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Pac 12 Championships thread (Winter 2021) - Cross country (University Place, Washington, 3/5/21, 12:00 PM MT, Pac 12 Networks)

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After a minimal regular season, the post-season begins for the cross country teams, as they're scheduled to toe the starting line this Friday at the Pac 12 Championships, hosted by Washington this year.

All channels of the Pac 12 Networks is scheduled to show this, with coverage starting at noon MT, a little before the women's 6K race scheduled start at 12:10 PM MT. This is then followed by the men's 10K an hour later at 1:10 PM MT.

In addition to the usual GREAT importance the teams seem to place on these Championships due to "conference pride", and how great the conference is in this sport, this year's races figure to also have more importance than ever for qualifying for the NCAA Championships, as (1) there have been less races this year, both in total and against other national powerhouses and (2) the teams are being selected by a committee rather than the usual mathematical points (KOLAS) system.

As also noted below, in the national coaches' poll released earlier this week, the women are now ranked #6 in the country (vs. #5 in the previous poll), while the men moved up one (from #10 to #9).

Go Buffs!!!

Preview-


Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/3/3/buffs-ready-for-pac-12-cross-country-championships.aspx

"
BOULDER — After two regular season meets, the postseason will begin quickly for the Colorado cross country teams with the Pac-12 Conference Championships this Friday, March 5, at Chambers Creek Park in University Place, Wash.

Washington is the host for this year's conference meet, The women will race first, kicking off the event with a 6-kilometer run at 12:10 p.m. MT. The men's 8k run will follow at 1:10 p.m. MT. Both races will be followed by a short awards ceremony.

For the fourth straight season, Pac-12 Network will broadcast the championships live. Jim Watson will serve as the play-by-play announcer and Tom Feuer will provide the color.

The Buffs have done well at the conference championship meet in the past and look to continue that tradition. The men enter as the defending champion, but only two runners who scored on that team in 2019 are racing on Friday, so it's a very different team this season.
...

The men's team enters the championship ranked ninth and is the third highest-ranked Pac-12 team in the USTFCCCA Coaches Poll. Stanford is the highest at fourth, while Washington is eighth. The only other conference team ranked in the national poll is Oregon, coming in at 12th. In the nine-year history of the Pac-12 Championship, only two teams have won the team title: Colorado (7) and Stanford (2).

So far this season, the men have recorded a third-place finish at the FSU Winter Classic (after the tie-breaker with Iowa State) and a third-place finish at the Battle Born Collegiate Challenge.

The women were fourth in 2019 at Pac-12, but this season they are very experienced and looking to finish higher. Like the men, the roster looks different, but with a twist. Colorado added a pair of graduate transfers in the offseason, giving the Buffs some extra experience. Micaela Degenero raced at Michigan, while Abby Nichols ran at Ohio State.
...

The CU women enter the meet ranked sixth in the latest USTFCCCA poll, which is behind No. 5 Stanford. Behind those two are No. 12 Washington and No. 24 Oregon State, while Oregon and Utah are both receiving votes. CU has won the most team titles in the field with four, while Oregon has won three. Stanford and Arizona have each won one.

Following the conference championships, the NCAA will announce the field for the NCAA Championships on Saturday, March 6. The championship will follow on Monday, March 15, in Stillwater, Okla. Due to the split season, there will not be a regional championship, so the only way to advance to the NCAA Championship is through the selection process.

RESULTS: Live results will be available at https://live.pntfo.com/meets/6886 and final results will be posted at CUBuffs.com.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Fans can follow @CUBuffsTrack on Twitter for in-race updates. The official hashtag of the meet is #Pac12XC.

2020 PAC-12 CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Friday, March 5, 2021
Chambers Creek Park (University Park, Wash.)

11:55 a.m. - Called to Start – Women
12:10 p.m. - Women's 6000m Championship Race
12:50 p.m. - Women's Awards Ceremony
12:55 p.m. - Called to Start –Men
1:10 p.m. - Men's 8000m Championship Race
1:50 p.m. - Men's Awards Ceremony

USTFCCCA POLLS: The latest edition of the USTFCCCA Division I Coaches Poll was released on Wednesday, March 3, and both of Colorado's cross country teams were ranked in the top-10.

The women moved down one spot from fifth to sixth, switching positions with conference foe Stanford. CU recorded 264 points in the poll, while Stanford received 280. Arkansas and BYU held down the top two spots, respectively, while New Mexico moved up one to third and NC State dropped one to fourth. In the regional rankings, CU is fourth.

On the men's side, CU moved up one to ninth with 231 points. BYU, Northern Arizona and Arkansas stayed put at first, second and third, respectively, while Stanford moved up to fourth, dropping Tulsa down to fifth. Oklahoma State is currently sixth, Iowa State is seventh and Washington is eighth. The Buffaloes are third in the regional rankings.

Full polls are available at USTFCCCA.org.
"
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Media links:

Live video
- The Championships are being shown live on all Pac 12 channels. For those whose Cable/ Satellite/ Cord Cutting subscription includes access to any of those Pac 12 channels, assume they can also be streamed through a link at https://pac-12.com/cross-country/event/2021/03/05/pac-12-womens-cross-country-championship .

Live results/ timing - https://live.pntfo.com/meets/6886

Championships Notes - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2021/3/3/2020_Pac_12_Notes.pdf
 
The telecast has begun, and less than 10 minutes until the start of the women's race!

It's in the Seattle/ Tacoma area, so of course it looks like a rainy day. Hope everyone keeps their footing,
 
Unofficially, looking like a solid 2nd place finish for the women, with the Cardinal at 30 points, Buffs 50 and host Washington at 85. Great to see senior Rachel McArthur, who was held out of the last Buff race due to a (what sounded like a relative minor) injury, was able to race today, and paced the Buffs with her 5th place finish.

Given the rankings and the rankings of the top competitors, I would have to think the Buffs have easily proven they belong at the NCAA Championships, although with the Stanford win, CU will need to be selected as an at-large.

(In a rarity in the individual race, a pretty major underdog with the Dawgs was let go to build a pretty big (20-30 second) lead from early in the race, and she was actually able to hold off the top (and race favorite) Stanford athlete to get the win.)
 
And now the men's telecast is beginning. ~9 minutes left until the scheduled start to the race.
 
BIG congrats to senior Eduardo Herrara, as he becomes the 2nd Buff in a row to win the individual championship!!!

Unofficially, in the team race, it's a repeat podium to the women's race, as Stanford dominates with all 5 of their scorers finishing in the top 9 for a total of 28 points. The #9 Buffs pull the minor upset as they finish 2nd (60 points) ahead of the #8 ranked and host Huskies (66 points).



 
Article after today's Championships-


Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/3/5/c...dual-crown-cu-men-and-women-place-second.aspx

"
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Colorado senior Eduardo Herrera entered the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships on Friday as one of the favorites and did not disappoint, winning his first individual conference title in 22 minutes, 30.9 seconds on the 8-kilometer course at Chambers Creek Park.

"This is annually one of the best, if not the best, cross country conference in the country," head coach Mark Wetmore said. "It's hard to win as a team and it's hard to win it as an individual. I think we had a long dry spell before (Joe) Klecker won a year ago. So to have Lalo win it this year is rewarding. He had the best training of his life since we all got shut down in March. He did very good work alone, which distance winners have to do and it paid off today."
...

THE MEN'S RACE: Technically on paper, the Buffs finished ahead of where they were projected as Washington was ranked eighth, one position ahead of No. 9 CU. The Buffs edged the Huskies 60-66, moving up in the final 2k of the race for the finish.

Herrera was the star of the day, picking up the individual title and making it look easy while doing it. Colorado's other senior, Alec Hornecker, recorded an 11th-place finish (23:04.9).

Austin Vancil was third for the team, finishing 13th overall in 23:15.3, which was a nice improvement from his 38th-place finish in 2019. Ethan Powell, a transfer from Kansas State, also turned in a top-20 finish, placing 16th in 23:23.0. Rounding out the score for CU was Hunter Appleton's 19th-place finish (23:30.8).
...

THE WOMEN'S RACE: Like the men, the women finished exactly where they were projected to on paper. Stanford put four in the top 10 and had its final scorer place 12th overall to record 20 points. The Buffs also did well, placing three in the top-10 and all five of its scorers in the top 20 for 50 points. It was a tight race between the Cardinal and Buffaloes the entire way, but in the end, the scale tipped in favor of Stanford.

Washington, the third-highest ranked team in the polls at 12th, finished third with 85 points and Oregon State, which is 24th in the national rankings, was fourth with 100 points.

Leading the way for the women was senior Rachel McArthur, who ended up fifth in 19:22.10 on the 6-kilometer course. While Washington's Haley Herberg ran away from the field from the start and would go on to win in 19:02.50, the chase pack stayed back and McArthur stayed back with that group until a few pulled away to try to reel in Herberg.

McArthur did make some moves but never seemed to get too far away from fifth in the standings. She crossed the finish 0.2 seconds behind Stanford's Julia Heymach but had over 11 seconds on the sixth-place finisher, Poppy Tank (Utah), who ran 19:33.80. The finish was an improvement of 13 spots from 2019 for McArthur.

"Rachel's disappointed," Wetmore said. "I'm not, but she wants to win races. She doesn't want to be fifth and she doesn't want to be 20 or 25 seconds behind. I admire that in her.

Second for CU was Abby Nichols, who clocked in at 19:40.30 for eighth to tie her best finish of the season as she was eight at the Battle Born Collegiate Challenge. The other top-10 finisher for CU was Madie Boreman, who placed 10th in 19:48.60. Her finish was a 21-place improvement from 2019.

Micaela Degenero was right behind Boreman, finishing 11th in 19:50.20 and Emily Covert was 16th to round out CU's score (20:01.50). Although she did not score, Elizabeth Constien turned in her best Pac-12 performance. She moved up from 64th in 2019 to 18th, finishing in 20:04.90.


"The women's team ran pretty well for where we are," said Wetmore. "I'll give them a good grade for today, particularly where we were back in October. We were in big trouble last October when we took a look at ourselves down in Oklahoma. They made a lot of progress. They still have a lot of room to go. Stanford beat them soundly today. Stanford was better. We can make some steps in 10 days at the NCAA, but we have to make big steps by six months from now."
...

PAC-12 NOTES: Since joining the Pac-12 Conference, CU has won at least one team or one individual title in the last 10 years…CU has won 11 of 20 team cross country team championships since joining the Pac-12 in 2011…The Buffs have also won four individual titles, all in the last four years…Dani Jones won back-to-back women's titles (2017-18), while Joe Klecker won the men's title in 2019 and Herrera was this season's men's champion.

UP NEXT: The NCAA Championship Selection Show is Sunday, March 7, at 11 a.m. MT, and will be streamed on NCAA.com. The field will be made up of 31 teams.

"
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Full results:
Women's - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2021/3/5/2020_Pac_12_XC_Champs_results_WOMEN.pdf
Men's - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2021/3/5/2020_Pac_12_XC_Champs_results_MEN.pdf
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