Five Things To Watch On Men’s Side At NCAA DI Championships

NOTE: The following is an editorial by David Woods of DyeStat.

The 2024 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships are set for Saturday at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course in Madison, Wisconsin.

Races start at 9:20 a.m. CT for women, 10:10 a.m. for men. ESPNU’s live coverage starts at 8:30.

Here are five storylines to watch on Saturday.

Cowboys try to ride to repeat title

BYU is ranked No. 1, beating Oklahoma State for the Big 12 championship. Yet a case could be made the No. 2 Cowboys remain favorites to repeat as NCAA champions.

Take it from BYU’s Lucas Bons:

“We didn’t even think it was in the realm of possibility to beat them at conference.”

BYU did so, 41-52, placing five runners in the top 12. Oklahoma State’s Laban Kipkemboi took a wrong turn, lost 12 places over the final kilometer and finished 19th. Oklahoma State led 41-48 through seven kilometers of the 8K. Kipkemboi was second at the Midwest Regional.

Moreover, coach Dave Smith said the Cowboys didn’t taper enough for conference.

“We should have pulled back a little sooner,” he said. “Now we’re in this resting phase. I think we’re starting to see the fruits of that. We’re starting to come around.”

In the regional, Oklahoma State had 25 points, close to duplicating its score of 19 from last year. The Cowboys ran without two 1,500-meter standouts, Fouad Messaoudi (3:35) and Ryan Schoppe (3:37).

The Cowboys return four of their top five from last year’s NCAAs, including Dennis Kipngetich (who was fourth), two-time Big 12 champion Brian Musau (eighth), Messaoudi 10th), and Victor Shitsama (15th).

A sixth NCAA title would move Oklahoma State into a tie with Northern Arizona and Oregon for fourth in meet history. Arkansas has won 11, Michigan State eight and UTEP seven.

BYU last won the team championship in 2019. The Cougars (52) won the Mountain Regional over No. 5 New Mexico (61) and No. 6 Northern Arizona (71), running without Bons and Olympic steeplechaser James Corrigan.

Blanks: From Olympics to NCAAs

Harvard’s Graham Blanks, 22, aims to become the youngest American to win back-to-back since Oregon’s Steve Prefontaine, who won his second at age 20 in 1971. (Pre won a third title in 1973.)

It will have been 105 days since Blanks finished ninth in the 5,000 meters at the Paris Olympics. He was fourth at Olympic Trials but made the U.S. team because third-place Parker Wolfe of North Carolina did not have the requisite time or world ranking.

Blanks was second a month ago in pre-nationals at Wisconsin behind New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel, who set an 8K course record of 22:33.8. That was a reversal of their 2023 NCAA finish.

Out of Africa

Other than Blanks, BYU’s Casey Clinger and Wolfe (ninth in each of the past two years), it is hard to project any Americans finishing among the top 10.

This season has represented a Kenyan takeover, led by Solomon Kipchoge, a 28-year-old freshman from Texas Tech who has run a 59:37 half-marathon. He was edged by Musau in the Big 12.

There are 58 Kenyan runners on NCAA rosters.

Two other Kenyan freshmen are Eastern Kentucky’s Justine Kipkoech and Alabama’s Dismus Lokira, both 26. Samuel, a two-time under-20 world medalist, is a 20-year-old sophomore out of Eritrea.

Clutch teams: Arkansas, Iowa State, New Mexico, NAU

As strong as Oklahoma State and BYU are, don’t overlook the next four in the rankings: No. 3 Arkansas, No. 4 Iowa State, No. 5 New Mexico, No. 6 Northern Arizona.

Last year, Arkansas went into nationals ranked No. 7 and finished fourth. Iowa State was No. 17 and finished fifth. New Mexico, which hasn’t made the top 10 since finishing eighth in 2009, was 18th.

Arkansas, in the NCAAs for a 49th time in 50 years, bids for a fourth podium in five years. The Razorbacks won the South Central Regional, SEC and pre-nationals.

Iowa State finished close behind BYU and Oklahoma State in the Big 12.

New Mexico is on the rise under Darren Gauson, who is in his second year. Gauson formerly coached at Bradley and Lamar, and he ran at Butler under former New Mexico coach Joe Franklin. The Lobos won the Mountain West, finished second in the Mountain Regional and fourth at pre-nationals.

It is transition season at Northern Arizona. Coach Mike Smith, after taking the program to five NCAA titles, is leaving to coach pros.

ACC gets an “A” grade

Conference affiliation might not mean much any more, given realignment, but the Atlantic Coast Conference has been impressive nonetheless.

Seven ACC men’s teams made the field of 31:

No. 9 Stanford, No. 10 North Carolina, No. 11 Virginia, No. 13 Notre Dame, No. 14 Wake Forest, No. 17 Syracuse, No. 26 Virginia Tech.

Wake Forest won a second ACC title in three years, helped by freshman JoJo Jourdon, the 2023 Nike Cross Nationals champion. Rocky Hansen was second at Nuttycombe on the Wisconsin course (but only 32nd in the ACC). Virginia’s Gary Martin won ACCs over Wolfe.

Wake Forest held Hansen and Aidan Ross out of the Southeast Regional but finished fifth and made it into NCAAs as an at-large.