The Events to Watch: Potential Outdoor National Records

After an exhilarating indoor national championship meet to close out a record-breaking season, athletes transition to the outdoor season. They are welcomed by wider turns, wind gauges, and new event opportunities. This indoor season, nine national records fell, and with the outdoor season underway, several more could fall in the coming months. 

Here’s what to look out for as the weather warms and the outdoor season progresses. 

Distance Events

With names like Kassie Parker, Aidan Ryan, Ella Baran, and Alex Phillip toeing the line this season, no distance record is safe. 

Kassie Parker of Loras is looking to continue what has already been a star-studded year. In the fall, Parker won the cross country national title in Louisville in a time of 20:11. This is the second-fastest 6k time in championship history behind Missy Buttry’s 20:00 from Hanover in 2003. Parker went on to run the fastest indoor 5k in a time of 15:58.58, becoming the only woman in D3 history to dip under the 16-minute mark indoors. Then she ran the second-fastest 3k all-time in a time of 9:13.10. As a 5k and 10k specialist outdoors, Parker will surely make a run at both of those records. 

Buttry currently has the 5k record of 15:37.48 by a full 30 seconds and is the only woman to run under 16 minutes in the outdoor season. If Parker breaks 16 minutes, she will become the only woman in history to have broken that time in both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Wellesley’s Ari Marks could also dip under the 16-minute mark. Marks has the third-fastest indoor 5k all-time at 16:19.20, which she ran at the national meet on a flat 200m track. Marks is not afraid to take a chance and her gutsy racing could add her to the list of D3 athletes to break 16 minutes in the 5k. 

The legendary, Missy (Buttry) Rock

The women’s 10k record is currently held by Keene State’s Mary Proulx, who ran 33:21.80. Parker is entered in the 10k at the Stanford Invitational this Friday (4/1), and will likely attempt to break the 19-year-old record. 

John Carroll’s Alex Phillip is also having a great year. This fall, Phillip broke the cross country championship record with a time of 23:27. UW Platteville’s Ian LaMere previously held the record with a time of 23:35. During the indoor season, Phillip ran a 5k in 13:58.42, putting him third all-time. He is the third athlete in D3 history to run under 14 minutes in the indoor 5k. With this time, he sits seven seconds behind North Central’s Dhruvil Patel’s outdoor national record of 13:51.4. Only LaMere has run under 14 minutes in both seasons, but Phillip could become the second man in D3 history to accomplish this feat. 

Ian La Mere after setting the 10k record

LaMere currently holds the 10k national record at 28:38.63, a full 42 seconds than last year’s leading outdoor time of 29:20.29 run by Johns Hopkins’s Jared Pangallozzi. Phillip came in as the No. 2 seed with his current 10k PR of 29:30.12. However, Phillip’s progression from last year to this year indicates he’s on track for a big PR. Last year, Phillip’s indoor 5k PR was 14:33, a full 35 seconds slower than his PR of 13:58 from this year’s indoor season. A general way to calculate 10k prediction times is to double one’s 5k time and add about a minute. If Phillip sniffs the 5k national record of 13:50, his 10k time would come out to roughly 28:40, right on the cusp of LaMere’s six-year-old record. As LaMere is arguably one of the most dominant men’s distance runners in D3 history, Phillip certainly has high standards to chase. Based on his national championship performance in cross country this year alone, he could be the one to surpass LaMere’s lofty record.

During the indoor season, Williams’s Aidan Ryan showed that he was the best D3 miler in the country. He shattered the D3 national record by running a 3:56.88, anchored his team’s DMR to a No. 2 all-time performance with a 3:56 mile-leg split, and set the D3 indoor national meet record in the mile. His indoor mile time of 3:56 converts to a sub 3:40 1500. Only two-time U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier Karl Paranya of Haverford has dipped under 3:40 during his college career. He ran this time out of season in mid-July, but still holds the official men’s 1500m record of 3:41.21, which he ran in-season in 1996. 

Others at the top of the men’s 1500m list include Pomona’s Will Leer, who holds the No. 2 spot at 3:41.98, and SUNY Geneseo’s Isaac Garcia-Cassani, who holds the No. 3 spot at 3:42.66. In an interview with D3 Glory Days, Ryan recalled looking up to Garcia-Cassani during his younger years as an athlete at Williams. Now he has a chance to write his name alongside his, and possibly become the fastest 1500m runner in D3 history, ending Paranya’s 26-year reign. 

Indoor mile national record holder Ella Baran of Johns Hopkins is off to a strong start this season. At the Raleigh Relays last weekend, she ran a 4:19.98, the sixth-fastest 1500m of all time. With this performance, Baran became one of six women in D3 history to dip under 4:20 in the women’s 1500m. The current national record was set by SUNY Geneseo’s Emily Pomainville last year when she ran 4:13.45 in Nashville. Baran enters the outdoor season with 4:40 mile speed and 9:13 3k strength, a fitness combo that is sure to help her chase down the 1500m national record. 

Emily Pomainville - current 1500m record holder

Messiah’s Esther Seeland also ran an impressive early-season mark at the Raleigh Relays last weekend, winning the elite heat in 2:05.01. Seeland comes off of her most consistent indoor season yet, having posted three separate 2:05 performances. She will look to better her No. 2 all-time outdoor 800m time of 2:02.52 from the last outdoor season. 

Rounding out the distance events is the men’s 800. With Mike Jasa running 1:49.45 indoors and Ryan Wilson running 1:48.49 unattached last outdoor season, Nick Symmonds’ record could be in jeopardy. His record according to USTFCCCA is 1:47.34 as they do not recognize collegiate times after the season is over. If you take a look at the Willamette record book, they recognize his 1:45.83 from the 2006 USA Outdoor National Championships. I thought we left behind the confusing record lists during indoor but here we are again. With Ryan about a second away and Jasa need to shed off two seconds from an indoor track, the USTFCCCA record could be in reach for these two.

Sprints & Field

The sprinting events are off to a quick start as Centre’s JP Vaught opened his season with a 21.08 in the men’s 200m. The challenge in setting a national record in this event will be avoiding an illegal tailwind. Vaught appears on the all-time list three times, but only one time is wind-legal. His fastest time is 20.83, a time he ran at the national championships last year to win the 200m title. This time is only 0.03 seconds behind SUNY Oneonta’s Sean Bernstein’s wind-legal national record of 20.80 set in 2012. If Vaught can post a quick time on a day when the breeze doesn’t set off the wind gauge, he is only hundredths of a second away from a national record. Don’t count out Ajay Olson and Cheick Traore after running the #4 and #6 All-Time during indoors!

Sean Bernstein (right) is the current 200m record holder.

Vaught also has the potential to make a run at the top ten in the men’s 100m. He opened his season running 10.58, his fastest outdoor opener to date. His 2021 national title time of 10.44 places him 13th all time. This is only 0.03 seconds away from making the top ten. The current national record in this event is 10.18, held by Mount Union’s Derek Rippy in 1983. 

The high hurdle event nearly doubles in distance from indoor to outdoor but will welcome back some names that are sure to burst onto the top ten’s list. Headlining this list is WPI’s Oliver Thomas. This indoor season, he ran a 7.82, the second-fastest all-time in the 60m hurdles. Previously, Thomas’ high hurdle PRs were 8.08 in the 60m and 14.52 in the 110m. Having already improved by 0.26 seconds in the indoor season, Thomas is on track to improve in the 110m event. With indoor all-time listers Kenneth Wei of MIT (No. 9), Andrew Whitaker of WashU (No. 10), and Deyton Love of Wartburg (No. 17) in the mix as well, there’s a good chance that the national record of 13.72 set by Gustavus Adolphus’s Taylor Rooney last year might fall.

During indoor, Whitaker was the national champion in the 60m hurdles. He also has an impressive 400m hurdle PR of 52.93. To crack the top ten’s list in this event, Whittaker will have to run 51.0, a time that is well within reach coming off of his dominating indoor season. 

Another athlete with an impressive indoor season was UChicago’s Isabel Maletich. Maletich tied the indoor triple jump national record with her leap of 12.71m. This jump would put her sixth all-time on the outdoor list. Only Geneseo’s Alexa Wandy and McMurry’s Darcell Edwards have hit 13.00m, and McMurry’s jump was out of season. If Maletich can add her name to this list, she could hop, step, and jump her way to another national record. 

Darcell Edwards

The multi events shift from the women’s pentathlon and men’s heptathlon to the women’s heptathlon and men’s decathlon outdoors. These events welcome back a few athletes who made the all-time list last outdoor season. On the women’s side, 2022 indoor national champion and USTFCCCA National Field Athlete of the Year Hannah Zenkovich of UW-La Crosse returns after her No. 9 all-time performance at the outdoor national meet last year. Zenkovich’s 5,151 points placed her third in the country last year in this event behind national record holder Megan Wallace of UW-Eau Claire and No. 3 all-time Emily Lavarnway of SUNY Geneseo, and just 320 points south of Wallace’s national record of 5,471. With a full season ahead, Zenkovich is in good favor to move up the all-time list, perhaps even to the top.

For the men, UW-Eau Claire’s Marcus Weaver returns. He is the indoor national record holder and has the third-best score all-time for outdoor with 7,510 points. Indoor runner-up Keaton Wood of Linfield also returns. Wood opened his season last weekend in Santa Barbara, posting a No. 9 all-time best of 7,254 points. To set a national record, either athlete would need to score a total of 7,682 points to take down Fisk’s Tony Hale’s national record set in 1978. 

Interestingly, many of the national records at stake this season are well over 20 years old. As we saw a massive renovation of the top ten’s lists during the indoor season, it is likely the same will happen for outdoor. A new wave of D3 track and field is upon us. It started in the fall, blowing past years of cross country championship history, then it coursed around the indoor track, knocking down records like dominoes. Now, it’s tapping on the doors of the outdoor season, its momentum accumulating like a great tsunami, ready to crash over the history books.