After winning handily against a loaded field at Wisconsin, the #3 Syracuse men should have no problem winning their second straight ACC title on Friday. #12 Florida State will have a harder time defending its title as it's one of five ACC women's squads ranked between #12 and #18. Syracuse's Martin Hehir and Boston College's Liv Westphal lead the individual fields. 

Friday's adidas Wisconsin Invitational pits #3 NAU against #7 Stanford on the men's side, while the women's race features 22 ranked teams, including #2 Michigan State, #5 Arkansas and #6 Stanford as well as 9-time defending Canadian champs Guelph. Joe Rosa, Maksim Korolev, Stanley Kebenei and Futsum Zeinasellassie will bid for the individual men's title; Shelby Houlihan leads a loaded women's individual field.

Notre Dame has an extremely deep men's field (10 of the top 25, led by #10 BYU), but the best race of the weekend is Saturday in Seattle, where half of the men's top 10 (#2 NAU, #5 Portland, #6 Stanford, #7 Indiana, #9 Villanova) will square off. The women's races aren't as strong, but #3 Oregon vs. #4 Stanford at Washington should be compelling, with a potential debut from Stanford's Aisling Cuffe. In other action, the #6 FSU women trek up to Paul Short to face #5 Georgetown while the #1 Colorado men race at the Rocky Mountain Shootout.
*Aisling Cuffe Out For Most (Or All) XC Season With A Stress Fracture According to this blog post by one of the Stanford men.

FSU and Butler both surprised at NCAAs in 2013. The Seminoles were tabbed for the podium but finished just eighth, while the Bulldogs had a great day to finish third. What can we expect from them in 2014?