BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, December 2 — Running on fitness that carried her to the NCAA Cross Country crown 2 weeks earlier, Florida’s Parker Valby burned 25 laps of BU’s fast track to record collegiate history’s first sub-15:00 indoor 5000.
The Gator junior had company from Annie Rodenfels most of the way and over the final kilometer pulled away to a 14:56.11–15:03.97 win from the BAA pro. Valby’s clocking on the newly resurfaced oval, which already enjoyed a magic carpet reputation, cut 16.11 from the previous Collegiate Record set by Emily Sisson of Providence in 2015.
Falling also to Valby’s powerful run was the absolute CR, 15:01.70i turned in by Colorado’s Jenny Simpson (née Barringer) on Washington’s oversized indoor track in ’09.
The USATF 5K road champ, Rodenfels cut loose from the 21-woman field after two laps (72.02) and Valby, eschewing her famed front-running tactics, tucked in just behind. By 1600m (4:48.38 for Rodenfels) the duo had a gap of more than 15m on the pack led by the BAA’s Bethany Hasz.
At 2K (6:00.94) the margin back to the rest stretched to more than 25 meters and the two leaders clicked along on pace for a 15:02 finish. With 6 laps remaining Valby moved outside as if to pass but Rodenfels held onto the inside spot — for one more circuit.
Just past 4K (12:03.20, 15:04 tempo), Valby poured on more pace and set into a 34.97 lap, fastest of the race to that point yet slower than any of the four that would follow. With two laps left, Valby — her expression one of ease, her head cocked ever so slightly rightward — enjoyed a lead of 30-plus meters.
She laid down closing circuits of 34.27 and 34.17 (68.44 final 400) and strode smiling into the recordbook and promptly thereafter into the embrace of a teammate.
Rodenfels churned the fastest lap of the race on her last (33.98) and sailed home well in front of 3rd-placer Ella Donaghu (15:16.97).
“We were debating on even coming,” Valby told letsrun.com, “and then Coach Holloway, our head coach, he was like, ‘Just go there for the qualifier,’ and I then get to take a long break and not race until whenever I’m ready for indoors. So that’s what we did.”
As for the atypical-for-Valby follow-a-leader tactic, she said, “That’s what [Gator coach Will] Palmer told me to do. He told me that — well, I obviously like to front-run too but I didn’t today. But he said the Boston girl, Annie, she didn’t like what the pacemaker was doing, which was I think after 2 laps or so we just went. He said to follow her.”
And it wasn’t so bad. “I’m not gonna lie,” she said, again addressing LetsRun. “… I kinda liked it cuz I could just look at the back of her two buns the whole time and that distracted me and I just kept watching them. It was like a change of scenery.”
The Colyear-Danville meet is one where distance collegians go to rack up NCAA Indoor qualifiers and a confidence boost before the holiday break. Olivia Markezich — the reigning NCAA steeple champion — did so to the tune of the No. 2 all-time collegiate clocking for 3000.
The Notre Dame senior finished in 8:40.42, bested in collegiate history only by Katelyn Tuohy’s 8:35.20 at the ’23 Millrose Games. Behind Markezich, Maia Ramsden, the ’23 NCAA 1500 titlist for Harvard, outlasted Duke’s Amina Maatoug 8:46.84–8:46.89. The two juniors moved to slots 7 and 8 on the collegiate ATL.
Racing 2½ hours before Valby’s CR run, Markezich took the lead at 1600 (4:40.90) from a 5-woman group including Oklahoma State’s Billah Jepkirui, Ramsden, Maatoug and Kimberley May of Providence. Over the next 2 circuits to 2K (5:51.44) Markezich opened her lead to 2 meters and widened it to 10m with 4 laps left.
From there she dropped closing figures of 2:14.45, 65.37 and a blistering 31.84 for her last go-round to win by almost 40 meters.
Although Ramsden closed swiftly (33.59), chaser Maatoug’s 31.39 was the fastest final 200 in the field.
COLYEAR-DANVILLE WOMEN’S RESULTS
800: 1. Meghan Hunter (BYU) 2:03.54.
Mile: 1. Gabija Galvydytė’ (OkSt-Lit) 4:33.29; 2. ***Sophia Gorriaran (Harv) 4:36.66; 3. ***Gladys Chepngetich’ (Clem-Ken) 4:37.16; 4. **Klaudia Kazimierska’ (Or-Pol) 4:37.41; 5. Elise Thorner’ (Fl-GB) 4:37.59; 6. Lauren Freeland (MiSt) 4:37.61.
3000: 1. Olivia Markezich (NDm) 8:40.42 (2, 2 C; in/out: 2, 2 C)
(33.36, 35.02 [1:08.38], 35.37 [1:43.75], 35.18 [2:18.93], 35.31 [2:54.24], 35.46 [3:29.70], 35.63 [4:05.33], 35.57 [4:40.90], 35.15 [5:16.05], 35.39 [5:51.44], 34.53 [6:25.97], 34.41 [7:00.38], 34.67 [7:35.05], 33.53 [8:08.58], 31.84)
(finish—31.84, 65.37, 2:14.45, 2:48.98, 4:35.09);
2. *Maia Ramsden’ (Harv-NZ) 8:46.84 (7, 7 C; in/out: 7, 7 C) (finish—33.59, 68.11, 2:18.83, 2:54.59, 4:41.22); 3. *Amina Maatoug’ (Duke-Neth) 8:46.89 (8, 8 C; in/out: 8, 8 C) (finish—31.39, 65.36, 2:16.49, 2:52.18, 4:39.28);
4. **Billah Jepkirui’ (OkSt-Ken) 8:49.08; 5. Anna Camp-Bennett (adidas) 8:49.87;
6. **Maddy Elmore (Or) 8:50.43 (8, x AmC; in/out: 9, x AmC); 7. Kaylee Mitchell (OrSt) 8:51.06 (9, x AmC; in/out: 10, x AmC);
8. Flomena Asekol’ (Fl-Ken) 8:52.57; 9. *Kimberley May’ (Prov-NZ) 8:54.16.
5000: 1. *Parker Valby (Fl) 14:56.11 CR (old CR 15:12.22 Emily Sisson [Prov] ’15) (7, 7 A) (absolute CR—old, 15:01.70i Jenny Simpson [Co] ’09)
(36.84, 35.40 [1:12.24], 36.20 [1:48.44], 35.78 [2:24.22], 36.12 [3:00.34], 35.96 [3:36.30], 36.16 [4:12.46], 36.20 [4:48.66], 36.18 [5:24.84], 36.34 [6:01.18], 36.28 [6:37.46], 36.36 [7:13.82], 36.45 [7:50.27], 36.27 [8:26.54], 36.32 [9:02.86], 35.96 [9:38.82], 36.07 [10:14.89], 36.26 [10:51.15], 35.68 [11:26.83], 36.46 [12:03.29], 34.97 [12:38.26], 34.62 [13:12.88], 34.79 [13:47.67], 34.27 [14:21.94], 34.17)
(finish—34.17, 68.44, 2:17.85, 2:52.82, 4:41.22, 5:53.25, 8:54.93);
2. Andrea Rodenfels (BAA) 15:03.97; 3. Ella Donaghu (NikeUAC) 15:16.97; 4. *Hilda Olemomoi’ (Al-Ken) 15:17.44; 5. Hannah Nuttall’ (GB) 15:17.84; 6. Katie Camarena (TinE) 15:18.81; 7. Regan Yee’ (Can) 15:18.93; 8. Amanda Vestri (ZapE) 15:21.11.