First Thoughts: 2023 NJCAA XC Championships

This past Saturday, the 2023 NJCAA XC Championships took place at John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Alabama. Luckily, one of our writers, Donny Speas, was able to get on site for the meet, watching the best junior college teams in the country go head-to-head. Below, we crafted a few prompts to get Donny's insight as to what went down on Saturday...

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What are some of your main takeaways from the top of the individual results in the men's and women's races?

Well, obviously, the top standout performers were the individual winners, JaQuavious Harris (Salt Lake CC) and Silvia Gradazzi (Iowa Western CC). However, Gradazzi will be discussed later, so let's first focus on the men's champion, Harris.

Entering the race, Harris was my personal pick for the individual title, but I didn't anticipate him running 23:18 (8k), marking an 11-second personal best. While this result is exceptionally impressive, it also wasn't overly surprising for me, either.

Having attended high school in the Salt Lake City area, and having raced in the Utah club scene, I've witnessed Harris's capabilities first-hand, well before his collegiate enrollment. It's worth noting that Harris is only a freshman in cross country, and there's potential that he'll return next year to defend his crown.

The race's fast pace was partly attributed to Divan Du Plooy, a freshman from South Plains CC, who took the lead during Saturday’s race, breaking it open and setting the tone for an incredibly fast championship race.

While Du Plooy's result (coming off of a 23:15 personal best for 8000 meters) didn't surprise me, his aggressiveness during the first mile was key in how the race shook out. It was also interesting to see him defeat New Mexico JC sophomore German Vega someone whom Du Plooy had an 0-4 record against leading into Saturday’s race.

On the women’s side, freshman Emerald Kehr (Salt Lake) delivered the most impressive women's result of the day (outside of the winner, Gradazzi). Her 17:35 (5k) was a 35-second PR from earlier this season and it validated many of her sneaky-excellent results from earlier in the season.

But truthfully, maybe we should have seen a race like this coming from Kehr. She did, after all, finish 7th at the Cougar Challenge and 29th at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational earlier this season. During those races, she put herself in the mix with a large handful of highly established Division Two talents.

The final athlete’s performance worth highlighting is the sophomore from New Mexico JC, Damaris Chewon. The Thunderbird star ran a substantial 22-second personal best to finish in 3rd place, crossing the line in 17:37 for the 5000-meter course.

Sure, some JUCO fans may have picked the 2023 indoor 5k national champion to take the win given her accolades from that one race. But despite settling for bronze, Chewon's performance was still a seasonal best and it marked a strong conclusion to a fall campaign that had been marked by early struggles.

Outside of the Salt Lake women winning the national title, what was the least surprising result of the day?

New Mexico JC sophomore Tomas Vega finishing as the individual runner-up in the men’s race, crossing the line in 23:22 (8k), felt very predictable. During his time with the Thunderbirds, he has emerged as an All-American on five different occasions, including Saturday’s race where he secured his fourth national meet runner-up result.

Keep an eye on Vega. If history continues to repeat itself, then he will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with on the indoor oval and he could also be a great pickup once he reaches the next level.

On the women’s side, Southern Idaho CC’s 4th place team finish aligned perfectly with expectations. Since the program's creation in 2017, the Golden Eagles have never finished lower than 6th place on the national stage. And when you evaluate their performances throughout the season, a 4th place finish was clearly an expected result for the 2022 national champions.

The only surprise for Southern Idaho CC was the order of their top finishers. Throughout the season, sophomore Elizabeth Phillips typically led the Golden Eagles, followed by freshman Rozzlyn Cazier. At the national meet, that order flipped, with Cazier finishing in 6th place and Phillips in 8th place. While that's not necessarily a bad result for Phillips, Cazier happened to have the best race of her career when it mattered the most.

Which team outside of the top-five had a quietly great race?

In the women's race, I was pleasantly surprised to witness El Paso CC secure a strong 7th place finish. With all five scorers placing within the top-80 scoring positions, the Tejanas had some of the best team-centric running of the entire meet. To give some context, this program was ranked as low as 19th in the USTFCCCA polls earlier this season.

Of course, in order to finish 7th on the national stage, you at least need some firepower, and El Paso's scoring potency can be attributed to their dynamic duo, both of whom peaked perfectly and achieved substantial personal bests.

Sophomores Alondra Valles and Crystal Peterson each slashed their 5k personal bests by approximately 35 seconds, securing 29th and 30th place finishes, respectively. This ultimately helped propel the Tejanas to the strong 7th place result which I'm certain they can be happy about after being ranked so low towards the beginning of this season.

On the men’s side, Pima Community College's 9th place finish was a noteworthy accomplishment for the Aztecs.

Ranked 14th by the USTFCCCA poll entering the national meet, this group exceeded expectations. That's especially true given that they lost key talents like Joel Gardner (who is currently running for Alabama) and Jonathan Lane, each of whom boast impressive 5k times of 14:12 and 14:32, respectively.

Although Pima CC couldn't entirely replace the firepower of Lane and Gardener, they made significant progress in the backend of their lineup. The Aztecs lacked a true low-stick as sophomore Abraham Valenzuela led the team with a 32nd place finish. However, the biggest factor for the Aztecs was the strong performance by Hall Griffith who set a personal record by 70 seconds, securing a 39th place finish.

The rest of the Pima CC squad ran relatively well to complement a respectable top-two, putting the rest of their top-seven within the top-100 scoring positions.

Keep an eye on this team moving forward. Although they lose Valenzuela and two solid depth pieces in Justin VanDerberg and Russell Bauer-Woodman, the returning core of this team consists of current freshmen who should be back next year contending for an even higher national meet finish in 2024.

At what point did you realize that the Trinidad State men were going to be the 2023 NJCAA XC National Champions?

Unlike the women’s race, the battle for the men’s team title was an absolute dogfight.

Going into the national meet, it felt like there were three teams with a real shot at winning NJCAA gold: the New Mexico JC Thunderbirds, the Salt Lake CC Bruins and the eventual national champions, the Trinidad State Trojans.

At the 4.6k split (the first split with team scores), it was quickly revealed that it simply wasn’t going to be New Mexico JC’s day (they would go on to finish in 4th place) and it looked like Salt Lake CC would win in a landslide with the Trojans a good 40 points back from the Bruins.

However, roughly five minutes later after the next checkpoint, it was a much different story with Trinidad State ahead by 15 points. After that, it was neck and neck. And as I was watching the athletes come down the finishing straight, it was clear that the athletes from Salt Lake CC were in a better position than they were at the 6.2k split, but it wasn’t clear if that was enough to take the lead from the Trojans.

Ultimately, despite the best efforts of the Bruins, it was the Trinidad State men that came out on top, winning by seven points, 71 points to 78 points. To wrap that all up, I genuinely had no clue who had won the race until the final scores had been tallied. Yes, it was simply that close.

Who is Silvia Gradizzi and what could we see from her during the upcoming track season?

Wow, talk about someone peaking at the right time!

Before Saturday's race, Gradizzi had only raced one 5k cross country race during her career, producing a victory at the NJCAA Region XI Championships in a time of 18:52 earlier this fall. That's why you can imagine my surprise when she came across the finish line and the clock read 17:20 for 5000 meters!

But in retrospect, that isn’t too much of a shock when you look at her track times. Way back in the summer of 2021, in her native country of Italy, Gradizzi ran a 16:56 (5k) mark on the track. That summer was an eventful one for Gradizzi who, in addition to her 5000-meter personal best, ran 4:33 for 1500 meters and 9:40 for 3000 meters. Her 3k personal best came at the 2021 European U20 Championships where she finished 13th.

Recently, the Italian ace has focused her efforts on the steeplechase where she has been nothing short of amazing, qualifying for the European U23 Championships and running a personal best of 10:12. To put that 10:12 performance into context, that result would have qualified her for both the Division One East & West Regional Championships.

For the upcoming year, I won’t be shocked if Gradizzi makes an attempt at the Junior College national records. On the indoor track, they stand at 9:48 for 3000 meters (Tigest Moreda of Odessa College) and 16:55 for 5000 meters (Leanne Pompeani of Iowa Central CC).

On the outdoor oval, I’d be surprised if Gradizzi DOESN'T take the steeplechase record by the time her Iowa Western CC career is over! The record currently stands at 10:31 (Adva Cohen of Iowa Central) and Gradizzi has already run faster than that on three separate occasions in her career…

Are there any future school-athlete combos that make perfect sense when it comes to JUCO recruiting?

Right off the bat, a few potential matches seem to make perfect sense to me, mainly when it comes to the top runners from Salt Lake Community College.

2023 men’s champion JaQuavious Harris often trains with former BYU runners such as Clayton Young, Michael Ottensen and Conner Mantz. And given that Salt Lake CC coach Isaac Wood came from BYU, all signs suggest that Harris could be a Cougar some day.

Of course, if that happen, Harris wouldn’t be the first junior college transfer that Ed Eyestone has taken, either. The first name that comes to mind is 2017 graduate, Nico Montanez (formerly of Paradise Valley CC), who finished 7th in the 2016 rendition of the NCAA XC Championships.

This year’s women’s runner-up finisher, Emerald Kehr, seems like a great fit for Diljeet Taylor’s program. Kehr has developed into an aerobic-centric talent who could have an impact sooner rather than later on a strong cross-country roster. Combine that with the already well-established connections that her coach has within the BYU program and it just makes sense to see Kehr in a BYU uniform.

Another in-state pairing that makes sense is the Vega twins of New Mexico JC to the University of New Mexico.

By now, everyone has heard about the firepower of New Mexico’s elite top-three, excelling at nearly every meet that they have contested this fall. However, we also know that their depth is somewhat limited. So why not keep the Lobos's international theme going and grab a set of twins from Argentina who consistently run under 24 minutes for the 8k?

The final potential pairing I’ll be going over is between Trinidad State sophomore Alliyah Molina and Adams State.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Adams State currently has five athletes from Junior Colleges on their roster, including one from Trinidad State. And after already living in Alamosa, Molina wouldn’t need any time to acclimate to the altitude. In fact, she’s already proven that by finishing in 4th place at Adams State's home meet earlier this fall.

Perhaps most importantly, Molina’s coach is the daughter of current Adams State head coach, Damon Martin -- the pipeline between the two programs is very much there.