THE WARM-UP LAP: Big Weekend at Louisville, Notre Dame, Washington & Princeton

The collegiate cross country season shifts into another gear this weekend with more than two-thirds of the nationally ranked teams in action! Many of them are at Notre Dame or Washington on Friday, or Louisville or Princeton on Saturday – and you can follow along LIVE with all of them on the USTFCCCA National Results Wall!

NEW ORLEANS – Welcome to October, and welcome to the heart of the NCAA Division I cross country regular season.

From this week’s National Coaches’ Polls, 22 of the top 30 men’s teams and 23 of the 30 women’s teams are in action either Friday or Saturday, with another combined 18 national-vote-receiving teams also looking to position themselves for at-large qualifying.

Much of those teams are concentrated around four meets – all four of which can be followed LIVE on the USTFCCCA National Results Wall:

• Greater Louisville Classic (Saturday)
• Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational (Friday)
• Washington Invitational (Friday)
• Princeton Inter-Regional Meet (Saturday)

We’ve broken down each of those meets in detail below (or you can click the links above).

Some more action going on this weekend:

• The No. 1 Colorado men and No. 2 women debut their "A" teams at the Colorado Rocky Mountain Shootout on Saturday.
• The No. 7 Villanova men and No. 9 Georgetown women headline the Lehigh Paul Short Run on Friday.
• The No. 10 Arkansas women and No. 15 Arkansas men host their Chile Pepper Festival on Saturday.

Check out the full weekend schedule here.

Saturday, October 3
9:30am ET – Men’s Gold 8K | 10:15am ET – Women’s Gold 5K
MEET HOME | MEN ENTRIES | WOMEN ENTRIES

Annually a pretty competitive meet, the Greater Louisville Classic takes on some extra prestige this year as a de facto “Pre-Pre-National Invitational” – held on the same E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park course as NCAAs on November 21 and the Pre-National Invitational on October 17.

Both the men’s and women’s races this weekend will give us a look at a handful of squads hoping to compete for top-four podium honors the weekend before Thanksgiving, as well as a number of individuals hoping to crack All-America honors or beyond.

Men’s Race

Three top-10 squads from the latest National Coaches’ Polls headline the men’s field in Big Ten rivals No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 10 Michigan, as well as No. 8 Iona. Another team potentially on the cusp of joining the top-10 after this weekend is No. 13 Ole Miss.

We’ve seen both the Badgers and Wolverines in various stages of action this year already, but not during the countable season that started just last weekend. Wisconsin packed up for victories both at its home invitational and at Iona in mid-September, while U of M impressed in early season wins at Penn State and Eastern Michigan. Both squads are expected to open things up a bit more this weekend, and both squads should be running with most, if not all, of their respective “A” teams – led by top-15 NCAA finishers Malachy Schrobilgen and Mason Ferlic, respectively.

While we’ve at least seen most of the major players for those Big Ten rivals, quite the opposite is true for Iona and Ole Miss. This weekend should mark the debuts of Iona’s top runners in Kieran Clements, Gilbert Kirui and Chartt Miller, and upstart Ole Miss will run its much-hyped group of returners and transfers for the first time. Returners Sean Tobin, Wes Gallagher and Co. will be joined by 2014 All-American MJ Erb, Craig Engels, and Ryan Manahan for the first time.

It’s not all about those top 10-15 squads, though, as they likely have the least at stake as projected automatic qualifiers from their regions (top two teams in each of the nine regions get auto bids to the NCAA Championships) – though, of course, anything can happen on any given day in college XC.

The biggest stakes belong to the teams on the bubble, who will be looking to get those all-important wins for at-large considerations. Teams like No. 28 Eastern Kentucky (#4 Southeast Region), host Louisville (#6 Southeast), Kentucky (#8 Southeast), Minnesota (#4 Midwest) and Penn State (#3 Mid-Atlantic) are all receiving votes in the National Coaches’ Polls and could do themselves a favor with a victory over each other and perhaps even one of those top-15 squads.

The individual race should be an excellent one with five NCAA DI All-Americans from a year ago (and a couple NCAA DII individual title contenders) set to toe the line.

Schrobilgen and Ferlic are the top two in the field based on last year’s 10th and 13th place finishes, respectively. In four head-to-head match-ups in XC last year, Schrobilgen topped Ferlic three times, and three times when it really counted: Big Ten (he won), Great Lakes Regionals and NCAAs.

Two of those five All-Americans belong to the same team in Edwin Kibichiy and Ernest Kibet of Louisville. The duo was 23rd and 32nd at NCAAs last year, and finished fourth and third, respectively, at this meet a year ago behind winner Silos Too of DII Shorter and Schrobilgen. A third teammate could potentially join them as All-Americans this year in Japhet Kipkoech, who won the Vandy Commodore Classic a couple weeks ago ahead of Kibichiy and Kibet.

Erb of Ole Miss is the fifth All-American, having finished 37th as fifth-place Syracuse’s top finisher. This will be his Ole Miss XC debut.

A few more names to watch in the individual race that haven’t been mentioned: Amos Kosgey and Ambrose Maritim of EKU, and Robby Creese and Ean DiSilvio of Penn State.

Putting in a challenge from the DII level will be former NCAA 10K champ Johnnie Guy of Southern Indiana, former National Athlete of the Week Alex Cushman of UIndy, and the GVSU men led by Zach Panning, Bryce Bradley & Co.

Women’s Race

The women’s team race in Louisville has it all: a team on the rise, a team on the fall, and teams with some questions yet to be answered – none of which are mutually exclusive categories.

No. 8 Michigan fits into that first category. The 2014 rise and fall of the Wolverines is well-documented by this point, but U of M’s women are on track to recapture much of the potential that netted them the preseason No. 1 honors more than a year ago. Erin Finn and Shannon Osika are back running healthily once again, with Finn already having notched a couple wins before the calendar turns to its 10th page.

No. 6 Iowa State checks the boxes for the latter two categories, after having fallen from this year’s preseason No. 1 rank following based on the combination of New Mexico’s rise and the decision to redshirt last year’s 7th-place NCAA finisher Crystal Nelson for a combination of injury and personal reasons. This weekend will be our first look at the new-look Cyclones led by former All-American Bethanie Brown, UK transfer Becky Straw, Perez Rotich and Erin Hooker.

We’ve seen much of No. 11 Wisconsin’s top squad this year, but notable in their absence so far in 2015 – and from this weekend’s entry lists – are NCAA runner-up Sarah Disanza and former All-American Emma-Lisa Murphy. Molly Hanson and Shaelyn Sorensen have stepped up to lead the Badgers in the meantime, but for now they remain in that third category.

So, too, does No. 13 West Virginia, a team that turned some heads with an eighth-place finish at NCAAs last year. 14th-place finisher Jillian Forsey has yet to run in 2015 after dealing with some recent injury troubles, and is not entered this weekend. The Mountaineers will run with the rest of their projected scorers, including sophomores Maggie Drazba and Brynn Harshbarger.

A pair of Big Ten schools ranked in the lower third(ish) of the poll will look to pick off at least one of those four top-15 squads in their hunt for all-important head-to-head wins.

No. 19 Penn State is riding high after winning its home Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational earlier this month behind a strong top-three in former National Athlete of the Week Tori Gerlach, Elizabeth Chikotas and Jillian Hunsberger. In her collegiate debut after a redshirted 2014-15, former Footlocker Champion Tessa Barrett debuted in sixth at Spiked Shoe and could provide a significant boost to the Nittany Lions.

No. 23 Minnesota, led by Haley Johnson and Liz Berkholtz, are coming off a strong third-place showing at its home Roy Griak Invitational, just behind a (short-handed) defending national champion Michigan State squad.

Also looking to get a signature performance to finally make a breakthrough into the National Coaches’ Poll is Lipscomb. A victory over or competitive showing against any of these ranked teams might just get the job done.

The absence of Disanza and Forsey may be disappointing, but the individual race will still be anything but.

With two wins already this season, Finn is likely the pre-race favorite. But she’s only a narrow favorite if Tennessee’s Chelsea Blaase – 10th at NCAAs a year ago and a two-time All-American on the track – ultimately runs in the Gold section (Tennessee is entered in the Blue Division). These two nearly met head-to-head two weeks ago at Vanderbilt before a last-minute decision to rest Blaase.

Penn State’s quartet, Iowa State duo of Straw and Brown, and the Wisco duo of Hanson and Sorensen should be up in the lead pack with those two, as well.

From outside those nationally ranked teams, look for Hannah Wittman of Belmont, Tara Jameson of Iona (the Gael’s new No. 1 following the departures of NCAA champ Kate Avery and Rosie Clarke), MTSU’s Hannah Maina and Josephine Kipptebeny, and Ole Miss’ Mary Alex England.

Friday, October 2
2pm ET – Women’s Blue 5K | 2:45pm ET – Men’s Blue 8K
MEET INFO

Every year the Notre Dame Invitational is one of the marquee meets of the NCAA Division I Cross Country season. Based off the entry list, this year should be no different.

Where else can you – or should you – start than at No. 1?

New Mexico, the unanimous women’s No. 1 in the National Coaches’ Poll, makes its long-awaited debut Friday. This marks the first race of the season for the Lobos’ formidable foursome of 2014 XC All-Americans Courtney Frerichs (UMKC transfer) and Alice Wright, as well as Calli Thackery and Scotland native Rhona Aukland (19th in World Cross this year).

Last year New Mexico opened its season at the Notre Dame Invitational and Joe Franklin’s team ran away with the team title. The Lobos, behind since-graduated individual champion Charlotte Arter and an eighth- and ninth-place showing from Wright and Thackery, finished with 49 points to runner-up NC State’s 123.

Few teams have the firepower to hang with New Mexico in the team race, but the attention is turned to the individual battle, things get interesting.

The aforementioned quartet of Lobos should be joined at the front of the pack by an NCAA 10K champ as well as three very talented freshmen.

That 10K champ is Notre Dame’s Molly Seidel and this is her season debut. It also marks the final time she’ll run in the Notre Dame Invitational. She placed fifth last year.

So what about those freshmen? Well, Notre Dame’s Anna Rohrer already has a win under her belt this season (National Catholic Cross Country Championships) as does NC State’s Ryen Frazier (adidas XC Challenge, with a course record to boot). The last time these two met on the trails was the 2014 Foot Locker National Championships, which Rohrer won by 10 seconds over runner-up Frazier.

Let’s not forget about Vanderbilt’s Caroline Pietrzyk, who was third at the Commodore Classic.

The individual battle on the men’s side should be equally as impressive.

Colorado State’s Jefferson Abbey and Jerrel Mock, fresh off a surprising 1-2 finish at last weekend’s Roy Griak Invitational, will look to put back-to-back strong races together.

Small-but-mighty UTEP should have several runners in the lead pack, namely Jonah Koech, Anthony Kosgei and three-time All-American and four-time track champ Anthony Rotich. Like many of their races, the Miners will only bring six runners with them to South Bend, Indiana.

While his team isn’t ranked, Indiana State’s John Mascari is always a threat to run away with a championship. Mascari became the first male runner earlier this year to win four consecutive Indiana Intercollegiate Championships and more importantly, he was third last year at this meet – just nine seconds off the leader.

Purdue’s Matt McClintock is another runner to watch. McClintock finished second at last week’s Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown.

The men’s team race will come down to a bunch of squads jockeying for position in the middle of the National Coaches’ Poll. No. 17 New Mexico is the highest ranked of the bunch, but No. 18 Arizona State and upstart No. 23 Southern Utah shouldn’t be taken lightly. No. 26 Colorado State needs to find a few guys to put with Abbey and Mock if they want to contend for a title here or anywhere else.

Friday, October 2
6:15pm ET – Women’s 6K Invitational | 7pm ET – Men’s 8K Invitational
MEET INFO

There is a chance – notice we said, chance – that the men’s race at the Washington Invitational could be fast. Like, really fast.

Last year there were 21 runners who covered the 8K course at Jefferson Park Golf Course in less than 24 minutes. Villanova’s Patrick Tiernan won in 22:59.8.

While the Pacific Northwest tract is fast and flat, there is a big difference as to why this year could be slower. There wasn’t a two-time NCAA XC champ in the mix last season. When the likes of Oregon’s Edward Cheserek is in the field, competitors often run in awe or try the sit-and-kick approach – which probably won’t work against him.

Cheserek and the fifth-ranked Ducks are looking to put themselves back on the map after losing a few top runners to graduation. This meet is a good chance to do just that and Oregon will debut prized freshmen Tanner Anderson and Matthew Maton, as well as highly-touted Georgetown transfer Ryan Gil.

The Ducks will be joined by three teams ranked in the top-15 in the latest National Coaches’ Poll – No. 2 Stanford, No. 11 UCLA and No. 12 BYU.

The Cardinal likely won’t run junior Sean McGorty, who won last weekend’s Stanford Invitational, but will enter brothers Jim Rosa and Joe Rosa and Steven Fahy. Jim would be running his first cross country race since finishing fifth at the 2013 NCAA Championships.

UCLA had a strong showing at last year’s Washington Invitational, putting four of its runners inside the top-15 and all of them will be back. BYU won the Erik Anderson Invitational two weeks ago and should battle the Bruins for third or higher.

This weekend also marks the debut of Portland’s “A” team. There have been a lot of questions surrounding the Pilots, who finished third at NCAAs last year despite only finishing with five runners. Portland fell out of the National Coaches’ Poll this week, so it will be an important meet for the Pilots, led by 44th-place Timo Goehler, to reassert themselves.

The women’s team race should come down to No. 4 Stanford or No. 5 Oregon. No. 15 Washington and No. 23 BYU are entered as well.

For the Cardinal women, we’ll get to see 2014 All-American Elise Cranny and 2013 All-American Aisling Cuffe together in competition for the first time. Cuffe already made her debut earlier this season at the Fresno State Invitational (ninth place), while this will be Cranny’s debut. Cranny won this meet a year ago in her collegiate debut.

The Ducks won the women’s title last year at the Washington Invitational and return five of the six runners who helped them do just that. Molly Grabill, Annie Leblanc, and Maggie Schmaedick will make their debut for Oregon, as will Australia native Jessica Hull. Also running for the Ducks is the group that won their home Bill Dellinger Invite in September, including Alli Cash, Waverly Neer, Frida Berge and Sarah Baxter.

Saturday, October 3
10:45am ET – Men | 11:30am ET – Women
MEET INFO

Last season it was the Washington Invitational that made a national splash as a new meet; one year later on the opposite side of the country, that distinction goes to the Princeton Inter-Regional Meet. The list of competing teams justifies the name, as squads from the Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Southeast are set to toe the line.

A grand total of seven national top-30 teams are in the field with an additional national-vote-receiving team in each gender’s race.

Headlining the men’s race is No. 19 Indiana against No, 24 Providence, No. 29 North Carolina and vote-receiving Virginia Tech.

The Hoosiers find themselves with some lingering question marks after a third-place finish at the Indiana Intercollegiates that dropped them to No. 7 in the Great Lakes Region. They’re running largely the same group this weekend – Rorey Hunter, Joshua Roche, Owen Skeet and Jason Crist – but they did not enter Indiana Intercollegiate open race winner Matthew Schwartzer, who is the Hoosiers’ top NCAA returner from a year ago (43rd).

Providence is another team with an air of uncertainty after losing a pair of All-Americans and three of five scorers from last year’s 13th-place team. Projected top scorer Julian Oakley will lead the Friars into their first at-large-eligible competition of the year ranked third in the Northeast Region.

UNC likewise makes its “countable season” debut with its “A” squad, led by top 100 finisher Stephen Mulherin. The Tar Heels could use some at-large wins, currently sitting at No. 5 in a Southeast Region that is as hotly contested as any other region in the country.

Also from the Southeast, Virginia Tech gets its chance to make a top-30 case. Currently at No. 7 in the region, the Hokies will be led by top individual contender Thomas Curtin. After an abbreviated XC season in 2014, Curtin went on to run quick times both indoors and outdoors at 5000 meters en route to three first-team All-American nods.

Four of those nationally ranked teams will duke it out in the women’s race. No. 18 William & Mary headlines the field, along with Southeast Region rival No. 21 North Carolina, No. 25 Villanova and host No. 28 Princeton. Vote-receiving Columbia will also compete.

W&M hasn’t been in action but for an easy victory at their home invitational two weekends ago, though the big takeaway was that All-American Emily Stites is healthy and running. She ran in only two meets last season: 25th in the Southeast Regional and 36th at the NCAA Championships. Stites is in the field alongside Carolyn Hennessey – whose last XC race was a 253rd place finish at NCAAs after a runner-up Southeast effort – and Regan Rome, the winner of that aforementioned home invite. Rome was 90th at NCAAs as a frosh.

UNC has yet to debut its full “A” squad, and will continue to wait to do so. The Tar Heels won’t run top returners Lizzy Whelan or Karly Rempel, but will run many other potential scorers in Caroline Alcorta, Hannah Cristen and Lucy Biles.

Villanova missed NCAAs a year ago for the first time since 2007, and faces an uphill climb again at No. 4 in the Mid-Atlantic behind a trio of top-20 teams in No. 9 Georgetown, No. 13 West Virginia and No. 19 Penn State. Angel Piccirillo will look to lead the Wildcats to some all-important head-to-head wins over a pair of likely NCAA teams in W&M and UNC.

No. 28 Princeton faces that same Mid-Atlantic challenge as the No. 5 team in the region, and this will be their first test without All-American Meg Curham, who is reportedly redshirting the 2015 season.

Another individual to watch for could be Indiana’s Haley Harris, who won the Indiana Intercollegiates by 16 seconds.