USTFCCCA News & Notes
Weekend Recap: Wisconsin Pre-Nationals; NCAA DIII Meets Take Center Stage
It’s mid-October.
That means the postseason is right around the corner.
That means meets are beginning to have a big more significance.
From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results
Such was the case this weekend, as the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals, the Augustana Interregional Invitational, the Connecticut College Invitational, and the Mike Woods Invitational took center stage.
Keep reading to find out what happened at those meets.
Wisconsin Pre-Nationals
CLICK HERE FOR RESULTS FROM THE MEET
Men’s 8k ‘A’ Race
In an unexpected blowout, Habtom Samuel of New Mexico bolted to the lead with about a kilometer to go and raced away to an easy victory, winning by 6.7 seconds over Graham Blanks of Harvard.
Samuel was runner-up to Blanks by 3.0 seconds in last year’s NCAA DI Cross Country Championships.
Samuel’s time here was a jaw-dropping 22:34.6, obliterating the course record of 23:04.0 set three weeks ago by North Carolina’s Parker Wolfe at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. Blanks also easily bettered that previous course record at 22:41.3, leading eight under it with another tying it.
Teamwise the race was loaded with eight of the top-10 (and 20 of the top-30). No. 3 Arkansas – with three individuals in the top-8 – won the team battle with 89 points over No. 4 Iowa State’s 128 and No. 9 Stanford at 142. The Razorbacks’s leading trio of Patrick Kiprop, Kirami Yego and Yaseen Abdalla went 4-7-8 in breaking the course record.
Samuel’s No. 8 New Mexico (166) and No. 6 Northern Arizona (178) completed the top-5. Next was No. 10 Wisconsin in edging No. 5 Notre Dame, 199-200. Rounding out the top-10 were No. 23 Syracuse (258), No. 24 Cal Baptist (312) and No. 20 Harvard (327).
Women’s 6k ‘A’ Race
Freshman Pamela Kosgei of New Mexico overtook Florida’s Hilda Olemomoi, the reigning NCAA DI Cross Country runner-up, in the final 200 meters to win by 3.8 seconds.
Kosgei’s time of 18:59.1 destroyed the course record set of 19:17.2 set by Parker Valby of Florida at last year’s Wisconsin Nuttycombe Invitational as six runners in all ran under the previous course record.
The team battle featured the top-5 in the national rankings, and that order got jumbled here in addition to seeing two lower-ranked squads break into this top-5 in a field that featured 20 of the top-30.
No. 2 BYU won the team title with 105 points over No. 3 Washington (157) and No. 1 Northern Arizona (165). No. 28 West Virginia – with two in the top-10 – was next with 204 points with No. 4 Notre Dame (213) completing the top-5.
The top trio saw differing races develop. NAU led at the 2k split while the Cougars were in fourth place ahead of Washington. BYU took control over NAU at the 4k point (103-139, with the Huskies third at 170) before the final order.
Rounding out the top-10 were No. 17 New Mexico (234), No. 5 and three-time defending champion NC State (290), No. 13 Wisconsin (343), RV Florida State (361) and No. 11 Florida (365).
Princeton Fall Classic
CLICK HERE FOR RESULTS FROM THE MEET
Men’s 8k ‘A’ Race
Top-end depth led Villanova to a big win on Friday.
The 19th-ranked Wildcats, led by Liam Murphy’s runner-up finish, took the team title over three top-30 squads: No. 26 Georgetown was second with 87 points; No. 17 Princeton was third with 92 points; and No. 11 North Carolina, without Parker Wolfe, was fourth with 106 points. Villanova was the only team with three runners in the top-10.
Ethan Strand of North Carolina won the individual title in 22:34.4, beating Murphy by 2.4 seconds. That was Strand’s second victory of the season, having also won at the Virginia Invitational back in mid-September.
Women’s 6k ‘A’ Race
Kimberley May proved stronger down the homestretch.
As did the ninth-ranked Georgetown Hoyas.
May pulled away from Chloe Scrimgeour of Georgetown over the final 800 meters to win by 7.2 seconds, 19:16.3 to 19:23.5. This was the Providence standout’s second strong effort this season: May also finished fifth at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in mid-September.
Scrimgeour and the Hoyas triumphed in the team race, beating No. 10 Providence, 59-65. Georgetown led by two points at the 5.2k split and saw Lucy Jenks and Melissa Riggins move up four combined spots in the top-10 from that juncture to the finish to propel them to victory.
Augustana Interregional Invitational
CLICK HERE FOR RESULTS FROM THE MEET
Men’s Gold Division 8k
How good was Wartburg on Saturday?
Try four runners in the top-11 good.
The second-ranked Knights made a case for the top spot in the National Coaches’ Poll with their resounding victory in the Men’s Gold Division 8k. Wartburg went 2-6-8-9-16 for 41 points, 103 fewer than runner-up No. 5 North Central (Ill.). Isaiah Hammerand led the Knights with an individual runner-up finish with Tyler Schermerhorn and Jacob Green also in the top-10.
Christian Patzka of UW-Whitewater captured the individual title in 23:52.7, more than seven seconds ahead of Hammerand. Patzka and Gunner Schlender both finished in the top-5 for the second consecutive meet, yet the Warhawks had to settle for third place in the team standings.
Women’s Gold Division 6k
Don’t forget about Colorado College.
The second-ranked Tigers cruised to the team title in a loaded Women’s Gold Division 6k on Saturday. Colorado College, led by Isabel Olson’s individual title, went 1-4-10-17-24 for 56 points, 50 fewer than No. 14 Washington (Mo.) in second place. No. 3 UChicago finished third in the team standings with 138 points.
Olson sat 2.2 seconds behind the leaders at the 4.2k split and went to work from there. The Colorado College standout surged ahead and then put nearly ten seconds on the eventual runner-up Paige Anderson of Kalamazoo.
Connecticut College Invitational
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Men’s 8k Blue
Get ready to see some changes to the national rankings.
No. 11 NYU won the team title with 80 points, 15 fewer than runner-up No. 14 St. Olaf. The Violets put their top-4 runners in the scored top-16, paced by an eighth-place effort by Ryan Tobin. No. 21 Williams took third with 128 points, followed by No. 19 Amherst and Middlebury with 134 points and 157 points in fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Nathan Tassey of Roger Williams showed why he’s a favorite for the individual title come November 23 with another big win. Tassey traversed the 8k course in 24:05.3 to beat Anthony Rodriguez of Babson by 6.2 seconds. Earlier int the season, Tassey took top individual honors at the John McNichols Invitational.
Women’s 6k Blue
MIT lived up to its No. 1 ranking.
And Audrey Maclean of Middlebury showed why she should be considered a contender for the individual title come November 23.
The Engineers rolled to the team title as they scored 83 points, 18 fewer than No. 7 NYU. MIT sent seven runners across in the top-35 with 10-13-16 finish to start the rout. The Engineers and the Violets were two of 18 nationally-ranked programs in the field.
Maclean pulled away over the final 2.8k of the 6k race to win by nearly 16 seconds over Janie Cooper of NYU.
Mike Woods Invitational
CLICK HERE FOR RESULTS FROM THE MEET
Men’s 8k Race
Home meet sweep, anyone?
SUNY Geneseo took down a crowded men’s field at its Mike Woods Invitational this morning, follow up on their women’s effort earlier this morning to complete the sweep. The eight-ranked Knights put up 41 points, upsetting No. 7 RPI’s and their 54 points and No. 9 Carnegie Mellon, who put up 80 points. No. 24 John Carroll was in 4th over No. 30 Moravian in 5th.
RPI’s Vince Simonetti took a convincing 13 second victory over Matthew Coyle from Carnegie Mellon, with Ryan Hagan from SUNY Geneseo in third.
Women’s 6k Race
Penelope Greene was ready for a breakthrough race.
After a fourth-place finish two weeks ago at the Paul Short Run, Greene stepped up in a big way at the Mike Woods Invitational, running 20:39.7 to lead SUNY Geneseo to a first place finish.
The Knights, who fell four spots in the rankings to No. 9 following the Paul Short Run, put up a score of 52 points and took down No. 20 Carnegie Mellon’s second-place squad who registered 67 points, and Paul Short White Race Champion Jules Bleskoski and No. 8 RPI’s 78 point third-place squad. John Carroll put up 94 points for fourth place, before a drop to 228 points for Ithaca’s fifth-place team.
Bleskoski and teammate Olivia Pisacano, Claire Anderson from Washington and Jefferson, and Lilly Fowler-Connor from SUNY Geneseo rounded out the top-5 behind Greene.