This past weekend marked the final opportunity to attain a qualifying standard (or two or three), and D3 athletes across the nation stepped up to the challenge in incredible fashion.

But before we go into the details of these last chance qualifiers, let’s first get a quick preview of what, for most schools, still feels pretty far away: outdoor track. This weekend saw lots of those from warmer climates kick off the outdoor season, although it should come as no surprise that there were few national qualifiers this early. Most of the highlights occurred at the Willamette Opener, which saw a pair of steeplechasers hit provisional marks, both from host Willamette’s squad. Ben Donovan held of a challenge from Tyler Dudley of Whitworth and dipped under the standard with a clocking of 9:22.61, while Kimber Mattox trounced the field by almost a minute with her time of 10:47.17. Also, Whitworth’s Carter Comito tossed the outdoor season’s first auto by launching the discuss 53.74 meters.

Returning to the more pressing matters at hand, the ECAC meet at the Armory played host to immense shifts in the national performance lists. The most incredible of these came in the women’s 5k, which saw ten provisional marks and six of the top ten times in the nation. Anna Holt-Gosselin of MIT started things off by decimating the “slow” heat in a time of 17:09.93. Not to be outdone, two-time cross country champion Wendy Pavlus led the fast heat from gun to tape in a division-leading 16:54.41. Although she did eventually break away from the field, she dragged along a trio of other women—Annie Dear of Williams, Ali Simeone of Amherst, and Paige Mills of Keene State—to automatic marks, too, though none of them were able to dip under 17 flat. The DMR also brought dramatic shifts in the national scene, with Middlebury leading six teams under 12 minutes in an automatic-qualifying 11:47.16. In the 800, Lauren Brunetto of Oneonto likely punched her ticket to nationals with a 2:13.91 clocking, and Ithaca’s Kate Leugers, Tufts’s Amy Wilfert, and Rutgers-Camden’s Robin England did the same in the mile, with Leugers nipping Wilfert in a time of 4:55.53.
The men’s side was slightly less impressive, although the mile was a notable exception—nine men hit the provisional mark, led by defending mile and 1500 champion Nick Guarino of Fredonia. After Lee Berube of Geneseo led through 800 in 2:02, Guarino took over, blistering to fourth place on the all-time lists with a time of 4:04.68. In the DMR, Bowdoin moved to eighth on the all-time lists and led NYU to automatic qualifier with times of 9:54.39 and 9:54.88, respectively. Close behind, Middlebury appears to have just squeaked into the nationals field with a 9:56.47 clocking, putting them eleventh on the performance lists after the banked track conversion. On the other side of the coin, All-American 800 runner Frank Redmond of Misericordia appears to be on the outside looking in after his 1:53.16 places him sixteenth on the all-important lists. Ryan O’Conner of Geneseo and Dan Ramsey of St. Lawrence put on a battle for the ages in the 5k, with O’Conner winning by .01 with a time of 14:35.73, although they, too, appear to have just missed the cut for nationals.

The NCC Final Qualifying Meet stole the show in the shorter events, with defending 400 meter champion Rachel Boerner of Calvin and Faith Burt of Wartburg pushing each other to automatic qualifiers of 56.38 and 56.56, respectively, good for the second and third fastest times in the division. Loras’s Laura Reiger equaled her season best of 2:13.66 in the 800 while Dani Meirick followed closely behind in 2:14.47, which places her at a precarious thirteenth on the lists. In the 4x400, Wartburg assembled yet another automatic qualifying team. Their 3:49.29 clocking is also good for eighth on the all-time 4x400 list—which currently has five different Wartburg teams in the top ten. Illinois Wesleyan and North Central followed them to the auto mark with times of 3:49.86 and 3:50.01. The women’s DMR was the meet’s hottest distance action of the day, with Wash U’s squad running 11:48.98 to hit the automatic qualifier. Illinois Wesleyan and North Central again occupied second and third place, and although they missed the auto mark in this relay, they will both make the field at nationals.
On the men’s side, Chirs Malaya of Wash U won a nail-biter over Jon Howard of host North Central in the 400—48.68 to 48.72. Luckily, both hit the automatic mark, so we can expect to see a rematch in just a few days. Howard also anchored his Cardinals to a 3:17.73 clocking in the 4x400, good for third in the division. Greg Whittle of Calvin won the mile in 4:11.96, though North Central’s Mike Spain demonstrated that he has dangerous wheels for a 5k runner, as he was a close second in 4:12.26.

The MIAC meet demonstrated the prowess of a pair of 5k runners who we’ll be seeing more of this upcoming weekend. Cross-country runner Ben Sathre of St. Thomas ensured a trip to nationals with a 14:32.82 provisional qualifier, and followed that up with a victory in the 3k to help his team to the overall title. Not to be outdone, Carleton’s Simone Childs-Walker also qualified herself for nationals in the 5k with a solo 17:13.63, and followed that up with wins in both the 3k and the mile, scoring 30 of her team’s 54 points at the meet.

The relays highlighted the UWSP Pointer Qualifier, where UW-Oshkosh broke the tape first in the men’s DMR with an auto mark of 9:55.45. UW-La Crosse and UW-Eau Claire won’t be too disappointed in defeat, though, as they also punched their tickets to nationals with sub-10 clockings. Wisconsin schools Stevens Point, Oshkosh, and River Falls also ran their way into nationals in the men’s 4x400 (in that order) with times between 3:18.19 and 3:18.30.
In the women’s 4x400, Coe ran an automatic qualifying time of 3:53.11 and led UW-LaCrosse and UW-Eau Claire to nationals qualifiers in the process. In the individual events, Claire Roberts of UW-Stevens Point ran 4:56.32 to qualify for the mile, while Jessi Bremer (Manchester) and Maria Peloquin (UW-Eau Claire) appear to have come up just short in the 800 with times of 2:15.27 and 2:15.88, respectively.

Other results of note include McMurry taking advantage of a nice track and some D1 competition at the Arkansas Final Qualifier to run some fast 400’s. Kevin Cunningham ran a 48.17 auto qualifier in the open 400, and he returned to anchor his squad to a division-leading 3:15.17. At the Columbia Last Chance meet, Tyler Newhook of Messiah ran 1:52.78 to place himself on the bubble for nationals, and Drew Clark (Principia) and Russel Speiden (Elizabethtown) put themselves at tenth and eleventh on the lists with times of 4:09.59 and 4:10.24.

Special shout-outs go to Emmanuel Bofa, who bettered his indoor 800 pr to 1:50.23 and moves up to sixth on the all-time lists, and Catie Ellingson of Simpson, who ran 4:49.58, good for seventh on the all-time lists. Both hit automatic qualifiers and will certainly be in action again next weekend.
In the field events, Mindy Harrington of Carthage threw the shot 15.84 meters, which places her third on the all-time lists, and Yaneve Fonge of Rochester tossed the weight 18.92 meters, good for fifth on the lists. Also, Karin Fisher of MIT and Abigail Schaffer of Moravian continued their amazing seasons at the ECAC meet, where they both vaulted 4.12, tying them for second all-time and setting up what promises to be an exceptional showdown this upcoming weekend.

Speaking of this exciting weekend to come, be sure to check back in later this week for a nationals preview article, where I’ll do my best to break down the fields and give some predictions. Best of luck to all those still competing!