First Thoughts: Winona State Defeats Augustana, Wilhelm Pulls Off Upset & Biola Outlasts CUI

Nearly all of the best Division Two conference meets have wrapped up, leaving us with plenty of results to analyze.

Of course, there was no way for us to touch on every. single. race. that happened this past weekend. Instead, we aimed to highlight all of the major developments that we could, mainly the tighter races and the performances that we thought were the most interesting.

Yes, that means that we avoided certain meets where a singular team or individual unsurprisingly dominated. Those are impressive efforts, but there is nothing about those performances that would have told us anything new.

And is this still not enough analysis for you? Don't worry, our updated D2 and D3 rankings are coming later this week! Let's begin...

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Click here for RMAC XC Championship analysis

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Winona State Women Defeat Augustana For NSIC Title

One of the most highly-anticipated Division Two matchups of this past weekend featured the Winona State women toeing the line against Augustana at the NSIC XC Championships.

However, the reason why this was such a fascinating race is not just because these two teams were (expected to be) equally talented. Instead, Saturday was an experiment of sorts where we saw the Warriors' raw firepower go up against the Vikings' balanced depth.

And in the end, the former won out.

Seeing the Winona State duo of Lindsay Cunningham and Kaylee Beyer go 1-2 in this race was hardly a surprising development. They may end the season as the best scoring duo in the country. However, what allowed the Warriors to separate themselves was their backend.

Sophie Taarud (9th) performed roughly on par with our expectations, but it was Mckenna Taylor (12th) who is very slowly returning to a more competitive form. And with Allison Kenefick (14th) having what might have been her best race of the season, the Winona State women actually had better depth than Augustana and won by 19 points.

As for the Vikings, their lineup structure was largely what we expected, but the two halves of their scoring group got separated and Winona State took full advantage.

Aubrey Surage (6th) and Ella Bakken (7th) had strong efforts. However, the backend trio of Ashley Overgaauw (13th), Ana McCabe (15th) and Amanda Overgaauw (16th) weren't able to keep that gap between them and their lead scorers at a minimum.

Regardless, the Vikings still have somewhat of an argument to be a top-10 team in our rankings and there may need to be a discussion about how close to the top-five the Warriors should be. If Mckenna Taylor is going to steadily improve over the next few weeks like she just showed us, then Winona State should have a fairly complete top-five scoring group.

Lewis Men Fend Off Illinois-Springfield & Drury For GLVC Title

The Lewis men had a huge breakout race on their home course earlier this season at the Lewis XC Crossover. A bronze medal result on that stage boosted the Flyers into the top-10 of our team rankings.

However, it still felt fair to ask the Lewis men for a validation performance. We needed them to prove that they didn't just get lucky or that they overwhelmingly benefitted from their home course advantage.

Luckily, the Flyers were able to take home the GLVC title this past weekend over a sneaky-good Illinois-Springfield squad and a respectable Drury team.

While the UIS men struggled with lineup gaps at the Louisville XC Classic, the smaller field size at the GLVC XC Championships made that somewhat less of an issue (relatively speaking). With Cortland Ross and Noah McIntyre finishing 1st and 3rd, respectively, the Prairie Stars' firepower seemed a bit more potent.

But in the end, Lewis did enough to get by as Evan Horgan, Daniel Arimi, Sean Ryan, Evan Jamrozy and Zack Dunn went 4-6-7-13-14, respectively. That was a fairly impressive team result given that their top runner, Charlie Wirth, was having an "off" day.

I also want to quickly highlight Drury, a team that put all five of their runners in the top-20 of the results. If their top men were a little more potent, then we may be talking about the Panthers upsetting UIS for the runner-up spot.

Finally, I want everyone to keep an eye on Cortland Ross moving forward. So far this season, he has finished 9th at Southern Stampede, 12th at the Louisville XC Classic and now just won a conference title. He's becoming a hard name to ignore.

Oh, and shoutout to Benjamin VandenBrink (2nd) who has been having a very underrated season of his own. He should most certainly be in the All-American conversation.

Biola Women Avoid Upset From Talented CUI Team

Going into the PacWest XC Championships, the Biola women seemed to be the clear favorites They were returning almost everyone from their national meet lineup, their depth was solid and Bethany Mapes was evolving into a lead scorer (or maybe even a true low-stick).

However, the CUI women showed some exciting flashes earlier this year. At the San Francisco State Invitational, the Golden Eagles came within two points of taking down a Chico State team that sits in the top-10 of our rankings. And with the Biola women having just an "ok" showing at the Lewis XC Crossover, it wasn't crazy to suggest that an upset was in the works.

But on Saturday, Biola got the job done, emerging as the top team in the field. Bethany Mapes (3rd) was great, but it was teammates Susanne Bruennig (4th) and Lynette Ruiz (6th) who deserve credit for having some of their better performances.

Their final two scorers did fade to 12th and 15th, but that was still enough to give the Eagles (who are not to be confused with the Golden Eagles) an 11-point win. That should be viewed as a nice "get right" performance as they look to the regional and national meets.

Even so, the CUI women delivered a great effort of their own, boasting better firepower than their conference rivals. Jori Paradis (1st) and Porshe Eismann (2nd) were outstanding while Madeline Jahshan (9th) bridged the gap between the two ends of the lineup. However, with their two scorers placing 19th and 20th, the Biola women were just too strong to defeat.

There is still a lot to be proud of if you're the CUI women. They kept things interesting with a strong Biola squad and their top-two lead scorers look like they could offer nationally competitive firepower in the future.

Not only that, but after each time split during Saturday's race, the CUI women were closing the gap hard on Biola in the team scores. They cut down a 36-point gap at the first split to an 11-point gap when the race was all said and done.

Sam Wilhelm Upsets Jan Lukas Becker For Gulf South Title

One of the names who has flown under the radar this season is Sam Wilhelm, a standout distance talent from Alabama-Huntsville.

Going into this past weekend, Wilhelm's season had been defined by an outstanding 15th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree. On that stage, he took down a handful of strong Division One talents such as Ryan Schoppe and Abraham Avila-Martinez. The rising low-stick star also defeated the entire field at the UAH Chargers XC Invitational.

But for as strong as Wilhelm had been during the regular season, Jan Lukas Becker had arguably been just as good, even if he didn't seem to be as sharp as he was last year. In the eyes of a few people here at The Stride Report, the Mississippi College ace still felt like the safer pick for the individual Gulf South title this past weekend.

That, of course, turned out to not be the case.

Wilhelm didn't just beat Becker on Saturday, he did so by nearly 10 seconds. And with this result, we have to reevaluate where both Wilhelm and Becker stand in the All-American landscape. The latter may not be the national title threat that we initially thought he could be and the former has seemingly yet to be challenged at the Division Two level.

We should also give a quick shoutout to Berket Mesele (3rd), the Christian Brothers distance talent who barely lost to Becker by 0.20 seconds on Saturday.

Mesele has looked great so far this fall with wins at the Waves Invitational and the Rhodes XC Invitational. And with his first postseason race now complete, any suspicions about his All-American talent now seem plenty valid.

High-Level Headlines

Many of the other results from this past weekend don't necessarily require the same level of detail or in-depth discussion that the above four did. Even so, I wanted to mention a handful of other meets and briefly touch on a few developments that caught my attention...

Augustana Men Escape Upset From Minnesota-Duluth

The Augustana men had three men in the top-six at the NSIC XC Championships and one of those men was Ryan Hartman who earned a dominant individual conference title victory. However, Minnesota Duluth only had one runner in the top-10. That was Jack VanKempen who finished 10th.

Naturally, one would expect the Vikings to be overwhelming winners with those kinds of stats. That, however, was not the case. Instead, they only won by four points as the Bulldogs took spots 10-11-12-13-14 while Augustana's final two scorers finished 18th and 26th.

I'm not quite sure how to analyze these results. The Vikings comfortably took down the Bulldogs at the Griak Invitational, but the margins were much smaller this past weekend and it was not just because it was a smaller field. If the rest of Minnesota Duluth's scoring contingent can hang with VanKempen going forward, then this might be a team to keep an eye on.

East Central Men Sweep Great American XC Championships

So...do we actually know how good the East Central men are?

Truthfully, I don't think we do and I'm not entirely sure they do, either.

I say that because the Tigers only legitimate challenge this fall came at the Southern Stampede meet. On that stage, they comfortably took home the win by 61 points over a decent New Mexico Highlands squad.

And after sweeping the top-five spots at the Great American XC Championships, I think it's time to wonder if this is a team that can contend for a top-10 result on the national stage in November.

Kevin McDermott Wins GMAC Title Over Correa & Nash

The Western Washington men have to be thrilled about what they have gotten out of Kevin McDermott and Andrew Oslin this season. The former just won the GNAC title over Johan Correa (Central Washington) and Cole Nash (Alaska Anchorage) while the latter earned a 5th place result.

The rest of the Vikings' squad has been solid this fall, but seeing their low-sticks step up to complement their depth has been a welcomed development.

We should also talk about Alaska Anchorage briefly. Cole Nash (3rd) is still a top name, but he doesn't seem to quite as sharp as he was last fall. Thankfully, he has still emerged as a true low-stick for the Seawolves who came within 14 points of Western Washington this past weekend. The emergence of Michael Zapherson (6th) as a lead scorer has also helped this team establish a more nationally competitive presence in 2023.

Saint Martin's Women Fall to Western Washington Despite Putting Four Runners in Top-10 at GNAC XC Championships

The Western Washington women were favored to win this race. However, if there was going to be a team that was able to contend with them, we thought it would be Alaska Fairbanks -- but that wasn't the case.

The Saint Martin's women were absolutely incredible on Saturday, putting four runners inside the top-10 of the results! However, with their final scorer fading to 44th overall (38th in the team scoring), the Vikings pulled away for a somewhat comfortable victory after putting eight women in the top-20.

Perhaps we should have seen this coming from the Saint Martin's women. They did, after all, put four runners in the top-70 at the Lewis XC Crossover, but had their final scorer finish 216th overall in that race. Truthfully, I don't know what this means for the Saints if they were to make it to the national stage, but I do think that lineup structure could find success in Joplin, Missouri come November.

Chico State Women Fend Off Stanislaus State & Cal Poly Pomona

Going into this weekend, we felt good about saying that the Chico State women were the somewhat clear favorites to win the CCAA XC Championships. And while that did happen, we also have to commend Stanislaus State and Cal Poly Pomona for solid efforts of their own.

When it comes to Chico State, the duo Iresh Molina (3rd) and Della Molina (4th) offered solid low-stick scoring while their final three scorers finished between 11th and 15th place. Generally speaking, nothing that we saw from the Wildcats was all that surprising.

As for Stan State, I love what Holly Little (2nd) has been able to offer this team in terms of low-stick scoring. When you pair her with four other scorers who finished in the top-20, three of whom are listed as freshmen, you have to be excited about the future of this program.

Cal Poly Pomona didn't have a singular low-stick who was as potent as what Chico State and Stanislaus State boasted, but they did have Alondra Arias (6th), Vivian Martinez (8th) and Angie Arellano (9th) finish in the top-10. No other team in this field can say that they had three women in the top-10.