OFFICIAL 2022 WOMENS Individual NCAA D1 XC Championships Predictions

Always great to hear, but I just don’t see much of a difference in the overall running for the trophy.

Thanks for sharing!

What an odd echo happening when Jonathan Gault talks.

Oval picking Cook for the upset win. That is a tough sell for me after Big 12's. I think she will finish high, but Roe will beat Cook this year.

Yeah, I watched the Big 12 very closely. She could NOT handle that fast pace at the end and literally would have fallen over had that finish line person not helped her stay upright.

I think Gault had the better upset pick with McCabe because of her kick if she’s able to stick with the leaders ALL the way to the end.

It's one race and maybe she had a bad day but I tend to agree. Roe beat her by like 12 seconds. I was saying back after the Jamboree results that Roe did not look full out during that race. Cook is very talented, but I do think right now that Roe is still #1 on that team.

In my opinion, one of the differences in 'early' xc season is that the low mileage/high xtrain people will be in better/mid-season shape right off the bat. Why, simply because you can x-train consistently through the year and not worry about knees/ankles/stress fractures etc...so that type of training can be maintained during the off-season. For the high mileage runner, in early season they are just getting ramped up. So they don't generally hit mid-season form until mid-season (imagine that).

So regarding Cook...sure she looked great at the Jamboree and ran away from Roe. But there was no reason to think she was going to keep improving through the year at the same pace Roe would.

Anyway, it would be great if she made top 10...but she did not have the ability to keep up at the Big 12 meet. I do think that was an off race for her, but I don't expect her in the final battle for the win.

Ceili is a steepler so we have no 5k prs to lean on. Anything could happen, but I tend to think that if Chelangat has a hard time hanging on I think it will be harder for Mccabe. I don't think Mccabe has ever beaten Chelangat in XC, has she?

Side note but Lacctic always underrates Mccabe because she does not push it in the regular season. Last year it had her 33rd despite winning every race, and this year she is too low as well (17th).

sorry, what point are you making....they were not running full out at Regionals...if this picture is your evidence of Cooks ability, then I guess she will lose to Howell by 10seconds.

I am not disparaging Cook...I like her and hope she does well. But too many people were jumping on her bandwagon because of an early season race. I certainly do not place Cook ahead of Roe...and it is a huge compliment to Cook to even be close to Roe (one of the most consistent high-end XC runners for several years) at the end of this race.

Sure sure. I know you are correct that this picture doesn't really say anything, but I think it is a really great picture. Cook looks so effortless in it, and they were 2-3. So, I just posted it as a way of saying, "Go, Natalie Cook!" (and Roe, and Touhy, and Valby, and McCabe, and Chelangat, and all the other girls, too). We're on the same page.

effortless, for a reason...not the most competitive regional imho

I agree..it is a great picture. And also that this should be a great race...several top runners with a shot at winning, and a complete mash-up on the team side. Will be fun to see.

Wow. Cook at 20 MPW and Valby at 30.

On the Letsrun pod today, it sounds like they have received some information that there is indeed something up with Tuohy's leg, but it sounds like she will still race.

Of course. We told you that. If she wins, she overcame injury. If she loses, it was due to injury. But if Valby wins uninjured, she is cheating.

I don't think they have any idea if it is a reliable source....Jonathan was supposed to talk to Laurie Henes though

I just listened to that portion of the podcast. It was a totally anonymous email, and the alleged "source" offered no explanation of their source for the information (no claim of connection to the program, etc). The email claimed that Tuohy "tweaked it at practice", and that Coach Henes was now not having her do faster-paced workouts, but that she was "fine for races" and doing slower-paced runs at practice.

So, if this claim is true...then allegedly Katelyn was injured in practice prior to regionals. And obviously she still ran at regionals and won. So must be an extremely minor injury to still run her at regionals.