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NCAA Championships thread (Winter 2021) - Cross Country (Stillwater, OK; Monday, May 15th; coverage begins 10:30 AM MT, ESPNU)

AztecBuff

AztecBuff

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The NCAA Cross Country Championships are, hopefully***, next up for both of the Buffs' cross country (XC) teams, with the selection show scheduled for this Sunday (March 7th), starting at 11:00 PM MT on ESPNU. (For those with the proper subscription, assume they can also be streamed at https://www.espn.com/watch/.)

(***I know next to nothing, but must say I'm (just) a little nervous, although I HOPE with the Buffs ranked as they are in the last pre-championships poll of the season (see below tweet), both will be selected. This is the 1st time a selection committee will be used for XC (at least for the many years I've been following) instead of the normal mathematical points (KOLAS) system. And, with are only 31 teams per gender selected, there aren't as many bids out there as in the team sports most of us are more familiar with. (The selection criteria for this weird pandemic season is summarized at https://www.ncaa.org/about/resource...-2020-di-cross-country-championships-approved))

The Championships themselves are scheduled to have coverage, also on ESPNU, beginning at 10:30 AM on Monday, March 15th. Oklahoma State is scheduled to host, with the races run at the "OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma". (I'll add more info on the Championships themselves once the selection show is over.)


__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Some initial links:

NCAA Championships' home page - https://www.ncaa.com/live-updates/c...ry-championship-selection-show-scores-updates

Championships' selection criteria - https://www.ncaa.org/about/resource...-2020-di-cross-country-championships-approved
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Final Championships' links:

Live Video - (Quoting Host OSU's preview article (https://okstate.com/news/2021/3/10/...for-first-ever-ncaa-championship-as-host.aspx).) - "Live championship coverage will be available on ESPNU and the ESPN App beginning at 11:30 a.m. CT. The broadcast will be available at this link: https://es.pn/3chO8oc ."

Live timing and scoring - https://live.pttiming.com/XC-PTT.html?mid=2124
 
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Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/3/7/cu-cross-country-teams-qualify-for-ncaa-championships.aspx

"
INDIANAPOLIS — The University of Colorado has qualified both men's and women's cross country teams for the 2020 NCAA Championships, the NCAA announced Sunday afternoon.

The championship will be held Monday, March 15, in Stillwater, Okla., at OSU Cross Country Couse.

This is the 29th straight trip to nationals for the eighth-rated CU men, which is the longest active streak in the NCAA. The sixth-ranked women will be making their 12th consecutive trip to NCAAs and have only missed the championship one time in the last 29 years.

In total, 255 men and 255 women (31 teams and 38 individuals per gender) have been selected to race at nationals. ESPNU will broadcast the event live with coverage beginning at 10:30 a.m. MT. The women are set to begin their 6-kilometer run at 10:50 a.m. MT, while the men's 10k will follow at approximately 11:40 a.m. MT.

Teams will have a travel party size of 12 people and can invite a total of 24 guests, while individuals who qualify for the championships will have a travel party size of three people and can invite a total of six guests. There will be no public ticket sales for the event.
"
 
With the Championships now less than 2 days away, I've updated the OP to include (near the bottom) live video (streaming via ESPN app for anyone who can't watch on TV on ESPNU for those with a proper subscription) and live timing/ scoring links.
 
Preview now out for tomorrow's scheduled Championships -



Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/3/14/ncaa-cross-country-championships-monday.aspx

"
BOULDER — Colorado Head Cross Country Coach Mark Wetmore has been bringing his teams to the NCAA meet since he took over the reins on November 6, 1995.

A few weeks later, his women's team finished as the runner-up, while the men placed fourth. Fast-forward to March 2021. After a season unlike one before that saw half of the nation run in the fall, while the other half, including CU and the rest of the Pac-12, began racing after the calendar switched to the year 2021. Yet still, this is the 2020 NCAA Cross Country Championship and Wetmore is returning to nationals with both the men's and women's teams, his 49th and 50th teams to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

While Wetmore has been a constant at these championships, this year the races will be held on the OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma for the first time in NCAA history as the Cowboys of Oklahoma State host the meet on March 15. In accordance with COVID-19 protocols, spectators will not be permitted to attend the NCAA Cross Country Championships

"Stillwater has a beautiful, purposeful, built course; hilly, difficult," Wetmore said. "Good for us, particularly if the weather forecasted for Boulder works its way to Stillwater by Monday."

The women's race will be first and like they do all season, they will run a 6-kilometer course. The gun will sound at 10:50 a.m. MT. The men will follow with a 10k race, moving up from their 8k run, with an 11:40 a.m. MT start. Both races will be televised live on ESPNU and the ESPN App with coverage beginning at 10:30 a.m.

The Buffaloes are also known as being a top-10 program and this year is no different. The women enter nationals as the No. 6 team in the USTFCCCA Poll, while the men are ranked eighth.

"We're going into the NCAAs ranked eighth for the men and sixth for the women and honestly those are pretty optimistic rankings for us," Wetmore said. "We'll have to run well to equal those. I like to go the NCAA and outrun our ranking but those are pretty fair."
...

The forecast for March 15 in Stillwater, Okla., is currently mostly sunny with a high of 63 degrees. But before race day, there is heavy rain/thunderstorms predicted for Saturday and Sunday.

2020 NCAA DIVISION I CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP
Monday, March 15
Stillwater, Okla. (OSU Cross Country Course)
10:50 a.m. (MT) - Women's 6k Race
11:40 a.m. (MT) - Men's 10k Race
TV: ESPNU
APP: ESPN APP
Link: https://es.pn/3chO8oc
Results: https://live.pttiming.com/XC-PTT.html?mid=2124
"
 
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The Buffs in 9th at the half way point, but there are still many packs in the race, so points will still fluctuate greatly before fhe finish..

A group of 20 or so have broken away, and there are no Buffs in that group, so as expected I wouldn't think any Buff will be competing for the individual crown. (One thing that could limit the Buff's chance of a better finish is it looks like, at least at this point, their top runner all season is farther back, so may be having an off day.)
 
The Buffs up one place to 8th at 4K, although it's still very close (They're only one point out of 7th, and three points out of 9th.)
 
All the runners are in, but the live results have stopped after the top 20 or so, and then vanished all together.

Before they vanished, I do think it's safe to say congrats to Buff transfer Abby Nichols, as she is showing in 18th finishing in the 20's, so has earned All-American honors (automatically awarded to the top 40 finishes of the Championships)!
 
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Still very unofficial, but per the compiled results, the Buffs finished right around their #6 ranking by finishing in 7th. (The Buff's top runner all season ended up the last Buff finisher near the middle-back of the pack. Hope she is OK, can recover quickly if it just "wasn't her day", and have a great outdoor track season.)



Congrats to BYU for what turned out to be a pretty easy win with 96 points, with NC State in 2nd with 161 points. Conference- mate Stanford also gets a podium spot finishing 3rd, as does Michigan State in 4th.
 
Now it's time for the men, with the scheduled start around 6 minutes away.

Final women's team results:
NCAA cross country Championships_2021_women final team scores.png
 
And the men are off!

(Re weather, the course is dry, so footing shouldn't be much of an issue. Temperature at the start of this race is 61 degrees per the announcers. One "fun" thing for the runners is the announcers have said the wind has picked up (to 20 MPH or so).
 
Early on, at the 2K split, a runner from Iowa State (who won the 5000M title at the NCAA Championships just a few days ago), has already broken out a little ahead (maybe 30 yards or so), with only one BYU going with him.

The Buffs are back in 16th as a team, but there's obviously a LOT of running left.
 
The race is now over, and the Buff men finish in 14th. In what unfortunately was a theme for the day, the top male runner all year, like for the women, had an off-day, and was "only" the 4th Buff finisher after probably having individual podium, or at minimum top 10, aspirations.. Hope he is OK, and comes back STRONG for outdoor track.

Overall, congrats to NAU, who wins their 4th championship in 5th years. The big surprise in the race is probably that co-favorite and defending champion BYU only finished 7th (although they did get the individual winner). After NAU, Notre Dame, host Oklahoma State and Arkansas rounded out the podium places.

Full men's team results -
NCAA cross country Championships_2021_mens final team scores.png
 
Article after today's races. (With an exception or two on the women's side, Coach Wetmore didn't sound ecstatic with the results. I always have to put this in context of how, for pretty much every sport other than maybe skiing, a top 7 (women) or 14 (men) NCAA Championship finish would, realistically, be considered a GREAT season for any other Buff team.) -


Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/3/15/...of-top-15-finishes-at-ncaa-championships.aspx

"
STILLWATER, Okla. —Abby Nichols led the Colorado women's team to a seventh-place team finish at the 2020 NCAA Cross Country Championships Monday, recording her first All-American honor in cross country in the process.

Nichols, a graduate transfer from Ohio State, finished 18th overall, improving from 41st at the 2019 championship when she raced as a member of Buckeyes' cross country team.

The men's team also ran at the OSU Cross Country Course and finished 14th overall. Alec Hornecker was the top male, finishing the 10k 59th overall.

WOMEN'S RACE
The women's 6-kilometer race was run as a tight pack. Through the first kilometer, Nichols was only 2.2 seconds back from the leader, coming through at 3:07.3, which was 60th place. Because of the close pack, she moved down to 82nd at the next split (2k), but again, was not far off the pace.
...

"She absolutely had another good day," head coach Mark Wetmore said. "This is her best race of the year and her best race wearing our uniform. She has gotten better every race. She certainly was a highlight. She was an All-American and in the top-20. It was a very nice run for her."
...

"The women weren't wonderful," Wetmore said. "We had one or two highlights, but for the most part, it was not an excellent race. The NCAA is an opportunity to beat people who aren't having excellent races and that is how we ended up seventh. We were a little off our game compared to a lot of other teams. We could have run a lot better. Some people didn't seem ready today."
...

MEN'S RACE
Like the women, the men were the second-highest finishing Pac-12 Conference team behind Stanford, which placed fifth with 194 points. The Buffaloes entered the championships ranked eighth, but did not fare as well as their ranking. They recorded 398 points to finish 14th. The next best Pac-12 team was Washington, which finished 25th.

Northern Arizona entered the race second and won with 60 points, defeating No. 9 Notre Dame (87).

"For the men, there were very few highlights," said Wetmore. "If seven racers have seven bad races, it has to be on me. In some way, I didn't have them ready. I'm not sure how. We will have to go back to the drawing board in a day, look at what we did and figure out what we did wrong."
...

2020 NCAA DIVISION I CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP
Stillwater, Okla. (OSU Cross Country Course)
Women's Team Standings—1. BYU 96; 2. NC State 161; 3. Stanford 207; 4. Michigan State 212; 5. Minnesota 239; 6. New Mexico 274; 7. Colorado 279; 8. Alabama 280; 9. Boise State 304; 10. Arkansas 316; 11. Northern Arizona 318; 12. Mississippi 325; 13. Washington 330; 14. North Carolina 353; 15. Florida State 363; 16. Oregon State 375; 17. Michigan 400; 18. Georgetown 494; 19. Indiana 494; 20. Georgia Tech 508; 21. Illinois 521; 22. Portland 523; 23. Colorado State 533; 24. Oklahoma 536; 25. Iowa State 580; 26. Liberty 611; 27. Duke 624; 28. Tulsa 650; 29. West Virginia 668; 30. San Francisco 688; 31. Furman 761.
...

Men's Team Standings—1. Northern Arizona 60; 2. Notre Dame 87; 3. Oklahoma State 142; 4. Arkansas 181; 5. Stanford 194; 6. Tulsa 237; 7. BYU 254; 8. Iowa State 265; 9. Southern Utah 270; 10. Iona 311; 11. Utah State 351; 12. Mississippi 373; 13. Butler 379; 14. Colorado 398; 15. Wake Forest 425; 16. Duke 462; 17. Michigan State 463; 18. Wisconsin 464; 19. Air Force 464; 20. Villanova, 468; 21. Portland 472; 22. 22. Georgetown 528; 23. NC State 547; 24. Furman 560; 25. Washington 568; 26. Indiana 572; 27. Gonzaga 594; 28. Charlotte 634; 29. Purdue 741; 30. Syracuse 761.
...
"
 
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