BYU takes down #1 NAU, wins Cowboy Jamboree. Stanford also beats NAU.

Can someone explain ncaa xc strategy to me? They keeping these guys on a more consistent training schedule by not racing, or do they not want to show all their cards early?

I think with how competitive this race is and it being so early in the season, if you aren’t 100% ready your race here can get demoralizing in a hurry. It makes sense to hold a guy out, look at Kueshe.

BYU was very impressive today, their depth is always their strength but we will see if they continue to get better. I know several former BYU runners and the competition just to make the travel squad is intense. No working your way into shape off a lack luster summer, they are always deep and sharp at the beginning of XC

The season is very short and backing down to race, recovering, and such can take up 5-7 days, or almost 10% of the season. Training through is a gamble - look at Colorado, they have been pounding the training and were awful today both men and women.

Some rest because they are banged up early season, or they are injury-prone and want to save their big efforts til they count. Others, like Sahlman, may wind up redshirting and want to hold that option open. Some, like Ky Robinson, ran track late into the summer (Worlds, Commonwealths) and probably want more time to build up their mileage base before racing. And probably for some top teams there's gamesmanship by not showing your full hand.

Fringe contenders for #1, yes. But fringe for the podium? Nice try. They are definitely a top 4 team even with Bons and Troutner out. Anything can happen at nationals, but on an average day they should be top 4. Clinger, Allen(both multi-time AA/top 20) and Nokes are an incredible top 3, with impressive depth after that.

Colorado surprised me. They may be top 5 at nationals.

Air Force surprised me. Thought they'd be higher.

Nico peaked the summer after high school. His 4th will be the highest he ever places.

OSU will go nowhere but down.

Your top three teams here are your top 3 in November, order depending on the day, and whether Colin runs.

Peaked the summer after high school but ran 13:11 as a 19 year old last year? How many American 19 year olds have ever run faster? The answer is zero.

Nau been hitting too many treadmill tempos, forgot what the ground feels like

Nico didn't do amazing in XC last year either. Not that 11th at NCAA's isn't amazing but for a guy who got 4th as a true frosh it could be billed as "underperforming".

It's a bit confusing how he seems to be making bounds on the track but seems to have stagnated a bit in XC. Then again, he did run around 15 seconds faster this year at this meet than last season, so maybe it's just that the people around him are getting really good.

Was Nico's frosh year the xc season in the winter with a lot of the field missing?

Yeah that was the spring of his freshman year. 95% of the “usual” field was there. Maybe one or two teams didn’t qualify that normally would have, but that was due to extremely poor performances on their end- just like it happens at regionals every year. People think there was less depth that day when in reality, there was just more people that blew up than the usual. That course was brutal, and with half the field going out between 2:30 to just under 2:40 through the 1k…graves were dug that day early on. Coming from someone that ran in that race, I passed by some big names that were dying hard early on that went on to qualify and run at the Olympic/ world trials in the 5k & 10k…and not to mention it’s just so much more competitive now with shoe technology and smart coaching. To podium this year, you’d have to have a similar team that it took to win 4-5 years ago.

Nico’s a 13:11 5k guy, he’s obviously improving a lot, he’s probably just not peaking for an early season cross country meet

It’s all about conference (to appease athletic directors), regionals (to advance), and obviously nationals. All of those races are in a span of 3 weeks where you have an 8k, and two 10ks. You have to keep your team fresh for this stretch which does include holding out a guy or two here and there. Races like today are about getting head-to-head points. Winning these meets aren’t the priority. We’ll forget about these results by next week.

4th coming from behind (vs falling off the lead group) and 11th are essentially the same performance.

Nico may have underachieved at nationals xc last year because the team was unused to the humid conditions that day in Tallahassee. The demand to run with the team always affects the top runners on national contenders as well. Don't forget that he was hammering some in-season races last year before disappointing a bit at nationals. At Mtn Regionals, he was 2nd, just one second behind Conner Mantz, who became a two time national xc champion in Florida. Maybe this year Nico will push to be at his best at nationals. He should be among the favorites.

Anyone shocked at Washington?

U. Washington much more concerning than Nico, Focus on relevant.

I can’t remember this many teams showing up at a race this early and running this hard. For example CU is usually dueling metro state at the rocket mtn shootout this weekend tempo running.

It will be very interesting to see how these teams all progress the rest of the season. Hell some of these west coast schools have only been in class for 2 weeks

Ok I'm watching ESPN with their review of the college football games yesterday.

We need that for cross country (and track).

Quick video highlights of the various meets around the country.

Talk about the team race- the runners other than the #1- who helped with the team score.

Video could show them finishing and maybe points in the race where significant moves were made.