First Thoughts: Solomon Upsets Wolfe, 'Bama Men Narrowly Win SEC Title & Notre Dame Scares NC State

There's no time for a fancy intro, let's just dive right into it all...

NOTE: This article only covers the Power Five conferences. We will cover other conference meets in a later article, likely coming tomorrow.

---

Men's Analysis

Solomon Upsets Wolfe For ACC Title Via Thrilling Kick

I imagine that most Notre Dame athletes, coaches or fans who listened to my ACC preview podcast episode last night are happily throwing darts at a printout of my face right now.

Partially because of my prediction about the Fighting Irish women (although I did say that they would finish runner-up if Denner ran well) and partially because I said that Carter Solomon would finish 5th individually on Friday (after he placed 9th at Nuttycombe).

But on Friday morning, Solomon put together a performance that was arguably even better than what he showed at Nuttycombe. In a thrilling battle with North Carolina's Parker Wolfe, the Notre Dame ace kicked home to the individual conference title in what some fans would say was an upset victory.

This is a MASSIVE performance for Solomon, mainly because it validates that he is truly one of the best distance runners in the country right now. We figured that he would be an impact scorer for the Irish coming into this fall season, but we didn't expect him to be a breakout low-stick star who would be handing out losses to some of the most elite distance runners in the nation.

It's admittedly tough to know exactly where we should rank Solomon moving forward. Yes, he did just take down Wolfe, but the UNC star got the better of Solomon at Nuttycombe earlier this month, and that's a better representation of what the national meet will look like compared to the ACC XC Championships.

But then again, Solomon's victory is more recent...

Either way, Solomon probably has the most momentum of any rising star in the NCAA this fall.

I am not at all a fan of talking about times during cross country. In 98% of the races that I talk about, times on the grass mean nothing to me.

But seeing Solomon and Wolfe run 22:55 and 22:56, respectively, over 8000 meters on a Virginia course that isn't exactly designed to be super fast is so beyond impressive.

Also, Wolfe may have had to settle for a runner-up finish, but he continues to be one of the most dangerous runners in the NCAA this fall. This was yet another strong result for him.

Wake Forest Men Send A Message, Dominate The ACC

Coming into this race, we had the Notre Dame men viewed as the favorites, and rightfully so. They had a pair of fantastic performances at both Joe Piane and at Nuttycombe. They flexed incredible firepower, outstanding depth and held room to be even better.

On paper, it was hard to pick against them. In our eyes, the Fighting Irish simply had more avenues towards winning a conference title than any other team in this field.

However, at the same time, we made it very clear that the Wake Forest men were capable of winning the ACC crown. Not only that, but we also highlighted how Notre Dame had the potential for a few scoring deficiencies in their lineup, theoretically leaving the door open for the Demon Deacons to win gold.

And that was exactly what happened.

Almost everyone on Wake Forest's squad had their best races of their season.

Aaron Las Heras (3rd) recorded what may have been the best cross country result of his career, Luke Tewalt (4th) finally delivered on the crazy-high potential that he has shown us over the last few seasons, Thomas Vanoppen (5th) continues to solidify himself as one of the nation's best breakout middle-lineup scorers and Zach Facioni (8th) stabilized the fourth scoring spot despite being a contender for the individual title.

Yes, the Demon Deacons did have Joaquin Martinez De Pinillios settle for 24th place, emerging as the team's fifth scorer. And while one would think that a scoring gap like that would allow the final standings to remain somewhat close, Martinez De Pinillios actually turned out to be the best fifth scorer in the entire field.

And with no other distance program being able to come close to Wake Forest's overwhelming display of firepower, the Demon Deacons ended up scoring 44 points.

The next best team?

The Syracuse men who scored 86 points. The North Carolina men, who finished 3rd, were just a single point behind the Orange.

Does this kind of win make Wake Forest a podium favorite?

No, I don't think they're quite there...yet.

But does this result at least make the Demon Deacons a legitimate podium contender?

Yes, I certainly think so.

Syracuse Thrives, North Carolina Stays Close, Notre Dame Falters, NC State Struggles & Virginia Is Still Developing

There were so many talented teams in this field and there are so many takeaways from the ACC XC Championship results. Let's briefly go through the next few men's teams in this race and talk about their performances.

The Syracuse men probably had the highest floor in this field. Their depth has been so solid all season long, they have been far more consistent than they have been in recent years, Nathan Lawler has emerged as a low-stick and a lot of their scorers are interchangeable.

In my eyes, I didn't see a scenario where this team had a poor race / placed lower than 5th.

However, what I didn't expect from the Orange men was to see them put together the scoring potency that they did. Having three men finish in the top-20, with a fourth scorer just on the fringe of that tier, gave the Syracuse men outstanding value in almost every aspect of their lineup.

Nathan Lawler (7th) proved that he is a true low-stick, Noah Carey (12th) continues to gain momentum as we enter the postseason, Sam Lawler (19th) had the best race of his career, Paul O'Donnell (22nd) continues to stabilize this lineup and Nathan Henderson (26th) emerged as the second-best fifth scorer in this field despite having the ability to be a top-15 finisher.

In a race that was super variable, Syracuse showed steadiness and no scoring gaps.

The North Carolina weren't quite as balanced as Syracuse, but their overall firepower made up for any (fairly minor) scoring drop-offs that they experienced at the backend of their lineup. Wolfe's runner-up finish was complemented by Patrick Anderson (15th) and John Tatter (16th).

Crawford Hope (25th) was solid and Ethan Strand (29th) did a nice job of closing out the Tar Heels' scoring. I thought Anderson could have finished a little higher in this field, but for the most part, this is roughly what we expected from the UNC men.

As for Notre Dame, I thought there was a chance where they wouldn't win, but them falling outside of the top-three to 4th place was shocking.

The top-three men from the Fighting Irish were all fantastic. Solomon (1st) was incredible as we already highlighted, Izaiah Steury (9th) continues to be one of the best true freshmen in the NCAA this fall and Josh Methner (10th) was a lethal third low-stick.

But after those three men, things fells apart.

Quinn Gallagher (31st) was actually fairly solid, although the Irish needed him to be their fifth scorer, not their fourth scorer. And with Matthew Carmody (41st) continuing to struggle, the backend of this lineup ultimately inflated the Irish's team score to 92 points.

Between Carmody and Kevin Berry (62nd) faltering, there just wasn't enough backend scoring value for Notre Dame to support their top-three men. And ultimately, that is why they dropped to 4th place on Friday.

As for the NC State Wolfpack, they actually ran better than what their 5th place team result would suggest. Ian Shanklin (6th) was a key low-stick as expected, Robinson Snider (14th) and Hannes Burger (18th) have been massively important late-season returners for this team and Ian Harrison (32nd) was far from bad.

However, with Brett Gardner, the Wolfpack's rising secondary scorer, fading to 49th place, the backend of this lineup simply got away from the NC State.

If Gardner runs to his full potential and finishes somewhere along the lines of 22nd place, then the men from Raleigh, North Carolina get much closer to Notre Dame and maybe even edge them in the final results.

As for the Virginia men, they're still trying to find their identity. Justin Wachtel (13th), Yasin Sado (17th) and Wes Porter (20th) were all really solid. But with other teams boasting greater low-stick scoring and UVA not having any other men in the top-30, there was only so much the Cavaliers could do in this field.

Alabama Upsets Tennessee In Tight Battle For SEC Title, Arkansas & Ole Miss Keep The Race Surprisingly Close

Coming in Friday's race, the Tennessee men were viewed as the favorites to take home the SEC title. They had a pair of elite low-sticks, a great supporting cast and the ability to get even better relative to their Joe Piane result.

However, we also recognized that the Alabama men were more than capable of winning the SEC XC Championships, although they would need a lot of things to break their way in order for that to happen.

Individually, the front of this race was probably the least surprising thing we've seen all day. Alabama's Victor Kiprop took home the individual title as expected, Tennessee's Dylan Jacobs and Yaseen Abdalla finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, and Alabama ace Hillary Cheruiyot finished 4th overall.

Arkansas' Patrick Kiprop (5th) performed as expected, Ole Miss' Anthony Camerieri (6th) arguably had the best race of his life and Alabama's Eliud Kipsang (7th) delivered an expected low-stick result.

However, it was the backend of these lineups that would ultimately determine the final results.

The next few scorers from that quartet of Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas and Ole Miss were Rebels Chris Maxon (9th) and Cole Bullock (13th) as well as Razorbacks Elias Schreml (10th) and Myles Richter (12th).

Then Tennessee had Karl Thiessen (14th) and Nate Kawalec (15th) cross the line. They were followed by Arkansas' Jacob McLeod (16th) as well as Ole Miss' Shane Bracken (17th).

And as the results continued to unfold, the scoring weight of Alabama's elite trio was beginning to erode.

But then the Crimson Tide's Brady Grant (19th) came across the line for a top-20 finish. And while additional Arkansas and Ole Miss runners followed after him, Alabama's Jacob Harris (28th) came through in a monumental way, shockingly giving the Crimson Tide five runners across the line before Tennessee had five runners finish the race.

That was certainly not something that we were expecting.

Tennessee's fifth runner, Canaan Anderson (30th), wasn't far behind, but by that point, the race was over. The Alabama men simply had too much firepower and good-enough scoring support. With a total of 59 points, the men from Tuscaloosa were victorious by five points over both Tennessee and Arkansas, as well as six points over Ole Miss.

When it comes to the Crimson Tide, I'll admit, I can't say that I'm super surprised by how each of their scorers performed. Yes, Brady Grant was a little bit better than I was expecting him to be, but nothing that I saw from Alabama's top-five was a total shocker.

However, I will give this Alabama coaching staff a ton of credit.

Even with backend veteran Jacob Wiggers fading in the latter-half of the race, the Crimson Tide were able to rally around two graduate transfers who they brought in this past summer.

And those two men were ultimately the reason why Alabama was able to survive an "off" day from one of their latter-half varsity scorers.

It's a somewhat similar story for Tennessee. Through four scorers, I wasn't at all surprised by what we saw from the Volunteers. However, Jacob Lewis recorded a DNF result and Eli Nahom struggled despite running so well at Joe Piane.

The Volunteers will almost certainly be better in the future. They have a lineup that is far more complete than what we saw on Friday. But Alabama simply caught them when they were vulnerable and in the end, Tennessee had to settle for runner-up...only barely beating Arkansas on the tie-breaker.

Seeing how well the Razorback men and Rebel men performed on Friday was not something that I was expecting. Tennessee looked great this year while both Arkansas and Ole Miss looked like they were really limited on scoring value.

But for the most part, almost every scorer on each of those teams had their best races of this 2022 cross country season. The Rebels put all five of their men in the top-20 and had two top-10 finishers. The Razorbacks, meanwhile, had five men in the top-21 and had two top-10 finishers as well.

Kudos to both Arkansas and Ole Miss. They may have finished where some of us thought they would, but they certainly improved their stock quite a bit after Friday's race.

Stanford Men Drop 22 Points To Flex Dominance

There wasn't any doubt in our minds that the Stanford men would be the PAC-12 title favorites going into Friday's race. They were simply the most accomplished team and the field theoretically favored their firepower-laden lineup...but we didn't think the field would favor them this much.

In what was a boarderline disgusting display of elite fitness (which I say as a compliment), the Stanford men scored 22 points, just three points shy of their 2002 conference meet record where they posted 19 points.

Charles Hicks was unsurprisingly the individual winner in this race. Meanwhile, Oregon's Aaron Bienenfeld (2nd) rebounded from a slight "off" day at Nuttycombe while Stanford ace Cole Sprout (3rd) continued his consistent excellence.

However, what we really wanted to see from Stanford on Friday was how their projected backend runners would perform before we dive deeper into the postseason.

Well, as it turns out, they ran pretty darn well.

Following a 4th place finish from Colorado's Andrew Kent, the Cardinal had Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau finish 5th, typical low-stick star Ky Robinson place 6th and Thomas Boyden take 7th place. Meanwhile, Devin Hart locked down a solid 10th place result of his own.

I can't begin to express how impressive of a performance Stanford just had. They put all five of their scorers ahead of former cross country All-American, Brian Fay, and had six men in overall top-10.

For Beaudoin-Rousseau, Boyden and Hart, these are extremely important results. We needed to see that Stanford could put together a complete top-five with no scoring deficiencies while boasting a fourth (or maybe even a fifth) All-American.

And after Friday, they seem to have all of that.

Beaudoin-Rousseau not only validated his backend scoring from Nuttycombe (where he placed 30th), but this result now suggests that he's a legitimate All-American contender.

Boyden didn't have a good race at Nuttycombe, but between this result what we saw from him at the Cowboy Jamboree, we now have more confidence in his ability to produce a top result (and maybe even be an All-American).

As for Hart, his 10th place finish doesn't quite match the impressiveness of his 13th place finish Nuttycombe, but that result does seem to fall in line with our TSR #31 individual ranking that we most recently gave him.

Robert DiDonato (19th) was far from bad, he just didn't have the same success that a few of his other teammates did. If he's going to be Stanford's seventh runner this fall, then the Cardinal men should be thrilled about that.

I came into Friday believing that the Stanford men were the national title favorites, but that the BYU men were legitimate threats to take them down -- and I still believe that!

However, the chances of that happening now seem dramatically lower in my mind. Not only did Stanford have three of their projected four backend runners run well on the same day, but those same three men (Beaudoin-Rousseau, Boyden and Hart) all look like they hold All-American potential.

And as long as just two of those men produce on the national stage, then taking down the Cardinal would require a beyond-heroic effort.

As for the rest of this field, you can check out our "unsurprising results" section below...

---

Women's Analysis

NC State Wins, But Notre Dame Gives The 'Pack A Scare

The grass is green, the sky is blue and Katelyn Tuohy won the ACC individual title.

Not really a whole lot to talk about there.

However, the team race for the ACC title was VERY interesting.

The NC State women came into Friday's race as the title favorites. In fact, they weren't just the favorites, they were the OVERWHELMING favorites, especially since they had already defeated most of the main contenders in this field.

Among those contenders was Notre Dame who had already lost to NC State twice this fall.

Right from the gun, you could tell that the Fighting Irish women wanted to be aggressive. Olivia Markezich went straight to the front and was flanked by teammate Annasophia Keller. That duo essentially ran with Katelyn Tuohy for the first-half of the race before the NC State superstar ultimately broke away.

And when Tuohy gained some separation, teammate Kelsey Chmiel was able to join her, giving the Wolfpack women a lethal (but expected) 1-2 punch.

However, in the distance, you could see that there were plenty of green jerseys behind Tuohy and Chmiel. Not just one or two, but instead three or four.

While Tuohy and Chmiel crossed the line in 1st place and 2nd place, it was the Notre Dame contingent of Olivia Markezich (3rd), Katie Thronson (6th), freshman Siona Chisholm (7th) and Maddy Denner (8th) who all had the absolute best races of their season.

And in some cases, the best races of their lives.

Luckily for NC State, standout scorer Sam Bush was able to rally in the latter-half of the race, crossing the line in 5th place to negate some of the overwhelming scoring that Notre Dame was able to pack into the top-10.

And with Brooke Rauber earning a 10th place result (in what was a huge breakout race for the former high school star), the Wolfpack women had a clear edge through four scorers...but the fifth varsity spot is where things got interesting.

With Annasophia Keller salvaging a monumental 14th place finish, the NC State women needed a big race at the backend of their lineup -- and they did. Rising distance runner Gionna Quarzo finished 16th overall, allowing the NC State women to maintain their scoring edge and win the title.

In the end, NC State posted 34 points to defeat the Notre Dame women who had 38 points.

I'll admit, this result does show us that the Wolfpack women are at least more vulnerable than we expected them to be at the start of the season. They only barely held off New Mexico via a tie-breaker at Nuttycombe and they fended off Notre Dame by just four points.

However, it's important that we don't overreact (too much) to this result.

After all, a lot of things went wrong for NC State and a lot of things went right for Notre Dame.

One of NC State's top scoring threats, Sydney Seymour, simply had an "off" day. The Wolfpack women also didn't have Marlee Starliper (who did race at Joe Piane earlier this year) and Savannah Shaw continues to remain absent.

And despite all of that, the Wolfpack women still got a four-point edge thanks to a few breakout races, specifically from Brooke Rauber and Gionna Quarzo (who has already been great in the 10k).

As for the Notre Dame women, they way outperformed our expectations. Maddy Denner has been struggling (a lot) during the regular season and wasn't even a scorer for the Fighting Irish at Nuttycombe.

And yet, once again, she's peaking in the postseason.

We also saw true freshman Siona Chisholm have a massive breakout race after emerging as a solid support piece in the regular season. That was a fairly unexpected result.

We also knew that Katie Thronson and Annasophia Keller were talented, but they each placed about five-ish spots higher than we expected them to. And while we knew that Olivia Markezich was capable of a result like this, I have to admit that this was probably on the better end of where I thought she could finish.

But at the very least, Notre Dame deserves more respect.

The Irish women followed a similar trend last year where they struggled in the regular season and then peaked in the postseason. And while the women from South Bend certainly haven't struggled in the regular season this fall (they've been great), it's clear that they are once again primed to be even better in their championship races.

If they can mimic their scoring structure from Friday at the NCAA XC Championships, then the Irish could absolutely be a podium team.

Virginia Beats Expectations, North Carolina Holds Their Own Without Brown, Florida State Rallies & Syracuse Falters

Just like the men's analysis for the ACC XC Championships, I wanted to highlight the rest of this women's field given how crazy deep it is.

The Virginia women were exceptional on their home course on Friday. Their front-four women ran as a cohesive unit and that ultimately left them with very few lineup deficiencies outside of their fifth scoring spot.

Margot Appleton (9th) is proving that she's much more of a long distance runner than her 1500 meter and mile success would suggest. Camryn Menninger (12th) has been a very pleasant surprise this year, Mia Barnett (17th) has beautifully transitioned her mile prowess to the grass and Sophia Atkinson (22nd) has clearly shaken off an unexciting rookie year to emerge as a wildly valuable scorer.

The Cavaliers fifth scorer faded to 39th place, but other than that, this team was fantastic.

The North Carolina women, meanwhile, didn't have Brynn Brown in this field. And yet, despite their competition, they ran fairly well, settling for a 4th place result in a deep field. If Brown had run and potentially placed 5th, then you're looking at a scenario where UNC scores 88 points and somewhat comfortably finishes 3rd.

Kelsey Harrington (11th) continues to be a really promising front-runner for this group while the backend portion of Fatima Alanis, Sasha Neglia, Natalie Tyner and Taryn Parks went 20-21-27-30, respectively, in the overall results.

For the most part, that's what I expected out of the North Carolina women.

Nice 5th place finish for the Florida State women! I think a lot of people saw their 24th place finish at Nuttycombe and just began to write them off. But let's not forget, the Seminoles were 5th at Joe Piane and within reasonable striking distance of Notre Dame at that meet.

Emmy van den Berg (13th), Agnes McTighe (18th), Alyson Churchill (23rd) were a really underrated top-three who were largely just as good as UNC's top-three. However, significant scoring drop-offs in the final two scoring spots of their lineup ultimately kept the Seminoles in 5th place.

I'll wrap up with the Syracuse women who just didn't have a great race.

Savannah Roark (15th) was fairly solid, but when your next-best scorer finishes 35th and your final two scorers place outside of the top-50, there's only so much you can do.

Both the Syracuse men and Syracuse women have a recent history of making me really concerned in the postseason. And while the men have shown far greater consistency in 2022, the Orange women have left me with a little bit of a guessing game prior to the regional and national meets.

Even so, I think this year's Syracuse women's team is different. Unless they continue to struggle at the Northeast XC Regional XC Championships, I'm not going to pull out the panic button...yet.

Michigan State Wins Wide-Open BIG 10 Title

Both myself and my fellow podcast co-host, Ben Weisel, chose the Wisconsin women to win the BIG 10 title on Friday...but we didn't feel confident about that at all.

In fact, we said that it feels like almost anyone could win it (which, yes, was an exaggeration, but you get the gist).

And although Wisconsin didn't win the title, the Michigan State women did validate the idea that the BIG 10 XC Championships were going to be wildly unpredictable.

I say that because Wisconsin has already beaten Michigan State once this year at Nuttycombe. And while the Spartans did defeat the Badgers at the Griak Invitational, it's important to remember that the Wisconsin women weren't at full strength in that race.

And if Wisconsin wasn't going to win the BIG 10 title, then the Michigan women were going to be my next pick. Because even though the Wolverines haven't run their best race this season, they were at least able to edge Michigan State at Nuttycombe earlier this month.

But instead, it was the Spartans who emerged victorious in a race which felt like it could have unfolded in a handful of ways.

Katie Osika (2nd) was wildly impressive. She looks so much better than she did last year and she seems to have eclipsed her past peak to become one of the most dangerous distance talents in this conference.

Having McKenna Veen placing 9th was also huge, giving Michigan State a high-value secondary scorer who could counter some of the low-stick scoring on other teams like Ohio State and Michigan.

And from there? Well, the rest of the MSU women were just flat-out better as a collective whole than the backend portions of other top lineups.

Kaitlyn Hines (15th) continues to thrive this fall after an encouraging 2021 cross country season and Lauren Freeland (24th) held her own as well. With Emily Bardwell settling for a 28th place finish, the Michigan State women were able to close out their scoring with a great balance of depth, firepower and middle-lineup stability.

It wasn't the flashiest title victory ever, but it didn't need to be. In a year where no team was perfect, the Spartans just had to put together a cohesive top-five, and they did exactly that.

However, just eight points behind the Michigan State Spartans were their in-state rivals, the Michigan Wolverines, a team that was originally favored to win this title in the preseason.

Ericka VanderLende (3rd) returned to racing, making a major splash in the process. Historically, she has been incredible on this stage, so despite struggling at the Cowboy Jamboree and not racing at Nuttycombe, this result shouldn't be much of a surprise.

It was also very nice to see Samanthan Tran placing 10th, continuing to emerge as a pleasantly surprising and valuable scorer for the Wolverines this fall.

However, from there, the scoring potency began to deteriorate.

Samantha Saenz (22nd) actually ran fairly well, but seeing Katelynne Hart (25th) and Kayla Windemuller (26th) falter so far from our original preseason expectations was hard to see. In fact, Windemuller was viewed as a potential threat to Addie Engel for the individual title. If she runs to her full potential, then the Wolverines probably win this race handily.

Unbelievably, the Michigan women are three major races into their season and we can't definitively say that they've run to their full potential yet. That's actually a good thing as they enter the rest of the postseason, but gosh, trying to properly gauge where to rank this group is such a challenge.

As for the Wisconsin women, they were solid through their first three runners as Shea Ruhly finished 8th, Samantha Stieve placed 13th and Lucinda Crouch settled for a 14th place result.

However, Victoria Heiligenthal, Alexa Westley and Emma Watcke didn't emerge as scorers like we thought they possibly could. And while Vivian Hacker (29th) and Peyton Sippey (30th) were by no means bad, the Badgers needed just a bit more scoring, especially since Michigan and Michigan State had relatively better low-sticks in this field.

When it comes to the Ohio State women, I was surprised to see so many people so high on them going into this race. Between non-TSR rankings and other BIG 10 predictions, I didn't know how this team was being viewed higher than Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin.

And as it turns out, my hunch was right...but I still owe the Buckeyes an apology.

While I absolutely did believe that the Ohio State women could at least finish 4th or 5th, I instead chose Illinois and Northwestern as the next two teams in my predictions.

That, of course, turned out to be a mistake.

The Ohio State women were beyond incredible when it came to firepower. I knew Addie Engel was favored for the individual BIG 10 title (and she delivered) while I knew that Daniella Santos was capable of a top-10 result (she threw down a huge 4th place finish).

However, what I wasn't expecting was Andrea Kuhn placing 6th overall. That result, on paper, gave the Buckeyes an elite scoring trio and a clear edge in terms of firepower against any other team in this field.

Unfortunately for Ohio State, their depth fell way back after those three women, and that's ultimately why they settled for a 4th place finish in the final standings. Even so, I now have a greater understanding of how the OSU women going to separate themselves from their competition as we go into the rest of the postseason.

Colorado Defeats Utah On Tie-Breaker To Win PAC-12 Title

Coming into the PAC-12 XC Championships, one could argue that the battle for the conference crown was going to be a three-team battle between Utah, Colorado and Stanford. Despite what recent Nuttycombe results suggested, there didn't seem to be a true favorite.

And sure enough, despite finishing behind Stanford and Utah at Nuttycombe, it was the Colorado women who rallied on Friday to take home the PAC-12 title with overwhelming firepower.

Colorado's Bailey Hertenstein (1st) may not have been the first woman who some of us picked to win the individual title on Friday, but it wasn't at all surprising to see her take home that victory. Everything that we had seen from her so far this season suggested that she could have walked away with gold.

Meanwhile, teammate Emily Covert posted a highly encouraging 3rd place result, a promising bounce-back performance following a fine, but admittedly underwhelming, regular season. And when pairing Hertenstein and Covert with Ella Baran's 7th place finish, the scoring potency of the Buffaloes looked scary-good.

With Kaitlyn Barthell finishing 16th overall, the Boulder-based women were able to establish some scoring stability at the backend of their lineup...but then they reached the final scoring spot in their top-five.

The final scorer for the Colorado women finished 42nd overall, leaving the door wide-open for the Utah women to take full advantage of the opportunity.

Emily Venters (2nd) unsurprisingly validated her rise as an elite superstar, Simone Plourde (5th) continues to get even better with each passing race, Ariel Keklak (17th) and Keelah Barger (19th) have been absolutely brilliant as Utah's middle-lineup scorers and Morgan Jensen (23rd) was the hero of the day for a team that was clearly trying to find a reliable fifth scorer at Nuttycombe.

In the end, the two teams tied at 66 points. And with the Colorado women boasting the better scoring potency, it was the Buffaloes who earned the tie-breaking edge.

Regardless of the final result, teams should be thrilled with their efforts on Friday.

Colorado didn't have Hannah Miniutti and still took down a Utah team that was running at their absolute best. Meanwhile, it looks like the Utes have finally found their fifth scorer, giving them a complete and balanced lineup.

Oregon Surprises Stanford & Washington Fades

The Stanford women looked like the flat-out better team this season relative to Oregon and Washington. The Cardinal seemed to be just as deep (if not deeper) than their conference rivals and they also seemed to have greater potential for a low-stick result.

But as it turns out, the Ducks were the more balanced squad.

Izzy Thorton-Bott has evolved from being a lead scorer to a true national-caliber low-stick, placing 4th overall in a VERY top-heavy field on Friday. With Harper McClain placing 11th and Emilie Girard settling for 14th, the overall scoring potency for Oregon's top-three was much better than we were expecting it to be.

Admittedly, there were some gaps that opened up after that Oregon trio. But with the Ducks' bottom-two scorers finishing 26th and 31st overall, they were able to salvage some points, effectively giving themselves an edge over Stanford by a small margin.

As for the Cardinal, their low-stick (Zofia Dudek) and their bottom-two scorers (freshmen Riley Stewart and Ava Parekh) actually mirrored, and even matched, the lineup structure that the Oregon women boasted.

However, with Stanford's middle-lineup runners just a few spots further back compared to Oregon's middle-lineup runners, the Cardinal weren't able to hang on for 3rd place.

We should also note that the Washington women were only one point behind Stanford despite Haley Herberg (21st) not having her best day, Madison Heisterman (27th) not having her best day and Anna Gibson (37th) not even emerging as a scorer.

But seeing Andrea Markezich finish 8th overall was fantastic to see. The same can be said for Sophomore O'Sullivan who placed 13th. That kind of scoring prowess is certainly much needed for a Washington squad that is seeing a lot of variability in their lineup this year.

Parker Valby Defeats Mercy Chelangat To Win SEC Title

I'm not going to spend too much time on this section, but Parker Valby's win over Mercy Chelangat is a really big deal.

Following that victory -- where she ran 18:25 for 6000 meters on an admittedly flat and fast course to beat the Alabama star by almost eight full seconds -- there's probably no one other than Valby who deserves our TSR #2 spot in our individual rankings.

My fellow podcast co-host, Ben Weisel, really wants to find an argument where Parker Valby is viewed as the national title favorite. That status, of course, rightfully belongs to Katelyn Tuohy, and I don't know if there's a scenario between now and the national meet where I would view anyone other than Tuohy as the national title favorite.

But I'll admit, if there's anyone capable of upsetting Tuohy at the national meet, then it might be the rising megastar from Florida.

---

Unsurprising Results That Still Deserve Some Analysis

• The Alabama women scored 36 points to easily win the SEC XC Championships over Arkansas who had more than double the points scored by the Crimson Tide on Friday. That's what happens when a team puts four women in the top-10.

• Addie Engel's individual BIG 10 title victory was super encouraging. It wasn't surprising, but I like to think that she could maybe threaten for a top-15 finish at the national meet.

• Very comfortable wins for the Oklahoma State men and women at the BIG 12 XC Championships. Shea Foster didn't run and Victor Shitsama didn't have his best day, but the former is more important. Foster could significantly alter where Oklahoma State finishes at the national meet if he doesn't run for them this fall.

• Also, what a huge 2nd place finish for the Iowa State men. They barely edged Texas which they desperately needed to do. That result likely gives them a Kolas point which keeps their national qualifying hopes alive.

• We expected Bob Liking and his Wisconsin teammates to dominate the BIG 10 XC Championships...and they did. The Michigan men had a slightly better day than I was expecting, but nothing we saw here was a surprise. The Badgers look outstanding.

• At the PAC-12 XC Championships, the Washington men finished 3rd despite the Oregon Ducks clearly emerging as the better team at Nuttycombe. But on a super fast course, the Huskies utilized their track speed exactly how I thought they would. The depth of Oregon, while compact, was still too inexperienced and the top-half of Washington's lineup was simply more developed. It wouldn't surprise me if the Oregon men got the edge over Washington at the national meet, but this field very much favored the Huskies and didn't highlight the best aspects of the Ducks' lineup.