Saarel's 7:52.+ may rank 2nd only to Fernandez's 7:47.+ as the fastest indoor 3k ever run by a college freshman. Not sure if the NCAA keeps track of records like this.
By contrast, Chris Derrick ran 7:56.+ at the 2009 NCAA Indoor champs.
Gabe Jennings -- as prodigous a young talent as there ever was -- did a 7:58.40 as a frosh in 1998.
Even a super-talented Brad Hauser -- college's top distance runner at the turn of the century & 2000 Olympian -- had a best of "only" 8:11.+ as a Stanford frosh in 1996.
Fernandez, Saarel, Derrick and Jennings are the only college runners I am aware of who have broken 8 min as true frosh.
Anyone who can confirm other sub-8 frosh indoors, please post. (Expect Cheserek/OR to break 8 if he runs it at MPSF in a couple weeks, but hasn't raced the distance yet.)
All this, while Saarel stated last year that despite all his mile wins and 4:01 mark, he believes he will be a 5k - 10k guy in college and beyond.
Alani