Launching into the Record Books
Move those stop boards
The athletes of D3 have made it easy for “this weekend’s national records” to be a recurring section in our weekly D3GD recaps. Last weekend, UW La Crosse’s Sam Blaskowski and John Carroll’s Alex Phillip set new national records in the 200m dash and 3k run, respectively, while this weekend the spotlight turned to the throws cage at Carthage College, where Carthage’s Joseph White set a new national record of 21.92 meters in the men’s weight throw. That’s almost 72 feet to toss a 35-pound weight. For those of you who have a hard time conceptualizing how heavy that is, here is a list of things that also weigh roughly 35 pounds:
An American pit bull
A cinder block
A metal shopping cart
A four-year-old child
Most impressively about White’s throw is that it was almost farther than what was measurable in the throws area. The weight appeared to touch the ground inches in front of the stop boards before hitting and displacing one of them. Is this the track equivalent of hitting a baseball out of the park?
White’s new record took down Mount Union’s Sean Donnelly’s eight-year old record that he set at the indoor championships in 2015. After his career in D3, Donnelly went on to place fourth at D1 NCAA’s and third at USA’s in the hammer throw while representing Minnesota, and in his pro career captured a bronze medal in hammer throw at the 2019 Pan-American Games. To be in a similar company with someone with this sort of resume is highly promising for White.
White is currently the national leader in both the weight throw and the shot put. He leads the weight throw over 2022 indoor national champion in the weight throw Alex Kristeller of Widener by almost two meters and leads the shot put over last year’s fourth place finisher indoors Yakob Ekoue by almost a full meter. As of this point in the season, White will be the favorite heading into the 2023 indoor championships.
No graphic for Blaskowski…yet
The D3GD group chat was once again blowing up after UW La Crosse’s Sam Blaskowski tied UW Eau Claire’s Thurgood Dennis’s national record in the 60-meter dash, running 6.68 in the prelims of the Mark Guthrie Legacy Invitational. But just as Stu prepared his split screen for the finals with a live stream video on one side and a Blaskowski graphic for an outright national record on the other, he realized Blaskowski was already across the fieldhouse on the long jump runway, rendering him a DNS in the 60m final. He posted two marks in the long jump, the farther of which was 23’8”, which puts him just outside of All-American status on the 2023 indoor qualifying list. We collectively agreed to save the graphic for Blaskowski’s inevitable 60-meter national record later on this season–not for lack of being impressed (6.68 is wickedly fast!), but rather for faith in what is to come. Stu clicked “save” on his 6.XX graphic and shut his computer.
Changes in the leaderboard
Ramapo’s Gbarper Dwah nearly reclaimed her national lead in the women’s 60-meter dash with a 7.61 at Ocean Breeze. This mark ties that of Williams’s Kiara Tan, who also ran 7.61 last weekend in Boston.
Williams’s Jackson Anderson has gone much of the indoor season uncontested in the men’s 60-meter hurdle national leaderboards. This weekend, however, a new name joins him at the top in Nebraska Wesleyan’s Eli Etherton. The pair are currently tied for the national lead in this event at 8.08.
On a rare Sunday indoor meet on the west coast, George Fox’s James King nabbed the national lead in the men’s high jump. He cleared a height of 2.10 meters to surpass freshman Yaih Marial of UW-River Falls on the leaderboards.
On the topic of freshman standouts, freshman Henry Branstadter of Emory leaped to a distance of 7.40 meters in the men’s long jump to steal the national lead from Rowan’s Ahmir Johnson. This performance was a 20-centimeter personal best for Branstadter, who also set a new 200-meter PR this past weekend.
Also in the horizontal jumps this past weekend, 2022 indoor national champion Jonathan Wilburn of UW-Oshkosh extended his lead in the men’s triple jump with a leap of 15.20 meters. Wilburn’s personal best jump of 15.49 meters from last season is currently No. 8 all-time in indoor D3 history.
The women’s pentathlon has a new national leader in Ithaca’s Logan Bruce, who scored a total of 3,722 points this past weekend at Ithaca’s home Bomber Invitational. This score is currently No. 9 in D3 history and leads the national field by 41 points. Bruce took runner-up in the pentathlon last year to La Crosse’s Hannah Zenkovich and returns this year as the favorite in this event.
Take a look back on our piece featuring Bruce from last winter here. In it, she expresses that one of her goals was to become a national champion, a dream that might just come true a year later.
Urban vs. Smith…who you got?
Emory’s Annika Urban dropped an impressive No. 17 all-time 4:50.74 mile at the South Carolina Invitational to claim the national lead in the mile. Her lead lasted almost a full day until St. Benedict’s Fiona Smith ran 4:52.88 on the 200-meter flat track at Minnesota. Her converted time of 4:50.01 passed Urban on the leaderboards and gives herself options for next month’s national championship. Smith also sits just ahead of Urban on the 5k list with a converted time.
Instances like this are a good reminder that while the conversion from a flat track gives an undeniable confidence boost headed into NCAAs, the incentive for chasing banked tracks in-season lies in that times are more likely to land on the all-time list. As athletes prepare to head to the 200-meter banked track at the Birmingham Crossplex, matchups are sure to be close and times are certain to be fast.
Pass the stick
Relays are starting to heat up at this point in the season, particularly in the men’s 4x400. Three teams surpassed the previous national leaders and 2022 indoor national champions Rowan this past weekend, including OAC school John Carroll, who ran 3:14.82 on an oversized track at Ashland University, and north school pair Bethel (Minn.) and La Crosse, who ran a converted 3:13.78 and 3:13.97, respectively, at the new La Crosse fieldhouse. While the conversion in the 4x4 is a generous three seconds, anyone who has run a 400-meter dash at their top speed on a flat 200-meter track knows how difficult it is to run fast around four tight turns. While Rowan and Mount Union have long asserted their reign in this event, this year’s championship could see a new victor in current leaders Bethel, WIAC powerhouse La Crosse, or Mount Union conference foes John Carroll.
John Carroll added their names to a second relay list this weekend, as the squad of Ethan Domitrovich, Garrett Clark, Caleb Correia, and Alex Phillip dropped a time of 9:50.33 at Ashland on Friday night. This time trails their national record time of 9:41.56 that they ran at Boston last year by a mere nine seconds and trails current national leaders MIT by a full six seconds.
Listen to this week’s conversation with MIT men on the podcast here.
Depth in the women’s UAA
UAA schools Wash U and U of Chicago skyrocketed to the top of the leaderboard in the women’s DMR after running a converted 11:33.50 and 11:47.91, respectively, at two separate meets. The most impressive part? Both programs also ran B teams that posted times currently ranked in the top five of the country. Wash U’s B team ran a converted 12:19.94, which currently sits at No. 5, and Chicago’s B team ran a converted 11:54.26, which currently sits No. 3. Chicago’s B team beat Hope’s A squad, who ran a converted 11:55.07 with Ana Tucker on the anchor leg. Hope currently sits third on the qualifying list with Chicago’s B team excluded.
Where we are now
-Last year, 18 athletes on the qualifying list ran times under 4:10 in the men’s mile, while this year’s list currently has 10 athletes with a sub-4:10 mark, over 50% of last year’s quota for the full year.
-Both 5k’s boast deep fields already this season. The women’s 5k list last year had ten athletes entered under 17 minutes, while this year already has five athletes under 17. On last year’s men’s list, only nine athletes ran times under 14:20. This year, there are currently six athletes with sub-14:20 seeds, two thirds of the amount from last year. Furthermore, only two qualifying times from last year happened prior to Feb. 11, meaning if this year follows a similar performance forecast, 5k qualifying times are about to take a sharp drop in the coming weeks.
-In an event where track conversions don’t come into play, the 60-meter dashes are starting to show some hefty depth on both sides. The women had ten sub-7.70 marks at the end of last year, which is the same number of current marks under 7.70 this year in February. Six of these marks are tied for fifth at 7.68. In the men’s event, six athletes were under 6.80 headed into the championships last year, and seven currently have times under 6.80 this year.
Meets to watch this weekend
The 2023 BU David Hemery Valentine Invitational is slated for this Friday (women’s events) and Saturday (men’s events) and is sure to produce a few jaw-dropping performances. John Carroll’s Phillip will have his sights on the men’s 5k national record of 13:53.17 belonging to North Central’s Dan Mayer. If he breaks it, a 29 year-old record will finally go down. Look for MIT’s Sam Acquaviva and Williams’s Elias Lindgren to also make a crack at sub-14.
MIT’s Ryan Wilson will look to become just the third athlete indoors in D3 history to dip under four minutes in the mile. Karl Parayna is part of the sub 4 club but did it outdoors. The current national record is held by Williams’s Aidan Ryan at 3:56.88, a time he ran at BU just last year.
Some other names to watch at BU this weekend:
Men’s 60m: Ithaca’s Jalen Leonard-Osbourne
Women’s 60m: Conn College’s Malissa Lindsey, Coast Guard’s Michelle Kwafo
Women’s 200m: Carnegie Mellon’s Samantha Giordani & Bowdoin’s Kianne Benjamin, Ramapo’s Garbper Dwah
Men’s 200m: Ramapo’s Cheick Traore & Bowdoin’s Ajay Olson
Women’s 400m: Wesleyan’s Grace Devanny
Men’s 400m: Ramapo’s Cheick Traore, Rowan’s Amara Conte, SUNY Geneseo’s Kiernan Sheridan, Tufts’ Luke Botsford
Women’s 800: Wesleyan’s Maeve Hoffman, TCNJ’s Allison Uhl, WPI’s Syndey Packard
Men’s 800m: Loras’s Mike Jasa & Carter Oberfoell, Lynchburg’s Tor Hotung-Davidsen, John Carroll’s Caleb Correia, CMS’ Kai Dettman, Alex Ivanov - Carnegie Mellon, Central College’ Noah Jorgenson
Women’s mile: Baldwin Wallace’s Hope Murphy, MIT’s Gillian Roeder, RPI’s Morgan Lee, Williams’s Molly Fitzgibbons, SUNY Geneseo’s Sierra Doody, Central College’s Caroline McMartin
Men’s mile: MIT’s Ryan Wilson & Henry Hardart, Trinity’s Travis Martin, Pomona-Pitzer’s Bennett Booth-Genthe & Jack Rosencrans, Geneseo’s Ezra Ruggles, RPI’s Matthew Lecky, Loras’s Ryan Harvey
Women’s 4x4: MIT, TCNJ, Rowan, Johns Hopkins, Wesleyan, Colby
Men’s 4x4: Rowan, Geneseo, TCNJ, Williams
Women’s HJ: Tufts’s Jaidyn Appel
Women’s PV: Bowdoin’s Charlotte Hodge
Men’s TJ: Rowan’s Ahmir Johnson
Men’s 60mh: Williams’s Jackson Anderson
Women’s 60mh: Stevens’s Laura Mathews, Geneseo’s Gwen Shepardson, Amherst’s Eliza Cardwell
Women’s 3k: Emory’s Annika Urban, Johns Hopkins’s Sara Stevenson, Geneseo’s Windsor Ardner, Bates’s Jillian Richardson, St. Olaf’s Christine Albrecht
Men’s 3k: Geneseo’s Nick Andrews, MIT’s Matthew Kearney & Andrew Mah, Pomona-Pitzer’s Colin Kirkpatrick & Ian Horsburgh, CMS’s Henry Pick & Miles Christensen, Conn College’s Jeffrey Love, Johns Hopkins’s Gavin McElhennon & Charlie Teeter, Carnegie Mellon’s Colin McLaughlin, Emory’s Spencer Moore
Women’s 5k: Geneseo’s Kathleen McCarey & Rachel Hirschkind, NYU’s Grace Richardson, CMS’s Meredith Bloss, Amherst’s Mary Kate McGranahan, John Carroll’s Erica Esper, Marywood’s Milana Straub
Men’s 5k: John Carroll’s Alex Phillip, Williams’s Elias Lindgren, MIT’s Sam Acquaviva, Pomona-Pitzer’s Lucas Florsheim & Derek Fearon, Middlebury’s Zander Kessler, RPI’s Cory Kennedy, Colby’s Tyler Morris
Men’s DMR: Carnegie Mellon, Geneseo, Loras, Lynchburg, CMS, Pomona-Pitzer, Williams, Emory
Women’s DMR: MIT, Geneseo, Johns Hopkins, Williams, WPI, Emory, Wesleyan, Tufts, Lynchburg, Pomona-Pitzer, Bates
Follow BU results here.
Midwest Elite Meet
Over in the Midwest, Wisconsin-Whitewater is hosting the Midwest Elite meet. At the meet will be Carthage, Loras, Trine, UW-Oshkosh, UW-La Crosse, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Whitewater, and WashU. The 5k is shaping up to be the event to watch with Christian Patzka, Gunner Schlender, Ethan Gregg and Isaac Wegner all entered. All four are under 8:18 in the 3k this season and always make for a competitive race. In total, 14 men are entered at 15:00 or faster.
The women’s 800 should put on a show as the top 14 are all seeded at 2:17.84 or faster. Emma Kelley will look to keep her #1 time in the country.
In the sprints, the women’s 200m features the top 8 seeded at 25.77 or faster and seed 2-4 being from UW-Lacrosse. Marion Edwards will do her best to hold off the Eagles in what could be a Nationals preview.
After tying the 60m National Record, Sam Blaskowski is not entered in this meet.
Entries to the meet can be found here.
D3 grad transfers
-University of Utah announced that they will add five-time All-American Clara Mayfield of Carleton to their roster as a grad transfer next year
-Four-time national champion in the sprints JP Vaught of Centre will be taking his talents to Louisiana Tech next year