We’re in the End Game Now
Time flies when you’re fast af
Welcome back to another weekend of madness and mayhem! If you are a fan of cross country, then this was the weekend for you! We saw it all: fast times, dominant team wins, close team races, emerging stars, returning stars, and even some course mishaps. This upcoming weekend is a little lighter on the races compared to what we have seen the last couple of weeks and that can only mean one thing: we’re nearing the end game. That’s right, we are 10 days away from the first Regional Meets to determine who will be in the championship race at Nationals. But that preview is for next week, this week we have quite a few interesting meets to break recap. So, without further ado…
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! If your club went to any of the meets we have uploaded to the Database, you can also add a photos link directly there! That would be much appreciated 🙂
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! If you want to find the meet results from this season (because very few of them are on NIRCA’s website), you can check them out on the 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.
VCU Invitational
Starting off with the Meet of the Week, we have an all too familiar course. VCU hosted their inaugural home meet at the site of the 2022 XC Championship meet: Pole Green Park. They did change the course so it was actually a true 6k and 8k as opposed to the 6.4k and 8.2k we had two years ago. This meet saw several of the top teams in the DMV area duke it out for superiority. In the women’s race, no one was going to catch Jane Smith from Georgetown as she easily ran away from the field to win with a time of 23:08.9. She couldn’t slack off too much, however, as she was relentlessly pursued by Gabby Santucci from UVA who took home 2nd in 23:15.4. Gabby was joined by teammates Beall Roberts (23:33.6) and Jackie Janicki (24:14.1) in the top 10 as UVA took home a critical team win with a score of 45 points. It was a really close team battle for 2nd between Georgetown and Virginia Tech, both teams had 2 runners in the top 10, but Georgetown managed to sneak 4 in the Top 15 in order to get a 7 point win over the Hokies. All 3 of these teams were without crucial pieces of their scoring lineups, but UVA looked to be in complete control of this race. It will be interesting to see if UVA’s roster changes at all, because if you remember, UVA was dominating teams in the regular season, but almost all of their top runners did not race at Regionals or Nationals. If they actually have all of their runners this time around, they could be a darkhorse for the podium. A little further down the team standings, NC State finished a tough 4th place in a stacked meet. After a disappointing season by their standards, the Wolfpack seem to be turning things around in Raleigh with a whole pack of freshmen. This team could surprise some people in the Southeast Region.
The men’s race was a slight revenge tour for Virginia Tech after they lost for the first time in the regular season in almost 2 years. The Hokies put any notion of an upset to bed quickly after putting their entire top 7 in the Top 10 overall. That’s right, Virginia Tech put their entire scoring 7 in before most teams even had their top runner cross the line. The only runners not from Blacksburg, were the eventual race winner, Jackson Martingayle, who won in 25:29.3; his teammate Cayden Stover, who finished 3rd in 25:38.9; and Austin Molitor from Washington & Lee. The Hokies were led by Noah LeCain who finished runner up with a time of 25:35.9 and Harris Naseh in 4th with a time of 25:39.5. With an impressive 1-5 spread of just 38 seconds (and a 1-7 spread of 59 seconds), Virginia Tech walked away with an easy win with only 24 points. Thanks to their strong 1-2 punch, UVA managed to secure 2nd with a team score of 48 points. The Cavaliers were without one of their top runners in Victor Kering, but realistically that would not have been enough to upset the Hokies after there was over a minute gap between their 2nd and 3rd runner. They prevented the team score from running up too much, however, as their 3-6 runners finished within 10 seconds of each other. This combination of good lowsticks and a close backend pack bodes well for this team in the bigger races at the end of the season. A very exciting team battle to watch was between NC State and Maryland. The Wolfpack snagged a 1 point win over the Terrapins. These two teams were extremely balanced as their scoring breakdown was 10-11-22-23-24(25)(30) for NC State versus 12-14-19-20-26(28)(31) for Maryland. In the end, it was a clutch performance by Oscar Lubliner that helped keep the Wolfpack ahead. After finishing 10th at Nationals last year AND returning a good portion of their squad, we expected Maryland to be one of the top riser teams of the season. They still have some time to find the form from last year, but whatever they’re doing they’re leaving it late.
The top teams in the Mid-Atlantic Region are separating themselves from the rest of their competitors.
Spartan Grand Classic
Michigan State’s home meet is famous for being one of the fastest courses in the country. While we didn’t see quite the same blazing times we are used to, we still saw several great performances. On the men’s side, top ranked Michigan was 1 spot away from completing the rare 1-7 clean sweep. They easily put away this field with a perfect team score of 15 points, led by their law student, Andrew Healey in 25:28.1. The Wolverines should be feeling extra confident as their top returner from Nats last year, Gary Gardella, is rounding into form as he finished 4th in a time of 26:08.9. Michigan was also without 2 other runners who could factor into their top scorers. The one runner to break up the Wolverine party up front was Jacob Kerstetter from Pitt who finished 6th in a time of 26:21.5. The Panthers would end up finishing 3rd in the team race. The home team, Michigan State, had a very promising race as they had all of their scorers under 15 points each. The Spartans were led by Brendan Daly and Owen Ackerman who secured Top 10 finishes with their times of 26:34.1 and 26:35.0. This was a clear and dominant win by the top ranked team in the country. They’ll have a few weeks off until they line up to race again at the Great Lakes Regional meet on October 26th.
The women’s race had some unfortunate drama. The top 6 runners were directed the wrong way on the course, causing them to run nearly 400m short. Michigan and Michigan State were the only teams impacted by this as Sophie Cloutier, Laney Alig, Allison Bowles, and Analeise Shact for the Wolverines, and Charlotte Batra (who was on pace to win) and Samantha Turner for the Spartans eventually had their times removed from the team and individual race consideration. This mishap made the team race much closer than it realistically would have been. Michigan still took home the team win 31-33, but this race should not have been that close. This is by no means talking negatively of Michigan State, their 3-5 ran well to keep their adjusted team score low. But let’s be real, Michigan had their top four runners removed from the scoring. Despite not having some times count, Michigan still had a good showing from their depth. Michigan State should also walk away from this meet feeling pretty good. They have one of, if not the, top runner in the Great Lakes in Charlotte Batra and a great 2nd runner in Samantha Turner. Ella Showerman has also been running well the last couple meets. At their best, the Spartans should be able to contend for one of the top spots at Nationals.
Irish Invitational & Joe Piane Invitational
Notre Dame was on double duty this weekend as they hosted their home meet in addition to having several of their runners compete at the famous Joe Piane Invitational. Starting off with Joe Piane, we saw current NIRCA #1, Pieter Heesters, drop another PR en route to running 24:18.7. That time is The fastest time we have seen since Nationals was held at McAlpine many moons ago. There are only two performances this year sub 25 and Pieter holds both of them. He should definitely be one of the favorites come Regionals and Nationals. Behind him, 2 of his teammates fared very well. Ryan Fryer and Owen Donaher were both top runners at Nationals last year, and are setting themselves up nicely to be top runners again. The duo stuck together for most of the race until the closing moments where Ryan opened a little bit of a gap to run 25:58.6 to Owen’s 26:05.5. The Irish have a strong front three, but they need their backend to close the gap as their 4th runner, Ryan Illikman, was 40 seconds back running 26:45.2. There was only one woman to race for Notre Dame at Joe Piane, but she definitely left an impression. Meagan McKenna is continuing her standout freshman campaign as she ran an 18:56.1 5k. She has been one of the many breakout stars in the Great Lakes Region this year and should definitely be in contention for a top spot in a few weeks time.
Now to the NIRCA meet. Up front it was basically a dual meet between Notre Dame and Illinois on both the men’s and women’s side. In the women’s race, Elizabeth Schmidt took home the win for the Irish with a time of 23:53.1, comfortably outpacing the Illinois duo of Claire Casiello and Joy Dudley who ran 24:07.1 and 24:13.0, respectively. Sarah Mirkin and Emily Arenas joined Elizabeth as Top 5 finishers, but that would not be enough as Illinois would take 4 of the next 5 spots in the Top 10 to take the team victory. Both teams are in an interesting spot heading into the postseason. Notre Dame is in a heavy rebuilding season after losing 5 of their scorers, but they have seen very promising results from Meagan and Elizabeth. They are a little limited due to the size of their roster, which impacts their depth. Illinois, on the other hand, has the depth but that depth was 80 seconds back from their top runners in a smaller meet. At this meet, 80 seconds was only 3 runners, at Regionals and Nationals that can easily turn into 20, 30, maybe 40 runners.
The men’s race had a bit of a snafu. We know Illinois has some fast guys on their squad, but, respectively, not this fast. The course was close to 350m short of an 8k, so take these times with a very large grain of salt. Anyway, Illinois showed up to race as they put 8 runners “sub 26” led by their ace Ethan Forsell who ran 24:37.7. The Illini are finally seeing some production out of their middle distance crew as Percy Moser and Easton Rosen ran 24:55.5 and 25:11.6 to finish 2nd and 4th. They had another young talent in Sam Lambert run well as he finished 3rd with a time of 25:01.7. Illinois almost had the 1-7 on lock if it weren’t for Ryan Fryer from Notre Dame. He pulled a Wisconsin and doubled back to defend the home course to finish 5th in 25:12.3. We can’t really draw too many conclusions from this race given how short the course was. One thing we can conclude, however, is Illinois is in a pretty comfortable position and honestly might be the favorite to win the Great Plains Region after their top 5 ran “under 25:15” at this meet. We also can confirm that Ryan Fryer is a dog. Running just off his PR and turning around and running an equivalent effort less than 24 hours later is very impressive.
To get a more accurate representation of these times for an actual 8k, add roughly 50 seconds.
Dashing Dukes Invitational
The Dashing Dukes Invitational took a bit of a hit in terms of competition due to the rise of the VCU Invitational, but nonetheless, we saw a great showdown between JMU, William & Mary, and Penn State. Funnily enough, in both the men’s and women’s races, each team had 1 runner in the top 3. Starting with the men’s race, Patrick Gaffney continued his strong debut campaign for the Dukes as he took home the win with a time of 26:49.57, just beating out Samuel Byrd from William & Mary in 26:51.96. Finishing in 3rd was Penn State’s Gus Platt in 26:58.35, as the Nittany Lions would claim the next 5 spots to take home the team title. The battle for 2nd ended up being very close as JMU put 2 more runners ahead of William & Mary’s 2nd. But the Tribe would not be denied as they swept spots 10-16 to beat the Dukes on their home course. After running the first two meets for JMU, their top runner from last year, George Austin III, has been MIA. He alone probably would not have been enough for the Dukes to get 2nd, but he is a very strong low stick for this squad who definitely could use a second runner up with Patrick.
The women’s race had a slightly similar outcome. This time, William & Mary took home the individual win as Maura Mlecko won in 25:10.60. JMU top dog Duke, Mary Raterman, took second place with a time of 25:17.73. Mary’s best performances place wise always come from the more technical courses (Carolina XC Classic, now this one), running tough on tough courses is a good skill to have, especially with the Nationals course at Hershey. In similar fashion to the men’s race, Penn State’s Angelina Hunkele took home 3rd (25:25.5) to lead a pack of Nittany Lions, claiming 5 of the Top 10 spots. JMU put up a fight, as they walked away with 4 Top 10 spots with Mikaila Terry (4th), Lauren Frey (9th), and Makenzie Zimmerman (10th). The Dukes took a close 2nd with 37 points. Penn State was without a few top runners. That being said, William & Mary and JMU should definitely be in the hunt for one of the Nationals qualifying bids. Given the size of the Mid-Atlantic, that region gets 9 spots for the Championship race and, right now, both of these teams look ready to take one.
Around the Country
As always, rapid fire for non-NIRCA meets because the demon that controls the write-up can’t contain itself.
Ryan Kittredge and Grace Petrick led a strong group of runners from Boston College as the Golden Eagles soared at the Paul Short Run Invitational. Ryan led the men with a good time of 26:01.0 with his teammate, Luke Walsh, running close behind in 26:11.5. Grace led the women with a fast time of 23:46.9, with teammate Aislinn Smeader running 24:20.6. Don’t sleep on Boston College as we approach the Northeast Regional meet, they are looking like one of the teams in contention.
Out west, our old friends Oregon are at it again. Their stud, Avery Hackenberg, ran 18:33.0 to lead the Oregon women over 5k. The men saw Miles Freightman and Henry Domnarski go sub 27 over 8k. Bring us back to 2018 when Oregon actually wanted to be our friend and race at Nationals 😢
Iowa State wanted one more effort before the Great Plains Region as they competed at the Dan Huston Invitational. Morgan DeHarde led a small group of women as she finished in 24:55.0. On the men’s side, Adrian Welton backed up his Border Battle victory, running a fast time of 25:42.5 to lead the Cyclones once again. That individual battle in the Great Plains is shaping up to be a good one.
Kentucky raced at the Live in Lou Classic this weekend. They were led by Jonah Edwards who finished in 27:06.8. The Wildcats look to get another Nationals bid at the Great Lakes Regional on October 26th
Dasha Vorontsov once again proved she is the woman to beat as she ran 21:52.0 at the Warrior Invitational. As such, Wisconsin is looking like the best team right now with how much firepower they have up front.
Classes have finally started in California, so we got the chance to see Cal Poly field a full squad of runners at The Master’s XC Invitational. Frank Assumma (25:22.9) and Tom Bell (25:26.9) led 10 Mustangs under 27 in an incredibly fast race. We talk a lot about the Cal Poly men because of how strong they have been over the last few years, but their women’s team also threw down some fast performances. Delaney Voronin dropped a 22:34.0 to lead this squad. Something about the initials DV must make you fast…. Lexi Conley also had a great race as she ran 23:18.3. Look out for this team as they hit the always fast Bronco Invitational this weekend.
What a season Ohio State is having. Joseph Sigall and Brandon Wiedl continue to be the consistent top runners for the Buckeyes as they ran 26:08.0 and 26:12.1, respectively. A very positive note for this team, one of the top runners from Nationals last year, Joshua Baker, has steadily been improving after knee surgery in the spring and looks to be nearing full capacity. He was the 5th man for the Buckeyes at the OWU Invitational with a time of 26:47.8. The Ohio State women have been on an absolute tear this season. Emerson Greene and Samantha Fobean look like top contenders at Nationals as they ran 22:30.3 and 22:39.4. The squad they have behind them isn’t too shabby either as their 5th runner, Kirsten Krych, ran 24:00.4. There are several teams that are lucky to have 1 runner under 24 minutes and the Buckeyes almost had 5 at one meet. Could they upset the defending champs?
The Georgia Tech men once again wanted to establish themselves as the team to beat in the Southeast as they raced at the Georgia Tech Invitational. Led by Ansh Parashar (26:00.86) and Guillermo Marquina (26:17.49), the Yellow Jackets had their scoring 5 under 27 on a long course. They might have one more card to play at Regionals as Elijah McCauley is set to race for the first time this season. If he is in the shape that took him to a top spot at Nationals, Georgia Tech might be a lock for the Regional title. There were two individuals who also raced at this meet. Georgia’s Diego Santiago-Cardona ran an impressive 25:38.4, while Kennesaw State’s Hallie Baffic dropped a 23:34.0 over 6k. The individual race in the Southeast looks to be a little open, but these two have definitely thrown their names into the conversation to win it all in Knoxville.
It’s been a while since we have seen the team from Bloomington, but Indiana finally raced again at the D3 Pre-Nats meet in Terre Haute. Elise Byers and Ellie Peskin both broke 24 (23:11.08 and 25:50.60) to lead the Hoosiers. On the men’s side, Noah Scott continued his steady comeback as he ran 26:09.26.
Weekend Preview
There aren’t as many meets this weekend as we have seen in the last few weeks, but nonetheless we will cover them. As we approach the postseason, most teams are taking an extra weekend off the rest up, but a few brave teams want to keep their foot on the gas.
UCONN Autumn Classic
UConn is one of the teams wanting to stay fast as they host their annual Autumn Classic. This meet also serves as the Meet of the Week for Week 6. This should be another good matchup in the Northeast. The UConn men have the largest squad entered and the pre-meet favorite in Colin Slavin. But Boston College might have something to say about that. The women’s race should also be a good matchup between UConn and a small Boston College squad. Boston College isn’t racing all of their top runners, but this is still a formidable squad. The UConn women have had some good performances as of late, so we look forward to seeing them carrying their momentum.
This could be another good meet to decide who else will get the National bids out of the Northeast. They get a total of 6 for men and women.
Gene Davis Invitational
As if we needed another reason to say the Wisconsin women are a cracked squad, they are racing at the very fast Gene Davis Invitational. They’ll be competing against fellow NIRCA teams in Northwestern and Minnesota. This could be a good pre-Regionals showdown as these teams look to claim the handful of Nationals bids (5 for men, 4 for women). This will be another chance to see just how fast Dasha can run after putting up some blistering times so far. This will also be a good test for Wisconsin’s depth as both Leah Remiker and Paulina Weustefeld are not racing. Minnesota also looks to back up their performances at the Border Battle where they had some very unexpected results.
The men’s NIRCA team race could be very interesting. Northwestern returns their entire Nationals squad but looked rusty in their season opener. Their top runner, Calvin Davies, is entered to race this time around. Wisconsin came into this season on the opposite end of the spectrum as they lost almost all of their Nationals squad. That being said, they are steadily building back up led by Adam Kitay. They also get the addition of former Michigan ace, Andrew Quaal, for the weekend. Rumor has it that he is only racing for this meet, but that is still a big pickup for this squad. Can the firepower of Wisconsin prevail or will Northwestern’s experience be enough to overcome a slow start to the season? And how will the Minnesota men factor into this race? We will have to wait and see, unfortunately.
Other Meets of Note
The new kid on the block, Arkansas, continues their season at the Ozarks Collegiate Invitational this weekend. They have one of the top women in the country right now in Abigayle Money. She is entered in the Great Plains regional but currently does not have enough teammates to field a full squad.
Cincinnati will race the Ashbury Invitational in hopes of improving their times to get a Nationals bid out of the difficult Great Lakes Region. Similarly, Delaware is competing at the Desales Invitational one week out from the Mid-Atlantic Regional meet.