USTFCCCA News & Notes
Weekend Recap: Top NCAA DI, NCAA DIII Squads Shine Across The Nation
This is the biggest weekend of the regular season, bar none.
Top NCAA DI and NCAA DIII teams take center stage across the nation.
From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results
You have the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in Verona, Wisconsin, the Pre-National Invitational in Columbia, Missouri, the Augustana Interregional Invitational in Rock Island, Illinois, and the Connecticut College Invitational in Waterford, Connecticut, among others.
Here are the highlights from each of those meets.
Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational
Men’s 8k Championship
Two shoes is better than one – but four athletes in the top 13 is even better when you’re looking to impress, as New Mexico did on Friday.
Habtom Samuel led the third-ranked Lobos to the team title over 18 other ranked programs at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. Samuel, who famously finished second at the NCAA Championships last year in Wisconsin wearing just one shoe, kept both on this year and cruised to the individual title in 22:58.0.
Behind him, Collins Kiprotich (sixth) and Evans Kipligat (ninth) finished in the top ten, while Vincent Chirchir placed 13th. That quartet, along with Matthew Kosgei in 22nd, propelled New Mexico to an emphatic 51-149 victory over No. 5 Colorado.
No. 11 Syracuse took third with 152 points, followed by No. 13 Northern Arizona (203) and No. 6 BYU (218) in fourth and fifth.
Women’s 6k Championship
“Enough is enough” – Grace Hartman and No. 2 NC State, probably.
Hartman and the Wolfpack made a statement on Friday, sweeping the individual and team titles. The senior from Oakwood, Ohio, cruised to a 4.6-second victory in 19:30.1 over teammate Angelina Napoleon – both of whom made their season debuts – as the Wolfpack dismantled a loaded field featuring 18 other nationally ranked programs, including five in the top ten.
Hartman had run shoulder-to-shoulder with Washington State’s Rosemary Longisa through more than 4k of the 6k race before breaking away from the Gans Creek Invitational individual champion. Napoleon eventually passed Longisa, as well, with Hartman and Napoleon among four NC State runners in the top 11. Bethany Michalak and Hannah Gapes rounded out the Wolfpack’s top performers in ninth and 11th, respectively.
The Wolfpack dominated the team standings with 41 points, a full 84 points ahead of No. 7 Notre Dame. No. 16 Iowa State surprised with third place at 176 points, followed by No. 9 West Virginia (190) and No. 18 Northwestern (225) in fourth and fifth.
Pre-National Invitational
Men’s Invitational 8k
Unheralded champions reigned on Friday.
Kelvin Cheruiyot of Florida and the unranked Georgia Bulldogs stole the show at the Missouri Pre-National Invitational. Cheruiyot surged late to win the individual crown in 22:44.6, while Georgia took down No. 19 Missouri and No. 24 Ole Miss to claim the team title.
The Bulldogs took control between 2k and 3k after trailing by a single point at 2k, then stretched the advantage to 63 at 7k before sealing a 119-164 victory over the Tigers.
Women’s Invitational 6k
What a debut!
Prized recruit Jane Hedengren stormed the individual title – and powered No. 1 BYU to the team crown – at the Missouri Pre-National Invitational. Hedengren shattered the course record by 25 seconds with her 18:42.3 victory, and the top-ranked Cougars rolled to a 25-170 rout over No. 19 Villanova.
BYU packed five runners in the top ten behind the debuting Hedengren: Riley Chamberlain (third, 19:08.6), Taylor Rothanisky (sixth, 19:41.6), Jacey Farmer (seventh, 19:45.6), Lexi Goff (eighth, 19:46.5), and Nelah Robert (tenth, 19:50.5).
Connecticut College Invitational
Men’s 8k Blue Championship
Emmanuel Leblond led the way once again for No. 3 Johns Hopkins.
And behind Leblond, the Blue Jays flocked together to claim the team title.
Leblond’s incredible season continued with an individual victory on Saturday, crossing the finish line in 23:42.0 – 13.7 seconds ahead of NYU’s Ryan Hagan. He and Hagan broke away from the chase pack right just before the 5k split, and Leblond proved strongest over the final stretch.
Behind their frontrunner, Johns Hopkins flew in formation as its second through fifth runners finished 21st, 23rd, 24th, and 27th, separated by just 3.4 seconds. The Blue Jays totaled 99 points – 15 fewer than runner-up No. 9 Tufts, and beat nine other nationally ranked programs.
No. 7 SUNY Geneseo (118), No. 4 NYU (122), and No. 8 Williams (132) were third, fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Women’s 6k Blue Championship
Audrey Maclean of Middlebury and No. 2 Williams passed their toughest tests of the season with flying colors on Saturday at the Connecticut College Invitational.
Maclean cruised to the individual title in 20:17.2 – the second-fastest mark in course history and nearly 23 seconds ahead of the runner-up – while the Ephs made quick work of the deepest field ever assembled in NCAA DIII regular-season competition.
Williams hadn’t faced this level of competition all season, but didn’t back down on Saturday. The Ephs ran fearlessly and held off strong challenges from four other top-five programs – No. 1 NYU, No. 3 Johns Hopkins, No. 4 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and No. 5 MIT. Williams surged to a 22-point lead by 1.65k before the Blue Jays rallied and evened the score at 88-all by 2.6k. That’s as close as anyone would get. The Ephs, guided by Morgan Eigel in fifth place, wouldn’t be denied, pulling away to notch a 24-point victory over the defending national champion Engineers, 73-97. Williams went 5-13-14-19-22 for those 73 points.
Johns Hopkins finished third with 113 points, followed by the Athenas (158) and the Violets (179) in fourth and fifth place, respectively. No. 13 Middlebury (192), No. 9 Carleton (201), No. 16 Connecticut College (230), No. 11 SUNY Geneseo (274), and No. 18 Tufts (299) rounded out the top-ten teams in Waterford.
Augustana Interregional Invitational
Men’s Gold Division 8k
Isaac vanWestrienen of Cornell College (Iowa) won the individual title in 23:57.1, 4.5 seconds ahead of UW-La Crosse’s Grant Matthai after the two were nearly even at the 5.6k split. Will Shuflit of Colorado College was third in 24:07.5, with Aidan Matthai of UW-La Crosse (24:18.6) and Wartburg’s Isaiah Hammerand (24:21.5) completing the top-5.
The team battle featured NCAA DIII No. 1 UW-La Crosse and No. 2 Wartburg, with the top-ranked Eagles prevailing with 56 points to the Knights’ 68 points. The 2-4 finish by the Matthai twins got the Eagles off to a flying start. Joey Sullivan followed in ninth and UWL was the only team with more than one top-ten finisher.
A total of 13 ranked teams highlighted the field, but their order here was unlike the rankings as No. 11 RPI (197) and No. 13 UChicago (211) finished ahead of No. 6 North Central (Ill.) (241) to complete the top-five.
The rest of the top-10 had more jumbling compared to ranking order as just five points separated sixth through eighth – No. 14 UW-Platteville (255), No. 15 UW-Stevens Point (258) and No. 5 Pomona-Pitzer (260. Rounding the top-10 were No. 17 Hope (286) and No. 20 Washington (Mo.) (320).
Women’s Gold Division 6k
Jules Bleskoski of RPI pulled away before the halfway point to claim the individual race in 20:47.4 with a winning margin of 54.6 seconds. Her finish was impressive as she led by just 29.5 seconds with 1.4k to go.
Runner-up honors went to Sidney Swick of Trine at 21.42.0, and she was followed in the top-5 by Colorado College’s Alison Mueller-Hickler (21:43.3), Lucinda Laughlin of Washington (Mo.) (21:47.2) and Chicago’s Katja Dunayevich (21.47.8).
The 36-team field had 11 ranked teams, and the highest-ranked one came away on top – No. 6 UW-La Crosse winning with 88 points, led by eighth-place Lucy Duchac (21:58.3). Swick’s runner-up led No. 17 Trine to a surprise team runner-up showing with 108 points, ahead of both No. 7 Chicago (127) and No. 10 WashU (169). No. 22 Colorado College completed the top-5 with 205 points.
Four more ranked teams help round out the top-10: No. 21 Wartburg (257), No. 28 Pomona-Pitzer (261), No. 23 UW-Eau Claire (277) and No. 24 Calvin (293) and Trinity (Texas) (312).