TSR Collaboration
Oct 23, 202012 min
This weekend, we are entering the championship portion of the cross country season within the realm of D2. We have three (major) conference meets taking place this weekend, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity for us to chat about a few of the important races that we are going to see.
So without further ado, let’s jump right into it...
Eric: The G-MAC winner on the women's side will be Hillsdale while the men's winner will be Walsh.
There is nothing that has led me to believe that there is a better women's team in the G-MAC than the Chargers. They made a statement at the G-MAC Preview meet earlier this season when they scored just 18 points, proving that they have mastered the course that they will be racing on this Saturday.
The Chargers will have two women vying for the individual title in Maryssa Depies and Sophia Maeda as they have been the top two scorers for this team all season long. However, the women behind that dynamic duo are the ones who will need to continue their strong pack running in an effort to bring home the team title.
This is where Gwynne Riley, Christina Sawyer and Megan Poole come into play. These women are the ones who will close out the scoring in an effort to secure gold for the Chargers as they look to win the G-MAC title for the second-straight season.
On paper, Hillsdale's top five is simply more complete. They have respectable front-runners and great depth, leading me to believe that they had the edge over respectable squads from Walsh and Cedarville.
The men’s race, however, is much more up in the air (in my opinion) as I could see either Hillsdale or Walsh taking home the team trophy. However, I am ultimately choosing Walsh as they are the defending G-MAC champions.
Even though they lost the head-to-head battle earlier this year to Hillsdale, the margin was just three points. Overall, they have a tighter top five (based on prior results from earlier this season) and if that group doesn't let their competition get away from them, then that will give the Cavaliers the overall win.
Walsh's top five consisted of Chandler Wilhelm, Julian Shrock, Drew Monahan, Benji House and Joey Buehner at the G-MAC Preview, but they were without top scorers like Drew Robert, Noah Murray and a few others. This team still has a ton more to offer in terms of scoring which is a big reason why I'm taking them for the win.
John: It’s hard to argue against the women from Hillsdale this season. The only two teams we had ahead of them in our most recent mid-season rankings were Adams State and Western State.
Maryssa Depies and Sophia Maeda have made the most of this 2020 season and they have helped this Hillsdale program emerge as one of the strongest teams in the country. They will likely lead the team again this weekend. Alayna Ackley and her Cedarville teammates will surely put together a strong effort, but there is just too much depth from the Chargers. Like Eric said, the scoring of Riley, Sawyer and Poole will help this Hillsdale team take home the overall win.
The Walsh women fall in that same boat as Cedarville thanks to the scoring potency of Alexa Leppelmeier. That said, a strong individual performance from just their top scorer will likely not be enough for either of these teams to take home the title.
When these three teams raced earlier in the season, Hillsdale was able to place their top five inside the top-13 spots which gave them a 16-point victory. Cedarville and Walsh finished three points apart from each other, putting their entire top five runners in the top-20 spots of this race.
Something would have to change this weekend (in a very similar field) if either Walsh or Cedarville want to upset Hillsdale.
On the men’s side of things, I have to agree with Eric once more. At first glance, you’d say that Hillsdale would be the overall favorite, but I think Walsh has the best chance to win this race. At the G-MAC Preview, Hillsdale went 1-2 and that was ultimately what created that margin of victory for the Chargers.
Not only that, but as Eric already mentioned, the potential of adding Roberts, Murray and a few others back into this Walsh lineup should give the Cavaliers the better scoring, a tighter time spread and the overall win.
John: I’ll start with the men because this could be a hot take, but I think Lewis finally hears their name come out as the champion of the GLVC. The reason is because of freshman Anthony Farmer.
He came into the program and has immediately made an impact, winning his first race ever and then following that up with a 2nd place finish at his second meet. But it's not just him. The Flyers' supporting cast have been doing their job and they've been running incredibly well.
Dustin Macuiba has shown up this season with 2nd and 4th place finishes (respectively) while Daniel Arimi has had a breakout season of his own, giving Lewis a very solid third scoring option.
Now let’s be clear. Lewis is certainly an improved team, but Southern Indiana just hasn’t performed the way that we thought they would. Silas Winders has run well, but transfers Noah Hufnagel and Braden Nicholson have been a bit quieter than expected. Without top low-stick Titus Winders in the mix, this team lacks a true low-stick despite the success that we've seen from men like Wyatt Harmon and Gavin Prior this year.
Based on what we have seen, Lewis should come out as the victors this weekend just as they have the last two times these teams have faced each other.
On the women’s side, it’s also a two-team race with a potential third team sneaking into the mix. Southern Indiana is back again while Illinois-Springfield likely poses as their biggest threat. You could also see Southwest Baptist show their true strength as a team this weekend.
However, the biggest matchup to watch out for is how Jennifer Comastri, Taryn Christy and Elysia Burgos face-off against each other.
When Illinois-Springfield challenged Southern Indiana just a few weeks ago, it was because Taryn Christy finished 3rd overall with her teammates right behind her in 4th and 5th. While three consecutive finishers in the top-five might not be doable at the conference meet, they’ll still want a similar scoring structure if Christy can’t get in front of Comastri when the race is over.
Much like Christy, Southern Indiana's Jennifer Comastri will need to ensure that she finishes ahead of everyone (minus Lauren Bailey) or it could mean a 2nd place finish for the Screaming Eagles. The USI women have a solid lineup behind Comastri, but they're also on the younger side, so I have to wonder how some of that youth will handle a championship stage.
As for Elysia Burgos, she will lead this Southwest Baptist team and (like every other team) will be relying on her teammates to bring home the title.
There hasn’t been a direct competition between these three teams all at once yet, so it’ll be interesting to see where Southwest Baptist fits in alongside Southern Indiana and Illinois-Springfield. However, if one thing is for certain, it's that this race is going to be very close.
I’ll take Illinois-Springfield for the overall win when the results are fully tallied.
Eric: The GLVC champions on the men's side will be Lewis as I have truthfully not been super impressed with Southern Indiana this season. Coming into this season, we assumed a lot of things about USI.
First, we figured that Titus Winders would be in their lineup. Second, we figured that the impact of their transfers (Nicholson and Hufnagel) and top-ranked recruit (Silas Winders) would be game-changing.
Unfortunately, none of these assumptions have borne fruit. The Southern Indiana men have lost to Lewis twice this season and just haven't raced up to their potential. However, they do have one last chance to prove themselves at the GLVC Championships this weekend. On paper, they're a talented squad that just needs to put all of their pieces of the puzzle together on the right day.
As for Lewis, they have taken advantage of a Southern Indiana team that hasn't had Titus Winders leading the way. As John already mentioned, Anthony Farmer is the real deal and is only a freshman. Dustin Macuiba and Daniel Arimi have also shined this year.
Look for the Flyers to finally dethrone the Eagles this weekend.
For the women, I'll take Southern Indiana. They just have more depth than Illinois Springfield. Based on the two meets that they have run in this season, they can rely on Jennifer Comstri to be their low-stick while the rest of their team can utilize their typical pack strategy which is largely unmatched in the GLVC.
That said, Illinois-Springfield has Taryn Christy, Gloria Esarco and Sydney Huffman who can create a lethal top-three. However, after that trio, they start to develop a relatively large gap.
As for Southwest Baptist, they have a similar structure to Southern Indiana. Elysia Burgos plays a similar role that Jennifer Comastri does and then has four other runners behind her who tend to pack up and run together.
I could truly see it coming down to a tie-breaker between USI and Southwest Baptist with the Screaming Eagles' making the difference and giving them the win.
John: I think it’s safe to say that lots of people are looking forward to this race. We were unsure of what we would get this season with certain teams, but many of them have run and we are finally going to them matchup against each other in a single meet.
Starting with the women, Adams State, Western Colorado and Colorado Mines will likely be the teams battling for the overall win.
The Grizzlies impressed us earlier this season with an emphatic 23-point win over the Mountaineers in Grand Junction two weeks ago. However, the most surprising result may have been the individual winner as Brianna Robles ran away with the individual title over teammate Stephanie Cotter who finished 3rd.
And the rest of the team? How does places 8-9-10-11 work for you? So much for our concern about the reigning champs...
We thought that (during a regular year) this may be Western Colorado’s best chance to win a national title and knock-off Adams State, but that’s not much a sure-thing anymore. This team was led by Bailey Sharon, Katie Doucette and Alexa Thiros a few weeks ago, but their final two scorers didn’t cross the line until much later. Depth will be an important aspect to watch for this Western Colorado team on Saturday.
As for the Orediggers, we haven’t seen Colorado Mines race this season (at least not on the grass), but they did run a time trial on the track with Colorado Christian a few weeks ago. In that time trial, the Orediggers had five women run under 19:00 with Zoe Baker running 17:17. They’ll be in the team title race this weekend, but I don’t have much else to say about them at the moment.
Moving on to the men, we are looking at the same three teams once again. The Orediggers are the reigning conference champions and it looks like they'll be favored to defend their title. Both Dylan Ko and Kyle Moran ran 23:57 for 8000 meters at their time trial earlier this season, proving that their fitness is still there. They should both be at the front of this race in pursuit of yet another RMAC title.
In their way will be Western Colorado and Adams State.
The Mountaineers made their own statement a few weeks ago when they took the first three spots at the Colorado Mesa Maverick Invitational. Taylor Stack and Charlie Sweeney finishing 1-2 wasn’t much of a surprise, but Evan Sutherland finished 3rd overall was the biggest surprise of the weekend. He will need to race like that again in order to give this Western Colorado team a shot at winning it all.
As for the Adams State Grizzlies, they truthfully underwhelmed (a bit) in their first race. Luckily, Isaiah Rodarte looked to be back to his normal self a few weeks ago which would be a huge boost to this team who lost quite a bit of scoring power heading into 2020.
In that same race, Carson Bix finished 5th. That’s a respectable result, but after his NCAA performance and breakout indoor track season, we're expecting him to secure a stronger overall result this weekend.
Ultimately, the biggest uncertainty that we have for both Western Colorado and Adams State is their depth. We know that Colorado Mines has plenty of that (they returned six of their seven from last year’s NCAA meet), so if any team wants to take down the Orediggers, their backend will need to make some noise.
Eric: For both the men and women, it comes down to the same three teams every year as they have a stronghold on not just the best runners in the RMAC, but usually across all of Division Two as well. It should come as no surprise that Adams State, Colorado School of Mines and Western Colorado are the headline acts for this weekend.
Starting off with Mines, they did things their own way this season by running a time trial that produced strong results. Facility records for both 5000 meters and 8000 meters were both run as Zoe Baker ran 17:17 while Dylan Ko ran 23:57. Kyle Moran just missed out running 23:57.16 as Ko’s time of 23:57.04 was just enough to edge his teammate out.
With these kinds of performances coming from the track, how will the Orediggers be able to translate that fitness to the grass?
Adams State and Western State have already raced each other once this season. For the men, the top three for the Mountaineers (Taylor Stack, Charlie Sweeney and Evan Sutherland) proved to be too much for the new-look Grizzlies as Western Colorado took home the "W" by 20 points.
The Grizzlies clearly do not have the same firepower from last year after losing Kale Adams and Dane Blomquist. They are now relying on a handful of youngsters to bolster their lineup. Veterans Isaiah Rodarte and Carson Bix have proved to be a solid tandem for Adams State, and Yonas Haile had a nice debut as well, but based on that one meet, the Grizzlies will need more backend help this weekend to truly challenge Western Colorado and Colorado Mines.
The women's race, however, is quite the opposite as Adams State reversed fortunes and took the head-to-head victory over Western Colorado by 23 points the other weekend at the Colorado Mesa Maverick Invitational.
Stephanie Cotter (3rd) not winning the race was quite a surprise, but Brianna Robles (1st) proved that she was the better competitor that day. The Grizzlies also showed off their depth as they swept places 8-9-10-11 in the final results.
As for Western Colorado, the trio of Bailey Sharon, Katie Doucette and Alexia Thiros were impressive as they finished 4-5-7. However, the Mountaineers will be looking for their final two scorers to shore up the gap between them and the top three this weekend.
Despite the strong performances from Adams State and Western Colorado, I think I am going to take Colorado Mines on both the men's and women's sides.
The men's pick is easy to understand given their experience, depth and firepower. As for the women, I think the Orediggers have a great 1-2 punch and much better depth than we expected after seeing their time trial.
Eric: The GLVC has my eye on the women's side as Lauren Bailey will be heavily favored to win. That said, it's the women chasing her who will impact the team race.
Southern Indiana’s Jennifer Comastri and Southwest Baptist’s Elysia Burgos will duke it out and how they finish will largely impact the GLVC Championship. Based on their order, they could largely determine if Southern Indiana or Southwest Baptist wins as I'm just not quite sold on Illinois-Springfield yet.
The Bailey-Comastri-Burgos battle shouldn't just be a thrilling individual race, but their order could determine which team comes out on top which is why I'm going to be watching this matchup extra closely.
On the men's side, it's hard to pass up on the RMAC. A handful of names will vie for the individual title, including UC-Colorado Spring's Afewerki Zeru, Adams State’s Carson Bix and Isaiah Rodarte, Western State’s Charlie Sweeney and Taylor Stack, and Colorado School of Mines' Dylan Ko and Kyle Moran.
Ko is the defending champ while Stack and Sweeney came in 2nd and 3rd (respectively) last season. Will anyone be able to flip the script and deliver a huge result for their team?
John: I'll this keep short since Eric got to this question before me. He is spot on in terms of the races we should watch for.
The GLVC matchup between Bailey-Comastri-Burgos may end up being the best three-person battle we end up seeing all season long and where they finish could have implications on the team race.
As for the men, you could list five, six or seven names who could realistically take home the individual win this weekend. No D2 conference in the NCAA that is officially racing this season has anywhere close to the amount of firepower that the RMAC has, so this will surely be the most top-heavy field that we have seen so far this season.