Week in Review: Northern Arizona rolls in Mountain Regional
Lumberjacks appear primed for pair of team titles in NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday
The top-ranked men’s and women’s cross country teams from Northern Arizona University will enter the NCAA championships in Earlysville, Virginia, on Saturday with vastly different competitive resumes.
Yet based on their performances in the Mountain Regional last Friday, both appear to be primed to win their respective titles in the NCAA meet at the Panorama Farms Cross Country Course. The women’s 6,000-meter race will start at 10:20 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, followed by the men’s 10,000-meter event at 11:10.
The race will be live streamed on ESPNU and ESPN+ in English and on ESPN3 in Spanish, with coverage starting at 9:30 a.m. It can also be livestreamed through the ESPN App.
The Northern Arizona men will attempt to win their fourth consecutive title and seventh in eight years, while the Lumberjack women will be shooting for their first team championship after finishing sixth last year.
Northern Arizona, paced by the second- and third-place finishes of Nico Young and Drew Bosley, edged host Oklahoma State on the tiebreaker in last year’s NCAA meet.
Both teams had compiled identical scores of 83 points in the meet at Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course. But NAU won its third consecutive title and sixth in seven years because its Nos. 1, 2, and 4 runners finished ahead of their counterparts from Oklahoma State, whose third and fifth runners placed higher than their counterparts from Northern Arizona.
Oklahoma State is the No. 2-ranked men’s team in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) poll, but the Cowboys were not as impressive in winning the Midwest Regional title last Friday as Northern Arizona was in its Mountain Regional race.
The Lumberjacks had five of the top 14 finishers, as well as six of the top 15, in rolling to a 36-89 victory over runner-up and No. 3-ranked BYU in the Mountain Regional meet that was held at the Chaparral Ridge Cross Country Course in Lubbock, Texas.
Perhaps even more impressive than Northern Arizona’s margin of victory was the fact that the gap between its No.1 and 5 runners was 22.4 seconds and the time difference between its first and sixth runners was 24.7 seconds.
In comparison, Oklahoma State had a gap of nearly 47 seconds between its No. 1 and 5 runners in its 19-56 victory over runner-up and No. 20-ranked Iowa State in the Midwest Regional.
Young, a junior, ran 28 minutes 59.6 to finish second in the Mountain Regional after battling a trio of New Mexico freshmen during the last kilometer of the 10,000-meter race.
Habtom Samuel of New Mexico, an Eritrean who has run 27:20.08 for 10,000 meters on the track, placed first in 28:57.6, and Kenyan teammates Lukas Kiprop and Evans Kiplagat finished third and fourth in 29:00.0 and 29:03.9, respectively. But the No. 19 Lobos placed third in the team standings with 97 points as their Nos. 4 and 5 runners finished 37th and 52nd.
In contrast, Australian Kang Nyoak was Northern Arizona’s No. 2 runner in fifth place in 29:10.0, and the Lumberjacks’ Nos. 3-5 runners were fellow seniors Bosley in seventh in 29:12.2, Spaniard Aaron Las Heras in eighth in 29:12.5, and Brodey Hasty in 14th in 29:22.0.
The Northern Arizona women were not as dominant as the men, but the squad still rolled to a 39-59 victory over runner-up and No. 3-ranked BYU, despite the fact that top runner Elise Stearns was held out of the meet.
With Stearns, fourth in the NCAA championships last year, back in the line-up, NAU might have enough depth to unseat No. 2-ranked and two-time defending champion North Carolina State in the title race on Saturday.
Northern Arizona defeated NC State, 52-95, in winning the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in Madison in Oct. 13. However, the Wolfpack appeared to be short-handed in that race as it ran without Amaris Tyynismaa, who had placed ninth for Alabama in the NCAA championships last year before transferring to North Carolina State prior to the start of the track and field season.
Tyynismaa was in the line-up for NC State in both the Atlantic Coast Conference meet on Oct. 27 and the Southeast Regional last Friday, but she dropped out of both races. If she struggles again on Saturday, the Wolfpack could be hard pressed to defeat an NAU squad that had five of the top 15 finishers in the Mountain Regional, led by first-place Gracelyn Larkin, a Canadian and senior transfer from New Mexico who ran 19:19.7 over the 6,000-meter course.
The Lumberjacks’ next three scoring runners were juniors Aliandrea Upshaw in sixth place in 19:44.2, Australian Ruby Smee in seventh in 19:45.1, and Maggie Congdon in 10th in 19:47.4. Senior Maisie Grice was the No. 5 runner for NAU with a 15th-place finish in 19:55.2.
All told, there were nine regional championship meets held last Friday.
The top two teams in each race automatically advanced to the NCAA championships, as did the top four individual runners who were not a qualifying team, but placed among the first 25 finishers.
In addition to the 18 men’s and women’s teams who earned automatic entries into the NCAA title meet, another 13 teams were awarded at-large berths, as were two individuals who were not automatic qualifiers.
Midwest Regional: Host Oklahoma State won both team titles and both individual championships in the meet at the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater.
Denis Kipngetich of No. 2-ranked Oklahoma State pulled away from fellow freshman — and teammate — Brian Musau during the final two kilometers of the race to cross the finish line in 29:39.2.
Musau, who had won the Big 12 title on Oct. 28, finished second in 29:49.2, followed by sophomore teammate Fouad Messaoudi in third in 30:03.5.
Oklahoma State’s other scoring runners were freshmen Adisu Guadia in fifth in 30:12.4 and senior Alex Maier in eighth in 30:26.1 as the Cowboys defeated runner-up and No. 20-ranked Iowa State by a 19-56 score.
The No. 5-ranked Oklahoma State women were paced by a 1-2 finish from sophomore Billah Jepkirui and senior Taylor Roe, who clocked 20:28.4 and 20:29.1, respectively, over the 6,000-meter course.
After Jepkirui and Roe, who had finished second and first in the Big 12 championships, Oklahoma State’s next three runners were senior Molly Born in fifth in 20:36.1, freshman Cayden Dawson in 10th in 20:43.9, and junior Gabija Galvydyte in 12th in 20:46.0 as the team rolled to a 30-75 victory over second-place and No. 18-ranked Iowa State.
West Regional: Stanford won the men’s and women’s team titles, and also had the individual men’s champion in the meet at Haggin Oaks Golf Course in Sacramento, California.
Stanford, the No. 10-ranked men’s team in the country entering the meet, had three of the top seven finishers while defeating a surprising and unranked Gonzaga team, 73-98, for the title.
Ky Robinson of Stanford, a junior from Australia who won the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in the NCAA Track & Field Championships in June, clocked 28:55.6 over the 10,000-meter course. But he did not end the race with a strong finish as junior Matt Strangio of Portland placed second in 28:59.5 after making up seven seconds on Robinson during the final mile.
Freshman Valentin Soca finished third in 29:02.0 for No. 4-ranked Cal Baptist, which totaled 125 points along with No. 22 Washington before being awarded third place on the tiebreaker.
Stanford, the No. 7-ranked women’s team in the nation, did not have a runner among the top 10 finishers. But Cardinal competitors placed 11th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 21st while on their way to a 77-109 victory over second-place and No. 12-ranked Oregon. Washington, the No. 8-ranked team in the country, finished third with 115 points, followed by No. 21 Cal Baptist with 126.
Oregon State senior Kaylee Mitchell won the women’s 6,000-meter race with a time of 19:08.4 to finish four seconds ahead of junior Greta Karinauskaite of Cal Baptist.
Junior Lucy Jenks led victorious Stanford by finishing 11th in 19:42.7.
South Regional: Runners from the Southeastern Conference won all four titles in the meet at Mark Bostick Golf Course in Gainesville, Florida.
Tennessee won both the women’s and men’s team titles while juniors Parker Valby of Florida and Hillary Cheruiyot of Alabama won the women’s and men’s individual championships, respectively.
Tennessee, the No. 15-ranked women’s team in the nation, was paced by sophomore Ashley Jones, who finished seventh in 18:52.9. The Volunteers also had the 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-place finishers while totaling 61 points to the 79 of second-place and No. 6-ranked Florida.
The Gators were followed by No. 24 Mississippi with 95 points and No. 16 Alabama with 98.
Valby, the runner-up in the NCAA championships last year, posted her third victory of the season without a defeat with a time of 17:59.6 over the 6,000-meter layout. But the Alabama duo of Doris Lemngole (18:02.7) and Hilda Olemomoi (18:04.5) made up a lot of ground on her during the final 800 meters of the race.
Valby had a 12-second lead on Kenyans Lemngole and Olemomoi when she came through the 4,560-meter mark on the course, but she lost about nine seconds of her advantage over Lemngole during the final two and a half minutes of the race.
Alabama placed first and second in the men’s race, but No. 21-ranked Tennessee had three of the top 11 finishers while on its way to a 68-71 victory over second-place and No. 29-ranked Florida State. Alabama, the No. 18-ranked team in the country, finished third with 86 points.
Like Valby in the women’s race, Cheruiyot lost a large part of his lead in the latter stages of the men’s contest as his 19-second advantage over teammate and fellow Kenyan Victor Kiprop at the 8,730-meter mark had shrunk to just over three seconds when he finished the race in 28:26.8 to Kiprop’s 28:29.9.
Senior Yaseen Abdalla paced Tennessee’s victory with a third-place finish in 28:41.3.
Southeast Regional: The North Carolina State women, led by winner Katelyn Tuohy, and the North Carolina men, paced by runner-up Parker Wolfe, won their respective team titles in the meet at Roger Milliken Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Defending NCAA champion Tuohy clocked 19:29.8 over the 6,000-meter course to finish well ahead of fellow junior and Dutchwoman Amina Maatoug of Duke in 19:41.0.
North Carolina State, the No. 2-ranked team in the nation, had three of the top eight finishers in the race, as well as four of the top 12, while posting a 52-82 victory over No. 25 Furman. Virginia finished third with 123 points after entering the meet as the No. 10-ranked team in the country.
Senior Kelsey Chmiel, who placed third in the NCAA championships last year, did not run for two-time defending national champion North Carolina State. But she is expected to be back in the Wolfpack line-up for the NCAA title meet on Saturday.
Junior Dylan Schubert of Furman won the men’s individual title with a time of 28:51.2 over the 10,000-meter course. But North Carolina, tied for fifth in the national poll, received a 2-3 finish from junior Wolfe and senior Alex Phillip while rolling to a 38-72 victory over No. 28-ranked Eastern Kentucky.
Wolfe and Phillip were each credited with times of 28:53.3 for the Tar Heels, who had four of the top nine finishers.
Great Lakes Regional: The Butler men and the Notre Dame women won the team titles in the meet at the Thomas Zimmer Cross Country Course in Madison, Wisconsin.
Wisconsin, which entered the meet tied for fifth in the national rankings, received a 1-2 finish from junior Bob Liking and senior Jackson Sharp in the men’s race. But No. 12-ranked Butler countered with a 4-5-9-10-15 finish while on its way to a 43-70 victory over the host Badgers.
Liking clocked 29:40.9 over the 10,000-meter course, followed by Sharp in 29:41.2 and senior Tom Brady of Michigan in 29:41.8.
Senior Florian LePallec and freshman William Zegarski paced Butler with fourth- and fifth-place times of 29:43.8 and 29:44.1, respectively.
Individual champion Olivia Markezich paced No. 9-ranked Notre Dame to a 39-71 victory over No. 23 Wisconsin in the women’s meet in which No. 14 Michigan State finished third with 82 points.
Markezich, a senior who placed eighth in the NCAA championships last year, clocked 19:55.1 over the 6,000-meter course to finish well ahead of junior Addie Engel of Ohio State, who ran 20:07.4.
Senior Katie Osika (20:16.1) and junior Makeena Veen (20:17.0) finished third and fourth for Michigan State, but Notre Dame had four of the next eight finishers while rolling to the team title.
Northeast Regional: Iona was a surprise winner of the men’s team title and Syracuse edged Boston College for the women’s championship in the meet at Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx, New York.
Iona entered the race as the No. 27-ranked team in the nation, but the Gaels had five of the top 14 finishers while totaling 40 points to the 57 of No. 15 Harvard and the 97 of No. 8 Syracuse.
Harvard junior Graham Blanks, sixth in the NCAA championships last year, won his fourth race of the season without a loss as he clocked 29:31.6 over the 10,000-meter layout.
Iona had the next two finishers as junior Damian Dilcher placed second in 29:40.1 and senior Joshua DeSouza was third in 29:40.8.
The Gaels’ next three runners placed 10th, 11th, and 14th as the team had an impressive gap of 20.4 seconds between its No. 1 and 5 runners.
Syracuse, the No. 28-ranked team in the country, totaled 98 points to the 109 of unranked Boston College, with No. 29 Providence finishing third at 137 and No. 26 Harvard placing fourth at 140.
Like Blanks in the men’s race, Harvard’s Maia Ramsden had a large margin of victory in the women’s contest as she clocked 19:24.4 over the 6,000-meter distance to finish nearly 13 seconds in front of fellow junior and New Zealand countrywoman Kimberley May of Providence, who placed second in 19:37.3.
Junior Savanna Roark placed sixth in 19:59.1 for Syracuse, whose Nos. 2-4 runners finished 16th, 19th, and 22nd.
Mid-Atlantic Regional: The Princeton men and the Georgetown women won the team titles in the meet at the Goodman Campus Cross Country Course in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Villanova teammates Liam Murphy and Haftu Strintzos placed first and second in the men’s race with times of 29:05.5 and 29:14.7 over the 10,000-meter course. But No. 16-ranked Princeton had five of the top 12 finishers in a 41-73 victory over the No. 11 Wildcats, who were four points ahead of Georgetown.
Junior Nicolas Bendtsen was Princeton’s top finisher as he placed fourth in 29:29.2 and seniors Jarrett Kirk and Conner Nisbet were sixth and eighth with times of 29:31.2 and 29:31.6, respectively.
The gap between the Tigers’ No. 1 and 5 runners was only 18 seconds.
In the women’s meet, No. 4-ranked Georgetown totaled 48 points, followed by Penn State with 79 and Penn with 104.
Sophomores Sadie Sigfstead of Villanova and Melissa Riggins of Georgetown engaged in a thrilling duel in the women’s race before Canadian Sigfstead emerged victorious with a time of 19:35.5 over the 6,000-meter layout to finish a tenth of a second ahead of Riggins.
Senior Kelsey Swenson finished third in 19:46.8 for Georgetown, whose No. 3 and 4 runners finished seventh and ninth.
South Central Regional: Texas and Arkansas won the men’s and women’s team titles, respectively, in the meet at Agri Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Juniors Patrick Kiprop and Kirami Yego placed first and second for No. 7-ranked Arkansas in the men’s race, but No. 9 Texas countered with a 3-4-5 finish while on its way to a 34-52 victory over the Razorbacks. Tulane finished third with 77 points.
Kiprop ran 28:38.8 over the 10,000-meter layout, with fellow Kenyan Yego at 28:43.0.
Senior Dennis Hart finished third in 28:44.6 for Texas, followed by junior teammates Rodger Rivera in fourth in 28:59.5 and Isaac Alonzo in fifth in 29:18.7. The Longhorns also had the ninth- and 13th-place finishers while putting five runners ahead of Arkansas’ No. 3 runner in 14th.
The women’s race was similar to the men’s in that Arkansas had the top two finishers. But while the Razorback men finished second to Texas in the team standings, the No. 11-ranked women romped to a 36-90 victory over second-place Texas A&M.
Sydney Thorvaldson was a runaway winner in the women’s race with a 19:52.0 clocking over the 6,000-meter course. She was followed by fellow sophomore Mia Cochran in 20:14.8 and the Razorbacks also had the sixth-, 10th-, and 17th-place finishers.
Senior Madison Brown paced Texas A&M with a ninth-place finish in 20:40.2.
Blanket finishes in Spain: Kenyans Edinah Jebitok and Ronald Kwemoi each won a hotly contested race in the Cross Internacional de Italica in Seville, Spain, on Sunday.
It was the fourth gold level meet of the 2023-24 season on the World Athletics Cross Country Tour.
The 22-year-old Jebitok, who advanced to the semifinals of the 1,500 meters in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August, ran 32:39 over the 9,918-meter course after waging a back-and-forth duel with 18-year-old Senayet Getachew of Ethiopia.
Jebitok and Getachew were running together through 8,500 meters, but Jebitok took a six-second lead with a kilometer left in the race. However, Getachew, winner of the women’s U20 (under 20) race in the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia, in February, retook the lead with 500 meters to go, only to have Jebitok passed her a short time later.
Jebitok appeared to be headed to victory at that point in the race, but she stopped after mistakenly thinking she had crossed the finish line.
Getachew briefly sped past Jebitok, but the Kenyan recovered quickly enough to pass the Ethiopian just before the finish line as they were both credited with the same time. Winnie Jemutai was a well-beaten third in 33:37.
It was the second victory in eight days for Jebitok, who had also won the Cross Internacional in San Sebastian, Spain, on Nov. 5.
In contrast to the women’s race, five men were in the lead pack with a lap to go in the four-lap 9,918-meter race. But the front group was down to Hillary Chepkwony of Kenya and Kwemoi with 500 meters left after a surge by Chepkwony had dropped Rodrigue Kwizera of Burundi.
Chepkwony still had the lead after rounding the final bend of the race, but the 28-year-old Kwemoi was able to edge past him in the home straightaway as each of them were credited with times of 29:09.
Kwizera placed third in 29:11, followed by Ishmael Kirui of Kenya in 29:16 and Mohamed Katir of Spain in 29:29.
Katir, the silver medalist in the 5,000 in the World Championships, had dropped back of the lead pack with about three kilometers left in the race.
Contrasting victories: Kenneth Kiprop of Uganda and Megan Keith of Great Britain employed different tactics in winning the men’s and women’s races of the Cardiff Cross Challenge in Wales on Saturday.
It was the third gold level meet of the 2023-24 season on the World Athletics Cross Country Tour.
The 18-year-old Kiprop, who placed sixth in the men’s U20 (under 20) race of the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia, in Februaty, led for much of 9.6-kilometer race.
However, Kenyan Vincent Mutai challenged him late in the race.
Mutai had run an hour and 35 seconds in the winning the Cardiff Half Marathon on October 1, but Kiprop had too much speed for him over the final straightaway and crossed the finish line in 28:32. Mutai finished second in 28:35, followed by Abele Bekele Alemu of Ethiopia in third in 29:06.
The 21-year-old Keith, who won the women’s 5,000 meters in the European U23 (under 23) Championships in Espoo, Finland, in July, had a comfortable margin of victory as she clocked 20:35 over the 6.4-kilometer course.
Likina Amebaw of Ethiopia placed second in 20:52, followed by countrywoman Asmarech Anley in 20:59.
Turning pro: Udodi Onwuzurike, who capped his sophomore season at Stanford by winning the men’s 200 meters in the NCAA Track & Field Championships in June, announced on Instagram last week that he will forgo his final two years of collegiate eligibility to run professionally.
Onwuzurike had lowered his personal best to 19.76 seconds in the 200 in the semifinals of the NCAA meet before winning the final in 19.84.
He also lowered his personal best to 9.92 in the 100 this season before finishing sixth in the NCAA final in 9.98.
Onwuzurike, the son of Nigerian immigrants, was born and raised in southeast Michigan, but he won the men’s 200 meters in the 2021 World Athletics U20 (under 20) Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, while representing Nigeria.
He had been expected to run the 200 for Nigeria in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August, but a hamstring injury prevented him from doing so.
Onwuzurike wrote in his Instagram post that his “lifelong dream has come true, bringing both excitement and reflection with this fresh opportunity. Thank you, Stanford, for everything. This is not a goodbye, but a new beginning.”