NCAA XC Action Gets Going In Earnest This Weekend *Top 10 NCAA XC Countdown *Live Wisco Results *All NCAA XC Results

LRC 2018 Wisconsin Invite: NAU Men Send Message, Colorado Women Surprise, Wisconsin’s Morgan McDonald & Alicia Monson Sweep Individual Titles The men’s race went according to form as the NAU men DOMINATED and Morgan McDonald was fantastic while the women’s race was full of surprises both in the team and individual race. All together, there were 34 ranked teams at this meet.
*MB: OFFICIAL 2018 NUTTYCOMBE WISCO INVITATIONAL DISCUSSION THREAD

Team LRC Alabama’s Gamble: Can The Crimson Tide Win The NCAA Cross-Country Title With Five Kenyans – And Not Much Else? If Alabama wins it all this year in XC, they will be the first balanced program to win an NCAA men’s XC title in 10 years. Last year, the Crimson Tide quietly won the John McDonnell Program of the Year award, which goes to the school with the best combined finish across cross-country, indoor, and outdoor track & field.

Individual LRC All Grown Up: “This Is A Different Grant Fisher Than We’ve Ever Seen Before” Grant Fisher is entering his senior cross-country season and Stanford coach Chris Miltenberg is worried … for the competition. “I’m maybe worried for everybody else out there because this is a different Grant Fisher than we’ve ever seen before.”

MB Talk:

• MB: Is the NCAA trying to kill off distance-only schools? A recent proposal would originate “XC scholarships,” which sounds like a good thing but in reality appears to limit the # of distance scholarships allowed to be offered at any school.
• MB: Who will win the 2018 NCAA XC individual crowns? Will an American man (Grant Fisher?) win for the 1st time in 10 yrs?

More NCAA:

• Updated NCAA Men’s Rankings Have No Changes To The Top 7 NAU, BYU, Portland and Stanford still top the list. *Regional Rankings
• Women’s Top-11 NCAA Rankings Remain Unchanged New Mexico, Colorado, Stanford and Oregon are ranked 1-4. *Regional Rankings
• NCAA Athletes Of The Week Are Amon Kemboi (Campbell University) And Abbey Wheeler (Providence) Kemboi beat Syracuse’s Aidan Tooker to win the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown while Wheeler won the women’s race by 9 seconds.

Week That Was

LRC WTW: How Did Some Guy You’ve Never Heard Of Run A 2:05 Marathon? Katelyn Tuohy Stars, Joshua Cheptegei Returns, WADA Sucks We break down the week for you.

Outside-The-Sport News

• NY Times: Nike Nearly Dropped Colin Kaepernick Before Embracing Him Nike is a business and they will always do what’s in their best financial interest. If they thought sponsoring Kaepernick would cost them money, they’d never do it. They only dropped Lance Armstrong after public opinion was 100% against him.
• German Triathlete Banned From All-You-Can-Eat Buffet For Eating 100 Plates Of Sushi Considering he only paid 15.90 euros, he definitely got his money’s worth.

$20,018 Running Warehouse Prediction Contest Winners

LRC Meet The $20,018 Running Warehouse DL Prediction Contest Winners: A Guy Who Beat Obea Moore, A Guy Who Got Stomped By Cam Levins, And More Our top 3 have connections to Cam Levins, Obea Moore, Meb and LRC coaching guru John Kellogg.

Discussion: Our apologies LRC nation – Jonathan Gault only finished 2nd in the worldwide Fantasy Diamond League competition 

NCAA XC Top 10 Countdown

LRC No. 10 Syracuse Men Dominate While Unranked Ole Miss Women Edge Georgia Tech At 2018 Coast-To-Coast Battle In Beantown Campbell’s Amon Kemboi (24:03) held off Syracuse’s Aidan Tooker for the individual win as ‘Cuse put 5 in the top 13. Providence’s Abbey Wheeler (17:10) won the women’s race but the No. 11 Friars wound up 11th as a team.
*Brien Bell Talks About Being Syracuse’s New Head Honcho
*Andy Powell Talks About Having Centro As An Assistant
*Abbey Wheeler Talks After Winning Women’s Race
*Amon Kemboi Talks After Winning Men’s Race

LRC 2018 NCAA Men’s XC Preview: #2 BYU & #1 Northern Arizona With two 5th-year seniors and two 7th-year seniors that have all gone sub-13:40, last year’s 3rd placer BYU is very good, but NAU, with three back from last year’s top 8, has a chance to be historically good.
*MB: Will NAU be historically great and three peat? Or might they not even win the 2018 NCAA xc title?

LRC 2018 NCAA Women’s XC Preview: #2 Oregon & #1 New Mexico Can UNM three-peat? Or will Oregon, which lost their coach and their #1 and #2 from last year, get the job done? We know one thing – one of these foreign-dominated teams will win it all.

Previous Men’s Previews:
*#10 Syracuse & #9 Boise State
*#8 Wisconsin & #7 Colorado
*#6 Alabama & #5 Iowa State
*#4 Portland & #3 Stanford 

Previous Women’s Previews:
*#10 Arkansas & #9 Villanova
*#8 Wisconsin & #7 Michigan
*#6 NC State & #5 Stanford
*#4 Boise State & #3 Colorado

Doping Updates

• Investigator Richard McLaren Says WADA Got A Bad Deal From Russia “They (WADA) have lost any kind of leverage over the ongoing situation with Russia.”
• Seb Coe Opinion Piece On WADA Decision – Points Out That Russians Have Already Been Competing As Neutrals All Along Coe says the big change is now RUSADA can test its own athletes and he wonders if we’re “ready for that.”
• MB: Bahrain’s 65-Minute Half-Marathoner Violah Jepchumba Gets 4-Year EPO Ban Sara Hall reacted with this tweet: “Went from 69 min to 65 min in the half in 2016– ??.”
• MB: Bahrain 3:31 Runner Sadik Mikhou Ges Doping Suspension Mikhou was 6th at Worlds last year.
• WADA’s Former Director General David Howman Says He’s Disappointed In Russia Decision Howman accuses WADA of putting “money over principle.”
• USA Today: “Russia’s Cheating Is Rewarded As We Both Feared And Expected” While it was incredibly disappointing, we think they’re being a little over dramatic when they write, “Cheating has been rewarded. … Honesty, honor and fair play have lost. The bad guys have won.”
• North Korea Given Four-Month Deadline By WADA To Address Doping Concerns Or Be Declared Non-Compliant Only one athlete was tested in the build-up to the 2018 Winter Olympics and that athlete tested positive (though they were cleared due to “contaminated food”).
• European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen Says WADA Decision “Appears To Be A Backward Step”

More Russian Doping News

• IAAF And IPC Warn Russia Their Bans Won’t Automatically Be Lifted Following WADA Decision The IAAF wants the Russian government to pay for the investigation expenses (several million dollars) and won’t consider lifting the ban until all the data from the Moscow lab has been evaluated.
• WADA Vice President Linda Helleland Says They Have Failed Clean Athletes By Lifting Russian Ban She said that this “casts a dark shadow over the credibility of the anti-doping movement.”
• Paula Radcliffe: “It undermines their credibility and the faith clean athletes have in them.”
• Michael Phelps Slams WADA Over Russia Ban
• Kremlin Call WADA Decision “Positive Step” While Admitting “There Is Still A Rather Long Way To Go”
• Reuters: Compilation Of Quotes Condemning WADA Decision To Reinstate RUSADA

International Distance News

• Olympic Steeple Champ Conseslus Kipruto Involved In Car Crash In Kenya; Escapes Unhurt A police officer said that he believes Kipruto was speeding and trying to get around a tractor when a car coming the opposite direction forced him to brake and he hit the tractor.
  *AP Article Apparently David Rudisha came to the scene of the accident afterwards to help Kipruto.
• Track, Road And Dirt: Sifan Hassan Says She’s Targeting The European XC Championships In December After her 65:15 half this weekend, Hassan also says she wants to move up to the marathon, but not until after a 5k/10k double at Tokyo 2020.
• Recommended Watch: MB: Recent Video Interview With Zane Robertson Some footage and discussion about Robertson’s training in Ethiopia as well as his and his brother Jake‘s initial move to Kenya when they were just teenagers.
• Beatrice Chepkoech’s 8:44.32 Steeplechase World Record Ratified By The IAAF So to were Armand Duplantis‘ 5.92m U20 pole vault record from March (although he later jumped 6.05m at Euros) and the 100k WR by Japan’s Nao Kazami.

WADA Not All On The Same Page Concerning Russia

• BBC: WADA Vice President Linda Helleland Says She Is Opposed To Lifting Russian Doping Ban “I will vote for, and support the original roadmap. This is because I believe you should never make any compromises that undermine your credibility.”
• The Guardian: Anti-Doping Rift Deepens As Agencies Turn On WADA Over Russia “Compromise” 13 agencies have spoken out against the WADA decision with UKAD chief Nicole Sapstead, saying, “It is pretty much sticking two fingers up at the athletes and the organisations that work tirelessly on their behalf.”
• Full Statement From WADA Vice President Linda Helleland Meanwhile WADA president Craig Reedie has defended their deal with Russia:  “Is doing nothing a realistic option? We couldn’t just sit back and do nothing – this moves things forward.”
• The Telegraph: Key WADA Committee Member Resigns In Frustration Over Plans To Drop Russia Sanctions Many officials aren’t happy with WADA’s plan to “compromise” with Russia.