EUGENE, Ore. — Five for five.
In the 43 years that the NCAA has sponsored women’s championships in cross country and track & field, no female distance runner had ever claimed five national titles across a single academic year. That is, until Parker Valby won the outdoor 5,000-meter title at Hayward Field on Saturday. And because this is Valby, she broke the meet and collegiate record as well, clocking 14:52.18, a slight improvement on the previous NCAA record of 14:52.79 set by — you guessed it — Parker Valby at the NCAA indoor championships three months ago.
Valby’s string of NCAA titles actually began when she won the outdoor 5,000 in Austin last year, which means she now has six in all. Her annus mirabilis of 2023-34 began in earnest at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November, where her 10.6-second margin of victory was the largest in 16 years. She followed up with a pair of NCAA indoor titles in Boston in March, then set a meet record to win the 10,000 in Eugene on Thursday before doubling back to crush the field by 18 seconds in today’s 5,000.
You would have to go back to Jenny Simpson (then Barringer), who set five collegiate records in 2009 (including a still-standing 3:59.90 in the 1500) to find a collegiate distance runner so far ahead of her peers. Valby is not just undefeated in 14 collegiate races this year; she has not even been challenged. Her smallest margin of victory was 3.1 seconds at the NCAA South regional in November, a qualifying meet where she had no reason to strain. Other than that, no one has come within five seconds of Valby in more than a year.
And while Valby’s collegiate records of 14:52.18 and 30:50.43 may eventually be broken (though with cushions of 9 and 27 seconds, respectively, on second place, that could take a while), she will forever be the first NCAA woman to blast through the 15:00 barrier for 5,000 and 31:00 barrier for 10,000. This is an athlete, and a season, that will live long in the memory.
Unlike Valby’s 10,000 victory, where she spent the early laps smiling and waving to herself on the jumbotron, Saturday’s 5,000 final was a lesson in brutal efficiency. After hanging back for the first lap, Valby had the lead by 600 meters and turned the pace up to a place only she could go: 71-71-71-71-70-70-70-71-70-70-69. That is not a list of daily highs for San Diego. Those are Valby’s last 11 lap splits in today’s race. Can Parker Valby kick? No one even knows anymore. She doesn’t need to.
Just as in the 10,000, Alabama’s Hilda Olemomoi hung with Valby the longest, making it through 3,000 in 8:59 before falling off early in the final 1600 meters, which Valby would run in 4:42.08, putting 18 second on Olemomoi.
Valby’s only opponent over the last three laps was the clock. Could she lower her own 14:52.79 collegiate record and run under the 14:52.00 Olympic standard in the process? Valby said she was not concerned with either question until the final meters, when she caught sight of the clock and leaned at the line. She would split the difference with a time of 14:52.18.
Olemomoi won the non-Valby division by running 15:10.04, just ahead of Colorado’s Bailey Hertenstein, who clocked 15:10.98 thanks to a 63.18 final 400 — the fastest last lap in the field by more than two seconds. Both women were also under Sally Kipyego‘s previous meet record of 15:15.08 from 2008.
Entering today, Valby was one of four distance women to win four NCAA titles in the same academic year. Her win today makes her the first woman to sweep the 5k/10k since Arkansas’ Dominique Scott in 2016 and puts her on a plane of her own when it comes to titles in one year with five overall. She is also the first woman since Missouri’s Karissa Schweizer in 2017-18 to repeat as NCAA 5,000m champ.
“It’s very surreal,” Valby said. “I looked up to Katelyn Tuohy and Taylor Roe. It’s incredible to be in their position. I’m just super grateful for everyone and everything it took to get here.”
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