During NCAA xc season, I was thinking it's probably a good idea to take a look at the big picture each Monday when looking back at the previous week's action.
Here's what caught my eye when I was looking at the results from last weekend.
1) Who is Welsey Kiptoo of Iowa State? Is he the next NCAA star?
Cowboy Jamboree Individual Results
1. Wesley Kiptoo, JR, Iowa State (KEN), 23:34.5
2. Isai Rodriguez, JR, Oklahoma State, 24:01.4
At the Cowboy Jamboree, Kiptoo in his Iowa State debut won the race by nearly 30 seconds (26.9). The guy in 2nd was far from a slouch - it was Ok State's Isai Rodriguez who was 4th at NCAAs as a true frosh. A little research shoes Kiptoo won the JC title last year in xc and amassed track pbs of 7:51/13:43 for Colby CC.
2. Dave Smith has reason to be excited about his men's team.
I was interested in looking up the results for the Cowboy Jamboree as I knew Dave Smith had talked big about his team and they were racing Iowa State which is ranked #2 right now in the Boost rankings. Ok state lived up to Dave's hype as they got the win 23 to 32 over Iowa State.
MEN (8 km):
Teams: 1. Oklahoma State, 23 points; 2. Iowa State, 32
3. I'm still confused as to why there are two xc seasons.
I wanted sports to come back as much as anyone but what the NCAA has now done is a mess and makes little sense. A bunch of teams weren't overly scared of Covid and came back this fall as they correctly realized that Covid-19 isn't very dangerous to young people. Instead of just putting on a championship for those teams, the NCAA cancelled all fall championships but now is putting on a championship in the winter. So now you have teams like BC flying from Boston to Florida to compete in meets that aren't' really necessary? But then again I guess they are necessary as you have the conference championships coming up.
And the NCAA still hasn't explained how they will select the NCAA fields why they put the NCAA xc champs a few days after the track champs.
4. The Oklahoma men are indeed as bad as the messageboard posters worried they would be.
Cowboy Jamboree Team Results
MEN (8 km):
Teams: 1. Oklahoma State, 23 points; 2. Iowa State, 32; 3. Kansas State, 104; 4. Kansas, 114; 5. North Texas, 176; 6. Baylor, 226; 7. UTEP, 241; 8. Texas Tech, 245; 9. Stephen F. Austin, 251; 10. Central Arkansas, 272; 11. Oklahoma Christian, 277; 12. Texas State, 289; 13. Oklahoma, 322.
12. Texas State, 289; 13. Oklahoma, 322.
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