Welcome back. Now that you’ve read everything about our preseason rankings, let’s delve into the part that actually matters. THE REGULAR SEASON. We missed the first week, but fear not, we’ve taken five things that caught our attention so far and written about them. We may have missed some things and if we have, don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know. We love hearing from you guys. Also, quick disclaimer. The season is still young, so some of the below analysis includes speculation... 1. How good can Cal State San Marcos be in 2019? After not qualifying for the 2019 National Championships, the San Marcos men hosted their annual cross country meet this past weekend. The end result was them taking home the team title. What’s important to mention here is that they took down TSR #10 Queens (N.C.) while placing three inside the top five. Josh Litwiller was the number one man for the Cougars on the day with his 3rd place finish which was just a second back of the 1st and 2nd place finishers. Right behind him was Kibrom Elias (24:20) and Shea Vavra (24:22). Robert Marin was the last Cougar inside the top 10 as he finished 9th in a time of 24:42. Capping the scoring on the day was Phillip Dorado who was six seconds back with a time of 24:48. Now, let’s get a couple of things straight. It’s very early in the season. In fact, both teams had a great meet for this early in the season and Queens actually had all seven of their runners in before San Marcos did (albeit, it was just by one spot), but this is a huge result for the Cougars. If they continue to run like this over the course of the season, we could be talking about them being a legitimate top 10 team. And who knows? Maybe Chico State's 17 year reign of the CCAA might be tested... 2. The Lee (Tenn.) teams impressed this weekend The men's and women’s teams from Lee went under the radar during the summer. Understandably, finishing 25th and 29th at the 2018 NCAA Championships doesn’t bring a lot of preseason attention your way. However, this past weekend at the UTC Twilight Cross Country Meet, the TSR D2 contributors were impressed with both efforts from the Flames. Starting with the women, they have a legitimate 1-2 punch in Chloe Flora and Celine Ritter. Flora finished 2nd and Ritter was 3rd as they covered the 4k course in 13:36 and 13:42. Neither of these women were apart of that team that finished 29th last fall. In fact, Charlee Boxall was the only woman who finished inside the top five who was apart of that team in 2018. Add in freshmen Hannah Spooneybarger and Olivia McClain, along with the returning experience of Becca Umbarger and Kendra Irvine, and the women from Lee seem to have a strong team moving forward. Moving to the men’s side, they went 1-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. Freshman Will Stone stole the show as he took home the individual victory conversing the 7k course in a time of 21:29. The rest of the team looked to be doing some sort of workout as they all crossed within eight seconds of each other as they took the 3rd through 10th spots. Dawson Reed, Caleb Eagleson, Thomas Kelton, and Casey Guthery were the scoring five, but there could be tons of change throughout the season between these athletes. The addition of Kelton (9:06 steeple) will benefit this team greatly. They have experience in Reed, Eagleson, and Guthery who all ran at last year’s NCAA meet. The missing pieces here are Christian Noble (TSR #6), Jared Herzog, and Ben Gilman. They were the top three at the NCAA meet for the Flames last year. It’s unclear what the plan is for these three in 2019 but regardless, Lee should still have major success in 2019. 3. Michigan Tech will be stronger than expected We had the women’s Michigan Tech team ranked as our #8 team in our preseason rankings, but it’s the men that we want to talk about right now after a very strong performance at the MSU Spartan Invitational. I think a lot of people were looking at this MSU meet to see how the likes of Grand Valley State and Saginaw Valley would fare in their first meet of the season. Turns out, Michigan Tech wanted to throw their name into the hat as well. Led by Braden Reichl (TSR #12) who finished in 6th place, the Huskies finished 3rd as a team and just four points behind Grand Valley State and 55 points ahead of Saginaw Valley. The second scorer was Matthew Pahl who finished 9th while Clayton Sayen finished 14th and was the number three guy for Michigan Tech. Both Pahl and Reichl were expected to have strong seasons, but Sayen has seemingly come out of nowhere. Sure, there was optimism after his 31st place finish at the regional meet last year, but he was a middle-distance athlete during the outdoor season last year. His success will be pivotal for the men’s team this season. Additional experience from Brendan Klynstra and Nate Carey can help this team make waves inside the GLIAC. They’ll need to shore up their six and seven runners for purposes of depth, but they have the rest of the season to work with. As of right now, the Huskies look to be a sleeper team that could make some waves in November. 4. Does U-Mary have the firepower to return to the podium? Sure, losing Jaiden Schuette and Emily Roberts looked to be a blow that would send U-Mary back in 2019. And sure, it’s only one meet, but it seems that U-Mary might have the firepower to get back to the podium this fall. Ida Narbuvoll (TSR #7) will be leading the Marauders this year after and she’ll be looking to finish as low as possible at NCAA's in 2019 (obviously). She finished 1st at the MSU Moorhead Dragon Twilight this past weekend with a time of 13:22 (4K). She was almost a full minute ahead of her teammates Taylor Hestekin (14:18) and Starlynn Costa (14:19). Freshman Kayla Ogle was 5th in 14:23 with Bree Erickson capping the scoring five with a 7th place finish. Kate Fox was the team's #6 runner in 8th place while Lacey Feist-Young was their #7 option back in 19th. Feist-Young was the #6 runner for U-Mary at the NCAA meet last year as she came on strong towards the end of the season. It can be presumed that the same thing will happen again this year and if it does, it gives the Marauders a very strong scoring spread through the #2 and #6 scoring spots. Narbuvoll will likely be the number one runner come November and the higher she places, the easier the job is for the rest of the team. Last year, U-Mary had three athletes inside the top 15. While that might not be the case in 2019, if Narbuvoll can be within the top 10 with the rest of this team packing within the top 40, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if we saw them on the top of the podium. 5. More of a story: Sioux Falls or Augustana (S.D.)? These two teams faced off this weekend at the Augustana Twilight XC Meet. So it begs the question...which one of these teams is worth more chatter? Augustana (S.D.) placed 2nd overall, but ended up finishing ahead of Sioux Falls (4th place overall) and did so in Augustana-fashion: extreme depth. Let’s dig in a bit. Sioux Falls was led by Mason Phillips (TSR #3) who finished 2nd in a time of 18:55 (4 mile). In 6th place was Steven Brown at 19:19. The next runner for the Cougars was Billy Beseman down in 27th at 19:57. For Augustana, Aaron Runge paced the Vikings, finishing 7th in a time of 19:19 just behind Brown. He was the only athlete inside the top 10 for Augustana. Matt Steiger was 22nd (19:52), Austin Miller was 24th (19:54), Nathan Schroeder was 29th (19:59), and Jesus Urtusuastegui was 32nd (20:02). And just for kicks, Skylar DeJong was 37th (20:06), meaning that Augustana had six athletes in before Sioux Falls had four. That’s big time. Especially against a team that TSR has ranked #3 in the preseason team rankings. The catch? Zach Lundberg. He did not race for Sioux Falls this past weekend and he was/is expected to be a vital scorer for Sioux Falls this season. The next finishers for Sioux Falls were Aaron Voigt (50th, 20:17), David Ecker (57th, 20:23), Wyatt Schlager (61st, 20:27) and Shodo Mahamed (82nd, 20:38). They weren't terrible, but that will not get the job done when it comes to the championship season. Wyatt McLeod was the #7 scorer for Augustana (there were two unattached athletes ahead of him) coming in at 68th. These two teams are going to see each other quite a bit this season. It’ll be interesting to see how the team battle plays out each time. The continued depth of Augustana might be able to trump the two-headed attack from the Cougars.

Your TSR Admin has returned after a two week hiatus and I can already see the tears of joy in your eyes (or agony, but I'll go with the former). A lot has happened over the past 18ish days and there is a ton (for me) to talk about. Let me try to get things back in order by answering questions that I am sure you were going to ask... So you published rankings, put Stanford at #1 over NAU, and then you just left the country for two weeks while the rest of your team dealt with the backlash? Yep, pretty much. Did you just do it for shock value? Honestly no, we actually believe that Stanford should be at #1, but the shock value was super convenient, huh? But Stanford over NAU??? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??? Mom, please stop yelling at me. Ok, but what about everyone else? How did you leave off the Boise State women and the Syracuse women? The Boise State women lost so much firepower. They lose elite veterans scorers and although they had a great recruiting class, I just don't know how they'll be able to compensate for those losses. Clare O'Brien is great and Maxine Paholek is an encouraging young scorer, but even if they find a capable #3 runner, the team is still left with significant gaps in the second half of their lineup and almost no room for error. As for Syracuse, the addition of Amanda Vestri is huge, but they really didn't do a whole lot last year and underwhelmed A TON at their regional meet. On paper, I really like this group, I would just like to see them put it together on the cross country course first. It sounds like you're trying to rationalize your mistake. And you would be right. What about the men's rankings? Middle Tennessee State just pulled off a stunning upset over Indiana, so it's easy for me to say that we should've included them. I just didn't know if they would find a complete scoring five. Plus there was some uncertainty surrounding Jacob Choge's health and consistency. There were too many questions for this team, so we were forced to leave them out. So then how much are you regretting placing Indiana at #7 after they just lost to MTSU at the Commodore Classic? Honestly, not that much. If Horter runs to his full potential, then Indiana emerges as the better team with better depth through a seven-man lineup. Could their backend scorers be stronger? Sure, but I think this team will thrive in larger fields. Not only that, but we don't actually know how good Middle Tennessee State is. If they turn out to be a top 15 team in the country, then Indiana's loss doesn't seem all that bad. Maybe we'll have to reevaluate their ranking, but let's not suddenly revolt after a race in the second week of September. Finally, some actual race analysis. Alright, tell us about the Ole Miss women at the Commodore Classic. They didn't field their top three runners at the Commodore Classic and still emerged with the team win (relatively comfortably) over a very underrated Ohio State team and a historically talented Indiana squad. The Ole Miss women may end up being far better than we initially expected, especially if Clio Ozanne-Jaques is the true low-stick we think she can be. How big of a deal was the Vin Lananna hire for UVA? This was a monumental, program-defining hire that provides nothing but great upside for the Charlottesville-based university. It also has the potential to do nothing for the program. Vin Lananna is a legendary coach who produced extremely impressive results during his time at Stanford and Oregon. His resume speaks for itself and he's one of the best to ever do it. UVA clearly wanted to make a statement and they did just that. At the same time, it's unclear what kind of control he'll have over the distance teams. As far as I can tell, Coach Jason Dunn will continue to oversee the men's distance program while Megan Lavoie will continue to work with the women. Assuming that's the case (and it seemingly is), then the overall training and development of their athletes isn't really going to change all that much...right? But he could still be extremely useful when it comes to recruiting and other operational aspects! I mean, yeah, he definitely could, but the UVA men consistently bring in really some of the best young talents in the country during most years. Recruiting, at least on the men's side, isn't really an issue. Frankly, it's not really an issue for the women either. Could it be better? Sure, but I don't really know if that's a specific area of emphasis that needs to be addressed. So...then what will he actually do? Every school is different and I'm not going to act like I know how certain teams operate or will operate. But with Lananna also acting as UVA's associate athletic director, I don't really see him as someone who will be getting into the every day details that come with training an entire cross country team. Scheduling, promoting nationally recognized meets, and building a roster that can win team titles on the track are likely on high on his list of priorities. For the record, I don't think Lananna could hurt this team in any way. I'm just not 100% certain what his overall impact will be when it comes to cross country. Speaking of Stanford-related coaches, what about Ricardo Santos? That was hardly even talked about. Alright, fine. I'll say it. Stanford is better off without Coach Miltenberg. There I said it. Don't get me wrong, I think Miltenberg is a phenomenal coach who is clearly one of the best in the country. He is a proven winner with a consistent level of success on the national stage who knows how to recruit elite talent. What he accomplished at Stanford and Georgetown is better than 99% of what we saw from other coaches around the country. At the same time, there was likely growing pressure for Miltenberg to win a national title - a criticism that has sometimes overshadowed his incredible success at Stanford. It may sound harsh, but it's also fair. The Cardinal have been able to consistently bring in top-tier recruits and superstar talents to Palo Alto for years now. In theory, they should have won a national title by now (especially when you look at the past talent they've had on their roster). That, however, hasn't happened. In a year where the Stanford men have the potential be "all in" and aim for Northern Arizona in the national title race, it may be best to have a coach who won't limit early-season racing or attempt to redshirt certain athletes to preserve future eligibility. Those aren't necessarily bad strategies, but the time to win is now. Ok, that's cool and all, but you didn't actually talk about Coach Santos... Oh, right. All he has to do is just not mess up a really good team. That's easier said than done, but he inherits a lot of talent and enough depth to make this the best squad in the country. Can we go back to the actual race discussions? Such as? How about the Georgetown women upsetting Penn State? Good choice, hypothetical reader. The Hoya women upset the Nittany Lions at the Harry Grove Spiked Shoe Invite this past weekend by simply overwhelming them with great depth and strong pack-running. Georgetown took home the win by 16 points, which is admittedly a huge margin in a small field of only five teams. However, it's important to keep in mind that this race says more about Georgetown's strengths than it does Penn State's weaknesses. The Hoya women displayed really impressive depth with a handful of youngsters while PSU tried to get by with a strong 1-2 punch of Kathryn Munks (1st) and Allison Willingmyre (3rd). However, the Nittany Lions didn't race Julia Paternain. Had she toed the line (and assumedly won) then the score would have been much closer than the 16 point gap that we saw (but Georgetown still would have won). Penn State will be fine. They'll still be competitive and one of the better teams in the nation this year, but maybe we are undervaluing the Georgetown women... Any takeaways from the Cavalier Classic at UVA? Yes, a couple. The Virginia men will still be competitive this year, even without Brent Demarest. They have great depth and a few guys who could potentially improve as the season goes on. However, firepower is a legitimate concern and I'll be interested to see who steps up for the Cavaliers as the season progresses. Also, the Duke men are better than last year and they actually had a halfway decent team in 2018. I'm not saying they'll qualify for NCAA's, but they'll be a fun team to watch this year. They weren't that far off from Virginia this past weekend. How about the Tennessee women? They took home the win with 36 points behind an individual win from Katie Thronson. The UNC women may not have won, but I really liked what we saw from Ilse and Hofstad who finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively. They'll need the backend to improve if they want to actually be competitive in the ACC this year, but this is still a young team with a lot of room for growth. It was a nice start to their season. What about the other races? This article is already getting a little long, so let's just hold off for now. Alright, so what can expect from the site over the next couple of weeks? Race previews, updated rankings, and more high-quality content. Oh c'mon, there has to be more than that. There is...but more on that soon.