Weekend Recap: 2023 NCAA DIII Conference Championships Weekend

The best season is the postseason.

We’re officially in that realm in NCAA DIII Cross Country.

From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results | USTFCCCA Scoreboard

Out of the 40 conferences holding their championships this weekend, 19 have at least one nationally ranked program among their coffers.

Let’s find out which meets stood above the rest this weekend.

2023 NESCAC Cross Country Championships

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Men’s Recap

No. 6 Williams imposed its will on Saturday, as it placed three runners in the top-6 and another in the top-15 to give itself enough distance to beat No. 27 Amherst, 43-58. John Lucey captured the individual title for the Ephs in 24:56.1 to stake them to an early lead. By the time Nikhil DeNatale (third) and Charles Namiot (sixth) came across the finish line, Williams amassed ten points before any other team had two scorers.

The Mammoths came in seeded fourth, but took down both No. 14 Tufts (third, 90 points) and No. 20 Middlebury (fourth, 96 points) to surely shake up the National Coaches’ Poll next week.

Women’s Recap

Genna Girard and her teammates made it look easy on Saturday.

Girard gave No. 10 Williams the ultimate low stick with the individual title in 21:04.9 – and continued her undefeated season – and four other teammates joined her in the top-15 to rout the field. The Ephs finished with 40 points, 31 fewer than No. 14 Amherst.

The Mammoths were the best of the rest with 71 points, followed by No. 25 Middlebury in third with 99 points, No. 26 Connecticut College in fourth with 130 points and Wesleyan (Conn.) in fifth with 157 points.

2023 UAA Cross Country Championships

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Men’s Recap

No. 5 Carnegie Mellon placed all five scorers in the top-7 to easily regain the team crown with 23 points over No. 17 Washington (Mo.), which had 65 points. Individual runner-up Matthew Porter led the Tartans, whose top-5 had a differential of just 18.6 seconds in winning for the first time since 2021 and seventh all-time. No. 26 UChicago (76), No. 28 and defending champion Emory (109) and No. 24 NYU rounded out the top-5.

UChicago’s Jack Begley won the individual race in 25:04.8 for 8k in beating Porter by 5.7 seconds.

Women’s Recap

The national rankings will likely look different at the top next week as No. 5 NYU won its first-ever UAA title, totaling 34 points to turn back No. 1 and defending champion UChicago, which had 46 points. The Violets were led by overall winner Grace Richardson, who was clocked in 21:34.5 for 6k to win by 5.4 seconds over the Maroons’ Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel.

NYU had three top-6 finishers and four in the top-9 for a 1-4-6-9-14 collection compared to UChicago’s 2-5-11-13-15.

No. 11 Washington (Mo.) was third with 71 points, with No. 22 Emory (95) and No. 33 Carnegie Mellon (164) completing the top-5.

2023 WIAC Cross Country Championships

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Men’s Recap

UW-La Crosse and UW-Whitewater waged a virtual dual meet, but the No. 2 Eagles prevailed with 22 points as all five of the UWL scorers finished in the top-7 in registering a 1-5 differential of 33.4 seconds. The No. 4 Warhawks, who were seeking a first conference title since 1965, were second with 41 points, while No. 31 UW-Stout (117), UW-Platteville (123) and UW-Oshkosh (142) completed the top-5.

Christian Patzka of UWW won the individual crown, clocking 24:20.5 for 8k in beating UWL’s Ethan Gregg, the defending champion, by 3.8 seconds. The two were back-and-forth throughout the race, with Gregg leading by 0.4 seconds as late as the 6.54k checkpoint.

Women’s Recap

No. 12 UW-La Crosse placed all five scorers in the top-11 to claim a third-straight – and 12^th overall – team title in scoring 29 points to hold off No. 21 UW-Eau Claire, which tallied 46 points. Maddie Hannan led the Eagles, who went 2-3-6-7-11.

It was close for third with unranked UW-Whitewater winning a tiebreaker over No. 35 UW-Stout as both had 115 points. UW-Oshkosh (120) completed the top-5.

Carolyn Shult of UW-Eau Claire won the individual race, leading at every checkpoint for a 24.8-second victory in 21:25.6 for 6k over Hannan, the defending champion.