USTFCCCA News & Notes
NCAA DI Regional Previews: Midwest, Mountain, West
Courtesy: Tyler Mayforth & Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA November 10, 2016   

NCAA DI Regional Previews: Midwest, Mountain, West

NEW ORLEANS — Are you ready to see months of hard work pay off?

It’s Regional Championship Weekend and we’ll see what teams and individuals earn automatic bids to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, which are set for November 19 in Terre Haute, Indiana.

QUICK LINKS: Regional Championship Central | Latest Regional Rankings | Latest National Rankings

By the end of the day tomorrow, we’ll see 36 teams punch their ticket to NCAAs and scores of individuals as well. After the dust settles, we’ll get an idea of what teams earned at-large bids as well.

Allow us to break down three major storylines in each region. We’ll group three regions in each post, based on location.

MIDWEST

Host: Iowa
Location: Iowa City, Iowa
Women – 11 a.m. CT, Men – Noon CT

TIMING SITE

WOMEN

Projected Auto Bids: Iowa State, Oklahoma State

  • Iowa State and Oklahoma State raced against each other once this season at the recent Big 12 Championships. The Cyclones easily handled the Cowgirls 56-82 and walked away with the conference title. Iowa State put four in the top-12 (4-8-9-11) and looked all of the top-15 team in the nation that it did coming into the meet. Another clash is on the docket for Friday and we’ll see how Oklahoma State responds. This is the time of the year where Dave Smith’s teams prosper and last year the Cowgirls won their 1st regional title since 2005. It should be an incredible race between the two powers in the region.
  • We should see a great race for the individual title between Kansas’ Sharon Lokedi and Missouri’s Karissa Schweizer. Both were runaway winners at their respective conference championships, where Lokedi won the Big 12 title by nearly 14 seconds and Schweizer by a slightly smaller margin (8). Schweizer won the only head-to-head matchup earlier this season when she took 4th at Pre-Nats (Lokedi was 10th).
  • Minnesota’s lengthy streak of NCAA appearances is in jeopardy. The Gophers enter this meet ranked 3rd in the region and 26th in the nation. Minnesota hasn’t missed an NCAA meet since 2004. It might be tough for the Gophers to top both Iowa State and Oklahoma, so they need to rely on some at-large points to punch their ticket.
MEN

Projected Auto Bids: Oklahoma State, Iowa State

  • Though both teams are currently favored to take the region’s two automatic NCAA bids and the stakes for a head-to-head showdown aren’t as high, Friday serves as a Big 12 rematch between No. 9 Oklahoma State and No. 13 Iowa State. The Cowboys topped the Cyclones, 36-49, two weekends ago in Lubbock, Texas. The Cowboys have won 10 of the past 11 regional titles.
  • In a region that qualified four teams to the NCAA Championships a year ago (two auto, two at-large), regionally fourth-ranked Bradley could be in position to make a run for its first-ever NCAA Championships appearance. The Missouri Valley champs turned in strong showings at Notre Dame (ahead of No. 25 Eastern Michigan and No. 27 NC State) in 10th and at Pre-Nationals in eighth.
  • Also occupying different levels of the bubble, American champ No. 3 Tulsa and No. 5 Minnesota are both trying to keep national momentum going. Tulsa has made NCAAs five years in a row, while Minnesota snapped what would have been a five-year ­non-qualifying streak a year ago.

 

MOUNTAIN

Host: Utah State
Location: Logan, Utah
Women – 11 a.m. MT; Men – Noon MT

WOMEN

Projected Auto Bids: Colorado, New Mexico

  • From No. 1 at the start of the season to No. 11 in Week 4 and now No. 6, the coaches have just as many questions about New Mexico as we do. One thing we know is that the Lady Lobos aren’t as much of a lock for an automatic NCAA bid as we once thought. It all comes down to depth as New Mexico is solid with Alice Wright and Calli Thackery, but little has been proven behind them. A deeper team could boot the defending national champions to at-large status.
  • BYU and Utah both made NCAAs last year and are in great position to do so once again, ranked as the 3rd and 4th teams in the region. The Cougars recently took 2nd at the West Coast Conference Championships and were 10th at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invite. The Utes were 5th at the Pac-12 Championships and 7th in Wisconsin. Of note: Last year was the first year Utah ever made NCAAs as a team.
  • If you’re curious about a dark horse to nab the remaining NCAA bid in the region, look no further than Air Force. The Falcons, currently ranked 5th in the region and 29th in the nation (only women’s team from a service academy to ever be ranked), have slowly been sneaking up on teams. Air Force nearly upended New Mexico at the Mountain West Championships and put three runners in the top-6. If the Falcons finish among the top-2 teams and even the top-3, they’d punch their first ticket to NCAAs in program history.
MEN

Projected Auto Bids: Northern Arizona, BYU

  • How many teams will get into NCAAs from what might be the deepest region in the country? Led by the historic 1-2-3 sweep from Northern Arizona, Colorado and BYU, six teams from the region are currently ranked top-30 with another receiving votes nationally. This region qualified four last year after entering the weekend with five top-30 teams and another RV, while in 2014 a whopping seven teams made it through – all of which appeared in the pre-meet national poll.
  • How many teams get in depend on which squads we see from No. 15 UTEP and No. 19 Colorado State. Both teams have had up-and-down seasons. UTEP has impressed with a runner-up finish at Notre Dame and disappointed with a distance sixth at Pre-Nationals, while Colorado State was upset at the Mountain West Championships as All-American Jefferson Abbey struggles to regain his 2015 form.
  • Lurking as a dark horse is Air Force, which finished a close third behind Boise State and CSU at the Mountain West Championships. The Falcons would be making just their second NCAA appearance in the past decade if they should push through.

 

WEST

Host: Sacramento State
Location: Sacramento, California
Women – 11 a.m. PT; Men – Noon PT

TIMING SITE

WOMEN

Projected Auto Bids: Washington, Stanford

  • Last year the West Region sent six teams to NCAAs: Oregon, Washington, Boise State, Stanford, Gonzaga and San Francisco. This year the region appears to be on that same path with six teams ranked in the top-30 nationally. Washington, Stanford, Portland and Oregon are locks, while San Francisco and California might need to strengthen their bids with spirited efforts in Sacramento, California on Friday.
  • Last year the Boise State Broncos were the surprise of the season after they won the Roy Griak Invitational, placed 2nd at this meet last year and took 11th at NCAAs. This year the team is a surprise for a completely different reason. Entering this year’s meet, Boise State is ranked 9th in the region and struggled at each of its past two races. The Broncos are doing without 2015 NCAA XC runner-up Allie Ostrander (injury) and have yet to put a pack together behind front-runner Brenna Peloquin. But imagine if Boise State regains its form on Friday and earns an automatic bid to NCAAs. That would cause shockwaves around the nation, since a lot of teams own head-to-head wins over the Broncos. If that happens, we could see a very interesting field at NCAAs this year.
  • If you couldn’t get enough Pac-12 or West Coast Conference action from the conference championships, you’re in luck: You’re about to see several rematches between rivals. Up top you’ll see Washington take on Stanford and Oregon without Colorado meddling in things. Portland and San Francisco also square off in a WCC rematch and that race was a dandy. The Pilots edged BYU by two points for the title (42-44) and the Dons finished just five points back of the former.
MEN

Projected Auto Bids: Stanford, UCLA

  • This was the best-represented region at the 2015 NCAA Championships with seven teams in the field, and it could be similarly stacked this year. Six teams from the West appear in the latest national top-30, with another receiving votes nationally, tied with the Mountain for the most in the country.
  • Currently sitting fourth in the region, No. 12 Portland is looking to make a return trip to NCAAs after missing the meet for the first time in a decade in 2015. The Pilots not only last made the field in 2014, but they also finished on the team podium in third place. This year’s Pilots will have to rebound from a sound loss to No. 3 BYU at the West Coast Conference Championships. Another program from a non-Power-Five conference to watch is sixth-ranked No. 20 Boise State, which has momentum after upsetting Colorado State for the Mountain West title.
  • Another team that underperformed on conference championships weekend was No. 10 Oregon, ranked third in the region behind No. 4 Stanford and No. 8 UCLA. Ranked as high as No. 2 nationally earlier this season, the Ducks finished a distant fourth with 94 points behind the trio of Colorado (41), Stanford (47) and UCLA (58). The good news for the Ducks is they also finished a similar distance ahead of regional No. 5 Washington State.