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What happened in cross country this weekend?

By Chris Chavez

October 1, 2017

Hello friends, I am back from a short vacation following the Berlin Marathon.

So just like you, I wanted to catch up on all of the NCAA cross country action that took place over the weekend and I decided that I wanted to drop it all in one place. Here it is.

Joe Piane Invitational – South Bend, Indiana

I love heading to South Bend for this race when it coincides with a football game but unfortunately could not make it out there this year. It was a great race on both the men’s and women’s sides.

We’ll start with the women. We got a marquee matchup between the Colorado women (No. 1 in the national coaches poll) and the New Mexico women (No. 4 in the national coaches poll). The Buffs ended up taking it 47–51 despite New Mexico going 1-2 with Ednah Kurgat and Alice Wright. Dani Jones was Colorado’s top woman in third place but then they got in Makena Morley (7th), Kaitlyn Brenner (9), Sage Hurta (10) and Madison Boreman (18) across before New Mexico’s 4th and 5th women – Alondra Negron and Alex Buck – were done at 37th and 38th.

On the men’s side, we got to see Alabama’s Kenyan Big Three (we need a better nickname for them so send any suggestions) in action against the likes of the Colorado Buffaloes and Southern Utah Thunderbirds. Gilbert Kigen took the win in 23:23.7 but Vincent Kiprop pretty much finished right with him by less than a second. Colorado’s Joe Klecker went for it by hanging with the Kenyans and finished just seven seconds behind Alfred Chelanga as the Crimson Tide went 1-2-3. The big surprise was that Southern Utah downed Colorado for the team title 72 to 101.

We’ll have more from Isaac Wood on Tuesday in the Wood Report but he’s had a change of mind and firmly believes that Alabama makes nationals as a team now because of the strength of Kigen, Kiprop and Chelanga. Someone asked him about the Mountain Region and how he feels about it, so we’ll have him expand on it as well.

The fans in attendance for the football game were treated to a 52–17 thrashing over Miami-Ohio. Before we move on, please enjoy this track by my favorite South Bend rapper.

Full results from the races here.

Louisville Sports Commission Cross Country Classic – Louisville, Kentucky

No real big surprise here but Northern Arizona had a little bit of a statement win by going 1-2-3-4-9. Matthew Baxter, who Isaac predicted would finish 6th at nationals later this year, was the winner in 23:10.52. Junior Tyler Day was second in 23:11.25 before senior Andy Troudard and sophomore Geordie Beamish followed suit 16 and 23 seconds later. There was an impressive team performance by Furman for second place. They were ranked 17th in the latest coaches rankings and 13th in the Wood Report but they may see a bump. Wisconsin finished eighth overall as a team but they didn’t run Morgan McDonald or Olin Hacker. Oliver Hoare was the top Badger in 8th place overall.

On the women’s side, Boise State’s Allie Ostrander marked her return to the cross country scene with a 16:28.15 victory while running some of the race with just one spike. If you need a little refresher, it was in this same park that Ostrander took second at the 2015 NCAA championships. She missed all of last fall due to a sacral stress fracture.

https://twitter.com/UofL_Kibichiy/status/914138037357039616

Full results from the races can be found here.

Bill Dellinger Invitational – Springfield, Oregon

Our Eugene correspondent Connor Hayward was at the race and wrote a full recap. If you don’t want to bless the site with you click then you’re going to miss out on learning about how good BYU and Katie Rainsberger are.

Paul Short Invitational – Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

We had another man on the ground this weekend as Spencer “The Athlete Special” Brown raced and finished 19th overall. He was Georgetown’s No. 2 guy and solidified that he’s on a quest to really prove Isaac wrong about his terrible ranking in the preseason Wood Report. Utah State won the team race 119 to 167 over the Hoyas. Adams State was without Sydney Gidabuday so they took third in 179. Dillan Maggard, who Isaac notes is certainly one to watch, won the race in 23:27.

Full results from the races can be found here.

Cowboy Jamboree – Stillwater, Oklahoma

The Oklahoma State men won the race on their home turf and were led by Sylvester Barus’s 24:15.9 victory. Missouri’s Karissa Schweizer won the women’s race in 19:56.5. The Ole Miss women took the team title with a 44-point score.

Full results from the races can be found here.

Chile Pepper Festival – Fayetteville, Arkansas

Arkansas senior Alex George won the 10K race on the Razorbacks’ home course in 29:45.4 and because it appears that they didn’t race a full squad with Andrew Ronoh out. After the race, George said that part of the plan for them racing the 10K was to get some experience at it for nationals. It was Jack Bruce’s first 10K of the year. The team race was a little closer than expected with Arkansas topping the Division II Colorado School of the Mines just 37 to 47. The next time that we’ll see Arkansas in action will be in Louisville for Pre-Nats.

Full results from the race can be found here.

Chris Chavez

Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.