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First Thoughts: GVSU Flexes Firepower, Wingate's Monumental Win, Cunningham & Amponsah Cruise
- TSR Collaboration
- Nov 20, 2023
- 11 min read
Written by Marissa Kuik & Grace McLaughlin
Edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin
The national meets are all wrapped up and Turkey Day is fast approaching. However, we still needed to give our thoughts and analysis on the D2 cross country national meet before we get to Thursday. Below, Marissa and Grace gave their thoughts on Saturday's performances...
Women's Reactions
This is just a Lindsay Cunningham appreciation section, sound off below.
Marissa: Lindsay Cunningham continues to be so unbelievably impressive. On Saturday, she opened the race with a blistering 5:03 first mile and never looked back. She became the fourth woman in Division Two history to break 20 minutes for 6000 meters at the national meet, posting a time of 19:30.
There really isn't anything else to say. This Winona State superstar is in a class of her own and deserves all of the praise in the world for her ability to push herself even when no one is around her.
Grace: You can put me in the running for President of the "Lindsay Cunningham Fan Club."
Her consistency has been unreal and she has continued to improve despite already being at such an elite level. And the fact that she’s racked up numerous national titles and All-American honors over the past year just adds to her well-known greatness and all-time status.
I love the confidence that she shows in her front-running tactics and the fact that she can always rise to the challenge is awe-inspiring. She is truly the Parker Valby of Division Two.
The Grand Valley State women thrived in the team title race with 59 points. Is there anything that Adams State could have realistically done to be in greater contention for gold?
Marissa: You could possibly argue that this race looks a bit different if Emily Schoellkopf, who was Adams State’s fifth runner and placed 40th overall, ran closer to Morgan Hykes, who finished in 29th overall.
But even then, that would have only closed the gap on Grand Valley State and the Lakers still would have won. I think the other Grizzlies finished where we thought they would have while Hykes and Tristian Spence (16th overall) had the best performances out of the bunch. Spence in particular was outstanding.
Of course, at the end of the day, Grand Valley State just had too much firepower this year to overcome. Their star transfer from Division Three, Ana Tucker, ended up being the defining piece who made GVSU an overwhelmingly dominant group in 2023.
Grace: After this performance, I am going to go with a hard no.
Even if Stephanie Cotter was in the race, the Lakers still would have won by a comfortable amount. Don’t get me wrong, the Grizzlies were a fantastic team and I would not be disappointed by this performance in the slightest.
However, Grand Valley State was simply the better team this year, specifically when you look at their incredible upfront firepower. Their overall talent and depth couldn’t be matched by even a team as historically successful as Adams State.
Are you surprised at the lack of variability in the results and how predictable the women's race was?
Marissa: No, I am not surprised. A lot of these teams and individuals weren't just running well all year, but they had all been super consistent as well. There were no significant upset losses or wins with the possible exception of Lewis beating Winona State at the Lewis XC Crossover.
Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary happened during the season, so it made it pretty easy to predict the women’s race. The traditional powerhouses are still the very best and the "on the rise" programs continue to deliver.
Grace: A lot of aspects of this race were very predictable -- Grand Valley State winning the team tile, Lindsay Cunningham winning the individual title and the majority of the top teams and individuals were on par with our expectations.
I am not terribly surprised with how predictable the overall outcomes...which seems obvious, but there were a few things that did surprise me. Just to name a few: The margin of victory by Grand Valley State was more than I expected, Western Colorado had a fantastic day and made the podium while Augustana (SD) and Wingate exceeded what I thought they were capable of.
Which women's team were you down on earlier this season, but now owe an apology to?
Marissa: I don’t know if I was ever really "down" on these two teams, but these two squads were never really on my mind as candidates to finish in the top-10 on Saturday. Those two teams are Augustana and Wingate.
Augustana finished in 7th place on Saturday behind the very strong performance of Aubrey Surage who snagged 34th place. However, maybe more importantly, the rest of their squad had a TIGHT pack, finishing within four places of each other.
Similarly, the Bulldogs finished in 8th place with a tight spread of 25 places between their top five runners. Not only that, but they had scoring insurance! Wingate put six women in the top-100 with three women just cracking the top-60. And sure, they didn't have any flashy low-sticks, but a team-centric effort gave them a fantastic result.
Both teams ran so far above our expectations and they were not teams that I thought would be contending for the top-10. That's especially true for Wingate, a team that I predicted to finish all the way back in 23rd...so I definitely apologize to them.
Grace: I completely agree with Marissa here, we owe Augustana (SD) and Wingate an apology for underestimating them this season. I predicted Augustana (SD) to finish 14th and Wingate to place 17th, so their respective 7th and 8th place finishes were far better than I anticipated.
Now, in our defense, I will say that outside of their win at the South Atlantic XC Conference Championships, Wingate did not show any solid indication that they would finish 8th in the nation. The Paul Short Invite and the Southeast regional meet made it hard to gauge this team, but for different reasons.
Augustana (SD) had been really solid this fall. But because they had not defeated any top teams (but didn't sustain any upset losses, either), I definitely overlooked them going into the weekend. My sincerest apology to the Vikings, I should have trusted your legacy and ability to peak for the postseason.
Individually, who was the biggest surprise?
Marissa: First, I want to give a shoutout Khot Juac from Sioux Falls who finished an incredible 5th place overall. I knew that she was ready to have a good race and I even thought that she was capable of a top-10 performance. But 5th place? Well, that was even better than my sky-high expectations for her.
However, the woman who I think helped their team the most was Peyton Weiss of Western Colorado. She was the reason, in my mind, why the Mountaineers got on the podium and finished 4th overall as a team.
In her past two championship races, Weiss had placed 28th (RMAC) and 29th (South Central regional meet) prior to Saturday. But after placing 26th at the national meet, it's hard to ignore the fact that she was the biggest reason why this team had so much success.
Sure, Allison Beasley and Leah Taylor also had great days, finishing 10th and 13th, respectively, but Weiss’s huge jump was not at all expected.
Grace: Marissa already pointed out the biggest (or most obvious) surprise from Saturday.
Khot Juac was great this fall, but a 5th place finish was beyond excellent and it seems like the perfect fairytale ending to her breakout season. In terms of an individual performance in relation to team scores, Peyton Weiss was the undeniable hero of this race.
Like Marissa said, her performance was a huge reason why the Mountaineers made the podium and I am very impressed by Western’s talented trio of Beasley, Taylor and now Weiss.
Sarah Koomson of West Texas A&M also deserves a shoutout for bouncing back after some sub-par races. Her bronze medal performance at the Louisville XC Classic was fantastic, but her subsequent performances were very far off of Saturday's performance. Her most recent efforts did not indicate that she would rebound to a 6th place finish at the cross country national meet.
Other athletes who I want to highlight are Liz Wamsley (Hillsdale), Kiley Anicic (Edinboro), Cassidy Walchak-Sloan (Saint Martin’s) and Susanne Bruenning (Biola). I think these women all made significant progress this season and can often be overlooked. They all built momentum with each race and ended their season with incredible performances.
Men's Reactions
The Wingate men just pulled off a huge team title victory over Colorado Mines. What percent chance would you have given for that happening on Saturday? What is more surprising: Wingate winning or Colorado Mines losing?
Marissa: Even though I had Wingate finishing 3rd in my predictions -- and in my "bold prediction" I said that they would scare Colorado Mines and Adams State, but not quite beat them -- my gut was telling me that they could not only could they get 2nd place, but maybe even take home the win.
Of course, that's a lot easier said now than last week.
Even so, I would actually give it about a 40% chance of Wingate pulling off the win over Colorado Mines. I think the Bulldogs were slept on all year because they only competed in one big race and their conference and regional meets were just not that competitive.
And when you think about all of the high-octane All-American options that they had between Hamza Chahid, Soheil Boufrizi, Ricardo Barbosa, Cas Kopmels and Titouan Le Grix, as well a even non-national meet scorers like Scott Nutter and Bastian Mrochen, a national title was certainly possible.
Of course, despite looking like a great team, their schedule made it hard to truly gauge them.
Colorado Mines losing is more surprising, though. They have so much depth and they have the history of knowing how to pull off national title wins. This race was close, and it was still a little surprising that they just could not quite close the fairly small gap on the Bulldogs.
Grace: In our meet preview, I had Wingate as the team that could pull off the upset over Colorado Mines, but I still wasn’t expecting it to actually happen. I would have given it a 20% chance of actually happening based on the results of this season.
I think this result was hard to predict because of Wingate’s limited racing and their strategic lineups throughout the season. Yes, their roster is stacked with talent, but it’s hard to predict the ceiling of a team when they do not race at full strength and don't contest D2-centric fields with top teams.
I’ll give Colorado Mines the benefit of the doubt here and say that I was more surprised with Wingate winning over them losing. The Bulldogs put their talent on full display after a quiet season which held some mystery -- and the Orediggers simply couldn’t match their firepower.
In retrospect, was the general public (us included) disrespecting William Amponsah by saying that there were numerous men who could realistically win the individual national title?
Marissa: Honestly, when I was watching the live stream of the race, I was thinking the same thing after William Amponsah started to take the lead and gap the field with still 6k to go.
In a way, it was a little disrespectful because he did win so easily. However, this was the first time Amponsah has raced in Division Two, so that is why I was more hesitant to say that he was going to run away with the win, but I did still believe that he was going to win.
Grace: His win was rather dominant and after that race, I would definitely put him in a league of his own. Even so, going into Saturday, I wasn’t convinced that he was a lock for gold. It was his first NCAA XC Championship race and he faced new elite competition.
There were simply more unknowns than guarantees.
I don’t think saying there was more than one title contender was disrespectful to William Amponsah prior to this race. I think being convinced that he would win despite not having national championship experience would be more disrespectful to his competitors than anything.
This is the first time since 1996 that neither the Adams State men nor Grand Valley State men finished on the podium. Is it fair to say that we're entering a new era of D2 cross country? Or is that an overreaction?
Marissa: I think that is a slight overreaction.
Obviously, it's fun to see some different teams on the podium such as East Central and West Texas A&M, but I also think Adams State and Grand Valley State will be back on the podium very soon. Most teams have "down" years where they have to rebuild.
Yes, even teams like Adams State and Grand Valley State have rebuilding seasons...although their 2023 campaigns hardly looked like rebuilds, both teams were still excellent.
We knew at the beginning of this year that the Lakers might not look as good as they had when Tanner Chada was leading the way. Plus, the Grizzlies had a lot of challenges going into this season and into the national meet between injuries and key members either graduating or leaving from the previous season.
Give it another year, and these teams will be back where they have been in the past. What is exciting though, is it seems like there are some new teams in the mix to challenge the titans of Division Two cross country.
Grace: I do think that we are entering a new era of D2 cross country in terms of competitiveness and the leveling-out of the playing field team-wise. However, I think Adams State and Grand Valley State both just had minor "off" days at the national meet this year and I don’t think their legacies are over.
Heck, the Grizzlies placed 6th and the Lakers were 7th on Saturday. Those are not bad results by any means! I think both teams were simply not firing on all cylinders and the emergence of more international talent in Division Two has elevated the game to where they need to be at 100% to podium.
Which men's team were you down on earlier this season, but now owe an apology to?
Marissa: Similar to the women’s teams, these are teams that I was not necessarily "down" on, but we just did not talk about them much or pay attention to them. That is East Central and West Texas A&M.
Again, I knew that both of these teams were pretty good going into the national meet, but I think why I sometimes choose not to mention teams like them is because they do not have the history like an Adams State team or a Colorado Mines team do.
However, both of those programs were incredible at the national meet and they definitely deserve my apology, especially since I had the Buffaloes and the Tigers a bit further down in 6th place and 7th place.
Grace: I agree with Marissa here on East Central and West Texas A&M. I was skeptical of their overall depth and emergence as top teams in the nation. Their rosters were loaded with talent, but it is one thing to have potential and another to perform accordingly.
Of course, the Tigers and Buffaloes both shot down any concerns that I had regarding their scoring potency and reliability on Saturday.
Another less obvious team that I need to apologize to are the Augusta Jaguars. I predicted them to place 29th and they blew that out of the water with their 15th place finish. They finished sandwiched between Lee (Tenn.) in 14th place and Western Washington in 16th place, both of which were in our team rankings at various points this season.
Earlier in the season, the Jaguars placed 2nd to Wingate at the Southeast Region XC Championships, won the Peach Belt Conference XC Championships, placed 2nd at the UAH Chargers Invitational and were 8th at the Southern Showcase behind Lee.
I mistakenly underestimated their talent and ability to excel in larger field. Their lineup isn’t fancy or flashy, but it was effective and I underestimated them.
Individually, who was the biggest surprise?
Marissa: I am really impressed with Reece Sharman-Newell from CSU-Pueblo who finished in 36th place. Sharman-Newell is a true middle distance runner through and through, but I have a core belief when it comes to my TSR analysis: If you can turn a true middle distance runner into a really good cross country runner, then that middle distance runner is going to have an incredible track season.
This Thunderwolf star just had the best cross country season of his career and he helped his team earn a very good 12th place finish on Saturday, beating programs that had defeated them all season long, including Fort Lewis and UC-Colorado Springs.
Sharman-Newell's All-American run on the grass definitely surprised me and it does make me wonder if he will finally achieve that elusive gold over 800 meters.
Grace: I was really impressed by Soheil Boufrizi (Wingate). I predicted him to place 40th, but he exceeded that by far with his 10th place finish.
Boufrizi was 92nd at this meet last year and placed 12th in the 3k steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Championships during the spring months. Sure, he showed talent and potential last year, but there were limited data points saying that he was capable of a top-10 finish this fall.
His 22nd place finish at the Lehigh Paul Short Run was very strong and his 3rd place finish at the Southeast Regional XC Championships matched his performance from last year. Placing 10th and being the second scorer for the national title winning team was incredibly surprising and a testament to the elite distance program that Wingate has ultimately become.
