The meet Noah Lyles can't get into⏱

Jun 15, 2022

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The NCAA Championship STARS 🤩

There aren’t many better opportunities to make a name for yourself than when all eyes are on you at the NCAA Championships. It’s a high pressure stage that gives fans a glimpse of who might have what it takes to succeed at the next level — or reveal which athletes are already at that level! If you wanted to rewatch the meet, the NCAA does a great job of putting most races up on YouTube. Or you can check out the story as told by the results, to see how Florida pulled off the double victory.

But for those who missed the 12 hours of action and don’t want to watch hours of race footage, or cultivate a results-based narrative via the *theater of the mind*, let me quickly recap what happened by sharing the top six performers of the meet as voted on by me.

(And no — I’m not including track star turned NFL quarterback, Robert Griffin III, who made his debut in the booth for the ESPN broadcast, despite his solid showing there. Overall, the athletics community welcomed him back with open arms and reviews were overwhelmingly positive. The primary reason he was enjoyable to listen to is because he was so obviously excited to be there. He cared about the results and was having fun — a groundbreaking moment for the sport!)

Joseph Fahnbulleh 🐊

The world met Joseph Fahnbulleh last year when he won the NCAA 200m title last outdoor, but this year he made sure we’d never forget him. The Florida star, who is from Minnesota but competes for Liberia, finished 5th at the Tokyo Olympics, but decided to head back to college in what should be considered an adjunct professor role. (Get it? Because he’s taking his competitors to school!)

After winning the 100m in a personal best of 10.00 (+0.6), it was almost a foregone conclusion that we’d see something special in his primary event. And we did — 19.83 (+0.6) to win again. Throw in a second place finish in the 4 x 100 and this was his weekend.

Although Fahnbulleh has one of the slower starts you’ll ever see from someone of his caliber, his final gear is also something you’ll hardly ever see. There are plenty of made up reasons to root for different athletes, in the case of Fahnbulleh it’s the extremes of strength and weakness that make him so intriguing. Here is the thing: you can teach someone how to improve their start, but you can’t teach someone that top end speed.

Joseph’s performance was the finest of the weekend for the fellas. And while there were other memorable races run by dudes, the bulk of the truly stellar showings came on the women’s side.

Anna Hall 🐊

Do you know what’s harder than the heptathlon? The octathlon — one of the most rarely competed in events in track and field. While the Florida Gators would have narrowly won the meet by a couple points had Anna Hall decided not to pursue a second place finish in the 400mH to her CV, it was still nice of her to add getting a new 54.48 PB to her already busy weekend schedule.

Earlier this season, Hall won the USATF national championship in Arkansas to qualify for Worlds. At the NCAA meet she passed on going after the 27-year-old collegiate record set by Diane Guthrie, and instead focused her efforts on the goals of her team over individual glory. Boy, that backfired, huh? Hall actually got even more attention for being one of the most impressive athletes we have ever seen. Surely every non-track coach back in Gainesville is kicking themselves right now, asking “why isn’t she playing a real sport?”

Jasmine Moore 🐊

What more can you possibly do if Moore is your last name? Well, throw another Gator on the list of stars from this weekend because Jasmine won both the long and triple jump. Those two trophies will pair nicely with the couple from the indoor NCAA championships, which make her the first woman in 32-years to win all four. Is that enough to win the Bowerman?

Katelyn Tuohy 🐺

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Katelyn Tuohy, one of the greatest high school runners of all time, won an NCAA championship. But when even winning a historic third NXN title by not a decisive enough margin is something to criticize, then we have to appreciate a career that has survived that degree of unreasonable scrutiny. Still only in her sophomore year of eligibility, Tuohy is a six-time All-American and her 5000m victory in 15:18.39 — leading most of the way and then with a final 800m of 2:18 — has proven the naysayers wrong.

In a world where more and more standout high school stars choose to take the contract and embark on professional careers as teenagers, Tuohy did the opposite. Instead, she sought out the healthiest and most supportive team environment to help block out the noise. The Wolfpack won a national cross country title, had five women qualify in the 5000m, three women in the 1500m, and then three more in the 10,000m — the entire program deserves this star.

Courtney Wayment 🐯

I am doubling down on this tweet from March — there is something different about Courtney Wayment’s fourth NCAA title compared to her previous ones. The BYU stud is no longer just good for a collegiate athlete. A 9:16.00 steeplechase is good no matter where the heck the race is! Her dominating ten-second personal best is the NCAA collegiate record and current US #1 and World #10. The second place finisher, Kayley Delay of Yale had an incredible run, as well, going 9:25.08 — a 15 second personal best, which will make her the fourth fastest seed at the US Championships. And she’s not even in the finish line picture!

Abby Steiner 😼

Just because Abby Steiner is a sprinter doesn’t mean she lacks endurance — remember, she was originally recruited as a soccer player. It was a busy weekend for the Kentucky star who should be paying rent to the University of Oregon for the amount of time she spent on the track between two rounds of the 100 (2nd), two rounds of the 4x100 (2nd), two rounds of the 200m (1st) and a 4x400 (1st). Where each warm-up ended and cool down began is really anyone’s guess!

Of course, running 21.80 (+1.3) to win the 200m in a new collegiate record is ostensibly the most impressive accomplishment of Steiner’s NCAA championships. After all, no one has ever run faster and it is the fastest time in the WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD!

But if you watch a single video from the NCAA meet, then make it this one. Running the third leg of the 4x400, to close out what would be a six race and 1200m long weekend, Abby splits a ridiculous 48.92 to move Kentucky from a distant fourth to first, overtaking Texas’ Julien Alfred, the NCAA 100m champion who beat her earlier that day.

Roma Diamond League 💎

The Rome Diamond League was held last weekend and former teenage superstar Athing Mu, now 20-years-old, celebrated dropping the “teenage superstar” title by taking the win in a world-leading time of 1:57.01. My wife has told me that I need to start showing emotions more. Well watching Mu run makes me want to cry — it’s beautiful.

In the steeplechase, Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma ran 7:59.23 to make it three sub-8 minute performances in just 10 days. If there has ever been one event that is rather difficult to bounce back from and do well again a few days later it’s the marathon, but if there’s another, it’s the steeplechase.

And Kenya’s Nicholas Kimeli, who finished fourth at last year’s Olympics, ran a personal best of 12:46.33 to establish a new world lead while sneaking under Eliud Kipchoge’s meet record. I know this section is supposed to highlight how good Kimeli is, but it’s incredible that Kipchoge’s 12:46.53 was set in 2004 when the Top 100 charts featured OutKast’s Hey Ya! and Hoobastank’s The Reason.

New York City Grand Prix 🗽

I had this genius plan to return from a weekend bachelor party in New Orleans and head straight to Icahn Stadium for the New York Grand Prix. But after my flight got delayed I was instead watching the meet from my phone and looked out the window as we flew overhead to see the final events taking place.

Even from the sky I could hear the crowd going wild for Sha’Carri Richardson. After finishing second in the 100m in a 10.85 SB, she returned to win the 200m in 22.38. Old white men lost their shit because she wore fishnets with her uniform as they did their best to ignore the swarms of excited kids that received autographs and pictures from one of the sport’s most unquestionably exciting athletes.

While I am pro anything that gets people jazzed about track and field, let us not ignore the 2018 USATF champion Aleia Hobbs winning the race in a new personal best of 10.83. There are now eight American women with season’s best between 10.83 and 10.95.

The sprint-focused meet was highlighted by Devon Allen, who “upset” Grant Holloway to run 12.84 for the third fastest time ever. This should answer any doubts about whether training for his rookie season with the Philadelphia Eagles would detract from his hurdling. The biggest shock was probably how unsurprised he was by it — his previous best was 12.99 and he hadn’t beat Grant since the 2018 US Championships — yet afterwards he spoke like he expected to break the World Record. Well now I am expecting it, too!

Not to be outdone in headlines was Alaysha Johnson, who is on a tear the past month and now has the second fastest time in the world for the 100mH at 12.40. The unsponsored Johnson gave an emotional post-race interview to the media afterwards, explaining that she’s still trying to understand why she is still without a shoe deal. Michael Johnson (no relation) had some words of wisdom to share about the need for athletes to create value. Alaysha had some more thoughts about the situation, but as an uninvested third-party, I would say that after this weekend it would be a shock if she’s not in uniform come the US Championships. That’s partially because Johnson ran fast, but more so because she has now run fast consistently. And it sure doesn’t hurt that because of her captivating interviews, the world knows who she is as a person as well as an athlete.

And the meet capped off with another strong Noah Lyles performance — a 19.61 around a single bend. As always, Noah was pure entertainment from start-to-finish. Minus the poor sound quality, it was cool to see the broadcast follow the MLB’s lead and put a microphone on him before the gun. His final words before getting in the blocks when asked how fast he was going to run were, ‘I would tell you, but I’d rather show you!’

In partnership with WCH OREGON 22

In 30 days the best athletes in the world will be heading to Oregon, but are you? The likes of Joe Kovacs, Molly Seidel, and Noah Lyles will be competing in our backyard at the World Athletics Championships – but Team USA needs our support! Cheer on the greatest American track and field athletes as they fight for global titles on home soil July 15-24 at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.

Candid conversations with friends👯‍♂️

The NCAA Championships is the best meet in the world that never features a single professional athlete. So you better believe the CITIUS MAG group chat was alive this Monday morning with a debate about the merit of the World Athletics rankings weight of college meets. NCAAs is labeled as category B and the SEC Championships are a category F. Please enjoy this minimally edited conversation between myself, David Melly, and Mac Fleet. May it spark a similarly heated debate in your various text groups, as well.

David: Can we talk about how World Athletics rankings are biased against the NCAA? The NCAA 100m champ is currently ranked 109th in the world.

Mac: It shouldn’t be scored equally but I guess if you want to stir the pot…

Kyle: Should I write about it this week?

David: People have talked about it before but it’s probably worth revisiting. It’s crazy how low things like SECs and Drake Relays are weighted.

Mac: NCAA athletes are protected against having pros enter their meets — it shouldn’t be equal.

David: Is there middle ground between equal and 109 though?

Mac: I’m for anything that separates collegiate athletes and pros, even to the detriment of the college athletes. Go pro if you want a higher point score. Stay in the NCAA if you want to win NCAAs.

David: Coffee Club talked about how in tennis they care a ton about world rankings but no one’s aware of it in track. They were saying that if people cared it would be interesting in a race like Pre to know how Olli’s performance affects his world ranking. I don’t necessarily think we’ll ever care about rankings the way we do in tennis, but I think we’d take them a little more seriously if shit like this didn’t make their credibility a total joke.

Mac: I disagree completely that it’s a flaw in the system. The NCAA is basically its own league that has protections that only go one way. NCAA athletes can enter any meet they want around the world, but pros cannot enter SEC’s.

David: I agree on the diagnosis of the problem but I think it’s easier to fix the rankings than the NCAA rules. Because when the 109th ranked guy makes the world 100m final that’s either a huge upset (it’s not) or the ranking system is useless for following the sport (which is my vote).

Mac: I know it’s not the same thing because a 100m FAT time is the same thing everywhere, but if you look at it like a “performance” you shouldn’t be able to equate the stakes of NCAA meets to professional ones. Like, if someone scores 80 points a night in the G-league, that shouldn’t equate to anything in the NBA because they aren’t actually playing against NBA players

David: If we think the world rankings will help us follow the sport better/increase fan interest in the regular season (which I’m generally skeptical of but that’s what Coffee Club was arguing), they need to reflect the reality of the current landscape. Post-season NCAAs is deeper in sprinting than the Diamond League, and to not acknowledge that in how we rank people undermines the credibility of the ranking system entirely

Mac: I get that track is way more of a fluid sport with this stuff and the points SHOULD be different in some ways, but it does succeed at rewarding people for continually competing in the Diamond league, which is what fans should want

David: I don’t think those are entirely antithetical positions. I just think the current system does a good job at promoting one interest — head to head racing — and a terrible job at the other — telling us who’s the best.

Mac: I don’t disagree but the NCAA doesn’t run the DL or WA.

Kyle: It sort of comes down to what’s the purpose of the rankings: to force athletes to run the meets we want or to tell us who the best athletes in the world are? In reality, the top 10 athletes in each event don’t need to worry about what races they do because they’ll qualify for the World Championships with ease regardless of how many points they get from meet status.

David: In a perfect world it does both. And in a hypothetical future where rankings carry a lot of weight and even potentially contract money is tied heavily to ranking, it should be heavily weighted toward pushing top athletes toward the same races. But in the current reality it’s a joke because it doesn’t accomplish the latter goal at all

Mac: Who gets hurt by it are people like Cole, when he had to get in on points last year.

Kyle: I think in theory, Mac’s thought process is the correct one. But in practice, David has a strong point.

Mac: I think it does a good job at pushing pros to those meets. The top NCAA athletes are still there because they’re trying to get contracts, not because they don’t want to go get points. So there’s that element too. Joe Fahn would’ve been in Rome if he didn’t have NCAAs.

David: The problem with Mac’s position is that to perfectly execute it, we either have to care a lot less about global championships or not let NCAA athletes go to Worlds/the Olympics. Because in the current system you basically have a unique phenomenon where a standout NCAA point guard could somehow be in the NBA final if he’s good enough and that makes no sense if we try to apply that to other sports. And good luck to anyone carrying the mantle of “actually we shouldn’t let NCAA athletes go to the Olympics.” RIP to your Twitter mentions!

Mac: Yeah I do actually think that only NCAA champs should get into USAs. But that’s beyond what we’re talking about.

(Editor’s note: Mac won two NCAA champs which may influence his opinions)

Kyle: Well now we are just talking about the fundamental problem of the sport — are you willing to sacrifice fairness of opportunity that ensures all the best runners are on the same start line once a year in exchange for making the sport easier to follow and more entertaining? There may be some better F1 drivers out there that don’t get one of the 20 spots on the start line.

David: Do you fight for the achievable incremental improvements in a broken system, or try to burn the whole thing down knowing you probably won’t succeed but could make things much better if you do? A question which could be about gun control or World Athletics rankings.

Kyle: Like, should you vote for Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders?

Mac: Those are 100% not all the best drivers in the world. I really do think it’s worth some of the unfairness to try and make the sport more entertaining. The athletes in the NCAA are choosing to be in there and can leave at any time.

Kyle: Am I going to get angry emails if I include a single political reference in my newsletter?

David and Mac: Yes.

Kyle: But this was just an organic text conversation that I am now deciding to print — surely people will understand that and forgive me?

Catching up with NCAA Champ, Joe Waskom

When Joe Waskom lined up at NCAA Regionals, his 3:40.33 personal best was the 26th seeded time in the West. His outdoor season began with three progressively slower steeplechases: 8:47 - 8:55 - 9:15 (his PB is 8:35), two DNFs, and finally a 3:45 1500m. But then things turned around and he won Pac-12s, qualified for Nationals and ultimately this weekend, the Seattle-native won the NCAA title in 3:45.58 to cap off his sophomore season. Enjoy this brief conversation about his season and the Washington Huskies!

A lot of people were surprised by your victory, but were you? Did you think this was possible – especially when things started slow in the beginning of the race?

I wouldn't say my entire goal was to win that day. I was talking with my coach and we both said it’d be great to finish in the top five. So I wasn't really looking to win, but more to execute the race plan. It just kind of worked out in my favor that the race went a little slower — I was ready for anything — I was ready for it to be fast. I expected Garcia-Romo to go to the front and slow it down and so I was excited for that last lap.

Well you closed in 53.2! You haven’t run an 800 in college, but clearly you have speed.

I could probably run 1:47 or 1:48, like, before the final. We've done some workouts where we run a 52-second 400 at the end of the workout. I'll have to do an 800 next year.

Well now you have a 1:52 closing out that 1500! After running 3:56 indoors you had a really rough March and April – what exactly was going on and what turned it around?

I was pretty sick after Mt. SAC relays and then really, really sick, but I was trying to train through it. My legs weren't under me and I wasn't racing well. I knew I'd come around by Pac-12s and have a shot to run a regional qualifier there in the 1500. Winning that race was probably more surprising than the national title. When I got healthy, things started clicking. It's nice to have two training partners in Luke Houser and Nathan Green who have both run 3:37 — I do all my runs with them and so their success helps my confidence.

Washington has certainly been a middle distance powerhouse. As someone whose friends are training or have been trained by Powell, I have an idea of why I think he’s good, but I’d be curious what you’d say.

I think the biggest thing about our program is the culture — we're all best friends and want the best for each other. We're not competing in workouts, but encouraging each other. It’s amazing when we're all running a 1:21 600 in the pouring rain to close out a workout together. After that we knew we could make some noise at nationals.

Is that cultivated by Andy?

I think it all comes down to who we recruit. He makes sure that we're a good fit for the program and it just goes from there. We all hang out all the time and are friends outside of running.

Being from Seattle, did you grow up knowing that you wanted to go to Washington?

My sister was on the UW team before I got here so I knew a bunch of my teammates previously. Right when Andy came I thought it’d be the place I go to become successful.

Generally an NCAA champ can go on to USAs and be competitive with the pros. Are you doing that? Are you in?

I don't have a time for it, so I probably won't get in. I'm pacing one of my teammates later this week in the steeplechase and will probably call it after that. I'm honestly looking at the season as some kind of miracle. I think I expected this to happen at some point – I wanted to be a national champion. I just didn't know how early it would come. I believe in Andy and I believe in Chris and the stuff they tell us to do — Nathan would tell you the same thing. We follow what they tell us and it usually works out.

Would you ever return to the steeplechase or are you a 1500 guy forever now?

I'm going to do whatever Andy tells me to do. If he wants me to do it, then I'll do the 1500. If he tells me he thinks I have the best chance in the steeplechase, then I’ll listen to him.

Sounds like you’re a dream athlete – I'm sure he loves coaching you!

Rapid Fire Highlights 🔥

Camryn Rogers of Cal (and Canada) won her third straight NCAA title in the hammer and broke her own collegiate record throwing 77.67m — she now has the 11 farthest throws in NCAA history.
Adelaide Aquilla of Ohio State won the NCAA shot put title in a collegiate record of 19.64m — can we eliminate the occasional use of the imperial system from college T&F?
Indiana’s Addy Wiley broke the national record for 1600m running 4:26.16 in what is an incredible 11 second personal best — it’s a shame there wasn’t another finish line set up 9 meters later because she’d have dipped under Mary Cain’s high school mile record. Wiley is heading to Colorado next year, home of at least a few NCAA mile champions.
Freshman Sadie Engelhardt ran 4:11.79 at the Portland Track Festival… FRESHMAN!!!
Canadian steeplechaser Matt Hughes announced his retirement this week citing a surgery-requiring injury. Hughes hangs ‘em up as a 2x NCAA Champion, 2x Olympian, and 4x WC finalist with an 8:11 PB.
The 50th running of the Mastercard Mini 10k was held in Central Park. Named for the symbol of women’s liberation, the mini-skirt, the race is the original women’s-only road race. Senberi Teferi ran 30:43 to win over Sharon Lokedi and Keira D’Amato.
20-year-old Max Burgin ran 1:43.52 WL to win the 800m in at the Turku Continental Tour meeting to become the fourth fastest Englishman ever.
In his first competition of the year, Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra broke his own Indian national record in the javelin with a throw of 89.30m, but Finland’s Oliver Helander one upped him with a 89.83m.
Notre Dame’s Yared Nuguse missed running the NCAA championships due to injury, however, he showed he’s still fit, winning the Portland Track Festival in 3:34.98. His coach, Sean Carlson, just accepted a new role at the University of Tennessee a couple days after Dylan Jacobs won the NCAA 10,000m title.
A few weeks after winning the USATF 10,000m championships, Karissa Schweizer dropped down to 1500m to run 4:00.75 in Portland. Raeyvn Rogers ran 1:58.90 for 800m and Weini Kelati PB’d with a 14:57.
The three time Olympic hammer throw champion Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland is out the rest of the season as she hurt herself intervening in an attempted act of grand theft auto. She stopped him in the act and handed over the failure of a robber to the police.

Thank you to Adidas for sponsoring this week’s newsletter! I’ve loved the Adizero collection and will certainly be copping a pair of Adizero Adios Pro 3 on June 23rd. As always, if you enjoyed this newsletter — please PLEASE tell a friend and/or shout out The Lap Count on social media!