November 22nd, 2013 to be exact, also known as the eve before that year’s NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana. The weather in the tiny western Indiana town was so miserable that pre-race warm ups had to be moved away from the Lavern Gibson Championship Course, as did FloTrack’s NCAA Pre-Race Show, which was relegated to the upstairs lobby at the local Holiday Inn. 

 

There were last minute changes happening all over the place, and even more tinkering would occur the following day as the starting line had to be moved up 110 meters to avoid the pools of water that would’ve made an already destroyed course purely comical. The weather was bad even by Terre Haute standards, which always seems to be at its worst around NCAA time. 

 

All of these variables were still viewed to be of little consequence in the men’s individual race, as defending champion Kennedy Kithuka of Texas Tech was expected to make easy work of a field lacking 2011 champion Lawi Lalang. Just a month prior at Pre-Nats, Kithuka had dominated a deep 8K field with a 33-second margin of victory on the very course where NCAAs was set to take place. Seemingly of little importance at the time, although certainly very impressive, Oregon freshman Edward Cheserek was 4th in 23:33 on that October day, 41-seconds behind the mighty Kithuka. 

 

Wet and muddy conditions surely would not be enough to stop the Kenyan at NCAAs, especially with the distance bumped up another 2K. The words “unbeatable” and “Kithuka” had become synonymous with one another, and on the morning of November 23rd, Kithuka would toe the dampened starting line in Terre Haute having never lost an NCAA cross country race. 

 

Kithuka was so favored in the build-up before NCAAs that any drama associated with his finish was not focused on what place, but on what time he would run. The Red Raider didn’t just want to break Sam Chelanga’s 28:41.3 10K course record, he wanted to dismantle it. 

 

“I want to try and run under 28 minutes,” he said after winning Big 12s in a jaw-dropping 22:16 for 8K, which was under 28:00 10K pace. Sure, Kithuka’s claim was seen as foolhardy given the tough Lavern Gibson course, and especially so when weather forecasts leading into the championships revealed what kind of shape the course would be in for NCAAs. That’s not the point, though. Kithuka was going to win and the race was just a formality.

 

In our own men’s individual predictions, Kithuka’s projected first-place finish was called “a no-brainer.”

 

But somehow, some way, Kennedy Kithuka didn’t finish first on that November 23rd day in Terre Haute. 

 

The race seemed to be playing out in his favor as he broke away from the entire field by 6K, with his last victim being the Oregon freshman Cheserek, who appeared to be dropped once Kithuka started hammering shortly after the halfway point. 

 

However, as the race crept up to 8K, a resilient Cheserek hung tough and was only two seconds behind Kithuka as the defending champ struggled to combat the wind and the mud. Less than a minute later, Cheserek broke away from the once-untouchable Kithuka, stunning the frozen Terre Haute crowd and just five minutes later becoming the first Oregon freshman to win the NCAA Cross Country title. Kithuka hung on for a distant second, but the unthinkable had happened, and suddenly a star was born in the form of Cheserek. 

 

Little did we know how bright that star would soon shine. Since that bone-chilling day in late November, the story with Cheserek is no longer significant when he wins, but rather on the rare occasion when he somehow doesn’t. Entering his third collegiate cross country season, Cheserek has collected eight individual NCAA titles between XC and track, a number that is expected to grow by five once his junior campaign is complete. 

 

Sure, Cheserek was already a star in high school at New Jersey’s St. Benedict’s Prep before arriving at Oregon, as he won two Foot Locker XC titles and set indoor high school records in the 2-mile (8:39) and 5,000m (13:57), but his unbelievable run on that freezing cold day in Terre Haute as just a freshman was like turning his talent switch from “very good” to “great” all in the span of one 10,000m race. His defeat of Kithuka put his NCAA career on the fast track to dominance. 

 

After shocking the running world with his defeat of Kithuka now two seasons ago, Edward Cheserek has transformed into “King Ches”, likely the greatest distance runner to ever compete in the NCAA, with considerable more reverence and fear reserved for his name than what was ever used to describe Kithuka. This fall he will attempt to join Gerry Lindgren, Henry Rono, and another famous Oregon dude known as Steve Prefontaine as the only men to ever win three individual NCAA XC titles. Another victory for Cheserek in 2015 would make him the first in NCAA XC history to win three straight titles. 

A 3rd straight NCAA XC title this fall is likely for Edward Cheserek, but 2013 showed us that even the biggest favorites can fall

While Kithuka’s assumed victory in 2013 was “a no-brainer”, the same can be said about Cheserek’s presumed cakewalk in 2015. With Lawi Lalang and Eric Jenkins now running pro, the only two men to ever beat him in a championship race, King Ches should arrive in Louisville on November 21st for NCAAs even more favored to win than Kithuka was two years ago. 

 

But even though Cheserek’s status as the two-time defending champion as well as his now-famous closing speed will make his defeat in Louisville the longest of long shots, his upset victory of the seasoned veteran Kithuka should have at least showed us to use caution when tempted to proclaim a man unbeatable. Anything can happen with midwestern weather always proving tough to navigate, and Cheserek is not immune from the same fate that felled Kithuka in 2013. 

 

Is it likely? Of course not, but if 2013 taught us anything, it’s that no man is too big to fail, even when the entire world expects a certain outcome. Come November in Louisville, the winds may howl and the ground will likely turn to mud, which could be the recipe needed to see the tables turned on Cheserek. 

 

Yeah, it probably won’t happen, but the unpredictability is what makes cross country great. No one should know that better than Edward Cheserek.