Parker Valby’s Indoor NCAA Championship is proof she has no competition in college
The NCAA indoor meet is over, and the women of Arkansas have repeated as National Champions. That gives them four out of the last 5 national titles. But they were not the only ones to light up the track. Maia Ramsden repeated as NCAA champion in the mile representing Harvard. She won the 1500 outdoors in 2023, and remember she is doing all of this without a scholarship! But if you were paying to the rest of the distance events, you should have noticed that one woman was clearly in a class all by herself.
Parker Valby won the 5K and the 3K with NCAA championship meet records in both. In fact, that 5K record is actually the new collegiate record. But that’s not really a big story anymore because the record she broke was technically already hers from earlier this season. The truth is that Parker Valby is the most dominant distance runner in college now. But it is also 100 percent of accurate that simply finishing the sentence there is an understatement. If you have ever watched her race this year, then you know that it doesn’t really look like much of a race at all. She basically goes way out in front of everyone and seemingly coasts to the finish. The only race that actually occurred with her on the track at the NCAAs was for second place. But if she can keep this up, she has a chance to take her legacy to the next level. One that even Katelyn Tuohy never reached. Because the only person who can actually beat her at this point, appears to be herself, and this is why.
Parker Valby’s might be the greatest college distance runner of all time
At this point in Parker Valby’s career these are the facts. It is incredibly rare for true greatness to show up in any sport. It generally takes a few years when one legend leaves for another to prove themselves. In track and field the NCAA just saw the last distance legend do her thing at the NCAA Indoor championship meet 1 year ago. Katelyn Tuohy won the NCAA outdoor championship in the 5K in 2022. She came back to win the cross country championship, and double indoors for the 5K and 3K after that. That’s three straight seasons as the nation’s best, and she broke her fair share of records along the way. Parker Valby finished right behind her at those first 2 NCAA meets. But she was nowhere to be found indoors last season, because she literally only ran one race before shutting it down.
Since that time she took the 5K crown outdoors because Katelyn didn’t show up to defend it, ran away from her in cross country, and now has completed the indoor double herself. But this time she broke collegiate records when she did it! What the last legend failed to do, was to maintain her dominance into the next outdoor season. She also had Parker right behind her to push her. When Parker basically didn’t show up to run indoors last season it was almost a foregone conclusion that Katelyn would dominate the NCAAs. Now that Parker Valby is way out in front, with nobody apparently around to challenge her, I’d have to say the odds are pretty good that she continues this outdoors. If she does, that means that the only race that will occur anytime she is on the track is for second place. I totally understand that we have seen great distance runners for decades. But as long as Parker can keep winning outdoors, and break collegiate records when she does it, you can make a compelling argument that she is the greatest to ever do it in college.
The Bottom Line
Track and field fans are blinded by fast times. In fact, the announcers are as well. When they called Parker’s 3K race at the NCAAs, they figured out pretty quickly that her only competition was from the ghosts of the record books. If you go back and watch the feed for the final laps, it’s almost like Parker is running by herself. Nobody gets any attention except her, in a distance race that was still pretty far from over. Parker Valby is that good, in fact she is that great. You don’t have to like it, but the facts are the facts. Watching her race is now officially the same thing as watching her run. Because that is all we’ve been doing for basically the last year now. The gun goes off, and more than halfway through, Parker is running all by herself. The only race you can watch, if you really want to is for second place. That is hard to do, regardless of how easy she makes it look, or even how easy she claims it might be. And if she can make it look this easy for just one more season, she will have a compelling case for the greatest of all time, because the clock will definitely be on her side.
LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, RUN GOOD.
Shop for SCA apparel to express yourself, because “FAST IS A LIFESTYLE”.