Everyone remembers the No. 9-ranked Oregon women's shocking one-point victory over Michigan at the 2016 NCAA Division I cross country championships. You can't blame us for overlooking them last year, as the Ducks were just fourth at both Pac-12s and the NCAA West Regional. This year, it's a different story as the No. 3-ranked women have battled strongly all season vs. No. 2 Colorado.

You've watched the FloXC show. Which squad are we overlooking that could "pull an Oregon" and ruin the party come November?

Women's Potential Upset Winner: FloXC No. 5 Stanford

The Cardinal has flown a bit under the radar this season after being awarded an ambitious No. 2 preseason ranking. They opened the season 33 points behind defending national champions Oregon at the Bill Dellinger Invitational, then placed just eighth at the Wisconsin Invitational. Vanessa Fraser and Fiona O'Keeffe have proved consistent all fall (fifth and seventh at Dellinger, 18th and 12th at Wisco, fourth and seventh at Pac-12s) and capable of running with any woman in the NCAA, but without impact runners like Elise Cranny, Christina Aragon, and Harvard transfer Courtney Smith, Stanford was not looking like a podium team anymore and dropped as low as No. 7 in the FloXC.

But this past Friday the squad finally stopped playing coy by racing Cranny and Aragon at the Pac-12 Championships; they finished 25th and 19th, respectively, as Stanford's No. 4 and No. 5. Their contributions helped the team tie No. 2-ranked Oregon for second place behind Colorado, a huge improvement on their 292-point score total at Wisco. Though they ultimately lost out on the runner-up honors by virtue of the tiebreaker, the run proves that on a great day with a few more races under the belt for Cranny and Aragon, this team is capable of winning a national title.

Consider that Aragon's progression as a true freshman last year was 14th at Pac-12s, 17th at the NCAA West Regional, and 38th at NCAAs right behind O'Keeffe, and she will likely be rounding into All-American shape by November. Cranny, too, is dangerous -- if healthy. She was 12th at NCAAs as a freshman in 2014 but missed the 2015 season due to injury and placed 158th last year while battling injury again. 

Abbie McNulty may be the difference-maker. The No. 3 woman ran to a career-best showing at Pac-12s in 16th overall compared to 42nd in 2014, 81st in 2015, and 41st in 2016. How will that translate to nationals? Last year, the 16th-place woman at Pac-12s was Colorado's Mackenzie Caldwell, who went on to earn All-American honors with a 39th-place finish in Terre Haute.

Men's Potential Upset Winner: FloXC No. 10 Arkansas

We actually tabbed the Razorbacks as the "Way Too Early" pick for the 2017 champion's crown right after the 2016 national championship race, in which Arkansas finished just 10 points outside the podium. They lost just No. 5 man Frankline Tonui and No. 6 man Kyle Hosting from that squad and returned two top-20 performers in Alex George (15th in 2016) and Jack Bruce (19th in 2016, 23rd in 2015), the latter of whom also went on to beat out No. 1-ranked Justyn Knight for runner-up honors in the 2017 NCAA outdoor 5K.

Arkansas entered the preseason ranked No. 5 in the FloXC, but since then things have been up and down. They lost a weird race to Columbia by 21 points at Iona's Meet of Champions (albeit with less than a full squad, and apparently George took a wrong turn); they won the Chile Pepper XC Festival with a one-three-four finish from George, Bruce, and fellow senior Austen Dalquist; they then dropped down to No. 9 in the FloXC after a ninth-place turn at Pre-Nats, where Dalquist dropped out. 

Part of the Razorbacks' early mystique centered on junior Andrew Ronoh, who showed a ton of potential with a 28:36 10K in 2015 but hasn't quite lived up to the hype that the time generated. He didn't race at all during this past outdoor track season and bypassed most of cross country before finally debuting at SECs with a 35th-place run, good enough only to make him the No. 8 man for Arkansas on the day. Last year, Ronoh was sixth at SEC before finishing 67th at NCAAs. If he can manage to shake off the rust from that rough season debut, his PBs show he has the potential to run up front with Bruce and George. 

Ronoh and Dalquist need to have "on days" to give Arkansas a chance. For Dalquist, who set PBs of 13:58 and 30:49 this year, that means A) finishing the race, and B) running more like his sophomore self (sixth at SECs/89th at NCAAs) than his junior year self (ninth at SEcs/196th at NCAAs). If the past is any indicator, neither of them may even run again until nationals -- although maybe not, since South Central region foe Texas is looking a lot stronger than anyone previously thought after a runner-up finish at Big 12s.

Cameron Griffith, the No. 3 man at NCAAs in 2016 and at SECs last weekend, may be poised for a breakout race. The junior has improved from 61st at the conference championship as a freshman to 48th as a sophomore and, now, seventh this past weekend. The 13:52 guy was 48th at NCAAs last year and if he can move up just a few spots to give the Razorbacks three All-Americans, they will be in a good spot.

Now, I've mentioned five guys. But the Razorbacks' No. 5 guy at SECs was someone totally new -- a true freshman named Matt Young from Oklahoma making his debut in uniform with an 11th-place finish. So who is this guy? And is he good enough to make Arkansas the upset champions for 2017? He was just outside of qualifying for the national cross country meets last fall, placing 11th at Foot Locker South and ninth at NXN South. The four-time state champion placed fourth at the New Balance Nationals Outdoor 5K and owns prep PBs of 14:45 for 5K, 9:11 for 3200m, 4:19 for 1600m, and 1:56 for 800m. He's actually raced 10K before, too -- he beat Griffith and would have been Arkansas' No. 4 man at Chile Pepper with a 10th place, 30:29 finish while racing unattached. That certainly bodes well for the longer races at regionals and NCAAs.