First Thoughts: D2 Conference Weekend

Additional contributions by Garrett Zatlin

The first weekend of conference meets for Division Two have come and gone -- and my goodness were there some exciting performances. With the G-MAC, GLVC and RMAC Championships all taking place on a single day, fans of D2 distance running were treated to a plethora of interesting results.

Let’s start with the G-MAC. We were pretty confident that the women from Hillsdale were going to take home this conference title. That, however, did not happen.

Instead, it was the Walsh Cavaliers that took home the first-place trophy by a margin of 16 points. Led by Alex Leppelemeier in 2nd place, the Cavaliers put all five of their scorers in the top-nine spots after a regular season where they didn't look nearly that strong.

However, it wasn't just Leppelemeier who gave this team the necessary scoring potency. Claire Robertson had a great race to finish 5th overall while her teammate Bridget Hahn was right behind her in 6th place, giving Walsh three women who crossed the finish line before Hillsdale even had two.

Alyssa Viscounte and Teja Young capped the win for Walsh with 8th and 9th place finishes, respectively, giving Walsh the best display of depth that we had seen from them all season long.

In retrospect, maybe the quiet regular season that we saw from the Walsh women was intentional. They were just so much better this weekend in comparison to what we saw from them during the regular season.

As for Hillsdale, they didn't run poorly, but their backend just couldn't match the depth that Walsh brought to the table. Maryssa Depies placing 3rd and Christina Sawyer placing 7th was encouraging, but it wasn't enough firepower to match Walsh's top three.

We should also mention that Malone’s Mackenna Curtis-Collins took home the individual title, adding to her strong season thus far and building on what is becoming a very solid and underrated resume. It’s also her second-straight individual title as she took home the same honors last year.

On the men's side, it was Walsh once again taking home the team title. We knew going into the weekend that they didn’t run their best five throughout the entire season and we thought they’d be better than what they had shown us coming into this race.

That said, we did not expect them to have a performance where they scored just 21 points and dominated the 2nd place team (Malone) by 57 points. Like the women, the Cavaliers put their entire scoring five inside the top-nine spots of this race and simply ran away with the victory in convincing fashion.

Noah Murray and Drew Roberts led the way with 1st and 2nd places finishes, two results that weren't super surprising based on what we saw last year. However, the incredible performances from Jared Bugaj (4th), Beau Boyden (5th) and Xavier Foehl (9th) just simply made Walsh the better team.

The Malone men were a pleasant surprise in 2nd place, scoring 78 points. They were led by Zach Fresenko who placed 3rd overall. Christopher Cannon, Lucas Clark and Demetrius Snellenberger finished in consecutive order (placing 17-18-19) while Max Gucker closed out the scoring in 22nd place.

Generally speaking, the lineup structures between Malone, Cedarville (3rd) and Hillsdale (4th) weren't all that different. However, in the end, Malone did the small things better. Out of those three teams, they had the best low-stick and their middle lineup / backend contributors showed why it is so important to have a tight pack of scorers.

As we move away from the G-MAC, I want to talk about the RMAC results which certainly turned plenty of heads and likely made a few people refresh their phone or computer screens.

The Western Colorado women took home their first team conference title since 2011, earning a big 19-point victory over the Colorado Mines women. They were powered by a brilliant run from Bailey Sharon who finished 4th overall in what may be the best race of her career.

The 800 meter specialist might be more than just that as she continues to prove us wrong, stepping up when her team needed her the most. That 4th place result is the best overall finish she’s ever had in a championship cross country race.

Teammate Katie Doucette was 5th overall while Alexia Thiros placed 7th, giving the Mountaineers three runners inside the top-10, something that no other team was able to accomplish this past weekend.

However, the real surprise was seeing Malindi Congour finish 11th and Hannah Mae Gigstad sealing the victory in 17th place. The Colorado Mesa Maverick Invitational from a couple of weeks ago suggested that this Western team would need to improve the second-half of their lineup. Sure enough, Congour and Mae Gigstad came through in the clutch to deliver what was not only a conference win, but a relatively convincing win at that.

In fact, Western Colorado put six women in the top-20 of this race. The most women that any other team put inside the top-20 was four (by Colorado Mines).

Speaking of Colorado Mines, they ran well. Baker (1st) proved to be the star low-stick that we thought she could be and the depth of this squad turned out not be a concern despite losing a handful of top women from last year. In fact, the Orediggers had a complete top five, placing all of their scorers inside the top-22 spots of this race.

As for MSU-Denver (3rd), the introduction of Erin Norton has been huge as she has teamed up with Alden Gruidel to give the Roadrunners the best 1-2 punch in this field. Not only that, but the backend of this lineup has produced some quietly respectable results (such as Stephanie Carrasco placing 18th).

Finally, we come to Adams State. They were 4th overall in the final team results with Brianna Robles and Nicole Lawerence placing 3rd and 10th overall. However, after that, they had a noticeable drop-off where their final three scorers finished 24-27-28.

Now, in fairness to the Grizzlies, Stephanie Cotter didn't run. If she had run (assuming she isn't injured), then the final results likely would have had the Adams State women right around Colorado Mines.

And the men's race? Well, it was equally as eventful.

The Orediggers of Colorado Mines showed up...and that's pretty much all they needed to do to win this race. They scored 22 points and took home the team title by 38 points over Western Colorado. They put their entire top seven inside the top-13 spots of this race and just steamrolled their competition.

Dylan Ko was 1st overall with teammates Kyle Moran and Chris Cathcart finishing 3rd and 4th. Loic Scomparin was 6th, Luke Julian was 8th, Dillon Powell was 10th, Bo Raadam was 12th and Max Sevcik was 13th.

Absolute domination from the Orediggers.

As for Western Colorado, they were the 2nd place team. Charlie Sweeney was 5th overall while Taylor Stack was 7th. Meanwhile, Evan Sutherland was their third scorer finishing 15th while Simon Kelati right behind in 16th. Cade Michael was 20th and the final scorer for the Mountaineers.

In the grand scheme of things, seeing those two teams in the top two spots wasn't super surprising. However, one of the biggest shocks of the day was seeing the Colorado Christian men secure 3rd place overall, pulling ahead of Adams State by six points.

Josh Poierantoni and Ryder Searle led the team with 9th and 11th place finishes, giving the Cougars surprisingly solid scoring potency. The rest of the team placed 17th (Trent Cochran), 23rd (Alexander Vance) and 32nd (Robbie Jordano). In total, Colorado Christian was better than Adams State in three of the possible five scoring spots.

However, we should note that Carson Bix did not run for the Grizzlies this past weekend. If he did, Adams State likely would have been the 3rd place team.

And finally, we move to the GLVC Championships.

The women’s race was dominated by Southwest Baptist as they secured victory by a 19-point margin over the women from Drury.

Elysia Burgos fulfilled her role as the team’s low-stick by finishing 2nd overall. Meanwhile, teammate Tabitha Weber was a minute behind in 6th place. Tessa Valdiva was the SBU's third runner to cross the line, but she was also their third runner inside the top-10 with an 8th place finish. Between Weber's and Valdiva's performances, they essentially killed any real threat from any another team.

Teammates Brocklyn Barber and Alexis Barber cemented the win with their 18th and 19th place finishes for the Bearcats, giving Southwest Baptist a lineup that was simply better than any other team in almost every scoring spot.

As for Drury, they ran much better than expected, although in retrospect, they were probably a bit overshadowed this fall as they consistently earned 2nd place finishes behind Southwest Baptist. This past weekend was their first real chance to standout, and they did just that.

The sister duo of Claire and Katie McCune finished in 5th place and 7th place, but their 3-4-5 runners finished 14th, 26th and 27th which is what gave them edge of USI and Illinois-Springfield. Overall, it was a flat-out solid performance from the Panthers.

Meanwhile, the team that we thought was going to win (Southern Indiana) finished 3rd overall with 85 points and held off Illinois-Springfield (4th) by just a single point. As we expected, these two teams had a really fun battle, but it wasn't for the conference title like we thought it would be.

The Screaming Eagles and their scoring five went 4-12-15-25-29 while the Prairie Stars kept pace with 3-11-16-23-34.

Individually, Lauren Bailey did her thing and took home the individual title in a time of 20:23, 27 seconds better than Burgos. It’s Bailey's first-ever GLVC XC title as she had previously finished 3rd and 2nd as a sophomore and junior.

On the men’s side, we saw some fireworks as a title upset was brewing the entire season. That outcome finally came to fruition as the Lewis Flyers took home the GLVC team title for the first time since 2004. They scored 51 points to Southern Indiana’s 57 points.

Freshman sensation Anthony Farmer got the job done once again as he finished 2nd overall. Teammate Dustin Macuiba was just four seconds back in 3rd place and gave the Flyers exactly what they needed on a day where they were trying to take down the reigning conference champions.

Southern Indiana responded with solid performances of their won. Gavin Prior finished 7th, Noah Hufnagel placed 9th, Wyatt Harmon finished 11th and Grady Wilkinson placed 12th. Lewis immediately hit back with Patrick Hennessey in 13th and Daniel Arimi in 14th.

Southern Indiana’s fifth runner was Braden Nicholson in 18th place while Lewis’ fifth runner, Ricardo Del Toro, was right behind him in 19th place.

Overall, Lewis put together their best race of the season. They had two low-stick scorers and then had their 3-4-5 runners just 11 seconds apart from each other to take home the conference title.

Now, admittedly, the Southern Indiana men didn't have Titus Winders and they haven't had him all season long. If he was in this race, it's fair to suggest that the Screaming Eagles would have taken home gold.

Even so, the Flyers have clearly improved by a heavy amount this year and took home the win over a team that still has a ton of underrated talent.

As for the individual race, Blake Jones was the overall winner as he broke away from Farmer late in the race and put up a 10 second gap. It is Jones’ first GLVC cross country title and an improvement of five spots from last year’s meet.

He was the first of three Prairie Star runners inside the top-10. Tyler Pasley was 4th and Cortland Ross was 8th. Those three helped propel them to a 3rd place team finish -- 12 points back from Southern Indiana.