The Offficial 2024 NCAA D1 XC Championship Thread

I have a case of Olemomoinia!

Here's your answer, courtesy of the NCAA:

Men’s Student Athletes (2-2:15 p.m.)
Graham Blanks (Harvard)
Habtom Samuel (New Mexico)
Parker Wolfe (North Carolina)

Women’s Student-Athletes (2:15-2:30 p.m.)
Ceili McCabe (West Virginia)
Doris Lemngole (Alabama)
Silan Ayyildiz (Oregon)

Creepers gonna keep on creepin’

I heard it’s currently snowing on the course.

NAU women

Karrie Baloga, Alex Carlson, Maggi Congdon, Ava Mitchell, Keira Moore, Nikita Moore, Elise Stearns and Ali Upshaw

NAU men

Corey Gorgas, Cael Grotenhuis, Justin Keyes, David Mullarkey, Manny Perez, Santiago Prosser, Colin Sahlman and Ford Washburn

Maybe the little bit of snow this year is just a bit of an equalizer to the conditions Valby ran in when she set the previous course record in blustery windy, raining conditions, with mud and standing water in some places on the course, as seen in the following video:

Any word what happens if there is frost Saturday morning?

Also, why are they running so early anyways?

no Alison Churchill?

Weather report

Should be an exciting day!

That looks like a wee bit more snow than just a bit of snow. Going out on a limb here predicting no one runs under Valby’s time. 😝

We might even see some unexpected upsets.

I think on the women's side, Ceili McCabe and Chloe Thomas go 1-2

The snow on course is probably mostly melted by now. It stopped snowing here around mid-day and then rained all afternoon. Perhaps the course will still be a bit wet on saturday but I don't see today's snow being a big factor.

Per weather forecast, snow ending by 11pm tonight (Thu) then cloudy and in the high-30s/low-40s through race day. Thus, snow probably will have melted by race time Saturday morning, leaving parts of the course a bit mushy.

Maybe Kosgei's 18:59.1/6k CR will survive, but fully expecting several to be under Valby's 19:17.2 time from last year. Seems like every high quality women's xc race this year has been won in sub-19:20.

Note: Dani Jones/CO won 2018 NCAAs @ Zimmer in 19:42.8. Times have changed.

And, Morgan McDonald's 29:08.3/10k CR from the 2018 NCAA race should be obliterated.

Current forecast for 10AM is showing 37 degrees with a Real Feel of 33 degrees, 5 mph winds.

I think a lot of people like to overestimate the advantage that Canadians might gain from cold, snowy weather.

I think most will run fine, but I also predict a number of real blowups along the lines of Jepkurui in 2022. Mid 30s with wet feet will affect some in a bad way.