WTW: Premature Celebrations (Both Good and Bad) & The NCAA XC Regionals That Were
The Week That Was in Running, November 8 – 14, 2021
By Robert Johnson
November 15, 2021
Past editions of the Week That Was can be found here. Got a tip, question or comment? Please call us at 844-LETSRUN (538-7786), email us, or post in our forum. This week’s edition is dedicated to an old Cornell runner of mine, Jimmy Wyner.
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NCAA Regionals By The Numbers
40 – number of schools that will be represented at NCAAs in the team competition (between the men and women)
31 – The Oregon women grabbed the 31st and final spot in the 2021 NCAA XC field. Oregon got in on a tie-break over UConn or they would have missed NCAAs for the seconds straight year.
22 – number of schools that qualified both a men’s team and women’s team.
19 – number of years in a row that the Iona men had made it to NCAAs until this year. They were third in the Northeast Regional last week and didn’t get in at-large. They had the fourth-longest men’s streak going. The three longer streaks were all extended on Friday, by Colorado (30), Stanford (28), and BYU (23).
12 – number of teams that qualified for NCAAs from the Mountain Region between the men and women, the highest of any region. The other regions qualified the following number of teams: Great Lakes 10, West 8, Midwest 7, South 6, Mid-Atlantic 5, Northeast 5, Southeast 5, South Central 4.
6 – number of ranked teams that didn’t make it to NCAAs. The USTFCCCA coaches’ polls were pretty damn accurate. For the men, #20 Boise State, #21 Utah State, and #22 Colorado State all missed out. Boise State was 6th in the West regionals with 115 points — just eight points shy of Gonzaga (if they’d beaten Gonzaga, they would have made it). Utah State and Colorado State both had a lot of at-large points, but had off days at the Mountain Regional, finishing 8th and 9th, which meant they were blocked by Weber State and Montana State.
Of the four unranked men’s teams that did make it to NCAAs, the first three in were the teams that were 31st (Wake Forest), 32nd (Alabama), and 33rd (UNC) in the “receiving votes” category. Michigan State, which wasn’t receiving any votes, also got in after finishing fourth in the Great Lakes.
For the women, #27 Liberty was just sixth in the Southeast Regional where #29 Kentucky missed out after finishing third. #29 Gonzaga failed to go after finishing 4th in the West. The four unranked teams to get in were UConn (tied for #32 in RV), Butler (tied for #32 in RV), Villanova (#35 in RV), and Rice (no votes), which is going for the first time since 2010.
Tough getting on Twitter for this. The NCAA XC qualifying is what it is. UKXC had a great final month. We lost to (at the time) #5, #11 and #14 at SECs and #1 and #9 at Regionals. I’m so proud of our team, how well we raced and how GOOD we are.
— Hakon DeVries (@hakondevries) November 13, 2021
3 – number of individuals qualifying for nationals for both the Villanova and Boise State men (but their teams didn’t make it), something you don’t see every year. It’s interesting to note that the Villanova men won’t bet going to NCAAs despite putting 5 in the top 20 (57 total points) and 7 in the top 28 at their regional, but the Villanova women did qualify as an at-large team despite only putting 3 in the top 37 and scoring more than twice as many points (105).
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Stat of the Week
3 – number of Americans who have ever broken 60:00 in the half marathon
7 – number of Kenyans who broke 60:00 last week at the Madrid Half Marathon, which was won by Ronald Kirui in a course-record 59:38
So far this year, 34 men have broken 60:00 for the half — all from either Kenya or Ethiopia. Kenya leads the way with 28 and Ethiopia has just 6.
That number may be surprising to some as the population of Kenya is less than half of that of Ethiopia, 54 million to 110 million. But Kenya often has more depth in terms of performances, leading in six of the following eight statistics in the table below.
| Kenya | Ethiopia | |
| # of Top 100 Female Half Marathoners in 2021 | 34 | 23 |
| # of Top 100 Female Half Marathoners in History | 48 | 35 |
| # of Top 100 Female Marathoners in 2021 | 28 | 40 |
| # of Top 100 Female Marathoners in History | 31 | 43 |
| # of Top 100 Male Half Marathoners in 2021 | 52 | 11 |
| # of Top 100 Male Half Marathoners in History | 69 | 20 |
| # of Top 100 Male Marathoners in 2021 | 39 | 28 |
| # of Top 100 Male Marathoners in History | 49 | 40 |
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Tweet of the Week I / Even The Japanese Celebrate Early
The battle to be the team representing Gifu prefecture at next month's National High School Ekiden. 1 team thought they had it. The other got it. https://t.co/RRiosPBTb5
— Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) November 14, 2021
A friendly reminder to all. Run through the line unless you are absolutely, 100% certain no one is within five meters of you.
見習うべきゴールスプリント。
本当にかっこよかったです！ https://t.co/YUoHqUOtfM pic.twitter.com/H8EzWj50ap— 森拳真 (@kenshin_mori) November 14, 2021
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Tweet of the Week II / Here’s How You Celebrate in Style
Speaking of celebrations, France’s Jimmy Gressier, who made the Olympic 5000 final this year at age 24 (13:08 pb), is becoming known for them. He had one for the ages at Sunday’s French short-course cross country championships as he spent the final minute of the race high-fiving fans and the mascot before hurdling the finish line tape.
🔥 Quelle démonstration sur le cross court ! Quel champion ! 💪
🥇 Jimmy Gressier (Boulogne-sur-mer Ac)
🥈 Alexis Miellet (Dijon Uc)
🥉 Donovan Christien (Bannalec Pays de Quimperlé Athlé)💻 Suivez les #CFCross en 🔴 𝗗𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗧 sur https://t.co/63xdTVLhtA pic.twitter.com/2S3ekHwtAb
— FFA (@FFAthletisme) November 14, 2021
That was a new move from Gressier, who is a big fan of airplane wings in the home straight. Two years ago at the Euro U23 XC champs, he used that move before walking across the finish line and lifting the tape across his head:
Gressier didn’t become the master of celebrations straight away, however. When he won the 2018 Euro U23 XC champs, Gressier grabbed a pair of French flags and tried to limbo under the tape only to slip and break the tape face-first. Practice makes perfect, people.
We don’t deserve Jimmy Gressier https://t.co/B3t4ZR6PE4 pic.twitter.com/jAVtSsQlQy
— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) November 14, 2021
MB: Wyner
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Recommended Reads
- Charlie Spedding recalls what it was like to win bronze in the 1984 Olympic marathon
- LRC Super Seniors: Meet the 6th- and 7th-Year Seniors (And Even One 9th Year) Running At The NCAA Cross Country Championships This Weekend There are around a dozen athletes who will get to run NCAA XC for a 5th time on Saturday. We introduce you to a few of them, plus the 26-year-old ninth-year senior (and mother) who first ran NCAA XC in 2013.
- LRC The US Army’s Elkanah Kibet Is Living The American Dream At Age 38 – “Don’t lose hope, show up again, keep going” At the age of 38, after 11 straight disappointing marathons, Elkaneh Kibet PRd in marathon #13 in NY where he finished 4th overall and beat the great Kenenisa Bekele.
*MB: The Elkaneh Kibet Interview - LRC The 2021 New York City Marathon ESPN2 Broadcast Was Very Frustrating To Watch At Times — 5 Ideas To Improve All Marathon Broadcasts Broadcasting two live sporting events on the same channel at the same time is very difficult. Robert Johnson offers some ideas on how to make marathon broadcasts better moving forward. *MB: To grow the sport, we need better coverage than this (NYC marathon broadcast)
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Quotes Of The Day And Last Week’s Home Pages
To see the quotes of the day from last week or last week’s home page or any home page, go to our archive page.
Got a tip, question or comment? Please call us at 844-LETSRUN (538-7786), email us or post in our forum.