The Pre-National Invitational marks the first preview of top teams descending on the NCAA Championship course in Louisville, Kentucky. Here are some of the storylines to look for as some of the best teams in the country gear up for the NCAA course.  

 

No. 1 Colorado Will Show Their Cards 

Morgan Pearson leads the Buffalo pack in Boulder. (Photo: CUBuffs.com)

The No. 1-ranked Colorado Buffaloes have yet to show their full strength as a team, but Saturday’s Pre-National meet should be the first glimpse of the squad looking to win their third-straight NCAA title. The Buffaloes have run one meet this season, the Rocky Mountain Shootout, which proved to be a very successful home opener as the men and women scored perfect 15-point team scores. 

 

“I saw two good teams; two teams that are maybe a little better than I expected,” Head Coach Mark Wetmore said after the victories in a CUBuffs.com race recap. “A year ago, the conditions were perfect and the stars were in alignment and people ran real fast and I didn’t expect to come close to those performances again this year since we had the 14 or 15 years prior to last year. But, they did anyway. Despite my apprehensions or superstitions, people ran really fast, comparable to where we were a year ago. They weren’t bad.”

 

On Saturday, the team will return to the cross country course for the most competitive race to date this season, taking on the NCAA Cross Country Championships course in Louisville for the first time since 2012. The last time Colorado competed on the E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park course was at the 2012 NCAA Cross Country Championships when they finished third behind Oklahoma State and Wisconsin. Since that championship, the Buffaloes have won two NCAA team titles (2013, 2014) and are looking for their third this fall. 

 

Historically, the Buffaloes have used this Pre-Nationals opportunity to showcase their incredibly deep squad, which earned 35 points at last year’s meet in Terre Haute. Their team score was 56 points less than runner-up Oregon, who will also return to the meet this year. The team’s 35 point-score was achieved by all top five runners finishing in the top 12, notably a runner-up finish from Blake Theroux, who finished one second behind NCAA Champion Edward Cheserek and three seconds ahead of eventual NCAA Champion Eric Jenkins. Theroux was followed by teammates Ben Saarel (4th), Ammar Moussa (8th), Jake Hurysz (9th), and Pierce Murphy (12th). The 2015 squad has the same depth potential with returning athletes Saarel, Moussa, Murphy, Morgan Pearson, and Connor Winter, and Saturday will be the first opportunity for this 2015 squad to show how a No. 1-ranked team takes care of business. 

 

Will Edward Cheserek be Challenged by UTEP’s Anthony Rotich and Jonah Koech?

Defending NCAA Champion Edward Cheserek runs into the finish at the 2014 Championships.

Since Edward Cheserek burst onto the NCAA scene as a college freshman, the Oregon Duck has dominated every NCAA Championship he has entered. From the 10K cross country distance to the indoor mile, Cheserek has been untouchable for six straight NCAA Championships. It is a well known fact in the cross country community, evident by his nickname “King Cheserek.”

 

But 2015 could potentially be the year when Cheserek faces a pair of legitimate challengers outside of his own team as Jenkins graduated and now runs for the Nike Oregon Project. Both Anthony Rotich and Jonah Koech of UTEP have demonstrated a lethal 1-2 punch for the Miners that has already led them to a team victory at the Notre Dame Invitational. Unlike Cheserek, the two Miners utilize a lead-from-the-gun style of racing, which paid off greatly at the Notre Dame Invitational. Rotich and his freshman teammate Koech torched the field in South Bend with an individual and third-place finish that helped UTEP score 89 points overall. Rotich, a three-time NCAA Champion in the steeplechase, has proven his aggressive-style of running in his signature event, but has yet to crack the top 10 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. If Rotich continues to run aggressively on the cross country course and pull his young teammate along with him, the two Miners could prove to be a dangerous combination for Cheserek. 

 

Clash of the Top Ranked Women’s Teams

Aisling Cuffe will lead the No. 3-ranked Stanford women in Louisville. 

The women’s race at Pre-Nationals will be a hard-fought team battle between four of the top six Saucony Flo50 ranked teams. No. 2 Oregon, No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 Colorado, and No. 6 Michigan are poised to face off on the starting line for the first glimpse of a top NCAA team match-up in 2015. 

 

The Oregon Ducks have proven that they have strength in a fast and tight pack that includes Alli Cash, Waverly Neer, Maggie Schmaedick, Frida Berge and Molly Grabill. The Ducks made their strategy very clear at the Washington Invitational on October 2 when they swept the team title with 36 points, a score that brought in all five scorers in the top 13 individual places. The performance was heads and shoulders above Pac-12 foes Washington (59) and Stanford (60). 

 

The Stanford Cardinal returns to the competition after claiming a third-place team finish and individual title at the Washington Invite. It was in Seattle where All American Aisling Cuffe made her return to the competitive scene by blazing her way to an individual win, her first breakout run on the cross country course since the 2013 season when she finished fourth at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. With Cuffe back on the prowl, Stanford will not only have an NCAA title contender, but a veteran to help lead the squad through a solid fall season. 

 

Colorado boasts a top-ranked women’s team as well, led by junior Erin Clark who earned her first All American honor at the 2014 NCAA Championships with a 31st-place finish. The Buffaloes are returning from a perfect 15-point team score at the Rocky Mountain Shootout where Clark ran to an individual win in 20:13, the fastest time since 2009 when Jenny (Barringer) Simpson ran 19:25 on the home course. Senior Maddie Alm (2nd), freshman Dani Jones (4th), sophomore Lucy May (5th) and redshirt freshman Val Constien (6th) added to the team win in Boulder. Saturday should be a good proving ground for this top-ranked Colorado squad who faces tough team competition for the first time this season. 

 

The Michigan Wolverines are coming off of a solid team title performance at the Greater Louisville Classic, where they got their first taste of the NCAA Championship course in Louisville. With minimal team competition, the early season meet proved to be a successful test for the Wolverines, who were led by a 1-2 punch by individual winner Erin Finn and runner-up Shannon Osika. The remaining team scorers (Gina Sereno, Anna Pasternak, Sophie Linn) all finished in the top 16. With the stakes raised at Pre-Nationals and course experience working in their favor, the Wolverines are poised for a successful run against some of the nation’s top teams.

 

The Pre-National Invitational in Louisville begins at 9:30 a.m. ET with the men’s red race. FloTrack will provide a course preview, archived races, post-race interviews, and live updates of all the action from E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park.