By Chris Chavez
December 3, 2023
Florida’s Parker Valby, the 2023 NCAA cross country champion, broke the NCAA 5000m record with a 14:56.11 victory at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener at Boston University – just two weeks after her NCAA individual title.
Here’s what you need to know:
– The previous NCAA indoor record was 15:12.22 by Providence’s Emily Sisson in 2015.
– The previous absolute indoor collegiate record was 15:01.70 by Colorado’s Jenny Simpson (née Barringer) at the University of Washington’s oversized indoor track in 2009.
– The previous outdoor record was 15:03.12 by NC State’s Katelyn Tuohy in May.
– Valby becomes the first women to run under 15 minutes for 5000m during the NCAA season.
– This was just Valby’s third career indoor race. Last year, she ran 8:49.71 for 3000m at Boston University’s track but then battled injuries throughout the rest of the winter.
– Valby stayed patient behind U.S. 5K champion Annie Rodenfels for much of the race before taking off in the final kilometer in 2:52. Rodenfels, who won this race in 2022, finished second in 15:03.97.
Here’s what she had to say:
Valby: “I never thought that I could do that. I thought I was coming here and thought it would be a struggle to run 15:20, to be honest. I kind of surprised myself…In cross country, when I got to 5K and I got that sidestitch, the only thing that got me though that last K was the crowd and all that cheering. Today, I wasn’t as near tired as I was in cross country. The crowd screaming really helped.”
Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
