NCAA DI XC Championships: Baylor, Washington Could Make Noise In Women’s Team Race

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — So much has been made of the favorites in the women’s race at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships.

We know Colorado is the unanimous No. 1 entering Saturday’s meet — and for good reason. Have you seen the carnage the Buffs left in their path to Terre Haute, Indiana?

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No. 2 NC State, No. 3 Providence, No. 4 Stanford and No. 5 Michigan are all hot on Colorado’s heels and need to execute their race plan perfectly to topple the nation’s best.

What about those dark horses? You know those teams that could pull a surprise or two and make things REALLY interesting in the team race.

We’ll highlight two in this post: one from inside the top-10 and one outside of it. As fate would have it, both of these teams stood out from the rest as recently as mid-October.

No. 7 Washington

Remember the Huskies?

The team that won the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational?

It wasn’t too long ago that Washington soared from No. 12 to No. 2 in the National Coaches’ Poll and owned four 1st-place votes in the Week 5 installment. Depth proved to be the rocket fuel for the Huskies as they mushed their way to the top and toppled NC State and Providence in Madison.

That commodity has been in short supply for Washington as of late, though.

The Huskies couldn’t hang with Colorado at the Pac-12 Championships and watched a young Stanford team upend them at the West Region Championships. Washington fell to No. 4 after the first race of the postseason and down to No. 7 in the most recent poll that came out Monday.

Don’t worry about the Huskies: They will end up on the podium if they recapture the magic that propelled them to No. 2 after Wisco.

What needs to happen?

First — and most importantly — Charlotte Prouse needs to be right on Amy-Eloise Neale’s shoulder. Neale is on a two-race win streak (Pac-12s, West Region), while Prouse hit a bit of a slide in recent races (6th and 10th in her last two after placing 5th at Wisco). Neale and Prouse are as dangerous as any duo in the nation and Washington needs them up in the pack if it wants to finish among the top-4 teams.

Secondly, the Huskies’ 3-4-5 runners can’t stray too far from the top-50. If Washington has three All-America selections, look out.

No. 23 Baylor

Quick!

Name the team at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational that had four runners across the finish line before any other team in the field.

Here’s a hint: It wasn’t one of the top-4 teams.

Give up?

That would be none other than Baylor, the 5th-place team in Madison.

The Bears had a breakthrough race as their top-4 finishers went 11-15-29-31. If final scores were tallied after four finishers instead of the usual five, Baylor would have been runner-up to meet champion Washington. Unfortunately the Bears’ fifth runner crossed the finish line in 142nd and they dropped three spots in the team standings.

A similar thing happened this past weekend at the South Central Region Championships to Baylor. The Bears were well on their way to a region title — and an upset of Arkansas in the process — but their back-end runners couldn’t keep up with the Razorbacks.

Baylor should have two All-America selections on Saturday in the guise of Maggie Montoya and Lindsey Bradley. Behind that duo, Peyton Thomas and Anna West will hold their own. For the Bears to end up on the podium, Kathryn Foreman (191st at Wisco) and/or Gabrielle Satterlee (142nd) must have the race of their lives.