2024 D3 Indoor Nationals Reactions

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And just like that, D3 Indoor Nationals is over.

I asked the D3 Glory Days team for their reactions or takeaways from the meet.

Here’s what they had to say:

Noah Droddy

I’m grateful for honestly paced distance races - I’ve always been a track fan, but I’ve endured over and over again the experience of watching the best athletes run fast all year, only to jog 90% of a championship race and race the last lap. Sure, that kind of racing has its place, and can even be exciting sometimes, but we rarely see that kind of racing at DIII championship meets. Mostly we see the distance events decided in times that approximate the personal best of our top athletes. The names may change, but there always seems to be an athlete up for taking a flier off the front. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t but it always exciting, and satisfying for the fans to know the athletes are putting it all out there. We saw this last weekend in every event from the 800 to the 5k.

Track and Field is often framed as an individual sport, the team championship decided by the accumulation of points from the individual events. But last weekend there many clear examples of athletes acting in their team’s best interest, even if you could make an argument it might not be in their own. One of those, in my opinion, was Grace Hadley. Grace Hadley, after qualifying through in the open mile prelims, split a 4:40 DMR anchor leg to move her squad up ten positions and win the national title. That was a big personal best for Hadley, and one might think it could take some sting out of her legs before her big mile final on Saturday. That didn’t end up being the case, she would win on Saturday with a 4:42, but it was a gamble and the fans should appreciate that effort she gave in the DMR.

But, in my opinion, no one put the team on their back quite like Luke Schroeder from Wisconsin La Crosse.  Schroeder came into the weekend as a top contender in both the 60H and the 200m. After a nasty fall in the 60H prelim, the rest of his weekend looked precarious. After he pulled up lame in the 200m prelim, it looked like it was over. But he had earned a spot in the final, would we see him in the blocks? Yes, after entering the Virginia Beach Sports Center on Saturday walking on crutches, he would in fact start the 200m final. Not only that, he would go on to finish 4th. He dove at the finish line, because he was too injured to slow his own momentum. Anybody could see how much it meant to him to score points for La Crosse, and the effort should inspire every athlete, coach, and fan out there.

Stu Newstat

The community in D3 Track and Field is alive and well. Getting a birds eye view on the track, I was struck by the amount of respect the athletes have for one another. In the middle of the competition, Grace Alley and Victoria Kadiri were sharing a laugh. These two competed against each other ALL weekend yet still had time to joke mid competition. It’s pretty standard to see athletes congratulate each other but there was something genuine behind the the embraces. Sam Blaskowski and Eric Gregory sharing a hug after their historic 200m race stands out to me. Watching these races from the booth you can almost feel the community in the building the joy competitors have for one another. Maybe that’s me looking too closely at it but it felt different this year.

D3 is far from the “backup option.” As track and field marks improve across the board, D3 is continuing with the trend. We interviewed JP Vaught back in 2021 after he won the 100m title and he said, “You can’t be slow in D3.” The sentiment still rings true today. Winning marks will continue to improve. The depth will continue to improve. These performances were on display all season and highlighted at the National meet. It’s great for the sport, it’s great for Division 3.

Lastly, wanna plug a thank you to everyone that came out to our event on Thursday. That was incredible. You make covering D3 an absolute blast.

Cirrus Robinson

The story that the Loras women have been writing in the field events all season was that of dominance and depth. This was proved by Seipel’s title clutch in the long jump after a tied mark with Kadiri, as well as Grace Alley defending her #1 rankings to take the high jump and pentathlon title. However, the Warhawks still managed to unveil a new weapon over the weekend. Junior Sara Hoskins lifted her personal best to by four inches this February in order to claim a spot on the national roster, seeded at 13th. On Saturday afternoon, she matched this mark and then went on to best it. Twice. For her first time ever laying eyes on 5’8.5, she cleared it on the first attempt. This pivotal moment in the pit gave the Warhawks an unprecedented 18 points in the high jump, contributing heavily to the lead they took into the 4x4 later that evening. Hoskins silver finish not only solidified the steadiness in Loras‘ jumps coaching, but also the heart and determination the women brought to Virginia Beach.

While we anticipated the jumps this weekend to get big and loud, there was no preparing us for Kyle Hensley. Entering the competition ranked 13th with a season’s best of 16’1.25,” the freshman from Millikin did the unthinkable. He cleared six bars over his personal best to blow past all returners and steal the national title. His leap to 17’0” places him 22nd all-time and the highest ranked jump for a freshman indoors. To vaulters and field athletes everywhere, he proved the limitlessness that can happen on a nationals stage.

Cris Gutierrez

1. Depth of the WIAC Schools
Lax: 74 
EC: 52
Oshkosh: 51
WW 37
5th place was JCU at 21. That's massive. 

2. The future is bright in the Division post COVID years/Redshirts. In the track events outside of the men's 200 and women's 5k, there was at least one freshman/sophomore first team all-american. We have a lot of young athletes in contention to win championships. Look for a couple in those fields to be leading this next crop of record breakers. 

3. You're going to need to be at your personal best at the national meet to win and sometimes even the race of your life because these races aren't going out slow. 

4. Fighting for the team. Highlights were Luke Schroeder in the 200 final. Schlender & Patzka final moves in the 3k. Kennedy & Simonetti finishing together in the 5K. 

5. Lynchburg fans showed up big *salute emoji*

6. Eau Claire is REALLLY REALLY good at throws. 7 Top eight performances across both programs. 

Women putting the team on their back. Big weekends from:

• Grace Alley (Loras: 1st) : Pent: 1st TJ: 4th HJ:1st LJ: 10th 4x400: 6th 

• Victoria Kadiri (Johns Hopkins 3rd): Pent: 3rd, LJ: 2nd TJ: 1st 60: 9th WOW.

• Madeline O'Connell (Rochester: 4th): PV: 1, 400: 4th, 4x400: 1st 

Alex Predhome

D3 sprints continue to be more and more competitive. 

Kenadee Wayt set two all-time marks in the women's 200 and 400. Sam Blaskowski set a meet record in the 60 meter dash and led a 200 that put 2 more men in the sub 21-200 club. Lance Jensen needed a #2 all time mark to hold off second place by 0.02 seconds. To get on the board and place, sprinters needed all-time marks across various sprinting events. 

The WIAC rivalries continue to be the most intense of Division 3 men.

There's two WIAC indoor championship meets for the men. There's the first one, called the "WIAC Indoor Track and Field championship." And then there's the second one, called the "NCAA DIII Indoor Track and Field Championship." WIAC schools made up the top 4 teams.

Emily Richards

More national record attempts at the national meet!

I was super impressed by both Grace Hadley and Emma Kelley in the women's middle distance events. Both had:

1) Races later (3k for Hadley and 4x4 for Kelley), and 

2) More than enough ability to sit and kick in the field,

yet both chose to completely solo their races and chase down a national record. Grace Hadley just missed Ella Baran's 4:40.53 national record in the mile to land at No. 2 all-time with her 4:42.36, Kelley annihilated Seeland's 2:05.39 national record (and my oversized-track 2:05.28) with her 2:04.13, and they both did it completely on their own. 

People hype up the national meet because it's a chance to see D3's best athletes in the country all under the same roof for a weekend. When you come in seeded seconds ahead of the field, we already know you're the best, but we want to SEE that you're the best. We want to see what you're really capable of beyond the national title. This weekend, we all saw firsthand that Grace Hadley and Emma Kelley are the real deal. I thought that was one of the coolest parts of the meet. 

Scott Wolter

How about Eric Anderson of UC-Santa Cruz? Made the most of his opportunity to compete at his first track national meet placing 2nd in the mile. It’ll be interesting to see how he attacks the outdoor season as it looks like he put more focus towards the 800 in previous seasons. He could be a factor in the 1500