Cancel the NCAA Regionals: Here are your 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field women’s champions

The regional meets that will select the competitors for the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which will take place in Eugene, Oregon, June 11-14, start today in Jacksonville, FL for the NCAA East First Round and Bryant-Colllege Station for the NCAA West First Round.

The beauty of the regional system is its simplicity. Perform and you make it to NCAAs. Or don’t perform and miss out. There is no politics of a selection committee that you so often get in other sports. Regionals is an amazingly fair way to select the NCAA field. But for the stars, it’s kind of a waste of time. Along those lines, let me tell you who I think based on the 2025 regular season will be your NCAA champions in the mid-d and distance events in a few weeks time.

Women’s 800 – Michaela Rose – Senior – LSU – 1:58.12 sb

Embed from Getty Images

The NCAA women’s 800 is at a new level in 2025, with five women breaking 2:00 this year. That’s a huge jump from the last four years, where the totals were 2 (2024), 1 (2023), 0 (2022), and 1 (2021). Additionally, 2023 NCAA indoor champ Roisin Willis of Stanford (1:59.13 pb) is not included in that five. So it’s possible someone with a sub-2:00 personal best won’t even make the final.

Rose won the outdoor title in 2023, and picking her to win isn’t something I’m extremely confident about, as she sometimes misjudges her pace and runs out of steam in the final 100. But she certainly deserves to be the favorite as a former champ who is undefeated outdoors and has broken 2:00 twice this spring. Rose’s 1:58.12 sb is #2 in NCAA history behind only Athing Mu‘s 1:57.73 from 2021. Rose may finally get it right again at NCAAs, front-run a 1:57, and win convincingly.

Clemson’s Gladys Chepngetich won ACCs—the strongest 800 conference in the country—defeating indoor champ Makayla Paige of UNC in the process, but she’s lost twice outdoors. Paige can’t be discounted from winning, as indoors she was only 3rd at ACCs but won NCAAs. But do you really feel confident picking someone who has never broken 2:00 to take down a field full of sub-2 women? It’s certainly possible Paige wins, however.

The storybook pick for the win would be BYU’s Meghan Hunter. In high school, she broke her neck in a rollover crash and had to have several vertebrae fused together. As a result, she’s been nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. At Big 12s, she skipped the 1:59s altogether and lowered her PB from 2:00.21 to 1:58.99.

Top 10 NCAA Runners This Year in 800
1. Michaela Rose SR-4 LSU 1:58.12
2. Meghan Hunter SR-4 BYU 1:58.99
3. Smilla Kolbe SR-4 North Florida 1:59.02
4. Victoria Bossong SR-4 Harvard 1:59.48
5. Gladys Chepngetich SO-2 Clemson 1:59.68
6. Makayla Paige JR-3 North Carolina 2:00.21
7. Maggi Congdon SR-4 Northern Arizona 2:00.27
8. Judy Kosgei SO-2 Clemson 2:00.29
9. Riley Chamberlain JR-3 BYU 2:00.42
10. Roisin Willis JR-3 Stanford 2:00.43

Women’s 1500 – Klaudia Kazimierska – Senior – Oregon – 4:03.26 sb

What a difference a year makes.

Last year, Poland’s Klaudia Kazimierska entered NCAAs with a 1500 PB of 4:07.47 from 2020. At NCAAs, she broke that by running 4:06.92 in the semis, then finished 3rd in the final. After that, she headed to Europe, where she PR’d five more times, including a 4:00.12 in the Olympic final. After the Olympics, she broke 4:00 with a 3:59.95. She missed indoors this year but has been coming on strong lately, winning Big 10s in the 800 two weeks ago and then running 4:03.26 at the Sound Running event last weekend to establish herself as the NCAA favorite.

If Kazimierska doesn’t win, it likely means Washington’s Sophie O’Sullivan finally got things right at NCAAs in her last attempt. O’Sullivan, the daughter of Irish former world champ Sonia O’Sullivan, has never scored an individual point at NCAAs. In 2023, O’Sullivan didn’t score at NCAAs and then ran 4:02 at Worlds. In 2024, she didn’t score at NCAAs but ran 4:00.23 in the Olympics. She heads into NCAAs after a super impressive Big 10 win.

Sophie O’Sullivan via @UWHuskiesWire

Would it stun me if neither wins? I’d be surprised, but it could happen. Both finished in triple digits at NCAA XC (Kazimierska was 100th, O’Sullivan was 135th). Providence’s Kimberley May, who was second last year, would like to move up a spot, so there could be another Kiwi winner after Maia Ramsden won for Harvard in 2023 and 2024. Virginia’s Margot Appleton defeated May at Raleigh Relays and enters with the fastest time in NCAA competition (4:05.68).

Top 10 College Times
1. Klaudia Kazimierska SR-4 Oregon 4:03.26
2. Margot Appleton SR-4 Virginia 4:05.68
3. Chloe Foerster JR-3 Washington 4:05.75
4. Silan Ayyildiz JR-3 Oregon 4:05.83
5. Salma Elbadra SO-2 South Carolina 4:05.85
6. Kimberley May SR-4 Providence 4:06.58
7. Mia Barnett SR-4 Oregon 4:06.66
8. Laura Nicholson SR-4 Toledo 4:07.17
9. Grace Hartman JR-3 NC State 4:07.19
10. Maggi Congdon SR-4 Northern Arizona 4:07.23

Women’s Steeplechase – Doris Lemngole – Sophomore – Alabama – 9:10.13 sb

With New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei (9:15.93 PB) opting for the 10k/5k, this is a two-person race. Lemngole, the defending champ who also won NCAA XC in the fall and the NCAA indoor 5000 crown in the winter, has run an NCAA-record 9:10.13 this year. It’s hard to see her losing. If she does, it will be to BYU’s Lexy Halladay-Lowry (9:18.05), the only other person entered in the field who has run under 9:25.

Doris Lemngole on her way to victory

Top 10 NCAA Times
1. Doris Lemngole SO-2 Alabama 9:10.13
2. Pamela Kosgei FR-1 New Mexico 9:15.93
3. Lexy Halladay-Lowry SR-4 BYU 9:18.05
4. Angelina Napoleon SO-2 NC State 9:27.85
5. Leah Jeruto FR-1 Oklahoma 9:34.71
6. Katelyn Stewart-Barnett SR-4 Michigan State 9:36.96
7. Sarah Tait SR-4 West Virginia 9:37.62
8. Karrie Baloga SO-2 Northern Arizona 9:44.09
9. Taylor Lovell SO-2 BYU 9:46.86
10. Shelby Jensen SO-2 Utah State 9:48.44

Women’s 5000/10,000 – Pamela Kosgei – Freshman – New Mexico – 14:52.45/31:02.73 sbs

The New Mexico freshman, who is the sister of former marathon world record holder Brigid Kosgei, leads the entrants in terms of seasonal bests (14:52.45/31:02.73) by a large margin, as Lemngole and Halladay-Lowry opted for the steeplechase only. In both races, NC State’s junior Grace Hartman is the #2 seed (14:58.11/31:20.60).

Kosgei’s 31:02.73 is the #2 time in NCAA history behind Parker Valby‘s 30:50.43 collegiate record from last year, and her seed time is even faster at 30:55 (converted from a 31:58 at altitude in Albuquerque). She deserves to be the favorite in both events as she was the NCAA runner-up in XC and third in the 5000 indoors.

Men’s Picks

My predictions for the men’s meet can be found here: Cancel the NCAA Regionals: Here are your 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field men’s champions

Talk about the regionals on the world-famous LetsRun.com fan forum / messageboard. Did you know you can filter so you have a college-only forum as well at https://www.letsrun.com/forum/college?

• Rojo picks the NCAA champs before regionals. What do you think of his picks? Vote in our polls
• Official 2025 NCAA Regionals Discussion Thread – Declarations are in – Any surprises?
• Olympians in the NCAA Regional meets.
• NCAA East Regional – At Hotel with Tennessee, Vanderbilt, ECF