NCAA Championships thread (Fall 2022) - CROSS COUNTRY (Stillwater, OK; Saturday, 11/19; ESPNU; Race times: #11 Women- 8:20 AM MT; #7 Men - 9:10 AM MT)

[AztecBuff]

As is commonplace, both the men and women cross country teams have completed the regular season, Pac 12 Championships and NCAA regionals as qualifiers for this Saturday's Championships, once again proving to be, at worse***, two of the top 31 teams (the # of teams selected to compete at NCAA's) in their genders in the country. (Which realistically would be a great result in itself for probably any other CU team other than skiing.)

(***With the women ranked 8th and the men 9th in the latest rankings available (dated 11/1, with another scheduled to be released later today), I assume both teams are looking for finishes FAR better than near 31th.)

Now, it's the BIG races, as the teams will be heading off to Stillwater Oklahoma, at OSU's challenging "Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course", in a few days to compete at the NCAA Championships this Saturday. The women's race is 1st off, scheduled to begin at 8:20 AM MT, with the men following with a scheduled 9:10 AM MT start. Coverage is scheduled to be on ESPNU beginning at 8:00 AM MT.

Congrats and best wishes to the teams!

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Some prelim Championships links with detailed info -

Host (OSU's) and NCAA's meet info page (with course maps, home meet guide, etc.) - https://express.adobe.com/page/IHbTCG17KR8CO/

NCAA release with lists of all the teams and individuals selected to compete at the Championships - https://www.ncaa.com/news/cross-cou...hips-qualifiers?utm_campaign=inline-superpage

Rosters (From the live results link below. List of runners selected by the qualifying schools (I believe they have to be the same as for the regional races?) from which the 7 athletes per team and per gender who actually run on Saturday will be chosen. The Buffs have 9 women and 11 men from whom Coach Wetmore and company will choose.):
Women - https://crm.pttiming.com/uploads/projects/935/11_19_22_NCAAXC-WomenRosters.pdf
Men - https://crm.pttiming.com/uploads/projects/935/11_19_22_NCAAXC-MenRosters.pdf

List of (starting) box assignments (Also From the live results link below.):
Women's - https://crm.pttiming.com/uploads/projects/935/2022-23D1XCC_WomenStartingBoxDraws-OSU-1.pdf
Men's - https://crm.pttiming.com/uploads/projects/935/2022-23D1XCC_MenStartingBoxDraws-OSU.pdf
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MAIN Championships' links:

Various running-related twitter accounts:

Buffs - https://NOPE/CUBuffsTrack
Host OSU - https://NOPE/run4okstate
NCAA - https://NOPE/NCAATrackField
USTFCCCA (Coaches' Association) - https://NOPE/USTFCCCA

Live Video - (Quoting a Coaches' Association (USTFCCCA) webpage.) - "Remember that you can watch the action from the Sooner State without interruption LIVE on ESPNU beginning at 10 am ET." Assume that, for those whose subscriptions include access to ESPNU, they can also watch the Championships on the ESPN App or at https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/661164bf-840c-4c6c-beae-93dada68bb1a .

Per https://www.ustfccca.org/meets-results/broadcast-schedule , also looks like, starting at 9:00 AM MT (although that seems a little early to me?), there is a "Post-Meet Recap Show and Awards Ceremony" scheduled to be available on ESPN3.

Live timing and scoring - https://live.pttiming.com/XC-PTT.html?mid=5234

 

[AztecBuff]

Wanted to note that these Championships could be a little cool (although nothing like when the Buff women won it all back in 2018 in frigid Madison). The forecasted low and high for Stillwater is only 22 and 45 degrees for Saturday, and with the races relatively early in the morning, at least the women's race may be in sub-freezing or near-freezing temperatures.

 

[Buffnik]

Wanted to note that these Championships could be a little cool (although nothing like when the Buff women won it all back in 2018 in frigid Madison). The forecasted low and high for Stillwater is only 22 and 45 degrees for Saturday, and with the races relatively early in the morning, at least the women's race may be in sub-freezing or near-freezing temperatures.

Probably an advantage for CU

 

[AztecBuff]

 

[AztecBuff]

cubuffs.com Championships' preview now out -



Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2022/11/16/cross-country-colorado-set-for-ncaa-championships.aspx

"
BOULDER — The University of Colorado cross country program sends both the men's and women's teams to the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships this Saturday in Stillwater, Okla.

The women will start off the championship with the 6K at 8:20 a.m. MT, followed by the men's 10K at 9:10 a.m. MT. Both races will be televised uninterrupted on ESPNU beginning at 8 a.m. with additional coverage on ESPN3 and the ESPN app afterward.

This is the 14th year in a row the team has sent both squads as the No.7-ranked men are competing for their 31st-straight year while the No.11-ranked women are competing in their 30th championship in 31 years.

The men climbed two spots in the rankings last week after finishing third at the NCAA Mountain West Regional Championship. Despite being without Charlie Sweeney, the Buffs upset the previous-ranked No.5 Air Force by seven points.

Colorado will have a squad full of healthy runners Saturday for the 10K led by Austin Vancil and Andrew Kent. Vancil finished seventh at regionals, while Kent was fourth at the Pac-12 Championships. The two have traded top finishes for the Buffs all season and will be gunning for an All-American finish to lead CU a potential podium run.

In addition to those two, CU will run Seth Hirsch, Brendan Fraser, Sweeney, James Overberg and Hunter Appleton. Noah Hibbard will serve as the alternate for Colorado.

The Pac-12 Champion women dropped to 11th in the rankings after placing fifth at the Regional Championships. Pac-12 Individual Champion Bailey Hertenstein has led every race for the Buffaloes and will look to stick with the top runners in the race. She was fifth at the Nuttycombe Championship where most of the top runners were present except for Oklahoma State's duo. Hertenstein will be joined by Emily Covert up front who is coming off of a tough run at regionals. She finished third at the Pac-12s and could be a major factor to the women returning to the podium.

The women will also run Ella Baran, Kaitlyn Barthell, Gabrielle Orie, Whitney Valenti and Alisa Meraz-Fishbein.

Live results of the championships can be found here.
"

 

[AztecBuff]

~2 hours until the scheduled start of the Championships!

 

[AztecBuff]

 

[AztecBuff]

Unofficially, looks like the women finished 11th in the country (right where they were ranked coming into the race), with some very nice results.
(Looks like this was in spite of the Buffs' #2 or 1 runner when healthy obviously still dealing with hamstring issues (as was noted by Coach Wetmore after the Regionals), so although I'm sure she gave it her best "old college try" she only finished 105th this year after easily earning All-American honors last season with a top 40 finish. With her healthy, the Buffs might have been competing for Top 5.)

Big individual congrats to juniors (athletically; believe both were new grad transfers in this season) Bailey Hertenstein and Ella Baran, who ended up with great 5th and 30th All-American place finishes!

 

[AztecBuff]

 

[AztecBuff]

And the men's race has begun.

 

[AztecBuff]

Unofficially, looks like the men have also finished right around their ranking- congrats to them for finishing #8 in the country!

Also, individual congrats to senior Austin Vancil, who earns All-American status with his 36th place finish. (Andrew Kent also with a solid race, but just misses All-American honors with his 43rd place finish.

OVERALL. VERY exciting Championships race, as right now Northern Arizona is tied in points with Oklahoma State, but as of now NAU will win yet another championship due to the tiebreaker.

 

[AztecBuff]

NAU is officially the men's Champion once again. With 6 Championships out of the last 7 (all the others much more dominant than today's win), assume they may have one of the biggest "dynasties" going in any NCAA sport right now, especially in a sport with the wide participation within the NCAA that cross country has.
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[AztecBuff]

Article after today's Championships - https://cubuffs.com/news/2022/11/19...s-championships-with-three-all-americans.aspx

"
STILLWATER, Okla. — The University of Colorado cross country programs closed out the 2022 season here Saturday morning with three All-American finishes as the men finished eighth and the women finished 11th overall.

The highlight of the day came from Pac-12 Champion Bailey Hertenstein who made a massive move in the final 400 meters to go from 16th to fifth with a time of 19:45.1. Hertenstein led the way for CU most of the race, moving from 30th in the first 2000 meters to 16th for the second half. Coming up the final hill into the turn, Hertenstein charged from the late teens, then cresting the hill to the final downhill she passed 11 runners, including numerous All-Americans like Alabama's 5,000 national champion Mercy Chelangat.

"I think she was 12th with 500 to go," said head coach Mark Wetmore on Bailey's finish and future. "She needs to continue to gain confidence. Continue to get fitter. She's back with us next year. So she's going to be a real force in a year. We've only had her since August really. She will sit out indoor season probably because she only has one left. Which means she now has five or six months to do excellent uninterrupted training. She can be an even better runner by May, than she is now and then keep getting better all through next year."

Fellow grad transfer Ella Baran also finished her first season in the black and gold as an All-American, passing 20 athletes in the final 700 meters to finish 30th in 20:09.2. Baran started the race in the middle of the pack around 80th, then moved up to 54th at the 4,000m mark before blasting to an All-American finish.

The Buffs stuck to their game plan and had a number of strong finished. Gabrielle Orie was 169th in the first third of the race, then caught 22 runners or more at every kilometer to finish 78th in 20:29.0. Emily Covert battled through a lower leg injury and finished 105th in 20:39.0, followed by Kaitlyn Barthell placing 129th in 20:47.6.

Also for the Buffaloes, Alisa Meraz-Fishbein finished 228th in 21:44.8 and Whitney Valenti finished 234th in 21:52.0.

The women matched their incoming ranking, scoring 286 points to finished 11th. The Buffaloes were the top finishing Pac-12 school, upsetting Utah, Stanford and Oregon who were all ranked higher than CU in the final poll. NC State defended their title, finishing with 114 points.

"Honestly, the women had a better day maybe than the team score indicates," said Wetmore. "We've been nursing Emily all season through a lower leg problem, it was never bad enough to stop but it was never well enough to train fully and she just wasn't fit enough today. But Bailey was wonderful. Ella Baron was wonderful. Elle Orie had her best race ever. Kaitlyn did fine for who she was as a runner two or three years ago. More good than bad on the women's side. As I said we would have liked have been a little higher, we just needed Emily healthy."

The men were next led by Austin Vancil and Andrew Kent. The team steadily creeped up the standings, passing the 3k mark in 21st before blasting to 13th in the next kilometer. The team rose from 11th halfway through the race to finish eighth overall.

Vancil stuck up front for the majority of the race, sticking in the 40s for a majority of the race. In the final 2,000-meters, Vancil passed 10 runners total to finish 36th overall for an All-American finish in 29:33.3. Kent stayed on Vancil's heels for the race, passing 33 runners after coming through the 3,000 mark in 76th. Kent was just off an All-American finish, placing 43rd overall in 29:37.8.

Making up the most positions was Seth Hirsch. After the first kilometer Hirsch was 205th, then moved up to 126th at the halfway mark before passing nearly 60 runners on his way to 68th overall in 29:53.4. Charlie Sweeney finished right behind Hirsch in 69th overall with a time of 29:53.8. Brendan Fraser closed out the scoring five with a 86th place finish in 30:06.9.

Also for the Buffs, James Overberg finished 111th in 30:20.4 followed closely by Hunter Appleton in 115th running 30:21.2.

"The men did exactly what we hoped," said Wetmore. "Out carefully, moving up steadily throughout the race as a team in team standings. At one point early they were 22nd, and then they were 20, then 17, 13 and kept moving up. I can't fault them. Right now they're saying gee, we maybe we should have been out harder but they did what the coaches asked of them and they all moved up well. Great race for Austin, All-American, very proud of him. Andy just missed and then the next three guys all did their jobs, Seth, Chuck Sweeney had his best race for us, Brendan did well. Even our six and seventh were far better than anybody would guess. So at least a B+ for the day in my opinion."

The seventh ranked Buffs finished one spot lower than their rankings, upsetting No.5 Tulsa in the process. No.2 Northern Arizona and host school No.4 Oklahoma State tied at the top with 83 points, with the title going to NAU with three of the five tiebreakers. This was the third major tie at the top this season after NC State and the New Mexico women finished tied at Nuttycombe, CU earning the tiebreaker at the Pac-12 Championships over the Utah women and finally the men's team title coming down to a tiebreaker.

RESULTS:
Women's Team Results: 1. NC State 114; 2. New Mexico 140; 3. Alabama 166; 4. Oklahoma State 201; 5. North Carolina 242; 6. NAU 257; 7. Notre Dame 261; 8. BYU 263; 9. Virginia 268; 10. Georgetown 271; 11. Colorado 286; 12. Utah 307; 13. Stanford 371; 14. Oregon 390; 15. Ohio State 467; 16. Providence 468; 17. Washington 470; 18. Florida State 471; 19. Wisconsin 494; 20. Michigan State 497; 21. Arkansas 507; 22. Michigan 534; 23. Syracuse 544; 24. Oregon State 544; 25. Colorado State 548; 26. Utah Valley 548; 27. West Virginia 562; 28. Toledo 654; 29. CBU 659; 30. Northwestern 714; 31. Texas 983

Women's Individual Results: 1. Katelyn Tuohy (NC State) 19:27.7; 2. Parker Valby (Florida) 19:30.9; 3. Kelsey Chmiel (NC State) 19:37.1; 4. Elise Stearns (NAU) 19:43.9; 5. Bailey Hertenstein (COLO) 19:45.1; 6. Hilda Olemomoi (ALA) 19:45.6; 7. Natalie Cook (Okla. St.) 19:46.3; 8. Olivia Markezich (ND) 19:46.4; 9. Amaris Tyynismaa (ALA) 19:48.2; 10. Addie Engel (OSU) 19:50.4

OTHER CU RESULTS: 30. Ella Baran 20:09.2; 78. Gabrielle Orie 20:29.0; 105. Emily Covert 20:39.0; 129. Kaitlyn Barthell 20:47.6; 228. Alisa Meraz-Fishbein 21:44.8; 234. Whitney Valenti 21:52.0

Men's Team Results: 1. NAU 83; 2. Oklahoma State 83; 3. BYU 132; 4. Stanford 195; 5. Wake Forest 204; 6. Wisconsin 212; 7. Air Force 264; 8. Colorado 281; 9. Tulsa 304; 10. North Carolina 323; 11. NC State 334; 12. Syracuse 340; 13. Gonzaga 400; 14. Washington 422; 15. Notre Dame 450; 16. Oregon 465; 17. Harvard 474; 18. Texas 506; 19. Villanova 513; 20. Tennessee 517; 21. Butler 553; 22. Virginia 557; 23. Arkansas 584; 24. Ole Miss 598; 25. Montana State 599; 26. Utah State 618; 27. Alabama 683; 28. CSU 704; 29. Michigan 708; 30. Princeton 712; 31. Georgetown 752

CU RESULTS: 36. Austin Vancil 29:33.3; 43. Andrew Kent 29:37.8; 68. Seth Hirsch 29:53.4; 69. Charlie Sweeney 29:53.8; 86. Brendan Fraser 30:06.9; 111. James Overberg 30:20.4; 115. Hunter Appleton 30:21.2
"
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Full results:
Women's - https://okstate.com/documents/2022/11/19/Womens_Results.pdf
Men's - https://okstate.com/documents/2022/11/19/Mens_Results.pdf