10 Moments From D3 Outdoor Nationals
With as much hype as this national meet generated heading into the weekend, it truly did not disappoint. A national record was set as soon as the track events started the prelims. From there, fans that traveled to Rochester, NY knew they were in for a historic weekend.
Each athlete at this year’s championship was a walking story: Colby’s Fiona Mejico set a 2-second PR to make the women’s 400m hurdle final, George Fox’s Ethan Kassebaum won the men’s long jump title after ending with a ninth place finish last year and starting the competition with two fouls this year, Eric Gregory went from flying under the radar all year with the 16th seed in the men’s 400m to becoming the third fastest man in D3 history. With far too many incredible stories to tell, we’ve boiled the 2023 championships down to ten memorable moments from the weekends, in no particular order.
1. UWL men and Loras women set 4x100m relay national records
In the very first track prelim, fans witnessed the first of seven D3 records broken at the championships. UW-La Crosse got off to a roaring start by setting the new D3 record in the 4x1, running 39.86. They become the second team in D3 history to break the 40-second barrier. The team consisted of Sam Blaskowski, Ryder Smith, Spencer Reichart, and Luke Schroeder. This set the tone for the rest of the weekend. We knew heading into the championships the Eagles had a shot at the record; we just didn’t think it would happen in the first race of the day.
Loras women followed up this performance during the women’s 4x1 final with a tight race for gold between runners up WashU. When athletes take each other to the line, the result is often fast, but how about so fast it’s the first and third fastest performance by a relay in D3 history? Such was the case for the team of Harmony Creasy, Marion Edwards, Stevie Lambe, and Gabrielle Noland, who edged out WashU’s Mycah Clay, Nicole Stewart, Lauren Hamilton, and Lauren Gay by 0.07 seconds, taking the victory in a new national record-setting time of 45.60. WashU’s 45.67 brings them up to third in history.
2. UWL’s Sam Blaskowski and Coast Guard’s Michelle Kwafo take down 100m dash records
With 4x100m relay teams so fast this year, it makes sense that the open event would also see some quick times. UWL’s Sam Blaskowski set the national record in the 100m dash at UWL’s final qualifier meet when he ran an impressive 10.16 to take down Mount Union’s Derrick Rippy’s 40-year-old record of 10.18, so we knew he was building momentum toward something big. The best thing that happened to Blaskowski in this race was the competition from Ramapo’s Cheickna Traore, who, despite taking runner-up in the 400m last year, dropped down in distance this year to run the 100m instead. Traore finished in 10.18, tying Rippy’s previous record and joining him at No. 2 all-time, and pushed Blaskowski to break his own record along the way. Blaskowski ran 10.13 and further established himself as the fastest man in D3 history.
Unlike the men’s race, which almost anticipated a national record, the women’s race saw a national record from a somewhat unassuming contender. Coast Guard’s Michelle Kwafo came into the meet with the fifth-seed time (but fastest wind-legal time) at 11.67. Competitors knew she meant business, however, when she ran 11.62 in the prelim to set a new national record ahead of Lincoln (Pa.)’s Rhondale Jones, who ran 11.64 in 1999.
If you think 11.62 is fast, Kwafo intended to show you even faster on Saturday. Just after taking runner-up in the 100m hurdles, Kwafo turned around and ran 11.49 in the 100-meter final, shattering the previous 100m record by 0.15 seconds. Though Kwafo was seemingly in a race of her own, the runner-up in this event was also in a race of her own, running under the national record that Kwafo set on Thursday. UWL freshman Lauren Jarrett ran 11.61 to take silver by 0.13 seconds. Her high school PR from a year ago was 12.23. The future indeed looks bright for the women’s 100m dash, especially with a time like Kwafo’s 11.49 to set the precedent.
3. Ramapo’s Cheickna Traore doubles back with 200m national record.
When Ramapo’s Cheickna Traore got out of his blocks in the 200 meter final, you could tell he was thinking about his recent loss in the 100. Nobody else in the field was ever in the same race as him, not even UWL’s Blaskowski, who ran 20.67 to place second ahead of the rest of the field by almost four tenths of a second. Traore stormed up the straightaway with a purpose–he would not let the 200m national title belong to anybody else. When he crossed the finish line, the clock read an astonishing 20.25, a full quarter of a second faster than the national record he set months ago in March.
We thought what we witnessed in the men’s 200-meter final last year–Centre’s JP Vaught, Ramapo’s Traore, and Gallaudet’s Eric Gregory all skating under the previous national record together–could not be topped, but Traore’s 2023 performance showed that he is on a whole different level. Blaskowski’s runner-up finish at 20.67 puts him fourth all-time behind Traore, Vaught (No.2), and Gregory (No. 3), and it was good to see last year’s reigning champion Vaught work his way into third after a bit of an off-year due to injury. Given these performances, the men’s 200 meter dash continues to be a marquee event of the annual NCAA championships. Future competitors will have a tall task ahead of them to beat Traore’s dominating 20.25 national record.
Traore told D3GD in a pre-championship interview that he had some news to share after the championships. He spoke with Justin Walters of PIX News on Wednesday and shared that his next steps are to hit the world 200m standard of 20.15 in hopes of representing Ivory Coast at the World Championships and, next year, the Olympic Games. Traore serves as a reminder to young high schoolers looking at colleges that you can be as successful as you want to be at the D3 level–D3 successes can lead to Olympic dreams.
4. Victoria Kadiri sweeps, again
For the third straight national meet, Victoria Kadiri could not be matched in the horizontal jumps. She added her sixth and seventh titles over the weekend, jumping 6.16 meters in the long jump and 13.21 meters in the triple jump. Oh, she did this all while competing in the heptathlon. Did we mention she set the triple jump record as well? Well, she did that too! It’s truly incredible to witness what Kadiri is capable of. It’s even more impressive when you realize the first time she competed in the triple jump was April 2nd, 2022. In 13 months, she’s won three triple jump titles while also securing the indoor and outdoor D3 national records.
There needs to be a case study done on how Kadiri has excelled at this event and so quickly. It’s truly incredible to watch and all of us should be lucky to witness it.
5. Mount Union men repeat in 4x400 relay, set new national record
Mount Union has had some really good 4x400 relays over the years. There was the 2014 squad of Tyler Mettile, Tyler Sparks, Chase Swisher, and Chad Gentry, who ran 3:09.81 (No. 7 all-time at the time), the 2018 team of James Roth, Tyler Neff, Clark Etzler, and A.J. Digby, who ran 3:08.10 (No. 3 all-time at the time), and now there’s the returning national champion team of Jared Storm, Tyler Gill, Justin Knoch, and Matt McBride, who bested both of these teams as well as the entire nation when they ran 3:07.24 in the men’s 4x400 relay final to win NCAA D3 gold and set a new national record (and Mount Union school record at that). Perhaps it is true that when history sets the bar, the present rises to exceed it. When you’re a 400-meter runner at Mount Union chasing records, you need not look any further than your own fieldhouse record board to become the best in the nation–several more before you have already done so.
In a thrilling race which saw CMS (now No. 4 all-time with their 3:07.82) leading the whole way, Mount Union only overtook the Stags in the final 200 meters, when anchor leg McBride glided to the lead to bring his team to victory. His split? 45.79. That’s the kind of anchor you want to hand off to when your team is down. The same team of Storm, Gill, Knoch, and McBride were national champions last year, making Saturday’s victory a special accomplishment for the four of them and a notable accomplishment of the championships, as it’s not always easy to replicate successes for all relay members on the same day two years in a row.
6. Wilmington’s Brady Vilvens and Tufts’s Harry Reinecker-Found upset men’s high jump competition, go home co-national champions
At the national championship meet, anything can happen. The men’s high jump competition epitomized this cliche when two and three seeds Raymond Venditti and James King both fouled out at 2.02 meters. The favorite, Texas Lutheran’s Gerrit Twitero, then fouled out at the next bar of 2.05 meters, leaving just three competitors left: No. 4 seed Bryce Ellinger, No. 14 seed Harry Rienecker-Found, and No. 19 seed Brady Vilvens. All three cleared the next bar of 2.08 meters, a new PR for both Reinecker-Found and Vilvens, but Ellinger had one miss, whereas Reinecker-Found and Vilvens were both clean on their first attempts. Thus, the two would move into a tie for first depending on what happened at the next bar.
On one of his attempts at 2.11 meters, Reinecker-Found suffered an untimely injury and was ready to give the win over to Vilvens, but in a moment of sportsmanship, Vilvens elected to share the national title.
“[Reinecker-Found] came out, he did great today, he PR’ed as well,” Vilvens said in an interview with D3GD. “I didn’t want to take anything away from him. It was unlucky, he suffered an injury on his last jump, so he deserved it just as much as I did I felt like.”
It is moments like these that make D3 so special–whereas schools with scholarships can often be more cutthroat in their performances, the athletes of D3 have a special camaraderie that comes from the shared experience of continuing their sport because they love it. For Vilvens and Reinecker-Found, this love carried them to a national title.
7. Loras’s Kassie Parker and John Carroll’s Alex Phillip shine in historic 10ks
It’s not often a championship 10k gets perfect conditions to go after a record. But on Thursday night in Rochester, the wind was calm, the air was cool, and Ethan Gregg was ready to make the other 21 runners hurt. It was clear from the first two laps what Gregg’s intentions were, and the only one to go with him was the D3 10k record holder Alex Phillip.
We’ve seen Gregg command the race early countless times this school year. He goes to the front, hammers the pace, and sees who can hang on. He just missed a title in the indoor 5k, but was rewarded with his honest race-making abilities in the indoor 3k. With the ability to grind, Gregg prefers to lead the race to make it honest.
The field came through the 5k in 14:22, well under the championship record pace. Behind them, the drama was unfolding. Not only were the top two going at an insane clip, the entire rest of the field was still together, on pace to become the fastest D3 championship 10k in history.
For over 19 laps, Gregg led the way with Alex Phillip staring down his back. It wasn’t until around six laps to go that Alex Phillip made his move. With a move made that late in the race, you have to stay on it, and Phillip did just that. The two runners that are changing D3 running became separated over the final mile, and Phillip crossed the line as a national champion for the sixth time in his career.
What unfolded behind him may not be matched again. 21 out of 22 runners broke 30 minutes, and the final All-American spot was 29:20.76, making this both the deepest 10k in history and the fastest 8th place in history.
It had fans wonder if this could ever be matched.
Well, the fans had to wait just five minutes for a similar race to unfold. Just like how Gregg and Phillip went from the gun, Kassie Parker and Fiona Smith began their epic duel.
Parker and Smith went through the 5k in 16:32, well under the championship record and under Smith’s personal best as well. Both runners were content with how the race was unfolding, as Parker set the pace and Smith was content sitting behind her.
Behind them there was a battle for third as Ana Tucker and Clara Mayfield had gone with the two for a few laps but then fell back to have their own race within the race.
The chase pack ebbed and flowed with athletes joining and leaving, and the pack wasn’t broken up until Anna Kenig-Zeisler made a move to help get Chicago valuable team points.
As the official rang the bell, Parker continued to hold the advantage over Smith. But Smith wasn’t done yet. She made her first move of the race on the back stretch to take the lead for a moment. It seemed like a decisive move, but Parker found another gear and responded with her own move. As she turned down the homestretch, it was clear she was going to rebound from last year’s runner-up performance. She crossed the line as a national champion for the sixth time and set the new D3 championship 10k record in 33:02.53.
Just like the men’s race, the women made their own history. The last All-American position was 35:03.83 and 18 out of 22 women ran under 36 minutes.
What was so impressive about these 10ks was that it was all D3 runners. They didn’t travel to Stanford or have pro pacemakers like regular season meets. They didn’t resort to championship tactics of running slow at the start and kicking hard. They each went from the gun, put themselves on PB pace, and went for it. Many of them would double back in the 5k, but it didn’t matter. The guts each of these athletes showed will be remembered for a long time.
8. Mount Union’s Kenadee Wayt sweeps 400m/200m titles
It was a busy week for Mount Union’s Kenadee Wayt, who ran a total of eight races across four different events in the three days of compeition. Many go into the national meet with the ambitious goal of running multiple events, but very few can come away with multiple All-American honors, especially in fields as deep as they are this year. Not only did Wayt earn All-American in all four of her events, but two of those honors were individual national titles.
In an exhilarating 400 meter final, Wayt battled with Concordia-Chicago defending champion Kayla Armstrong and Loras standout Alyssa Pfadenhauer in a storm to the finish. The three separated from the rest of the field, all finishing over a second ahead of fourth place. Leading the charge was Wayt, who got out like a rocket and never looked back. When Armstrong made a push on the final straight to take the win, Wayt held her off, winning her first 400-meter national title.
Later on, Wayt took on a stacked women’s 200 meter field and came away with the victory over UWL’s Lauren Jarrett, who also took runner-up in the 100m earlier in the day. Wayt’s time of 23.95 puts her No. 15 on the all-time list. At this point in the day, she still had the 4x4 relay to go. To cap off a huge weekend, Wayt anchored the Raiders to a third place finish, splitting 54.6.
By the meet’s conclusion, she had four medals around her neck, raising her in the ranks on a different all-time list. Her All-American additions from last week make Wayt a 15-time All-American. This number ties her for 11th all-time in All-American counts, meaning only ten other women in D3 history have had more. Wayt shares 11th all-time with Oshkosh phenom Christy Cazzola, who never lost a mile or 1500 at NCAAs. Wayt certainly is in good company in this particular history book, marking her name as one of the most accomplished athletes in D3 history.
9. Programs capture multiple All-Americans in a single event
It’s the time of year when it is not uncommon to scroll through instagram and read the caption “such-and-such U” in reference to a program’s national success in a particular event. For example, UW-Eau Claire has often been referred to as “MultiU,” made evident this year by their three men’s and three women’s national qualifiers in the multi. There were a few programs this past week who made strong arguments for donning such a name based on the number of All-Americans they landed in a single event.
WashU was one such program, as they advanced three of their women to the eight-person 800 meter final. Led by national champion Emma Kelley, the bears also claimed the fourth and eighth place spot in this event with Aoife Dunne and Alessia Sarussi. Other notable 800-meter WashU alumni include Annalise Wagner, who holds the 15th fastest women’s 800 time in D3 history with her time of 2:07.31. Now with two WashU names on the all-time list in this event, this program has shown that the 800 is an event in which they do particularly well.
Another event that saw three All-Americans from the same program was the men’s 5k. North Central’s Braden Nicholson, Max Svienty, and Connor Riss took the third, fifth, and eighth All-American positions, carrying their team score to 11 points, which placed them 23rd overall from the 5k alone. A program known for its distance running (three of the 25 names on the all-time list belong to North Central Cardinals), something felt familiar about having the vertical white and red stripes on the podium for a men’s distance event again.
10. The underdogs shine!
The beauty of the national meet is that anything can happen. It may sound cliche but when Ethan Kassebaum, the ninth seed, wins the men’s long jump and Sydney Khosla, the seventh seed, takes Aubrie Fisher to the line in the steeple, it rings true. Time and time again coaches will tell their athletes that the focus shouldn’t be on their seed but on their effort. Taking a look at the men’s long jump, six top seeds failed to make the final allowing the underdogs their moment.
In a time when D3 is at its highest, athletes shouldn’t feel counted out. Take Brooke Simon of CMS for example. At the end of the Pole Vault competition, four women remained. All but Brooke had won a national title previously. She battled her way, just missing a new PB to finish third.
In the 200m final of the 16 athletes across both genders, 5 were seeded in the top eight. Noah Jorgenson of Central College finished in the last All-American spot in eighth but came into the meet 20th! The list of these feats goes on. I hope that everyone reading this knows their time will come. Don’t the seed dictate your performance.
There were many amazing moments at the national meet. Honestly, we’re probably missing a ton. We’ll provide more recaps and coverage in the coming weeks.