First Thoughts: Illinois Women Edge Toledo, Virginia Men Show Promise

We already previewed and recapped results from the IU Coaching Tree Invite, but there were also a handful of other interesting matchups throughout the weekend! Here are some of our major takeaways from the last few days of racing...

The Toledo women came into our preseason team rankings listed at TSR #25, a seemingly fair spot for the Rockets given their mass number of returners and their elite freshman class.

Meanwhile, the Illinois women were listed as a "Just Missed" team.

But the Fighting Illini' were able to make a statement at the John McNichols Invite this past weekend, proving to us at The Stride Report that they were just as deserving of a top-25 ranking.

Despite numerous teams toeing the line in Terre Haute, this race essentially turned into a dual meet. That's because Illinois and Toledo took over the top-11 spots in the field.

Coming into this season, we had minor concerns about who would be leading the front-end of this Illinois squad. While Olivia Howell had been phenomenal on the track, she was primarily a miler and she wasn't necessarily amazing on the grass.

That's why it was a pleasant surprise to see her come away with the overall win this past weekend, taking down Faith Linga (2nd) and Joy Chirchir (4th), the latter of whom is listed at TSR #48 in our preseason rankings.

I'm not saying that Howell is a top-50 talent yet. I'd still like to see who else she can down in the next couple of weeks before we make any crazy proclamations. Even so, this was a VERY encouraging start. If Illinois is going to have success this fall, it's going to be because Howell was a true low-stick for this team.

Behind Howell in 3rd place was Emma Milburn who continues to emerge as one of the better top-half lineup scorers that the midwest has to offer. She was a top-20 finisher at both Pre-Nationals and the BIG 10 XC Championships last fall, two highly promising results that gives Illinois a really solid scoring presence at the front of their lineup.

Halle Hill (5th), Sam Poglitsch (8th) and Madison Marasco (9th) did a nice job closing out the scoring, effectively matching the backend effort that we saw from Toledo's final few scorers.

With Illinois getting the slight low-stick scoring edge via Howell and Milburn, the Rockets needed their backend contingent of Madeline Vining (6th), Emily Vining (7th) and Julia Dames (10th) to each be slightly better.

Nonetheless, I'm not exactly worried about Toledo. I think the Rockets have a lot of opportunity to be better in almost every aspect of their varsity lineup. In a larger field, I expect the low-sticks and returning veterans to have a great scoring impact.

The 2021 cross country season was flat-out BAD for the Virginia men.

Despite having some of the best young talent in the NCAA last fall, as well as an accomplished veteran front-runner in Rohann Asfaw, the Cavaliers settled for an 8th place finish at the ACC XC Championships and a 7th place finish at the Southeast Regional XC Championships.

And while some teams would be happy with those results, the UVA men boast a roster that very clearly should have been better than they were last year.

Luckily, the Cavaliers were able to make a very promising early-season statement at the UVA Invite with a convincing win over Duke. In fact, UVA had Justin Wachtel, Yasin Sado, Rohann Asfaw and Wes Porter go 1-2-4-5 in the overall results. And with the 3rd place finisher, Eldad Mulugeta, running unattached, the Cavaliers actually swept the top-four scoring spots.

For Asfaw, this wasn't much of a surprise. He had had streaks of brilliant racing throughout his career and he's been so darn reliable on the grass. It's a similar story for Sado and Porter. Those two men were fantastic on the track earlier this year, showing a clear uptick in their fitness. Even if they didn't "wow" us last fall, they were still expected to be significantly better in 2022.

However, Justin Wachtel, who took home the overall win, was a very pleasant surprise. He was part of UVA's elite recruiting class back in 2021, but didn't do much to really excite us during his rookie campaign outside of a promising 14:02 (5k) personal best.

Does this small-meet victory in the middle of September suggest that he's going to be a superstar low-stick? No, probably not.

But this UVA team very clearly has the necessary talent to be nationally competitive this year. If Wachtel can end up be the high-value scorer that his win this past weekend suggests that he can be, then that could go a long way for the Virginia men in 2022.

Of course, let's not dismiss this race as a rust-buster and nothing else. Wachtel ended up being a handful of very talented men outside of his own team.

Duke's Zach Kinne, who placed 6th, has run 13:55 (5k) and has national meet experience. Pitt's Jack Miller, who placed 7th this past weekend, has run 8:48 in the steeplechase and placed 21st at the 2021 Mid-Atlantic Regional XC Championships. Behind Miller were four men from Duke's varsity lineup, including 3:55 All-American miler, Nick Dahl.

We try not to overreact to results that we see in September, but...that was an impressive win.

The women's team race at the UVA Invite wasn't as eventful as the men's race despite the Virginia women getting the edge over Duke, 30 points to 34 points. And while the Cavaliers should be excited about their future, especially if they have yet to unleash a few lineup options, it felt like Duke showed the most promise even with their loss.

That's because the Blue Devils had Amina Maatoug take home the overall win.

Who is Amina Maatoug?

Well, we asked that same question and did some digging.

The newest addition from the Netherlands is a middle distance superstar, running times of 2:03 (800), 2:45 (1k) and 4:14 (1500), nationally competitive marks that could put this Duke sophomore in the All-American conversation on the track.

But on the grass, it looks she has the potential to be the Blue Devils' next true front-runner...and that is exciting thing to think about given the makeup of this roster.

Between former high school superstar and current freshman Dalia Frias, breakout steeplechase star Emily Cole and two high-potential Bucknell graduate transfers in Ashlyn Ramos and Karly Forker, I can't help but like the varsity pieces that the Blue Devils have this fall.

If all five of those women run to their full potential in 2022, then the Duke women could end up being a very good team.

At the same time, I don't want to a) overemphasize results from a small September-time meet, and b) make it sound like Virginia didn't have an impressive showing of their own.

The MSU Spartan Invite is annually one of the most competitive collegiate cross country races that you can find in the month of September. And while most of this race featured top D2 and D3 competition (which we will highlight in a separate article), there were a few brief notes that we wanted to make about Michigan State.

The Spartan men settled for a 3rd place team finish behind Grand Valley State and Cincinnati. Of course, the Spartans didn't field most of their top men.

They did, however, have Aden Smith toe the line, a guy who wound up placing 3rd in this field. That was a huge result, especially since he took down a large handful of fairly solid midwest talents.

Admittedly, Smith was far from great last year, so this is very much a breakout performance for him. And after losing both Morgan Beadlescomb and James Uhlenberg, we can imagine that Coach Aaron Simoneau is looking to find as many replacement scorers as possible.

Which leads me to my next question...is CarLee Stimpfel racing this fall?

The D2 distance star, who was expected to be a true front-runner for Michigan State this fall, has raced twice so far this month and has earned a pair of solid 4th place finishes. The catch, however, is that he has run unattached twice.

Could Stimpfel be redshirting this fall? Based on his TFRRS profile, it doesn't look like he ever took a redshirt year while at Saginaw Valley State. So if he is redshirting this fall and coming back next year, then I think I like that approach.

This is still a very young distance squad, one that features high school megastar Riley Hough, so it may be best to give this roster a year to develop and then have Stimpfel rejoin their lineup in 2023.

Of course, all of that is just speculation. We'll be interested to see what Stimpfel does later this season...if he races at all.

The women's team results at the North Alabama Showcase were admittedly not too exciting. Despite the Crimson Tide not fielding most of their top varsity options, they still pulled out a five-point win over a very respectable Kentucky squad.

However, the team scores weren't necessarily the most important aspect of this race. Instead, it was the top individuals in this field and where they finished.

Kentucky's Perri Bockrath took home the overall win, taking down Alabama's newest JUCO addition, Hilda Olemomoi (Chebet), as well as teammate Tori Herman (TSR #13), in the process.

We really like Bockrath. She was super underrated on the track this past spring, running 9:52 in the steeplechase and qualifying for the outdoor national meet in said event. And after a very strong 2021 cross country season where she finished 13th at the SEC XC Championships and then 9th at the South Regional XC Championships, there was an argument for her to be ranked in our top-50.

And now, after seeing her take home this win, I think I like her even more.

That's because we were high on Olemomoi this fall and Herman was probably one of the most overlooked distance talents in the NCAA over the last year. Taking down those two women, even if the meet was held in mid-September, feels like a promising extension of Bockrath's outstanding success from the track.

As for Olemomoi, this was a very important result, specifically for Alabama's future scoring prospects.

We knew that this JUCO ace had talent and that she was likely going to be in the Crimson Tide's top-five this fall. Still, saying that someone was going to be in a team's top-five doesn't do a whole lot in terms of indicating how good they'll actually be.

But seeing Olemomoi secure a runner-up finish and defeat Tori Herman?

Well, that's more than encouraging.

If I'm Alabama, I'm thrilled right now.