USTFCCCA News & Notes
Weekend Recap: October 24-26
You feel that in the air?
It’s championship season.
From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results
Conference and regional titles will be handed out this weekend in NCAA Division II and NJCAA, respectively. Don’t forget about various NAIA Challenges, either.
Let’s find out what stood out the most to us.
RMAC Championships
Men’s 8k Championship
Recap coming soon.
Women’s 6k Championship
Colo. School of Mines lived up to its No. 1 ranking in the most recent National Coaches’ Poll, dominating the field on Saturday. Behind individual champion Grace Strongman, the Orediggers ran away with the team title, posting a commanding 28-68 victory over No. 8 UC Colorado Springs.
Strongman trailed Adams State’s Tristian Spence by about four seconds at the 2k split, but flipped the script over the final 4k. The Colo. School of Mines standout caught up to Spence and then pulled away, putting eight seconds between herself and the eventual runner-up. The Orediggers followed Strongman’s lead, packing the front of the field with four more runners in the top ten to secure a decisive team win.
UC Colorado Springs, a surprise runner-up given the rank order coming into the meet, was the only team – other than Colo. School of Mines – to place all five scorers inside the top 20. No. 4 Adams State (84) and No. 7 Western Colorado (92) rounded out the podium in third and fourth, respectively, with No. 26 Fort Lewis closing out the top five.
NAIA Great Lakes Challenge
Hosted by Aquinas (Mich.), the 17th edition of this popular meet for NAIA programs at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids attracted teams from a record 10 conferences, with 11 men’s squads and 10 women’s teams being nationally ranked.
Men’s 8k Maroon Division
It was very close at the finish as Mehdi Nait Hamoud of Madonna (Mich.) edged Drew Hogan of Goshen (Ind.) by just 0.1 seconds for the individual title with a time of 24:18.1. Tristan Trevino of Marian (Ind.) was third in 24:23.0 with Trenton Sweet of Indiana Wesleyan (24:24.7) and Camden Khon of Spring Arbor (Mich.) (24:29.6) rounding out the top-5.
No. 2-ranked Indiana Wesleyan had two runners in the top-10 and all five scorers among the top-30 to win the team title with 79 points ahead of the 122 points posted by No. 5 Taylor (Ind.). No. 14 Rocky Mountain (Mont.) was third with 142 points, beating higher-ranked No. 10 IU East (Ind.) (186) and No. 8 Marian (Ind.) (200).
In sixth was Madonna (Mich.), unranked but receiving votes in the latest poll as the Crusaders – led by individual winner Hamoud – were the only team besides Indiana Wesleyan to have two scorers in the top-10. Completing the top-10 teams were No. 22 Spring Arbor (Mich.) (214), No. 19 Goshen (Ind.) (227), No. 17 Carroll (Mont.) (275) and No. 18 Cornerstone (Mich.) (289).
Women’s 5k Maroon Division
Heidi Heldt of Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) cruised to the individual title in 17:28.4, winning by 14.4 seconds over Katie Woods of Marian (Ind.). Emma Moore of Cornerstone (Mich.) was third in 17:48.6 with Sydney Liddle of Indiana Wesleyan (17:50.4) and Samantha Patterson of Taylor (Ind.) (17:51.4) rounding out the top-5.
No. 1-ranked Taylor won the team title with 45 points, packing four in the top-10 even without the services of defending national champion Jaynie Halterman. No. 8 Cornerstone (Mich.) was runner-up with 87 points, ahead of No. 10 Grace (Ind.) (122), No. 11 Marian (137) and No. 16 Olivet Nazarene (166) completing the top-5.
Next among the top teams were No. 4 Indiana Wesleyan (170), No. 17 Montana Tech (214) and No. 20 Carroll (Mont.) (248), with No. 22 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) edging RV IU East (Ind.) for the last two top-10 spots on a tiebreaker as both scored 259 points.
NJCAA Region 6 Championships
Men’s 8k Championship
The showdown between No. 2 Hutchinson (Kan.) CC and No. 4 Butler (Kan.) CC lived up to its billing, with just five points separated the two powerhouse programs in their first head-to-head meeting since finishing third and fourth, respectively, in last year’s NJCAA DI Cross Country Championships.
Hutchinson (Kan.) jumped out front early thanks to the 1-2 finish by individual champion Cornelius Kogo, whose 24:14.8 time was 1.4 seconds ahead of teammate Titus Kiprotich. Butler (Kan.) countered with strong depth, as Itumeleng Ngxabati’s third-place finish led four Grizzlies in the top ten.
In the end, the Blue Dragons’ early separation held firm. Their 35-point total topped Butler (Kan.)’s 40, with the margin never exceeding two points at the 4k, 6k, and 7k splits.
Third place went to No. 10 Colby CC, which edged No. 9 Garden City (Kan.) CC, 92-93, and fifth went to NJCAA DII No. 5 Cowley (Kan.) with 133 points.
Women’s 6k Championship
The rivalry between Hutchinson (Kan.) and Butler (Kan.) took center stage once again – this time in the women’s race. The No. 8 Blue Dragons came out on top, edging the eighth-ranked Grizzlies, 50-60.
Hutchinson (Kan.)’s victory was anchored by a dominant individual performance by Mildred Rono, who cruised to the win in 17:10.7 – 45.8 seconds faster than Elizabeth Hernandez of Butler (Kan.).
No. 19 Cloud County (Kan.) CC was third with 72 points, just ahead of No. 13 Garden City (Kan.) CC’s 75. NJCAA DII No. 23 Cowley (Kan.) was fifth with 115 points, ahead of two DI ranked squads.