Weekend Recap: Big Time Racing In Illinois, Pennsylvania

It’s another big weekend.

What else is new?

From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results | USTFCCCA Scoreboard

It seems to be the norm these days.

We saw some great racing in Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Lewis Crossover Invitational

Teams came to Romeoville, Illinois, from Alaska to Connecticut as six of the eight NCAA Division II regions were represented.

Men’s 8k

No. 1 Colorado School of Mines was impressive as the Orediggers placed all five scorers in the top-11 for a dominating victory with 34 points. No. 5 Colorado Christian, also from the loaded Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), was runner-up with 79 points, with host No. 22 Lewis (159), No. 11 Western Washington (199) and No. 18 Walsh (223) rounding out the top-5.

The RMAC rivals combined for seven of the top-9 individuals: Colorado Christian’s Matthew Storer took top individual honors in 23:46.7 to hold off Duncan Fuehne of the Orediggers by 3.0 seconds. CMS’s scorers went 2-6-7-8-11 (showing even more depth as runners 6 and 7 were 13-18).

There were eight ranked squads entered, with No. 30 Alaska Anchorage (234), No. 10 Saginaw Valley State (275), No. 15 Wayne State (Mich.) (283), Fort Lewis (283) and Minnesota Duluth (288) completing the top-10.

Women’s 6k

No. 3 Colorado School of Mines won the team title with 49 points over No. 1 Grand Valley State (98) as the Lakers rested some of its top runners. The Orediggers were led by Holly Moser in seventh place as their scoring five went 7-9-10-11-12 with a gap of just 9.5 seconds between 1-5. Unranked host Lewis was third with 131 points, followed by No. 4 Winona State (138) and No. 9 Colorado Christian (196).

A total of nine ranked squads competed with No. 27 Western Washington sixth (198), No. 13 Biola (Calif.) seventh (200), unranked Fort Lewis eighth (243), No. 23 Wayne State (Mich.) ninth (308) and No. 26 Saginaw Valley State tenth (328) completing the top-10.

Individually, Lindsay Cunningham led a Winona State 1-2, winning in 20:06.8, 56.1 seconds ahead of Kaylee Beyer.

NCAA DIII Pre-Nationals Invitational

CLICK HERE FOR RESULTS FROM THE MEET

Men’s 8k

MIT wants to remind you that its still the defending national champion.

The Engineers, who fell from No. 3 to No. 8 in the National Coaches’ Poll, made quick work of a stacked field on Saturday. Lowell Hensgen led MIT with a fifth-place individual finish and three of his teammates followed in the top-15 as the squad posted just 71 points. When Pablo Arroyo rounded out the Engineers’ scoring lineup in 32nd place, they had a formidable 36-second spread between their first and fifth-place runners.

No. 8 Williams took runner-up honors behind MIT with 86 points, followed by No. 9 RPI (103), No. 2 Pomona-Pitzer (138) and No. 14 George Fox (158). Former M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week John Lucey and Nikhil DeNatale paced the Ephs in second and fourth place, respectively.

Simon Heys of Wilmington (Ohio) nabbed top individual honors in 24:46.2. Heys beat Lucey by just 1.4 seconds in a race between two athletes who should be in contention for the individual national title come November.

Women’s 6k

Throw out the form chart.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps flew across the country and will headed back to California with the team title from the NCAA DIII Pre-Nationals Invitational. The eighth-ranked Athenas made it look easy, as they put all five finishers in the top-20 to score just 51 points in a resounding 48-point victory. Natalie Bitetti guided CMS with an individual runner-up finish and Elle Marsyla was fifth overall to spearhead the program’s assault.

No. 4 MIT was runner-up with 98 points, followed by No. 11 Williams (118), No. 13 Amherst (181) and No. 14 George Fox (182) in the top-5. The Engineers were the only team other than the Athenas with all five runners in the top-35.

Genna Girard of Williams captured top individual honors in 21:29.4. Girard took control of the race at 5k and ended up winning by nearly 15 seconds over Bitetti.