I watched the race video, and it looked like a huge field, and a course that funneled down fairly quickly so the field was tightly boxed. If you didn't get out aggressively and get good position, you'd be boxed in for a while. Even if you only lost 15 seconds, in terms of places, that would have a huge impact in this race. So I'm not sure that the results here will really indicate how the schools will fare come NCAA nationals. We'll see. . . .
PS If you watch the Youtube video, you realize that xc coaches really yell stupid things to their runners . . .