D2 Weekend Preview

Major D2 conferences such as the RMAC, GLVC and G-MAC have already had their championship races, but that doesn't mean that all D2 competition is over! We've got some great matchups happening this weekend that we opted to preview below.

Additionally, a separate D2 meet which is named the "2020 XC Team Championships" is taking place on Friday and is acting as a replacement meet for the MIAA XC Championships. We will likely recap the men's and women's races at some point next week.

So with that, lets dive into some of the upcoming D2 action...

North Georgia Invitational Preview

Written by: Eric Baranoski

The top two teams on the men’s side, as well as the top three teams on the women’s side, from last year’s Peach Belt XC Championship are set to get a preview of this year’s conference course which is hosted by North Georgia.

The six teams competing on the men’s side are last year’s defending Peach Belt champion in Augusta University as well as Flagler College (last year's runner-ups), Clayton State, Piedmont and Young Harris. The women’s race will be bolstered by an additional two teams in North Georgia and Georgia Southwestern.

Just like last year, the Augusta men look like the class of the field. They most recently competed in the ever-competitive Blazer Classic in which they beat Lee (Tenn.) rather convincingly. However, they were on the wrong end of a matchup against an up-and-coming Alabama-Huntsville team.

Even so, Augusta returned six out of their seven runners who ran on last year’s team (which finished 9th at the NCAA Championships), so these names should look pretty familiar.

The Jags are led by Jacob Poston who has been on an absolute tear this season, winning the Koala Classic in a new 8k personal best and placing 3rd at the Blazer Classic only to Alabama-Huntsville’s Jay Day and Lee’s Christian Noble. He should be the favorite once again on Saturday.

Making up a very tight pack of scorers behind Poston are the Kennedy brothers (Chase and Chandler), although Chandler has been a bit off thus far this season, finishing as the eighth runner on the team in one meet and most recently recording a DNF. However, when he's at his best, he could very easily emerge as a scorer.

The rest of the pack is made up of senior Hunter Kimball and a handful of juniors in Brenna Silliman, Kai Brickey and Hans Troyer. With this group having extensive racing experience from last year’s historic season -- which included winning the Peach Belt title, to finishing 3rd at the Southeast regional meet, to placing top-10 at the NCAA Championships -- I fully expect them to come out on top this weekend.

While Augusta has been getting all of the attention nationally, Flagler has been quietly holding their own, knowing that they were going to get two cracks at this seemingly impenetrable Augusta squad this year.

In their first race of the season, Flagler took 2nd at the Florida State Invitational in the Open race, barely losing to South Alabama (a Division One squad that competes in the Sun Belt) by five points.

In their only other race of the year at the Sand Shark Invitational, they swept the top five spots over a relatively weak field. Both races have proven that senior Marcus Graham is going to Poston’s best competition this weekend (aside from his Jaguar teammates).

It will be up to the other Saints such as Justin Green, Asad Bashir (the reigning Peach Belt Freshen of the Year), Joel Nesi and Evan Fuller to run stride for stride with Augusta if Flagler is going to have any chance at pulling off an upset win.

* * *

The women’s race will likely be contested by three teams: Flagler, North Georgia and Augusta.

I’m going to give Flagler the benefit of the doubt here since they are the reigning Peach Belt champions and only lost one senior from last years team. However, they have been a bit shaky to say the least. They looked rusty out of the gate against Division One competition at the Florida State Invitational as they finished second-to-last in the Open race. They later handled weaker competition in South Carolina with relative ease.

It's tough to say for sure what we should expect from this team given their very different results this year. However, on paper, they should be a competitive squad.

Leading the Saints is Malia Cryan, the individual runner-up at last year’s Peach Belt Championship. She has looked solid at both meets so far this year. Following her lead has been Jessie Mescal, Allison Horwitch and the freshmen duo of Sam Gayton and Megan Churchill.

With some of these ladies having championship racing experience, I would expect them to come out firing, especially on the eventual Peach Belt course.

Nine points separated the North Georgia Nighthawks from the Saints at last year’s Peach Belt Championships. Even though North Georgia lost a couple of seniors, the underclassmen have made sure that they haven’t lost a step as a team. Look for Karmen LeRoy, Claire Mills, Sydney Bolyard and Olivia Terwilliger to defend their home course.

The Augusta women are led by Mackenzie Taylor who is undefeated on the year. She will try to win her third race in a row, although this is a very respectable field. Besides having a solid low-stick, the Jaguars will be looking for others to step up. Miranda Taylor, Jaelen Alexander, Madison Congdon and a few others are likely those emerging scorers.

However, keep in mind that Augusta has not yet had Micah Weathers toe the line this year. The 2019 Peach Belt individual cross country champion could dramatically swing the race in Augusta's favor if she runs.

This race will mostly be between North Georgia and Flagler, but if everything comes together the right way (and if Weathers actually races), then Augusta could be a major factor.

---

Gulf South Championship Preview

Written by: John Cusick

Heading into this weekend, Alabama-Huntsville and Lee (Tenn.) have faced off against each other twice this season and both times have gone the Chargers' way -- once at their home meet and the second instance coming at the Blazer Classic. They have the Flames number as of late and their success against this team dates back to the 2019 season where they took home wins at the GSC Championships and the South Regional Championships.

It’s likely we are going to see the Chargers come out on top yet again given how they have performed this season. Jay Day continues to lead this team and has proven to be a very legitimate front-runner capable of being nationally competitive. However, it’s not just his doing that gives the Chargers an edge.

The Chargers' mix of Harold LaCroix, Allan Anderson, Caleb Boys and Alex Herbst is a very strong group of supporting scorers that feel to be relatively interchangeable. UAH's top five time spread at the UAH Chargers Open was 35 seconds. At the Blazer Classic, that time spread was yet again 35 seconds. Consistency, depth and team running has been how this team has succeeded and it's how they will get it done for the third time against Lee.

Now, that said, the biggest headline may come from Lee’s Christian Noble as he will run hard from the gun and will likely run away with this race. Last year, when UAH knocked out the Flames at their conference and regional meets, we thought a big x-factor in that rivalry would be the return of Noble.

The D2 superstar has certainly been incredible and can only help his team from a scoring standpoint, but the Flames just haven't been quite as strong when it comes to a few of the names behind him.

Caleb Eagleson and Adan Rodriguez have been consistent for the Flames this season along with Noble. Meanwhile, Casey Guthery and Titus Lagat have had slow starts to the season and were projected to have a bigger impact in the preseason.

That said, there is just too much talent on this team for this group not to be successful when looking at their returners from last year. They can be dangerous, but they'll have to actually put their pieces of the puzzle together first.

Normally, we would talk about the individual race, but Noble has been on an absolute tear this season and there’s no reason to believe that he slows down this weekend.

If you’re looking for a closer race, the battle for 2nd could prove to be very interesting. The aforementioned Jay Day and Mississippi College's Evan Del Rio could end up duking it out for that spot.

* * *

The Lee women won the 2019 Gulf South title on the heels of Celine Ritter, Chloe Flora and Charlee Boxall. Ritter has continued to roll without the other two, but while she continues to win, it’s her teammates that should (in theory) continue their championship success in 2020.

Toni Moore, Olivia McClain and Hannah Spooneybarger have all been strong scorers for the Flames this season. Those three, in addition to Ritter, have led the Flames to a team win at the UAH Chargers Open, a 2nd place finish at the Louisville Classic (behind a strong Cedarville team) and then a respectable 6th place finish amongst a field of D1 squads at the Blazer Classic (Gold race).

Mississippi College finished 18 points back of Lee at the Chargers Open with strong performances from underclassmen Kathy Hammon and Jazmin Hernandez. Their other races have not been all that competitive this season, so we're still trying to get a gauge of their overall talent.

Their top five time spread at that same meet was just 30 seconds compared to a time spread of 1:14 for Lee, so keep that in mind for this weekend. However, if you ignore Ritter and look at Lee's time spread for their 2-3-4-5 runners, the split was just 21 seconds.

In other words, Mississippi College still has some work to do in order for them to finish higher than the rest of the Lee women.

Ritter is the favorite for the individual title, but she could be challenged at least a little bit. Kaylee Stewart of Alabama-Huntsville was only 14 seconds back from Ritter at the UAH Chargers Open and she just had her best race of the season at the Blazer Classic, running 21:37.

Ritter could ultimately do the same thing we expect Noble to do and run hard from the gun. If she does that, no one will be able to keep up with her.

---

Lone Star Conference Championships

Written by: John Cusick and Eric Baranoski

Q&A: The men of West Texas A&M have won the Lone Star Championship title every year dating back to 2013. Their women’s team has also won more than their fair share of titles as well. Does anyone have the ability to knock either team off the top of the podium this season?

John: I personally think that this race is pretty cut and dry. The Buffaloes (men) haven’t lost a conference meet since before TFRRS started tracking meets and I don’t think that changes in 2020.

At their only race of the season, the West Texas A&M men scored 44 points, which was 10 points better than Dallas Baptist. The two key names missing from those results were Ezekiel Kipchirchir and Innocent Murwanashyaka.

The 11th place finisher at last year’s NCAA meet (Kipchirchir) is the leader of this program and Murwanashyaka is a top JUCO transfer who will help this team secure additional scoring. Despite not having those two in their lineup earlier this season, the Buffaloes were able to place runners in 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 9th over their next-best competition.

I don’t think there’s much of a race here, even if the aforementioned individuals don’t toe the line. Lock the Buffaloes in for yet another LSC title.

On the women’s side, I’ll actually take Dallas Baptist. They’ve had a very nice showing early-on in 2020, opening their season with a score of 15 points and six girls underneath the 19:00 threshold. They then followed up that performance with another 15-point run before heading to their final competition of the season where they scored just 16 points.

That said, the question at hand is how many points do they score at the LSC meet this weekend? My gut says it’ll be less than 30 and that they will bring home the LSC title.

Eric: When first taking a look at the 2019 LSC results, I would have said Lubbock Christian for both the men and women, but it seems like their 2020 rosters are entirely different than their 2019 teams.

For the women, Lubbock Christian lost the 2019 LSC champion Amira Cunningham as well as Caroline Jerotich and Jenna Rosales. Switching to the men, they have lost a strong trio of Kenyan Abdi, Patrick Chemoimet and Brian Kipchumba who all finished in the top eight of last year's LSC Championship.

So who could realistically challenge West Texas A&M this year?

My pick is Dallas Baptist. The women have yet to lose all year while the men have only lost once to UT-Tyler. The women are led by Marissa Insinna, Madison Brown and Analynn Klotz who have formed a solid trio at the top of their meets thus far. They have come a long way from last year, having each set a new personal best in either the 5k or 6k.

Leading the men are junior Noah Metzger and freshman Jeb Williamson. Not too far behind are Angel Luera, Trenton Phillips and Bryce Tomasek. If the Patriots can close their lineup scoring gaps, then I wouldn't put an upset out of reach.

That said, I'm still taking both the West Texas A&M men and women. I like the raw talent on each of these rosters and history says that they'll win this championship meet.