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NCAA Championships thread (Fall 2021) - CROSS COUNTRY (Tallahassee, FL; Saturday, 11/20; ESPNU; Women finish 4th; men 8th)

AztecBuff

AztecBuff

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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 3rd and the men 5th in the latest rankings, I assume both teams are looking for top finishes FAR better than near 31th.)

Now, it's the BIG races, as the teams will be heading off to Tallahassee Florida in a few days to compete at the NCAA Championships (at Apalachee Regional Park) 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, promised to be ad free, is scheduled to be on ESPNU beginning at 8:00 AM MT.

Congrats and best wishes to the teams!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Some prelim Championships links with detailed info -

Host (FSU's) home meet info page (with course maps, home meet guide, etc.) - https://seminoles.com/cross-country-links/

NCAA's Championships homepages- https://www.ncaa.com/live-updates/c...ountry-championships-schedule-times-how-watch

NCAA release with lists of all the teams and individuals selected to compete at the Championships - https://www.ncaa.com/news/cross-cou...-womens-cross-country-championship-qualifiers
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MAIN Championships' links:

Live Video - (Quoting a Coaches' Association (USTFCCCA) webpage.) - "You can watch ALL of the action from Apalachee Regional Park next Saturday LIVE on ESPNU & the ESPN App beginning at 10 am ET. And when we say ALL of the action, we mean ALL of the action – both championship races will be shown COMMERCIAL-FREE." For those who have an ESPNU subcription but prefer to watch on their computers, looks like the link to watch is https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/b6702234-5a08-4e0b-b46c-b0ac84106f3d

Live timing and scoring - https://live.pttiming.com/XC-PTT.html?mid=2431
 
A few things recently released by CU regarding XC-

Teams' final rankings heading into the Championships -




Article on one of the newer Buffs, grad transfer (from Michigan State) India Johnson -




Interview with Coach Wetmore, as well as a short featured interview with freshman Hannah Minuitti -

 
Noticed the timing site linked to near the bottom of the original post above already has initial rosters from which coaches will choose the final 7 for each gender to race on Saturday. For the Buffs, those initial rosters (consisting of 10 women and 12 men) are (just copied and pasted from the timing website):

Women:

Kaitlyn Barthell [JR]​

Arcadia, Okla.

Madison Boreman [SR]​

Round Rock, Texas

Elizabeth Constien [SO]​

Edwards, Colo.

Emily Covert [FR]​

Minneapolis, Minn.

Micaela Degenero [SR]​

Granville, Ohio

Annie Hill [SO]​

Kalispell, Mont.

India Johnson [SR]​

Rachel McArthur [SR]​

Bristow, Va.

Hannah Miniutti [FR]​

Abby Nichols [SR]​

Kettering, Ohio
______________________________________________________________________

Men:

Hunter Appleton [FR]​

New Orleans, La.

Brendan Fraser [JR]​

Eduardo Herrera [SR]​

Madera, Calif.

Noah Hibbard [FR]​

Arcadia, Calif.

Alec Hornecker [SR]​

Golden, Colo.

Stephen Jones [SR]​

Andrew Kent [SR]​

Ethan Powell [JR]​

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Paxton Smith [SR]​

Highlands Ranch, Colo.

Charlie Sweeney [JR]​

Josh Torres [SO]​

Greeley, Colo.

Austin Vancil [SO]​

Morrison, Colo.
 
Cubuffs preview is now out -




Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/11/17...caa-cross-country-championships-saturday.aspx

"
BOULDER — For the 13th consecutive year, the University of Colorado is sending its third-ranked women and No. 5 men's teams to the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

For the first time in championships history, the event will take place in the state of Florida as Florida State will host the meet at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Fla.

"It's a good course," head coach Mark Wetmore said. "It's not entirely flat. It has some character to it. It disappears into the woods for a nerve-wracking few minutes per loop. The women run two loops and the men run three or four, but it is fair."

This is the 29th time in 30 years the CU women have qualified for the championship, while the men have advanced to the championship in each of the last 30 years.

The Colorado women have had a very good season, earning three impressive wins. One of those was a dominating performance at the Pac-12 Championship where they recorded 24 points, the fifth-lowest score in conference history, to soundly defeat the runner-up, Utah, which scored 52 points. The third-place finisher, Oregon, had 92 points. The Buffaloes also recorded a 54-149 win at NCAA Pre-Nationals over Utah in Tallahassee, Fla, the site of NCAAs, and won the Cowboy Jamboree, 30-33, over Oklahoma State.
...

"This is a very good women's team, amongst the best we've ever had here," Wetmore said. "They are probably in the top three or four of the country. NC State is very good, New Mexico is very good, BYU is very good and there are always sleeper teams. Our goal at the beginning of the year is to get on the team with both teams, and that is in reach."

The men have also had a season to remember. They started the season with a third-place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree and then placed second at pre-nationals behind Northern Arizona. Each week the Buffaloes saw improvement in the national rankings as well and their highest ranking this season, second, came after winning the Pac-12 Championship on October 29. It was the eighth time since 2011 and the second time in three years that Colorado won the conference title. The Buffs defeated Stanford, 39-52, and placed all five of their scores in the top 12.
...

"Northern Arizona is very good," Wetmore said about the competition. "BYU beat them last weekend, I'm not sure how hard everyone was trying [at regionals]. Notre Dame, which was second last year, is coming on strong. Oklahoma State is very good. Really there are five or six very, very good teams. We could be very high up in it, but if we stumble a little bit, we could be fifth or sixth."

The women's 6-kilometer race will start at 8:20 a.m. MST with the men's 10k race following at 9:10 a.m. An awards ceremony will take place following the men's race. ESPNU will broadcast the event live and without commercial interruption of the races, starting at 8 a.m. The two-hour event will also be available through the ESPN App. The championships telecast, produced by the USTFCCCA in coordination with TrackTown Productions, will be hosted by SportsCenter's John Anderson with Carrie Tollefson and Bill Spaulding providing analysis and play-by-play.

The post-championships awards ceremony will also be streamed live on ESPN3 and through the ESPN App on mobile and connected devices.

Live results will be available at NCAA.com or by clicking this link.

2021 NCAA DIVISION I CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday, November 20
Tallahassee, Fla. (Apalachee Regional Park)
8:20 a.m. (MT) - Women's 6k Race
9:20 a.m. (MT) - Men's 10k Race
TV: ESPN
Stream: ESPN App
Results: NCAA.com
"

"
 
About 10 minutes until the women start. Good to see it looks like the runners I would have GUESSED to get the start today are healthy and going today.

 
Still a big pack at the 1st (1170M) checkpoint, and the Buffs are in 8th. Doesn't mean much if anything this early.
 
Still a big group at 2K. Looks like the Buffs are doing their usual slower (than most) start, as they show in 9th overall.
 
The Buffs (who are in white tops with black shorts today) are up to 4th at the halfway point. Pack is starting to break out (although not any HUGE gaps), and 2 Buffs are in the top 10 or so.
 
The Buffs still in 4th at 4K. So far. Looking very good for #1 NC State, as they have an ~65 point lead over 2nd place BYU. (One nice thing for the Buffs' podium hopes. Their 7th runner is the best placed among any of the teams, so, if any of the top 5 have a tough end to the race, the Buffs hopefully won't lose too many points.)
 
With only 1K to go, the Buffs are still in 4th. They did show the most point improvement among the top teams, so hopefully maybe they can catch one or two teams (although teams like Stanford are not that far behind either, so could snag a podium spot).
 
Unofficially, looking like the Buffs are a podium team with a 4th place finish in the nation.

Congrats to the team!
 
Individually, the Buffs have 2 All-Americans, with grad student Abby Nichols finishing top 10 in 8th, and sophomore (although listed as a freshman in the results) Emily Covert in 31st.

Congrats to them (and all the team who I assume ran HARD).
 
The Buffs in 6th at the 1st (1170M) split. As with the women, largely still one pack, so it doesn't mean much.
 
Buffs tied for 3rd still very early (at the 2K point). (The difference from the 1st to 7th Buffs is only ~8-9 seconds.)
 
With the top 7 teams still pretty close together (although favorite NAU has bone up 46 points), the Buffs are showing in 3rd at the 4K mark.
 
The Buffs just fall back to 4th (by 3 points) at the halfway (5K) mark. In a good sign for depth, the Buffs' 6th place runner is only 4 spots behind their 5th.
 
The Buffs still in 5th at 8K, but did lose 20 points overall from 7K.

Favorite NAU looks in good shape to continue their dynasty, up by ~60 points.
 
Still very close for the 4th place spot, but the Buffs lost some more ground and are in 6th at the final (9K) checkpoint.
 
Unofficially, the Buffs showing up in 8th; another top 10 finish for the team.

May not be quite as high as they'd ideally have wanted to end, but finishing 8th would be a dream for any other sport except skiing (which faces a much more limited field(.

Congrats to the team!
 
Boy this can be a humbling sport. Believe a defending NCAA track and field champion and one of the pre-race favorites, Oregon's Cooper Teare, "hits the wall" (maybe leg cramps?) with only 20-50 or so yards left, and it takes him "for ever" to finish. (Overall, he shows finishing in 247th out of 250 runners when he was in 22nd as late as 7K and was still showing in 40th at 9K.)
 
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Congrats to Buff senior Eduardo Herrera, who finishes in 24th and earns All-American status! (Fellow Buff Andrew Kent just misses out in that honor by finishing 45th, only 3-4 seconds behind the 40th (last All-American) position.)

As I intimated might be the case based on some of the checkpoint results, it ended up very close around where the Buffs finished in 8th. 5th place Stanford was only 13 points better than the Buffs.




 
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Not that it matters at all, but I always have fun combining the men's and women's finishes, and seeing how they'd "finish" combined against the other schools. This year, a QUICK look makes it look to me like the Buffs finished tied for 3rd in that simple calculation, with their 12 points (women 4th and men 8th) even with Arkansas, and behind only BYU (9 points with women 2nd and men 7th) and Stanford (11 points with women 6th and men 5th).

If I instead use total points scored (so 187 for the women and 249 for the men for a total of 436), then I believe (without calculating every team) the Buffs move up to 2nd, behind only BYU. (Note that 2 of the 3 women's teams that finished ahead of the Buff women (New Mexico and NC State) didn't even qualify men's teams for the Championships, so I didn't consider them in the calculation.)
 
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Article after today's Championships-




Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/11/20/cross-country-women-place-fourth-at-ncaa-championships.aspx

"
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Colorado's women recorded their fifth podium finish in seven years at the NCAA Cross Country Championships with a fourth-place finish on Saturday morning at Apalachee Regional Park.

Abby Nichols led the Buffaloes for the second straight year with an eighth-place finish to record her second consecutive All-America honor in as many years. Teammate Emily Covert finished 31st overall and was also awarded All-America honors.

On the men's side, the Buffaloes recorded an eighth-place finish and were led by Eduardo Herrera. Herrera finished 24th overall, earning his second All-America award.

WOMEN'S RACE
The women entered the race ranked third, but the top four teams in the rankings were not separated by much, meaning it would be a close race. NC State won the 6-kilometer race with 84 points, besting No. 4 BYU which had recorded 122 points. Third-place went to New Mexico, which entered the championship ranked second. The Lobos earned 130 points to finish ahead of Colorado's 187 points. No. 10 Notre Dame ended up fifth overall with 215 points.

"The women finished about where I expected them to finish," coach Mark Wetmore said. "I knew that NC State and New Mexico have been very good. BYU has been good all season. I thought we were a solid fourth. Our women ran well. Of course every year there's always someone that runs a little bit of an off race and other people that rise up. After it all added up we were about where I thought we'd be and I'm happy for them."
...

BYU's Whittni Orton won the individual title in 19:25.4, defeating Alabama's Mercy Chelangat who crossed the finish in 19:29.3.

MEN'S RACE
The men's field was also stacked in the 10k race. The Buffs went in ranked fifth and despite finishing eighth, were not far from fifth.

Preseason favorite Northern Arizona won with 92 points, while No. 6 Iowa State was second (137). Third-ranked Oklahoma State placed third (186) and No. 9 Arkansas took fourth (195).

The next four places were separated by 13 points. No. 7 Stanford placed fifth with 236 points, edging 10th-ranked Tulsa by one point (237), while second-ranked BYU was seventh with 246 points, just three more than the Buffs' 249.

"I've known that there were at least two other very good teams and then a big pack of teams that would exchange third through ninth," Wetmore said. "Unfortunately we were at the back of that pack. I thought we would be fifth and we were only 13 points away from fifth. It's just a matter of two points per guy. They weren't terrible, it's just a bad year to be C+ because there are too many good teams out there."
...
"
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Full results:
Women's - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2021/11/20/11_20_21_NCAAXC_WomensResults.pdf
Men's - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2021/11/20/11_20_21_NCAAXC_MensResults.pdf
 
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