NCAA XC Nationals
By Thomas Heidbrier
Monday after noon the NCAA XC Div 1 Championships
took place at Indiana State University. The weather
and course were ideal for a fast time. There was only
a slight breeze and the temperature was a cool 40
degrees. The course was dry and the grass was kept
like that of a fairway. The wide open course had no
hills but big twisty turns.
Pre race favorites Jorge Torres of Colorado,
Eastern Michigan?s Boaz Cheboiywo, BYU Kip Kangogo,
and, Alabama?s David Kimani all toed the line ready to
do battle for the next 10k. But who would have guessed
Arkansas Alistair Cragg would run the crosscountry
race of his life.
At exactly 1:15 the gun fired and the race was
on. Torres, Boaz, Kimani, Tom McArdle of Dartmouth,
Cragg, and his teammate Daniel Lincoln took charge,
and passed by 1k in 2:39. By this point they had
separated them self?s from the rest of the field. A
large pack was giving chase including 4 Stanford
runners, Matt Tegenkamp, and Mark Tucker of Butler.
The lead group passed the mile in 4:35. The chase pack
was some 10 seconds back. By 2k the lead pack had
dropped McArdle and Lincoln. The lead pack hit 5k in a
blazing 14:33. McArdle and Lincoln were 5 seconds back
and chase pack was 15 seconds back of them. The chase
pack hit 5k 7-8 seconds under 15:00 minutes. By now Ed
Torres had moved onto the back end of the group. At 6k a key player faltered, Boaz showed signs of struggling
Running the blistering 4:40 pace, and Jorge Torres
Attacked him putting on a surge. Boaz could not respond and
was dropped. Kimani and Cragg responded to Torres move.
Then at 7k Jorge takes his next victim, Kimani. By now
the chase pack is starting to gain on Kimani and Boaz.
Torres and Cragg pass by 8k in 23:18. Kimani passes by
in 23:28 and Boaz is still in striking distance only 4
seconds back. The chase pack goes through in 23:49 and
is still trailing McArdle by 6 seconds. The next 2k
Torres and Cragg surge back and forth, each responding
to the increasing pace. They remain stride for stride
until about 1000 meters to go, and then Torres starts
to inch away. He has less then half a stride on Cragg.
They both search for that extra gear. With only 500
yards to go they were still battling it out. Torres lead
is increasing ever so slightly. Jorge leads by less
than two strides with only 100 yards to go. The crowd
is going out of their minds. The noise is deafen as
the crowd is chanting TORRES, TORRES, TORRES! The PA
announcer demands, people stay off the course. The
officials try to hold people back but the crowd
Pushes forward and come pouring on the course. Fans
Rush to the finish as Jorge crosses the line in 29:04.7
setting a course record, and beating Alistair by only
a second and a half. Cragg ran 29:06, but then
Stanford stole the show as they put 4 runners in the
top 10. Grant Robinson was third and the top Stanford
runner finishing in 29:36. Boaz and Kimani would
fade even more and half to kick hard to finish 7, and
11 respectively. Boaz ran 29:46, and Kimani ran
29:48. The Torres family had a lot to celebrate as Ed
kicked hard down the stretch to finish 10 in a time of
29:47. Pre race favorite Kip Kangogo struggled with a
hamstring injury and could only manage to run to 33
overall and a time of 30:29.
Stanford dominated the team race finishing with a team score of only 47. Wisconsin was second, the Eastern Michigan squad was third, and Colorado finished fourth. This was one
of the best races that I have ever seen. Torres and
Cragg were amazing. The whole race is amazing, I highly recommend going if you ever have that chance.