Let the Games Begin…
It’s time for March Madness, and in more ways than one.
The latest rankings are live! If you or anyone else on your club wants to get in on the action, check out the information packet created by the one and only Jonathan Karr!
CRC’s own Owen Christou created a helpful reference sheet detailing the Track Nationals schedule, along with the automark times/distances and heat estimations.
As always, don’t forget to check out the National Running Club Database! We’re doing our best to make sure every meet is uploaded! There are sure to be a few meets we missed on the Database, but you can add it and it will be included! More information about that can be found on the Database website.
Club Takes on the World Stage
Penn State legend Zaid Nasrawi made history today, Friday, March 20th at 5:20 a.m. EST, in Toruń, Poland. For the first time ever, a current NIRCA athlete competed in the World Indoor Championship against the best athletes in the world. Representing the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Zaid competed in the first heat of the 60m dash. He ran an incredibly impressive time of 7.04 which is just a bit off of his PR. Check out his results here and stay tuned to the NRCD to keep up with his future performances. From the club running community across the country, congratulations Zaid!
Spring is Here! (No Thanks to the Groundhog)
Clubs across NIRCA are returning from spring break and kicking off their outdoor seasons! This weekend, Virginia Tech is hosting the Hokie Invitational as they look to re-ignite some of their past Olivet magic, and extend their Men’s Olivet Championship streak to three-straight. Other notable schools that will be competing this weekend are Penn State, Pitt, and notably, Cal Poly, who has been quieter than usual but will look to remind everyone how elite their distance program is. Grand Canyon University will compete at their first (official) outdoor meet this Friday and Saturday (3/20-21) at the Cody McBride Invitational in Phoenix, alongside their varsity squad. After finishing second in the latest CRC Coaches Poll ranking in both the men’s and women’s categories, all eyes should be on these meet results, as the newly founded club gears up to make some serious noise this outdoor season.
We also wanted to draw some attention to an upcoming meet which we will cover in next week’s article, the Mid-Atlantic Showdown. Due to Olivet being quite the hike for many east-cost and southern teams, JMU Club Track and Field & XC is hosting their own mini-nationals, and it looks to be a fiercely contested meet. Among the long list of clubs that will be attending is the University of Maryland, joined by Jamil Yacoubou, who is aiming to secure both high-hurdle records, with the mark to beat being Lucas Band’s 2025 time of 14.70 seconds.
Hokie Invite Preview
Sprints
In the sprints section, advantage Virginia Tech. Miles Outlaw owns the top seed time in the 100m and 200m at 10.96 and 22.32 respectively. He will have to watch out for Avéy Pullum from UNC in the 100 from heat 2, who, though he ran an 11.45 in February, also put up a 7.01 mark in the 60m this year, which is one of the fastest marks of all time. Miles will also be looking to fend off a challenge from VCU’s Landon Reeves in the 200. Speaking of Reeves, he competed in the 400m dash last weekend at the Myrtle Beach Classic, and threw down an impressive time of 50.29, as he looks to dethrone himself in the 2026 400m outdoor standings this weekend. Landon is firmly in the national championship conversation, and VCU is looking to prove that they don’t need home field advantage to steal points across the board, with them making the trip up to Olivet this April.
Amora Aiguobasimwin of UGA is the favorite to win 3 separate events, being the 100mH, the 300mH, and the 400m. The Hokie Invitational is one of the few club meets that runs a 300mH instead of 400mH, and we suspect that Max Greczyn, the distance star turned 300m Hurdler, may have bribed VT President Joe Gora to do so. Not to be outdone, watch out for Alessandra Campese who is competing with UNC, seeded second in the 100 and first in the 200, which she looks to run away with.
Distance- Early contender for Distance-U?
It should be no secret by now that, come April, VTech dominates in the distance events. The big three of Max Greczyn (3k), Sam Yakulis (800) and Wyatt Thomas (5k, 1500, 800) are back in full swing, and will certainly be favored to score this year. Distance events (especially the 1500) are going to be more challenging than ever, and will force teams to be strategic about their entries.
On the women’s side, Abby Norton (1500) looks to open up her outdoor season and build off an impressive cross-country season alongside Ashley Mortenson (1500, 5k) and Ava Rotell (800). Moving away from VT, Gabby Santucci of the University of Virginia is doubling in the 1500 and 3k, and looks to be the heavy favorite in the 3k, but the 1500 is expected to come down to the final 200 meters, with Audrey Fitzpatrick and UGA’s Eryn Lackey both seeded 2 seconds behind at 5:00-flat.
Field Events- Wait a second– is that who I think it is?
Led by Throws coach Nyle Sherriff, Virginia Tech is set to clean house in both discus and shot put and we would be shocked to see anything otherwise. Nyle and teammate James Paylor own the top 2 seeds in each event, and we expect them to add to what is shaping up to be the strongest throwing field at Nationals we have ever seen. Club athletes should be grateful that the decathlon is not a scored NIRCA event, because Tech’s Dillon Luke would be at the top of our projections in each event. He will be competing in the 800, 110 hurdles and the discus throw with impressive times in each event.
On the Women’s side, two names that immediately jumped out at us were Elisabeth Shin and Shannon Fisher. We expect them to snag 1st and 2nd in both Discus and Shot as VT’s shining duo. Shannon will look to make an opening statement in the Shot as she hopes to defend her bronze in the Shot from last season.
Paris Johnson is BACK, and seeded at 1.97, making him the clear favorite in the high jump. We don’t know if he will be making the trip to Olivet–but if he does–men’s high jump will be one of the closest contested events this April.
UMBC Retriever Invitational
One of NIRCA’s small but mighty clubs hosted their annual home meet this past weekend in the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. They invited 5 NIRCA schools and a number of local club teams to bring in some strong competition for their athletes.
Georgetown struck early in the meet with Will Borrevik and Jane Smith gapping their respective fields in the 5000m, winning in 15:47.34 and 18:22.62. These were some of the strongest times of the meet, representing two athletes that are certainly in All-American contention.
UMBC’s male sprinters met the challenge of the meet with Zaire Fulmore and Julian Poku taking 1-2 in both the 100 and 200m races. This duo is shaping up to lead a strong 4x1 if they make the trip to Olivet this April.
We don’t know if many of these teams will be able to make the trip to Michigan, but we love to see NIRCA competitions like this meet whenever possible!
CRC Roundup
At the Tampa Spartans Classic, Taryn Shine of, you guessed it, the University of Tampa, put down a 2:29.61 to join the list of girls under 2:30 this season. This is also a new PR for Taryn by 6 seconds, per our records.
The largest groups of competitors this weekend came from Oregon and Oregon State. The pair of them took the track at the LCC Open laying down some marks that put the country on notice.
Oregon saw Frederick Ford enter his Sophomore season with a bang, running times of 10.99 in the 100 and 22.13 in the 200, making him one of the most dangerous sprinters in the nation. He also followed that up with one of the best Long Jumps of all time with a 6.84m leap. He wasn’t the only one jumping out of the stadium as Sophia Seufert reached a top-25 all-time mark with her jump of 5.05m at this meet. Their women’s distance team came to prove they’re more than we’ve chalked them up to be with Ella Milanovich putting down a 2:27.00 800m and Chelsea Deeb dropping a 4:50.37 1500m to put out a season leading time for this event.
On the Oregon State side of things, Brooke Heussner outran Ella to maintain her position as the strongest Pacific woman in the 800m with a 2:26.62 in this event. The women really stayed strong with Evonna West putting down a sub-19 5k in 18:59.53 and Camille Yutzie dropping a strong early season 10.13m in the Triple.
This was a week for the Pacific Region as Cal Poly, UCLA, and USC took on the Occidental Distance Carnival. Kingsley Okoronkwo lit up the pit for a team we don’t see too often in the University of Southern California, jumping a daunting 6.66m in the Long Jump. He wasn’t the only Cal star on the men’s side as Cal Poly saw some distance performers remind NIRCA what they’re made of. Tom Bell and Connor Scharpenberg contested the 5000m with Tom taking the edge over Connor with a 15:16.91 > 15:17.38. Max Schemenauer also reminded us of their speed coming down to the 1500m with a 4:07.18 to open the season. The tale of the women’s side of the meet was in the 5000m. UCLA saw two women drop extremely competitive times with Sherlyn Gomez dropping an 18:38.72 and Sophia Carcamo coming out of nowhere with a shocking 17:24.02 that makes her a huge contender in this event.