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First Thoughts (Part One): UNC Upsets Syracuse, Florida Flexes Full Lineup, Washington Stuns PAC-12
- Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
- Oct 27, 2023
- 19 min read
Updated: Oct 27, 2023
Conference championship weekend has begun and so has my weekend-long effort of writing and analyzing all of the results that flood in.
As I'm sure many of you can understand, we couldn't possibly cover every team and every individual from each and every meet this weekend. Even so, I've aimed to highlight most of the top results and offer some level of original insight on all of them. And yes, some teams will have more analysis than others.
We will almost certainly have a "Part Two" for our conference weekend analysis, so stay tuned for that! Alright, that's enough chit chat, let's get to the races...
ACC XC Championships
Women's Race
1. NC State Wolfpack (37 points)
No surprises here. NC State is still the best (by a lot) in the ACC.
Katelyn Tuohy was great as always while Kelsey Chmiel posted a strong 3rd place finish despite being favored for a runner-up result. True freshman Leah Stephens took 8th place overall and that wasn't too surprising even if her earlier races suggested that she could've been among the top-five.
Amaris Tyynismaa did toe the line on Friday, but later produced a DNF result despite making it past the 4k split. For someone who was injured in the summer and hadn't raced until today, that isn't the most encouraging sign.
Luckily, Sam Bush had a strong rebound effort in 11th place. That wasn't a flashy result, but it's certainly a massive step in the right direction after a tough start to her season. With three weeks left until the national meet, this Wolfpack veteran may be able to slowly round back into All-American form.
Gionna Quarzo (14th) was quietly great and Grace Hartman (19th) was almost certainly capable of more after seeing how she performed at Joe Piane and Nuttycombe.
Friday's race didn't change our opinion of the Wolfpack women in any significant way. However, the recent developments with Tyynismaa and Bush do give us greater insight about potential expectations for the rest of the postseason.
2. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (80 points)
Olivia Markezich (4th) continues to a star low-stick while Siona Chisholm (13th) had a somewhat respectable rebound race after an underwhelming Nuttycombe effort. I did, however, think that she would be in the top-10.
Erin Strzelecki (16th) has been quietly great for the Irish women this fall, offering valuable scoring stability in the middle portion of their lineup. Andrea Markezich (23rd) and Grace Schager (24th) closed out the scoring.
The Fighting Irish didn't necessarily run poorly, but I thought that each woman (other than Markezich) probably had five more points within them. And yet, despite that, they still fended off a Virginia squad that has been in and out of our top-10 this fall.
3. Virginia Cavaliers (82 points)
Was Margot Appleton's 5th place finish surprising? No. Was Jenny Schilling's 10th place finish surprising? Maybe a little bit, but generally speaking, no. Was Anna Workman's 20th place finish surprising? Not really, but I did think that she would be closer to the top-15.
Those three women have the been consistent lead scorers for the Virginia women throughout this season. However, the real reason why the Cavaliers almost upset Notre Dame is because Caroline Timm (15th) had a huge performance! With Virginia's fourth scorer basically erasing her gap from earlier in the season, the women from Charlottesville looked much more potent.
We still didn't see a handful of key names (Seeland, David, Menninger), and their fifth scorer was just outside of the top-30. Even so, Virginia should be very proud of their Friday effort.
4. Syracuse Orange (167 points)
I can't say that I'm too surprised by anything that the Syracuse women did.
Savannah Roark (9th) seemingly returned to her All-American-caliber low-stick ways. Meanwhile, the rest of her supporting cast went 30-38-48-54 in the overall results.
With Baneet Bains, a key scorer, not having her best day, you have to commend the Orange for still putting together a fairly decent 4th place finish. We should also highlight Rylie Lusk (30th) who has also been a very underrated addition for this team in 2023.
5. North Carolina Tar Heels (172 points)
Welp...it may not be North Carolina's year.
Fatima Alanis (12th) was great and continues to emerge as the lone bright spot for this team over the last two months. But with the Tar Heels' next-best scorer placing 39th, and their projected lead scorers falling way back, the ladies from Chapel Hill faded to 5th place.
I have no idea what happened with this team this season. It just seems like all of their most impactful scorers have struggled this fall. They may have a shot at sneaking into the national meet if they can get a favorable "push" scenario, but there's a realistic chance that the UNC women aren't traveling to Charlottesville three weeks from now.
Individual Race
Katelyn Tuohy winning gold is the most unsurprising result of the weekend. However, seeing Duke's Amina Maatoug upset Kelsey Chmiel for a runner-up finish was wildly impressive! Chmiel is one of the most reliable postseason runners in the entire NCAA and although Maatoug has been great on the grass, she's never been that good before
Men's Race
1. North Carolina Tar Heels (49 points)
While I did predict the Syracuse men to win this race, I was also very clear in saying that the North Carolina men could absolutely win gold and pull off the upset.
And sure enough, that's exactly what happened.
Parker Wolfe (1st), Alex Phillip (4th) and Ethan Strand (6th) are really good at moving their legs faster and longer than a lot of other people. That, of course, is something that everyone (who reads The Stride Report) already knew.
However, the Tar Heels' real hero of this race -- and someone who I highlighted in our meet preview -- was the graduate transfer from Indiana, Jake Gebhardt. The former Hoosier had what might have been the best race of his life, placing 9th overall. That result gave UNC an overwhelming amount of firepower that Syracuse couldn't match.
While North Carolina's fifth man, Colton Sands, was a ways back in 29th place, that was still an improvement at that spot compared to UNC's other races from this year. It also wasn't that far off from Syracuse's backend scorers.
Yes, the Tar Heels did benefit from certain Syracuse men having "off" days, but this was still a convincing victory and Gebhardt should be viewed as the MVP...or more accurately, the MVR.
2. Syracuse Orange (65 points)
Through three runners, the Syracuse men were fantastic. In fact, it might have been the best showing from their top scoring trio so far this season.
Paul O'Donnell (2nd), Perry Mackinnon (5th) and Sam Lawler (10th) were able to negate some of UNC's lethal scoring. And given that the Orange had shown better depth this season, you would have assumed that they then took advantage of that.
That, however, didn't happen.
The Orange weren't able to counter the tremendous 9th place result from North Carolina's Jake Gebhardt. They also had their traditional backend runners, Matthew Scrape and Alex Comerford, have "off" days. Nathan Lawler (22nd) and Assaf Harari (26th) were passable, but Syracuse's final two scorers needed to be comfortably inside the top-20 for this race to be closer than it was.
I still believe that the Orange can be a podium team and that they are built for larger fields. Even so, Friday showed us that Syracuse, while still excellent, aren't totally infallible.
3. Virginia Cavaliers (77 points)
The Virginia men found success in the same way that their women's counterparts did.
Will Anthony (7th) and Gary Martin (8th) continue to be consistently great low-sticks for the Cavaliers while Nathan Mountain (14th) had one of his best races of the season. Yes, each of those men performed on the better end of expectations, but the Cavaliers' did not necessarily finish 3rd overall because of that trio.
Instead, it was because veteran Yasin Sado (13th) easily had his best race of the year!
For someone who was 39th at Pre-Nationals and didn't even crack the top-100 at Virginia Invitational, I am wildly impressed. Sado has already proven to be a top steeplechaser, but Friday was huge breakout performance (on the grass) which erased a significant gap that the Cavaliers were dealing with during the regular season.
Virginia still had a gap to their final scorer who didn't crack the top-35 and that may need to be monitored on larger postseason stages. But if Sado can continue to run like that, then I think it's plenty realistic for the Virginia men to flirt with a top-10 finish on the national stage.
4. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (86 points)
This was another one of those races where the Notre Dame men didn't run poorly, but they also didn't excite us.
Tyler Berg (11th) had the best race of his season while redshirt freshman Ethan Coleman (15th) was a solid secondary scorer. CJ Singleton, Vinny Mauri and Josh Methner went 19-20-21, respectively, in the overall results.
The Fighting Irish didn't have any massive flaws on Friday, but their limited firepower and the inconsistency from some of their men this season has been head-scratching.
If everyone runs at their best on the same day, then Notre Dame beats Virginia and is likely a top-10 team in the NCAA. That, however, has yet to happen.
5. Florida State Seminoles (117 points)
I took a gamble on the Florida State men, predicting them to finish 3rd despite a tough outing at the Nuttycombe Invitational. I was also fully aware that they had little margin for error.
David Mullarkey (3rd) continues to emerge as a true star and Abdirizak Ibrahim (16th) did enough to get by. The same could be said about Cooper Schroeder (25th). But with the rest of the lineup struggling to match those results, you can see why the 'Noles faded to 5th place.
6. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (131 points)
For a team that didn't have Rocky Hansen, this was a fairly decent result. Luke Tewalt (12th) took an encouraging step in the right direction, Joseph O'Brien (17th) has been super underrated as a support scorer and Charlie Sprott (23rd) proved that his not-so-great Nuttycombe effort was just a fluke.
Hansen's absence from racing can be tied back to a foot injury that he sustained while at the Nuttycombe Invitational, per LetsRun's Jon Gault. If the Demon Deacons make it to the national meet, then the superstar rookie could race.
Individual Race
Parker Wolfe has to feel good about getting an ACC title after a near miss to Carter Solomon last year. But admittedly, with Rocky Hansen not in the field, the expectation (in my eyes) is that this Tar Heel star should have won gold.
Also, credit to Syracuse's Paul O'Donnell who earned silver. He has clearly been stacking fitness, going from "good" to "great" to "outstanding" over the last nine-ish months.
SEC XC Championships
Women's Race
1. Florida Gators (49 points)
The women's SEC team title race was definitely closer than I thought it was going to be, but Florida still delivered a gold medal performance.
Parker Valby (1st), Flomena Asekol (4th) and Amelia Mazza-Downie (8th) were the lethal low-sticks that we figured they would be. Meanwhile, Elise Thorner and Allison Wilson finished 17th and 19th, respectively. Those are solid backend results, but their recent Nuttycombe performances suggested that each of them could have been a bit more potent.
Even so, I don't think you should expect Florida's ranking to change much during our next update which is coming early next week.
2. Arkansas Razorbacks (59 points)
Hand up, I owe the Arkansas women an apology.
I had the Razorbacks finishing 4th in my predictions, mainly because I thought that the lineup structures of other teams would be more effective for a field of this size and nature. However, Arkansas' depth, the one aspect that I was probably most critical of this season, stepped up in a major way.
Paityn Noe (5th) and Sydney Thorvaldson (6th) didn't stun anyone, but Laura Taborda (12th) was way better than we expected. Mia Cochran (16th) was respectable, but it was teammate Mary Ellen Eudaly (20th) who was shockingly great in the final scoring spot.
While my prediction for Arkansas was way off, I do think my reasoning was justified. I didn't expect Taborda or Eudaly to run as well as they did, but I was happy to be so very wrong.
3. Tennessee Volunteers (80 points)
Gosh, Coach Sean Carlson has something special cooking in Knoxville, Tennessee.
After Pre-Nationals, where they placed 5th overall (just 18 points off of Oregon), it felt like the Tennessee women were beginning to crack a nationally competitive tier. However, it felt like that was going to happen in 2024, not on Friday.
But as it turns out, the Volunteers are ahead of schedule.
Ashley Jones (10th) is evolving into a legitimate low-stick, Rachel Sutliff (13th) is beginning to showcase her full talent on the grass, Jessie Secor (14th) has been a tremendous recruiting win in retrospect, Jillian Candelino (21st) was highly valuable as a stability scorer and Caroline Lyerly (22nd) basically came out of nowhere.
But what's even more impressive is that Tennessee's third scorer from Pre-Nationals, Kayla Gholar, wasn't even a scorer for this team on Friday! If she's running at her best, then could help the Vols even further.
I don't know how Sean Carlson has suddenly taken an unproven, youth-centric roster and turned them into legitimate threats for a national qualifying spot. I figured that this team would be on the national stage in 2025 and maybe in 2024, but they have a real shot of advancing when the regional meets come around in two weeks.
4. Alabama Crimson Tide (84 points)
Doris Lemngole (2nd) and Hilda Olemomoi (3rd) did exactly what we expected them to do. You could say the same thing about Joy Gill (15th).
However, I did think that the Crimson Tide's final two scorers, who finished 28th and 36th, would be more compact on Friday and collectively closer to the top-25. Unfortunately for them, that didn't happen and Alabama settled for a final result that, truthfully, wasn't that bad.
5. Ole Miss Rebels (107 points)
Loral Winn (9th) was excellent, but seeing her fellow low-stick teammate, Ryann Helmers, fade to 18th place immediately took the Rebels out of contention for silver. The final three scorers for Ole Miss went 23-26-31 which isn't awful, but I felt like all of those women (Helmers included) had another three to five spots in them, each.
Individual Race
Friday was the perfect way for us to gauge just how good Doris Lemngole actually she is. The newest Alabama star kept things competitive with Parker Valby through 4k, but couldn't match the big final surge that the Gator superstar had. That said, Lemngole made Valby work for that title and I wouldn't be stunned if it's a similar story at the national meet.
Men's Race
1. Arkansas Razorbacks (38 points)
I can't say that I'm too surprised by this final result. Seeing Patrick Kiprop finish runner-up was definitely on the better end of my expectations for him, but Ben Shearer (5th) and Kirami Yego (6th) were fairly close to my predictions.
However, the biggest reason(s) why Arkansas earned such a convincing victory was because of how good Elias Schreml (11th) and Reuben Reina (12th) were. This time, Jacob McLeod wasn't even a scorer and Lexington Hilton was a DNF.
Schreml had a slow-ish start to his season and Reina had never been quite this good before. Luckily for the Razorbacks, those two men seem to be peaking at the absolute perfect time. And if that's actually the case, then...how close could get this team get to the podium?
2. Alabama Crimson Tide (57 points)
Victor Kiprop (1st) and Hillary Cheruiyot (3rd) did exactly what we thought they would do, but it was Eliud Kipsang (7th) who had a tremendous rebound performance. The metric mile star had a tough start to his season, but he now looks like the third true low-stick that Alabama needs him to be this fall.
Jacob Harris (23rd) and Hudson Hurst (25th) were fairly solid backend support scorers. That result wasn't too surprising for Harris, but Hurst had never proven to be that good before.
With Kipsang returning to low-stick form and the backend of this lineup looking fairly stable, it's hard to fault a good Tennessee team for falling short of beating Alabama.
3. Tennessee Volunteers (59 points)
I'm sure that this isn't the result that they envisioned, but this was still a really solid race across the board for the Volunteers.
Yaseen Abdalla (4th), Gabriel Sanchez (8th) and Dean Casey (11th) didn't tell us anything about them that we didn't already know. We knew that Tennessee had a strong top-three and they proved that on Friday.
Brandon Olden (17th) and Jacob Lewis (19th) each did a respectable job when closing out the scoring and Eli Nahom (21st) was nice insurance to have. But while the men from Knoxville flexed better depth than Alabama, it wasn't by much and the Crimson Tide very clearly held greater firepower.
And yet, despite that, this Tennessee team may have a better chance of finishing higher on the national stage than they did last year, especially with so many lineup options.
Individual Race
No surprises here, Victor Kiprop is your SEC champion once more. Patrick Kiprop (2nd) continues to leave me confused as to what his top-end ability is, but you can only say good things about him after his gutsy effort on Friday.
PAC-12 XC Championships
Women's Race
1. Washington Huskies (58 points)
This result is almost comical when you consider that I had the Washington women placing 5th in this field. In my defense, I figured that they were capable of finishing as the runner-up team, but they were not my first picks to upset Stanford.
I'm not too surprised by Sophie O'Sullivan placing 6th. I can also see how Chloe Foerster finished 7th, although that's undoubtedly on the better end of her possible results. But Julia David-Smith finishing 10th? India Weir placing 14th? Those were stunning results to me, especially the latter.
With veteran transfer Tori Herman closing out the scoring in 21st place, the Huskies somehow fielded a lineup that was clearly more balanced through five runners than what Stanford had.
What really blows me away is India Weir's performance. This is someone who finished 25th at the Ivy League XC Championships and 33rd at the Mid-Atlantic Regional XC Championships in 2022. Both of those races do not at all hold the same level of talent that the PAC-12 boasts.
And yet, that didn't matter.
The other four Washington scorers were all fantastic and you have to love how David-Smith has rebounded after tearing her ACL (per the commentator) in 2022. But at the end of the day, the Huskies ultimately beat Stanford because Weir decided to become the most clutch runner in the conference.
2. Stanford Cardinal (60 points)
Through two runners, the Stanford women looked as strong as ever. Amy Bunnage took home the individual title and Lucy Jenks showed how valuable experience like hers can be on a championship stage with a 5th place finish.
And then there was a gap.
The trio Riley Stewart, Grace Connolly and Zofia Dudek went 17-18-19, respectively, to close out the Cardinal's scoring. And while those are certainly not poor performances, Stanford left a big enough of a gap to be upset by a team with a more compact and complete scoring five.
Which is exactly happened with Washington.
I still believe that the Cardinal can be a podium squad, but the need for additional firepower is becoming increasingly more pertinent. Lucy Jenks has done well, but the only Stanford runner who I can comfortably predict to finish in the top-30 at the national meet is Bunnage.
3. Colorado Buffaloes (87 points)
I can't say that I'm too surprised by Colorado placing 3rd. Without Bailey Hertenstein and/or Natalie Cook, the Buffaloes can only go so far this season.
Karrie Baloga (8th) has been a brilliant rookie talent this season and she continues to get better with each passing race. Emily Covert (12th) and Ella Baran (13th) weren't quite as sharp in this race as they were last year, but they still provided great value at their respective scoring positions.
However, with the Buffs' final two scorers finishing 25th and 29th overall, there just wasn't enough of a spark for Colorado to truly contend at the top of this field.
In fairness to Colorado, they largely matched expectations. Washington was way better than a lot of us thought they'd be and Stanford is still Stanford. Taking down Oregon, Utah and Oregon State is something that the Buffs should be proud of.
4. Oregon Ducks (88 points)
Welp, it looks like this is the Oregon lineup that we'll be seeing for the rest of the season.
Maddy Elmore (4th) validated her excellent Pre-Nationals race from a couple of weeks ago and Izzy Thornton-Bott (11th) has allowed Oregon to maintain a somewhat significant presence near the top of certain fields.
Anika Thompson (22nd), Katie Clute (24th) and Klaudia Kazimierska (27th) were all respectable, but I don't think that we learned anything new about the Ducks on Friday.
5. Utah Utes (103 points)
Despite what the final results say, the Utah women actually had a great race on Friday.
Allow me to explain why...
Mckaylie Caesar (9th) continues to impress me each and every time she toes the line. Meanwhile, Katarzyna Nowakowska (14th) has made promising improvements of her own and Annastasia Peters (15th) was still a great third scorer...even if I thought that she could have been better. With Morgan Jensen (20th) giving this team a competent fourth scorer, it was hard to dislike anything about the Utes.
Unfortunately, the fifth Utah runner wouldn't cross the line until 46th place, ultimately ballooning the Utes' team score. If Clara Mayfield had run like she usually does, then Utah is likely finishing closer to 3rd place.
I'm beginning to realize that depth is slightly limited for Utah, but I'm still a fan. 80% of their scoring group still ran really well and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up as a top-15 team on the national stage.
6. Oregon State Beavers (105 points)
This is another one of those results that looks worse on paper than it actually was.
Kaylee Mitchell (2nd) and Grace Fetherstonhaugh (3rd) were amazing as always. However, Oregon State's usual third scorer, Sage Brooks, faded to 35th place and was their fourth scorer on Friday. Instead, Ruby Broadbent (31st) was the team's third scorer while Kate Laurent (38th) closed out the Beavers' top-five.
If Brooks had replicated her performance from Nuttycombe and finished somewhere around 15th place, then Oregon State scores 90 points, coming much closer to the likes of Oregon and Colorado.
We already knew that the Beavers had a fairly small margin for error, so I'm not going to look at this result and overreact. At their best, they are plenty dangerous, something that they proved to us during their time in Madison, Wisconsin.
Individual Race
While I did choose Kaylee Mitchell to secure the win, I'm not at all surprised to see Amy Bunnage taking home gold. She's been outstanding this fall and has shown moments of being one of the 10-best women in the country -- and on Friday, she validated those suspicions.
Men's Race
1. Stanford Cardinal (41 points)
The Stanford men have been having a tough cross country season. We know that and they know that. But on Friday, the Cardinal came into this race with a mindset that was far more aggressive. The future ACC program found many of their top men racing at/near the front of the main pack, chasing Ky Robinson and effectively running away from their competition.
Ky Robinson (1st) continues to do Ky Robinson things while Cole Sprout (4th) finally had the rebound race that we were hoping to see from him in the postseason.
However, you could argue that Robert DiDonato (9th) was maybe the biggest hero on this team. The redshirt sophomore was flat-out bad at Nuttycombe a few weeks ago, but just had a performance that ultimately gave Stanford a conference title. Who doesn't love a good redemption story?
Leo Young (12th) is beginning to round into form and Evan Burke (15th) also had a fantastic race after a series of not-so-great results. Simply put, everyone on this team stepped up in the clutch and came through when it mattered the most.
Admittedly, the PAC-12 isn't as competitive this year as it has been in the past, but that shouldn't take away from the huge bounce back performance that the Cardinal just had.
2. Washington Huskies (50 points)
The Washington men have struggled this year and that may be a nice way of saying it. They were 17th out of 23 teams at the Virginia Invitational and then 27th out of 36 teams at the Nuttycombe Invite.
Luke Houser has been outstanding this fall and Tyrone Gorze had a moment of promise at the Virginia Invite. However, the Huskies hadn't shown anything prior to Friday which suggested that they were capable of earning silver at this meet
Houser (2nd) continues to prove that he's one of the top low-sticks in the country while Nathan Green (3rd) made his debut in a massive way. This team clearly needed more firepower and the mile-centric star gave the Huskies exactly that.
Redshirt rookie Evan Jenkins (10th) was surprisingly great, Leo Daschbach (16th) continues to provide valuable scoring stability and Tyrone Gorze (19th) closed out the scoring despite his youth and inexperience.
Washington looked like a completely different team on Friday and a lot of that can be attributed to the rise of both Nathan Green and Evan Jenkins. But now the only question is...does Washington have enough Kolas points to get into the national meet?
3. Oregon Ducks (60 points)
Gosh, where do we even start with this team?
Elliott Cook, Josh Edwards and Quincy Norman packed a potent scoring punch, going 5-6-7 in the overall results. That was an excellent trio, but their final two scorers fell a bit further back as Abdinasir Hussein placed 20th and Aiden Smith finished 22nd.
The Cook-Edwards-Norman trio was great, but in the grand scheme of things, their low-stick scoring wasn't all too different from Stanford or Washington. And with a backend gap comparatively larger, you can begin to see how the Ducks had to settle for 3rd place.
Beating Colorado is nice, that likely gives them a single Kolas point, but the Ducks may be in trouble from a national qualifying perspective. If the West region results don't break in their favor, then there is a very realistic scenario where they won't advance to the national meet.
4. Colorado Buffaloes (81 points)
I give up. I have no idea what to think of Colorado.
We loved their scoring options in the preseason, but then they underwhelmed (by quite a bit) at the Virginia Invitational. The Buffaloes later rebounded with a great result at the Nuttycombe Invite, but on Friday, they lost to two conference rivals who have been struggling and another that has barely raced at all.
Austin Vancil (8th) was as reliable as ever and Noah Hibbard (11th) had a surprisingly great race. Paul Stafford (17th) and Isaiah Givens (18th) held their own, but with their final scorer fading to 27th place, the Buffaloes were simply a step behind Stanford, Washington and Oregon in both the depth and firepower departments.
Individual Race
This race went exactly like we thought it would with Ky Robinson taking the title. That said, Friday was nice (additional) validation as to how good Luke Houser has become on the grass.
BIG 10 XC Championships
Women's Race
1. Michigan State Spartans (64 points)
Not a ton to be surprised about with Michigan State. Mackenna Veen (3rd) and Katie Osika (4th) were excellent lead scorers / low-sticks as expected while Lauren Freeland (10th) bridged the two halves of this scoring group.
With Grace Molloy placing 14th and Emily Bardwell placing 15th, as well as Eleanor Kendell taking 17th, there wasn't going to be much room for Wisconsin to pull off an upset.
2. Wisconsin Badgers (81 points)
Seeing Leane Willemse produce a huge runner-up result was incredibly exciting, especially for a team that has needed more firepower with the absence of Shea Ruhly. We also saw Alexa Westley (9th) post a quietly great finish, further building our confidence in her consistency as we dive deeper into the postseason.
The rest of the Badgers' scorers -- Kylie Finger, Bella Jacobsen and Samantha Stieve -- went 21-24-25, respectively, in the overall results. Danielle Orie (26th) and Vivian Hacker (27th) were solid reinforcements as well.
I'd like to offer some original insight or analysis into this team after seeing these performances, but we didn't learn anything new about Wisconsin on Friday.
3. Michigan Wolverines (102 points)
This was clearly the best race that Michigan has had all season long.
Kayla Windemuller (7th) has been the focal low-stick of this team. Meanwhile, Lani Bloom (12th) was surprisingly great and veteran Samantha Saenz (18th) offered respectable scoring value of her own. Their final two scorers finished 30th and 37th.
This is clearly a rebuilding year for the Wolverines and Friday's effort doesn't change that. Regardless, for a team that has been a bit shaky this fall, this was an encouraging result.
Individual Race
This was a really encouraging performance from Ohio State's Addie Engel. She's been strong this year, but not as much as last year. However, taking down a field that featured Katie Osika and winning by 10-ish seconds is a great way to start your postseason campaign.
Men's Race
1. Wisconsin Badgers (19 points)
Six men in the top-10.
Four men in the top-five.
19 points.
Top-two overall individual finishers.
Beat a Michigan team ranked at TSR #24.
Wisconsin was just dominant and there's not much more to say other than that. The only additional note that I would make is that Adam Spencer (5th) looks like the varsity scorer that I've been saying that he could be this entire season.
2. Michigan Wolverines (63 points)
Nick Foster had an "off" day, but there wasn't a whole lot more that the Wolverines could have done about Wisconsin. Tom Brady (3rd) was great and Owen Mackenzie (8th) may have had the best race of his career. I'm also really liking the progress that we've seen from Caleb Jarema (11th) as of late.
Other than that, I don't have a whole lot to discuss when it comes to the Wolverines.
3. Michigan State Spartans (86 points)
Andrew Nolan (6th) continues to establish himself as a likely low-stick talent. He was supported by Alexander Penski (13th) and Owen Huard (14th), both of whom had good races. However, if the Spartans wanted to contend with Michigan, then they needed their final two scorers (who finished 25th and 28th) to be much closer to that middle group.
4. Purdue Boilermakers (113 points)
If I'm Purdue, I'm fairly encouraged by this result. Yes, they were expected to finish 4th, but having three men place in the top-20 -- Nathan Walker (12th), Douglas Buckeridge (16th) and Caleb Williams (19th) -- is a promising nucleus scorers, especially for such a young team.
Look out for the Boilermakers in the future. If they pull the right strings and make a key addition or two, then they could potentially return to their 2018 and 2019 form.
Individual Race
Did you know that Bob Liking now has three BIG 10 titles on the grass? With COVID granting him an extra year of eligibility, he could come back next fall and win his fourth BIG 10 title. However, he'll also have to face Oregon and Washington to get that title in 2024.
