It’s a weird quirk of collegiate distance running that the indoor season begins two weeks after the cross country season concludes. The post-mortems of the fall are still being written, yet many of the best women in the nation will head indoors to run a fast 5000m at Saturday’s BU Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener. 

The race, on the fast track at Boston University, is about looking forward to an indoor season that begins in earnest after the new year and offers few opportunities to earn qualifying marks for the NCAA Indoor Championships. 

But it also draws heavily from what has happened in the past three months. Runners who were in the best shape of their lives two weeks ago are, by default, still pretty fit even if their hands and feet are just now defrosting from the freezing temperatures in Madison two weeks ago. 

Watch The 2018 BU Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener Live On FloTrack

The chance for runners like Weini Kelati, Ednah Kurgat, and Allie Ostrander to race for a fast time is too good to pass up. The qualification system for the NCAA Indoor Championships rewards this type of meet and the presence of such a deep field ensures that the race will be fast. It also provides an opportunity for runners like Sharon Lokedi, whose cross country season didn’t go as planned, to salvage something from the fall.

Both storylines were in play last year. New Mexico’s Kurgat, after capping an undefeated cross country season, went to Boston and ran a lifetime best of 15:19.03 to finish second. Karissa Schweizer of Missouri, who two weeks earlier placed 11th in her bid to defend her cross country title, won the race in 15:17.31. That was the fifth-fastest NCAA indoor mark of all time and a clear indication that the disappointment from the Louisville was behind her. 

Schweizer and Kurgat’s times held as the fastest in the NCAA for the duration of the 2018 indoor and outdoor seasons. 

Watch that race here:

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This year, the plan is to go even faster; thus, chances are high that the quickest women’s NCAA indoor/outdoor 5000m of the season will take place on Saturday in Boston. 

The target is 15:12—right at Emily Sisson’s collegiate record of 15:12.22 (Jenny Simpson ran 15:01, but it was on the oversized track at Dempsey Indoor in Seattle). Kelati, the sophomore from New Mexico, looks like the best candidate to hang with that tempo right now. She had a stellar cross country season, placing second at the NCAA Cross Country Championships—and leading the race inside the final 200 meters. Last year, she finished third at this race, running 15:37. But anyone who paid attention over the past three months knows this is a different Kelati. 

Kurgat was never able to beat her teammate in cross country, but she took fifth two weeks ago. Her 15:19 from last year gives her the best personal best of the field. Boise State’s Ostrander was at the front of the pack for a large portion of the race in Madison before fading to sixth. She will fit in well with the grinding pace set by the rabbits, Kelati and Kurgat, and has a personal best just two seconds slower than Kurgat’s. 

In addition to those three, there are five other women who placed in the top 20 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, including Charlotte Prouse of New Mexico, Elise Cranny (Stanford/Unattached), Lauren LaRocco (Portland), Dorcas Wasikie (Louisville), and Aubrey Roberts (Northwestern).  

Cranny is out of indoor eligibility but the other four will be looking for a fast time they can use to qualify for March’s NCAA Indoor Championships. 

The men’s race features two top collegians, Furman’s Aaron Templeton and Campbell’s Amon Kemboi, along with a group of pros with personal bests in the 13:40s.  

Templeton was one of the biggest surprises of the cross country season. He placed fifth, improving from 141st in 2017. If he’s able to follow the 13:40 pace set by B.A.A.’s Trevor Dunbar, he will see a big drop in his 14:03 personal best. Kemboi was seventh in Madison and has run 13:37 for 5000m. 

Also keep an eye on the contingent of pros/post-collegians in the race including, Mark Parrish of PURE Athletics, Graham Crawford and Travis Mahoney of Hoka NJ/NY Track Club and Aaron Nelson of Zap Fitness.