The Group Chat: 2022 NCAA D1 XC Championship Reactions

Grace: “Predictable and exciting results in an unpredictable and nail-biting fashion.”

Garrett: “Thank goodness Twitter still works or else I wouldn’t have been able to see everyone’s collective chaos in one place.”

Ben: “This was the most chaotic and interesting NCAA race I have ever seen despite the individual favorites winning and the team titles going to last year’s champion. Everything was predictable...but it also wasn’t at all.”

Hannah: “The preseason favorites suffered a scare, but still walked away with the title. Also, the NCAA tie-breaker rule is dumb.”

Scotty: “Over the last 12 months, the Earth has made a full rotation to the same position where, once again, we see NC State and NAU crowned as NCAA champions.”

Maura: “Never have your mom read you race results because she’s going to miss the fact that the backend matters more than the frontend.”

Grace: Maybe a 1% chance. If you had asked me, "What are the chances are of a tie between Northern Arizona and Stanford OR NAU and BYU?", that number would have been higher than just 1%.

But Northern Arizona AND Oklahoma State? Nope.

The Cowboys ran out of their minds today and it shocked me. They have talented low-sticks, but I questioned the backend of their lineup. When comparing their 3-4-5 to NAU’s 3-4-5 throughout the season, a tie seemed so unlikely.

Ben: This was a less than 1% chance scenario.

Oklahoma State lost this race by less than a tenth of a second. Victor Shitsama and Davin Thompson both ran 29:29.0, but Thompson got the edge to finish 30th overall. If Shitsama moves up just one spot and edges Thompson, then this is Oklahoma State’s title.

If you would have told me that a tie was going to happen, then I would have guessed that Cole Sprout did not run well for Stanford and that someone from Oklahoma State had the race of their life -- and both of those things were absolutely true.

Fouad Messaoudi had this race of his life to finish 12th overall and score 11 points for the Cowboys. Unfortunately for him, the hosts lost a heart-breaker.

Garrett: I completely agree with Ben. You’re probably looking at a 0.75% that this happens. I completely made up that number off the top of my head, I have no statistical backing to it, but it feels right.

It’s not just because two teams tied for the national title. It’s because Northern Arizona and Oklahoma State tied for the title. Sure, those two teams were certainly in the title hunt, but it was more likely to be Stanford and BYU in a tie-breaking scenario than the Lumberjacks and the Cowboys.

Ben also makes an excellent point. This race was literally determined by less than a tenth of a second. I can’t imagine what the probability of that is.

I sincerely don’t know if anyone has seen any cross country race that was this close…ever.

Hannah: I would have thought you were lying. I'd suggest that it was a .01% chance for those two teams to tie for a national title. There are so many unbelievable aspects of this result.

First, the fact that it even came down to a tie is crazy. Second, the fact that it was a tie for the national title and not something less consequential like 10th place is so wildly unlikely. Lastly, it was NAU and OSU fighting for the title, not Stanford and BYU (or other teams).

As Ben pointed out, it’s heart-breaking that this came down to less than a tenth of a second. Who knew you had to work on your sprinters lean to win a national team title in cross country?

Scotty: I would have given this race a 10% chance that it would come down to Northern Arizona and Oklahoma State. But a tie-breaker? Let alone at 83 points apiece? I agree with everyone saying less than 1%.

It may not sink in immediately, but we will look back at this year's race from now and think – like Garrett said – that this may have been the closest cross country race in NCAA history.

It must be gut-wrenching for OSU to be walking away with a loss on their home course after such a gutsy last kilometer.

Maura: Heading into the NCAA XC Championships, I thought a tie-breaker was going to be needed to determine the winner...but I was expecting it on the women’s side, not the men’s.

The likelihood of me thinking that would happen mirrors Ben’s response of 1%. The Stanford men had my vote from the get-go to win the team title, but yet again, they struggled to deliver on the national stage.

NAU shows up when it matters and Oklahoma State showed out on their home course. There were tiny inclinations that either team could win this meet during the season, but there were still tiny hiccups that needed adjusting along the way. To see these two teams duke it out over the final kilometers of the race was huge, but the tie was bigger.

Grace: To be honest, I never doubted the Lumberjacks.

I think they’ve been my title favorites the entire season, but I’ll admit that Stanford was looking very impressive. I think the jump in distance from 8k to 10k is what allowed me to keep my confidence in NAU.

Coach Mike Smith produces endurance machines, and the longer the race, the more trust I have in his athletes -- especially considering they were still performing well at the 8k distance.

Ben: I mean, I don’t think we were wrong about any of our analysis coming into this race. I said that NAU, so far, had not looked like a team that could win the title, but because of Coach Mike Smith and the experience of this program, you had to at least give them a chance.

Santiago Prosser, George Kusche and Brodey Hasty all stepped up and ran their best races when it mattered the most. You can’t say enough about this team’s ability to rise to the occasion and peak at the perfect time. This race is exactly why you never doubt NAU even if their regular season results aren’t special.

Garrett: Ben is right in saying that our initial analysis was accurate.

The Lumberjacks had significantly underwhelmed throughout most of the season and there really weren’t any major signs to suggest that they would contend for the national title. All we had to rely on was their past performances.

But when a team has won five of the last six national titles, and now six of the last seven, maybe we should give that streak more weight coming into a race like this.

I was so critical of this team as a whole, but they essentially showed us that it doesn’t matter what happens during the rest of the season as long as they peak when it matters the most.

I know Santiago Prosser ran extremely well, but George Kusche has flat-out struggled throughout the last few regular seasons of competition. And yet, he came through for his second consecutive cross country All-American honor.

And to him, I probably owe the biggest apology.

I had completely written him off as an All-American threat.

Scotty: In lieu of an apology, I would like to quote myself from three days ago on the Chip Time Podcast where I said, “I refuse to write off Mike Smith. They’re not the favorites going into this one, which is rare for them, but I refuse to believe that their dynasty is done until I see it.”

Where I will apologize, however, is chickening out on my TSR predictions and making the “safer” pick of Stanford.

So much of this win was made possible by Santiago Prosser having the race of his life, Brodey Hasty having a monster last kilometer and George Kusche coming through in the clutch after a tough season.

The dynasty is not over...so guess who I’ll be picking next year? Prove me wrong, Stanford.

Maura: I thought the absence of Abdihamid Nur would’ve been bigger, but I have since learned that you can never doubt Coach Mike Smith. Flagstaff is the mecca of distance running and the Lumberjacks showed us why.

Hannah: I’m just here so I don’t get fined.

Grace: If you had told me that in the spring, I would have heavily questioned their ability to win the national title. All three of those women had fantastic track seasons and I was expecting them to be scorers this fall.

Even after Shaw and Starliper were absent earlier in the season, I still had faith that the Wolfpack would win the national title.

Seymour is a bit different and I am extremely surprised that she wasn’t a scorer today. Regardless, NC State had the depth to make up for these absences. In a lineup loaded with firepower, their greatest strength was their supporting cast, and that ended up winning the Wolfpack women another title.

Ben: I absolutely could have believed that NC State would win the title without Shaw, Starliper and Seymour, simply because they had so many options. The special part about this Wolfpack team wasn’t their dominant top-five, but rather their depth as a whole.

Not seeing any of those three women in the scoring certainly made the team’s margin for error shrink significantly, but they still had the best top-two in the country and then had plenty of sub-16:00 (5k) runners who they could rely on when it mattered most.

Garrett: Gosh, I don’t know. We were so high on all three of those women coming into this season. I figured that at least two of them would have a major scoring role for this team.

And with New Mexico looking the deepest that they’ve ever been (or at least in a while), I would have questioned how NC State’s backend would support their low-stick stars.

But Nevada Mareno was once again the unsung hero of this team. Her 29th place finish was a wildly clutch result that essentially sealed the deal for the Wolfpack.

It’s also crazy that NC State’s final scorer was 90th overall and the Wolfpack still beat New Mexico by 26 points despite the Lobos having five All-Americans.

So no, I don’t think I would have believed that, especially if you had told me how New Mexico's final results at the national meet played out.

Hannah: I’m about 50/50.

I’m shocked that Seymour did not score for the team and I'm also shocked that both Starliper and Shaw were pretty much out for almost the entire season. But I'm also not shocked that the Wolfpack were still able to win the title.

Allow me to explain.

A lot of people were really high on Sydney Seymour and what she brought to this Wolfpack team. And up until roughly 4k left of this race, she was going to score. But the Tennessee graduate transfer fell apart and that happens to runners, especially in a race as hectic as the national meet.

With Starliper and Shaw not even racing, I would have to said, "Wow, someone must have stepped up for their team." And they did! In this case, it was Nevada Mareno. Like Ben said, NC State was always working with the best of both worlds in terms of having star power and depth.

There are very few teams that could have such big name runners not score for them and still win a team title...and I think we all knew that NC State could be one of those teams. They still had well-known runners like Nevada Moreno and Brooke Rauber on their roster who both stepped up big time earlier today.

Scotty: Yes, I would have thought that they could still win, but I would have thought that the final scores were going to be much tighter.

If Katelyn Tuohy, Kelsey Chmiel or Samantha Bush were on our crystal ball list of absentees from this scoring lineup, then I would have caved and shifted my favoritism to the Lobos. But today, we really saw just how deep the Wolfpack are.

As Garrett pointed out, Nevada Mareno had an extremely valuable finish for NC State, and if I recall, only Kevin picked her to finish as an All-American.

The saying, “the strength of the wolf is the pack” was on full display today and there has never been a closer parallel between the way a team runs and their actual mascot.

Maura: It really sucked that Marlee Starliper and Savannah Shaw had to end their seasons early, but I honestly still saw NC State getting the dub. They have depth from top to bottom and were almost always going to find someone to pick up the pieces when needed.

As for Sydney Seymour, she was a gift for the Wolfpack this year after coming over from Tennessee, but her inexperience at the NCAA XC Championships showed today. Still, her value to this team throughout the season is what put NC State way over the top.

Grace: I’m going to keep this short and sweet.

No. Parker Valby ran exactly the race that she had to if she was going to fend off Tuohy.

But in the end, Tuohy was just better.

If Parker Valby had taken off any sooner or faster, then I think she would have faded and Tuohy would have caught her anyways. If Valby made her move later, then Tuohy was still going to catch her.

This was Tuohy’s race to win. Valby gave her competition and put on a show, but Tuohy was going to win this race regardless of Valby’s race tactics.

Ben: No.

Parker Valby ran a spectacular race. She built a bigger gap than I think any of us expected, but Katelyn Tuohy is just that good. She erased a 12-second lead in less than 2k and ended up taking home the win by three seconds. That is a 15-second difference in pace between Tuohy and Valby over the last 2k which is just incredible.

If Valby was more patient, then the result is still the same. Tuohy would have broken away from the Florida star over the last 800 meters and there wouldn’t have been anything that Valby could have done.

Both of these women lived up to and exceeded our already high expectations. I hope we get to see them battle a few more times on the NCAA scene before they move to the professional level.

Hannah: No, I don’t think so.

Valby said it herself that she does not have the kick to win a race like this. She did what she has done all season long and went out hard.

And I’m not gonna lie, I was nervous for Tuohy at 4k. I thought it was too much of a gap for her and that there was too little time.

The only thing that could have helped Valby was if she was able to not let Tuohy gap her as soon as she was caught. Tuohy spent maybe two seconds behind Valby before making her move. She carried that momentum up the hill and then all the way to the finish.

If Valby was able to stick with her up the hill, then would the results be any different? Obviously, that's easier said than done for Valby, and Tuohy could have still beaten her in a kick. It was just Tuohy’s day.

Garrett: The only possible suggestion that I had for Valby was to start gapping the field a little bit later. She began to get some separation a little before 2k, but if she had waited until 3k, would the result have been different?

Maybe not, and Tuohy probably still handles this race perfectly regardless of the scenario, but I think that kind of plan would have still played into Valby’s front-running style while having to run less distance all alone.

...but yeah, Tuohy still wasn't going to lose.

Scotty: Like many cross country fans, for the first 4k of this race, I had one thought in my head:

“That son of a gun, Ben Weisel was right. Parker Valby is going to win this race.”

It seemed like a “duh!” moment once I realized that Katelyn Tuohy was breaking away from the rest of the field and going after Valby. But with Florida not in the team race, I wondered, "Why press the last two kilometers to catch Valby and risk blowing up?"

Well, Tuohy answered my question with a resounding display of fitness that I will remember for a long time (much like Conner Mantz over Wesley Kiptoo in the winter of 2021).

But to answer the original question, no, I feel like Valby executed her race plan to the best of her ability and was a class act in the post-race interviews.

Maura: In the preview article, I pointed out that Tuohy is the better tactician between her and Valby and that showed today. Valby had to take it out earlier in the race to take the kick out of Tuohy’s legs, but her move a little before halfway just wasn’t enough.

Tuohy didn’t get nervous with Valby out in front as she knew she just had to bide her time. Waiting to attack was clearly the right move.

Grace: I’m a big fan of all three of these men, but Hicks definitely had the winning edge heading into the meet. Hicks has great closing speed, Young is a phenomenal runner and competitor and Bosley is gutsy. I think we knew all of those things, but we probably learned the most from Bosley’s confidence by going out with the quick pace.

Ben: Honestly, I was most impressed by Bosley.

Young and Hicks ran exactly as I thought they would. Young pushed the pace and made the Cardinal star work for it, but ultimately, I thought Hicks would break away from Young at the end and that is exactly what played out.

For Bosley to run step for step with these two superstars was impressive. He helped Young make the pace honest from the gun and his 3rd place finish instead of the 8th place finish that I had predicted for him proved to be the difference maker in NAU winning the title. He has made a huge leap this year and will be someone to keep a close eye on for the rest of this year.

For someone who has been as consistent as Hicks, it was great to see him rewarded with his first NCAA title, and it will be interesting to see if he can build on this to have a Morgan McDonald-like year.

Garrett: I agree, the biggest winner of this race was probably Drew Bosley…even though he placed 3rd. But truthfully, he’s been putting together the best performances of his life this fall. While I didn’t think that he’d finish 3rd, I did think that a top-five result was plenty possible.

Charles Hicks largely validated everything that we said about him going into this race. He’s the best navigator of elite-level fields. He has great positioning, fantastic overall aerobic strength and tactically, he’s better than most (and probably all) of the top-tier men in the NCAA.

As for Nico Young, you have to give him credit, he had a legitimate shot at winning this race and he knew it. But I’m now beginning to wonder when his time for NCAA gold will finally come. This was easily the best opportunity that he’s had throughout his college career.

Hannah: I’m not sure we learned anything new or if our ideas were just reinforced.

Charles Hicks proved that he is a master technician as he sat on the NAU men until he was ready to make his move. Hicks even gave credit to them in his post-race interview for doing most of the work. He looked so comfortable for probably 90% of that race.

As for Nico Young, I’m not sure if he could have done anything differently to win this title...except, of course, to run faster. We’ve known for a long time that Nico is talented, but he keeps coming up just short in these individual title races.

So many people predicted that this race would come down to Hicks vs Young for the title. And we were all right. It was a bit surprising to see Bosley hang in for as long as he did, but he is super talented and (usually) does well at cross country national meets.

Scotty: I agree with Hannah 100%. This was more of a reinforcement of how consistent these athletes have performed on the highest stages when all of the pressure is on them.

Unfortunately (for me as a fan), Nico Young still lacks that “signature win” at the NCAA level, as he came up just short against Charles Hicks today and against Ky Robinson at Nuttycombe.

Still, I think Ben’s point about Drew Bosley is key. Without him running up to his full potential like he did today, then NAU does not win the team title.

Maura: These three men separated themselves early from the pack and made it a three-man race. Hicks said he was going for the win in his NCAA press conference the day before and he was sticking to that plan regardless. The Stanford athlete was confident in his abilities and knew not to get too antsy.

Young and Bosley finishing 2nd and 3rd, respectively, which reminded me of the 2-3 finish by NAU alums Matthew Baxter and Tyler Day in 2017. Coach Mike Smith has now coached two dynamic duos to top finishes who have been key to their team score.

Grace: The North Carolina men placing 10th.

I do not think I would have predicted that result for them at any point during the season. Not only did they place 10th, but how they did it was also extremely impressive.

The Tar Heels put their entire scoring five in the top-100 and had Parker Wolfe in 9th place. The mix of Wolfe as a low-stick and their pack-running duos worked heavily in their favor. They performed extremely well and exceeded even my prediction for their very best day at the national meet.

Ben: Texas was so much better than I expected.

Placing 18th and beating teams like Villanova and Tennessee was not something that anyone had predicted. Haftu Knight was great and even with Isaac Alonzo not having his best day, the rest of the team was good enough to give the Longhorns a top-20 finish in their first year of the post-Pete Watson era.

Garrett: I disagree with Ben. I don’t know why everyone was so low on Texas. They weren’t amazing this fall, but they were within reasonable striking distance of our rankings and they entered the season with a TSR #18 designation.

Sure, they were probably a bit better this weekend than some people thought, but I don’t think it was better in any dramatic way.

How about NC State? This is a team that has had a very up-and-down season. They were 9th at Joe Piane (bad), rallied to place 10th at Nuttycombe (very good) and then faltered a bit at the ACC XC Championships to place 5th (not great).

Yes, their Nuttycombe result suggested that an 11th place finish on Saturday was a possibility, but there were more counter arguments against the Wolfpack men than there were in favor of them.

Shanklin emerged as an All-American, the middle-lineup contributors all finished in the top-80 and their final scorer was a fairly respectable 112th overall.

Kudos to NC State. I thought they ran exceptionally well.

Hannah: I am going to say Harvard. Our TSR crew had them coming in anywhere from 23rd place to 30th place, so a 17th place result is a little shocking.

The Crimson finished 13th at the Cowboy Jamboree earlier this season behind teams like Princeton and Texas who they beat today. And at Nuttycombe, they had a bad day and were 21st overall. Villanova, Utah State, Colorado State, Georgetown and Michigan were all teams that finished ahead of them at Nuttycombe who ultimately fell behind Harvard today.

Having an elite low-stick like Graham Blanks is incredibly helpful in these big races and he even outperformed expectations. He was only 26th at Nuttycombe, but finished 6th today. And the fact that Acer Iverson "only" finished 50th overall after looking like a top-10 threat means that there were probably a few additional points left on the table.

Of course, I’m sure the sweetest part for this team was that they avenged their loss to Princeton from the Ivy League XC Championships, beating them by 13 places.

Scotty: I did not expect North Carolina to put their entire scoring five in the top-100.

Going into this race, we knew that Parker Wolfe had that “dawg” in him, and he backed it up with a 9th place performance.

But it was Ethan Strand (62nd) and John Tatter (72nd) who really stepped up and delivered, passing many projected All-Americans late in the race to notch a 10th place finish for the Tar Heels.

Maura: I’ve got to say the Arkansas men.

The Razorbacks were in the land of "Just Missed" in our latest team rankings heading into the NCAA XC Championships and they came out with a 23rd place overall. Admittedly, that is nothing to write home about, but for a team that wasn’t firing on all cylinders this fall, it was respectable.

Patrick Kiprop took care of business with a 24th place finish and their next four scorers kept their time-spread at 33 seconds. The potential is there for the Razorbacks to finish among the top-20 with more experience gained next year.

Grace: This is a hard choice between North Carolina and Virginia, but North Carolina was on our radar as a top-10 team and finished 5th, so I am going to have to go with Virginia.

The Cavaliers are sneakingly becoming a top program, but I would have never guessed that they would be in the top-10 this fall. Mia Barnett and Sophie Atkinson led their team to an unexpected 9th place finish.

The relative youth and inexperience of this team did not suggest that they would post a result that was THIS good, but somehow, the Cavaliers got it done.

Ben: North Carolina blew my mind with this performance.

I saw them as a top-10 team, but finishing 5th was not on my bingo card. Kelsey Harrington was amazing while Brynn Brown ran the exact type of race that we have come to expect from her.

It was Sasha Neglia and Natalie Tyner who both stepped up in a huge way as they gave the Tar Heels the extra scoring potency they needed to be a fringe podium threat. Both of those women finishing inside the top-70 was massive and it makes this team one of the most interesting squads looking forward to 2023 when they bring back everyone.

Garrett: The answer to this question is Virginia and it’s not even close.

Don’t get me wrong, this team showed plenty of talent this fall and seemed to be a top-25 group in the NCAA. However, this is a squad that was VERY young, VERY inexperienced and many of their women seemed to better on the track than they were on the grass.

For the Cavaliers to finish 9th on Saturday was huge. It shows us that Coach Vin Lananna’s revival blueprint for this program is well ahead of schedule and that a podium finish in the future, maybe on their home course in 2023, is a somewhat realistic possibility.

Admittedly, the UVA women still need to validate this performance next season, but putting four women in the top-65 was so wildly impressive.

Hannah: I also want to go with UNC. When it came up on the scoreboard that they were 5th, I thought there was a mistake and that they would keep filtering down.

This team was only 4th at the ACC XC Championships (without Brynn Brown) behind teams like Notre Dame and Virginia. And while only 26 points separated 5th through 9th place this weekend, UNC still came out on top.

The difference between the ACC rivals today was UNC having Brynn Brown back in their lineup. She missed a solid month after Nuttycombe all the way until the Southeast regional meet. Brown finished 42nd today, slowly fading as the race went on. Still, she came through and delivered top-level scoring and that was all that was needed from her.

Regardless, her being on the line today meant that the Tar Heels didn’t have to count their sixth runner's 130th place finish. And that made all the difference in the world.

Scotty: I’ll even the score by backing Garrett up and saying Virginia.

What a race by the young Cavaliers!

Their top-four all deserve individual recognition as Mia Barnett (44th), Sophie Atkinson (46th), Margot Appleton (55th) and Anna Workman (65th) all ran exceptionally well with a minuscule eight-second time-spread separating that group.

That is not to throw any shade at Virginia’s final scorer – Esther Seeland – whose 114th place performance was nine places ahead of Georgetown’s final scorer, allowing the Cavaliers to edge the Hoyas by three points and pick up 9th place overall.

Maura: I’m going to keep it short, simple and sweet rather than reiterating everything that my fellow writers have said.

The answer to this question is Virginia.

Hands down.

We didn’t rank them in the preseason and they proved us wrong with their 9th place finish today.

My sincerest apologies for not believing in the Cavaliers earlier.

Grace: Graham Blanks of Harvard. I saw a Harvard uniform cross the finish line and thought to myself, “Wait, who is that?”

Blanks won the Northeast Regional XC Championships and was the runner-up at the Ivy League XC Championships, but still flew under the radar this season. His prior races this season suggested an All-American finish, but a 6th place result blew my expectations out of the water.

Going from 13th at the Cowboy Jamboree and 26th at the Nuttycombe Invitational to 6th at the NCAA XC Championships is an unexpected jump. Blanks clearly benefited from the transition of 8k to 10k.

Ben: I already mentioned Fouad Messaoudi who did more than just outperform expectations, so I’ll go in a different direction and also go with Graham Blanks.

He has flown under the radar a bit due to his teammate Acer Iverson having an overall better season, but he was someone who had all the makings of an All-American this year.

That said, Blanks did not show any signs of finishing 6th this weekend! He took down Casey Clinger, Isai Rodriguez, Parker Wolfe and Ky Robinson. It was an absolutely stellar performance on the NCAA’s biggest stage.

Garrett: The right answer to this question is probably Fouad Messaoudi of Oklahoma State who placed 12th after “only” finishing 6th at the BIG 12 XC Championships.

But Messaoudi does have a history of throwing down top-tier times on the track and we knew that he at least had an outside chance of being an All-American…although we thought he’d be closer to 40th in that scenario rather than 12th.

There’s one other guy who cracked the top-30 who I really want to highlight, but I’ll leave him to be discussed by another writer…

Hannah: I don’t know who Garrett is talking about so I'll do what I normally do and just ignore him.

I am taking Santiago Prosser from NAU who finished in 19th. He is very much a huge reason why NAU won the team title. At the Mountain regional meet, Prosser was the Lumberjack's fifth man, but now he's a top-20 All-American.

Just a wildly impressive day from him.

Prosser hadn’t put together an outstanding season coming into this meet. Finishing in 39th place at the Cowboy Jamboree, 33rd at Nuttycombe and 17th at the Mountain regional meet were fine results, but they weren't amazing, either.

But if there is anything that Coach Mike Smith knows, it's how to get his runners ready and peaking for the national meet.

Scotty: Suddenly, I feel like I really dropped the ball by leaving Furman’s Dylan Schubert out of my All-American predictions.

His 12th place finish at Nuttycombe suggested that an All-American finish would be possible, but an 11th place at the NCAA XC Championships? That result still shattered expectations.

Shoutout to this young Paladin star who has a bright future ahead of him.

Maura: Luke Tewalt of Wake Forest caught my eye today with his 22nd place finish. The sophomore talent was the second scorer for the Demon Deacons and he saw a huge improvement from his 140th place finish from last fall's national meet.

With a 68th place showing earlier in the season at the Cowboy Jamboree, I would’ve bypassed Tewalt’s name for later in the season. But he rebounded well over the next few months and his 4th place finish at the ACC XC Championships likely gave him momentum today.

Garrett: Alright, I had to follow-up on this one. I’m shocked that no one mentioned Ryan Martins (Loyola (Ill.)) who finished 29th!

He’s had a very respectable season, but his competition was fairly limited over the last few months and his 2nd place finish at the Midwest Regional XC Championships was hard to gauge given that Oklahoma State and Tulsa had men who were holding back.

That new coaching staff at Loyola, headed by Coach Gavin Kennedy, has quietly done some great work over the last year.

Ben: It is hard to say because there were not many surprises in the women’s All-American results. Nevada Mareno had shown flashes that this was the year that she could break into the top-40, but I did not have the confidence to pick her in that spot.

To go from 19th at the ACC XC Championships (which was still a respectable performance) to 29th at the NCAA XC Championships is quite the leap – and NC State repeated as national champions because of it.

Grace: Kelsey Harrington of North Carolina with her 17th place finish.

She was 27th at the Nuttycombe Invitational, 11th at the ACC XC Championships and 8th at the Southeast Regional XC Championships, all of which are great performances, but not exactly indicative of a top-20 finish at the NCAA XC Championships. She beat several talented women today who I would have predicted to be in front of her.

Overall, she just had a fantastic day and peaked when it really mattered.

Bravo, Kelsey Harrington.

Garrett: I tried really hard to find any names other than Nevada Mareno (29th) or Kelsey Harrington (17th). You could maybe make an argument for Laura Pellicoro, but considering that she was 26th after being ranked at TSR #40, that’s not exactly a stunner.

I think it’s gotta be Mareno in this scenario. Yes, Harrington finished higher, but she was showing signs of progress throughout this entire season and had slowly emerged as a possible low-stick.

But Mareno wasn’t in that same conversation. She had really solid performances all season long, especially at Nuttycombe, but placing 29th on Saturday was massive validation for what seemed to be a breakout race.

There’s going to be a lot of focus on the top of the results when it comes to NC State’s ability to win this second consecutive national title. But make no mistake, Mareno’s top-30 result came a bit out of nowhere and it was ultimately what gave the Wolfpack NCAA gold.

Hannah: It’s Mareno or Harrington.

There’s not much to say here that hasn’t already been said.

There’s a possible argument for Savannah Roark from Syracuse who finished in 23rd. She was only 31st at Nuttycombe and 15th at the ACC XC Championships.

However, Roark did have a great day at the Northeast regional meet where she finished 2nd behind Maia Ramsden of Harvard...so she was probably peaking at the right time. The argument for her just isn’t as strong as the ones laid out above.

Scotty: I’d be entering the echo chamber if I spoke any further, other than to just cast a vote between Kelsey Harrington and Nevada Mareno…so I’ll agree with Grace and pick Harrington!

She has performed solidly all season for North Carolina, but seemed to be a high-floor sidekick to Brynn Brown. But that was not the case today as the Tar Heel ace showed that she is indeed a true low-stick to the tune of a 17th place finish.

Maura: I wish I had hopped on before all of these other writers because Kelsey Harrington was my runner all season long.

The North Carolina ace raced in the shadows of teammate Brynn Brown before today, but Harrington went from flirting with an All-American honor to earning it with plenty of room to spare.

Grace: I was confident that the New Mexico women were going to have five All-Americans, but still be the runner-up finishers.

I was pretty confident in NC State taking home the title, but between New Mexico’s impressive-pack running and their earlier tie with the Wolfpack at the Nuttycombe Invitational, I was left wondering which team would have more All-American performances.

Amelia Mazza-Downie, Gracelyn Larkin, Samree Dishon, Emma Heckel and Elise Thorner all finished in the top-40. The Wolfpack had Katelyn Tuohy, Kelsey Chimel and Samantha Bush in the top-15 and three runners across the line before the Lobos had one.

Nevada Mareno was also an All-American for NC State in 29th place.

 Just looking at these lineups prior to the national meet, I predicted that New Mexico would have more women in the top-40, but that NC State would still take home the title due to their firepower...and I was right!

Ben: I don’t remember exactly when or exactly high up I said that Brian Fay could finish at the NCAA XC Championships, but it was somewhere in the top-15 or top-20 range. He was coming off of a 34th place finish at Nuttycombe, but I did not care. I believed in the talent and his experience from last year's national meet.

Sure enough, he finished 13th and gave Washington the low-stick that they needed to place 14th overall on Saturday.

Hannah: Because I primarily write about the D3 women, I thought Ella Baran, now of Colorado but formerly of Johns Hopkins, could be an All-American.

That seemed to be a bit of a stretch when you see that she was “only” 17th at the Cowboy Jamboree and then 47th at Nuttycombe. But I really liked how she was racing lately which was highlighted by a 7th place finish at the PAC-12 XC Championships.

And sure enough, she placed 30th on Saturday.

I’ve also watched Baran race enough to the point where I know that she can perform when the pressure is at its highest. They were very few national meets in D3 where she did not meet or outperform expectations.

Garrett: Gosh, I’m not sure I have anything that really jumps off the page. I had a handful of smaller, semi-safe predictions that ultimately came true.

I was the first to be fully invested in Rory Leonard as a fringe top-30 All-American, the Harvard men and Texas men both matched our preseason rankings and the Georgetown women came through, emerging as a top-10 team like I said they would.

There’s probably something that I’m missing on the podcast, but I’ll have to admit, I guess I didn’t really make any major or bold predictions about the national meet...that came true.

Scotty: Calling the NAU men to win the title last week on the Chip Time Podcast, although if we look all the way back to the preseason, that was about as chalk of a pick one could get.

It’s funny how a year ago, the Lumberjacks were heavy favorites and I was much more interested in the individual race. But this year, they legitimately felt like underdogs and I was cheering for Nico Young, who was clearly one of the favorites, to pick up the individual title.

It didn’t happen overnight, but now I wonder…am I a Northern Arizona super fan?

Maura: When we did our last update for team rankings, I told Garrett that Ohio State belonged in our top-25. There were no "ifs", "ands" or "buts" about it.

And boy, am I glad I stuck to that.

At the BIG 10 XC Championships, the women of Ohio State held on for 4th, but today, they far exceeded that result with a 15th place finish. And in the process, the Buckeyes were the first BIG 10 team across the line.

It was the trio of Addie Engel popping off in 10th place, as expected, and Danielle Santos and Andrea Kuhn being separated by a mere five seconds which ultimately catapulted this team to the top-15.

So basically, Garrett should learn that I’m right 99% of the time for who should be ranked.

Grace: Kaylee Mitchell and Everlyn Kemboi finishing in the top-10.

Mitchell was 4th at the Joe Piane Invitational, 4th at the Nuttycombe Invitational and won the West Regional XC Championships. She had an "off" day at the PAC-12 XC Championships with her 12th place finish, but every other performance this season hinted at her being a top-10 individual at the national meet.

Well, she ended up finishing 18th overall, which is still a remarkable improvement from her 77th place finish last year and slightly better than her 20th place finish from the March of 2021 on the same course. However, the firepower that she displayed at key regular season meets suggested that she could finish even higher.

Kemboi has emerged as a top name from Utah Valley and had some surprising performances earlier this season. She was 3rd at the Cowboy Jamboree, won Paul Short, finished 13th at the Nuttycombe Invitational, dominated the WAC XC Championships and pulled off an impressive win at the Mountain Regional XC Championships.

She finished 19th overall on Saturday, which is still an amazing performance, but based on the resume that she built this season, I would have put her at 8th or 9th.

Ben: On the women’s side, I put myself at risk by picking against both Katelyn Tuohy and NC State. And although Parker Valby and New Mexico acquitted themselves quite well, I have learned my lesson, especially in Tuohy’s case.

Tuohy has reached the level where she should be favored in every single NCAA race until she leaves. I hope we get to see her for at least another year or two because Tuohy is on track to make herself one of the best collegiate runners ever.

On the men’s side, it’s Stanford. I really thought that this was their year, but for them to have another disappointing finish is just brutal. At this point, they need to show it at the NCAA XC Championships before we can make them the title favorites.

I’ll have to remind myself of that next fall, but the races before November really don’t matter for them any more, at least not in my mind.

Hannah: I don’t make many D1 predictions, but I do have Wisconsin bias.

I did say this week that Bob Liking was going to be top-10, if not top-five. He finished in 34th place today which is still pretty solid, but obviously not where I thought he'd be…

To be fair, he was in the top-10 until around the 6k mark which is when he started to fall back. There always seems to be one Wisconsin man who has an "off" day at the national meet and today, that was Bob.

Garrett: I decided to live on the wild side of life and predict that the Tulsa men were going to place 3rd overall on Saturday.

On paper, they had four men who could be top-30 All-Americans. And as long as their final scorer didn’t get struck by a meteor during his race, then this team had a very real chance to be a podium squad.

Unfortunately, only two of those four men delivered an All-American performance. Cormac Dalton (15th) and Shay McEvoy (23rd) were fantastic and Isaac Akers (44th) was at least good enough.

But with their final two scorers placing 61st and 202nd overall, there was just no support for the top men in this lineup. As a result, the Golden Hurricanes fell to 9th and I have been left searching for a prediction of mine that was a) actually bold and b) came true.

Scotty: I hate to call out an individual, because everyone has an “off” day, but strictly from a “predictions” standpoint, I was way off the mark with Parker Stokes of Georgetown who finished 132nd, a total of 101 spots lower than where I predicted him to be.

Due to the lack of television coverage that distance running gets, certain races get burned into my brain, and Stokes’ impressive finish in the steeplechase at last spring’s NCAA Outdoor Championships (where he finished 3rd) was on my mind.

That race, coupled with his current season where his only visible “off” day was a 37th place finish at Nuttycombe (which was still pretty solid), made me “stoked” for Stokes entering this weekend.

Unfortunately, the results didn’t quite pan out as I’d hoped for the Hoya star.

Maura: I was really hoping for BYU’s Casey Clinger to give the Cougars their third individual title today, but I was left in my own little pity party seeing him finish 7th. That’s by no means a poor showing for Clinger, and as Chicago Cubs fans say, “There’s always next year.”