Meet the Coros XC Winners of LetsRun.com- A College XC Runner, a Guy Who Got Engaged at NYC Marathon…

by LetsRun.com
February 6, 2023

The NCAA Cross Country championships were in November. You think by now you know who the winners were. Yes, the meet was able to break the tie between Oklahoma State and Northern Arizona within minutes of the end of the competition but that is not the norm for track and field.

If track and field can take hours or days to determine who actually won a track race or determine an appeal, we can take a couple of months to track down the winners of our contests.

Overall Winner Ran at NCAA Regionals

Doug and all our top 3 get a COROS Pace 2 GPS- amazing performance, super light, and only $199

The overall winner of our COROS NCAA XC prediction contest was Dominic Mastromatteo who is a 21-year-old senior who competes for Marist College in cross country and track. Dominic was hard to track down (we blame spam filters) but we definitely didn’t want to give his prize to someone else as he wins a beautiful COROS Pace 2 Watch (will he pick the Molly Seidel edition?), a LRC Supporters Club  Membership for a Year,  and a LetsRun.com shirt.

FYI:  The Pace 2 is made for performance runners. Super light, also with calibration for track workouts, and at a great price.

Since Dominic ran at the Northeast Regional in XC, it’s fitting he won our NCAA prediction contest. A lifelong runner, he ran his first half marathon at age 8, he comes from a family of runners as his sister also ran at Marist.

Our Runner-Up Got Engaged at NYC Marathon on National TV

(We were prepared to give Dominic’s prize to our runner-up Seth Kampf who claims his running claim to fame was getting lapped by Andrew Lemencello in an ACC 10k. We think it’s probably his 2:30 marathon PB, but he’s a running legend for getting engaged on TV after the NYC Marathon and saying to his now wife, “I lied to you because I love you”:

(PS Seth says he’s a late LetsRun podcast adopter but a non-stop listener the last two years)

Individual Contest Winner Hoping to Get OTQ

The winner of the individual contest, Alex Norstrom, hails from the great state of Connecticut. Alex is 26 and a social media strategist for the National Association of Amateur Radio. Obviously, he’s really smart and a big-time runner. He competes now for the Hartbeat Track Club in Hartford, he ran collegiately at Central Connecticut State University and hopes to get an Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier in April.

He came out on top of the contest by just being a huge follower of NCAA XC and picking the athletes that would “show up big when it mattered.” That’s what he did as he picked the top 2 perfectly in both the men’s and women’s races.

Team Contest Winner- A Stats Man

The winner of the team contest was Chris Pirch, who is 42 and lives in Fredericksburg, VA with his wife and 4 kids. He’s a statistician for the Marine Corps. (We’ve had a rocket scientist when a previous contest, so we can’t say Chris has the geekiest job of a winner)

Crunching numbers is always handy in our contests, but you also have to know something about running. Chris ran track in high school, but then wrestled at NCAA powerhouse Cornell. That is the #1 combo in our book in terms of toughness.

He then picked up the running bug again post-college and now is taking names. He ran a 2:37 marathon PR at Chicago this year. He credits super-shoes and good weather. He also says he got lucky in the contest. No sir. We’re not buying it.

Congrats to our winner and COROS for sponsoring!