USTFCCCA News & Notes
Weekend Recap: Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational Headlines Friday’s Action
Welcome to the biggest weekend of the regular season.
Top athletes and teams are rounding into postseason form.
From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results | USTFCCCA Scoreboard
We saw some big debuts and impressive performances.
Here are the meets that stood out to us the most this weekend.
Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational
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Men’s 8k Championship
Fifteen athletes were within one second of the lead at the 6k split on Friday.
That pack slowly whittled down over the final 2k before Harvard’s Graham Blanks pulled away as the runners crested the penultimate hill to win in 23:23.4. Northern Arizona’s Nico Young finished second in 23:26.1 with three other runners cascading across the finish line within 0.3 seconds of him: New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel (third, 23:26.2), Stanford’s Ky Robinson (fourth, 23:26.2) and Wisconsin’s Jackson Sharp (fifth, 23:26.4).
Notice how we haven’t said anything about the team race? Well, that wasn’t in question.
Northern Arizona dominated a loaded field with 21 other top-30 programs in the mix. The Lumberjacks posted an 86-point victory over third-ranked BYU, 76-162. NAU had two runners in the top-10 (Young and Drew Bosley), as well as three others in the top-30. This was the second statement win of the season for the Lumberjacks, who previously won the Virginia Invitational last month.
No. 6 Syracuse finished third with 251 points, followed by No. 14 California Baptist in fourth with 272 points and No. 11 Texas in fifth with 286 points.
Women’s 6k Championship
Northern Arizona and Florida’s Parker Valby registered signature wins on Friday.
The Lumberjacks steamrolled the field to capture the team title, while Valby turned the tables on Katelyn Tuohy of NC State to seize the individual crown in the Women’s 6k Championship.
NAU jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Led by Elise Stearns in fourth place, the second-ranked Lumberjacks put six athletes in the top-25 with all five scorers in the top-20. NAU, which had a meager 22.3-second spread at the finish, was up 58 points at 2k, 44 points at 4k and then won by 43 points over top-ranked NC State. Gracelyn Larkin (eighth), Annika Reiss (tenth), Aliandrea Upshaw (12th) and Keira Moore (18th) finished in order behind Stearns.
Valby, Tuohy and Stanford’s Amy Bunnage set off to a blistering pace on a rainy, windy day, outdistancing the field by 11 seconds at the 2k split. Then, Valby and Tuohy dropped Bunnage soon after. Then, Valby dropped Tuohy. Valby led by 7.5 seconds at the 4k split and extended it from there to win by 12.4 seconds in a meet-record 19:17.2.
Tuohy and teammate Kelsey Chmiel finished second and third, respectively, to guide the Wolfpack, while Stearns and Oregon State’s Kaylee Mitchell rounded out the top-5 individuals.
When it comes to the team standings, throw out the form chart. NAU topped NC State and then it was 11th-ranked Georgetown (208), No. 5 Stanford (227) and No. 9 Florida (262).
XC23 Pre-Nationals Invitational
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Men’s 8k Blue
Arkansas came in ranked 21st in the nation.
It’s safe to say that will change as of next Tuesday.
The Razorbacks, behind four top-6 athletes, rolled to a decisive victory at Panorama Farms. Arkansas totaled just 35 points to easily beat runner-up No. 11 Tennessee by 54 points. Ben Shearer captured the individual title in 22:55.0 to give the Razorbacks the ultimate low stick. Then Kirami Yego followed in third at 23:04.2, Patrick Kiprop was fourth at 23:11.5 and Jacob McLeod crossed the finish line fifth at 23:17.1.
Individual runner-up Yaseen Abdalla led the Volunteers, while Gary Martin paced host Virginia to a third-place finish in the team standings. Tennessee amassed 89 points with the tenth-ranked Cavaliers a distant third with 112.
Women’s 6k Blue
Carmen Alder and the rest of the BYU Cougars made it look easy.
Alder won the individual title by nearly 11 seconds in 19:36.2 and she was one of five BYU athletes in the top-10 as the nation’s sixth-ranked squad ran away with the team title. The Cougars put up just 32 points with their 1-5-7-9-10 placements and beat 19th-ranked Arkansas by 58. Jenna Hutchins was fifth for BYU at 19:58.3, followed by Aubrey Frentheway in seventh at 20:00.6, Lexy Halladay-Lowry in ninth at 20:04.0 and Riley Chamberlain in tenth at 20:06.0.
The Razorbacks were a clear runner-up with 90 points, 14 ahead of seventh-ranked Virginia with 104. No. 17 Oregon finished fourth with 117 points ahead of unranked Tennessee, which rounded out the top-5 teams.
Augustana Interregional Invitational
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Men’s Varsity 8k
Don’t look now, but North Central (Ill.) might be back.
The top-ranked Cardinals flew to victory over a horde of ranked teams on Saturday. North Central (Ill.) put four runners in the top-15 and scored 60 points, 30 fewer than runner-up No. 4 UW-Whitewater. Max Svienty and Connor Riss were the quickest of the Cardinals, as they finished fourth and sixth, respectively.
Christian Patzka gave the Warhawks the ultimate low stick with his 24:19.3 victory. Patzka was 1.5 seconds faster than James Settles of Colorado College. Gunner Schlender helped UW-Whitewater’s cause with a third-place finish behind Patzka and Settles.
No. 7 Wartburg took third with 97 points, followed by No. 25 Washington (Mo.) with 210 points and No. 19 Calvin with 230 points.
Women’s Varsity 6k
UChicago left no doubt on Saturday, nor did Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel.
Battleson-Gunkel won the individual title by 2.9 seconds in 21:24.7 and her teammates followed suit with a dominant performance as the Maroons cruised to victory with 48 points. UChicago put all five scoring athletes in the top-15 and one other in the top-30 – a feat no other team could match.
No. 3 Wartburg was runner-up with 68 points thanks to three top-10 athletes: Lexi Brown (third, 21:31.9), Aubrie Fisher (fourth, 21:39.7) and Shaelyn Hostager (eighth, 21:49.0). While the Knights had another athlete in the top-20, their fifth finished in 36th place.
No. 9 Washington (Mo.) ended up third with 129 points, followed by No. 26 Colorado College with 148 points and No. 16 Calvin with 165 points to round out the top-5.
Other Meets Of Note
Mike Woods Invitational
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Depth won out at the Mike Woods Invitational on Saturday.
Carnegie Mellon’s men and Carleton’s women reigned over a field that included numerous teams ranked in the top-30 of the most recent NCAA DIII National Coaches’ Polls. Both the sixth-ranked Tartans and the sixth-ranked Knights put multiple athletes in the top-10 to triumph in Geneseo, New York. Carnegie Mellon went 3-5-7-8-9 for 32 points, 18 fewer than runner-up No. 12 Lynchburg, while Carleton went 5-6-7-10-22 to upset No. 4 SUNY Geneseo.
Individual titles went to Frank Csorba of Lynchburg in 23:50.6 and Penelope Greene of SUNY Geneseo in 20:47.8. Csorba spearheaded a 1-2 finish for the Hornets as teammate Chasen Hunt was just 1.2 seconds behind him. Greene and teammate Rachel Hirschkind went 1-3.
Firestarter Classic
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Butler (Kan.) CC packed some brooms with their luggage.
Kansas JUCO teams flocked to Iola, where Allen (Kan.) CC was hosting the Kansas Jayhawk CC Conference preview meet. Butler claimed both individual titles as Khloi Bird won the women’s 5k in 19:01.8 by 7.9 seconds over Laura Avila of Hutchinson (Kan.) CC, and Adem Bouldjadj cruised to victory by over a minute in 23:39.1 for 8k.
Team competition saw the NJCAA DII No. 3 Cowley (Kan.) women hold off three top-10 NJCAA DI squads – 43 points ahead of No. 8 Dodge City (Kan.) CC (53), No. 7 Hutchinson (58) and No. 6 Butler (fifth with 118). In the men’s battle DI No. 8 Northwest Kansas Tech (42) won over DII No. 6 Cowley (65).
Bradley Pink Classic
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Lilly Alberts – the top runner for No. 1-ranked Harper (Ill.) in NJCAA DIII polling – finally met her match, but she’s still undefeated against collegians. Alberts was the top collegiate finisher in the White Race, clocking 22:06.1 for 6k in finishing second to unattached Kaia Downs. Alberts was undefeated in four September races this year. Her Hawks were the highest-finishing JUCO squad in both the women’s and men’s competitions, which included College of DuPage (Ill.), rated No. 7 and No. 5, respectively, with the Chaps men also being two-time reigning NJCAA DIII champs.
Greenville Classic
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Heartland (Ill.) CC swept the team titles in a meet chockful of multi-divisional NJCAA powers. The Hawks – No. 2 in NJCAA DII women’s rankings and No. 5 in the men’s – were led by both individual winners as well – Nora Brady (19:09.3 over teammate Addysen Clark) in the women’s 6k, while Matt Padilla claimed the men’s 8k (25:54.3 over teammate Ben Huey). NJCAA DIII was also well represented, as Mineral Area (Mo.) CC – No. 3 in the men’s rankings – was third in the team standings, while women’s No. 3 Jefferson (Mo.) earned top DIII in third place, just ahead of No. 2 Mineral Area.