NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships: The Best Matchups and More

CANTON, NEW YORK — Long-time DIII coaches and athletes know that Memorial Day weekend isn’t about going to the beach. It’s about DIII nationals, baby! Here are the seven of the best matchups (covering eleven events) that are going down at St. Lawrence this weekend. We already covered the team battles here. This largely focuses on the individuals.

The times for the events listed below are for finals only and are all in Eastern. We’re here in Canton; email us if you want to do a video interview, particularly on Thursday or Friday. We’ll have live updates, interviews, recaps, and more.

Live stream (coming) | Live results | Schedule | Heat sheets

Flynn vs. Gallavan

Women’s discus, 10:30 Thursday

The women’s discus is the only event where the top two seeds have the exact same mark. Kadie Flynn of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Kim Gallavan of Baldwin Wallace come in with identical season bests of 48.76 meters (160-0), which would have been good enough to win last year’s NCAA meet. The top three returners from that meet–Shelby Mahr of UW-Whitewater, Lindsey Thomas of Carroll, and Melissa Alger of Coe–are back, but none are seeded in the top five. We’ll find out about this one soon, as it’s the first final of the meet.

Pole vaulters vs. the records

Women, 12:00 Thurday
Men, 4:00 Thursday

Both MIT’s Cimmy Virdi and North Central’s Luke Winder have a 20cm+ lead over the No. 2 seeds in their respective fields. Virdi set the Division III national record in the women’s pole vault at the New England DIII championships, jumping 4.27m (14-0) to become the first DIII woman ever to clear fourteen feet. But her win at ECACs two weeks later may have been even more auspicious for her chances at her first outdoor national title. Before ECACs, the second best outdoor vault in her career was 4.10m–just five centimeters better than Marissa Kalsey’s PR. But Virdi cleared 4.15 there, proving–as if she needed to–that her 4.27 clearance wasn’t a flash in the pan.

Kalsey has finished in the top five at all five national championships that she’s competed in, and only finished out of the top three once. But she’s repeatedly had her path to a title blocked by all-time great DIII vaulters. The Westminster (Pa.) junior finished fifth and third behind then-record holder Michelle Favre indoors her freshman year, took second (both times in a tie on misses!) to Virdi at the last two indoor nationals, and took third behind Virdi and all-time No. 5 Anna Etherington at this meet last year. In five national meets, she’s lost a place on misses four times–with three of those losses coming at the hands of MIT athletes.

Virdi is the heavy favorite in the women’s vault, particularly if she is hitting her early heights in less attempts than Kalsey does. In the men’s vault, Winder might be an even heavier favorite. The three men directly behind him on the national descending order list (including defending champ Rick Valcin of Dubuque) have season bests of 5.20 meters. Winder has topped or equalled that mark thirteen times in 2015.

Winder’s toughest competition might come from within his own gene pool. Just a freshman, he’s already surpassed his brother Josh’s 5.30m college PR. But his brother Jake cleared 5.50 in 2010, giving him the Winder family (current generation) lead. Jake is No. 2 on the all-time DIII list, and the best ever in season; Allegheny’s Jeremy Scott went 5.55 at the NACAC championships in the summer of 2002 for the best DIII vault ever. Keep an eye on those marks.

Neloms vs. the double

Men’s long jump, 2:30 Thursday
Men’s high jump, 2:30 Saturday

Dominique Neloms successfully pulled off the unorthodox double jump double at indoor nationals, and for his La Crosse squad to win a team title, he may need to do it outdoors as well. Unlike indoor nationals where he was by far the No. 1 seed in the long jump, he actually trails Lynchburg’s Evan Truman by two centimeters coming into the meet. The high jump cast of characters is very similar to what it was indoors–just like in March, Neloms is the top seed in the HJ by one centimeter over Rhode Island College’s Steven Vazquez.

No one in the forty-one year history of the DIII outdoor championships has won the high and long jumps at the same meet. St. Thomas legend Leonard Jones came close several times in the early 1990s, and Augustana’s Ted McMillan won the high jump and 400 hurdles in 2007. But if Neloms pulls off this specific double, he’ll be the first.

Serres vs. Gong

Women’s 1500, 1:30 Saturday

Quick note: these two are also in the 5000, but the 15-5k double outdoors is brutal enough (if you’re not named Cazzola) that declaring in both events is essentially declaring the 1500 as your primary event.

After two very close losses at indoor nationals in the DMR and mile, MIT’s Maryann Gong kicked her way to a national title in the 3k. Luther’s Tricia Serres missed indoors, but in the four national championship 1500s/miles in her freshman and sophomore years, Serres finished second to Cazzola twice and only lost to then-seniors plus Cazzola the other two times.

Serres is the top returner and has the top time in the country this year, which is usually a pretty good formula for a title. But Gong hasn’t lost to a DIII runner in the 15/mile since Middlebury’s Allison Maxwell and Eastern Mennonite’s Hannah Chappell-Dick got her at indoor nationals. Maxwell is opting for the 5k only, and though Chappell-Dick (and Oneonta 4:28 woman Rachael Shine) are in the field, Serres and Gong are clear favorites.

St. Olaf vs. the rest of the country

Men’s 1500, 1:40 Saturday

This is a difficult race to get a read on. Haverford’s Charlie Marquardt has run 3:43.84–making him the eighth fastest performer in DIII ever and the fifth fastest in-season–but got bounced in the 1500 prelims last year and only took fifth in the 3000 indoors. Marquardt has shown signs of turning the corner outdoors. He won his first-ever outdoor Centennial Conference titles in the 8 and 15, and his only losses (at Princeton and Swarthmore) since indoor nationals have been to pros and DI runners.

He’ll face off against a St. Olaf armada that includes three defending national champions: indoor mile champion Paul Escher, cross country winner Grant Wintheiser, and indoor 3k champ Jake Campbell. As we covered in the team preview, that’s only half of Olaf’s six entries in the event; the Oles could podium off of just two or three events. As good as Escher looked blowing everyone away at the end of the mile at indoor nationals, it’s tough to pick between him and Campbell as the top guy to do battle with Marquardt. Escher did win the 1500 at MIACs by four seconds over Campbell, but Campbell’s 14:17 5k strength compared to Escher’s pure mid-d background might give him the edge if there are two grueling rounds.

Heafy vs. Fehler

Women’s 4×100, 1:10 Saturday
Women’s 100, 2:35 Saturday
Women’s 200, 3:45 Saturday

Saturday is the last collegiate chapter of the rivalry between La Crosse’s Meg Heafy and Eau Claire’s Carly Fehler. Per TFRRS, Fehler is 12-6 against Heafy in sprint finals over the last four years. And though Heafy has no individual NCAA titles, she and her La Crosse teammates have won the 4×100 meter relay at the last two national championships.

Adding to the intrigue: though Fehler is the defending national champ in the 100 (outdoors), 60, and 200 (indoors), Heafy has knocked her off at the last two WIAC 100 meter finals. Their latest conference clash was one of the fastest Division III races ever, as Heafy’s 11.58 and Fehler’s 11.62 are the second and third fastest all-conditions times in division history. (The USTFCCCA is working on a wind-legal list; currently, we believe that Rhondale Jones’s 11.64 from 1999 is the fastest DIII time with wind at or under 2.0 mps)

Both women are entered in all three sprints this weekend, and either they or their teams are the top two seeds in all three. Fehler has the fastest regular season 200, Heafy’s aforementioned 100 is the national leader, and Eau Claire has the upper hand in the 4×100. That’s also the order they finished in at the WIAC championships three weeks ago.

Voland vs. Mettille vs. Campbell

Men’s 400 hurdles, 3:30 Saturday

If it’s ever safe to say that a record will not be broken*, it’s safe to say it about the Division III men’s 400 meter hurdles mark. Edwin Moses ran 47.45 at the 1977 US championships, and we believe the fastest in-season time of his career is 48.64 seconds. No DIII long hurdler broke fifty seconds before Moses, and no one has since.

But the current batch of 400H men is incredibly talented and competitive, and that’s more than good enough. At least one of David Voland (Augustana), Tyler Mettille (Mount Union), or Luke Campbell (Salisbury) has finished in the top three in this event at the last three editions of nationals. Last year they were the top three–Campbell, Voland, Mettille, in that order–and this year, they have the top three times–Voland, Mettille, Campbell, in that order.

Recap: Mettille won nationals in 2013, Campbell won nationals in 2014, and Voland has the fastest time in 2015. By any measure, they’re three of the most successful hurdlers in Division III history. By time, they’re Nos. 4, 6, and 9. They set those times the last time all three lined up in the same final, which was last year’s national championship. With Voland having honed his focus–zero open sprint races for him this outdoor season–and Campbell and Mettille basically as good as ever, last year’s historic fireworks could be replicated.

*It’s never safe to say that.

Bonus: Wide-Open Events

Hey, here are six more events where the favorite is extremely unclear! In these events, quite a few people either have been playing it close to the vest, or are part of a very large group that could win the race depending on the circumstances. In my eyes, those races are the men’s 400, 5000, and 10000, and the women’s long jump, 800, and 10000. See you in Canton.