Heading into the 2024 Wisconsin Pre-Nationals at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course, it seemed like there was a decent understanding of how things were going to play out the rest of the year. 

After the dust settled in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday morning, it’s clear that we were wrong.

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• New Mexico's Pamela Kosgei Sets Course Record At Pre-Nats
• Habtom Samuel Crushes Course Record At Pre-Nats

The first race of the day was the women’s 6k, which was loaded with storylines throughout both the team and individual battles. After transferring from Alabama to Florida, two-time national runner-up and the No. 2-ranked athlete in the FloTrack College XC Rankings, Hilda Olemomoi, made her Gator debut. A record-breaking run from New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei (No. 20) however spoiled her return as the Lobo standout stole the show.

Kosgei broke former NCAA star Parker Valby’s 6k course record, breaking the tape in 18:59.1 and logging the first sub-19-minute performance in course history. Olemomoi went under the record as well, crossing in 19:02. In total, six girls ran faster than Valby’s mark, with Tulane’s Caroline Jeptanui (No. 59), West Virginia’s Ceili McCabe (No. 32), Connecticut’s Chloe Thomas (No. 35) and NC State’s Grace Hartman (No. 52) all running quicker than 19:17.

"I said, let me push it, maybe I'll win, because I say that may the best win," said Kosgei after her record-breaking performance.

As far as the team standings go, neither of the favorites came out on top as both top-ranked Northern Arizona and sixth-ranked NC State couldn’t take down the second-ranked BYU Cougars. 

Diljeet Taylor’s group put their top five runners inside the top 35 finishers, with Lexy Hallday-Lowry, (No. 18), Carmen Alder (No. 98) and Jenna Hutchins (No. 47) finishing in 9th, 14th, and 20th, respectively. 

For the second time this season, third-ranked Washington had themselves a day in Wisconsin, finishing runner-up to BYU, 105-157. 

Led by Chloe Foerster’s (No. 79) 16th place finish, the Huskies held off NAU by nine points as the Lumberjacks settled for third.

Unranked West Virginia, No. 12 Notre Dame and No. 18 New Mexico finished fourth, fifth, and sixth, while three-time defending national champions NC State were a distant seventh. 

The men’s race was just as exciting as the women’s, with upsets going down individually and in the team race. 

For starters, defending national champion and top-ranked Graham Blanks made his long-awaited debut after making the 5000m Olympic final, but the defending runner-up flipped the script. New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel (No. 4) took 30 seconds off the course record in his statement win. 

Samuel stopped the clock in 22:33.8, while Blanks was runner-up in 22:40.5. Eastern Kentucky’s Justine Kipkoech (No. 34), Arkansas’ Patrick Kiprop (No. 7) and Iowa State’s Robin Kwemo Bera (No. 24) all dipped under Parker Wolfe’s course record too, with the trio crossing in 22:41.8, 22:43.0 and 22:45.9, respectively.

"The pace was fast," said Samuel, who didn't go to the lead and open up until the final kilometer or so. "I stayed calm and patient with the guys at the back of the (lead) group just to stay in the group."

Four more men also went under the record, making it nine in total.

In their first race with all of their stars, No. 2 Arkansas didn’t have any issues toppling the field. The Razorbacks put four athletes in the top 20, with Kirami Yego (No. 15), Yaseen Abdalla (No. 9) and Ben Shearer (No. 30) running 22:59.4, 23:01.5, and 23:10.5 to create a 39-point gap on No. 4 Iowa State, who finished second. 

No. 18 Stanford had a big day of their own, finishing third with 142 points and ahead of both No. 8 New Mexico and No. 5 Northern Arizona , who tallied 166 and 178 points, respectively. 

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