2018 Mountain West XC Champs: Led by a 1-2-3 finish, #2 New Mexico edges #3 Boise State (33-35). #8 Boise State men

If they run like this at nationals, Boise will beat UNM. The low pegs for UNM are going to be their downfall this year. The women's race at Nationals should be pretty entertaining this year between Oregon, Colorado, UNM and Boise.

joedirt wrote:

If they run like this at nationals, Boise will beat UNM. The low pegs for UNM are going to be their downfall this year. The women's race at Nationals should be pretty entertaining this year between Oregon, Colorado, UNM and Boise.

Arkansas could win it all .....

It'll be an exciting nationals. If UNM's #5 doesn't improve significantly, they stand no chance. If they run like this, they'll be lucky to be 2nd. Impressive depth in the men's race. I'd expect 3-4 of them to get into nationals. Anybody know what happened to Cole R for CSU? I thought he'd contend for the win, he has run like 7:50 and 13:35?

If Peloquin were healthy, WOW, this team would be unbeatable.

joedirt wrote:

If they run like this at nationals, Boise will beat UNM. The low pegs for UNM are going to be their downfall this year. The women's race at Nationals should be pretty entertaining this year between Oregon, Colorado, UNM and Boise.

Yeah, the low scorers for New Mexico will be their downfall. That is always my team's issue, the athletes scoring too little.

And? wrote:

joedirt wrote:

If they run like this at nationals, Boise will beat UNM. The low pegs for UNM are going to be their downfall this year. The women's race at Nationals should be pretty entertaining this year between Oregon, Colorado, UNM and Boise.

Arkansas could win it all .....

True, every single NCAA could theoretically win it all!

In a deeper field, I believ the Broncos would have beat UNM yesterday - as the Lobo #5 would have yielded far more points relative to the others. The Lobo #5 runner was 31 seconds behind the BSU #5, which is a lot of points at Nattys.

Still, a crazy close race. If Ostrander would have beat Prouse, they would have tied at 34-34, and then the Broncos would have won it with their #6 (BSU's 6th was 12 place, UNM's was 21st).

It will be a great matchup at Nationals - especially with Oregon and Colorado in the mix.

Lobo trouble? wrote:

In a deeper field, I believ the Broncos would have beat UNM yesterday - as the Lobo #5 would have yielded far more points relative to the others. The Lobo #5 runner was 31 seconds behind the BSU #5, which is a lot of points at Nattys.

Still, a crazy close race. If Ostrander would have beat Prouse, they would have tied at 34-34, and then the Broncos would have won it with their #6 (BSU's 6th was 12 place, UNM's was 21st).

It will be a great matchup at Nationals - especially with Oregon and Colorado in the mix.

All very true. Another option would have been BSU’s 2nd runner- or maybe it was the 3rd?- beat the UNM runner in front of her, as she only lost by a second whereas Alli was a few seconds -3 or 4?- back from Prouse.

Will indeed be a great match up at Natty’s. I’m rooting for the Broncos! Would be nice to see a team take it that isnt traditionally in the mix.

Also, someone else mentioned how dominant BSU would be if Brenna Peloquin was still running. Anyone know what happened there?

She's healthy now and that's all that matters

In my opinion, nationals is looking like a race between Oregon and BSU, with a chance of Colorado breaking into the top 2. UNM is looking like a 3rd - 4th place team at nationals - unless their 5th runner has a huge day.

Not sure we'll learn much more at regionals. I think all these squads are a lock, and so don't have to race "all out" just a week prior to nationals (and because nobody ever remembers who wins regionals...). For these squads, regionals is sorta like a preliminary heat on the track - you just want to put in enough effort to do OK and move on , but not much more.

Lobo trouble? wrote:

In a deeper field, I believ the Broncos would have beat UNM yesterday - as the Lobo #5 would have yielded far more points relative to the others. The Lobo #5 runner was 31 seconds behind the BSU #5, which is a lot of points at Nattys.

Still, a crazy close race. If Ostrander would have beat Prouse, they would have tied at 34-34, and then the Broncos would have won it with their #6 (BSU's 6th was 12 place, UNM's was 21st).

It will be a great matchup at Nationals - especially with Oregon and Colorado in the mix.

agree-BSU's and Oregon's 5th are stronger than UNM's 5th-should be a good one at NCAA's!

The lobos 1-3 should be VERY low, possibly 12 points or so.....so Cohen and whomever their #5 is need to keep it at 80 pts total which is more than doable. Also of note? They ran a senior as most likely her last race on Friday and will most likely race last years #5 from here on out.

So this weeks Nationals Coaching Poll ranked New Mexico Number #1, Oregon #2, Colorado #3 ,Boise State #4, and Arkansas #5. I dont know what the Coaches saw but IMO there was nothing UNM did that showed they should have been ranked back at the top. Each week Kelati has increased her gap between her and Kurgat with this past weekend it being around 18 seconds which IMO means that there will be other runners at national who will fill that gap. I would bet any amount of money they will not go 1-2. The gap between Kelati and Prouse has stayed at 20 or more seconds all season. Their fourth runner gap has stayed at around 50-55 seconds and UNMs 5th and 6th runners have been almost 90 seconds or more behind Kelati in all three races . There has not been any improvement there as a team since they got beat at Nuttycomb. I can see them getting 4th and wouldn’t be shocked if they got 5th at Nattys.

Colorado’s loss at Pac 12s was less about them not being as good but more about Oregon starting to run to their potential. Colorado’s run at Pac 12 was still very very solid and should have warranted them being ranked #2 and Oregon’s performance should have garnered them #1. Most of the polls are seeing low sticks for UNM but are not considering Colorado Boise State and Oregon all have low sticks that will be close to UNM at the top but on the back end have 5th runners that will be ahead 30 seconds or more which can end up being 40-50 places and way more than UNM can outscore over those other teams upfront at 1-3.