The Group Chat: Season Reflection (Part One)

The main portion of the NCAA cross country season has concluded. Although there are a few smaller meets and a couple of conference championships still expected to take place, many of the top distance programs in the country have largely finished up fall competition. Below, our TSR team reviewed the 2020 cross country season and gave our thoughts on how it played out...

What was your biggest takeaway or highlight from this altered 2020 cross country season?

Maura: I would say that my biggest takeaway is that I viewed these cross country meets as successful this fall. I wish that more conferences had opted to compete, but I understand the precautions that were put into place to keep teams and spectators healthy. Having cross country meets to follow and write about kept the fall somewhat “normal,” whatever that means to you these days.

In terms of actual team performances, Georgia Tech’s women, North Carolina's freshmen and a handful of transfers took full advantage of racing this fall. They offered a ton of interesting headlines and set us up for an exciting winter cross country season.

Ben: I agree with Maura. The biggest takeaway was that we actually had races to watch and analyze! This was not something I expected to see when we were in July and August.

As for the actual team results, the Oklahoma State men turned out to be way better than we expected, but there were not many teams that truly surprised us (or at least me) this season.

The best part about this weird season was that we got to see some athletes compete after basically no one raced since March. Although we did not get to see every team run, we now have a much better understanding of what to expect from certain programs going into the upcoming winter cross country season (should it happen).

Eric: My biggest takeaway was that we were still able to get a relatively large, nationally competitive meet (the Oklahoma State Invitational) which featured the country's top teams despite the initial outlook for them to compete looking grim.

It was a real treat to see the likes of BYU, NAU, an unattached Colorado squad and Southern Utah compete this fall (against a top-ranked Oklahoma State squad) after it appeared that many of those teams weren't going to be able to compete at all back in August.

The Oklahoma State Invitational was the highlight of the season for me and I’m glad these teams got to compete against some of the best programs in the country on the national championship course. Props to Oklahoma State for organizing this event.

Garrett: I think Eric makes an excellent point. It's incredible that we still got to see a Northern Arizona vs BYU matchup despite a) their respective conferences initially suspending competition for the fall and b) the NCAA cancelling the national meet.

Seeing all of those team toe the line was a major (unexpected) win for cross country fans.

My other major takeaway is how much of an impact freshmen had this season. The women of NC State were the ones we were watching thanks to their elite-level recruiting class, but it was a handful of other programs that had their first-year runners make a huge splash.

Virginia thrived thanks to the scoring assistance of freshman Wes Porter and a few others while Kentucky was led by an emerging low-stick in Matt Duvall. In fact, four of Kentucky's five scorers at the SEC Championships were freshmen.

The UNC men had a ton of freshmen lead them for the most season, as did their women's team. In fact, their women's team probably had the best overall group of freshmen in the country during this altered cross country season.

Other teams such as the Syracuse women, Army women, Notre Dame men and women as well as the Charlotte men all had instances where they relied on freshmen in big ways this year.

This was a huge season for rookies to get some big-time experience without losing their eligibility and it looks like coaches took full advantage of that.

What was one prediction or expectation that you had at the beginning of this season that didn’t turn out the way that you thought it would?

Ben: I didn't think we would learn much from any of these smaller races, but in the end, I felt like we actually learned quite a bit. As we've mentioned before, many of these teams dramatically raised their stock this season and made us reevaluate how we see them going into the winter season. I also expected to beat Garrett in most of our Blue Oval Podcast prediction contests, but let’s just say that did not go as planned.

Maura: Well, I didn’t think we would see any racing this season, but boy was I wrong. Although we didn’t get to see all conferences compete, the ones that did toe the line gave us some insight into how teams decided to utilize smaller meets and intra-conference head-to-head matchups.

Eric: I thought the Ole Miss men could have swung the SEC title this fall given that they were the defending champions and that they brought back a handful of underrated scoring pieces. Of course, the Arkansas Razorbacks just had too much depth and proved to be one of the best overall teams in the country.

However, the Rebels did make a huge statement by going 1-2-3 in the overall results (so much for being just a middle distance school, right?). If Bethmann had been healthier and if Michael Coccia didn't have an off day at the SEC Championships, then the final results could have been closer between the Razorbacks and the Rebels.

Even so, Arkansas was just the better overall team this fall.

Garrett: I thought that NC State's recruiting class on the women's side was going to be far better than they actually were, even with Tuohy and Starliper sidelined for the season.

Between Alyssa Hendrix, Claire Walters, Gionna Quarzo and Jenna Schulz, I thought at least one of them would emerge as a top seven scorer. That, however, wasn't the case. Even so, I don't think that's any cause for concern. All four of those athletes are exceptionally talented.

Conversely, there was no way I was expecting UNC's freshmen to be as strong as they were. I figured that they would be talented, but they certainly shattered my expectations. Sasha Neglia wasn't just a key scorer, but a bonafide low-stick who finished 6th at the ACC Championships.

The rest of her fellow freshmen teammates, such as Kelsey Harrington and Taryn Parks, were quietly strong throughout the 2020 season as well.

Which conference meet results should we avoid overreacting to?

Ben: The ACC results on the men's and women’s sides should not be emphasized too much. The best team in each race won relatively easily, but the rest of the field was pretty close together in the team scores.

I think it would be an overreaction to say that a team like the Virginia men had a bad day just because they narrowly missed out on the top three. The same goes for the Syracuse men who just seemed to have an off day.

Likewise, the results on the women’s side were very close. 2nd place and 6th place were separated by only 17 points. It's easy to overreact and say that Notre Dame struggled, but even on an off day, they weren't too far behind Georgia Tech.

Maura: I agree with Ben regarding the ACC results. From the beginning of the summer, the NC State women were expected to be a top team in the nation -- even contenders for the NCAA team title. Seeing them win wasn’t surprising given their depth and how they competed in each meet during the regular season.

Seeing Georgia Tech take down Florida State for the third time this season wasn’t shocking either. Where the other team’s finished doesn’t need to be overanalyzed because they largely performed like they had all season long and were so close to each other in the team scoring. If just a couple of runners have off days, then some of these result could have looked very different.

On the men’s side, it would’ve been nice to see a team battle Notre Dame for the win, but the Fighting Irish were just better than their competition. Despite the men only racing once prior to ACC’s, the veterans and freshmen knew how to handle themselves in this talented field.

The teams that followed behind them finished right where they were expected to if you analyzed results, although Syracuse and Wake Forest certainly gave us some relatively unexpected performances.

Eric: In the ACC, on the men's side, I'm going to say that we shouldn't overreact to North Carolina's 7th place team finish. Thomas Ratcliffe recorded a DNF in this race while the rest of the pack wasn't all that close to the top of this results. An inexperienced group of Tar Heels never really found their footing in a deep conference which swallowed them up.

However, with such a young squad, they will surely improve next year (or even next season) thanks to their improved experience. That's half the battle for some of these younger programs. If Thomas Ratcliffe is healthy and is able to secure a top finish, the UNC men could have been right with Duke and Syracuse.

On the SEC side of things, I want to briefly talk about the Alabama women. I actually think that they benefited from Tennessee not running last Friday, along with a few other teams' best runners having off days. This allowed the Tide's top low-sticks to have greater scoring potency and for their depth to have a slightly greater impact.

In larger fields such as the regional or national meets, I'm not sure how well the women from Tuscaloosa would fair. They raced well and put together a complete top five when it mattered the most. However, I'm not sure I would use the SEC results as an indicator for how they will perform in bigger meets.

Garrett: The Syracuse women finishing 8th at the ACC Championships is not a result that people should panic about. Sure, they ran Amanda Vestri, but they fielded a handful of freshmen in their varsity lineup and were without top scorers such as Lauren Dickinson, Rachel Bonner and Abigail Spiers. This team is so much better than what their result from last Friday says.

I would also put the Oklahoma State women into the "don't overreact" category. Taylor Roe and Gabby Hentemann were an excellent 1-2 punch for the Cowgirls this season. However, with Born on the sidelines and Somer clearly not at 100%, the women from Stillwater, Oklahoma just didn't have enough scoring to keep up with some of the top squads in the country, resulting in a 4th place team finish at the BIG 12 Championships.

However, as soon as Born reenters this lineup and as soon as Somers returns to her top fitness, then you're looking at a scary top-four. In fact, I would argue that those four women could be one of the best top-four's in the entire country.

They'll still need to clean up their fifth scoring spot in that theoretical lineup, but this team is much better on paper than what they showed in the BIG 12 Championship results.