Alright running nerds (sorry, I was worried that intro was too flattering), I am back in the booth for ESPN at the NCAA Cross Country Championships this Saturday, November 18th in Charlottesville, Virginia. Coverage begins at 9:30 AM ET and my goal coming in is to be able to read the YouTube comments afterward and not completely hate myself.

There are 62 teams and 510 individuals competing, and if you graduated from college at any point prior to the pandemic, then you’re probably a bit out of touch with just about all of them. With that in mind, let’s try to simplify things and give you the major storylines to enjoy the broadcast.

1. The Dynasty: The Northern Arizona men will be running for their seventh national title in eight years. They return their top four and have had no shortage of talent entering the program at all times, so you’d expect that they’d be the heavy favorites. But that assumption would discount how insanely well the two heroes of the day had to run in order to make last year’s title happen. Santiago Prosser was 17th at regionals in 2022 and then finished 19th at the national meet. Brodey Hasty was 14th at regionals and ended up 25th at NCAAs. The pair was 15th and 14th, respectively, at this year’s Mountain Regional meet. But just in case they don’t replicate 2022’s heroics, NAU brought in backup in All-American transfer Aaron Las Heras, so there is a little more room for error. And then there is the wild card in Kang Nyoak, who finished fifth last weekend in what was undoubtedly the best cross race of his life. To beat this NAU team, it will require an all-time great team and a historic performance.

4. Pick a favorite: No one in the men’s race has won an individual NCAA Cross Country title before… losers! Well, that streak will end in a few days for one lucky fella. Who will it be? Stanford’s Ky Robinson earned double gold during the outdoor track season so he’s not a bad name to start with. He was 4th at Nuttycombe (0.1 from second), though he won Pac-12s and West Regionals. Many would pick Nico Young – last year’s second-place finisher seems like a natural heir to the throne. He’s got eight All-American certificates, just none of them in gold (not sure if they do different colors for winners but you get what I mean). Up until Wisconsin, Harvard’s Graham Blanks would have been a good “dark horse” pick, however, the horse is out of the bag after his run there. He didn’t actually have to try very hard to win Heps and he won regionals in trainers (okay, they were Vaporflys) so Blanks is well rested. I’m hesitant to name anyone else because of the rule of threes and all. But if I had to, then it’s gotta be New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel, who just started his freshman year as a Lobo with a CV that would put most others’ to shame. And while I am not sure what resume-padding activities he got up to in high school, he has run 27:20 for 10,000m and finished 17th at World Cross last year for Eritrea. And not the little baby junior race either!