Why is no one talking about the toss up girls race?! That was mind blowing.
Why is no one talking about the toss up girls race?! That was mind blowing.
Crystal Nelson winning was not a surprise to anyone familiar with her or the Iowa State Women. She was a top 10 talent last year, but fell early in the mud in the NCAA race and never got back near the top. She had a shortened track season so has not yet shown her full potential on the track.
I watched her win the NCAA Cross Regionals last fall and she looked very good. She is another in a growing line of top notch women coming through Iowa State I would still pick Houlihan for the title but Crystal Nelson has a real shot. It'll be fun to watch the women's race this year --wide open! Cyclone women have a shot at the podium this year if #3 runner Bethany Brown is running and healthy. She did not run at Wisco.
Interesting finish for some of the top favorites: While Nelson/Schulist/Houlihan all finished hard, Bates, Cranny and Scott all fell off by 10-20 seconds over the last third of the course. Their places did not change much, so you probably should not make too much of this (e.g., since it was not going to affect the score much at all, why push really hard when it will not affect anything of importance).
It might mean that they are still training hard and were saving something, or it might mean that they do not have the high end this cross season. For Bates and Scott, and even Cranny, we might not know much more until NCAAs because conference and Regionals might not really tell us much about the women at the top.
Place TmPl Bib Name Yr Team 2k 4k Time Pace
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1 1 179 Crystal Nelson JR Iowa State 6:48 13:28 19:35 5:16
2 2 192 Rachele Schulist SO Michigan State 6:48 13:28 19:39 5:17
3 3 12 Shelby Houlihan SR Arizona State 6:49 13:28 19:41 5:17
4 4 47 Liv Westphal SR Boston College 6:48 13:28 19:43 5:18
5 5 177 Katy Moen SR Iowa State 6:49 13:28 19:43 5:18
6 6 34 Emma Bates SR Boise State 6:50 13:28 19:47 5:19
7 7 293 Elise Cranny FR Stanford 6:49 13:29 19:53 5:20
8 8 32 Dominique Scott JR Arkansas 6:48 13:28 19:54 5:21
26mi235: Sent you a message on T & F News over the weekend.