While some pundits billed Pre Nationals as the lesser race of the weekend, and understandably so with what many believe to be the top two teams duking it out at Nuttycombe.
I think somewhat overlooked, this race quietly had a plethora of top tier talent featuring a large group of the most accomplished individuals in XC at the national level.
Looking back at the top 20 from last year.
Nuttycombe
#3 Kurgat
#13 Ostburg
#17 Hoare
#20 Roberts
Pre-Nats
#4 Rodriguez
#7 Kemboi
#8 Klecker
#9 Dressel
#10 Mantz
#16 Suefer
That's 6 guys in this race who were top 16 or better last year with 7 seniors now gone in front of them, so 6 of the returning top 9 in this race. Pretty rare to have that much talent and attainment come together before NCAA's.
just the facts jack wrote:
Looks like Washington (89 points) gets the win in the Women's A (Blue) race, with BYU (92), Colorado (132). Michigan (170) and Florida State (211) rounding up the top 5.
Individually, it's BYU's Erika Birk with the ~7 second win.
BYU women needs a stronger 5th runner which would propel them to a win. Same goes for the Men's team as well.
dookie19 wrote:
LetsRun.com wrote:
Here is our recap:
https://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/10/conner-mantz-erica-birk-lead-byu-to-big-day-at-2019-pre-nats/It would probably be good to acknowledge in your recap that Indiana ran their "A" squad at in Madison this weekend, thus very clearly explaining their performance at Pre-Nats.
That still counts as a point for NCAA at large qualifying, correct? If Indiana gets an automatic to NCAAs that could really help a team like OSU.
OhioBuff wrote:
dookie19 wrote:
It would probably be good to acknowledge in your recap that Indiana ran their "A" squad at in Madison this weekend, thus very clearly explaining their performance at Pre-Nats.
That still counts as a point for NCAA at large qualifying, correct? If Indiana gets an automatic to NCAAs that could really help a team like OSU.
Not automatically. If I remember correctly, a team will only get a point for beating Indiana if at least 4 of Indiana's runners that end up competing at regionals were racing at yesterday's Pre-Nats race.
OhioBuff wrote:
dookie19 wrote:
It would probably be good to acknowledge in your recap that Indiana ran their "A" squad at in Madison this weekend, thus very clearly explaining their performance at Pre-Nats.
That still counts as a point for NCAA at large qualifying, correct? If Indiana gets an automatic to NCAAs that could really help a team like OSU.
That’s a negative. Criteria points are only awarded to teams who beat an “A” squad who has been selected into the field of 31. Either by auto qualifying or once selected at large. The “A” team is determined by the 7 the team chooses to race at the region meet. And by definition an A team is 4 of those 7 who raced on the region squad.
Jgt11 wrote:
Harrison lived at altitude in high school so he's adjusting much faster than the other freshman to the new training. Definitely going to be a force at 5k/10k
Sure, but Vancil also went to high school at altitude, was about as good as Harrison in HS (Vancil 9th at NXN, Harrison 12th at FL), and ran a minute slower! Kashon is a beast. Maybe one of those true endurance guys that can't show off how good they are in HS at 5,000 and below, but excel in college.