NCAA DII XC Championships: Who to Watch For in the Individual Races

SAINT LEO, FLORIDA – If you’re looking for some superb cross country to hold you over this Saturday morning until the start of the NCAA Division I Championships at 11am ET, we would suggest you choose DII.

Bright and early with the women’s at 8:30am ET from sunny Saint Leo, Florida, both the men’s and women’s races in NCAA Division II are loaded with intrigue.

Of all the men’s individual national championship cross country races this Saturday, perhaps the most up-in-the-air competition belongs to DII, while the women’s race will be a rematch between two former national champions who battled all the way to the finish line a year ago.

We spent some time talking about the men’s and women’s team races earlier last week, so we shift our focus today to the men’s and women’s individual races, which go off at 9:45am ET and 8:30 a ET, respectively, both of which can be streamed on NCAA.com.

MEN’S RACE

The most glaring sign of how deep the race at the front of the pack will be? The defending national champion returns, and he’s not necessarily the favorite.

Alfred Chelanga of Shorter is back and has yet to lose this season with notable wins at the largely-DI Alabama Crimson Classic and both of his postseason meets (Gulf South and South Region titles).

It’s not so much a slight to Chelanga as much as a nod to Missouri Southern’s Vincent Kiprop – last year’s national runner-up – that he may enter as the favorite. One look at his TFRRS profile shows a great deal of first-place efforts since his runner-up finish a year ago, including a national 10,000-meter title on the track outdoors and a victory at the Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival against runners from DI No. 6 Arkansas.

Speaking of the track, that’s where Adams State’s Sydney Gidabuday excelled this past year, sweeping the indoor 3000 and 5000 titles and taking the outdoor 5000 crown for good measure. With those credentials and three wins to his name this year – in addition to a fourth-place showing in the prestigious Paul Short Run – he’s due for a better finish than sixth a year ago. Running step-for-step with Gidabuday all postseason long has been Nathanael Williams of defending national champion Colorado Mines.

Then there’s James Ngandu of Tiffin, the two-time GLIAC winner who didn’t compete in the NCAA postseason a year ago. Since then, he finished third in the outdoor 10,000 and runner-up indoors at 3000 meters – indicating both speed and stamina. He’s twice beaten a top-five NCAA finisher from a  year ago in Zach Panning – a national contender in his own right – on the cross country circuit in the past month.

Finally, also keep an eye on William Reyes of Chico State. Like several of the other men listed above, Reyes has yet to lose to DII competition in 2016 with titles at the CCAA and the West Region.

WOMEN’S RACE

How close was the race between national champion Alexis Zeis of U-Mary and 2014 national champion Kendra Foley of Grand Valley State a year ago in Joplin, Missouri?

A picture is worth a thousand words, so take a look for yourself:

Courtesy: NCAA

Only a third of a second separated the two as they crossed the line, and the two – though they haven’t met this year – appear to be on another collision course.

Zeis has racked up impressive wins at the Roy Griak Invitational and the Central Region Championships with a lone runner-up finish to Emilee Trost (whom she has beaten twice) at the NSIC Championships.

Foley, meanwhile, put in victories at Michigan State and the GLIAC Championships, though she took just third in the Midwest Regional. For reference, though, she was sixth in the region last year en route to a national runner-up finish and didn’t even run the regional in 2014 before her national title.

Neely Spence of Shippensburg was the last woman to win repeat titles in 2010 and 2011, while no one in meet history has ever won non-consecutive titles.

These two aren’t the only one in contention, though.

The next-best returner from last year is fifth-place Emily Roberts of Southern Indiana, who won the GLVC and was the Midwest runner-up behind teammate Jessica Reeves.

Then there’s the Alaska Anchorage duo of Caroline Kurgat and Joyce Chelimo in sixth and seventh a year ago. Kurgat has been in similar form this year with a GNAC win and the runner-up effort in the West, but Chelimo is slowly rounding into form after a delayed debut. She was fifth and seventh in those same meets.

Trost, who was 29th last year, has emerged as a contender with her only losses coming at the hands of Zeis this year.

An emerging runner to keep an eye on might be Mercy Rotich of Eastern New Mexico. After finishing 125 at the NJCAA Championships a year ago before transferring from El Paso CC, she was the runner-up in the Lone Star Conference Championships and won the South Central against the likes of defending champion Adams State.