By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

John Nepolitan photo

Three weeks after the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, the best of college cross country returns to Madison on Saturday, Oct. 19, with the University of Wisconsin hosting this year’s NCAA Division I Pre-Nationals at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course.

Here are 10 storylines to follow at this year’s precursor to the national championship meet.

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NAU Depth In Full Force

It’s no secret that the Northern Arizona women are the most complete team in the country this fall, but we’ve yet to see how high the ceiling reaches.

The No. 1 Lumberjacks came away with a big win at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Oct. 4, handling both No. 2 BYU and No. 4 Notre Dame with ease, and that was without two of their stars in the lineup.

Karrie Baloga, Maggi Congdon, Nikita Moore, Alex Carlson, Ava Mitchell and Alyson Churchill, all of which finished in the top 20 individually at Joe Piane, provide enough depth for a very talented NAU team, but the edition of Elise Stearns and Ali Upshaw into this weekend’s lineup make the Lumberjacks the team to beat.

BYU and Notre Dame, along with No. 3 Washington and No. 5 NC State, have depth of their own, but it would take a perfect day for either of those teams to be in position to beat NAU, let alone come within a handful of points for second.

The Return Of Graham Blanks

There was plenty speculation surrounding Graham Blanks as to whether he would return for his senior season at Harvard or turn pro after finishing ninth in this year’s 5,000-meter Olympic final in Paris.

After learning more details, the reigning NCAA cross country champion has returned to Harvard this fall and is expected to make his season debut on Saturday in what will be his first cross country race since winning that NCAA title in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Nov. 18, 2023.

Blanks’ run to his first NCAA title was done in historic, undefeated fashion, with wins coming at the Nuttycombe Invitational, the Ivy League Championships and the NCAA Northeast Region, all leading up to him becoming the first Ivy League male athlete ever to win an NCAA cross country individual title.

When Blanks won the Nuttycombe title last fall, he did so against a gauntlet of a line-up in NAU’s Nico Young, New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel and Stanford’s Ky Robinson. This year’s Pre-Nationals will feature another intriguing line-up where Blanks will go up against Samuel, again, as well as Arkansas’ Kirami Yego and Patrick Kiprop, Iowa State’s Robin Kwemoi Bera, NAU’s David Mullarkey and Tulane’s Bernard Cheruiyot.

Hilda’s Time

Parker Valby’s time at Florida has come and gone and a new face has emerged within Will and Samantha Palmer’s program: Hilda Olemomoi.

After running with the Alabama Crimson Tide the last two seasons, the nine-time All-American joined the Gators this school year, replacing the massive void of Valby’s presence after she completed an unbelievable collegiate career that included winning six national titles.

Last outdoor track season saw Olemomoi was the only runner who could give Valby fits at the NCAA Championship meet, pushing Valby to run a meet record time of 31 minutes, 46.09 seconds in the women’s 10,000 and finishing only five seconds behind in second, which also put herself under the meet record.

Saturday’s race in Wisconsin, which will be Olemomoi’s first time ever racing at the Thomas Zimmer course, will give us a first glance at her in a Florida uniform and an opportunity for herself to pick up her first major in-season victory. It won’t be easy with a field featuring West Virginia’s Ceili McCabe, BYU’s Lexy Halladay-Lowry, NAU’s Stearns and a handful of others.

Here Come The Irish

The energy within the Notre Dame men’s program has been on the up and up after a statement performance at their own Joe Piane Invitational on Oct. 4 when they defeated NAU.

Ethan Coleman was one of five Irish runners to finish top 15 individually at Joe Piane and led Notre Dame past NAU 55-68, keeping the team title streak alive for a third consecutive year at their home invitational.

With the win, the Irish moved to No. 5 in the latest national coaches’ poll, earning the program’s highest ranking since the 2021 season when they entered the year ranked preseason No. 2 and stayed there for five consecutive weeks.

Coleman’s efforts, finishing as the top American in eighth place at Joe Piane, are worth noting, but so are Daelen Ackley’s, Izaiah Steury’s, Drew Griffth’s and Carter Solomon’s. Between those five, they put together a seven-second spread, along with putting all five of their scorers ahead of NAU’s third runner.

Head coach Chris Neal has a very good team in South Bend this fall and one that could trophy at nationals for the first time since 2021 when they finished second to NAU in Stillwater, Oklahoma, during the COVID season.

This year’s team is full of talent, youth and veteran leadership that will continue to get better over the course of the next couple of weeks, especially when they roll into the ACC and Great Lakes meets.

Can Huskies Find More Magic In Wisconsin?

No team left the Nuttycombe Invitational feeling as good as Washington did after winning the women’s title over Utah by 29 points.

Much like how the Huskies won the final Pac-12 cross country meet last fall, September's Nuttycombe Invitational victory was a total team effort that has since raised the team's confidence.

Penn transfer Maeve Stiles and a resurging Julia David-Smith showed they are potential All-Americans after finishing top 15 individually at Nuttycombe, giving the Huskies a pair of low stick runners.

Duke transfer Amina Maatoug, Chloe Foerster and India Weir all had solid showings, too, at Nuttycombe, with those three cracking the top 35 and were separated by less than eight seconds from each other.

The same five are expected to race on Saturday, in addition to Sophie O’Sullivan making her season debut after racing for Ireland at the Paris Olympic Games, adding another key piece to Washington’s already talented team.

Washington should expect to face their biggest challenge this season with NAU, BYU, Notre Dame and NC State all in the field, providing a chance for the Huskies to prove they belong in the team trophy conversation at nationals.

Arkansas Breakthrough

Even without No. 1 Oklahoma State and No. 2 BYU in the field, Saturday’s pre-nationals could go a long way in building confidence for the third-ranked Arkansas men, who are off to a great start in 2024.

Coming off a 29-point outing at the Chile Pepper XC Festival on Sept. 28, the Razorbacks are looking as good as they’ve been in recent seasons, starting at the front with Yego.

In his final Chile Pepper race, Yego earned back-to-back victories at his home meet and became the first athlete to produce a time under 23 minutes over the 8,000-meter course at Agri Park, running 22:57 to win by over 22 seconds. 

That run was also done without his All-American teammate, Kiprop, who guided the Razorbacks to fourth place at last year’s NCAA Cross Country Championships.

Adding Kiprop into the mix for the first time this season on Saturday gives the Razorbacks the best duo in the pre-nationals field, with both being in contention for the individual win.

Arkansas also expects to have Ben Shearer back in the line-up for the first time since finishing 42nd at nationals.

Akron transfers Timothy Chesondin and Brian Masai expect to fill in for the absence of Myles Richter and Jacob McLeod, who were the Razorbacks' fourth and fifth runners at nationals. Chesondin, who was an All-American for the Zips last season in cross country, finishing 36th, finished third at Chile Pepper and Masai was sixth.

Elias Schreml and Reuben Reina, ninth and 10th, respectively, at Chile Pepper, complete a strong core of Arkansas runners heading to the starting line this weekend.

How Close Is BYU To NAU?

When the season ends, the BYU and NAU women’s teams may be sick of seeing each other at meets.

The top two Mountain Region schools will face each other for the second time in as many weeks on Saturday and potentially another two times if both teams were to qualify for nationals in November.

The Lumberjacks ran away with the first meeting at the Joe Piane Invitational, defeating the Cougars 52-65. However, Halladay-Lowry came away with the individual win for BYU, finishing 19 seconds ahead of NAU’s first runner in Baloga.

Despite NAU coming out on top in the team race, BYU did have the upper hand in terms of low stick runners, with both Halladay-Lowry (first) and Jenna Hutchins (fourth) ahead of NAU’s Baloga (7th). 

If you also include Carmen Alder in the mix, who finished 10th, BYU had three of its runners ahead of NAU’s top two, and Alder was only a few tenths of a second behind Congdon.

The difference maker for NAU was its third, fourth and fifth runners were all within five seconds of each other, whereas BYU’s fourth was 12 seconds behind.

With the addition of Stearns and Upshaw back on the NAU team this weekend, it makes it incredibly challenging for not just BYU to compete with them, but for any other team in the country too.

That being said, BYU head coach Diljeet Taylor has shown over the years that she’s been able to get her runners to peak at the right time of the year, and while Saturday’s meet is an important one, it’s not a do-or-die situation for the Cougars.

When you add in Taylor Rohantinsky, Riley Chamberlain, Taylor Lovell, Anastaysia Davis, Destiny Everett and Nelah Roberts, BYU has almost the same amount of depth and talent that NAU has, making them pretty equal opponents given the right circumstances.

Something To Prove

Teams traveling to Madison this weekend to race at this pre-nationals competition are expecting this as an opportunity for themselves to show the country what they are truly made of; some more than others.

In the case of the Iowa State men and NC State women, this will be a “get back” meet for them both.

On a rare occasion, the NC State women fell out of the No. 1 spot in the latest national coaches’ poll after falling to Alabama at the Lakefront Invitational on Oct. 4, showing how important Katelyn Tuohy and Kelsey Chmiel were to the program while leading the Wolf Pack to three consecutive national titles.

Nonetheless, head coach Laurie Henes still has a talented squad in 2024, but the talent is much younger with rising stars Angelina Napoleon and Kate Putman and freshmen Bethany Michalak and Ellie Shea contributing to the team right away.

Veterans Grace Hartman, Hannah Gapes, Fiona Smith and Caroline Murrell need to continue doing their parts, while also guiding the younger runners in the right direction to ensure team success.

As for the Iowa State men, they just need to get a better start at the beginning of races, and being eighth at 2-kilometer mark wasn’t probably the position they wanted to start off at Nuttycombe.

Freshman Robin Kwemoi Bera showed some moxie, going to the lead early on in a competitive field of All-Americans, and seniors Said Mechaal, Silas Winders and Gable Sieperda showed experience as racers by making up a ton of ground in the latter half of the race.

As long as Iowa State can get out quicker, they’ll be in good position for a shot at the team title.

Teams Looking For Another Splash At Thomas Zimmer

Not every team that ran at Nuttycombe is returning for pre-nationals this weekend, but the ones that are want another crack the Thomas Zimmer course before hopefully returning for the big dance in November.

The Furman women and Washington men saw the biggest jump in the polls after impressive performances at Nuttycombe, where the Paladins finished sixth and the Huskies finished fifth.

From dropping out of the polls a week after entering the year ranked No. 24, the Furman women spiked up to No. 13, matching the program’s highest ranking from last season when they entered the national championship meet. In the recent polls, Furman dropped one spot to No. 14.

The Wisconsin women also benefited from a great showing on their home course, finishing fifth ahead of Furman, then going from 19th to 10th in the polls and recently down to No. 13.

Washington went into Nuttycombe ranked No. 27, then elevated to No. 13 a week later and has since remained there in the latest polls.

The Michigan men, who finished a spot behind Washington at Nuttycombe, went from No. 27 in preseason to No. 14 recently and are expected to be back racing this weekend in Wisconsin.

Teams also returning to Madison for a second go include: Florida State men and women, Syracuse men and women, Illinois men and women, Air Force men, Colorado men, Eastern Kentucky men, Furman men, Iona men, Tulsa men, Boston College women, Michigan women, Iowa State women, Lipscomb women, Portland women and Wake Forest women.

The Year Of The Freshmen

It’s no secret that this year’s freshmen class is one of, if not, the best the NCAA has seen in quite some time.

Six freshman women and four freshman men ranked top 20 nationally, based on times, are set to toe the line in either the “A” or “B” races on Saturday.

In the women’s “A” race, Tulane’s Caroline Jeptanui (No. 2) and Blezzin Kimutai (No. 11), Toledo’s Mercy Kinyanjui (No. 10), New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei (No. 14) and Louisville’s Nancy Chepleting (No. 18).

The men’s “A” race will feature Cal Baptist’s Zouhair Redouane (No. 9), Tulane’s Bernard Cheruiyot (No. 14) and Notre Dame’s Drew Griffith (No. 17), the top American freshman.

However, the men’s “B” field will arguably include the overall top athlete of the entire meet in Evans Kurui of Washington State, ranked No. 2 in the country only behind another freshman in Texas Tech’s Ernest Cheruiyot.

Auburn’s Brenda Jepchirchir should be the overwhelming favorite in the women’s “B” race, ranked No. 15 in the country.