2025 NCAA Indoors Men’s Preview: Ethan Strand, Gary Martin, Nathan Green & More Go for Glory
UNC's Strand has set NCAA records in the mile (3:48.32) and 3000m (7:30.15) this season and will be seeking his first NCAA title in Virginia Beach
By Jonathan Gault
Sometimes, watching the NCAA indoor championships can feel like watching a musical act at a local club just as they’re making the leap to international superstardom. Consider the best race of 2024, the men’s Olympic 1500-meter final in Paris. All three medalists came through the US collegiate system, and all three had their coming-out moments at NCAA indoors:
In 2017, Josh Kerr stunned heavy favorite Edward Cheserek to win the NCAA mile title as a 19-year-old.
A year later in 2018, Yared Nuguse came out of nowhere as an 18-year-old true freshman to run down Grant Fisher on the anchor leg of the DMR and help Notre Dame to a runner-up finish. (In 2019, Nuguse outkicked Fisher on the anchor leg to win the DMR for Notre Dame).
In 2021, Cole Hocker doubled up to win the NCAA mile/3000 double within the span of 70 minutes as a 19-year-old.
Who will come out of this weekend’s NCAA indoor championships in Virginia Beach as the next big thing in distance running? We already have some candidates. North Carolina’s Ethan Strand has set NCAA records in the mile (3:48.32) and 3000 (7:30.15) this year and is looking to be the first man to win the 3000 and anchor the winning DMR at NCAAs since Cheserek in 2016. Virginia’s Gary Martin (3:48.82 mile/7:36.09 3000) has also run historically fast this season. And Nathan Green (3:50.74 mile sb) is trying to make it six straight NCAA 1500/mile titles for the Washington men.
But you can’t always tell where the breakthrough is coming from. Kerr entered the 2017 NCAA meet as a largely unknown athlete (at least in US running circles — Kerr had won European junior gold in 2015 at the age of 17), but anyone who saw him destroy Cheserek over the final 600 in College Station could tell he was bound for greatness. Maybe we don’t come out of this weekend talking about Strand or Martin or Green, but the person who took them down to win the title. That is the beauty of the NCAA championships.
With that as preamble, here’s what to know ahead of the men’s distance races at NCAAs this weekend.
*Schedule, entries & results *TV & Streaming *All LRC 2025 NCAA Indoor coverage
Women’s Preview: 2025 NCAA Indoors Women’s Preview: Juliette Whittaker & Doris Lemngole Lead Deep Fields With a sub-2:02 800 and sub-4:30 mile required just to qualify for the meet, the women’s middle-distance events should be incredible. The 800 features three NCAA champions in Whittaker, Roisin Willis, and Michaela Rose
Men’s 5,000m (Friday, 8:12 p.m. ET): Speed meets strength
1 Habtom Samuel SO New Mexico 13:04.92 2 Yaseen Abdalla SR Arkansas 13:09.99 3 Liam Murphy SR Villanova 13:10.42 4 Brian Musau SO Oklahoma Sta 13:11.29 5 Patrick Kiprop SR Arkansas 13:11.67 6 Ishmael Kipkurui FR New Mexico 13:11.95 7 Marco Langon SO Villanova 13:14.11 8 Rocky Hansen SO Wake Forest 13:14.43 9 Evans Kurui FR Washington S 13:17.16 10 Denis Kipngetich SO Oklahoma Sta 13:18.33 11 Casey Clinger SR BYU 13:18.96 12 Creed Thompson JR BYU 13:19.67 13 Sanele Masondo SR Iowa State 13:20.30 14 Joey Nokes SR BYU 13:20.76 15 Drew Bosley SR Northern Ari 13:21.11 16 Said Mechaal SR Iowa State 13:21.13
The 5,000 is the longest event on the indoor schedule, which means it’s where the true distance guys end up. Of the top six finishers at NCAA XC in November, four of them are in this race (Habtom Samuel, Yaseen Abdalla, Brian Musau, Casey Clinger). Only Harvard’s Graham Blanks (turned pro) and Furman’s Dylan Schubert (Achilles injury) are missing. Of that group, Samuel has had the most NCAA success. He’s got the fastest pbs (13:04/26:53), is the top returner from this race (4th), has twice finished as runner-up at NCAA XC (the second time with just one shoe), and is the reigning NCAA 10,000 champ.
That said, Samuel is not really known as a kicker; in a slower race, he could be vulnerable. There are two guys in this race he should be especially worried about. One is Liam Murphy, who was an Olympic Trials finalist in the 1500 last year, anchored Villanova to Penn Relays titles in the 4 x mile and DMR, and still had the strength to finish 9th at NCAA XC in November.
The other is Rocky Hansen, who very impressively anchored Wake Forest’s DMR to victory over North Carolina and Ethan Strand in Boston on February 21. Strand had the faster anchor leg (3:49.22 to Hansen’s 3:50.22), but Hansen showed impressive racing chops by coming from behind on the last lap. The guy can close. The problem is, Hansen is not the most consistent performer as he seems to get injured or sick a lot. He did not run ACCs for Wake, so he’s something of a wildcard heading into NCAAs.
You’ve also got Arkansas’ Yaseen Abdalla (7:34/13:09 pbs), who three years (and two schools) ago anchored Texas’ winning DMR at NCAA indoors. And don’t sleep on Murphy’s Villanova teammate Marco Langon, who outkicked both Murphy and Gary Martin to win the mile at the Penn 10 Elite meet in Philadelphia back in January.
We should also mention New Mexico’s Ishmael Kikpkurui, who is a monster talent (ran 13:05 at age 18, won U20 race at World XC in 2023) but still looks to be finding his sea legs during his first season in the NCAA.
JG prediction: There are enough long-distance guys in this race that I expect one of them to try to push the pace, but given how good everyone is in the NCAA these days, they’d need to turn it into a 13:10s or 13:20s race to have any chance of shaking the kickers. Are they committed to going that fast? I like Liam Murphy’s mix of strength and speed the best, so he’s my pick FTW.
Who wins the NCAA men's 5000?
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Men’s distance medley relay (Friday, 8:50 p.m. ET): OK State goes for three-peat against UNC, UVA, UW, & more
1 Washington 9:14.10
1) Ronan McMahon-Staggs JR 2) Ambodai Ligons FR
3) Kyle Reinheimer SR 4) Nathan Green JR
5) Martin Barco FR 6) Rhys Hammond SR
7) Leo Daschbach SR 8) Thomas Diamond FR
2 Virginia 9:14.19
1) Wes Porter SR 2) Alex Sherman SR
3) Conor Murphy SR 4) Gary Martin JR
5) Alex Leath SO 6) James Ford FR
7) Evans White IV JR 8) Justin Wachtel JR
3 Oklahoma State 9:16.24
1) Brian Musau SO 2) Jordon Smith SO
3) Mehdi Yanouri SR 4) Ryan Schoppe SR
5) Alex Stitt SR 6) Hafez Mahadi JR
7) Mason Page FR 8) Ayden Granados FR
4 Wake Forest 9:17.17
1) Paul Specht JR 2) Foster Shelbert FR
3) Rynard Swanepoel SR 4) Rocky Hansen SO
5) Luke Tewalt SR 6) Wes Shipsey FR
7) Ryan Harper FR 8)
5 North Carolina 9:17.19
1) Aiden Neal JR 2) Nickolis Anderson SR
3) Andrew Regnier SO 4) Ethan Strand SR
5) Parker Wolfe SR 6) Nick Steed FR
7) Killian Fahy SO 8) Joe Sapone SO
6 Princeton 9:17.30
1) Connor McCormick JR 2) Xavier Donaldson SO
3) Samuel Rodman SR 4) Harrison Witt SR
5) Joey Gant JR 6) Marcelo Parra Ramon FR
7) Steven Hergenrother FR 8) Collin Boler SO
7 Georgetown 9:19.24
1) Abel Teffra SR 2) Jaden Marchan FR
3) Gabriele Angiono FR 4) Tinoda Matsatsa SO
5) James Dunne SR 6) Nick Medeiros JR
7) Ryan Mulrooney SO 8) Theo Woods JR
8 Virginia Tech 9:19.88
1) Nicholas Plant JR 2) Samuel Herenton SR
3) Christian Jackson JR 4) George Couttie SO
5) Kahleje Tillmon SR 6) Tomas Kersulis SR
9 Wisconsin 9:20.15
1) Andrew Casey SO 2) Jalen Williams JR
3) Patrick Hilby FR 4) Adam Spencer SR
5) Liam Newhart FR 6) Bob Liking SR
7) Giovanni Wearing JR 8)
10 Texas A&M 9:20.51
1) Luca Santorum SO 2) Cutler Zamzow SR
3) Kimar Farquharson SR 4) Cooper Cawthra SR
5) Sam Whitmarsh JR 6) Caden Norris SR
11 BYU 9:20.72
1) Carter Cutting SO 2) Josh Taylor JR
3) Tyler Mathews FR 4) Lucas Bons SR
5) Sebastian Fernandez SR 6) Kyle Lund FR
12 Oregon 9:21.23
1) James Harding SO 2) Fuad Omer SO
3) Matthew Erickson SR 4) Elliott Cook SR
5) Connor Burns SO 6) Tomas Palfrey JR
7) Rheinhardt Harrison SO 8) Jeffery Rogers SO
The distance medley relay is a hard event to preview because you don’t always know who is going to be running it. It’s a safe bet, for instance, that ace milers Ethan Strand and Gary Martin will be anchoring for North Carolina and Virginia, respectively, considering they scratched out of the mile at NCAAs. That means they can run the DMR on Friday night and the 3k on Saturday without having to run two races in one day.
But what about a team like Washington? Their 9:14.10 seed time, which they ran on February 14 in Seattle, isn’t just the NCAA record. It’s also the fastest time recorded by any team ever, indoors or out (but it’s not a world record, since all legs must be from the same country and 1200 man Ronan McMahon-Staggs is Irish). A full-strength UW team would obviously be among the favorites.
Schoppe has anchored OK State to two straight NCAA DMR titles (Kevin Morris photo)
Last year, however, Washington coach Andy Powell chose to prioritize individual events and left all three of his NCAA champion milers off the team (UW finished 9th). With the top two seeds in the mile (Nathan Green and McMahon-Staggs) and three guys in the individual 800, I’m guessing Powell does the same thing in 2025…though it would be epic to see Green double back from the mile prelims to take on Strand and Martin on anchor.
We also have to shout out Oklahoma State, who has won this event at each of the last two NCAA meets. Only one man, anchor Ryan Schoppe, was on both of their title teams, and he should be back to anchor in 2025. But while Schoppe is a very capable miler, he’s not a dominant one. Rather, in each of the last two years, OK State has done the work on the early legs to build a lead and trusted Schoppe to maintain it by continuing to push from the front.
And keep an eye on Texas A&M, who have four fresh legs, including a 46.03 400 guy in Kimar Farquharson, a 1:44 800 guy in Sam Whitmarsh, and the SEC mile runner-up in Cooper Cawthra (3:54 pb). That’s a dangerous team if they can build a lead for Cawthra on anchor.
JG prediction: I’m discounting Washington because of all of their individual entries. I’m also counting out Wake Forest. While they have a capable anchor in Paul Specht (3:55 mile, 4th at ACCs), Rocky Hansen is their star, and he’s doing the 5,000 so he won’t be running the DMR.
But #2 seed Virginia, #3 seed OK State, and #5 seed UNC should all have four fresh legs. OK State is probably stronger through three legs and UVA and UNC have the two fastest milers in NCAA history, so look for the Cowboys to once again push the pace to try to build a lead for Schoppe. The problem is, Martin and Strand are a lot faster than the guys that Schoppe has had to hold off in previous years.* Last year, Schoppe split 3:55 on anchor, but this year he might have to go 3:51 or so to hold everyone off, depending on how big of a lead he can get (and that’s assuming OK State even gets a lead).
Ultimately, I expect UVA and UNC’s teams will be good enough to put Martin and Strand in contention on the final leg. And if that is the case, I’m backing the better miler — and that’s Strand. Tar Heels FTW.
*Strand was actually one of the guys Schoppe held off in 2023. But 2023 Ethan Strand is not 2025 Ethan Strand.
Who wins the NCAA men's DMR?
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Men’s mile (final Saturday, 6 p.m. ET): Nathan Green (and Ronan McMahon-Staggs) try to make it 6 straight for UW
1 Nathan Green JR Washington 3:50.74 2 Ronan McMahon-Staggs JR Washington 3:51.85 3 Abel Teffra SR Georgetown 3:52.44 4 Fouad Messaoudi SR Oklahoma Sta 3:52.66 5 Steven Jackson SR Boston Colle 3:52.71 6 Simeon Birnbaum FR Oregon 3:52.81 7 Colin Sahlman JR Northern Ari 3:52.82 8 Harrison Witt SR Princeton 3:52.87 9 Laban Kipkemboi SO Oklahoma Sta 3:53.29 10 Collins Kiprotich FR New Mexico 3:53.41 11 Rob McManus JR Montana Stat 3:53.59 12 Harvey Cramb SO Montana Stat 3:53.77 13 Foster Malleck SR Boston Unive 3:53.82 14 Reuben Reina JR Arkansas 3:53.95 15 Isaiah Givens SO Colorado 3:54.12 16 Benne Anderson SO Syracuse 3:54.12
Right now, we are in the midst of one of the craziest streaks in the history of NCAA middle-distance running. Starting with the 2022 outdoor championships, every single NCAA men’s 1500/mile title has been won by an athlete from the University of Washington. That’s five in a row.
Since 2000, there have only been five instances of a school notching four or more consecutive victories in the 800, 1500/mile, or 5000 at NCAAs (the three mid-d/distance events that are run both indoors and outdoors). Usually, one athlete is responsible for piling up most/all of those titles. Not at Washington, where three athletes have combined to win those five titles.
Most consecutive NCAA wins in a mid-d/distance event (indoors and outdoors), since 2000
| Event | School | Consecutive wins | Years | Athletes |
| Women’s 800 | Oregon | 6 | 2015-18 | Raevyn Rogers (5), Sabrina Southerland (1) |
| Men’s 1500/mile | Washington | 5 | 2022-present | Joe Waskom (2), Luke Houser (2), Nathan Green (1) |
| Men’s 5000 | Oregon | 5 | 2015-17 | Edward Cheserek (4), Eric Jenkins (1) |
| Women’s 5000 | Missouri | 4 | 2017-18 | Karissa Schweizer (4) |
| Women’s 5000 | Dartmouth | 4 | 2012-14 | Abbey Cooper (4) |
(It’s worth noting that Andy Powell was the coach for both of the men’s streaks on this list — he was at Oregon before landing at Washington in 2018).
The Huskies will be favored to make it six in a row in Virginia Beach. Not only do they have the #1 seed in Nathan Green, but they also have the #2 seed in Ronan McMahon-Staggs (though he was only 6th in the mile at Big 10s).
Green, a massive talent with a tremendous ability to shift gears, is clearly the man to beat. Back in 2023, he won the NCAA 1500 title as a 20-year-old true sophomore. He has a bumpy 2024 season, as he didn’t make the NCAA final indoors (he ran the 800 and went out in the heats) and was only 10th at NCAAs outdoors. Green later said that he struggled that spring due to some “dumb shit that a 21-year-old does when they turn 21,” but he showed just how good he is at the Olympic Trials where he ran a pb of 3:32.20 in the final to finish 5th. Considering three of the guys who beat him wound up going 1-3-5 in the Olympic final, that is a stellar performance.
This winter, Green has looked incredible, running a 3:50 mile at UW and destroying 3:31 man Adam Spencer of Wisconsin to win the 3000 at Big 10s, closing in 25.8 for his last lap. With Ethan Strand and Gary Martin both scratching the event to run the 3000, Green is the NCAA mile favorite.
Who has the best chance at an upset? There are two names to consider, one familiar to American distance running fans, the other less so.
The guy you’ve probably heard of is Northern Arizona’s Colin Sahlman. In high school, Sahlman was part of the famed Newbury Park dynasty, where he was teammates with Nico Young, won an individual national title in XC, and ran a 3:56.24 mile (only Webb and Ryun have gone faster). Last year at NAU, Sahlman ran super impressive pbs of 1:45/3:33 and was leading the NCAA 1500 final until 50m to go before fading to 4th. He actually beat Green in that race, but unlike Green, Sahlman didn’t make it to the final at the Olympic Trials. Sahlman has been very good this indoor season, winning the 800/mile double at the Big Sky meet as well as running legs on the winning DMR and 4×400 (which he anchored with a 47.9 split).
The guy you may not be as familiar with is Georgetown’s Abel Teffra. Teffra is the top returner from this race last year, just edging Sahlman for 5th place. Teffra didn’t make it to NCAAs outdoors last year and was eliminated in the first round at the Olympic Trials, but he’s only lost one race this indoor season. And even in that loss, Teffra ran incredibly well — he ran 2:17.39 to break the NCAA record in the 1000m but was beaten by his teammate Tinoda Matsatsa, who ran even faster (2:16.84). Teffra can close as well — he ran his last lap of the Big East mile final in 25.6 (in a 4:02 race).
JG prediction: In the last two seasons, Green has been much better outdoors than indoors. But he’s been so good this indoor season that I can’t pick against him. Green FTW, making it six straight for UW.
Who wins the NCAA men's mile?
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Men’s 800 (final Saturday, 6:30 p.m. ET): Three 1:45 guys square off — but could Oregon’s 1:42 man Koitatoi Kidali beat all of them?
1 Aidan McCarthy JR Cal Poly 1:45.19 2 Tinoda Matsatsa SO Georgetown 1:45.21 3 Abdullahi Hassan SR Miss State 1:45.53 4 Brian Kweyei SO Clemson 1:46.26 5 Darius Smallwood SR Penn State 1:46.28 6 Dan Watcke FR Villanova 1:46.32 7 Dayton Carlson SR Arizona Stat 1:46.39 8 Yukichi Ishii JR Penn State 1:46.41 9 Justin O'Toole SR Washington 1:46.44 10 Kyle Reinheimer SR Washington 1:46.45 11 Cole Lindhorst JR Washington 1:46.47 12 Darius Kipyego SR Iowa State 1:46.48 13 Olivier Desmeules SR Penn State 1:46.52 14 Koitatoi Kidali FR Oregon 1:46.55 15 Matthew Erickson SR Oregon 1:46.58 16 Tyrice Taylor JR Arkansas 1:46.62
Almost every NCAA indoor middle-distance record has been broken over the last five years. The men’s mile record has been broken twice. So has the men’s 5,000 record. The men’s 3000 record has been broken three times. But one mark has stood the test of time: the men’s indoor 800m record of 1:44.84, which was set by Virginia’s Paul Ereng way back in 1989 (Ereng is now Texas A&M’s distance coach).
Why has the 800 mark stood so long? Well, Ereng was a hell of a runner. 1:44.84 was the world record when Ereng ran it, which makes sense considering Ereng had just won the Olympics five months earlier. Ereng also wasn’t wearing a UVA singlet when he broke the record — he actually set it competing for Kenya at the World Indoor Championships in Budapest. But since World Indoors came before NCAA indoors that season (which Ereng won a week later), it counted as “in-season” by Track & Field News standards and became the NCAA record.
All of this is to say that there is a good reason why the indoor 800 mark has stood for 36 years and counting. But there are some very strong runners in the NCAA who have come close to breaking it this year. Georgetown’s Tinoda Matsatsa, who was an Olympic Trials finalist last year at 18, ran 1:45.21 in Boston on February 14 to move to #3 on the all-time NCAA list. Two weeks later, Cal Poly’s Aidan McCarthy ran 1:45.19 on the same track to bump Matsatsa down to #4.
Plus Wisconsin transfer Abdullahi Hassan has run 1:45.53 (#8 all-time) for Mississippi State this season. Hassan will be looking to follow in the footsteps of fellow Canadians Brandon McBride (2014 NCAA indoor/outdoor champ) and Marco Arop (2023 world champ/2024 Olympic silver), each of whom have found success under MSU coach Chris Woods.
But none of these guys have the fastest pb in the field — not even close. With a 1:42.66 pb, Oregon’s Koitatoi Kidali, an Olympian for Kenya last summer, has a pb more than two seconds faster than anyone else in the race. But he has yet to fully take off in his first season in Eugene. His 1:46.55 sb was only just good enough to qualify for NCAAs (he was .08 away from missing out) and he was beaten by teammate Matthew Erickson at Big 10s (granted, Kidali was doubling in the 600 — where he also finished 2nd — but the 800 final was first). Kidali might take over the NCAA outdoors, but right now he still has some work to do.
If you want more proof for how competitive the 800 has been in the NCAA this year, consider this: last year’s NCAA champion Rivaldo Marshall ran faster this year than he did last year and didn’t even qualify for NCAAs. Last year, Marshall’s sb for Iowa was 1:46.86. This year, he transferred to Arkansas and ran 1:46.80. That would have qualified for every previous NCAA meet except for this one, when the cutoff was 1:46.62.
JG prediction: On paper, there’s not much to separate Matsatsa and McCarthy. I’ll roll with Matsatsa FTW given his success at the Olympic Trials last summer.
Who wins the NCAA men's 800?
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Men’s 3000 (Saturday, 7:00 p.m. ET): The big one
1 Ethan Strand SR North Caroli 7:30.15 2 Parker Wolfe SR North Caroli 7:30.23 3 Yaseen Abdalla SR Arkansas 7:34.17 4 Liam Murphy SR Villanova 7:35.47 5 Gary Martin JR Virginia 7:36.09 6 Marco Langon SO Villanova 7:36.87 7 Colin Sahlman JR Northern Ari 7:37.59 8 Drew Bosley SR Northern Ari 7:38.06 9 Luke Tewalt SR Wake Forest 7:39.09 10 Habtom Samuel SO New Mexico 7:39.39 11 Colton Sands JR North Caroli 7:39.60 12 Ishmael Kipkurui FR New Mexico 7:40.06 13 Matt Strangio SR Portland 7:40.09 14 Brian Musau SO Oklahoma Sta 7:40.18 15 George Couttie SO Virginia Tec 7:40.18 16 Adam Spencer SR Wisconsin 7:40.38
There is always a lot going on in the NCAA 3,000m final. You’ve got shorter-distance guys doubling back from the DMR, long-distance guys doubling back from the 5k, and even some guys doubling back from the mile, which starts 60 minutes before the 3,000 on Saturday (this year, Colin Sahlman is entered in both).
Usually the best way to assess this race is to wait until Friday’s events are over because almost always, the guy who wins the 3,000 has already won another event at NCAAs. Last year, Nico Young won the 3k after winning the 5k. In 2023, Fouad Messaoudi won the 3k after running a leg on the winning DMR. In 2022, Abdihamid Nur won the 3k after winning the 5k. In fact, of the last 11 NCAA champions in the 3k, only one failed to win multiple events at NCAAs that year: NAU’s Andy Trouard, who was only 5th in the 5k in 2018 but bounced back to win the 3k in a huge upset: LRC How Andy Trouard Went From Northern Arizona’s #4 Man In Cross Country To A National Champion On The Track.
This year, 13 of the 16 entrants in the 3k are either entered in another event or likely to run the DMR, so there’s a good chance we’ll have another double champion in 2025.
Murphy and Strand were all smiles after making the Olympic Trials final last year but will be rivals in the 3k this weekend (Kevin Morris photo)
UNC’s Ethan Strand is the favorite. He has looked sensational in setting NCAA records in the mile (3:48.32) and 3000 (7:30.15) this year. And while those races were set up as time trials, Strand wound up showing impressive closing speed in both, particularly the 3000, where he split 26.47 for his last lap to prevail in a heated battle with teammate Parker Wolfe. Strand can run fast, but he prides himself on being a racer, not a time trialer.
Strand cemented himself as the favorite at ACCs, where he faced fellow 3:48 miler Gary Martin in the 5,000 and crushed him by 4+ seconds, all of it coming on the last lap (Strand ran 13:26 and closed in 26.84, Martin closed in in 31.19).
There is one thing working against Strand, however: the NCAA 1500/mile “curse.” The last nine men to have broken the NCAA 1500 or mile record failed to win the NCAA 1500/mile title that season. That curse is actually guaranteed to continue in 2025 considering Strand is not running the mile at NCAAs.
But the good news for Strand is that it does not necessarily apply to other events. In 2017, Edward Cheserek won the 3k and 5k at NCAAs after setting the mile record. And Cooper Teare anchored Oregon to victory in the DMR after breaking Cheserek’s record in 2021 (though he was beaten in the 3k individually by Cole Hocker).
And this year, there are actually two athletes who have set NCAA 1500/mile records. Strand has the mile record, but he is also tied with Martin for the 1500 record as both of them split 3:33.41 en route to their 3:48 miles (and 3:33.41 is faster than the NCAA outdoor record of 3:33.74 by Eliud Kipsang). Strand was not even aware of the curse when we brought it up to him on the LetsRun.com Track Talk Podcast in February, so perhaps it doesn’t matter. But it’s a reminder that nothing is a given at NCAAs.
Last 11 men to set NCAA 1500 or mile record
| Athlete | Year | Event | Time | NCAA result |
| Miles Batty | 2012 | Mile | 3:54.54i | 3rd mile |
| Chris O’Hare | 2013 | Mile | 3:52.98i | 7th mile |
| Lawi Lalang | 2014 | Mile | 3:52.88i | 2nd 5k, 2nd mile |
| Edward Cheserek | 2017 | Mile | 3:52.01i | 1st 3k/5k, 2nd mile |
| Josh Kerr | 2018 | 1500 | 3:35.01 | 3rd 1500 |
| Cooper Teare | 2021 | Mile | 3:50.39i | 1st DMR, 2nd 3k |
| Sam Tanner | 2021 | 1500 | 3:34.72i | Didn’t make mile final |
| Yared Nuguse | 2021 | 1500 | 3:34.68 | 2nd 1500 |
| Eliud Kipsang | 2022 | 1500 | 3:33.74 | Didn’t make 1500 final |
| Ethan Strand | 2025 | 1500/mile | 3:33.41i/3:48.32i | ??? |
| Gary Martin | 2025 | 1500 | 3:33.41i | ??? |
One other guy to note in this race is North Carolina’s Parker Wolfe. Wolfe was 2nd in the NCAA indoor 3k/5k last year, then won NCAA outdoors and finished 3rd at the Olympic Trials. This season, he opened up with a 7:30 3k in Boston on December 7, just .08 behind his teammate Strand. But Wolfe, who dealt with a foot injury in the cross country season, may have been banged up this winter as he didn’t race at all between December 7 and ACCs on March 1 — and he didn’t run an individual event at ACCs, only the DMR. Wolfe is the real deal, but if he’s not 100% he is not going to win a race as loaded as this one.
JG prediction: Strand has been running fast times and closing fast this season, but has yet to win on the big stage of NCAAs. But he has never run at NCAAs in this sort of shape. If Murphy or Langon looks great in winning the 5k, they could be a threat here, but I’m rolling with Strand FTW.
Who wins the NCAA men's 3000?
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Team Battle / Other events:
Writing for DyeStat, Jack Pfeifer has top 8 predictions for all events and projects the top 5 in the team battles as follows:
1 USC 50
2 Arkansas 41
3 Auburn 32
4 Texas A&M 29
5 North Carolina 28
The USTFCCCA computer ranking has the same top four teams but in different spots with Arkansas at #1.
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More: Women’s Preview: 2025 NCAA Indoors Women’s Preview: Juliette Whittaker & Doris Lemngole Lead Deep Fields With a sub-2:02 800 and sub-4:30 mile required just to qualify for the meet, the women’s middle-distance events should be incredible. The 800 features three NCAA champions in Whittaker, Roisin Willis, and Michaela Rose
