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Races Thread, - CROSS COUNTRY at 2021 NCAA Mountain Regional (Provo, Friday, 11/12, 1st race 11:00 AM MT)

AztecBuff

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The men's and women's cross country (XC) teams race towards their next goal, qualifying for the NCAA Championships (scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 20th), by racing at the NCAA Mountain Regional this Friday, November 12th. This regional, one of nine nationwide, is being hosted this year by BYU in Provo.

The women's race is scheduled to start at 11:00 AM MT, with the men's following at noon. Unfortunately, I can’t see any indication that any video coverage planned.

Some notes (just copied from my 2019 regional thread) about qualifying (I did modify the paragraph a little where I change it to note THIS year's situations vs. 2019's.):
  • 9 regional races will determine which 31 teams for each gender get selected for the Championships.
    • The top 2 finishing teams in each of the regions are the 18 auto-qualifiers.
    • The remaining 13 teams are "At-large" selections. Unlike the team sport selection process most of us are familiar with (with their selection committees), the at-large teams in cross country are selected almost totally on a mathematical calculation based on how many wins the next highest regional finishers have accumulated over the 18 auto-qualifiers, and any other teams that have earned at-large berths earlier in the process (with a few exceptions). (The wins over other all ready selected teams are called "Kolas points".)
    • The at-large calculation has quite a few rules. For those interested, here's what looks to me like a couple decent descriptions of the process and rules - http://www.ustfccca.org/meets-results/ncaa-championship-qualifying-criteria and https://www.thestridereport.com/understanding-kolas .
I'd guess it's been quite a few years since the men or women haven't finished in the Top 3. But just to give minimal requirements to advance this year- I believe 4th place finishes for either team will easily be enough to keep their qualifying totally "in their own hands" rather than having to have "help" from other schools in the involved mathematical (Kolas points) process which is NCAA cross country qualifying.

With the men ranked #2 in the region (although #3 BYU should be considered very close in quality), and the women #3 (although probably very close in quality to #’s 1 & 2 BYU and New Mexico), a 4th place finish should be attainable for both teams with even just "decent" days. Should add with the strength of the Mountain region, Flotrack is calculating/ predicting the women's-side having 5 teams and men’s 6 teams coming out of the Mountain Region, so even a slightly lower than 4th finish won't be a killer for them. (Although, with how “easily” the teams have beaten some of the teams they’d have to lose to to finish 5th, it would I assume be a disappointing finish to the coaches to finish that far back.)

A few Links:

Host BYU preview article - https://byucougars.com/story/m-cross-country/1298106/cross-country-host-mountain-regional-friday

Coaches' Association Regionals page (with schedule, links, etc.) - https://www.ustfccca.org/meets-results/regional-championships-central

Live results - http://www.runnercard.com/results3/meet?meetId=d9db79fb-35ac-47dc-ad09-9663a1a5feb1
 
Cubuffs.com preview -




Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/11/10...-region-championships-next-for-buffaloes.aspx

"
BOULDER — Colorado's top-five nationally ranked cross country teams will travel to Provo, Utah for the 2021 NCAA Mountain Region Championship this Friday, November 12.

BYU will serve as this year's host at Timpanogos Golf Club. The women's 6-kilometer race is scheduled first at 11 a.m. MT, while the men's 10k run is to follow at 12 p.m. MT. There will be a short awards ceremony following the conclusion of the races to honor the top-25 runners in each race with all-region honors. Admission is free and live scoring will be available at runnercard.com.

The competition will be tough since the mountain region leads all of nine regions with the most teams ranked in the USTFCCCA top-30 poll with seven women's teams and six men's teams for a total of 13.

The CU women enter the meet as the third-ranked team in the nation and are third in the regional poll. New Mexico enters the championship ranked second in both the national and regional polls, but BYU, the top-ranked regional team, is ranked fourth in the national poll. UNM, CU and BYU are separated by 17 points in the national rankings, which could make the race a very interesting one.
...

Colorado has a tradition of doing well at this meet. The men have won it 21 times, while the women have taken home 15 titles.

The top two teams in each race automatically advance to nationals, while 13 other teams will be selected for at-large bids following all nine regional championships. The NCAA will announce those 13 teams during a selection show on Saturday, Nov. 14, starting at 3 p.m. MT. Fans can access the show at NCAA.com.

The NCAA Championships are Saturday, November 20, in Tallahassee, Fla.
"
 
Looks like the women's race started on time.




Unfortunately, the live timing website is pretty worthless so far, alternating between erroring out and not showing any interval results when it's not erroring out.
 
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The results' page has reloaded, and it's still not very helpful.

IF I'm decrypting it correctly, the women may unofficially have finished in 4th, so assume they didn't go out so as to keep as fresh as possible for the Championships next weekend.
 
I assume the Coaches' Association is more accurate than what looks to be the garbage live results website, and they have the Buff women snagging an auto-qualifying spot for the Championships with a 2nd place finish!

 
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(Live results are still screwed up. For example, they show Abby Nichols finishing in a tie for 7th.)
 
The men's race should be about 10 minutes in.



(I would say the tweet isn't totally accurate as calling this the "starting lineup", as it was the full list of eligible runners the coaches gave to the race officials. Only 7 per team are allowed to be racing right now.)
 
Even the Coaches' Association and the Rammies having "fun" with the live results now. (The race actually probably ended 15-20 minutes ago, and results still unknown.)

 
Full Buff women's results from earlier today.

(Assuming they are healthy, looks like the team may have utilized their VERY good depth and given at least 2 of their top runners, senior Rachel McArthur and true frosh Hannah Miniutti) the day off. (Both have been among the top 5/ scorers for the team in their last 2 big meets.) Hope they ARE healthy, and are able to take great advantage of the rest to excel next weekend.)

 
Looks like the men finished 3rd today. Although not earning an auto-berth to the Championships, that should EASILY be good enough to advance with all the Kolas points they earned through the season!



 
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Article after today's races.




Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/11/12...nish-second-at-regionals-men-place-third.aspx

"
PROVO, Utah — The University of Colorado women's cross country team recorded a runner-up finish on Friday afternoon at the NCAA Mountain Region Championship to earn their 13th straight trip to the NCAA Championships on November 20, in Tallahassee, Fla.

The men recorded a third-place finish at the meet and will likely advance as well. The top two teams in each race at the regional championships automatically move on to nationals, while every other team that finishes below those spots has to wait for the NCAA to announce the complete 31-team field, which will be done on Saturday, November 13, at 3 p.m. MT during a selection show at NCAA.com.

"There's no question," coach Mark Wetmore said when asked about the men's team advancing. "I know we have to wait for the official announcement but there's no question."

THE WOMEN'S RACE:
The Buffs, who were ranked third nationally heading into the race, finished second in the 6-kilometer race behind second-ranked New Mexico, 62-83.

The race featured three of the top four and four of the top 10 teams in the USTFCCCA Division I Poll with No. 2 BYU and No. 7 Utah. UNM, CU and BYU were in the top three for the majority of the race, but Utah ended up finishing fifth behind No. 19 Colorado State.

The Buffs led BYU and UNM with a little over 2k in the race. The Lobos surged past CU and BYU in the following kilometer as the Buffs and Cougars slipped to second and third, respectively, which is where those three teams would stay in the final stretch of the race. BYU ended up third with 107 points.

Abby Nichols led CU, finishing third overall in 20:22.5. She was 14th at the 1k split and moved up to sixth around the midway point. She was up with the lead pack and ran a well-executed race where she was able to defeat Gracelyn Larkin (UNM) at the finish by less than a second (20:22.6).
...

Scoring for the first time this season as CU's fourth finisher was Micaela DeGenero, who placed 27th in 20:59.4. She has been coming back from an interruption and ran her first varsity race at the Pac-12 Championship two weeks ago where she was CU's eighth runner.

"Micaela is back in the scoring group and probably can help us in a week," Wetmore said. "She missed a bunch of the summer but is working her way back into shape."
...

There were a couple of faces missing from the line-up Friday but it is nothing to worry about as Colorado gets ready for NCAAs next week.

"We held out Hannah [Minuitti] and we held out Rachel [McArthur]," Wetmore said. "They'll be ready to go in eight days for sure. We did what we needed to do. This race is always a little more challenging than we want it to be, but we did what we needed to do on the women's side and advanced. We held out some people, BYU held out some people - I don't know New Mexico's team well enough to know if they ran everybody. But the three teams that were expected to keep going, did."

Northern Arizona's Taryn O'Neill won the individual title in 20:17.9.

THE MEN'S RACE: Considering Northern Arizona has been ranked the top-ranked team in the national poll all season, CU was currently the No. 2 team and BYU was ranked eighth and was running at home, the NCAA Men's Mountain Region Championship was expected to be a battle.

BYU rose to the challenge and defeated NAU, 42-57, while Colorado finished third with 83 points.

"BYU has been careful all season," Wetmore said. "They haven't run their full seven until today, I think. They ran well. They looked great - they had four guys finish very high."
...

"Judging by the way our men looked through the shoot, I think everybody was pretty much under control," Wetmore said.

Connor Mantz (BYU) took home the individual title, crossing the finish in 29:39.6.

ALL-REGION: The top 25 individuals in each race were named to the All-Mountain Region Team. CU placed five men and three women on the team. Those men are Eduardo Herrera, Stephen Jones, Austin Vancil, Alec Hornecker and Brendan Fraser. The women are Abby Nichols, Emily Covert and India Johnson.

NCAA SELECTION SHOW: With two teams advancing to the NCAA Championships in each of the nine regions that leave 13 of 31 spots remaining to be filled. The NCAA will announce those additional 13 teams during a selection show on Saturday, Nov. 13. The show will be streamed online at NCAA.com starting at 3 p.m. MT. While the women earned an automatic spot in the championship, the men have to wait for the announcement on Saturday for it to be official.

UP NEXT: The NCAA Championships are Saturday, November 20, in Tallahassee, Fla., at Apalachee Regional Park. The women's 6k race is set for an 8:20 a.m. MT start, while the men's 10k run is scheduled to begin at 9:10 a.m. MT. Both will be broadcast live on ESPNU for the second straight year. More information can be found at NCAA.com.
"


Full results -
Women's (Note - As I type this, the results are not accurate. As they did when the race ended, the 1st thing I see is they have 3 runners from Texas Tech going 1-2-3, and they didn't finish near the front. Hopefully it will get fixed soon.) - https://www.runnercard.com/results3...gPointId=64d69fa5-c8e1-467e-8e43-589eb4dcad95


Men's - https://www.runnercard.com/results3...gPointId=376bdd8e-4ced-46fc-bffb-71e99a534a29
 
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