Hot Temps for Hot Times
Tough courses, tougher runners
Well, well, well. If it isn’t another fun week of chaos and fast times in the NIRCA running world. We’re at the weird time of year when some teams are just getting their season started *cough* Northwestern *cough*, while some teams have already competed in three or more races *cough* Tennessee *cough*. This variation in seasons isn’t super impactful right now, but it could play a factor later in the season. Will teams enter the postseason a little sluggish and tired? Or will they be a little more rested but not quite as sharp? We’ll have to wait and see. Enough rambling, we got some races to cover! With a new batch of NIRCA meets and non-NIRCA meets alike, we, as always, have a bunch of results to cover. With less than 50 days until Nationals, we hope you’re getting just as excited as we are! If you can’t tell by the length of the article, this weekend will be a movie. Stay tuned and follow along!
If we missed your race, we’re sorry! We can only cover it if we know about it, so feel free to let us know where you raced! Also please send in some meet photos to nircacoachespoll@gmail.com to add some more color for these articles! Shoutout Notre Dame and Cornell for sending in some pictures from this weekend!
The latest Coaches’ Poll is now live! If you want to get involved with the Coaches’ Poll, we have an information packet here if you are interested in learning more. In that packet we have information on how to join the Coaches’ Poll and the planned dates for the polls. So if you want to join, feel free!
Don’t forget to check out the National Running Club Database! It is an on-going project by our founder Jonathan Karr to have all of the club results in one convenient spot. There are sure to be a few meets we missed on the Database, but you can add it and it will be included! More information about that can be found on the Database website.
Cavalier Invitational
Kicking off with our Meet of the Week, where we had quite a few surprises at the Cavalier Invitational. Starting with the women’s race, Gabby Santucci pulled away in the final few kilometers to take the win in 24:39.2 on a hot, sticky day in southern Virginia. She was joined by Beall Roberts (4th), Alya Pearson (6th), Jackie Janicki (8th), Caroline Wulff (9th), AND Brynn Vea (10th) in the Top 10 to lead UVA to a team win, but it was much closer than we anticipated, with the margin of victory only being 6 points. Virginia Tech kept it really close despite the talent they lost. They had a strong showing from their underclassmen as Addie Brinkley and Molly Weisel took home silver and bronze after pushing the pace in the early going. They were joined by their freshman teammate, Audrey Fitzpatrick, to give the Hokies 3 in the Top 5. These two teams were far above the rest of the field as JMU finished in 3rd with a team score of 109. Maryland was without one of their top runners and fell to 4th overall, despite Ella Quigley’s 7th place finish.
The men’s race was arguably more surprising. As expected, Jackson Martingayle blitzed the field and won by 33 seconds with a time of 26:18.4. What is surprising is he had 2 teammates take home 2nd and 3rd as Cayden Stoner and Victor Kering got the better of some of the Virginia Tech runners. The Hokies would have to settle for 2nd in the team race as UVA put their entire scoring 5 in the Top 10, as Nicholas Johnstone and Jesse Smith snuck in with their performances. Virginia Tech had a trio in the top 10 as Harris Naseh, Wyatt Thomas, and Samik Bhinge would finish 4-6. Going into this meet, we figured the Hokies could be at risk of getting upset since they were without several key runners (more on them later). Maryland put together a good performance as Dylan Schmidt was able to secure a Top 10 finish as he placed 8th overall. The Terps actually had the best 1-5 spread at 1:21.4, which helped keep their score in contention despite the slower average team time.
If we learned anything from this meet, UVA looks to be really good this year on both the men’s and women’s side of things.
Codfish Bowl
We get the feeling that wet course conditions are pretty common in the Northeast this time of year. That definitely was the case for the Codfish Bowl this year co-hosted by Boston College. In some rainy and muddy weather, the best of the Northeast competed against each other. Starting with the men’s race, we saw some legit performances out of the top runners. Colin Slavin of UCONN just beat out Callum Coots of Cornell 25:51.2 to 25:53.9 for the club win. Callum would get the last laugh, however, as Cornell took the team win with all of their scorers in the Top 15. Ryan Lyppens, Lucas Corea, and Joseph McMahon finished in the Top 10, with Gabriel Garcia finishing just behind them in 12th. Cornell looks to be one of the top contenders coming out of the Northeast this year. This is a very strong performance for a relatively young team. They might be challenged by Boston College though, especially with their duo of Ryan Kittredge and Luke Walsh who finished 4th and 5th at Codfish. The Golden Eagles will need to find some good depth to contend against Cornell, though.
The women’s race also saw some fast times as Arian Thiel-Hadjilambrinos from Brown ran an impressive 19:22.6. Behind her, 5 more women broke 20 for the 5k. Despite having 2 in the top 5 (Shae Regan and Sadie Beres), Northeastern faded to 3rd in the team race. Boston College picked up their 2nd team win with another impressive pack running race. Grace Petrick was their “lowstick” in 8th then their next 5 runners finished within 30 seconds of each other for the win with a score of 63. Harvard had an impressive race to just barely beat out Northeastern by 2 points 96-98 thanks to placing 3 runners in the Top 15 (Kenzie Padilla, Olive Nye, and Maragaret Bowles).
The Northeast seems to be one of the few regions that routinely sees the same teams go head-to-head every week. For comparison purposes, this makes our lives really easy since we get to see the same teams race on the same course at the same time. Right now, it looks like the Cornell men and Boston College women are in control of the Northeast.
Cherokee Invitational
The Southeast region has been one of the fastest growing places in NIRCA the last few years. Tennessee hosted the Cherokee Invitational last weekend, which gave these teams an opportunity to preview the course they’ll race on in a few weeks for the Southeast Regional. The Tennessee women might have found their new front runner as Julia Ray took home the victory by over a minute with a time of 18:12.0, which is the 5th fastest time in NIRCA history for a cross country 5k. The rest of her teammates flooded the Top 10 to easily take the team win over their club competition AND the NCAA teams who they raced against. Eyrn Lackey from Georgia and Hallie Baffic from Kennesaw State also had really quick times as they ran 19:20 and 19:26, respectively for 2nd and 3rd. If Tennessee can keep this moment rolling, they should be a serious threat in the Southeast. They have a good balance of firepower with Julia up front and a strong, veteran pack behind her. Let’s just see how their 5k performances transfer over to the 6k…
Tennessee went 2/2 for individual champs as Ransom Lester took home the win in the men’s race with an impressive time of 25:42.0. Ransom had his shadow, Nathaniel McKee join him in the Top 3 as he ran 26:21.0 to continue his great freshman campaign. Behind them, however, was a whole swarm of Yellow Jackets, as Georgia Tech went 2-4-5-7-8(9)(10). That is the Georgia Tech we expected coming into this season. They were led by their stud transfer, Ansh Parashar, who finished 2nd in 25:57.0. The only other runner in the Top 10 was Georgia’s Gray Frederick who finished in 6th. Despite not having one of their top runners, Elijah McCauley - will make his season debut at Regionals due to injury, Georgia Tech has been on a roll this year. Their consistent ranking in the Coaches’ Poll definitely shows that this team could be dangerous in the postseason.
We can’t wait to see the rematch in a couple of weeks. Will it play out the same? Or will some other team stick their nose in and spoil the party?
Around the Country
Remember how we said Virginia Tech was without some of their top runners at the Cavalier Invitational? Well they were busy racing at the Hokie Invitational the day before. The Hokie trio of Noah LeCain, Chris Nunn, and Luke Fox threw down some fast times. 24:52.9 for the 4th place finisher at Nats last year, Noah LeCain. 24:58.5 for the 5000m Champ, Chris Nunn. And 25:27.7 for newcomer, Luke Fox. The course is suspected to be a little short, so we will have to wait a few more weeks to see what the best of Tech really can do.
Speaking of really fast times, Pieter Heesters from Notre Dame went OFF this weekend. He dropped an absurd 24:34.0 at the National Catholic Invitational. THAT course has been verified to be a true 8k. This crazy time should immediately put Pieter at the very top for the Individual Champ at Nationals.
One team that really went off this weekend was Ohio State. Competing at the All-Ohio Intercollegiate Invitational, they backed up their 5k times with some equally impressive 8k season debuts. They were led by their new stud freshman, Joseph Sigall, who ran 26:21.5 to just barely overtake their senior leader, Brandon Wiedl, in 26:27.4. Not too far behind them were another duo in Carson Rewiski and Jacob Sayer in 26:31.1 and 26:38.4. That top 4 is 2 seniors and 2 freshmen. Talk about a mix of old guard and new. The Ohio State women were equally as impressive, putting their entire 5 right at or under 25 on a really hot day (real feel of 88o). They were led by the one and only Samantha Fobean who opened her 6k season with an impressive 23:48.2. She has a strong 2-3 support crew as Emerson Greene and Diona Ramos finished within a second of each other as they both ran 24:23. Emerson was the one who dropped an 18:09.1 5k just a few weeks ago, once she figures out the new race distance, Ohio State could have 2 very dangerous low sticks.
Rapid fire since we really want to get to the weekend preview.
Cal Poly raced the other half of their lineup last weekend as Tom Bell led the way with an impressive 25:16.5. He had to wait a bit for the rest of his squad, as their top finisher from Nats last year, Frank Assumma, finished in 26:21.7. Another one of their top returners, Kamran Bastani, ran 26:26.0. A few of their women raced as well! Una Griffith (20:17.9) led the small squad of Malia Merager (20:49.8) and Amy Becker (20:53.8).
Marissa Horn out of Nebraska had a solid collegiate debut of 20:11.1 at the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational
Notre Dame begins their reload year on the women’s side with Meagan McKenna dropping a 19:05.8 5k
Abigayle Money out of Arkansas dropped an 18:38.85 at the Missouri Southern Stampede. What an entrance to NIRCA! Matthew Griffith ran 26:09.4 to lead the Missouri Tigers
The Missouri women split their squad between the Southern Stampede and the Larry Young Invitational. Between those two meets, their A-Squad of Ashton Turner, Ashley Rinkenberger, Ariel Laird, and Abigail Diggs notched some respectable 5k times.
Delaware and Kentucky faced some challenging courses this weekend at the Delaware Invitational and Midway University XC Invitational. Both teams placed well in the team race.
ECU had a lone runner compete at the Adidas XC Challenge in Cary, North Carolina. Aaron Brown ran 19:38.5 for 6k on a hot day at WakeMed.
Weekend Preview
This upcoming weekend might be one of the most exciting weekends of the season. Several of the top teams in the country are going head-to-head at some of the biggest regular season meets in recent history. This weekend could have major implications for the Nationals race, so be sure to check back here next week (or on the Club Database) to see all of the results.
Little Tens Invitational
Our meet of the week has to be the Little Tens Invitational. Michigan is playing host to 10 teams from the Great Lakes Region, including 5 teams ranked in the Top 25 as per the latest Coaches’ Poll ranking. This meet has it all: strong teams, cracked individuals, AND one of the faster courses in the country. The weather isn’t looking ideal this weekend up in Michigan, but we’re still expecting some fast times. On the men’s side, we’ll see a good battle between Michigan, Ohio State, and Purdue. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Wolverines and Boilermakers race and they looked a little rusty in their first outing, but they’ve had a few weeks to get in some quality training so we are predicting they will match expectations more this time around. The Buckeyes, on the other hand, have been on a bit of a hot streak the last couple of weeks. After throwing down some fast 5k times, they backed those performances up with solid 8k debuts last week (scroll up if you missed it). They could be the team to beat on the men’s side, but never count out Michigan. They had two great opening races from Henry Christiansen and Matthew DeMeulenaere a few weeks ago, but the rest of their squad was farther back than expected. Some of their missing pieces from that meet are entered this weekend, so there’s a good chance we’ll see the Michigan we expect to see. As far as the individual race is concerned, the aforementioned Michigan duo might be challenged by Purdue’s Luke Linscott and the Ohio State duo of Joseph Sigall and Brandon Wiedl. Notre Dame is set to compete at Little Tens, however, they will be without their stud Pieter Heesters. He gets basically all of the attention, and rightfully so after a 24:34, but his teammate, Ryan Fryer, also ran well last week and could factor into the race. One name that could be flying under the radar is Andrew Whitman from GVSU. He had a very successful indoor season that culminated in him running one of the fastest 3000m times of the year. He could be a quiet name that could factor into the race.
The women’s race looks to arguably be more interesting than the men’s race. The last time we saw some of these teams, it took a tiebreaker for Michigan to get past Michigan State, Purdue took care of business at their home meet, and Ohio State was out running fast times. All of those teams are ranked in the Top 5 in the latest Coaches’ Poll and almost all of those teams look to be going all in. Purdue received a lot of hype after returning the majority of their Nationals squad, and it looks like that full squad is set to compete this weekend. They are led by some fast runners in Cara Karmolinski and Renae Kopser. This duo will be heavily challenged as the Buckeyes have a cracked duo of their own. Samatha Fobean and Emerson Greene have put up fast times already over 6k and 5k. Both of these teams look to be adding back several key supporting runners, which will make this team race all the more interesting. Let’s not forget about the Michigan duo of Ava Baak and Lydia Alig. They are two of the top returners from Nationals last year and look to defend their home course and hopefully lead their team to a victory. This team race will definitely be one to look out for. Outside of the names mentioned, there are a few individuals who could factor into the race. Michigan State’s Charlotte Batra has been one of the top runners the last couple of years, and with her 3rd place finish at Nationals last year, she is our favorite to win the race. There’s a duo from Notre Dame who could make some noise as newcomer Meagan McKenna ran a very impressive collegiate debut last weekend. She’ll be joined by veteran teammate and Top 20 finisher at Nationals, Emily Arenas. The Fighting Irish are bringing a small but mighty squad this weekend.
This one race has the potential to dramatically shift the power scales for the team race conversation at Nationals. Can’t wait to follow along!
Brown Bear Invitational
The Northeast schools are like the professional hurdlers: never backing down from racing each other. These teams are consistently racing each other, which always makes for close battles. This weekend is the famous Brown Bear Invitational which will see a whopping FIFTEEN teams compete. This meet will be absolutely massive and it features several new clubs or clubs that have been reborn. The Boston College women won’t be able to go 3/3 in team wins as they only have 3 athletes entered, so Northeastern might finally get back on track after a rocky team race start. They have some experienced front runners with Shae Regan and Anne Shea leading the way. They will need some of their teammates to step up this week, however, as their depth hasn’t been there quite yet. Brown and UMass might want to play spoiler, though, as they have some top runners entered. Brown’s Ariana Thiel-Hadjilambrinos and UMass’s Hayley Norton both were top club finishers at the Codfish bowl, and we expect to see them up at the front again this weekend. There’s a lot of youth on these squads as they combine for just 3 upperclassmen. Hopefully these teams have better weather than they did last week. Another name to watch out for is WPI’s Lauren McAdams. She dusted the field at the UMass Minuteman Invitational and currently holds the 4th fastest 6k time in the country with her 22:48.6.
The men’s race might be a little less interesting than hoped for since Boston College isn’t fielding a full team. But the group they are sending is a talented one. Ryan Kittredge has not only been the top runner for the Golden Eagles but also one of the top runners in the Northeast. He’ll have to contend with the current top runner in the Northeast, UCONN’s Colin Slavin. Colin is one of the top individuals but he lost several of his supporting crew, so he desperately needs someone to step up if UCONN wants to factor into the team race. We would say Northeastern would be the team to beat this weekend, but they will be without their top runner Ted Yee. He has been a consistent fixture at the front of races so far this year. Without him, this team race is really anyone’s game.
Border Battle
We will also see a mini Great Plains Regional preview this weekend at the Border Battle hosted by Wisconsin. This could end up being a very interesting team race, because we haven’t heard much from several of these teams. This will be the first time Iowa, Iowa State, and Wisconsin field a full squad. Minnesota will also be running with a full complement of runners after already competing twice this season. We’ve heard a bit about the Wisconsin men in the off-season, but unfortunately it has mostly been negative news. They lost several of their top runners, that being said, the ones they still have are no slouches. Adam Kitay looks to be the new number one for the Badgers Cows after his 19:28.9 6k opener and 15:14 5k TT. He looks to be in great shape, but his status heading into this race is questionable because he is ALSO entered in the Nuttycombe Invitational B Race, along with a few other of Wisconsin’s top runners. This might open the door for guys like Iowa’s Chris King to take the win. We believe he is actually the top Nationals returner in this field. Wisconsin should have enough depth to hold on for the team win, but there are some teams looking to get some inter-regional wins in this field.
Since Wisconsin is the reigning National Champs, you would assume this should be a cake walk for them. That being said, 4 of their top runners are also entered in the Nuttycombe B Race. We have heard that some of them will race in both meets, though. Wisconsin’s depth will have to pick up the slack then to secure the team win. One of Wisconsin’s top runners from last year, Leah Remiker, who finished 4th overall, is entered in the race. Despite this, she is not eligible for the postseason so this might be the only time we see her. Depending on how fatigued Dasha Vorontsov is (or how seriously she takes this race), Leah might be the individual favorite for this race. Maya Winfield and Anna Nguyen were both Top 20 finishers at Nationals, and Wisconsin will need them to replicate that performance if they want another shot at glory later this year.
Hokie Invitational
It has been rumored to be one of the hardest courses in NIRCA and Mother Nature might want to make it even more difficult. Virginia Tech is set to host their annual Hokie Invitational this weekend at the infamous Blacksburg High School course. Like much of the south/southeast, they have been dealing with the outskirts of Hurricane Helene for much of the week and look to continue to have some wet conditions. We shouldn’t expect fast times this weekend but it will be interesting to see how Virginia Tech bounces back after last weekend. They look to have basically half of the entire field, so a double team win should be the expectation for the Hokies. It might be a victory just to survive the race this weekend. Despite the horrendous conditions, the Virginia Tech men aren’t shying away as they are fielding basically all of their top runners. They might face some opposition from JMU and Georgia, but both teams are missing key runners, which will make a chance of an upset difficult. Speaking of upset, the UVA men are entered in this race with a whole 5 runners. Their top entered runner, Eli Cook, will look to bounce back after an off day at the Cavalier Invitational. One individual who could factor in outside of the Hokies, is Washington & Lee’s Austin Molitor. He actually won this race 2 years ago with a time of 26:35.1, which is very impressive given the terrain.
The Virginia Tech women, we expect, will win fairly easily over the likes of JMU and Georgia. They are fielding most of their full team that took home a close 2nd at the Cavalier Invitational. This is a surprisingly young squad for the Hokies, with a lot of newcomers listed for them. They did almost sweep the top 5 spots at this meet last year when they put up a team score of 19. That being said, of that entire Top 7 squad, there is only 1 athlete returning this year: Abby Norton. It’s basically an entirely new team for the Hokies, let’s see how they do.
Others
In place of their normal McAlpine Trail Race, UNC-Charlotte has elected to host an XC Track meet? We don’t know too many details about this other than they will play hosts to UNC-Wilmington and Western Carolina. We hope an 8k on the track goes smoothly.
Rapid fire for the other meets this weekend since this article is already getting longer than expected
Missouri is set to compete at the Gans Creek Classic this weekend against some strong competition
Tennessee is racing…again… This time at Maryville College, whose course is more trail race than cross country race
As previously mentioned, Wisconsin is sending a crew to the Nuttycombe Invitational. Dasha Vorontsov, Paulina Wuestefeld, Lauren Fitzsimmons, Annie Sonju, Jacob Alejandro, Tony Camacho, Adam Kitay, Nathan Simon, Simon Van Houten, Mason Weber, and Justin Zens are all set to race in the B Race at a very prestigious race. Good luck to them! The last time we saw Dasha race, she took down a D1 field running 20:58.5 for the 4th fastest time1 in NIRCA history!
Arkansas and Kansas will take on the Chile Pepper XC Festival. Hopefully the only thing hot is the name of the meet and the times, because they are racing at 11:40 and 12:20…
Penn State, Princeton, and Pitt will all race at the Lock Haven Invitational. This meet usually produces some fast times. It might help that the course is basically around a bunch of soccer fields
We get to see Illinois again as they will contest the Brissman-Lundeen Invitational. They haven’t raced in a few weeks and we’ve missed them :(
Despite only starting classes this week, Northwestern is already racing! They’ll travel up north for the Lucian Rosa Invitational.
We’re sorry for how long this article got. It will get worse at our mental stability continues to deteriorate as the season progresses :) . You’re a real one if you read it this far.
This could be the 3rd fastest time ever, we question the legitimacy of the known NIRCA fastest time of 19:26 set back in 2016