USTFCCCA News & Notes
NCAA Division II National Championships Preview
It’s National Championships weekend around the country in collegiate cross country, including at the NCAA Division II level.
A pair of three-time national team champions in the Adams State men and the Grand Valley State women will put their title streaks on the line this weekend in Joplin, Missouri, but the defense of their crowns won’t be easy.
ASU is tied at No. 1 with rival GVSU in the men’s race at 12:15pm ET, while the Grand Valley women will look to fight off challengers in Adams State and GLIAC rival Hillsdale in the women’s race at 11am ET.
Plus, the men’s individual national title is up for grabs and the defending women’s individual champ could be usurped this weekend.
Read on for more details below and follow the action live via a live stream on NCAA.com and live results.
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The Team Race
If the final National Coaches’ Polls hold to form, we are in for a wild one in Joplin this weekend. Three-time defending national champion Adams State and Grand Valley State – runner-up to ASU the past two seasons – enter the championships tied at No. 1 with four first-place votes apiece.
The cast is familiar but the roles they’re playing are anything but. It’s former upstart GVSU that enters with the more veteran team, while the traditional powerhouse Adams State will be relying on a roster unproven at the NCAA Championships level.
For GVSU, redshirt frosh Zach Panning leads the way with a pack of NCAA vets in Chris May, Brady Selner, Kyle Flores, Chad Cini, Wuoi Mach and Bryce Bradley. Jackson Sayler, the Grizzlies’ No. 5 runner a year ago, is the main man this year alongside Sidney Gidabuday.
While those two have been battling for the top spot on and off for much of the season, be sure to keep an eye on a couple teams out west. Chico State had been No. 2 in the country for part of the season before falling at the West Regional to No. 3 Alaska Anchorage and it’s formidable duo of Henry Cheseto and Dominik Notz. No. 5 Chico is not to be counted out with its own frontrunning duo of William Reyes and Steve Martinez.
No. 4 Colorado Mines, led by Nathanael Williams and Dan Mahoney, will also factor into the title race.
The Individual Race
It’s a changing-of-the-guard year in DII men’s cross country. A new individual national champion will be crowned this year as two-time winner Tabor Stevens of Adams State has moved on to the professional ranks. Even the cast of contenders is different in 2015 as only two top-10 returners from a year ago – Harald Karbo of Augustana (S.D.) and Johnnie Guy of Southern Indiana – are back for another crack at it in 2015.
A clear-cut favorite like Stevens has not emerged in 2015, portending a wide-open individual race that could go in many different directions. Karbo is the top returner after finishing sixth a year ago, but his season has been an abbreviated one. Guy, last year’s eighth-place runner, looked strong as a potential favorite all season long prior to a bout of illness at the Midwest Regionals.
If not Karbo or Guy, then who? West Region champ Henry Cheseto is undefeated against DII competition in 2015, as is Atlantic champion Dylan Mountain of Lock Haven. Cheseto and Mountain finished within a second of one another in 23rd and 24th at last year’s NCAA Championships. Expect this year’s race to be just as close between the two, albeit closer to the front of the pack.
William Reyes of Chico State has looked strong throughout much of the season as well, despite a third-place showing at the West Regional. Expect him to run with the front of the pack, as well.
Some more names to watch for? Midwest champ Ben Tuttle of Cedarville, South Central champ Kiefer Johnson of Western State, East champ John Chirchir of American International, South winner Alfred Chelanga of Shorter, Central winner Vincent Kiprop of Missouri Southern, Southeast winner Alex Griggs of Mars Hill, Alex Cushman of Indianapolis, Alec Baldwin of Black Hills State, and Collins Kirui of New Mexico Highlands.
All of these in addition to the crews from those aforementioned top-ranked teams.
WOMEN
Team Race
If not for the men’s race in Joplin an hour later, the DII women’s race would be the most hotly contested of all the NCAA Championship races on Saturday. Will it be Grand Valley State for a fourth consecutive years? Will it be traditional power Adams State? Will upstart Hillsdale break through for its first national title?
Three-time defending national champion Grand Valley State is looking to win four straight – a feat not accomplished since Adams State in won its last of seven in a row in 2009 – and they enter as the favorites here again – but only narrowly. The Lakers arguably have the advantage up front with defending national champion and returning third-place finisher Jessica Janecke running alongside breakout frosh star Gina Patterson, and certainly have the best depth with four returning All-Americans.
Last year’s national runner-up Hillsdale Chargers spent a not insignificant portion of this 2015 season ranked No. 1 in the country with two early-season wins over GVSU, but the Lakers have taken the last two in big meets at the GLIAC and Midwest Regional championships. Led by individual national title favorite Emily Oren, the Chargers also return four All-Americans – all four of whom finished top-25 a year ago, including seventh-place Kristina Galat. The problem for the Chargers hasn’t been their pack up front, but rather their depth. A strong performance by Hillsdale’s No. 5 will go a long way in determining its position on the podium.
Adams State returns three All-Americans from last year’s fourth-place squad in the top-10 duo of Maura O’Brien and Jenna Thurman and 29th-place Rachel Kresl. Like the Lakers, a young leader has emerged for the Grizzlies in Noel Prandoni, the RMAC Champion. With that quartet, the Grizzlies rolled through the usually difficult RMAC and South Central Region championships with minimal resistance. They’ll certainly find some resistance in Joplin this weekend.
Individual Race
Several women have established themselves as favorites in 2015 by virtue of their undefeated seasons.
Oren of Hillsdale has carried her momentum from a historic track season – she won four NCAA titles and became one of DII’s fastest-ever steeplechasers – into an undefeated cross country campaign (well, except for a virtual tie with a teammate at the Michigan Intercollegiates). She’s emerged as the winner/top DII finisher in all four match-ups against Grand Valley State and its top runners, including wins at the GLIAC and Midwest Regional championships. She also finished fifth in the mostly-DI field at the Greater Louisville Classic. Last year in Louisville she was 12th overall after running with the leaders early.
Alexis Zeis of U-Mary has also dominated the DII circuit this season, with decisive wins at the Roy Griak Invitational, the NSIC Championships and the Central Region Championships. She was just a frosh a year ago when she finished 21st overall. She has connections to each of the past two national champions: Last year’s champ, Foley of GVSU, was also a sophomore when she won the title, and the 2013 champion, Jennifer Agnew, also competed for U-Mary with a season of similar trajectory.
Undefeated runners can be found beyond the Midwestern United States, however. Down south in Texas, Kelsey Bruce of Dallas Baptist has put together a strong 2015 campaign that includes a third-place finish at the largely DI Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival and decisive wins at the Pre-National/MSSU Stampede, the Heartland Conference, the South Central Region and the NCCAA Championships just this past weekend. She just missed All-American honors during her most recent XC season in 2013, finishing 41st overall.
Also undefeated against NCAA DII competition is Collett Rampf of Saint Leo, the South Region winner and the champion of the Sunshine State Conference. The sophomore was 69th at NCAAs a year ago.
While those are the runners who have yet to lose in 2015, that’s not to say that the NCAA Champion has to come from among them. After all, Foley had only earned one victory during the regular season before crossing the line first at NCAAs.
Foley herself will be looking to become just the eighth woman in DII history to win back-to-back individual national titles. Then again, she may not even finish as the top Laker on her own squad with Patterson and Janecke in the mix.
GLVC Champion Amanda Farrough has put together a strong season and should run up near the front, as should Ewa Zaborowska of Harding, Leah Sievert of Augustana (S.D.), Joyce Chelimo of Alaska Anchorage and Ida Norvbull of Edinboro and numerous others.