Odds of an NAU XC repeat?

At the moment, I don't see any team beating NAU next year. Even if Oregon runs everyone at them, they are not deep enough at 10K.

ND and OK St will both beat NAU in the fall.

What team can challenge them? Oral Roberts?

I think their score will be lower in November.

Nico will be top 3, Luis top 5, Blaise and Abdi top 15 and Bosley or recruit top 25.

They didn't even win their conference, right?

Ferro and Grijalva are not returning. NAU will not win.

Considering that they’ve won 4 of the last 5 titles, very likely IMO.

RunnerMan11 wrote:

Considering that they’ve won 4 of the last 5 titles, very likely IMO.

Teams have returned everybody and lost. An injury, a bad day, and so on can bring a team back to the field. NAU will be the strong favorite.

Once we know who is coming back for every time we can make better guesses.

Pascal wrote:

I think I heard that this year would not count against any runner's years of eligibilty? Is that right? If so, NAU's top 4 can repeat in Nov 2021? So we would see Nico, Abdi, Luis, and Blaise again rocking... and following we would see Brodey, Drew and maybe new recruits? If that is true, are we looking at a 5th NCAA championship out of 6 years?

What happened to Lomong’s brother?

they arent bringing back a few of their top guys

I think that Ferro is already a graduate student so he probably won't be back. I wouldn't be surprised if Grijalva moves to North Carolina to be closer to his girlfriend. Maybe he'll run at NC State as a grad student but I doubt it. Even without those two, NAU will have more than enough to repeat as champions.

Quite honestly, if someone is ready to graduate, I don't see why they would want to keep running unless they go to graduate school and what they're studying will give them the leeway to continue running at a high level.

ND had 2 guys run 13:45 last night who didn't make top 7 in XC. ND is taking over in the fall.

Today, Kusche announced he is transferring to NAU next year

He may not be top 5 for them.

I hear Webb, Mobot, Ritz, Drew still have a few years of eligibility and they’re getting some big time jc transfers! Dudes from ARC and Hartnell!

2thagillzspotter wrote:

I hear Webb, Mobot, Ritz, Drew still have a few years of eligibility and they’re getting some big time jc transfers! 5 year Dudes from ARC and Hartnell!

Even if Grijalva and Ferro move on, NAU will still have a lineup that could include:

Nico Young (AA in XC this year)

Drew Bosley (AA in 2019)

Abdi Nur (2xAA)

Brodey Hastey (Twice has finished in the top 50 at NCAA XC)

Theo Quax (3:39/13:49)

George Kusche (3:57 miler)

Hobbs Kessler (3:57 HS miler)

Ryan Raff

That's not a half bad lineup.

2thagillzspotter wrote:

2thagillzspotter wrote:

I hear Webb, Mobot, Ritz, Drew still have a few years of eligibility and they’re getting some big time jc transfers! 5 year Dudes from ARC and Hartnell!

I heard all the letsrun trolls and anonymous internet posters made a sweet team ready to roll! Coached by Mister Mister Hologram and that CCSF DJ Marc D 2X NorCal COTY along with Benny and David holding Stopwatches.

Back when this thread started, it felt like NAU's lineup was just unbeatable, but with the knowledge that for sure Grijalva, Ferro, and Kessler are not in the mix, what do you all think about NAU repeating now? We also know that Oregon is going to be stacked with new and returning talent (including Hocker, who has got to be a favorite to win, even at 10,000m xc), and ND has a very solid returning lineup.

I think it's a toss-up between Oregon, NAU, and ND right now, and will be until race day. Whoever executes gets it, as they say.