Fast Women: Philly shows up for Grand Slam Track
Doris Lemngole leads NCAA distance qualifiers.
Issue 353, sponsored by the Flagpole Hill Fund
Agnes Ngetich, Diribe Welteji win tight races in Philadelphia
It was such a relief to see a good-sized crowd at Franklin Field for Grand Slam Track’s Philly Slam. The massive stadium was far from full, but the event attracted one of the larger crowds I’ve seen at a pro-only track meet recently and gave me hope that ventures like this one and Athlos really could work out.
I don’t know what motivated Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich to abandon her usual hard-from-the-gun strategy and chill in the pack in the 3,000m, but it made for a much more exciting race. And she proved that she can win either way. Seven of the eight runners were still together with one lap to go, and Ngetich and Ethiopia’s Ejgayehu Taye had a thrilling battle to the line, with Ngetich getting the edge, 8:43.61 to 8:43.70.
Challenger Josette Andrews impressed, finishing third in 8:44.70, and Weini Kelati (8:45.31) and Elise Cranny (8:45.44) were the next two across the line. (Cranny had a good post-race post about feeling more like herself.)
In general, I appreciated that the Philly Slam was only two days, but I don’t love the idea that there’s an event group that only makes half the money the others do. I don’t know what the best solution is. Pay them as much as everyone else because they’re still running the farthest? Have them double back in a 1500m? Or have a shot put showdown?
Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji initially took the lead in the 1500m, but when the pace began to lag between 400m and 600m, Australia’s Jess Hull wasn’t having it. She took control of the race, pressed the pace, and the pair separated themselves from the rest of the field. Welteji eased by Hull in the homestretch, looking like she was doing a tempo run, and won, 3:58.04 to 3:58.36. But by pushing the pace, Hull earned her best GST 1500m finish yet, after taking fourth in the event in both Miami and Kingston.
Nikki Hiltz held off challenges from Great Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell (fourth, 4:00.85) and Australia’s Abbey Caldwell (fifth, 4:01.54) to take third in 4:00.54. Hiltz ran with tape on their left hamstring and later said in an Instagram story that they had a scare the Monday before the race. They were “doing some speed development and accidentally overstrided.” They saw enough progress by Friday that they decided to race. It was Pride weekend in Philadelphia, kicking off Pride Month, and I loved seeing Hiltz’s supporters show up. These signs got a lot of camera time on the broadcast. (Unrelated, this one was fun, too.)
The following day, Welteji earned her first GST 800m win, holding off Hunter Bell, 1:58.94 to 1:58.99. That gave Welteji her second Slam victory in three tries. Hull was third in 1:59.63. And some of the athletes who seemed like they might pose a threat struggled, perhaps in part because the 1500m came first. Kenya’s Mary Moraa was fifth (2:00.92), Addy Wiley was sixth (2:00.93), Hiltz was seventh (2:01.43), and after dropping out of the previous day’s 1500m, Nia Akins took eighth in 2:13:07.
Other moments from the meet that stood out to me: It was fun to watch Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone drop down to the short hurdles group. She held her own in the 100mH, running a near-PR of 12.70 to take fifth. And in the first 100m of her pro career, she finished a strong second in 11.21 seconds. It’s fun to see her have some competition for once. Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent won the Slam, and McLaughlin-Levrone took second.
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden dominated the short sprints group. On Saturday, she upset Gabby Thomas to win the 200m, 21.99 to 22.10. The next day, she ran 10.73 to win the 100m. That’s a world lead, a personal best, and it ties her for 10th on the world all-time list.
And it looked like Marileidy Paulino (49.12) won a relatively tight race over Salwa Eid Naser in the 400m, except Eid Naser started the race in lane six and finished it in lane five, so she was DQed.
I appreciated that the TV broadcast featured more action, now that the meet has been condensed to two days, but there’s still room for improvement. Though I know the late change to the Philly schedule interfered with many people’s plans, I do appreciate how eager GST is to adapt and improve.
(All results | Race videos: Nugent’s 100mH win and 100m win | Paulino’s 400m win | Jefferson-Wooden’s 200m win and 100m win | Anna Cockrell’s 400mH win)
Thanks to the Flagpole Hill Fund for supporting Fast Women this month
This month, Flagpole Hill Fund is proud to recognize individuals and organizations that are using running to improve lives and improving lives for runners.
When Melissa Hill moved to Portland, Oregon, she identified a need for more youth sports options and founded Runner2Runner to address it. This initiative fills this gap by offering accessible and inclusive cross country and track & field programs focused on confidence building, teamwork, and fun.
Initially a small community effort, it has grown into a national movement. Runner2Runner now offers six-week seasonal programs and four-day camps, teaching kids the fundamentals of running, jumping, and throwing through a supportive curriculum that meets them where they are—physically, emotionally, and socially.
The coaching philosophy emphasizes growth and joy, valuing effort over outcome, confidence over comparison, progress over perfection, and smiles over stats. The unique Program Director model allows local leaders to bring these programs to their communities with full support, making a lasting impact on children and fostering connections and self worth.
Doris Lemngole leads NCAA distance qualifiers, middle distances are more wide open
The main objective for the top competitors at last week’s NCAA’s East and West First Rounds was to finish in the top 12 and advance to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which take place June 11–14 in Eugene, Oregon.
Especially in the longer events, the best athletes tend not to go all out at the regional meets, but even when chilling out, Alabama’s Doris Lemngole is incredibly quick. She won the steeplechase at the East First Round, running 9:13.12. Her time would have been a collegiate record, had she not already run 9:10.12 this season. She now has the three fastest times ever by an NCAA athlete, and there’s a good chance her best is yet to come this season. She’ll go into NCAAs as one of the bigger favorites, but if anyone can challenge her, I expect it will be BYU’s Lexy Halladay-Lowry, who won the West First Round in 9:23.03.
The 1500m at NCAAs is going to be fantastic; I would have no idea who to pick in a prediction contest. In the West, Washington’s Sophie O’Sullivan dug deep to hold off BYU’s Riley Chamberlain to win her heat, 4:08.21 to 4:08.42. And NAU’s Maggi Congdon, who also came on strong at the end of last season, looked the best she has all year, winning her heat in 4:05.73. Oregon’s Klaudia Kazimierska, who ran 4:03.26 a week earlier to win the Track Fest 1500m, took second (4:06.53). In the East, Providence College’s Shannon Flockhart led the way, with a small PR of 4:04.97. And Virginia’s Margot Appleton also looked great in winning her heat (4:08.04).
The 800m is also going to be stellar, and I wouldn’t want to choose a winner there, either. BYU’s Meghan Hunter has come on strong at the end of the season, and after running 1:58.99 to win the Big 12 title, she PRed again and led the way in the West with a 1:58.95. And it was nice to see Stanford’s Roisin Willis win her heat as well. Her 1:59.81 was the fastest she’s run in college. In the East, LSU’s Michaela Rose ran 1:58.91—her second 1:58 of the season—to lead the way. Clemson’s Gladys Chepngetich (1:59.47) and North Florida’s Smilla Kolbe (2:00.09) won their heats and UNC’s Makayla Paige, the 800m champ indoors, was second to Chepngetich, running 1:59.73, her first sub-2:00.
One of the more dramatic moments of the meet came in the first round of the 800m in the East. Miami’s Gabriella Grissom, who ran 2:01.00 earlier this season, was in position to advance, but she fell a few steps from the finish line and unfortunately did not.
There’s more holding back in the 5,000m and 10,000m at these meets, but New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei looked good in winning the West 10,000m (33:37.04) and her heat of the 5,000m (15:51.20). She’ll head to Eugene as the favorite in both, but she could face a strong challenge from any number of athletes. Leading the way from the East is NC State’s Grace Hartman, who also won the 10,000m (32:32.80) and 5,000m (15:23.52). I would have expected Florida’s Hilda Olemomoi to be one of the top contenders as well, but she’s been struggling a bit this year. She advanced in the 10,000m, but not the 5,000m.
(West First Round results | East First Round results | Replay of Lemngole’s steeplechase win)
Athlos announces a team-based track & field league
Athlos announced last week that they’re launching a team-based track & field league that will debut next year, and Sha’Carri Richardson, Gabby Thomas, and Tara Davis-Woodhall have all signed on as founding advisor-owners. Serena Williams narrated one of the announcement videos.
Teams will compete in “multiple meets in major cities,” there will be a championship meet at the end of the season, and the number of meets is TBD. But Athlos’ season won’t begin until the World Athletics season is over. In 2026, the final event of the WA season will be the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship, scheduled for September 11–13. So this could have a significant impact on how athletes structure their seasons going forward.
Front Office Sports reported that Richardson, Thomas, And Davis-Woodhall will receive “substantial equity ownership,” but the league has not disclosed more detail than that.
While USATF struggles financially and meets like the LA Grand Prix and the New York Grand Prix have been canceled this year, it’s good to see others stepping up with innovative ideas. And I love the idea of bringing more of a team component to professional track & field; it’s one of the things that makes following NCAA track & field so compelling.
It will be interesting to learn what the team structure and scoring looks like, which events will be included, whether this will continue to be a women’s-only venture (no one has said anything to suggest otherwise), and so on. Currently, Athlos’ longest event is 1500m. I’d love to see them include distance events, but if they don’t, distance runners already have more opportunities than other T&F athletes, thanks to road racing.
This year, Athlos will be a one-off event, scheduled to take place October 10 in New York City. Thomas and Davis-Woodhall have committed to the event, but as of now, Richardson has not.
Additional News
Friday’s Rome Diamond League 5,000m should be excellent. Up front, Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, who holds the world record of 14:00.21, should be competitive, but I consider the pre-race favorite to be reigning 5,000m/10,000m Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet of Kenya, who has run 13:54 on the roads. If they decide to go after the world record, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chebet become the first woman to break 14:00 on the track. The race should also be interesting from an American perspective with Josette Andrews, Karissa Schweizer, and Shelby Houlihan entered. The 5,000m will air live on FloTrack (with other options if you have a VPN or are outside of the U.S.) on Friday at 3:31 p.m. ET. (Schedule/results)
I appreciated this Vail Daily article about Val Constien. (Reading might require registration.) Constien is working on building a stronger aerobic base this year, with the hope that she’ll be stronger at the end of the season than she was last year. In the meantime, her speed is lagging a bit. After Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs retired, she met with Diljeet Taylor, Pete Julian, Mike Smith, and Alan Culpepper before ultimately opting to work with CU coach Sean Carlson. The fact that she wanted to remain in Boulder contributed. She said she never looks at Instagram or TikTok, unless she needs to post something for contractual obligations. She’s planning to race the Oslo Diamond League meet on June 12.
Emma Bates wrote about some of her recent struggles on Instagram, and said she took “a proper break from thinking about running” over the past month.
Allie Wilson wrote in an Instagram story that she doesn’t normally post about bad races because she doesn’t want to give them a second thought, but her race last weekend wasn’t a typical bad race. Her post goes into more detail, but she mentions she had four PRP injections in the fall and had to take two months off from running.
Thanks to reader Allison Martin for making me aware that there’s a children’s chapter book about runner and activist Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone coming out tomorrow.
Molly Huddle had her second child last week.
In this video, Nikki Hiltz explains how the documentary about their journey to the Olympics came to be. The filmmakers are hoping to raise $50,000 so they can finish the project.
As far as I know, the number of pro runners with active Substacks is small but growing. Ones I’ve read recently: Lauren Gregory’s, Molly Sughroue’s, and Catriona Bisset’s.
This next item brings to mind Lindsay Gibbs’ piece from earlier this year, titled, “Yes, we should keep men out of women’s sports.” Many eyes were on the California state track & field meet over the weekend, after the U.S. president threatened to withhold federal funding from California if the state allowed a trans girl to compete. Unlike Maine, California caved. The athlete was allowed to compete, but the California Interscholastic Federation hastily announced a last-minute rule change. No matter where one falls on this issue, any rule changes should be well thought out and sorted out by adults well in advance of these events. (It was sorted, until the president inserted himself.) And the president attacking a 16-year-old girl on social media puts her at risk. I appreciated this post-event interview with one of the athletes who competed against her.
A man has created a website that helps people fake their runs on Strava. What could possibly go wrong? The fake runs don’t come with the corresponding fitness or endorphins.
Additional Results
Anna Hall scored 7,032 points in the heptathlon at the Hypomeeting in Götzis, Austria, which ties her for second on the all-time list, behind only Jackie Joyner-Kersee who scored 7,291 points in 1988. Hall finished out the competition with an impressive 2:01.23 in the 800m.
Switzerland’s Audrey Werro, who is only 21, broke her own national record in winning the 800m at Poland’s Irena Szewinska Memorial in 1:57.25. Poland’s Weronika Lizakowska edged out Linden Hall to win the 1500m, 4:01.99 to 4:02.11. Dani Jones finished third in 4:04.93. Tunisia’s Marwa Bouzayani won the steeplechase in 9:14.90 and Adva Cohen took seventh in an Israeli record of 9:27.79. (Results)
Kenya’s Lilian Odira won the 800m at the Kip Keino Classic, held in Nairobi, Kenya, running 1:58.31. A pair of Ethiopian 18-year-olds won their events with Wosane Asefa taking the steeplechase with a big PR (9:30.68), and Hawi Abera winning the 1500m (4:06.52). Uganda’s Sarah Chelangat won the 5,000m in 15:03.33. (Results)
Puma Elite’s Gracie Morris won the road mile held in conjunction with France’s Meeting Nikaïa in 4:36. She finished eight seconds ahead of France’s Agathe Guillemot, who is a 3:56 1500m runner. The following day, Great Britain’s Erin Wallace won the 1500m in 4:02.92, France’s Agnes Raharolahy won the 800 (2:02.50) with Morris taking second (2:02.95), and Angelina Ellis won the steeplechase in 9:33.11. (Results)
Jamaica’s Natoya Goule-Toppin won the 800m at the Music City Track Carnival in 1:59.02. In a separate heat of the 800m, Laurie Barton also won her race, running 1:59.84, her first sub-2:00. (Results)
Kenya’s Grace Loibach Nawowuna pulled away in the third mile and repeated as Bolder Boulder 10K champion, running a course record of 31:52. Ethiopians Meseret Belete (32:39) and Alem Tsadik (32:43) were second and third, and Aubrey Frentheway (32:49) and Makena Morley (32:58) ran strong races to take fourth and fifth, respectively. Sara Vaughn won the citizen’s race in 34:42, her fastest time on the course thus far. Some people asked me why she wasn’t in the pro race. Vaughn told Fast Women she wasn’t sure how she’d feel only five weeks after running the Boston Marathon, and she made a last-minute decision to hop in. She also preferred the mass race because most years, the earlier start usually means racing in cooler conditions. (Results | Pro race replay | Daily Camera article about Vaughn’s run)
Puma Elite’s Molly Born won the Delightful Run for Women in Albany, New York, in 15:31. The event took place in rainy and windy conditions, making it slightly less delightful this year. This was Born’s first race back after suffering a stress fracture last fall. Her teammate, Jess McGorty, took second in 15:57. And I learned from this article and others that Amy Davis-Green, who finished third in 16:04, is 12 weeks pregnant. (Results | Race report from David Monti)
Ethiopia’s Meseret Belete Tola edged out Kenya’s Mercy Lagat to win the Chicago 13.1, 1:09:36 to 1:09:38. Maggie Montoya finished third in 1:09:53. (Results)
Six days after finishing 11th at Zegama, a marathon-distance trail race in Spain, Anna Gibson came from behind to win New Hampshire’s Sunapee Scramble, which served as the selection race for the classic up/down race at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships. The finish was tight with Gibson winning in 1:22:30.97, Lauren Gregory taking second (1:22:53.64), and early leader Allie McLaughlin taking third (1:23:05.64). The three will be joined on the team by Grayson Murphy, who earned an auto qualifier by winning the 2023 World title. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
Kara Goucher was really good on The Fueling Forward Podcast. She talked about how a short period of restricting her food intake led to three years of injuries during college, and discussed some details about her time with the Nike Oregon Project that I hadn’t heard before. Some of the advice she was given was mind-blowingly bad. And hopefully thanks to episodes like this one, people can learn from her experience.
On the Run Canada Podcast, Alexi Pappas said she is adapting Kate Fagan’s book, What Made Maddy Run, into a movie with Megan Rapinoe’s production company. She’s also writing a book about change, and said it’s scary because she’ll be sharing some things that very few people know. And at the time of recording, she was also getting ready to pitch a TV show.
Great Britain’s Phily Bowden, who has made a name for herself both as a pro runner and a content creator, discussed her London Marathon experience on the Ali on the Run Show.
On For the Long Run, Makena Morley said she’s coming back from a period of injury. Her results haven’t quite been what she wants, but she’s hoping that if she keeps lining up, she’ll get there. She’s running Grandma’s Marathon in a few weeks, and she said she’s still working on nailing the last 6–8 miles of a marathon.
After following the 10,000m DQ in the men’s race at DIII nationals, I appreciated D3 Glory Days talking to the top two finishers in the race, Nathan Tassey and Braden Nicholson.
Additional Episodes: Dakotah Popehn on I’ll Have Another | Nia Akins on Unexpected Curves | Alysia Montaño discussed the fantastic work she’s doing on Hurdle | Laurie Barton on Lactic Acid | UCLA coach Joanna Hayes on Citius Mag
Upcoming
In addition to Friday’s Rome Diamond League meet, I’m also looking forward to following Saturday’s New York Mini 10K. Kenyans Hellen Obiri, Sharon Lokedi, and Grace Loibach Nawowuna, Ethiopia’s Gotytom Gebreslase, and Americans Weini Kelati, Emily Sisson, and Amanda Vestri are all part of the field. The pro race will be on NYRR’s YouTube channel, abc7ny.com, and ESPN+ beginning at 7:45 a.m. ET.
Thanks again to the Flagpole Hill Fund for supporting Fast Women this month, and to Runner2Runner for all the great work they do. I hope you all have the best week possible.
Alison