Will NAU be historically great and three peat? Or might they not even win the 2018 NCAA xc title?

Until another team puts seven guys in the low-23:00s, no. BYU and Stanford may have them on the track, but NAU is THE cross country powerhouse right now.

Doubt Lomong will back up the hype. He ran out of his mind for one race, and that never translated on the track. I don't think he will even be an All-American. That said, I think NAU has too much firepower upfront to be stopped. Baxter and Day are too consistent, and the rest of the team will fall in line for the win. BYU will choke yet again. Wish they had Clinger to make in interesting.

I see a lot of hate on these boards for the brojos so I just want to say that I loved reading these write ups, especially the men’s 1 & 2 predictions. Really fun to see the history of Henry Rono’s run and the 2003 stanford run brought up to enrich the conversation of these two incredible teams. Looking forward to the season, and hopefully we can see some exciting stuff in November

Brojo appreciation wrote:

I see a lot of hate on these boards for the brojos so I just want to say that I loved reading these write ups, especially the men’s 1 & 2 predictions. Really fun to see the history of Henry Rono’s run and the 2003 stanford run brought up to enrich the conversation of these two incredible teams. Looking forward to the season, and hopefully we can see some exciting stuff in November

Yes, great job on the write ups. It was great to hear commentary from the coaches too.

Pulling for the BYU Cougars to pull off the upset, but not counting on it.

Recent history has shown that they haven't been able to have a breakthrough performance as a team at nationals, with seemingly a couple of sub par showings. Hoping this is the year they turn it around and are able to get some low sticks to compete with NAU and Stanford up front.

Iowa State, Portland, and Alabama scare me too, and could obviously be a threat to BYU, could they pull off an upset over NAU? Maybe with an off day. Especially if Alabama can summon a top 80 type of performance from their fifth guy. Could Kwemoi be that?

If Pollard is healthy, Iowa State has a real shot.

Brojo appreciation wrote:

I see a lot of hate on these boards for the brojos so I just want to say that I loved reading these write ups, especially the men’s 1 & 2 predictions. Really fun to see the history of Henry Rono’s run and the 2003 stanford run brought up to enrich the conversation of these two incredible teams. Looking forward to the season, and hopefully we can see some exciting stuff in November

Thans for the kind words. We are smart enough to give Jonathan Gault the freedom and time to write things like that. To me simple pre-season rankings - when there already are polls - would be kind of boring but I found the articles to be really interesting as well. As I was reading them, I thought to myself, "Man this is actually interesting. I'm learning a lot from the coaches. If you know the stories of the teams a bit (think RWTB) it's a lot more interesting."

I did add a few things, namely a lot on the history of the 2003 Stanford team (Gault would have been about 12 then) and the stuff about how I didn't view NAU as a lock and also a lot on Nuttall's family in the women's article. Also, I was adament that Stanford be moved up in the rankings to #3 from #4. And oh yeah, I made sure to highlight how BYU has two 7th year seniors on the homepage.

I only wish there weren't coaches that blew off Gault's interview requests. I get that he doesn't have every coaches cell phones and some don't answer their office lines (one coach was fantastic this year but had never talked to him in year's past for that reaason) but if I was a recruit, I"d honestly be wary of going to a coach who is such a control freak they can't talk to the press about their team.

I know so many of them are worried about the burden of expectations but this is supposed to be fun right?

NA Who? wrote:

Doubt Lomong will back up the hype. He ran out of his mind for one race, and that never translated on the track. I don't think he will even be an All-American. That said, I think NAU has too much firepower upfront to be stopped. Baxter and Day are too consistent, and the rest of the team will fall in line for the win. BYU will choke yet again. Wish they had Clinger to make in interesting.

I agree on all accounts. Excellent post.

rojo wrote:

Not since 2003 has a men's NCAA xc team returned 3 from the top 10 from the year before. In 2003, Stanford was historically great and won by putting 6 in the top 13. If the meet was scored Stanford versus the rest of the field, Stanford would have geen the winner.

So NAU has the chance to be great but the problem for them is Stanford has 3 of the top 10 returners from last year (all guys were in the top 20 last year) and BYU has 4 sub-13:40 guys with a lots of experience, as two of them are 5th-year guys and two of them are 7th-year guys.

So by no means is NAU an automatic lock. Who do you think will be the winner? Can anyone touch NAU?

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2018/09/2018-ncaa-mens-xc-preview-2-byu-1-northern-arizona/

Yes, even in the colder weather, Alabama will win. Sorry, but it's gonna happen this year.

I think it's BYU's year.

NAU may be good but they ain’t putting 6 in the top 13.

Alabama, 21st Century version of Washington State and UTEP in the late 70's early 80's.

Alabama indeed.

Alabama.

Like Really Bro wrote:

I think it's BYU's year.

+1 They have the horses to do it!

Anyone can talk the talk... But few can walk the walk!

BYU Fan! wrote:

Like Really Bro wrote:

I think it's BYU's year.

+1 They have the horses to do it!

They did last year too....

Might be... wrote:

Alabama, 21st Century version of Washington State and UTEP in the late 70's early 80's.

Alabama indeed.

Alabama.

This^

rojo wrote:

Not since 2003 has a men's NCAA xc team returned 3 from the top 10 from the year before. In 2003, Stanford was historically great and won by putting 6 in the top 13. If the meet was scored Stanford versus the rest of the field, Stanford would have geen the winner.

1981 NCAA XC Championships UTEP 17 points

1. 28:45.6 Mathews Motshwarateu, Texas-El Paso

2. 28:46.4 Michael Musyoki. Texas-El Paso

3. 29:19.3 Gabriel Kamau, Texas-El Paso

4. 29.22.1 Mark Scrutton, Colorado

5. 29:30.4 Graeme Fell, San Diego State

6. 29:30.5 Alan Scharsu, Penn State

7. 29:32.6 Suleiman Nyambui, Texas-El Paso

8. 29:33.6 Gidamis Shahanga, Texas-El Paso

9. 29:35.6 David Taylor, Arkansas

10. 29:36 Richard Tuwei. Washington State

Might be... wrote:

Alabama, 21st Century version of Washington State and UTEP in the late 70's early 80's.

Alabama indeed.

Alabama.

The generosity of the United States tax payer is amazing.

rojo wrote:

I only wish there weren't coaches that blew off Gault's interview requests.

Surely you noticed that every single female coach declined to be interviewed. The only male coach to do so was Ihmels.

Will NAU be historically great and three peat? Or might they not even win the 2018 NCAA xc title?

This headline makes no sense to me. If they don't even win the NCAA title, they obviously won't 3 peat.