Record Performances In Mile, DMR Shake Up Women’s All-Time Charts

Remember simpler times when the collegiate record in the women’s mile was 4:25.91 and 10:48.77 in the distance medley relay? That wasn’t that long ago – 2023, to be exact.

What if we told you that 2009 The Bowerman winner Jenny Barringer (now Simpson), who set that CR in the mile back in her award-winning year, is barely hanging on in the top-10? And that Oregon’s 10:48.77 effort from the Dr. Sander Columbia Challenge in 2017 is doing the same, but is no longer among the top-15 marks in collegiate history on an all-conditions basis.

Barringer first fell to No. 2 when Katelyn Tuohy ran 4:24.26 at the same meet in which the Ducks flew to the DMR CR, albeit six years later. Oregon was knocked out of the top spot when Washington’s quartet of Sophie O’Sullivan, Marlena Preigh, Carley Thomas, and Anna Gibson went 10:46.62 at the Bruce Lehane Scarlet and White Invitational two years ago.

Fast forward to the present day and Tuohy and the Huskies are no longer record-holders: Oregon’s Silan Ayyildiz lopped off 0.80 seconds from Tuohy’s mark this past weekend at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational; Washington improved its own DMR CR to 10:43.39 at the Terrier DMR Challenge last year and two other teams also got the baton around quicker.

But on the same weekend that Ayyildiz shattered Tuohy’s record, three other women traversed the mile distance faster than Barringer did 16 years ago: NC State’s Grace Hartman at 4:24.76, Georgetown’s Melissa Riggins at 4:24.98, and Virginia’s Margot Appleton at 4:25.03. Add in two efforts from Oregon’s Wilma Nielsen from earlier in the season and Barringer sits eighth on the all-time chart with the tenth fastest all-time performance on a record-legal track.

As far as Oregon’s former DMR CR? Hold onto your hats.

While the CR on a record-legal track is five seconds faster than what the Ducks turned in seven years ago, the all-conditions collegiate best is now an astounding ten seconds quicker. That’s what happened BYU, Northern Arizona, Stanford, Utah and Washington all got together at the Husky Classic this past weekend in Seattle. The Cougars, with Carmen Alder, Meghan Hunter, Tessa Buswell, and Riley Chamberlain on the case, scorched the 300-meter oval inside the Dempsey Indoor to the tune of 10:37.58. BYU led those four other programs to far superior times than Washington’s record-legal CR as the Cardinal finished in 10:38.93, followed by the Lumberjacks in 10:39.44, the Huskies in 10:40.44, and the Utes in 10:42.56.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention what happened on the men’s all-time charts, especially in the DMR. Washington’s foursome of Ronan McMahon-Staggs, Ambodai Ligons, Kyle Reinheimer, and Nathan Green combined to run an all-time world best 9:14.10 at the Husky Classic and obliterated Oklahoma State’s former all-conditions collegiate best of 9:16.40.

EDITOR’S NOTE: There was some great racing on Friday at the Razorback Qualifier in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Virginia, anchored by Gary Martin, narrowly missed Washington’s absolute collegiate best but set the collegiate record on a 200-meter track at 9:14.19. Oklahoma State also went under its former collegiate record with its 9:16.24.