Through the Lens: Indoor Nationals Photo Essay
The 2022 NCAA D3 Indoor Track and Field National meet transpired this past weekend for the first time in three years and was not without a hearty dose of surprises, upsets, history, drama, and, yes, fruit snacks. If you missed out on any of the excitement from Friday or Saturday, we have a special recap in store for you this week. The following collection of photos is meant to transport you back in time to relive some of the most memorable moments from the weekend. We hope you enjoy this special edition meet recap.
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This indoor season as a whole was nothing short of historic, as the nation saw new all-time best performances in nine total events, as well as several additions to the top-10 lists, which is why it came as somewhat of a surprise that no national records fell at the championships. However, athletes found new impressive ways to make history last weekend via program firsts, championship records, and multi-event archive additions.
Photo by: Kyle Lauffenberger - Aidan Ryan pre-race.
One athlete with a star-studded season was Williams’s Aidan Ryan. Ryan shattered the men’s mile and 3k national records, running times of 3:56.88 and 7:54.48, respectively. He also anchored Williams’s DMR team to a No. 2 all-time finish, splitting 3:56 and further proving that he is one of the most dominant male milers in D3 history.
Photo by Francesca Frasco - Aidan Ryan in the prelim leading Christopher Collet and Michael Madoch
As such, Ryan advanced through the rounds and cruised to an easy victory in his marquee event, setting a new championship record of 4:05.60. This win came after anchoring the Williams DMR to a runner-up finish the previous night and just before capturing a runner-up finish in the men’s 3k, bringing his All-American count up to eight total. Ryan earned National Athlete of the Year alongside his coach, Dusty Lopez, who was National Assistant Coach of the Year. On his mile D3 record, Ryan told D3 Glory Days: “To share the moment with Dusty is something I'll never forget. It was really special being able to do it together, and it's not often that both of us get equally surprised.”
Photo by Maddie Bahr - JP Vaught takes to his block in the 200m.
Centre’s JP Vaught was another athlete to add a national title and championship record to his resume. On day one of the championships, Vaught had dominating performances in both the 60m and 200m dash events, setting a personal best of 6.78 in the 60m to advance to the final and running a No.1-seed time of 21.56 in the 200m, putting him in good standing going into the finals.
On day two, Vaught climbed into his blocks at the start of his first event, the 60m, ready to race for a national title. An anxious twitch out of the blocks, however, disqualified him from the event, ruled as a false start. Heartbroken, Vaught walked off the track, shifting his focus and energy into his final race of the day: the 200m. As Vaught rocketed out of the blocks, it was clear that he was on a mission. With a huge lead on Rowan’s Jah’mere Beasley and Ramapo’s Cheick Traore, Vaught just had to make sure he finished ahead of heat one winner Derek Plitt of Adrian, who ran 21.62. Vaught powered down the homestretch, crossing the finish line in 21.37–No. 8 all-time, a new championship record, and more than enough to become the 2022 indoor men’s 200m champion.
Photo by Francesca Frasco - Tia Jones finishing the 60m Dash prelims.
Another sprinter who turned some heads, but on the women’s side, was Ithaca’s Tia Jones. Jones took national runner-up in both the 60m dash and 200m dash to help score the Bombers some valuable points. Despite this weekend being her first ever national meet, Jones ran like a seasoned veteran, showing the nation why she came into the weekend seeded first in both events.
Photo by Francesca Frasco - Esther Seeland finishing the 800m.
An athlete with a consistently dominant year continued her dominating ways and defended her 800m title in a time of 2:05.75, a new championship record by a whole second. Messiah’s Esther Seeland has run 2:05 an impressive three times this season, her fastest and most consistent indoor season yet. Come outdoor, the 3x national 800m champion will look to defend her national title and continue to add her name to the D3 record books.
Photo by Maddie Bahr - Hannah Zenkovich aceepting her 1st place award
The outstanding field performer of the year on the women’s side went to UW-La Crosse’s Hannah Zenkovich, who left Winston-Salem with a national title in the women’s pentathlon and All-American honors in the women’s long jump. Zenkovich’s score of 3744 points in the heptathlon just bests her No. 6 all-time performance of 3741 from this past February. Zenkovich was third in the heptathlon last outdoor season, a performance she will certainly look to better this year at the championship as she comes off of some strong momentum in the indoor season.
Photo by Maddie Bahr - Victoria Kadiri after winning the LJ
Another athlete completing the multi/long jump double this past weekend was Victoria Kadiri, who made Johns Hopkins history becoming the program’s first ever national champion in indoor track and field when she won the women’s long jump. This victory came in the middle of competing in the pentathlon, making this feat all the more impressive as many of her competitors came to this event fresh. Plus, with a smile like that, how could you not root for her?
Photo by Maddie Bahr - Ella Baran edges Evie Miller in the mile.
The next day, Kadiri’s teammate, Hopkins’s Ella Baran would add her name next to Kadiri’s as the second national champ in JHU history and the first female distance track national champ in program history.
Photo by Francesca Frasco - John Hopkins’ Sydney Fridel and Dianna Vizza work together in the 3k.
This stat comes as somewhat of a surprise given the Blue Jays’s streak of excellence in cross country–seven team titles in the past nine years to be exact. The distance dominance of the team from Hopkins shows just how heavily they rely on depth and synergy.
Photo by Francesca Frasco - The start of the 3k
This depth was showcased this past weekend in the women’s 3k, which had six bright blue Hopkins jerseys on the start line. In total, the Blue Jays scored 18 points and saw four total All-Americans in women’s distance events.
Photo by Francesca Frasco - A close finish in the 3k separated by 0.14s
The women’s 3k was a deep event all-around, with just four seconds separating first place from seventh place, and a narrow 0.14 seconds from fourth place to seventh place. Trine’s Evie Miller, Calvin’s Sadie Heeringa, Hopkins’s Baran, and Messiah’s Seeland all crossed the finish line in 9:47 after a slow start, which had the field going through the mile in 5:25, or 10:05 3k pace.
Photo by: Kyle Lauffenberger - Fiona Smith post 3k.
Saint Benedict’s Fiona Smith managed to break away from the 3k pack early enough to finish ahead of the 9:47 cluster behind her. Smith finished third overall, completing the end of a nice weekend double in which she also placed fourth in the 5k, bringing her All-American career-total up to four.
Photo by: Kyle Lauffenberger - Nick Andrews post 3k
Determined not to fall into the trap of tactical racing, Geneseo’s Nick Andrews took the men’s 3k out at a more honest pace than the women’s race, going through the mile at 4:26, on pace for 8:14, just six seconds off of his PR of 8:08. No one went with him, however, as the chase pack was content to hang back at 8:26 pace and gradually hunt down Andrews.
Photo by Maddie Bahr - Alex Phillip making his move in the 3k.
They finally caught him with 600 meters to go, as the leaders closed in sub-60 pace. Andrews held on for sixth, his solo work at the start earning him All-American honors.
Photo by: Kyle Lauffenberger - Gunner Schlender with his coach, Jeff Miller.
On the men’s side, the distance squad of UW-Whitewater matched the performance of Hopkins’s women, scoring 18 total points in men’s distance events and adding four All-American honors to their name. The Warhawks went 4-5-6 in the men’s 5k with their trio of Christian Patzka, David Fassbender, and Gunner Schlender. Fassbender and Schlender both doubled back in the 3k, where Fassbender took third for his second All-American honor of the weekend. Of the three, all were XC All-Americans in the fall, but only Patzka has previous All-American status in track from the 2021 steeplechase.
Photo by Francesca Frasco - Kassie Parker celebrates after the 3k
One of the biggest individual scorers of the weekend in the women’s distance events was Loras’s Kassie Parker, who won the women’s 5k and 3k and helped lead her team to runner-up in the DMR. In the 5k, Parker ran her second fastest 5k ever in 16:15.06, good for No. 3 all-time. In the DMR, despite running on tired legs from the 5k just an hour earlier, Parker still managed to have the second fastest mile split of anyone in the field besides Calvin’s Heeringa, who ran an impressive 4:47.
Parker becomes the third woman in D3 history to win both the 5k and 3k at the championships behind Ithaca’s Taryn Cordani and Stevens’s Amy Regan, and the first woman to win the XC championships, 5k, and 3k consecutively within the same year. Parker was the women’s National Athlete of the Year during the cross country season, a title she defends this season as she was named women’s indoor track and field National Athlete of the Year. If Parker also wins this award during the outdoor season, she will be the first athlete since UW-Oshkosh’s Christy Cazzola to win it all three seasons within the same year.
Photo by: Kyle Lauffenberger - Ari Marks after the 3k
Parker’s double victory did not come without a fight, however, as XC national runner up Ari Marks of Wellesley took Parker to the line in both events. Marks ran 16:19.20 in the 5k, becoming the third fastest 5k runner in D3 history, and was perhaps the most exciting performer to watch this weekend for her grit and willingness to take a chance at the title.
Photo by Maddie Bahr - Coach Newsom of Wartburg celebrates with the DMR Champions.
Another challenger Parker faced was Wartburg’s Aubrie Fisher in the anchor leg of the DMR. Fisher scratched the mile and opted for the 3k instead, as to enter the DMR with fresh legs and eyes on the prize. After big legs from teammates Ellie Meyer, Taylan Olson, and Carson McSorley, Fisher outkicked Parker in the home stretch, bringing her team to victory. Jubilant hugs from Coach Newsom and teammate Dallas Wright waited for each relay member at the finish line.
Photo by: Kyle Lauffenberger - Jamie Dailey (left) and Alex Phillip (right) embrace after the 3k.
While Parker was writing her page in the history books, JCU’s Alex Phillip wrote his right alongside her, similarly becoming the third male in D3 history to pull off the double victory in the 5k and 3k and the first male to consecutively win the XC title, 3k, and 5k. Here he congratulates teammate Jamie Dailey, who added two All-American honors in the 5k and 3k to his previous 2021 XC and 2021 outdoor 10k All-American honors. The two were the only distance duo on the men’s side to both earn All-American in the 5k and the 3k.
And though records and D3 history book additions are exciting to detail, these mentions only acknowledge a small sample of everyone represented at a national meet. The beauty of track and field lies in the simple fact that not everyone has to break a record to still experience success and not everyone has to win to still accomplish a goal. After all, every single person in Winston-Salem was there because they are some of the best track and field athletes across the entire nation. The following are glimpses of athletes on the pursuit to showcase their talents at the highest level possible. They are masters of their crafts, turning year-long grinds into results.
Photo by: Kyle Lauffenberger - Ryan Wilson after winning the 800m.
MIT’s Ryan Wilson won the men’s 800m title in his first ever track and field national championship meet. Wilson is no stranger to big-time meets, however, as he was a 2021 cross country All-American and also raced in the Stumptown Twilight Invitational last summer against Olympic gold medalist Matt Centrowitz. Wilson ran 1:48.49 at this meet as an unattached athlete, a time that would put him No. 7 all-time on the in-season top ten list had he been running for MIT at the time. Regardless, Wilson splashed onto the national scene this past weekend with his victory over 800m-favorite Mike Jasa of Loras, and showed that he is certainly a threat come outdoor season.
Photo by Francesca Frasco - During the 60mH
It was a big weekend as well for Wilson’s MIT teammate, Kenneth Wei (pictures second from left), who won the national title in the men’s long jump with a personal record-setting leap of 7.44m (24-5.0), good for No. 23 all-time. Wei also had the fastest 60mh time of the weekend, running 7.94 in the prelims, the No. 9 fastest time in D3 history. Wei placed third in the hurdle final behind WashU’s Andrew Whitaker and WPI’s Oliver Thomas, racking up a total of 16 points for MIT.
Photo by: Kyle Lauffenberger - Emma Kelley and Elise Lambert after the 800m.
WashU’s Emma Kelley took runner-up in the women’s 800m, running 2:09.77, her second fastest time ever over this distance. This season, she became the 19th woman in D3 history to run under 2:10 indoors, making her outdoor season look extremely promising.
Photo by Francesca Frasco - Kathleen McCarey competes in the 5k/3k during the weekend
Geneseo’s Kathleen McCarey came into this meet with perhaps the most impressive progression of any other distance runner present–McCarey ran her first ever indoor 5k in 19:39 during the 2020 indoor season. This year, she came into the meet with a seed-time of 16:36.68, No. 16 all-time. At the championships, she missed her PB by just 5 seconds, finishing in 16:41 for third place.
Photo by Maddie Bahr - Loras Women hold the 1st place trophy
At the meet’s conclusion, Loras took the team title on the women’s side after scoring in eight different events and producing 14 total All-American honors. The Duhawks were led by Parker, who scored 20 individual points and anchored the runner-up DMR relay team, and Alyssa Pfadenhauer, who took the national title in the 400m dash, anchored the national-champion 4x400m relay team, and split an impressive 2:09 on the DMR relay.
Photo by Maddie Bahr - Alyssa Pfandehauer seals the deal with the 4x4.
Pepper in a relay leg and All-American finish in the 60m dash from sprinter Marion Edwards and two All-American finishes in the triple jump and pentathlon from field athlete Grace Alley, and the squad from Loras won by a landslide. They made program history, becoming the first women’s indoor track and field team to ever win a national championship for Loras. Rounding out the podium teams were the squad from Ithaca in third place and Johns Hopkins in fourth place.
Photo by Maddie Bahr - WashU and Eau Claire celebrate as Co-Champions
The men’s side saw a tie for first place between WashU and UW-Eau Claire, neither of which were expected to place within the top 10 based on entries headed into the weekend. Eau Claire earned their third title in men’s indoor track and field history, relying on points from eight different events.
Photo by Francesca Frasco - Noah Reedy competes in Pole Vault
Their biggest scoring events were the pole vault and heptathlon, as Abrahm Schroedl, Noah Reedy, and Mitch Stegeman made All-American status in the vault for a total of nine points, and two of these three, Schroedl and Stegeman, were also All-Americans in the multi for a total of 11 points. National heptathlon record holder Marcus Weaver did not contribute to the point total after suffering an unfortunate disqualification in the 60m hurdles and therefore a subsequent “DNF” in the results, but the efforts of his teammates were enough to carry the Blugolds home to victory. It was a full team effort as the Blugolds did not have an individual national champion.
WashU, on the other hand, earned their first ever men’s track and field title, indoors or out. They scored in five different events, two of which produced national champions out of Andrew Whitaker in the men’s 60m hurdles and the squad of Jeff Candell, Jackson Cox, Alex Cobin, and Jacob Ridderhoff in the men’s DMR.
Photo by Maddie Bahr - Jacob Ridderhoff celebrates the DMR win
In both instances, competitors upset athletes who came into the weekend as heavy favorites. In the 60m hurdles, WPI’s Oliver Thomas led the field by 0.17s with his personal best of 7.82. He and Wartburg’s Deyton Love were the only entrants to come into the weekend with season bests under 8 seconds. Whitaker ran a new 0.07-second PB of 7.95 to take the win and score WashU ten valuable points.
Photo by Maddie Bahr - Deyton Love of Wartburg waits for the times
Likewise, the men’s DMR came in seeded fifth behind DMR national record holders JCU and No. 2 all-time Williams. With superb efforts from Candell, Cox, and Cobin, and a 4:05 split from Ridderhoff on the anchor leg, the Bears took an exciting victory over Williams to add 10 points to their team scores.
This team result did not come without its fair share of drama, however, as an hour-long double-protest delayed the end to the meet and the revelation of men’s team scores. Going into the final event of the meet, the 4x400m relay, coaches and athletes knew the team standing would all depend on what transpired in those final eight laps around the track. With trophies and their first runners on the line, Eau Claire, WashU, Loras, and SUNY Geneseo climbed into their blocks knowing they needed big points to finish on the podium.
As the last runner of heat two crossed the finish line, the final results trickled in:
Initial 4x4 results
Photo by: Kyle Lauffenberger - WashU 4x4 see the results
In this moment, WashU realized they would be national runners-up in the 4x400 relay and co-national champions as a team alongside UW-Eau Claire…
Photo by: Kyle Lauffenberger - Arik Skifstad celebrates after the 4x4.
…but that would be too easy.
As the results updated, an official ruled that the team from Rowan would be disqualified for apparent physical contact, bumping runners up WashU to national champion status as well as stand-alone team national champions, as their new ten points from the 4x4 would have them finishing a single point ahead of Eau Claire.
Of course, nothing would be finalized until Rowan had the chance to protest their disqualification. However, during the review process, WashU also became disqualified for apparent obstruction of another runner, bumping the Bears all the way down to sixth place behind champions Eau Claire, co-runners up Williams and Loras, podium team SUNY Geneseo, and fifth place team UW-Oshkosh. Thus, another protest on behalf of WashU and an hour-long review process ensued.
Doing what anyone might do in a high-stakes situation such as this one, one official enjoyed a pouch of fruit snacks. Coaches and athletes from WashU and Rowan paced nervously about, logging more miles than they probably had all week, and fans sat on the edge of their seats for an entire hour, enough to incur some serious postural issues.
In the end, both the teams from Rowan and WashU were reinstated, circling the nation back to the original result: Eau Claire and WashU are co-national champions, Williams and Loras are podium finishers, and Rowan’s 4x4 members are defending national champions.
Photo by: Kyle Lauffenberger - Rowan after the 4x4.
Here, Nana Agyemang, Amara Conte, Jah’mere Beasley, and Marquise Young pose in victory after becoming the men’s 4x400 relay national champions. I don’t know if they did it on purpose, but the unique expressions on each of their faces accurately depict the rollercoaster of emotions that was the final hour of the 2022 indoor national championships.
Man, we can’t wait for the outdoor championships.
*A big thanks to Kyle Lauffenberger, Francesca Frasco and Maddie Bahr for their photos.