Weekend Recap: Joe Piane Invitational, DIII Pre-Nats and Paul Short Run Highlight Action

October is here!

Business is picking up.

From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results

Teams are beginning to show their hands as the postseason inches closer.

Find out what happened at some of the biggest meets this weekend, like the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, as well as the DIII Pre-National and the Paul Short Run, among others.

Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational

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Men’s Blue 8k

Notre Dame defended its home turf in a big way.

The ninth-ranked Irish put on a masterclass of team racing at the Joe Piane Invitational on Friday. Notre Dame went 8-10-11-12-14 for 55 points with a 7.2-second spread. That was more than enough to beat No. 4 Northern Arizona for the team title, 55-68. Ethan Coleman led the Irish in eighth place in 22:49.0 with Daelen Ackley also in the top-10 in tenth.

Notre Dame trailed NAU by 31 points at the 3k split, but then went to work. Tie Irish closed that gap to just five points by 6k and then shot ahead over the final 2k. Notre Dame’s top-5 runners moved up ten combined places in the final 2k, which is impressive seeing that the group was 11-12-13-14-15 at the 6k split.

Ernest Cheruiyot of Texas Tech captured the individual title in 22:20.3, more than four seconds ahead of Evans Kurui of Washington State. Cheruiyot and Kurui broke free of the pack with 2k to go and then Cheruiyot proved stronger down the homestretch.

Women’s Blue 5k

BYU got the low stick; Northern Arizona won the team title.

Lexy Halladay-Lowry pulled away over the final 2k to win the individual title in the Women’s Blue 5k at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Friday. Halladay-Lowry crossed the finish line in 15:57.5, just about six seconds faster than Juliet Cherubet of Texas Tech. That gave the fifth-ranked Cougars the all-important single point and Jenna Hutchins followed in fourth place to give them five points through two runners. Carmen Alder followed in tenth for 15.

But the top-ranked Lumberjacks put two runners between Hutchins and Alder and then four more ahead of the next BYU athlete to capture the team title. NAU went 7-9-11-12-13-(17)-(33) for 52 points, ultimately 13 fewer than its Mountain Region rival. Karrie Baloga was the top Lumberjack on the day in seventh place with Maggi Congdon also in the top-10 in ninth.

Host No. 3 Notre Dame finished third with 70 points, followed by unranked Liberty and RV Boise State with 189 and 204 points, respectively.

Sean Earl Loyola Lakefront Invitational

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Women’s Championship 6k

Upset time in the Windy City!

No. 15 Alabama claimed a staggering victory over three-time reigning national champion NC State, with the Crimson Tide scoring 57 points to the Wolfpack’s 71.

Doris Lemngole’s 16.6-second victory in 18:48.2 led a barrage for Alabama with Brenda Tuwei and Pheline Cheruto adding low sticks in third and fifth. NC State countered with a fourth and sixth from Grace Hartman and Hannah Gapes as only Tulane Green Wave freshman Caroline Jeptanui as runner-up broke into the blend of red colors among the top-6.

Men’s Championship 8k

How can you beat a 1-2-3 with only one top-10 finisher?

No. 18 Wisconsin did it with their next four scorers in the top-20 to tally 69 points over the 73 of No. 10 Alabama. The Crimson Tide were led by freshman Dismus Likura, whose 22:41.9 was followed by teammates Victor Kiprop (22:43.9) and fellow freshman Dennis Kipruto (22:46.4).

Alabama’s scorers, however, were 1-2-3-28-39, while the Badgers (led by Bob Liking in seventh at 22:59.1) went 7-14-15-16-17 and even had a 25-38 to help displace the latter part of the Tide’s scoring five. No. 14 Butler was third with 126 points.

NCAA DIII Pre-National Invitational

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Spotlight under floodlights.

Collegiate cross country ventured Friday Night Lights style with the NCAA Division III Pre-National Invitational as part of the high school-dominated Nike XC Town Twilight meet at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Indiana.

College Championship Women’s 6k

No. 4 MIT ran away with the team title, with four runners (led by overall third-place finisher Kate Sanderson) finishing before the top athlete from No. 2 UChicago as the Engineers posted a 56-point total. The Maroons tallied 143 points with No. 17 DePauw (201), No. 10 WashU (204) and No. 22 Connecticut College (236) rounding out the top-5.

Faith Duncan of Wilmington (Ohio) took off after 4k to win the individual title in 21:02.8, which was 22.6 seconds ahead of Kenzie Seymour of UC Santa Cruz. Seymour had a marginal lead at the 4k split, while Duncan forged a 6.3-second buffer at 5k before her final 22.6-second winning margin.

College Championship Men’s 8k

If cross country was only about a team’s top three, No. 3 UW-Whitewater would have cleaned the competition as Gunner Schlender outdueled teammate (and reigning national runner-up) Christian Patzka to win by 6.9 seconds in 24:09.0 with fellow Warhawk Dan Anderson impressively in fourth.

But No. 5 Pomona-Pitzer had the better hand this day. Third-place finisher Cameron Hatler was followed by another Sagehen in the top-10, early leader Quinn White in ninth. Pomona-Pitzer went 3-9-12-17-24 in scoring 65 points to overcome the UWW (1-2-4-35-40) total of 82.

No. 10 George Fox (152), No. 12 MIT (172) and No. 21 WashU (197) rounded out the top-5, with unranked UChicago (199) next in outscoring three other ranked programs.

Paul Short Run

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Men’s College Gold 8k

The race for the individual title was much closer than the one for the team crown.

Camren Todd of Utah State outkicked Hazma Chahid of Wingate down the stretch to win by 0.3 seconds, 23:18.8 to 23:19.1. Todd and Chahid sat with the leader through 6.3k of the 8k race before breaking away over the final 1.7k and putting nine seconds between themselves and the rest of the pack.

Chahid’s runner-up finish was a sign of things to come for the Bulldogs, who are NCAA DII’s top-ranked squad. Wingate went 2-3-6-8-11 for 30 points and easily beat NCAA DI No. 12 Harvard by 65 points. The Bulldogs scored four runners before any other team saw two of theirs cross the finish line.

Women’s College Gold 6k

Chloe Thomas of UConn made it look easy in victory.

NCAA DI RV Harvard didn’t need a low stick to win the team title.

Thomas gapped the field by nearly 30 seconds from the 2 mile split to the finish line to capture the individual title in 19:23.8. The UConn standout has now posted back-to-back victories this season: Thomas’ first came at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational where she put down one of the best times ever recorded on the challenging Penn State course.

You’d have to wait a while to see the first Harvard runner cross the finish line – 19th, to be exact – but that didn’t matter. The Crimson, who received votes in the most recent National Coaches’ Poll, went 19-25-26-31-33 with a 14-second spread to win the team title over UConn, 134-148.

Men’s College White 8k

Lynchburg put three runners in the top-10, led by an individual title from Chasen Hunt. The junior crossed the finish line in 24:28.8, more than eight seconds ahead of Charlie Wilson of SUNY Geneseo.

However, it was Wilson’s 18th-ranked Knights that came out on top of the team standings. SUNY Geneseo went 2-4-12-26-31 for 75 points, 14 fewer than runner-up No. 6 NYU. Hunt and his 17th-ranked Hornets ended up fourth behind the aforementioned duo and No. 19 Tufts.

No. 23 Middlebury rounded out the top-5 of a race that was packed with ranked NCAA DIII programs.

Women’s College White 8k

Amherst didn’t back down from a challenge.

Nor did Jules Bleskoski of RPI.

The 11th-ranked Mammoths won the team title in a race loaded with fellow ranked NCAA DIII programs. Amherst sat second through 2 miles with 151 points, 15 more than No. 5 SUNY Geneseo, and then surged ahead the rest of the way to beat eventual runner-up No. 7 Emory, 135-152. Flora Biro led the Mammoths with a ninth-place individual finish.

No. 3 NYU finished third behind Amherst and Emory with 186 points. Unranked RPI, led by Bleskoski’s individual title in 20:42.5, ended up fourth, one spot ahead of the aforementioned Knights.