With the outdoor racing officially kicked off across the entire nation, it’s time to take a first look at the major storylines of the season-to-be. But first, here’s a quick recap of some of these early—but nonetheless impressive—marks:

The Rhodes Open saw a quick return to action for now three-time 400 meter champion Rachel Boerner of Calvin. But it seems like three titles isn’t quite enough for this young lady, as she began her quest for a fourth consecutive with a strong provisional mark of 56.33. However, the most impressive 400 meter racing came over hurdles—Kasey Jackson of Centre narrowly defeated Molly Buck of host Rhodes, and both came up less than half a second short of the auto with times of 1:02.22 and 1:02.32. The meet also saw provisional marks in every long distance event, including a division-leading 5k time of 17:23.69 from Taylor Stephens of Rhodes and a decent continuation of an All-American indoor season by Nick Kramer of Calvin, who clocked in at 14:44.11.

There were also some impressive distance marks posted a week prior, while most of the division’s stars were out in Ohio. The Oxy Distance Carnival played host to the current division leaders in both the men’s 5k and 10k. Rafer Dannenhauer of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, only a sophomore, posted a nice personal best and finds himself atop the performance lists with a 14:43.60. In the 10k, cross country All-American Erik Kleinsasser of Occidental broke away from Kris Brown of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and led both of them to provisional marks of 30:25.84 and 30:40.08. The women’s half of the meet saw a nice provisional time in the steeplechase from Toccoa Kahovec of Cal Luthren, who stopped the clock at 10:54.58 to place herself second on the performance lists.

Other notable results include the only male 400 and 400 hurdles qualifiers: Marcus Fortugno of La Verne rolled to a 48.23 clocking, and Demetrius Rooks of Rowan came close to the automatic mark with his time of 53.04. Also of note was Anna Holt-Gosselin of MIT continuing her success from her All-American indoor season by notching a strong provisional mark of 36:02.79 in the 10k.
There haven’t been any top 10 all-time performances thus far, but it should be mentioned that Eric Flores, already the division record holder in the hammer throw, is at it again with a 65.69 meter toss, demolishing the automatic standard by over six meters. He also picked up an auto in the shot, so we will likely see another attempt at that double this year.

Anyway, after having spent the last few months obsessing over indoor, I think we all have a pretty good idea of the contenders from the Northeast and Midwest. That being said, I thought it might be a good idea to take a quick look at some major players who skipped the indoor season for one reason or another.

On the men’s side, be sure to keep your eyes on returning 800 meter All-American Zach Brush of Trinity (Tx). Trinity didn’t have an indoor season this year, but he’s already started to bust off some rust with 1:55.69 and 51.71 clockings. Jackson Brainerd of Colorado College—D3’s token all-star at altitude—will be looking for a breakout season. After a disappointing finish to both outdoor and cross country, I expect that we’ll be seeing a track All-American certificate to go along with his 2009 cross country award. As for the steeple, we should all pay attention to specialists Brian Lang of Rochester and Jack Davies of Middlebury. Lang was third last year, and clearly excels outdoors as he posts a personal best of 9:05 despite never running faster than 8:45 in the indoor 3k. However, Davies is likely the most exciting prospect for this season, as he was an All-American last year as only a freshman. Further, he got faster in every race last year, including nationals, and this indoor season he dropped his 3k pr by over thirty seconds to 8:31. In the long distances, keep an eye on cross country All-American Stefan Redfield of Willamette. He opened up at the Willamette Invitational more than 30 seconds faster than he did last year, when he eventually ran 14:42 to barely miss out on nationals. Now, I’m not saying that we should expect him to drop another thirty seconds, but I would be willing to bet that we’ll at least see him at nationals this year.

On the women’s side, keep a lookout for Willamette’s Kimber Mattox in the steeplechase. After stellar freshmen and sophomore outdoor seasons, she appears to be fitter than ever, as she almost hit the automatic standard back at the start of March. Her 10:47.17 mark is more than 15 seconds faster than her opener from last year. Also watch out for Kim Chinn of Baldwin-Wallace, last year’s runner-up in the steeple, who recently placed sixth in the mile at nationals. In the longer distance, keep your eyes peeled for Jenn Rawls of Rowan and Megan O’Grady of Carroll. Rawls ran 16:41 last outdoor season, which was good for the second fastest time in the division. Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be found during the indoor season, though teammate Jenna Peacock picked up where Rawls left off. O’Grady was also missing from action this indoor season, but if she returns to form she will certainly be a force to be reckoned with. She finished second in the 5k as a freshman and was an All-American last year in the 10k. Hopefully both of them will put their talent on display this outdoor season.

I’m sure there are many other contenders that I have left out, but we will certainly hear from them all soon—outdoor nationals are already only a couple months away! Good luck, everyone.