The Group Chat: NCAA XC Championship Reactions

The second running-based NCAA Championship of the past few days is now complete and my goodness was it a thriller. The men's and women's races in Stillwater, Oklahoma gave us a ton to talk about and we have plenty of analysis to dive into.

Here are our initial reactions from this year's national meet...

Maura: I’m going to say 2. Coach Diljeet Taylor obviously prepares her women for the championship meets. I mean, just look at what the Cougars did on the indoor oval a few days. The trio of Anna Camp-Bennett (11th), Aubrey Frentheway (15th) and Whittni Orton (17th) reminds me a little bit of Courtney Wayment, Erica Birk-Jarvis and Orton from the 2019 meet. Sara Musselman and McKenna Lee did a great job of keeping the time-five time spread at a mere 31 seconds which played a huge role.

The biggest reason why BYU won NCAA gold this year, even after graduating top women from their runner-up 2019 finish, was that Camp-Bennett improved from 60th in 2019 to 11th earlier today. Not only that, but Orton was back in the lineup after nursing a foot injury. If Orton had not started the race, the Cougars would’ve been in trouble as their sixth runner was all the way back in 115th.

Major props to the Cougars and Coach Taylor after two successful NCAA Championships in a matter of four days.

Michael: I’ll say 3. I really expected NC State or Stanford to win, but BYU is a great team and this has been in the works for a while. We saw the Cougars take 2nd as a team in 2019, and while this group does not look exactly the same, the overall talent is largely at the same level.

Coach Taylor has brought BYU to the top of the NCAA ranks in nearly every distance event as we recently saw at the NCAA Indoor Championships. There was definitely a question mark next to Whittni Orton’s name due to injury and the team needed a strong performance from her in order to win the title.

Although the Cougars’ win was not what I anticipated, it's still not super surprising that they were able to put it together today.

Ben: I’ll continue the upward trend of numbers and say 4. If I knew Orton was healthy and ready to roll before the NCAA Championships, then it would not be nearly as surprising. She was easily the biggest question mark coming into this race.

The way she went for the win before falling back was incredibly gutsy as she held on despite hitting a wall with a kilometer to go. Sara Musselman and McKenna Lee also stepped up in a big way to finish 33rd and 41st, respectively, to give BYU five women in the top-41 which was actually where they covered a lot of points. So much so that they were able to fend off Stanford.

Brett: I’ll give a 3. Even as Orton struggled in the late stages of the race, teammates Camp-Bennett and Frentheway stepped up and were able to hold the fort down for the Cougars. Coach Taylor has developed this team incredibly well over the last few years and it must have been very motivating to have their runner-up finish fueling them last year. They capitalized well on the day when it mattered most.

Michael: I’ll give Notre Dame’s performance a 6 in terms of how surprising it was. We all knew this was a good team, but their depth was ridiculously impressive. While no athlete in particular blew their race out of the water (with the possible exception of Kilrea), their top-six all had stellar performances.

Danny Kilrea placing 10th was huge for the Fighting Irish and I did not expect him to finish quite that high. Of course, Dylan Jacobs, Andrew Alexander, Jake Renfree and Yared Nuguse taking 20th through 23rd is what really made this race for Notre Dame. That was completely unexpected. Josh Methner’s 36th place finish is just the icing on the cake. There was no doubt that these guys were good, but I expected to see some gaps within that top-five and more so in their top-six. That, however, just didn't happen.

I predicted Notre Dame to finish 7th overall, which in retrospect, was a bit of an oversight. I would not have been surprised to see this team in the top-five, but to see them place 2nd the way that they did was a pretty big surprise to me.

Ben: For me it is a 9. I should start by saying that this is a talented team and we knew that. Jacobs, Kilrea and Nuguse were All-American-caliber talent and we knew that those three had the potential to be in the top-40 during Monday's race.

However, even if we penciled all three of them into the top-40, no one would have expected to see Renfree and Alexander within the top-25. Heck, even Methner had an incredible race to finish 36th overall which, with his high school pedigree, truthfully isn’t shocking.

It was surprising to see Renfree and Alexander finish so well, but the real stunner was that Notre Dame was able to have everyone run well on the same day. Often times, breakout performances like the ones we saw from Renfree and Alexander don’t happen in the same race.

There isn’t enough that can be said about how spectacular of a performance this was from the Irish. Despite a poor performance back in February, they rallied and put together one of the best team races that we've seen from a runner-up squad in a very long time.

Maura: I’m with Ben on this one. Six All-Americans is a ridiculous number. Seeing four men, Dylan Jacobs, Andrew Alexander, Jake Renfree and Yared Nuguse finish back-to-back-to-back-to-back in 20th to 23rd place was huge for the Fighting Irish.

Danny Kilrea is definitely a championship runner, picking up his second All-American honor in a matter of three years. Rookie Josh Methner didn’t let inexperience affect his performance as he was the fifth-best freshman in the field, which includes his redshirt teammate.

Based on the results, it's obvious that the Notre Dame men and Coach Sean Carlson made the right decision to focus on the NCAA XC Championship this winter.

Brett: I’d give it an 8. Notre Dame is a very good team, everyone knows that. With the way that Nuguse and Jacobs looked early on in the race, I figured they’d be a reliable 1-2 punch for the Fighting Irish en route to a solid team performance.

However, seeing Danny Kilrea have a massive race, along with Alexander and Renfree finishing with Nuguse and Jacobs, made for one extremely impressive day. To have Josh Methner be Notre Dame’s SIXTH runner and still be an All-American…well, that calls for some major kudos.

Maura: The Minnesota women looked superb today. They came in ranked at TSR #10 and left Stillwater, Oklahoma with a 5th place finish. Bethany Hasz bounced back incredibly well after competing in the 5000 meters on Friday evening. She placed 8th overall in a tough field earlier today.

No other Gophers were All-Americans, but their next four scorers were only separated by 26 seconds. Abby Kohut-Jackson, Anastasia Korzenowski and Jaycie Thomson held down the scoring well for Minnesota while Megan Hasz had a respectable performance when you consider that she has recently struggled to return from an injury.

The Utah State men have continued to impress me this year. After graduating a core group of guys last year, this was expected to be a rebuilding season for the Aggies. However, they put together an outstanding season.

Utah State started conservatively, but then moved up throughout the course of the race and finished 11th as a team, the highest in school history. Caleb Garnica showed his strength after winning the Mountain West XC Championships a few weeks ago and picked up his first All-American honor, placing 28th. True freshman Camren Todd was oh-so-close to that same honor, but missed out, placing 42nd overall. The Aggies will return six of these seven men from this lineup next year, although senior Haydon Cooper could technically still use his eligibility next fall if he wants to.

As for underperforming, the Michigan women unfortunately had an "off" day. Our TSR #8 team faded to 17th place overall, didn’t have an All-American and one of their top runners recorded a DNF (Hart).

Ericka Vanderlende was expected to challenge for a top-10 finish today, but after starting out in a respectable position, the sophomore fell back to 65th overall. Their top-five time spread was only 38 seconds, but their pack just wasn’t high enough in the field to earn a top finish.

The Wolverines were only racing in their second cross country race of the season, so they may have still been a bit rusty, especially in such a large, elite-level field.

Sticking with the BIG 10, the men of Wisconsin also underperformed today. The BIG 10 XC champions were 18th overall during Monday's race, finishing one point behind conference rival Michigan State and tying with the Air Force Falcons.

Only five men finished the race for the Badgers and their pack never materialized. Aljabaly, Meijer and Hacker didn't race at the BIG 10 Championships, but they did toe the line on Monday. Unfortunately, both Aljabaly and Meijer recorded DNF's, leaving the Badgers without a lot of expected scoring potency.

Michael: Personally, I think the Alabama women overperformed today by finishing 8th. Mercy Chelangat winning the individual title was a little bit of a surprise. I didn’t see that coming, but she was a solid pick to at least finish in the top-eight or so. Teammate Esther Gitahi finishing 36th was the performance that many of us expected.

However, sophomore Amaris Tyynisimaa finishing 3rd overall pushed Alabama from being a solid team to a very good team. None of us had her as an All-American in our predictions, which was admittedly a bit of a snub when looking at her resume, but we had previously thought of her as a miler.

Plus, she had only finished 26th at the SEC XC Championships back in late October. In the span of four and a half months, she went from being a modest backend scorer to one of the best distance runners in the country.

Also, the Southern Utah men overperformed by a pretty sizable margin today. Our average predicted finish for the Thunderbirds was 19th but they ended up placing 9th. Christian Ricketts had a huge performance to take 31st individually, followed by Nate Osterstock and Stefen Rasmuson in 48th and 52nd, respectively.

Additionally, all five of their scorers finished in the top-100 which may not sound overly impressive when compared to teams like NAU and Notre Dame, but this is a great performance from Southern Utah and it shouldn’t be overlooked.

On the other side of things, the Georgia Tech women did not have quite the performance they may have been capable of, finishing 20th as a team. Nicole Fegans ran well to finish 10th overall and Liz Galarza placed 77th. Beyond those two, the Yellow Jackets’ last three scorers did not have incredible days. This is a team that I think was capable of a 15th place finish (or higher) if everything went perfectly.

On the men's side, the NC State Wolfpack did not perform as well as they could have, finishing 23rd overall. The men from Raleigh finished 2nd at the ACC XC Championships in the fall ahead of both Wake Forest and Duke, two teams that they lost to today.

Ian Shanklin was a solid All-American pick, but came across the line in 54th place. Joe Bisritz and Gavin Gaynor both had tough outings as well which hurt the team’s chances. And if that wasn't enough, J.P. Flavin did not finish the race despite earning a 15th place result at the ACC Championships in the fall.

Ben: The Ole Miss women finishing 12th after barely making it to the NCAA Championships was incredible. Anna Elkin, Sintayehu Vissa and Loral Winn all had spectacular races, finishing within the top-60 while Skylar Boogerd and Victoria Simmons did just enough to keep the Rebels competitive. Great performance from the Ole Miss women.

Conversely, it was not the best day for the Oklahoma State women who struggled on their home course. Taylor Roe was unbelievable to finish 2nd overall while Molly Born was solid to cross the line in 54th place. However, Gabby Hentemann had an "off" day and the team simply struggled on a tough course.

The easy answer for who over performed on the men's side is Notre Dame. After not racing on the grass after the Silver State Collegiate Challenge (where they struggled), it was impossible to say where the Irish would finish today.

I thought they could surprise some people, but I did not anticipate them finishing runner-up to NAU and giving them pressure throughout the entirety of the race. Danny Kilrea led the way for the Notre Dame men, crossing the line in 10th. However, the pack of Jacobs, Alexander, Renfree and Nuguse finished 20-21-22-23 which really sealed the deal for the Irish. Incredible day for the men from South Bend.

Lastly, the Colorado men under performed. Their star, Eduardo Herrera, had a tough race which left the Buffaloes without the necessary scoring potency to finish in the top-10. Even so, this was a strong season for the Buffaloes who were without two of their key scorers in Kashon Harrison and Stephen Jones the entire year.

Maura: NC State’s Hannah Steelman entered the NCAA Championships with a TSR #8 ranking and she nearly matched that with her 5th place finish. This performance came after the Wolfpack ace placed 8th in the 5000 meters at the indoor national meet.

In her three performances at the cross country national meet, Steelman has consistently improved, finishing 76th (2018), 23rd (2019) and now in the top-10. Not only did she have a great result, but Steelman was instrumental in NC State placing 2nd as a team.

For the men, Nico Young matched his TSR #4 ranking. The freshman held his own in his first NCAA meet and helped lead his NAU teammates to a victory. From the 2k mark to the finish, Young never fell out of the top-10. The freshman phenom didn’t let the fast pace affect his race plan as he knew what he was capable of and benefited from having three other teammates with him in the top-nine.

Ben: For the men, Isai Rodriguez did everything we expected him to do. He ended up finishing 8th, matching our TSR #8 ranking (and I predicted a 7th place result from the Cowboy). On his home course, Rodriguez ran with the confidence of someone who has finished 4th at the national meet before and has run these loops many times. He gave Oklahoma State the low-stick that they needed on their way to a 3rd place performance.

This is a tough question to answer in a women’s race which saw plenty of unexpected finishes. I’ll go with New Mexico’s Adva Cohen. She crossed the line in 22nd which is pretty much exactly what we thought she would do. I predicted her to finish 21st and she was ranked at TSR #24. She has been a consistent veteran presence for the Lady Lobos and it showed today in Stillwater.

Michael: Amon Kemboi entered the race as our TSR #12 runner and he finished 11th overall. Kemboi has been pretty reliable on the cross country course throughout the entirety of his career, so I’m not surprised that we were able to rank him accurately.

On the women's side, we had Bethany Hasz ranked at TSR #5 and she finished 8th overall. With the depth at the front of the women’s race, this was about as close to being "spot-on" as we could get. Hasz was doubling back from her 2nd place finish in the 5000 meters at NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday, so a slight drop in her performance may have been expected when put up against fresher runners.

Brett: Abdihamid Nur was ranked at TSR #7 coming into this weekend and capitalized on the opportunity in front of him, working with his Lumberjack teammates to finish 6th overall. He worked very well with Young, Ferro and Grijalva and never lost footing from being in the top-10. This was a nice improvement over his 33rd place finish from the 2019 national meet.

In a women's race which featured multiple surprising finishes, Jenna Magness of Michigan State had a really nice performance by taking 16th overall. Coming into this meet, she was ranked at TSR #19. She was the reliable low-stick who the Spartans needed if they were going to be on the podium (which is exactly what happened).

Maura: Summer Allen of Weber State. After having a baby in 2020, the redshirt senior emerged as a strong national-caliber threat all season long. In her four races leading up to the NCAA Championships, the Wildcat never finished outside of the top-nine. She ended her season in style with a 7th place finish today. I knew from the beginning of the 2021 season when I saw Allen win the Dixie State XC Invitational that she was capable of earning All-American honors.

Emily Mackay of Binghamton. I had never heard of Mackay before today and her 14th place finish really caught my eye. The junior raced twice leading up to the NCAA Championships, winning the UVM Cross Country Run Meet and the America East XC Championships. She went from finishing 90th last year at the Northeast Regional XC Championships to being an All-American this year.

Caleb Garnica of Utah State. Two weeks after winning the Mountain West XC Championships, the Utah State junior earned his first All-American honors with a 28th place finish today. Garnica did a great job of navigating through this field and cracked the top-40 with 2000 meters to go. He had experience from competing at the 2019 national meet (where he finished 118th), so he knew what it took to race against some of the nation’s best.

Ben: Kaley Richards of UMass Lowell. After a terrific performance at the Indoor National Championships in Fayetteville, which saw her place 4th in the mile, the junior doubled back to finish 30th in Stillwater. That was a terrific double, especially for a miler going up against hundreds of long-distance stars on a very hilly course.

Adriaan Wildschutt of Florida State, the man who finished 2nd to Conner Mantz. We all knew he was talented, but we had never seen him run well at the National Championships before this weekend. After holding his own in the 5000 meters at the indoor national meet where he finished 4th, he hung tough when Kiptoo made his move and slowly moved up with Mantz to catch the Cyclone star. Although Mantz got away from him at the end, it was truly a special race for the first-year Seminole.

Ryan Smeeton of Oklahoma State. The steeplechase star had so much potential to run well on the grass and he met that potential today on his home course. The Canadian’s 26th place finish was huge for the Cowboys as they placed 3rd overall and reached the podium.

Michael: Kelsey Chmiel of NC State. We knew that the sophomore was good after she finished 22nd at the 2019 national meet. However, 9th place is substantially higher than any of us predicted she would finish this year after struggling back in the fall. Chmiel also ran in the 5000 meters at NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday, putting her at a potential disadvantage to some of her competitors. Even so, she came through with a statement race and is someone to watch as a title contender next year.

Ohio University’s Josh Park stood out to me today with his 49th place finish. The senior won the Mid-American Conference title, but his track personal bests look pretty modest against some of the guys he beat in Stillwater. This was a well-earned finish for the mid-major stud, putting the Bobcats of Ohio University on the map.

Kaylee Mitchell of Oregon State was one of two All-Americans for the Beavers. She finished 20th as a sophomore in what appears to be only her third cross country race at the D1 level. This is a potential breakout performance for Mitchell despite being a top All-American talent during her time at Seattle Pacific before she transferred.

Brett: Danny Kilrea of Notre Dame has been pretty solid since his freshman year when he earned his first All-American honor on the grass. Today, however, he really showed his cards in earning a 10th place finish for the Fighting Irish, spearheading their 2nd place team effort. This should set him up well for a successful track season this spring, as well as what’s to come at future national meets on the grass.

Mahala Norris of Air Force had one heck of a weekend, walking away with two 4th place finishes in both the indoor 5k and on the grass today. She was previously 39th at the 2019 NCAA XC Championships, earning All-American status, but now has proven to be an up-and-coming force at the highest levels of collegiate competition. She stuck herself in that front pack for a majority of the race and that effort was rewarded with a top-five finish.

Patrick Dever was a strong force as Tulsa’s low-stick today, placing 5th overall in this very talented field. He slowly moved up throughout the duration of the race and found himself finishing right around some of the best names in the NCAA, improving on his 11th place finish from 2019.

Maura: I said that Conner Mantz of BYU was going to win, and guess what, he did. Mantz won by an outstanding 22 seconds. He grinded like he always does and bid his time, letting Iowa State’s Wesley Kiptoo and Florida State’s Adriaan Wildschutt do the early work. Mantz is definitely a force to be reckoned with over the longer distance races and he clearly wasn’t fazed by the course’s rolling hills.

On the women’s side, I predicted that the Boise State Broncos were going to be 9th overall and that’s exactly what happened. The 41 second time spread amongst their top-five scorers kept the Broncos together and all five scorers moved up over the course of the last 1000 meters. Tyler Beling did a great job of leading this fairly young team with her 39th place finish. All seven runners from this lineup return for the fall 2021 season and could once again find themselves in the top-10.

Ben: I predicted that the Alabama women would finish 9th and beat Arkansas, reversing their order from the SEC XC Championships. In the end, that was pretty much spot on, even if the Razorbacks were without Gregory and Ewert. The Crimson Tide finished 8th as a team, but could have finished much higher if Jami Reed had run like she usually does. Mercy Chelangat was amazing winning the race, but Amaris Tyynismaa was incredible, finishing 3rd overall after doubling back from the indoor national meet.

On the men’s side, I feel pretty good about my predictions about Stanford. I had them as a podium contender and picked them to finish 5th. Sure enough, they ended up placing 5th, right on the money. Additionally, I had both Charles Hick and Cole Sprout in the top-25 and they both finished in the top-15.

Michael: While this was not necessarily a bold prediction, I picked Nico Young to be Northern Arizona's top finisher en route to their fourth team title in five years. My prediction was that Young would be 3rd and the end result showed him in 4th place.

On the women’s side, I picked the NAU women to finish 11th overall which is what they did. The Lumberjacks went out hard, leading through the first kilometer of the race. It looked like my prediction was going to be way off until a few teams such as Boise State, Arkansas, Colorado and Minnesota made big moves between 5k and the finish, pushing NAU into 11th.

Ben: I was absolutely wrong about the BYU men winning the title. Clayson Shumway had an "off" day and Elijah Armstrong was not able to replicate his WCC performance. At the end of the day, NAU ran so well that it might not have mattered what the Cougars did, but I was well off the mark on that prediction.

As for the women, I was off the mark with my prediction that the Michigan women could sneak into the top-five. I predicted them to finish 5th overall and today was simply not their day. In the end, they finished 17th. Ericka Vanderlende wasn’t at her best, Katelynne Hart did not finish the race and the rest of their squad was unable to make up for those performances.

Maura: After he won the PAC-12 XC Championships, I thought that Colorado’s Eduardo Herrera would’ve finished 5th overall at the NCAA Championships, but boy was I wrong. The Buffalo senior started out strong through the first 3k, but struggled on the backend of the race as he fell to 107th by the finish. Today wasn’t Herrera's (or Colorado’s) day.

Stanford’s Zofia Dudek was never really in the race today. The freshman was stellar leading up to the national meet, leading me to believe that she was capable of a top-three finish. However, Dudek was Stanford's sixth runner today and dropped to 156th overall after holding steady in the late-20’s through 3k. Now, with a year of experience under her belt, Dudek should outperform this result in the coming years.

Michael: I predicted that the Duke men would be the last place team, finishing 31st. However, the Blue Devils ended up running much better than I anticipated with Alex Miley leading the way in 68th place. Hats off to Duke for proving me wrong and finishing a very respectable 16th overall!

I predicted that the Michigan State women would finish 7th overall, unconvinced that they had what it takes to make it on the podium in such a deep women’s field. However, Jenna Magness ended up placing 16th for the Spartans while teammates Lynsie Graham and India Johnson also picked up All-American finishes. It turns out that this was a much stronger team than I thought.