Conference Weekend Recap
In the last meet of the year for many and the meet that marks two weeks until the NCAA championships for others, conference championship weekend was a stunning smorgasbord of performances. Multiple events with quick turnarounds, first-time team titles, new national leaders, and of course national records were all on the menu this past weekend. Here’s what went on in D3 track and field.
Best Performance of the Weekend
Photo Credit: George Madison
The Star Market in Boston might have to restock their ice cream shelves this week after MIT’s Ryan Wilson’s jaw-dropping national record in the men’s 800 meter run. He told D3GD on our podcast that he celebrated his mile national record with some black raspberry ice cream.
Just over two weeks later, Wilson set another record, this time in an event that he has won two national titles in: the 800 meter. Wilson won the event outright, running 1:46.61, the fastest time run by a D3 athlete in-season indoors or out. Nick Symmonds ran 1:45.83 at the Outdoor US Championships after the NCAA meet in 2006, but only ever ran as fast as 1:47.34 in-season. With his time, Wilson would currently be tied for sixth on the D1 descending order list.
To make his weekend accomplishments even more impressive, Wilson hopped in the New England Championship mile the night before, pulling teammate Henry Hardart to a PR of 4:06. Wilson took an easy win in 4:04.
Top 6 Results that Caught our Attention
After fearlessly bumping shoulders with Noah Lyles at Indoor USAs, Blaskowski returned to Wisconsin for what could arguably be a meet with even bigger hype: the WIAC championships. Blaskowski lowered his national record of 6.67 in the 60-meter dash to an even speedier 6.65. Just as he did in Albuquerque, Blaskowski showed that precision is key and ran the exact same time in finals as he did in prelims. This marks Blaskowski’s second national record of the indoor season.
MIAC duo Clara Mayfield & Fiona Smith have been one-stepping each other in the national lists all season. They’re currently both ranked in the top five of the nation in three events: the mile, the 3k, and the 5k. Mayfield currently leads the nation in the mile, while Smith leads in both the 3k and the 5k. This past weekend at MIACs, the pair divvied up events, meeting each other on the start line in the 3k only. Mayfield ran the mile, and Smith ran the 5k, giving each a shot to shine in their own spotlight, and shine they both did. Mayfield took a decisive win in the mile, winning by almost 10 seconds with her time of 4:50.20. Smith took the lead in the 5k, running 16:49, 13 seconds ahead of the next finisher and also ran the DMR, anchoring in 5:02. They both came back the next day in the 3k for an epic battle of VO2 max. Smith ultimately won in a time of 9:32, and Mayfield took a close second in an impressive 9:35.
While loading up in sprints and jumps events is common for standout athletes trying to help their teams win conference meets, how common is it that a sprinter steps up and runs the 800? Mount Union’s Kennadee Wayt did just that this past weekend at the OAC Championships. She ran prelims and finals of the 55 and 200-meter dashes, easily winning both and setting a new national lead of 24.40 (converted) in the 200. She took an easy win in the 500-meter dash with a solo effort of 1:14.69, and then took a narrow runner-up finish to Hope Murphy, who currently sits No. 2 on the nationals descending order list, running 2:16.73. It was all in a weekend’s work.
Adalia Coleman showcased her speed at the ODAC meet. She had a battle with Katelyn Gamble all weekend but came out victorious. She ended running the No. 1 time in the 60m dash of 7.54 which is also tied for No. 7 All-Time. The 2022 60m Champ is back on top and will look to defend her title in two weeks.
The UW La Crosse team is good. Like really good. And if you follow D3 track and field then you know the WIAC is really good, too. The La Crosse Women broke the WIAC conference record with 324 points. They broke UW Oshkosh’s record of 261 from 1996. The 1996 Oshkosh team went on to win the national championship that year. Good sign for the Eagles.
Sweeping a conference meet is nice. But sweeping a conference meet as your first conference title is even nicer! Nazareth College went to the meet without ever having won a conference title for either gender and take the coach bus back to campus with two!
Conference Streaks
CCNY Men: 12 Straight CUNYAC Titles (2011-Present)
Mount Union Men: 11 Straight OAC Titles (2013-Present)
Johns Hopkins Men: 10 Straight Centennial Conference Titles (2013-Present)
Johns Hopkins Women: 10 Straight Centennial Conference Titles (2013-Present)
Rowan Men: 8 Straight NJAC Titles (2015-Present)
TCNJ Women: 5 Straight NJAC Titles (2018 to Present)
UW-Superior: 7 Straight UMAC Titles (2017-Present)
North Central Men: 6 Straight CCIW Titles (2017-Present)
North Central Women: 4 Straight CCIW Titles (2019-Present)
SUNY Geneseo Men: 6 Straight SUNYAC Titles (2017-Present)
SUNY Geneseo Women: 6 Straight SUNYAC Titles (2017-Present)
Greenville Men: 4 Straight SLIAC Titles (2020-Present)
Greenville Women - 3 Straight SLIAC Titles (2021-Present)
Lynchburg Women: 4 Straight ODAC Titles (2019-Present)
Trine Men: 4 Straight MIAA Titles (2020-Present)
Wabash Men: 4 Straight NCAC Titles (2019-Present)
Wash U Women: 4 Staight UAA Titles (2019-Present)
Christopher Newport Men - 3 Straight Coast-to-Coast Titles (2020-Present)
Christopher Newport Women - 3 Straight Coast-to-Coast Titles (2020-Present)
UW-La Crosse Women: 3 Straight WIAC Titles (2021-Present)
Wash U Men - 3 Straight UAA Titles (2020-Present)
Program Sweeps
Loras - American Rivers Conference
Southern Virginia - D3 Atlantic
North Central - CCIW
Johns Hopkins - Centennial
Christopher Newport - Coast-to-Coast
Nazareth - Empire 8
Rose-Hulman HCAC Championships
Susquehanna - Landmark Conference
Rochester - Liberty League
Bethel - MIAC
Ripon - Midwest Conference
Bethel - MIAC
Bethel men down 7 going into 4x4. Bethel win. St. John’s finishes 8th to give Bethel the Win
St Norbert - NACC
Mount Union - OAC
Lynchburg - ODAC
Greenville SLIAC
Men: 283.5 Women: 281
SUNY Geneseo - SUNYAC
UW Superior UMAC
WashU - UAA
Men beat CMU by 3.67 points, women beat Chicago by 4 points
UW La-Crosse - WIAC
Men 20th title in 21 years, Women third consecutive title, new WIAC indoor point total record (324)
Conference shoutouts (fan-submitted)
Greenville men & women had the largest margin of victory over the SLIAC than in any other D3 conference. Their men won with 283.5 points over runners-up Webster (84.5) for their fourth-straight title, and their women won with 211 points over runners-up Webster (48) for their third straight title.
The fast heat of the mile at the Centennial Conference meet got out in a 36-second first lap. For those of you calculating in your head right now, that’s 4:48 pace. The race gradually quickened, but remained tactical as the leaders crossed through 800 in 2:15. The field waited to move until 400 to go, and Swarthmore’s Aiden Cantine emerged victorious, running 4:18.37 after a 55-second last 400 (if you’re keeping track, that’s a 12-second negative split). He edged out Hopkins duo Arthur Beyer and Matthew Kleimann. Top-miler Jamie Moreland of Haverford opted for the 800-meter instead of the mile, and won in 1:53.81.
SUNY Geneseo women ran an impressive solo 11:43 in their conference DMR to win by over a full minute and rise to No. 2 in the nation. Their splits were:
3:36 (Erin Eivers)
59.56 (Rachel Zielinski)
2:14.79 (Sierra Doody)
4:52.98 (Windsor Ardner)
(We’re assuming they got the laps right in the women’s race at least).
Mount Union’s Matt McBride set a new national record of 1:03.52 in the men’s 500 meter dash at the OAC Championships.
U of Chicago’s Susannah Truitt broke an 18-year streak of Wash U dominance in the pole vault. Her victory on Saturday marked the first time since 2005 the UAA champion in the women’s pole vault wasn’t wearing a WashU jersey.
The UW-Whitewater squad of Gunner Schlender, Hunter Manuel, Rhett Reuter, and Christian Patzka won the WIAC DMR in 10:06, despite an apparent fall during the 400-meter leg.
Elizabethtown’s Myron Holland entered the Landmark Conference meet with a seed time of 6.90. He left with a shiny new PR of 6.79, which currently puts him tied for 9th in the nation.
Millikin men’s 4x400 relay team of Dayton Lasack, Caleb Bleich, Colin Griffin, and Jake Shumaker won the CCIW 4x4 for the first time in 65 years.
UW-Stout’s Mckayla Felton won her first WIAC title, dipping at the line in the 3k to edge out La Crosse’s Julia Anderson. She won in a time of 10:04.22.
WashU’s Sophie Fox had a personal best of 2:24 in the 800 last year and, just this past weekend, ran a PR of 2:15 to place third at UAAs.
Amherst swept the New Englands 4x800 - both meet records
Leaderboard Changes
With the majority of conference meets taking place on flat 200-meter tracks, the leaderboards saw several changes just two weeks out from the NCAA meet. Here are the athletes who shone the brightest this weekend, making a jump all the way to national leading positions:
60m - Adalia Coleman - 7.54 - Bridgewater College (tied for 7th All-Time)
200m - Kenadee Wayt - 24.40* - Mount Union
800m - Ryan Wilson - 1:46.61 - MIT - D3 Record
Mile - Clara Mayfield - 4:47.36*- Carleton
LJ - Lia Lotti - 5.90m - Tufts
TJ - Shevaughn Allen - 15.48m - Buffalo State
SP - Catie Fobbe - 14.95m - UW Eau Claire
Where things stand before the Last Chance Meets
Meets to Watch this weekend
Last-times-in are at some of the most competitive they’ve ever been. Catch athletes at last-chance qualifier meets this weekend trying to punch their tickets to Birmingham. A few to watch:
Tufts National Qualifying Meet
Alumni News
Former mile national record holder Aidan Ryan, who is using up another year of eligibility at Wasington after graduating from Williams, lined up with his crew of UW teammates to show the nation once more while they’re the best milers in the country. All eight repeated performances under four minutes. Ryan’s time? A blistering new PR of 3:53.65, the eight fastest time in D1 currently (Ryan Wilson’s new national record of 3:55.29 would be No. 15 ahead of Oregon’s Elliott Cook). Washington currently sits in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth positions in the nation for the men’s mile, meaning the NCAA final could look a lot like a Husky time trial.
In a later heat of the men’s mile at BU, Carleton-grad Matt Wilkinson dipped under 4 minutes, running 3:58.82.
D3 Glory Days Podcast
Go listen to Jack Pinho after he broke 4 for the first time!