rooks thinks he can go even faster than the 8:17 he ran last month at Mt. SAC

Rooks impressively won the steeple at the Track Fest in May, taking down three-time defending US champ Hillary Bor in the process – a result that looks even better now considering Bor just ran 8:11 in Rabat (and was on track to run even faster before falling on the final water jump). Rooks believes he can go faster than the 8:17 he ran in that race, and he may need to considering the talent assembled in this year’s final.

Quick Take: Friday’s final could settle who is “Steeple U”

Under coach Lyle Weese, a three-time Olympic Trials qualifier in the steeple, Montana State qualified three guys to NCAAs in the steeple this year and have dubbed themselves “Steeple U.” But they’re not the only ones laying claim to that title. Eastern Kentucky also sent three guys to Austin and have T-shirts proclaiming EKU as “Steeple U” (they also had Ahmed Jaziri win the title last year). Of course, BYU and Rooks have a claim as well as BYU athletes have won three NCAA steeple titles (Bob Richards in 1966, Josh McAdams in 2006, Kyle Perry in 2009) and it’s the alma mater of nine-time US champ Henry Marsh.

Hamilton chuckled when we asked how there could be more than one Steeple U.

“Everybody, once they have one or two people doing well in an event, will put ‘U’ at the end of that,” Hamilton said. “But I think we have the fastest average of a squad, so we’re going to go with that.”

Maybe the best way to settle it – at least for this year – is by the results of Friday’s final.

Men’s 800m:  DQ Drama & The Heat Winners Looked Great

In the men’s 800, two of the top six and 3 of the top 10 fastest entrants failed to make the final as shown below.

Also not making the final was last year’s runner Navasky Anderson of Jamaica/Miss. State. Anderson, who crossed the finish line first indoors but was DQ’d for obstruction, was third in heat 2 in 1:48.79 and didn’t get in on time. The first two heat winners looked amazing though as SEC champ and freshman phenom Will Sumner of Georgia blew away everyone in heat 1 and won in 1:46.00 as indoor champ Yusuz Bizimana of Texas won heat 2 easily in 1:48.02. If one of them doesn’t win the final, we think it will be heat 3 winner Aidan McCarthy of Cal Poly.

Heat 1: 

4 out of the 6 finishers from Heat 1 advanced through to the final. While Tarees Rhoden of Clemson DNFd the race, the junior made the race going through the first 400m in 52.5 (the fastest out of any heat). Freshman sensation Will Sumner of Georgia looked very comfortable, running a PB of 1:46.00 for the win and the fastest time out of all the sections. Sumner looked comfortable throughout the race, taking the lead with a hard move with 300m to go. Originally, the second auto-qualifier was Sam Ellis of UW, who was last through 400m, but made a huge move down the backstretch in order to secure his place in the final. However, well after the race, Ellis was DQ’d, as he took more than two steps on or over the lane line. This pushed up the second auto qualifier to Crayton Carrozza of Texas. The time qualifiers were Tiarnan Crorken of Ole Miss and Conor Murphy of UVA. 

Heat 2:

Heat 2 was a rematch of the indoor 800m final with Navasky Anderson of MS State and the indoor 800m champion Yusuf Bizimana of Texas. This race was the slowest out of the three heats, going through 400m in 55.08 seconds. Anderson was at the front of the race on the backstretch, but Bizimana made a hard move with 200m to go and held on to take the win. On the other hand, Anderson failed to make the final as OK State’s Mehdi Yanouri kicked down Anderson in the final 100m to secure his place in the final. Anderson finished third and since the race was slow, there were no time qualifiers from this heat.  

Heat 3: 

Olivier Desmueles of Penn State took the lead in Heat 3, and led from the gun to the bell, taking the race out in 53.5 seconds. Aidan McCarthy of Cal Poly, under new head coach Ryan Vanhoy, was the first qualifier for NCAAs from his school since 2017. McCarthy was not timid at all, taking the lead with a strong move at 300m to go and holding on for the win. Having the fourth best time in the NCAA this year, Abdullahi Hassan from Wisconsin, was favored to move on to the final. His move with 150m to go put him into second but did not go to plan as Penn State’s Handal Roban finished extremely hard over the last 80 meters to place second in the race. However, due to Sam Ellis’ DQ in Heat 1, Hassan advanced as the final time qualifier. Ole Miss’ Baylor Franklin, who finished fifth in the U.S. Championships over 800m last year, fell with less than five meters to go and will not participate in the final. 

Quick Take: The final should be fantastic

Remember how we said in our preview that Georgia’s Will Sumner could be on the verge of a breakthrough? Well he just dominated his prelim, running a pb of 1:46.00 and looking great while doing so. Certainly seems like there is more in the tank for the final.

But indoor champ Bizimana also looked very controlled in his semi, running a big negative split of 55.27-52.76 to win it in 1:48.02. The battle between those two should be great, and Cal Poly’s Aidan McCarthy continued to look strong as well, winning heat 3 after running the fastest time of anyone at regionals two weeks ago.

The final might have been even better with last year’s runner-up Navasky Anderson of Mississippi State, but he was off his game and didn’t make it through. We tried to talk to him after the race but he declined to speak, hinting at an injury.

Quick Take: UW coach Andy Powell was frustrated by Sam Ellis’s DQ

We spoke to Ellis after his race but before he DQ’d and he was in a great mood after going from last to 2nd on the last lap of heat 1. Ellis was 3rd in the 1500 at NCAAs last year but said he wanted to try a new challenge this year with the 800 and has had a lot of fun with it (Ellis still plans on running the 1500 at USAs).

But Ellis received some bad news as he was leaving the track on Wednesday: he was disqualified from his prelim and will not be running Friday’s final.

Washington coaches Andy and Maurica Powell were very frustrated afterwards, and explained the situation to LetsRun. According to Andy Powell, Long Beach State coach Andy Sythe filed a protest against Ellis for cutting off another athlete. The officials wound up reviewing the race, and while Ellis was not DQ’d for cutting anyone off, he was found to have run two or more steps on or over the lane line on the first turn and was DQ’d for that offense.

Powell said he is still trying to learn more about the situation but was confused why Sythe protested the race considering Long Beach State did not have an athlete in the race (LB State had a runner in heat 2, Kash Powell. Kash Powell finished 5th in his heat and had the 16th-fastest time on the night, so Ellis’ DQ did not affect him.) Powell thought it could be possible that Sythe had written down the wrong heat by mistake but admitted the whole situation was confusing and frustrating for Ellis, who is in his final collegiate meet.

“I don’t know why anyone’s allowed to protest, even though they don’t have anyone in the race,” Powell said.

LetsRun has reached out to Sythe for clarification, though he did not respond immediately.

Men’s 10,000 Recap: LRC CARDINAL RULES: Stanford’s Robinson & Hicks Go 1-2 in NCAA 10K Final

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