Weekend Preview: NCAA DII, NJCAA Championship Season Begins; NAIA Challenges

It’s late October. You know what that means.

It’s time to start crowning some conference and region champions.

From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results

It’s Conference Championships Weekend in NCAA Division II, while NJCAA athletes and teams will vie for regional titles. Then in the NAIA, the regular season concludes with various Challenge meets.

Let’s find out which meets caught our eye.

RMAC Championships

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE RESULTS FROM THE MEET

Water is wet.

The sky is blue.

The RMAC Cross Country Championships are loaded.

Three top-6 men’s programs and four top-7 women’s programs headline the 2024 edition of the meet, which takes place on Saturday, October 26, in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

The men’s 8k is first on the course at 10:45 am MT with No. 2 Colorado School of Mines taking on No. 5 Western Colorado, No. 6 Adams State, No. 11 Colorado Christian, No. 12 CSU Pueblo and No. 22 UC-Colorado Springs. The Orediggers have been an absolute force at this meet over the past eight years, winning seven team titles and not scoring more than 32 points in those instances. That high-water mark came last year when Colorado School of Mines beat Adams State 32-59 but put four runners in the top-10 – all of which return in 2024. Voting coaches feel Western Colorado is the Orediggers’ greatest threat and is looking for its first title since 2013.

The women’s 6k gets underway at 11:35 am MT with a captivating battle brewing between No. 1 Adams State, No. 3 CSU Pueblo, No. 4 Colorado School of Mines and No. 7 Western Colorado, among others If anybody but the Grizzlies win the team title, it would be an upset. Adams State has won three consecutive conference crowns and 11 of the past 12. The Grizzlies return four of the seven athletes who helped them top the podium last year, including top-10 finishers Emily Schoelkopf (third) and Ava O’Connor (sixth) and Morgan O’Keefe (tenth). Adams State proved its fortitude earlier this season at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, where it took seventh in the team standings ahead of numerous NCAA DI programs, namely Michigan State.

NAIA Great Lakes Challenge

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE RESULTS FROM THE MEET

Fifty teams are ranked at a given time in the NAIA National Coaches’ Polls.

Twenty-two of them will compete at the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge on Saturday.

The men’s race, first on the course at 10 am ET, features 12 of them, headlined by four top-10 programs: No. 6 Spring Arbor (Mich.), No. 7 Indiana Wesleyan, No. 8 Taylor (Ind.) and No. 9 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho). The Cougars have been a revelation this season, finishing fourth at the Gans Creek Classic in September and then winning the Bethel University Invitational earlier this month. The Wildcats are led by Eli Fullerton, who has won two of the three races in which he competed so far, most recently at the Ray Bullock Invitational. The Trojans have a potent 1-2 punch in Luke Harber and Ryan Hanak, while the Warriors haven’t been shy to travel to test themselves this year (Lewis-Clark State also went to the Gans Creek Classic in September).

No. 2 Taylor and No. 10 Grace (Ind.) top the women’s race, which begins at 11 am ET. The Trojans and the Lancers just faced off two weeks ago at the Ray Bullock Invitational. Taylor, with talented freshman Jaynie Halterman leading the way, cruised to a 23-65 victory. Halterman is undefeated this season, winning individual titles at the IWU Twilight Invitational, the Gans Creek Classic and then the Ray Bullock Invitational. It hasn’t been particularly close when Halterman wins races, either: Halterman’s average margin of victory is 15 seconds.

NJCAA Regional Championships

Here are some of the best:

Region 5

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE RESULTS FROM THE MEET

The DI meet, set for Saturday in Hobbs, New Mexico, is the deepest based on the latest National Coaches’ Poll as eight men’s and seven women’s squads will be in attendance. The men’s race features three in the top-10: No. 3 El Paso (Texas) CC, No. 6 New Mexico JC and No. 10 Odessa (Texas). The women’s contest has a pair in No. 5 New Mexico JC and No. 10 Odessa.

Leading individuals include Mohammed El Youssfi of Odessa and Timothy Kiprotich of El Paso among the men, while Odessa’s Elizabeth Ilanda tops the women’s field, having set the Harry McAdams Park 5K course record of 17:16.3 two weeks ago.

Region 6

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE RESULTS FROM THE MEET

Two top-10 teams on both sides of the DI rankings come from the same schools – Butler (Kan.) CC and Hutchinson (Kan.) CC. They sit Nos. 4 and 5, respectively, in the men’s rankings and Nos. 7 and 6 in the women’s compilation.

Individually, Butler’s Emmanuel Otim has won three of his four races this year, including a 23:12.1 for 8K on this course two weeks ago to beat Sibonelo Khumalo of Colby (Kan.) CC by 4.5 seconds. In the women’s race all eyes figure to be on Hutchinson’s Faith Jepchirchir, who won the Tiger (Regional) Preview on this course by 31.9 seconds with a 5K time of 16:55.4, fastest in the country.

The meet is set for Friday in Arkansas City, Kansas.

Region 11

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE RESULTS FROM THE MEET

This region also has two top-10 DI teams on both sides from the same schools – Iowa Western CC and Iowa Central CC. They are Nos. 2 and 9, respectively, in the men’s poll and Nos. 9 and 3 in the women’s rankings.

The Reivers’ Geofrey Ronoh is undefeated in four races this year and is the favorite for the men’s individual title, while the women’s battle will feature the Tritons’ Yididiya Bifa against Barbara Neiva of Iowa Western for the third time this year (they’re 1-1 against each other, but both races were at the beginning of the season).

The meet is set for Friday in Ottumwa, Iowa.