They carry seven runners, so that if the runner usually fifth has a bad day, the sixth and seventh can move up. XC Nationals depends on the performances of all the runners from the top teams. That's how the scoring works. If UNM gets sixty, NC State needs 59. Those scores are computed by totaling up the top five team placings for each team and adding any sixth or seventh runners in before your fifth. So, it's not about one runner. That's how NAU's been able to win even when they don't have three horses in the top ten. Other guys step up and deliver the win. NC State has plenty of All-Americans to deliver a victory but they have a stern test this year in teams like OK State, which does have three potential top ten runners, any one of whom might challenge for the podium, and New Mexico.