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Day one of the NCAA Division 3 Championships had more than its fair share of drama, and I’ll do my best to recap the action as I saw it. Be sure to check out post-race interviews with a few of the 1500 runners, which can be found using the link above. I should catch up with 10 champs Mike Spain of North Central and Jennifer Gossels of Williams tomorrow, and hopefully I will see 1500 heat winner Christy Cazzola of Oshkosh as well. I will post those tomorrow night along with whatever interviews I have from the 800’s and steeplechase. I also have some race videos that I will get uploaded for you all as soon as possible (1500 trials).

Also, let me just say that they’re putting on a very solid meet out here at Ohio Wesleyan, so if you have the opportunity to come out and watch some races, I strongly encourage you to do so. It was a great day today and the next two days promise to be even better.

Anyway, without further adieu, here’s what happened today:

Women’s 4x100
Top seeded Methodist looked stellar while winning the first heat, though MIT anchor Portia Jones was closing fast. However, the fastest time on the day came from Buffalo State, the winners of the second heat, who clocked in at 47.29

Women’s 400H
Coming in as the seventh seed overall, defending champ Rachel Boerner of Calvin won her heat to qualify for finals, though the fastest time on the day came from last year’s runner up, Jamie Simmons of MIT, who ran 60.62. The top seed coming into the event, Brittany Melloy of Wartburg, failed to advance to finals, which doesn’t bode well for the Knights in their attempt to take down Oshkosh for the team title.

Women’s 200
Four of the top five seeds made it onto finals with Methodist star Ruby Blackwell leading the way in 23.96, the fastest time in the division thus far. Camille Davis of Oshkosh and Portia Jones of MIT, seeded second and third respectively, both took care of business to win their heats, and Marcia McCord of Ithaca was the surprise winner of the only other heat.

Women’s 4x400
MIT continued to have a great day, again led by Portia Jones, who anchored both of their relays on the day and won her heat of the 200. Their squad took home a prelims victory and the fastest time on the day with a 3:45.71 clocking. Wartburg’s division-record holding squad won their heat in a marginally slower time, and anchor Nevada Morrison had to come back from way down on North Central anchor and 800 runner Krista Cota. Also of note was the disqualification of sixth seeded Coe for a false start.

Women’s 1500
The first heat went out pretty quickly, with Amy Knoblock of Keene State setting the early pace. Randelle Boots of Wellesley followed fairly close behind and the two of them opened up a small gap on the rest of the field, coming through in 69. The pace slowed a bit over the next lap though the two maintained a small lead over a chase pack led by Margo Cramer of Middlebury and Kate Leugers of Ithaca. The leading duo came through the 800 in around 2:22, but with about 400 to go they had been caught by Cramer, Tonya Turner of Whitworth, and Sheena Crawley of Franklin and Marshall, with Leugers trailing. Given that the top five advance automatically, the race for first was by no means all out, though Boots still closed in around 70 for a 4:28.81 victory over Margo Cramer, who finished six hundredths behind. Kate Leugers of Ithaca coldn't close the gap and finished in sixth, but she also made it the finals as a time-based qualifier.
The second heat went out fast as well, courtesy of Claire Roberts of Stevens Point. However, this heat remained pretty well bunched up through the first quarter, covered in around 70.  A top five of Roberts, Christy Cazzola of Oshkosh, Grayce Selig of Brandeis, Melissa Sullivan of Amherst, and Liz Phillips of Wash U started to break away at the 800 mark (2:23), with Amy Wilfert of Tufts trying to maintain contact. The race would finish with those top five still fairly well bunched, closing in around 70. Cazzola got the victory in 4:30.80 and Wilfert stayed back in sixth, though she was the second and final time qualifier to the finals. For the most part, the prelims went to form, as eleven of the twelve top seeds made the finals.

Women’s 10k
The race separated early with Joanna Johnson of Oberlin taking a group out at what seemed like a suicide pace. Johnson was followed by four time national champion Wendy Pavlus of St. Lawrence, cross country runner up Jennifer Gossels and teammate Annie Dear, both of Williams, as well as Anna Holt-Gosselin of MIT. That group came through the opening mile in 5:35 and had a decent lead already. The rest of the field mainly separated into two chase packs, the first of which was led by Amanda Laesch of North Central, who ultimately worked her way up to third overall as the quick early pace took its toll on the leaders. Holt-Gosselin was the first to drop off the pace and she quickly was passed by the fast-moving chase pack as well. Dear, who had been running a couple steps behind the leaders the whole way, eventually dropped back as well with a little under 3k to go, and she would ultimately drop out. Though she and Holt-Gosselin are two of the top four seeds in the 5k and, as evidenced tonight, incredible competitors, both have been struggling with injuries recently, and I would be surprised if we saw either of them in action on Saturday. But, back to the race at hand, Johnson, Pavlus, and Gossels were the only three women left in the lead pack, and Johnson maintained the lead despite having slowed consistently over the course of the race—after 5:35 and 5:33 opening miles, the third mile was covered in 5:43 and the fourth in 5:45. The fifth was on pace to be even slower, but Gossels, who had looked antsy for a while, finally made her move with six laps to go. She dropped the pace from 88’s down to 80, and though Gossels eventually slowed, Pavlus and Johnson could not respond to her decisive move. Gossels would go on to win by almost fifteen seconds with a time of 35:11.67, the top time in the division this season. Though Pavlus couldn’t close the gap, she held onto second, while Johnson fell to fifth, behind Laesch and Simone Childs-Walker of Carleton, who continues her incredible stretch of getting third or fourth in championship long distance events (eighth time in a row). Gossels, Laesch, and Childs-Walker will be in action again in the 5k on Saturday, while Pavlus will be running the steeple tomorrow night.

Men’s 4x100
As it always seems to do, this relay saw lots of surprises, with twelfth seeded La Crosse posting the fastest time on the day (41.09) while the second and third seeds, Oshkosh and Greenville, failed to advance. Buffalo State was the winner of the other heat, aided in part by a dropped baton from early leader Moravian.

Men’s 400H
The top three seeds all won their heats, with McMurry’s Kevin Cunningham, the top returner from last year’s final, posting the fastest time of the day with a 51.90 clocking. Demetrius Rooks of Rowan and Logan Hohl of Monmouth were the other heat winners.

Men’s 200
The 200 prelims saw a pretty decent shake up from the seeds as well, with only three of the top eight advancing to finals. Top seeded Eric Woodruff of Moravian, last year’s champ, had the fastest time on the day in 21.15, and 400 star Marcus Fortugno of La Verne and freshman Quentin Badger of Oshkosh were the only other two top eight seeds to advance. McMurry’s third and fifth seeded runners both failed to advance, leaving the top-ranked squad vulnerable to upset.

Men’s 4x400
Top seeded North Central took care of business and had the fastest time on the day, as anchor Dan Benton held off a fast-closing Demetrius Rooks of twelfth ranked Rowan. Second seeded La Crosse won their heat, and all in all the top four seeds advanced to the finals.

Men’s 1500
No one wanted to lead the first heat, leaving Tim Schoch of Haverford alone in front. He was happy to let the pace dawdle, too, as his two teammates, Ivo Milic-Strkalj and Eric Arnold, were in the next heat. They would ultimately benefit from the slow first heat, as they finished in sixth and seventh in their heat but received the two time-based bids to the finals. The first quarter was covered in 67, and the next quarter saw little improvement in the pace as they came through 800 in around 2:14. Greg Whittle and Alex Wrobel of Calvin began to move up from the back at this point, and Whittle eventually took the lead with 400 to go, with almost everyone still in contention. The leaders would close in around 57 for a 1:59 last 800, with Whittle getting the win in 3:57.41 by holding off a tight pack of Schoch, Wrobel, Widener’s Mike Garrity, and NYU’s Matt Turlip, who all finished safely in the top five.
The second heat went out a bit quicker, with Georgi Dinolov of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps leading the men through in 63. However, after that the pace began to lag, and 1200 meters in, this heat was almost as slow as the first. With around 600 to go, Patrick Klein of Platteville took over, shadowed by favorite Nick Guarino of Fredonia. Guarino made his move with a little over 200 to go, and his 57 second last lap led him to the finish with the fastest time on the day in 3:56.97. He was followed by a very tight group of Dan Sullivan of Stevens Point, Klein, and Drew Clark of Principia. Jake Zander of Eau Claire moved past Arnold and Milic-Strkalj in the final 50 meters to claim the last automatic qualifying spot, but as noted earlier, both men from Haverford made the final twelve as time qualifiers.
All in all, ten of the top twelve seed made it to the final, with the only casualties of note being fifth seed Stefan Redfield of Willamette and DMR national champion anchor Tony Dipre of Allegheny.

Men’s 10k
Definitely the best race of the day, in my opinion. Eric Kleinsasser of Occidental took an early lead and the rest of the field let him go, despite the fact that he was only running around 30:20 pace. As the pack strung out, Mike Heymann took control and began to work everyone up toward Kleinsasser, who at the 2k mark had nearly ten seconds on them. Top seeded Mike Spain of North Central was right behind Heymann and cross country national champ Anders Hulleberg stayed right on Spain’s shoulder. Through 5k, the only major player missing from the lead pack was fifth seed Seb Schwelm of NYU, who I think has been dealing with some injury problems of his own. The 5k mark was hit right around 15:20, and Spain moved a lap later. He ratcheted the pace down to 71’s, and quickly it became a two man race between him and second-seeded Thomas Breitbach of Eau Claire. Try as he might over the next three miles, Spain couldn’t shake Breitbach, and with 400 to go the two were neck and neck. Spain kept trying to move during the final lap but Breitbach simply refused to let him go, and coming into the final turn, he swung into lane two and  I was sure he was going to pull off the major upset. However, Spain had just enough left for one final surge, and he ultimately held off Breitbach to win in 29:58.92, with a sub 14:40 last 5k and a 61 second last quarter. Leading the battle for third was a man from Wash U, though not the one I expected, as eighteenth seed Michael Burnstein shockingly took control of the chase pack early and held them until finish. Heymann ran a gutsy race to finish fourth, while Spain’s teammate Dan Kerley finished fifth, picking up valuable team points as the Cardinals attempt to upend McMurry and repeat as team champions. It’s hard to say what this implies about the 5k, as Spain and Breitbach both looked incredible, yet I have to imagine that it took a lot out of them both. Spain also appeared to be hobbling around a bit after the race, though hopefully that’s just tightness. He will certainly have his hands full doubling back against such a loaded field, and I will say that after tonight I’m even more excited for what promises to be an amazing battle at the front.

So that’s it for today, tune in again tomorrow. Same time, same place.