USTFCCCA News & Notes
Weekend Recap: Unbelievable Collegiate Performances Continue Across The Nation
EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ll continue to update this throughout the weekend.
Collegiate track & field athletes weren’t about to take a week off from turning in all-time marks.
From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results | Records & Lists
It’s all gas, no brakes this year.
Brb. We Need To Update Some All-Time Lists
DMR Weekend lived up to the hype – and then some.
It all started on Friday night at the Arkansas Qualifier in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where Washington led a trio of teams under 9:23 as they all cracked the all-time top-5 performers in collegiate history on record-eligible, 200-meter tracks.
Not only that, but each of the top-5 finishers are now among the top-10.
- Washington, 9:21.10 = No. 3 performer; No. 4 performance
- Alabama, 9:22.43 = No. 4 performer; No. 5 performance
- Oklahoma State, 9:22.70 = No. 5 performer; No. 6 performance
- Iowa State, 9:24.07 = No. 7 performer; No. 8 performance
- Arkansas, 9:24.56 = No. 8 performer; No. 10 performance
Then the party continued Saturday afternoon at the Alex Wilson Invitational in Notre Dame, Indiana, a meet that has seen quite a few fast marks over the years – notably the all-time, all-conditions best of 9:25.80 set by Notre Dame in 2020 in a thrilling battle against Wisconsin.
Well, 9:25.80 used to be the all-time, all-conditions best.
That’s because each of the top-7 teams all went under that mark.
Notre Dame took the event title by 0.21 seconds over Ole Miss – 9:21.73 to 9:21.94 – as Yared Nuguse beat a hard-charging Mario Garcia Romo to the finish line. Third place went to Indiana (9:22.78) with Princeton fourth (9:23.30), Michigan fifth (9:23.78), Wisconsin sixth (9:23.85) and Texas seventh (9:23.99).
If you combine marks from record-eligible tracks and their oversized kin, seven of the 10 fastest efforts in collegiate history happened this weekend.
Talbi Wins An All-Time 3000m Clash
Zouhair Talbi.
Remember the name.
Zouhair Talbi of Oklahoma City is leaving his mark in 2022.
On Friday night, Talbi won a stacked 3000m race at the Arkansas Qualifier in 7:40.39, which is the third-fastest performance in collegiate history. Talbi beat Amon Kemboi of Arkansas (No. 5, 7:42.29) & Wesley Kiptoo of Iowa State (No. 10, 7:43.61), who also notched all-time top-10 marks in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
One week earlier, Talbi stopped the clock in the top section of the 5000m at the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational in 13:18.17. That made him the eighth-fastest performer in collegiate history with the eighth-fastest performance.
Talbi is a back-to-back NAIA cross country champion and last year clocked the second-fastest performance ever by a collegian in the 10,000m at 27:20.61. Due to the fact that Talbi competed unattached, it doesn’t count in the collegiate record books, but chances are, he’ll be on that list too come spring.
Women’s DMR Teams Also Enjoy Weekend
Wild DMR celebrations included top women’s teams, especially at the Alex Wilson Invitational where four squads posted sub-11 times on Saturday.
Ole Miss topped host Notre Dame for victory in a thriller, winning by a scant 0.08 seconds, 10:57.76 to 10:57.84.
Utah (10:59.24) and Michigan (10:59.46) also joined sub-11 territory for the first time, bringing this year’s total of sub-11 programs to seven – Arkansas (season leader at 10:51.63), BYU and Oklahoma State had already run as fast earlier.
Just missing a sub-11 time was Virginia Tech, whose foursome won the JDL DMR Invitational at Winston-Salem on Friday night in a facility record of 11:00.20. That mark is converted to 10:53.21 for NCAA qualifying purposes (being contested on a flat track 200 meters or less). Washington, NC State and Kentucky also registered sub-11 qualifying marks at the same meet.