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251 years after the “shot heard round the world” started the Revolutionary War in Concord, Mass., a new shot will ring out through the air on a six-lane, compact, public track in a grass field nestled in what is now a quiet, New England suburbia.

This shot will come from the starting pistol that commences the high-performance window of the 15th annual Adrian Martinez Classic, where a new type of minuteman will be born: one that is racing the clock in some of the fastest middle distance track races in the country.

Of these athletes, six D3 standouts will put their fitness to the test; some in the midst of fruitful post-collegiate careers and others looking to turn the taper of a long NCAA season into some post-season magic. Past and present D3 athletes Julian Aske, Trevor Richwine, Christopher Collet, Travis Martin, Emily Richards, and Anna Connor are all ones to watch if you’re rooting for small-school talent, which, chances are if you’re reading this, you are.

Recent Dickinson grad Trevor Richwine headlines the cast of D3 athletes lining up in Concord this Sunday. Fresh off of his third consecutive D3 national title, the mid-distance star now turns his season of 1:47’s to post-collegiate racing, and he is eager to see where he can land in the lineup.

“I’m trying to see if I can dip into the 1:46 range,” Richwine said. “I haven’t had too many really competitive meets this year, so this is a great opportunity for me to run against some of the best.”

The meet record in the men’s 800m is 1:46.03. If the conditions are fast enough, Richwine will even have an opportunity to take a crack at Olympian Nick Symmonds’s all-time D3 best 800m time of 1:45.83, which he ran at the 2006 USATF Championships. Richwine has already proven to be a modern generational talent this year, having taken down Symmonds’s legendary and longstanding national record in the men’s 800m just over a week before nationals. En route to his record-setting performance of 1:47.21 at the Widener Final Qualifier, Richwine beat a handful of senior championship national qualifiers, many of whom he will see on the starting line again on Sunday.

“I’m hoping they push me to a fast time, and then I’ll go from there based on how I do,” Richwine said.

Richwine will not be the only D3 athlete fresh off of NCAAs in the field, either. Keep an eye on NYU’s Julian Aske. Aske put together an impressive 2026 outdoor season after missing much of the cross country and indoor seasons of competition. Despite crossing the line in auto-qualifying position in the D3 national prelim, Aske was unfortunately disqualified for a lane line violation. Taking the post-season start line at Adrian Martinez this weekend is Aske’s opportunity to turn a DQ into motivation, which could even lead to breaking his 800m personal record and No. 25 in D3 history mark of 1:48.98.

Another 800m national record holder also lurks in the mix at this year’s Adrian Martinez. Women’s national record holder and Ohio Northern grad Emily Richards will contest the women’s 1500m alongside Olympians Kate Snowden and Erin Teschuk as well as twice-defending Adrian Martinez 1500m/mile champion Helen Schlachtenhaufen and NCAA D1 800m national champion Lindsey Butler. Richards is fresh off of a 2:01 800m opener at IMG last weekend and will step into her first 1500m race of the year with eyes on a PR-setting, sub-4:10 performance.

The D3 representative in the women’s 800m to watch this year is 2009 George Fox grad Anna Connor. Connor has been a force on the masters stage, capturing both the 800m and 1500m world masters titles in 2024. This year, the year she joined the 40-44 masters age group, Connor ran a season’s best of 2:08.60, which would have placed her in fifth on the D3 national podium a few weekends ago. Connor’s sustained dominance after college shows how D3 roots can grow into long-standing success, and she will put that dominance to the test against other top 800m talent this weekend.

A pair of D3 grads will contest a rare 2-mile race this weekend, including 2024 Wartburg grad Christopher Collet, now of Rhode Island Track Club. Collet is most known for his dominant career in the D3 steeplechase, as well as his epic back-and-forth battles with fellow standout and men’s steeple national record holder Christian Patzka. Though the two traded national titles and national records throughout their college careers, the two D3 standouts are now both forging their own running paths, and Collet hopes his will be marked with a new personal best in a unique distance that he hasn’t raced since high school.

“It’s great to have an opportunity just to race on the track,” Collet said. “It’s harder and harder to find elite meets, especially for the steeple, without going west. This race fits in well as a chance to see the fitness on the track instead of the roads or the steeple. I’m not coming into this with any crazy goals outside of running really hard and pushing to the redline.”

Collet will face Adrian Martinez meet 5k record holder John Reniewicki of Under Armour and USATF nationals 5th place finisher in the 10k James Mwaura of BAA, but there will be a familiar face on the line with him as well. Collet will face off with his former D3 competitor Travis Martin, who garnered four D3 All-American honors in the mid-distances on the track while at Trinity before going on to run at D1 school UConn. Martin greatly improved upon his times while at UConn, closing out the final year of his collegiate career with an impressive UConn 5k school record time of 13:34, a 7:54 3k, and a 3:59 mile. In his first full year running post-collegiately, look for Martin to be right in the mix.

Meets like Adrian Martinez, set at a public track next to a beloved community playground, show that athletes don’t necessarily need state-of-the-art stadiums with flashy electronics and looming grandstands to perform well. All they need is a track and some competition, making this meet the perfect atmosphere for a D3 athlete: low-key and high-passion, the precise environment that molded these athletes into who they are today. The D3 athletes on the start line this weekend have run at the Olympic trials, D1 regionals, world championships, and more, but they did not start in those places. They started on humble high school tracks that turned into unpretentious D3 stadiums with a committed following of passionate fans.

At the Adrian Martinez Classic, these athletes will feel right at home.

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High performance races will start at Emerson Playground at 6pm Eastern time, and live results can be followed at Speed Sport Timing.

D3 athletes head to Concord for Adrian Martinez Classic

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