It is interesting he ran regionals.
Probably needed a decent effort before nationals anyway but I could see other coaches wanting to keep him fresh.
It doesn't make sense to have him run Regionals to see if he is fit as that burns his redshirt. Being the 6th man is surprising but he was only 9 seconds back of 3rd so I might assume he ran with the other guys until the end. Is that correct? Did anyone see it?
If he was running hard by any measure he's toast. Regionals was a glorified practice for Colorado. Colorado has 67 points at regionals. They had 65 points at nationals last year. So I have to assume they all took it easy and will give Saarel the benefit of the doubt. Last year I wondered what he could do but are we really supposed to expect him to be top 10? That would be incredible. I think top 25 would be a great run. Something like that and Colorado wins.
Last year's results:
http://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/11/results-2014-ncaa-cross-country-mens-womens-results/