2024 Dellinger Invite First Thoughts: BYU Men Post Perfect Score While Utah Women Fend Off Elmore-Led Ducks

From a Division One perspective, this Friday and Saturday will be a bit lighter in terms of attention-grabbing results. That, of course, is simply because most teams are preparing for the nation's biggest regular season meet next weekend (Pre-Nationals).

Even so, the Dellinger Invite, a meet hosted by Oregon, did feature a handful of sneaky-good team performances that we wanted to highlight.

Admittedly, this "First Thoughts" article will be a bit shorter than usual. That's because, a) this meet wasn't super deep, and b) today is travel day as we prepare to live stream the Lewis XC Crossover (on our YouTube channel) tomorrow morning!

Let's dive in, shall we?

Men's Analysis

1. BYU Cougars (15 points)

Should we even be surprised?

The BYU men easily dominated this race, sweeping the top-five spots to post a perfect score against a small handful of nationally competitive programs in Oregon, Gonzaga and Montana State (the Portland men fielded a "B" team).

Casey Clinger, James Corrigan, Aidan Troutner, Creed Thompson and Joey Nokes went 1-2-3-4-5, respectively, to secure the win. Their time spread was just six seconds. Not only that, but Lucas Bons was back in 7th place while Davin Thompson made his long-awaited return to racing with a 10th place effort!

We didn't really learn anything new about the Cougars, but it is nice to see that their depth is coming together fairly well. True freshman Berkley Nance (15th) continues to have a very solid season.

2. Oregon Ducks (97 points)

We'll admit, this is not the result that we expected to see from the Oregon men on Friday.

Despite the recent news that star low-stick Devin Hart was no longer with the Ducks, we still felt that the team's combination of high-upside youngsters and reliable veterans would give them a healthy lead over the likes of Gonzaga and Montana State.

Instead, they barely fended off those two programs.

Elliott Cook (11th) was a solid lead scorer for the Ducks while freshman Tayson Echohawk (14th) had a result that he should be proud of. However, with gaps beginning to widen between Simeon Birnbaum (22nd), Quincy Norman (25th) and Evan Burke (34th), the Oregon men weren't able to keep their team score in check.

Evan Dorenkamp, last year's winner at the Paul Short Invite, wasn't a scorer and we didn't see Wisconsin graduate transfer Evan Bishop, either. We also didn't see Benjamin Balazs race, the 17th place finisher from this year's Cowboy Jamboree.

There are still avenues for Oregon to be better in the postseason. However, the firepower on this team will need to improve and the veteran additions that they brought in during the offseason will have to make improvements (or in Evan Bishop's case, begin racing).

3. Gonzaga Bulldogs (101 points)

They may have fallen to 3rd place and barely fended off 4th place Montana State, but I actually thought this was a somewhat decent outing for Gonzaga.

After an unexciting 17th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invite (where they beat Montana State by eight points), the Bulldogs seemingly rallied back on Friday morning. Wil Smith (9th) still wasn't in top form, but that result was certainly better than his last effort.

It was also highly encouraging to see sophomore Logan Law (19th) emerge as an impactful scorer while Bryce Cerkowniak (20th) continues to be very reliable. You could argue the same thing about Cooper Laird (28th). However, with a 10-spot gap opening up between that top-four and Gonzaga's final scorer, you can see how the Oregon men began to slip away.

The good news is that, a) Gonzaga beat a Montana State team that might have a shot at qualifying for the national meet (hence, giving them a Kolas point assuming there is no "push" scenario), and b) they were able to beat the Bobcats without veteran Drew Kolodge.

We'll admit, not having Kolodge at this point in the season isn't ideal. If he's healthy, then he likely makes the Bulldogs a better team than the group that Oregon fielded on Friday. But if he's sidelined for the rest of the season, then Gonzaga will remain on the fringes of the national qualifying conversation.

4. Montana State Bobcats (102 points)

This was truthfully a tough result for the Montana State men. Not just because they faded to 4th place against two beatable teams, but because they barely missed defeating those programs.

Ben Perrin (12th) was solid, although I thought he could have been the slightest bit better. Sam Ells (13th), meanwhile, continues to have a quietly strong season. Rob McManus (15th) gave his team three men in the top-15 and some of the better top-end scoring among the non-BYU programs.

Of course, with their final two scorers settling for 29th and 45th place, the top-half of the Bobcats' scoring contingent wasn't able to counter that drop-off. And unfortunately for Montana State, they settled for a 4th place result, just a single point out from bronze.

You could argue that the Montana State men are better than what they have shown so far this season. There is also a possibility that the Bobcats do the same thing as last year where they get into the national meet via a "push" scenario in the Mountain region. The same thing may need to happen again this fall after missing a crucial opportunity to earn one or two Kolas points.

5. Portland Pilots (159 points)

This section isn't necessarily here to analyze Portland's performance. Instead, it's to explain that the Pilots did not field a full lineup. Estanis Ruiz (21st) was their top runner and he may have a chance to crack Portland's top-seven in the postseason. Other than that, there isn't much to discuss.

Notable Individuals (not already mentioned)

UCLA's Michael Mireles (6th) continues to post solid result after solid result. The Bruin distance standout has been slowly building decent momentum and after a strong year on the track, Mireles looks like a possible low-stick-caliber runner. Don't be surprised if he makes it out of the West region (and into the national meet) as an individual this year.

Women's Analysis

1. Utah Utes (25 points)

After a very strong outing at the Nuttycombe Invite, you could argue that the Utah women looked just as good, if not better, on Friday morning.

The Utes handled this field with relative ease and left behind plenty of positives as well. Erin Vringer (2nd) validated that she is a true low-stick while Mckaylie Caesar (3rd) has seemingly grown more reliable as lead scoring talent. Morgan Jensen (5th) and Katarzyna Nowakowska (6th) continued to be two of the best support scorers in the country while Annastasia Peters (9th), despite not showing All-American prowess, still provided excellent value.

However, the one thing that we were most encouraged about is the rise of a sixth runner who is seemingly capable of being a scorer if called upon. That, of course, is Lindsey Peters (15th), a former Air Force and New Mexico runner. Her return to action raises the floor of this team a good bit, making this already-experienced team that much more stable.

Now, in fairness to Oregon, the Duck were without two key scorers (Mia Barnett and Silan Ayyildiz). If they had run, then the final standings would have been much tighter.

2. Oregon Ducks (53 points)

Maddy Elmore's return to racing resulted in a strong individual win. That effort further validated her as a top-20 All-American candidate. And more importantly, it shows us that she's healthy enough to contribute meaningful performances to an uber-talented team.

The issue, however, is that the Ducks were missing both Mia Barnett and Silan Ayyildiz. We're not too worried about the former name given that she has already competed at the Nuttycombe Invite this fall (and fared pretty well). However, the ongoing absence of Ayyildiz is a little concerning. Her firepower will be crucial for this team to reach their full potential, but we simply don't know what her status is.

That said, Anika Thompson (8th) continues to be very solid while Wilma Nielsen (143h), Ali Ince (14th) and Charlotte Sinke (17th) have all been better than expected this fall. The Ducks still have a solid core that will keep Oregon competitive this fall, but their ceiling will be determined by their low-sticks.

3. Nebraska Cornhuskers (105 points)

They probably won't make any national headlines this fall, but I have been very high on both Berlyn Schutz (4th) and Ali Bainbridge (7th) for a while now. Thankfully, the patience I had in terms of staying on their bandwagon has seemingly paid off.

Those two Husker talents were awesome low-sticks on Friday morning. They could seemingly make some noise as individuals at the even-more-loaded BIG 10 XC Championships this fall. It should also be noted that Brynna McQuillen (19th) had a very respectable outing in her own right. However, Nebraska began to see some drop-offs at the backend of their lineup, pushing them to just over 100 points.

4. Oregon State Beavers (135 points)

The Oregon State women are admittedly in a rebuild after losing two low-stick standouts from last year's team. Thankfully, Kate Laurent (11th) looks like she could potentially be a low-stick for the Beavers moving forward.

It should also be noted that numerous women in this lineup simply didn't have their best days. The Beavers are definitely stronger as a whole than what they showed us on Friday, but there is still plenty of work to do as they approach the postseason.

5. UCLA Bruins (148 points)

I really like the progress that we've seen from Mia Kane (12th) over the last year and Olivia Foody (16th) was a pleasant surprise. Yes, UCLA was hit with a few lineup gaps after those two women, but that was somewhat expected. The Bruins are rebuilding after the departures of Barnett, McDonnell and Frias, meaning that it will take a year or two before we can properly gauge this team.

Notable Individuals

Strong run from Montana State's Kyla Christopher-Moody (10th). She feels like a fairly underrated name who holds sneaky-good value as a lead scorer. I wouldn't be totally shocked if she found a way to qualify for the NCAA XC Championships as an individual this fall.