Week two of the official NCAA cross country season has come and gone, and with it all of the top teams and individuals have now raced at least once. Sure, there are still some key athletes that we have yet to see, Ammar Moussa for Colorado and Jim Rosa for Stanford come to mind, but by and large, everyone has at least made their debut. 

 

Solid meets were not difficult to find throughout the country this weekend, and with the competition heating up from Seattle to South Bend and down to Louisville, there were some surprises that are sure to mix up the rankings by tomorrow. Our top teams, the Colorado men and New Mexico women, aren’t going anywhere as they both impressed with flashy performances, but overall this weekend was full of movers and shakers, none of them more jaw-dropping than a certain freshman from N.C. State.

 

Here are the week 2 winners and losers:

STOCK UP - Ryen Frazier

After I witnessed Boise State’s Allie Ostrander finish 2nd at Griak last weekend with an impressive combination of aggression and patience, I told myself that for sure she was the top freshman in the land. Sure, Ostrander didn’t win, but she did beat Michigan State’s Rachele Schulist, a top five NCAA finisher from 2014, and led her inexperienced squad to a dominating team win over the defending NCAA Champs. I flew back home from Minnesota confident that no other freshman would top Ostrander’s performance in the coming week. 

 

Well, I was sure wrong. In hindsight, I should’ve seen Ryen Frazier’s victory this Friday at the Notre Dame Invite coming after she opened her collegiate career with a 16:06 5K PR and course record at the adidas XC Challenge two weeks back, but I just didn’t think there was anyway that the N.C. State frosh was going to beat three of the top ten ranked women in the country. Heck, I didn’t even think Frazier was going to be the top freshman in the race, I figured that honor would go to Notre Dame’s Anna Rohrer, who beat Frazier by 35 seconds the last time the pair raced against each other in cross country. 

 

Again, wrong. Frazier’s commanding victory over a 9:31 steeper (Courtney Frerichs, 2nd), the reigning NCAA 10K champion (Molly Seidel, 3rd), and our #1 ranked individual (Rhona Auckland, 4th) tells me a couple things. One, Frazier excels on fast courses, which is what Notre Dame is and more importantly, what the NCAA course will be, barring bad weather. Two, I can’t help but imagine how high Frazier’s ceiling is considering that she only runs 45 miles per week right now. How good is she going to be once she bumps up her mileage?

Watch Ryen Frazier win the loaded Notre Dame Invite in 16:22:
 

STOCK DOWN - Teams Without A 5th Man

There’s not a more frustrating feeling for a cross country coach than having a solid team performance ruined by the lack of a 5th man. Everyone knows that five athletes score in XC, but that reality is especially tough to swallow when a team has four low sticks but cannot seem to find a reliable #5 needed to notch a victory. That type of glaring hole showed itself for three teams this weekend. 

 

- The #6 Villanova men swept the top two places at Friday’s Paul Short Run as All-Americans Pat Tiernan and Jordy Williamsz went 1-2, however the Wildcats were ultimately upset by #18 Georgetown due to ‘Nova’s 5th man finishing all the way back in 39th. Villanova led the Hoyas through both teams’ 4th finishers, 19-24, but Georgetown’s 5th man finished 26-seconds ahead of ‘Nova’s 5th, a difference of 24 places. 

 

- Although #30 ranked N.C. State men cannot be too upset with their runner-up finish at Notre Dame, they surely left South Bend wondering what could have been if they just had a solid #5. The Wolfpack led eventual winner UTEP 34-47 through four finishers, but as I’m sure you could guess, were let down by their #5, who finished 21 places behind UTEP’s 5th. Coming out of the brutal Southeast regional, State can use any points that they can find. 

 

- What could’ve been for the unranked Louisville Cardinals. The home team at the Greater Louisville Classic had a chance to steal a handful of Kolas points yesterday as #4 Wisconsin chose to hang back and the Cardinals got really nice performances from their top four. ‘Ville led #7 Iona through four finishers 34-35, but once again, another team doomed by the lack of a quality 5th man.  A difference of 28-seconds between Iona and Louisville’s last scorers gave the Gaels the victory and left Louisville in third. A good day nonetheless, but it could’ve been so much more. 

 

STOCK UP - Aisling Cuffe and Stanford 

Aisling Cuffe is back, and that is tremendous news for #3 Stanford. The senior, who missed all of the 2014 cross country and 2015 track seasons with an injury, won the Washington Invitational in 19:41 on Friday over all of #2 Oregon’s top runners, and showed just how dangerous her team can be this season with her up front again. 

 

It might be easy to forget just how talented Cuffe truly is considering her long layoff, but here’s a quick refresher: as a junior in 2013-2014, Cuffe finished 4th at NCAA XC and then turned in two runner-up finishes in the NCAA indoor and outdoor 5Ks. Along with that, she ran a 15:11 5K at Payton Jordan that was the fastest by a collegiate in 2014 and the third best in NCAA history. Cuffe is a stud, and her win on Friday puts her name back on the table for the NCAA individual title. If she does win in November, she would become the first woman to win both Foot Locker and NCAA XC titles, i.e. breaking the curse. 

 

Cuffe’s successful return also changes the landscape of the women’s NCAA podium. The #2 Ducks easily won at UW with 36 points, but if Stanford All-American Elise Cranny had run, the score likely would’ve been a lot closer. Cranny won this race last season, and giving her a projected runner-up finish at Friday’s race would’ve given Oregon just a slim four point victory. Yes, that’s just a projection, but Cuffe’s return means that the Cardinal have a very good chance to finish on the NCAA podium just one year removed from a 14th place showing in Terre Haute. 

 

STOCK DOWN - NCAA Bubble Teams That Didn’t Run At Greater Louisville

If you missed the Greater Louisville Classic yesterday, just know that the #4 Wisconsin men finished 7th in a race that counted for NCAA qualification because they decided to take it easy and get a feel for the NCAA course as opposed to competing with several other ranked teams that they were expected to beat. While some people didn’t exactly love that Wisconsin jogged on Saturday, it doesn’t mean a whole lot for the Badgers considering they are likely to finish top two at the Great Lakes regional and earn an auto bid to NCAAs.

 

It does, however, mean something for the bubble teams that either grabbed some free points by beating a lesser Wisconsin squad, or for those teams that didn’t get the memo and skipped Louisville. (Note: for a team to earn “points” for NCAAs, they must beat another team’s “A” squad, i.e. four runners that eventually compete at regionals. We believe that Wisconsin ran an “A” team in Louisville).

Without Wisconsin in the front pack, #7 Iona won the Greater Louisville Classic. Watch:

We won’t know how much of an impact Wisco’s finish will have on the NCAA landscape until regionals, but we do know that Louisville, Illinois, and Eastern Kentucky left Saturday with an extra Kolas point that they didn’t plan on getting at Louisville. Bubble teams that ran at different meets this weekend must be kicking themselves for not competing in Kentucky.

Wisconsin coach Mick Byrne’s decision to essentially have his Badgers run a workout yesterday shows the flaws in the current NCAA system, which doesn’t account for perceived effort by teams who do not try their hardest at races that count for nationals’ qualification. Who’s at fault, the system or Wisconsin? We’ll have more on that later this week.