Fast Women: Nikki Hiltz's fantastic double
And we have news.
Issue 338, sponsored by The Sport Specialist
Nikki Hiltz wins tough 3,000m/1500m double at the USATF Indoor Championships
Nikki Hiltz continued their dominance, winning an incredible double. Nia Akins won her fourth national title after figuring out the source of her struggles. Valery Tobias had a breakthrough meet. And Shelby Houlihan, Whittni Morgan, Sinclaire Johnson, and Heather MacLean also qualified to represent the U.S. at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, March 21–23.
There was a lot of talk about who wasn’t at the USATF Indoor Championships in Staten Island, New York, but in the women’s middle distance and distance events, many of the major players showed up. And after a season full of athletes running fast times but not necessarily racing head to head, we got to see some excellent competition.
Hiltz was the MVP of the weekend, winning the 3,000m/1500m double, and their fifth-consecutive indoor/outdoor 1500m title. On day one of the meet, Houlihan provided a strong challenge in the 3,000m. But Hiltz ran their final 400m in 59.66, and their last 200m in 29.22, to catch her just before the line and win, 8:48.28 to 8:48.43. Whittni Morgan (8:48.56) and Emily Mackay (8:48.68) finished close behind, and Ella Donaghu, who I featured last week, also had a great run, finishing fifth in 8:49.70.
Hiltz had made it clear beforehand that they didn’t plan to race World Indoors. They like to take a break after the indoor season, and with Worlds at the end of March and Grand Slam Track starting on April 4, the timing didn’t make sense. That meant that a top-three finish in the 1500m or 3,000m was good enough to earn a spot on the team. (Assuming everyone has the world standard or a high enough world ranking.)
The following day’s 1500m had the potential to be a Hiltz vs. Houlihan rematch, but that showdown never materialized, as Houlihan struggled with positioning throughout the race and never quite made her way up to the front. But Johnson and MacLean provided stiff competition. Hiltz took the lead with about 450m to go and managed to hold them off, winning with a little more room to spare this time, in 4:05.76.
Johnson (4:06.05) closed well, and MacLean (4:06.69) held on to earn the last spot on the team. Houlihan took fourth in 4:06.82 and will represent the U.S. only in the 3,000m.
On day one of the meet, the 800m prelims provided a fair amount of drama, especially because the field went from 24 athletes down to six, and only heat winners were guaranteed spots in the final. The most notable casualty was Krissy Gear, who ran a strong race, coming from behind to win in a dead heat with Sage Hurta-Klecker (both ran 2:00.560). But soon after, she was disqualified for stepping on the line several times on the first lap. It was a shame, because she clearly ran a race worthy of a spot in the final.
Addy Wiley, Olivia Baker, and Ajee’ Wilson were also knocked out in the first round. Wiley said that she got sick after Millrose. (It sounds like many athletes have been dealing with illness recently.) Valery Tobias of the Brooks Beasts provided the biggest surprise of the first round, winning the first heat with a late pass on the inside. It was her third consecutive win of the season, but I think her performances were flying under the radar because she raced at lower profile meets.
It was good to see Nia Akins look more like herself in the first round. She was in the fourth heat, the slowest one of the day, but she closed well. Afterward, she told Jonathan Gault that she has been having mid-race panic attacks off and on since the Lausanne Diamond League meet in August. Her most recent one came at last week’s Valentine Invitational at BU, where she dropped out of the race.
“It was discouraging when I didn’t know what it was,” she said. “But now that I do, we’re working through it.” Akins said she almost didn’t go to USAs, but doing a lot of therapy in the week leading up helped.
After her success in the prelims, it was no surprise to see Tobias run a strong and aggressive race in the final. She had soloed her other 800s this season (not including the prelim), so why not this one as well? She took the lead early and opened up a decent gap mid-race. Though Akins was able to reel her in at the end, the former teammates took the top two spots. Akins won in 1:59.31, an indoor personal best. Tobias took second in an outright personal best of 1:59.55, breaking 2:00 for the first time. And Hurta-Klecker took third in an indoor best of 2:00.13.
Akins went through halfway in 60.06 seconds and negative split the race, running 59.26 for the second half. Tobias did the opposite, hitting halfway in 59.31 and closing in 60.26. After the race, Akins spoke more about the mental work she did in the week leading up to the race, to put herself in position to be successful. (800 replay | 1500m replay | Results)
Other USATF Indoor Notes
Nikki Hiltz said they regretted not doubling at USATF Indoors last year, hence the double this year. They have five national titles in the 1500m, but this was their first in the 3,000m.
After the 1500m, Jonathan Gault asked Hiltz about racing Shelby Houlihan, and Hiltz said they view Houlihan as just another body to beat. “It’s fun to race someone that’s good at running.” The previous day, another LetsRun reporter tried to stir things up between the two of them, asking Houlihan if she had heard about the comments Hiltz had made on Jonathan Van Ness’ podcast over the summer. But Houlihan didn’t bite. She just said that Hiltz had reached out to her and they’re good.
Gault also asked Hiltz if they would be able to continue training with coach Mike Smith, given that he is going to be a Nike coach going forward. “That’s a great question,” they said. “I have a really exciting announcement coming, so stay tuned, everyone.”
In an interview conducted before she became aware of her DQ in the 800m prelims, Krissy Gear opened up about her struggles with the mental side of the sport, which I appreciated.
One of the fastest 800m runners in the U.S., Juliette Whittaker, skipped USAs because she’s focusing on the NCAA season. Whittaker has already run 1:59.44 (on an oversized track) this season. And last year’s indoor 800m champion, Allie Wilson, missed the meet because she’s on her way back from injury.
Neither Sinclaire Johnson nor Heather MacLean has the World Indoor 1500m standard of 4:03.00, but both are in position to get into the meet based on their world rankings. But if either one isn’t feeling secure in their spot, there’s another meet happening at BU on Sunday.
The first day of the meet was unfortunately available only via USATF TV, and they are no longer partnered with RunnerSpace, so there’s no longer a two-in-one subscription there. Watching the meet cost $9.99 for the month, and it’s not clear if there will be other events worth watching there this month. The result was that a lot of people missed the 3,000m, which was one of the best races of the weekend.
Thanks to The Sport Specialist for sponsoring Fast Women this week
A couple of years ago, Olympian Courtney Babcock got injured, and thanks to her years of experience as a distance runner, she knew exactly who to call to get the support she needed. The experience made her realize how fortunate she is to have access to a network of experts, and she began to think about how she could share that with more people.
That led Babcock to found The Sport Specialist, which allows anyone, anywhere to book a one-on-one consultation with Olympians, mental performance, strength training, and running coaches, medical experts, registered dietitians, and college consultants.
The specialists’ expertise covers a wide range of sports, but the list of running-specific specialists includes Deena Kastor, Aliphine Tuliamuk, Juli Benson, Carrie Tollefson, Dawn Harper Nelson, Jen Rhines, Hillary Allen, Nick Willis, Tim Tollefson, and Babcock, among others. For a full list, visit the site and click on “find a specialist.”
The Sport Specialist is an excellent resource for athletes of all ages, as well as for parents of young athletes. You can book online, the experts offer 25- or 50-minute sessions, and you can also gift a session to someone else.
The launch of the Fast People podcast
Surprise, we now have a podcast. Going forward, we’ll be putting episodes out on Tuesdays, but we put the first episode, with Keira D’Amato, out a little early. It’s available here, or just search for “Fast People,” in your preferred podcast player. (I haven’t yet gotten it to show up in Spotify via a search, but it does exist there.)
Keira has a book coming out in September, she’s running the Boston Marathon, and she has a great story. But also, she ranked high on the list of runners we thought would be understanding if we ran into technical difficulties.
I’ve listened to more running podcasts than most people, so it’s not like the idea of starting a podcast had never occurred to me before. But I knew that I didn’t want to be the host. Then I got an email from Fast Women editor Sarah Lorge Butler at the beginning of the year, asking if I wanted to start a podcast. I told her as long as she was the host, I was in.
Between the two of us, we have a lot of experience in the running industry, but we both have a lot to learn about podcasting. The first episode is appropriately titled, “A 95 is still an A,” and that’s been our motto as we get started. Or maybe it’s more like, “An 85 is still a B,” for now. We’ve kept this pretty quiet, because we weren’t sure we were really going to go through with it until relatively recently.
We went with the name Fast People because while our guest list will definitely be female-heavy, we wanted something that included all genders.
Sarah became my editor at Runner’s World about 10 years ago, so we’ve been working together in some capacity for a long time. But I’d never listened to her interview anyone before. I have so much respect for the reporting she has done, so it’s been really fun for me to feel like I’m sitting in on her interviews.
If you have any feedback or guest suggestions, please let us know by replying to this message or DMing either of us on Instagram or Bluesky. (I already have two items on my to-do list: slow down the intro and make the music louder.)
It shouldn’t be long before we know more about the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials
On Tuesday evening, USATF staff and volunteers held a town hall on Zoom to discuss the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. They wanted to allow constituents to participate in the process and offer feedback.
The bottom line is that nothing has been decided yet. But Kim Conley, the new USATF women’s long distance running chair, said they are seriously considering opening the qualifying window this fall, in time for the Berlin Marathon to count toward qualifying. So they want to determine the standards and other details as soon as possible, so people can plan accordingly.
Listening to athletes, coaches, and others offer their thoughts, I was heartened by how many people spoke in favor of the biggest Trials field sizes possible. They all understood that a large field benefits the sport in a variety of ways, even if the last qualifiers are unlikely to earn a spot on the Olympic team. I especially appreciated athletes who have little to gain personally from large fields, including Molly Seidel and Clayton Young, speaking in support of them. Both Seidel and Young also talked about getting athletes into the marathon as young as possible. (Side note: Young placed 136th at the 2020 Trials before taking second in 2024 and making the team. I imagine having that 2020 experience helped in 2024.)
There was a lot of discussion about bringing back the A and B standards, which would mean athletes who meet the tougher A standard have their hotel and travel covered, and athletes with the B standard pay their own way. In an ideal world, everyone’s expenses would be covered. But having the two standards could make hosting significantly more affordable, which might lead more cities to bid. And if the B standard allows for a larger field, I am in favor.
The 2024 qualifying window was shorter than the 2020 window, and several people made the point that the shorter window affects women who are having babies. I was glad they brought that up, because that was something I heard repeatedly from women who were affected leading up to the 2024 race.
There were a bunch of other ideas thrown around, like taking the top X number of athletes rather than having a qualifying time. That would certainly create a lot more drama at the back of the field, but it also sounds terrible to me. I can imagine athletes running themselves into the ground trying to get in one more marathon, just to defend their spots. And I can imagine scenarios where there’s resentment toward people who take their spots despite not being race-ready. Instead of seeing athletes work together toward a common goal, we’d see them trying to bury each other at the end of CIM. Dramatic? Yes. But I see more negatives than positives there.
Either way, I appreciate that USATF held this meeting. I hope everyone’s feedback counts for something, and I hope we’ll have some answers within the next month or so.
Other News and Links
I highly recommend reading this piece from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about former University of Wisconsin runner Sarah Shulze. The topic is very heavy; Shulze died by suicide in 2022, but there are a lot of important details in there, and I think most of us can learn something from the story. By the time I got to the end—the part with the teddy bear—I was in tears.
I appreciated Oregon’s Dalia Frias opening up about her injury struggles in this post. At the end of the 2024 outdoor season, she had foot surgery to fix stress fractures in both feet, which meant spending most of her summer in a wheelchair. Her left foot did not heal properly, so in the fall, she had to have a second surgery. She is getting back to running now. Her teammate, Maddy Elmore, shared on TikTok that she just had knee surgery.
I appreciated three-time Olympian Keturah Orji’s honesty in the blog entry she wrote about why retired from triple jumping at age 28. She said it played only a small role, but feeling undervalued contributed, and it was sad to see her say so. “Retirement is a much harder choice when you’re well-paid and feeling valued,” she wrote.
The University of Portland’s Laura Pellicoro has thrived in the NCAA, but it hasn't always been easy. From this piece, I learned that the 4:25 miler, who is originally from Italy, really struggled with English when she arrived in Oregon, but watching TV helped her improve. She is running better than ever now after dealing with an Achilles injury during the fall.
Emilia Benton wrote about Erika Kemp’s breakthrough performance at the Houston Marathon for Outside Run.
Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei and Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba have pulled out of Sunday’s Tokyo Marathon.
You can now rent Last Lap, the documentary about running legend Doris Brown Heritage, for $2.99. (It’s also available on BluRay and DVD.) I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m looking forward to doing so.
Additional Results
Utah high school senior Jane Hedengren ran an incredible 9:37.50 for 3200m at the Simplot Games on Saturday. And she did it on hard mode, because the event took place in Pocatello, Idaho, 4,460 feet above sea level. Hedengren’s converted two-mile time, 9:40.85, falls just shy of Mary Cain’s high school record of 9:38.68, but the altitude conversion would put Hedengren well under Cain’s mark. Cain raced at sea level, but without some of the advantages today’s runners have. So the times, both amazing, are difficult to compare. (Results | Race video)
At Friday’s BU Terrier DMR Challenge, Oregon’s Julia Nielsen, Moriah Oliveira, Mia Barnett, and Şilan Ayyildiz combined to set a collegiate record of 10:42.05 in the distance medley relay (1200-400-800-1600m). But their time ranks them only fifth in the NCAA so far this season. Yes, that is confusing, and it all goes back to the University of Washington’s oversized indoor track that I keep mentioning. Times run there don’t count for record-setting purposes. Oregon has the fastest time on a record-legal track. But all of this is just a way of saying that the DMR at NCAAs should be excellent. Rachel McArthur won the mile in 4:26.00, and Washington’s Amina Maatoug (4:26:39) and Chloe Foerster (4:26.54) likely secured their NCAA qualifying spots, which is no small feat this year. Virginia Tech’s Star Price was the top collegiate athlete in the 800m, running 2:01.17. (Results)
Agnes Ngetich dominated the Sirikwa Classic, a cross country race in Eldoret, Kenya, on Saturday. She covered the 10K course in 32:42 and won by 70 seconds. The race was billed as a showdown between Ngetich and Faith Kipyegon, but Kipyegon dropped out mid-race.
Ethiopia’s Fikrte Wereta won China’s Meishan Renshou Half Marathon in 1:06:28. (Results)
In her debut at the distance, Ethiopia’s Anchinalu Dessie, 22, won the Zurich Maraton de Sevilla in 2:22:17. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Meseret Belete won the Daegu Marathon in 2:24:08, and Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet, who is coming back from a doping ban, finished second in 2:25:43. (Results)
Rachel Tomajczyk won the Ventura Half Marathon in 1:12:58. (Results)
Maria Lindberg, 42, won the Wilmington Marathon in 2:43:24, and Katie Baksa won the half marathon in 1:15:20. (Results)
I wish I had more time to follow the USATF Masters Indoor Championships over the weekend, but I did make sure to tune in for the 60–64 200m final. Four-time Olympian Joetta Clark Diggs had a great battle with Sue McDonald and Joy Upshaw. McDonald led early, but Diggs fought back to win in an American record of 28.62 seconds. McDonald (28.78) and Upshaw (28.87) also dipped under the previous record. You can watch a little bit of the race in this post. Current pro Talitha Diggs was there to cheer her mother on. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
(In addition to the Fast People podcast, of course)
Sinclaire Johnson was on the Ali on the Run Show and Citius Mag last week. The AOTR episode came out first, and on that one, it was interesting to hear Johnson talk about how supportive Nike was when she made the decision that training in a group wasn’t for her. “I think Nike is evolving and learning,” she said. She also discussed the importance of having a coach who can instill confidence in her, and how she now has that for the first time since college. And she said she will be debuting in the 5,000m this year. Additional things I learned from Citius: She took two months off over the summer. She started working with her strength and conditioning coach from college again, who is now at Arkansas. She would love to be invited as a Grand Slam challenger, and she plans to race for a spot on the World Road Running Championships team at the USATF 1 Mile Championships.
Katie Raisberger talked about a little bit of her health journey on the Fueling Forward podcast, and she said she is moving to Munich this summer to get her Ph.D. in exercise science. On the Stress Reaction podcast, she went into more detail about her health struggles, and I was impressed by her positive attitude. “Every bit of running that I get back is more than what I thought I was going to have a year ago,” she said.
Molly Seidel and Anoush Arakelian were entertaining on the Ali on the Run Show, and the discussion of other people’s dating experiences was fun. Seidel said that she’s trying to get a much bigger aerobic base before she commits to any races.
Elise Cranny was good on Unexpected Curves, and I was interested to hear that she just started working toward her masters in public health.
On The Treecast with Troy Clardy, Stanford’s Sophia Kennedy said her parents put zero pressure on her to be a runner, and they just wanted her to be happy and have goals. (Her father is Olympian and former American record holder Bob Kennedy.) She recently ran 8:42.53 for 3,000m, and she enters the conversation at the 11:25 mark.
I’ve been following trail runner Jennifer Lichter for a while now, but I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about her on the latest episode of The Sub Hub Podcast.
I also enjoyed hearing from Javelina 100 mile and Black Canyon 100K champion Riley Brady on Women of Distance. And I appreciated the zoomed-out view of their story, because I often don’t know trail athletes’ backstories.
Annie Frisbie was on I’ll Have Another. In this week’s Minnesota Distance Elite newsletter, she said that she’s returning to fitness after tearing part of her upper hamstring. She took six weeks off and began running in early December. She says she’s not fully race-ready, but she’ll still race the USATF Half Marathon Championships.
Upcoming
Speaking of the USATF Half Marathon Championships, the race takes place on Sunday in Atlanta, and it’s going to be fantastic. Weini Kelati headlines the incredibly deep field, and the top three runners will have the opportunity to represent the U.S. at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in September in San Diego. There will be a livestream on the Atlanta Track Club’s YouTube channel. The broadcast starts at 6:30 a.m. ET, the men go off at 7:10, and the women start three minutes later.
Whew, I’m exhausted. It’s been a long few weeks of covering the sport. A big thank you to The Sport Specialist for sponsoring Fast Women this week. I love what Courtney Babcock is doing, and what a great opportunity if you ever need an expert’s advice but don’t have access to one locally.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported Fast Women via Venmo or Patreon. And I am so thankful to Gregorio Denny who went all the way across the country to shoot the USATF Indoor Championships for Fast Women this past weekend. He is the best.
And a random side note to end this. I am still working my way through my thousands of photos from the last BU meet, but I came across this one last week. I still want to go back and watch the replay of the race to figure out how Annie Mann wound up crossing the finish line like that. She still managed to run a 4:40 mile.
I hope you all have the best week possible.
Alison
Congrats on the podcast launch and thank you for sharing the piece of Sarah S. I was also in tears by the end.
Im excited to listen to the podcast!