A Weekend of Fireworks

In a weekend studded with D3 records, Williams’s Aidan Ryan, UW-Eau Claire’s Marcus Weaver, Rowan’s Amara Conte, and Trinity’s Travis Martin made national history. 

Four national records, all set in the past four years, fell this weekend, suggesting a new wave of track and field is upon us. 

And it’s only January. 

The headlining event of the weekend was Aidan Ryan’s 3:56 mile at BU. Two weeks ago when Ryan dropped the fastest 3k time in D3 history out in Washington, we knew something special was evolving in the Williams standout. As he returned to the east coast for an attempt to break the four-minute mile barrier and the D3 record of 3:59.01, no one doubted he could do it. But no one was prepared for what transpired on BU’s track on Sunday afternoon. 

Fans held their breath when Ryan went through 809 meters in 2:00.32. A big negative split would be needed for Ryan to have a chance at the national record. In a decisive move around Saucony’s James Randon and Simon Fraser’s Aaron Ahl on lap five, one of the most crucial laps in the mile, Ryan turned 30-second splits into 29s (29.4, 29.2, 29.1). Ryan crossed the line at the bell lap in 3:28.04, meaning he had to hold 30-second pace to secure the record and become the second man in D3 history to break four minutes in the mile. 

As he rounded the final turn, the clock hit 3:47, the same split that would give Yomif Kejelcha the indoor mile world record on the same track three years ago. Kicking down the 50m home stretch, Ryan held onto fourth place behind three pros, crossing the finish line a national record holder. The clock read 3:56.88—three seconds faster than the previous record. Not only does this time put him at the No. 1 spot in both NCAA D3 and D2 qualifying lists, but it is the ninth fastest unconverted time in the entire NCAA and the 15th fastest time in the world currently. What a weekend for Division 3. 

To add to the excitement, UW-Eau Claire’s Weaver set a new national record in the men’s heptathlon after scoring 5,533 points at the Warren Bowlus Multi & Open on Saturday. He jumped from his previous rank of 19 on the USTFCCCA descending order list to surpass Eau Claire alum Dylan Cooper’s previous national record of 5,441 points. UW-Eau Claire is the most represented program in the men’s heptathlon in D3 history with a total of five men in the top 17 of the all-time list. 

To put Weaver’s accomplishment into perspective, his point total puts him at No. 20 across all NCAA divisions and even ranks him nationally in four out of seven individual events on the D3 indoor qualifying list, his highest rank in the high jump at No. 4.

In the men’s 500m, Rowan’s Amara Conte dropped a D3 national record time of 63.71** at the Great Dane Classic in New York before anchoring Rowan’s 4x400m relay team to a lightning-fast 3:15.19, a division lead by over five seconds. Though Conte was the only returner from the 2021 National Champion relay team represented this weekend, Rowan sent the message that they aren’t playing any games this season. 

**Editor’s Note - After the release of this article, we were made aware that Ben Scheetz holds the 500m record after running 62.74 at the 2011 Indoor ECAC Championships. It was not updated on the USTFCCCA website. Still a great run by Amara!

Then, on a snowy Sunday at BU, hours before Ryan would capture the record in the mile, Trinity’s Travis Martin captured the 1k D3 record in 2:24.19, almost a second ahead of previous record-holder Jack Pinho. The entire 1k descending order list received a makeover this weekend as Johns Hopkins Matthew Kleiman and Arthur Beyer added their names to the list in the number five and seven spots, respectively. John Carroll’s Caleb Correia clocked in the 14th fastest time in history under all conditions. 

Although the hype surrounding a national record is tough to beat, several more strong performances highlighted the weekend, giving fans that much more to be excited about as the season heads into February.

Another Weekend of Leaderboard Changes

At Wittenberg, Trine’s Evie Miller came within half of a second from Kassie Parker’s national lead of 4:50.29 in the mile. As mentioned last week with Parker, a quick mile this early could mean a fast 5k time coming soon from the fourth place cross finisher, Miller. While it’s too early to tell which events Parker or Miller might run at the national meet in March, our anticipation grows for the head-to-head match that will likely transpire between the two, potentially catapulting both of them to performances under either D3 record.

Another rising performer in the 5k this season is Wellesley’s Ari Marks, who dropped the No. 11 all-time fastest indoor 5k in D3 history with a time of 16:38.21 to rise to the No. 1 spot on the current indoor list. In the fall, we watched Marks take runner-up at the NCAA Cross Country National Championship with a time of 20:28. Now, just two months later, Marks sits under three seconds behind D3 alum and national champion Annie Rodenfels on the USTFCCCA descending order list. 

Marks and Rodenfels share proximity in the history books and in practice, as Rodenfels is now an ​assistant coach for the Wellesley Cross Country and Track & Field programs, giving greatness an opportunity to cultivate greatness. 

Rodenfels has built up quite a resume herself so far this season, as she knocked out her second U.S. standard this past weekend by winning the women’s 3k at BU in a time of 8:52.84. Earlier this season, she ran 15:08.8 to win the 5k off of a pacing job (listen to her chat with D3GD about this race). While it’s not current D3 coverage, we love to see a former D3 runner headlining the weekend pro results. 

In other distance news, some quick women’s 3k races transpired at the Mark Shuck Open & Multi in Minnesota, where Carleton’s Clara Mayfield and Benedictine’s Fiona Smith went 1-2 in 9:35.77 and 9:37.36, respectively. They move to the top of the current qualifying list and become the second and third athletes to break 9:40 in the women’s 3k so far this year after Johns Hopkins’s Ella Baran. Geneseo’s Kathleen McCarey dipped under 17 minutes in the 5k to jump to third on the indoor qualifying list with her time of 16:57. 

In the men’s 5k, 14th place cross finisher Lucas Florsheim of Pomona-Pitzer ran 14:23 at UW, while some 2,344 miles away, 6th place finisher Simon Heys of Wilmington would run an identical time at Wittenberg University. Both athletes rise to the top of the current indoor rankings behind the current leader Alex Phillip of John Carroll. 

The men’s team from RPI and SUNY Geneseo could presumably run neck-and-neck in a 4x3k relay (if this were an event) after their distance squads swept two different meets in New York. RPI’s Matthew Lecky, John Reed, Jason Gibbons, and Cory Kennedy placed 1-4 in times spanning from Lecky’s 8:16 to Kennedy’s 8:34 in Utica, while Geneseo’s Nick Andrews, Ezra Ruggles, Ryan Mitchell, and Ben Timmons went 2-5 in Rochester, finishing behind Williams’s Grahm Tuohy Gaydos, who won in 8:17. 

The winners of the unofficial D3GD virtual 4x3k would have been RPI in a time of 33:46, but we’re confident that with a little competition Geneseo could improve their time of 34:00 for a nail-biting last lap between Lecky and Andrews.

The performer of the weekend in the men’s 3k goes to MIT’s Matthew Kearney, who ran 8:12.55 at BU, good for the third-fastest time indoors this season.

In the middle distances, Hope’s Nicholas Hoffman covered 800m in 1:52.15 at GVSU, giving him the second-fastest time run this season in the men’s 800. This performance comes after Hoffman’s 4:09.00 effort in the mile last weekend. On the west coast, CMS’s Henry Pick took to the big track to run 4:10 in an outdoor meet, while the snow-buried east coast looked on in envy.

U of Chicago adds two names to the growing list of athletes to run under five minutes in the women’s mile so far this season, as Maddie Kelly and Kaitlyn Van Baalen took each other to the line in 4:58.6 and 4:58.7, respectively. 

In the sprints, Pacific Lutheran’s Bailey Forsyth is back in action, having run 7.80 in the 60m dash and 25.34 in the 200m dash out in Washington. Though the women’s 60m dash is currently led by Nebraska Wesleyan’s Isabella Hogue (7.63) and Maddie Moran (7.67), don’t count out the outdoor 100m and 200m national champion, Forsyth.

Wartburg’s Dallas Wright takes over the lead in the men’s 200m dash with his time of 21.75, some serious speed around the flat track. Alex Lemieux of Tufts also put down an impressive performance in the 200m with his run of 21.66. Lemieux’s time comes from Boston’s banked track and has thus been converted up slightly to a 22.05, leaving him 4th on the national list. Loras’s Mike Jasa jumps to No. 2 in the men’s 400m on the qualifying list, his time of 49.18 showing the 800m field that his footspeed is something to fear in the final 100m. 

As more multi meets pop up around the country, the women’s pentathlon sees a new national leader in UW-La Crosse’s Hannah Zenovich, who scored 3,664 points at UW-Whitewater. In the women’s weight throw, two more athletes posted tosses over 18 meters in Trine’s Valerie Obear and UW-La Crosse’s Skye Digman. Digman also leads the women’s shot put behind UW-Platteville’s Brianna Leahy who posted a fantastic throw at the Spartan Invitational with a PR of 14.84m.

Finally, the women’s vault saw lead changes as Ithaca’s Meghan Matheny and Oberlin’s Sarah Voit cleared 3.93m and 3.90m, respectively, the former the 23rd highest vault on the USTFCCCA descending order list. 

This weekend was chock-full of D3 Records, fast times, and big marks. If the past few weeks have proved anything it’s that D3 is a force to be reckoned with. The excitement of many D3 fans is growing as we begin to enter the middle of the indoor season, with many wondering: What record is going to fall next? Last week, we said that “dangerous speeds with a chance of record-breaking” times are on the horizon. It is no longer potentially going to be a record-breaking season. It is a record-breaking season. D3GD will have you covered all season long.