2020 BIG 12 XC Championship Preview

All three of these teams have posted victories this fall, albeit in fields with varying levels of competition.

Oklahoma State won the Cowboy Jamboree earlier in the year (pulling ahead of Iowa State) and later placed 2nd behind Northern Arizona at the OSU Invitational. Meanwhile, the Iowa State men easily won the Bob Timmons Classic at the beginning of the season and later finished runner-up to Oklahoma State at the Cowboy Jamboree. As for Texas, they won the Arturo Barrios Invitational the other weekend in their season debut, beating a handful of SEC and BIG 12 programs with relative ease.

Of these three teams, it looks like Oklahoma State is the favorite to win it all on Friday.

After a less-than-stellar 2019 cross country season, OSU has proven to be an entirely different team. With Isai Rodriguez healthy, Victor Shitsama emerging as a top scorer, Ryan Schoppe holding his own as only a freshman, Alex Maier making a huge leap in fitness and Ryan Smeeton proving his true talent, it's hard to look at the Cowboys and think of them as anything other than the BIG 12 favorites.

Winning the Cowboy Jamboree by nine points over a top-ranked Iowa State team was impressive, but finishing only six points behind Northern Arizona at the OSU Invitational (if you don't include Shumway and Colorado in the team scoring) was arguably more telling of their actual talent.

However, the men from Stillwater, Oklahoma will now be racing away from their home course for the first time all season. They'll be tasked with taking down an Iowa State squad that is likely hungry to prove themselves after an early-season loss.

Iowa State will rely on the low-stick prowess of Wesley Kiptoo (who is also known as Wesley Banguria) who has been on fire since leaving Colby CC and joining the Cyclones. He could easily bring in a single point to Iowa State's lineup on Friday.

Teammate Festus Lagat will need to do what he has done all season long: stay close behind Kiptoo and finish in the top five to give Iowa State another low-stick. Veterans Chad Johnson, Milo Greder, Thomas Pollard and Mitchell Day are all listed in the entries and will be focusing on packing together and finishing alongside the Oklahoma State's pack.

Mitchell Day has yet to run this season, but he is listed in the entries and could be a big name to watch. With him in the lineup, one could argue that Iowa State actually has better depth than Oklahoma State. This matchup may be closer than some people are expecting it to be.

As for Texas, they could be a surprise team on Friday. A strong group of underclassmen led the Longhorns at the Arturo Barrios Invite two weeks ago, something that we expected. Of the scoring five that last raced for Texas, two of their runners were sophomores and the other three were freshmen. Haftu Knight and Crayton Carrozza are talented runners, but can they mix it up with the top men from ISU and OSU?

Trying to take down the Cyclones and Cowboys will certainly be a challenge. Even so, this will be a great opportunity for a young Texas team to gauge where they stand relative to their BIG 12 rivals.

From a team perspective, the women of Iowa State should earn the win at the BIG 12 Championships on Friday based on their low-stick talent and depth.

Defending conference champion Cailie Logue is expected to score a single point for the Cyclones as she is the overall favorite. The group behind Logue has done a great job of packing up this fall and should implement the same game plan this weekend as they take on Oklahoma State for the second time this season.

At the Bob Timmons Classic, Iowa State scored a mere 16 points thanks to a 1-2-3-4-6 finish. That said, their competition was a bit on the lighter side as they easily defeated conference rivals Kansas State and Kansas en route to the overall win.

However, fast forward to the Oklahoma State Invitational, and the Cyclones won the meet by 19 points over the Cowgirls. In that race, the underclassmen stepped up in a big way for Iowa State. Sophomores Dana Feyen, Janette Schraft and Madelynn Hill have followed in the footsteps of veterans Logue and senior Larkin Chapman, making clear improvements. These five runners were all within the top nine and only 26 seconds separated runners 2-3-4-5.

And don't forget, freshman Grace Dickel was only three seconds behind Iowa State's fifth scorer, Madelynn Hill.

Despite the great talent on Iowa State's roster, Logue will likely have to battle Oklahoma State’s Taylor Roe -- someone who challenged BYU ace Whittni Orton at the OSU Invitational the other weekend -- for the overall win. Not only that, but Molly Born (TSR #8) is also listed in the entries. She has yet to race this season and has left Oklahoma State without a ton of firepower that we were expecting them to have this year.

However, if Born actually races, if Gabby Hentemann continues her strong 2020 season and if Taylor Somers is able to return to her 2019 form (despite struggling in her two meets this fall), then it's entirely possible that Oklahoma State could pull out the win.

Still, that would be dependent on a lot of different factors.

At the 2019 BIG 12 XC Championships, the women of Texas came up just two points shy of winning the conference title. If things go right this weekend, they could pull off another 2nd place result.

The Longhorns have only competed once this season (at the Arturo Barrios Invitational), but they won the meet with a total score of 23 points, 29 points fewer than the runner-up team LSU.

Beth Ramos led her team with the overall win while teammate Madeline Vondra wasn’t far behind in 2nd place. Senior Claudine Blancaflor was 5th two weeks ago and will look to replicate her 5th place finish from last year's BIG 12 Championships, emerging as Texas’ top returner that meet.

If Blancaflor can finish alongside Ramos, and the back of their pack covers any scoring gaps, then the Longhorns could make some unexpected noise this weekend.

Iowa State senior Cailie Logue has posted two strong results during this abbreviated cross country season. Her unwavering success, along with her excellent results from last year, give us every reason to believe that she'll win the conference title this weekend. Logue is the defending BIG 12 champion after winning in 2018 and 2019. Will 2020 see her earn a three-peat?

Logue’s closest competition should be OSU’s Taylor Roe, although you could also argue that Molly Born will be in the conversation if she runs.

Roe has had a breakout season, placing 2nd at the Cowboy Jamboree (where she finished behind Logue) and at the OSU Invitational. As we already mentioned, Roe had a stellar performance at the OSU Invitational, momentarily challenging Whittni Orton during the race and proving herself as a top low-stick.

Gabby Hentemann is another Oklahoma State runner to watch as she has posted a couple of top finishes in both of her races this fall. At the Cowboy Jamboree, Hentemann was 3rd and followed that up with a 12th place finish at the OSU Invitational. She was 41st at BIG 12’s last fall, but we expect her to have a big jump from that performance come Friday.

Based on the way the cross country season has played out so far, the BIG 12 Championship should come down to a race between Logue and Roe. Logue has the advantage right now with her win earlier in the season, but Roe may benefit from her newfound confidence.

Wesley Kiptoo came to Iowa State earlier in the year after a successful career at Colby Community College, highlighted by two NJCAA titles and multiple national meet honors. After throwing down personal bests of 7:51 (3k) and 13:43 (5k) during the 2020 indoor track season, Kiptoo was expected to make a big splash for the Cyclones this year.

And he has certainly delivered on those expectations so far.

At the Bob Timmons Classic, Kiptoo raced to a 13 second victory over teammates Festus Lagat and Milo Greder. His performance at the Cowboy Jamboree was worth more when he took down Oklahoma State’s Isai Rodriguez by a whopping 27 seconds.

Kiptoo’s two finishes right now have landed him as the pre-race favorite heading into the BIG 12 Championships, but there are plenty of men on the outside that may be able to challenge them. Oklahoma State's Isai Rodriguez is one of those men.

The Cowboy ace was the 4th place finisher at the 2018 national cross country meet in what may have been one of the best individual breakout performances in recent memory.

Although his 2019 season was far from spectacular, Rodriguez has bounced back in 2020. A runner-up finish at the Cowboy Jamboree was a solid rust-buster after not racing since November of 2019 and a 5th place finish at the OSU Invitational behind elite-level low sticks such as Grijalva, Mantz, Clinger and Herrera was impressive.

On paper, the Oklahoma State runner has the necessary accolades to run alongside Kiptoo, but will he follow what will likely be a hot pace once the gun goes off?

Kiptoo could also be joined by some teammates at the top of this race such as Festus Lagat who wasn’t too far behind Rodriguez and Victor Shitsama at the Cowboy Jamboree earlier in the year. Primarily a middle-distance runner, Lagat has put together an impressive fall with a 2nd place finish at Bob Timmons and a 4th place result at the Cowboy Jamboree.

Quietly racing only once this season were the men of Texas. Sophomores Haftu Knight and Crayton Carrozza are two big names to watch for the Longhorns after finishing 1st and 4th (respectively) at the Arturo Barrios Invitational.

Knight was 13th last fall at the BIG 12 Championships while Carrozza broke onto the scene during the 2019-2020 indoor track season when he ran a mile PR of 3:59. Both of these runners have what it takes to place in the top-five.