First Thoughts: NC State's Resilience, Oklahoma State Dominates, Valby & Blanks Stay Undefeated

Written by Garrett Zatlin & Maura Beattie, edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin

Photos via Andrew LeMay, video interviews via Donny Speas

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Our "First Thoughts" articles are usually where we give instant reactions from meets around the country -- sometimes from a solo author and sometimes by two or three TSR contributors at once.

With the NCAA D1 XC Championships now complete, we wanted to highlight all of the major drama, stunning performances and out-of-nowhere surprises that just took place in Charlottesville, Virginia. Here are what Garrett and Maura had to say about the races...

Maura: As I was watching the live results fluctuate, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing with NC State. They fought tooth and nail for one another. There were a lot of questions (and doubts) regarding this team heading into today’s race, but they proved me wrong when I picked them to finish 2nd.

You’ve got to feel for Tuohy. After winning the individual title last year with a come-from-behind move, she was primed to challenge Florida’s Parker Valby for the victory yet again. An unfortunate illness on the day that matters the most is tough. Thankfully, a team title and a very gritty 5th place individual finish should make up for that.

Tyynismaa was a game-changer for NC State today after recording two DNFs leading into the cross country national meet. She wasn’t as dominant as she was last year (or the years prior), but leaving Virginia with an All-American honor (25th) this weekend was unbelievably clutch. If this team was going to win gold, it was because her and Sam Bush (28th) delivered top-30 All-American results -- and that's exactly what happened.

Everyone stepped up when Tuohy wasn’t at her best and when Chmiel was sidelined. Kudos to Coach Laurie Henes and the Wolfpack for believing in one another when the odds weren’t in their favor...at all.

Garrett: I have zero vested interest in NC State as a university and I have no ties to the Wolfpack cross country program. And yet, despite that, you almost can't help but feel a little moved and emotional about this performance.

Everything that could have gone wrong for this team basically happened this season.

Tuohy was ill for the national meet, Chmiel was out of the national meet with an injury, Tyynismaa hadn't finished a race this season prior to Saturday, Bush struggled in the regular season and their reinforcements were, for the most part, fairly young and inexperienced.

To put it simply, NC State should not have been able to win this national title.

I don't know how any team that went through the adversity that the Wolfpack did were still able beat a team like Northern Arizona that had more weapons than they knew what to do with. And the fact that they did so by a singular point only adds to the drama.

With three-straight national team titles in hand, we have to start talking about where Coach Laurie Henes sits (and will sit) among the all-time great coaches in NCAA history. Saturday's performance is what puts coaches like her in elite territory.

Maura: Nothing. We learned nothing. As Valby has said all season, she followed her instincts and raced like she always does -- from the front.

The Gator superstar dared anyone to go with her and was even ahead by 20 seconds at one point. Her ability to grind out top performances and her willingness to aggressively attack the front of her races just further showcases the confidence that she has in her abilities. Her bat-out-of-hell race plan has proven to work more than once.

Honestly, you could argue that Valby’s legacy will be that you don’t need to run hundreds of miles to win. After all, this is someone who only runs two to three times a week along with some cross training.

Garrett: Maura's right, I don't think that we learned anything about Parker Valby that we didn't already know. I do, however, think we received additional validation that Valby's aggressive front-running tactics can, in fact, yield national titles.

But when it comes to her legacy, I think this victory will further strengthen the excitement of the Tuohy vs Valby rivalry when we reflect on it many years from now.

Prior to Saturday, this rivalry was pretty one-sided -- Tuohy was clearly better -- but with two major cross country wins over the NC State ace this season and multiple national titles under her belt, the lore of this Gator vs Wolfpack matchup seems far more legitimate than it was this time last year.

Maura: To be completely honest, I never put much stock into the Tennessee women until their 3rd place finish at the SEC XC Championships. The Lady Vols haven’t been the cream of the crop in years past, but Coach Sean Carlson has recruited extremely well and he prepared his women to peak at the right time.

A 5% chance of finishing 6th at the cross country national is where I would’ve landed. I did say that I was rooting for the Tennessee women this weekend in our preview, but given their lack of a true low-stick (they didn't have an All-American on Saturday) and youth-laden lineup, you can see why their performance was such a major surprise.

Garrett: I probably would have said 3% and honestly, that may be generous.

The Tennessee women had no business being as good as they were on Saturday. They didn't have a single individual All-American and their lineup consisted of four underclassmen, three of which were freshmen.

Ashley Jones (42nd) was excellent, but seeing Jillian Candelino (72nd) and Rachel Sutliff (74th) offer such valuable consistency was when I knew that the Vols were in store for something special. With Caroline Lyerly (91st) probably having the best race of her life and Jessie Secor (113th) closing out the scoring, the Tennessee women thrived with stability and depth.

Coming into this season, the Tennessee women were an afterthought. And when they finished 5th overall behind Oregon at Pre-Nationals, I wasn't even sure if they could make the national meet.

Funny how quickly things can change, huh?

Maura: The Lipscomb women were never a team that truly crossed my mind as I always forget about some of the mid-major programs. Garrett was usually the one trying to make a case for ranking them, and I would reluctantly agree, but as we have reached the end of the season, I’m so glad we ranked them consistently.

An 11th place at the NCAA XC Championships for the Bison was far beyond where I would’ve placed them and I sincerely apologize for not believing in those women. Lydia Miller (38th) showed us how dangerous this team could be when they have some top-end firepower.

The rest of this lineup didn't necessarily blow us away, but a compact backend let the Lipscomb women close out their scoring at 122nd place overall. And that team-centric running that we highlighted earlier this year is what ultimately allowed them to thrive on Saturday.

Garrett: I feel like I owe an apology to Notre Dame, the team that just finished 4th overall on Saturday to earn the final podium position. Doing so with three individual All-Americans was nice to see as well.

Throughout this season, I kept wanting to see more from the Fighting Irish. They were fine through most of this fall, but I never got the impression that they were a podium team. Throughout their fall campaign, Notre Dame lost to a very limited NC State squad at the Joe Piane Invite, had a decent 6th place finish at Nuttycombe and narrowly escaped Virginia by two points to finish runner-up at the ACC XC Championships.

I felt confident that Olivia Markezich would be an upper-tier All-American, but Siona Chisholm wasn't firing on all cylinders, their graduate transfers weren't quite as potent as we were hoping for and Erin Strzelecki, while solid, didn't seem like an All-American.

But on Saturday, this team looked completely different.

Yet again, Markezich (3rd) peaked perfectly for the postseason. Her sister, Andrea Markezich (35th), had the best race of her career to earn her first All-American honor and Erin Strzelecki (37th) was rewarded for her scoring stability this fall with an All-American honor of her own.

The depth did see a bit of a drop-off, but with all five women in the top-125, and Florida 30+ points behind the Irish, Notre Dame proved that they were the real deal. I'm sorry for ever doubting this team in a championship setting -- you think I would have learned not to do that by now.

Maura: Hats off to Sydney Thorvaldson of Arkansas. We knew that she was a talented runner, but she just hadn’t made that leap yet into a new territory of fitness on the national stage. However, she proved to us today that she’s one of the absolute best in the country.

Thorvaldson’s 11th place finish is a 102-place improvement from her 2022 cross country national meet performance. It also more than validates all of the clear promise and progress that she had made coming into this season. Overall, the Razorback star was a far more consistent runner who finally delivered on the crazy-high potential that we have continuously said that she had.

That's a nice way to cap off the season for the redshirt sophomore!

Garrett: I think Sydney Thorvaldson is an easy answer (and a good one, too), but I have no idea how Ole Miss' Ryann Helmers placed 23rd and Utah's Mckaylie Caesar finished 26th.

Make no mistake, both of those women are talented. And if you had told me that they would be backend All-Americans, I wouldn't have been totally shocked. But despite a strong regular season, Helmers was a little underwhelming at the conference and regional level. Caesar, meanwhile, was far more consistent, but she didn't seem to have the same upside that Helmers did.

But on Saturday, both of these women were brilliant, although they reached their All-American honors with two very different methods. Helmers never fluctuated more than eight spots between splits while Caesar consistently chipped away at the women in front of her.

I'm also glad that both of these women were as convincing All-Americans as they were. That makes them so much easier to rank.

Maura: Both teams showed out today, but Oklahoma State had the edge by wanting revenge from settling for 2nd (losing on a tie-breaker) at the 2022 cross country national meet.

Drew Bosley (5th) and Nico Young (6th) of Northern Arizona were reliable as always, but Oklahoma State had the wildcards in two freshmen, Denis Kipngetich (4th) and Brian Muasu (8th). Behind those two Pokes were three experienced distance stars who, once again, came through in the clutch.

When you place five men in the top-15 like the Cowboys did, there’s not much that the 2nd place team can do but worry about the 3rd place team catching them. Coach Mike Smith’s men are clearly established, but they just couldn't match what Oklahoma State flexed.

Garrett: Maura's right, I don't know what Northern Arizona could have done to catch the Cowboys. Sure, maybe Bosley, Young and Las Heras could have been three to five spots better (each). And if that happened along with displacement, then the scores get fairly interesting.

Even so, they still delivered strong low-stick value.

With Santiago Prosser (21st) and Brodey Hasty (25th) almost exactly matching their finishes from last year, you can't fault the Lumberjacks for how they ran on Saturday. They still performed incredibly well -- five men in the top-25 almost always wins you a title.

I think why many people (myself included) gave the advantage to Northern Arizona was more because Oklahoma State had a few wild cards. Shitsama had struggled mightily at the BIG 12 XC Championships, we still didn't have a great gauge on Denis Kipngetich and there were fair questions about this team past five runners (in comparison to NAU).

But when the Pokes' top-five were firing on all cylinders, there was no stopping them and I don't think the Northern Arizona men could have done anything to change the outcome.

Maura: It’s always gonna be Northern Arizona vs BYU and it’s all thanks to the rivalry between Tyler Day and Matt Baxter (NAU) and Rory Linkletter (BYU). The Cougars were the first team to break the Lumberjacks' streak a few seasons ago when Northern Arizona struggled on a cold and sloppy day in Terre Haute.

Now, yes, Oklahoma State tying with Northern Arizona last season and easily taking them down today begins a new era of a rivalry, but I think it’s going to take more trash talking for the Cowboys and Lumberjacks to reach the level that BYU had with the men of Flagstaff.

Garrett: I think it depends on what we're measuring.

In terms of drama, entertainment and legitimate tension, I would give the nod to the NAU vs BYU rivalry. But in terms of actual results, then I don't know how you could pick against the NAU vs Oklahoma State rivalry.

These two teams TIED for the national title in 2022 and then came back the next year as the clear-cut top-two contenders. And with the results being split between the two programs over the two years, I feel like the actual results of this matchup make the Cowboys vs the Lumberjacks the better rivalry.

Maura: I don’t know why Garrett is including me in disrespecting Harvard’s Graham Blanks. I fully anticipated him finishing amongst the top-three based on how he had performed earlier this season. Even though I didn’t pick him for the individual title, I was rooting for the Crimson athlete all morning long.

A 10k race is a long distance and if one wrong move is made, someone’s race can be over. The men’s individual title was up for grabs and Blanks was hungry for it.

Congrats to the Ivy League champ for getting it done!

Garrett: Misery loves company and that's why I'm dragging Maura into this.

In retrospect, it does feel like there was some slight, unintentional disrespect from the running community (myself included) when Blanks was being overlooked as the national title favorite. Make no mistake, I think everyone here at TSR fully believed that he could win NCAA gold, but out of our five contributors who made D1 predictions, only one of our writers chose Blanks to cross the line first.

Given the outstanding year that he had on the track this past spring, his statement victory at the Nuttycombe Invite and his undefeated streak going into this meet, I would have felt a little disrespected, too.

Maura: Being on the women’s Division One team, I don’t usually have a say on who gets ranked on the men’s side. I do, however, pay as much as, or even more, attention to the results than Garrett does.

I was pretty harsh on the Iowa State men earlier this year. They just kept coming up short and didn't look nearly as strong as they had in years past. After a 13th place finish at Nuttycombe and a 4th place finish at BIG 12 XC Championships, I just didn’t have faith in the Cyclones.

Of course, they proved me wrong today, putting all of the pieces of their puzzle together en route to a 5th place showing at the NCAA XC Championships. Sanele Masondo (16th) finally had the race that we knew he was capable of, Rodgers Kiplimo (37th) came out of nowhere to earn All-American honors and Gable Sieperda (43rd) leaned on his experience offer tremendous value in the middle of Iowa State's lineup.

All of this happened as Said Mechaal, the team's standout ace throughout this entire season, faded to 55th place overall. There were very few scenarios where I saw this team finishing 5th with Mechaal fading outside of the top-50.

And with Tim Sindt (122nd) closing out the scoring, we're left with a team result that doesn't at all mirror what this team had done earlier this season. My apologies to Iowa State, you peaked better than almost anyone in the country.

Garrett: Iowa State is undoubtedly the best (and maybe only) answer to this question. However, for the sake of variety, I'll instead say Stanford. With an 8th place team finish in Charlottesville, the Cardinal men came together for a season finale result that was somewhat close to their TSR #4 preseason ranking.

After a flat-out bad regular season along with PAC-12 competition being much lighter than usual, it was hard to be all that excited about the Stanford men. Ky Robinson was great, but there were significant challenges for this team throughout multiple areas of their lineup.

But a lot of that changed on Saturday.

Robinson (3rd) was great as expected, Robert DiDonato (49th) continued his evolution into a highly reliable scorer, Lex Young (74th) held his own despite his inexperience, Cole Sprout (95th) provided some decent value at the fourth scoring spot despite not being at 100% this season and Evan Burke (129th) was able to close out the scoring of this group fairly quickly.

Sure, this team didn't have the high-flying low-stick scorers that they did last year, but given where this team was in the regular season, I thought they rallied incredibly well.

Maura: Jason Bowers (22nd) of East Tennessee State finishing as an All-American was in my predictions. Of course, the general population didn't seem to have him on their radar and no one at TSR had him coming all that close to 22nd place.

I had to double check with Garrett that he wasn’t planning on ranking Bowers because I wanted to make sure the former NAIA talent was getting the recognition he deserved in our meet preview. And sure enough, Bowers impressed us with a 22nd place finish in his first go-around at the national meet.

Garrett: Jason Bower is a great pick, but I don't think he can be the biggest surprise if both Maura and myself picked him to be an All-American.

For me, it has to be someone who Maura highlighted in the section above: Sanele Masondo. This Iowa State runner came out of the JUCO scene as a dominant multi-time national title winner. He oozed low-stick potential and left many of us at The Stride Report excited about what he could become.

But throughout most of this season, Masondo was just super underwhelming. The Cyclone talent finished 104th at the Virginia Invitational, 80th at the Nuttycombe Invite, 27th at the BIG 12 XC Championships and 7th at the Midwest regional meet.

In other words, there was ZERO evidence that Masondo would finish 16th place overall at the NCAA XC Championships. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the beauty of cross country.