Athletes and Teams Make Their Final Cases for the NCAA Meet

Published by Adam Schnieder/RunnerSpace.com/college on November 12, 2015

RunnerSpace.com Rankings Men  Women

The nine NCAA D1 Regional meets will have some fantastic match-ups. With only two automatic qualifiers from each meet several teams need to perform at their best level of the season but many others just need to stay close to the top two. 13 teams will be selected during the weekend after November 13th. 

The West region stands out as one of the better meets of the weekend. Ten of the Pac-12 teams return to Washington for the regional meet (Colorado and Utah are in the Mountain region). #3 Oregon women and #3 Stanford men headline the meet. Washington (#11 women and #13 men) will host at Jefferson Park golf course in southern Seattle. #5 Boise State women join this group along with solid group of California D1 schools. 

Boise State’s Allie Ostrander will have her first battle against 2013 NCAA championship’s top returner, Aisling Cuffe (4th) of #10 Stanford. The men will race over 10,000 meters for the first time and still #6 Oregon’s Edward Cheserek is a big favorite for the region title and he will face a group of untested runners including Joe and Jim Rosa of Stanford and runners that may take advantage since they focus on the 10,000m or are healthier than early in the season or struggle at the longer distance including runners struggling with injuries or middle distance runners.

Depth of the Mountain region is not as strong as it has been in the past but the regional meet hosted in Albuquerque, New Mexico will have consensus men’s and women’s #1s Colorado and New Mexico, respectively. #2 Colorado women will face New Mexico for the first time and strong men’s (#5) and women’s (#15) teams from BYU and a developing women’s squad from Utah. The Lobos have yet to have a bad race this year and the Buffaloes are peaking at the right time this season after winning the Pac-12 title. Their first encounter will be very interesting to watch. 

As a group, New Mexico has run near the front in three of their races. Transfers Courtney Frerichs and Rhona Auckland will battle Air Force’s Hannah Everson and the Colorado men will try to advance with as little effort as possible.  Anthony Rotich and Peter Koech of #12 UTEP and Jerrell Mock of Colorado State have run well all season and he will battle a solid group from Colorado and BYU at the front.

The southeast regional has been very competitive the last few years. In the men’s team race 1-3 was separated by 12 points (Virginia first with 75) and in the women’s race 1-4 was separated by 23 points (William and Mary won with 74) and the two races are deeper this year. At least once during the season seven teams on the men’s side and six on the women’s side have been ranked in our top 20. In the men’s race #10 North Carolina State beat #11 Virginia for second and third at the ACC championships. The Wolfpack are only a slight favorite here. #16 Louisville has run well all season. #8 Virginia women barely beat #9 North Carolina State for the ACC title 71-75. Add in a talented William and Mary team and it should make another great battle.

Thomas Curtin leads #14 Virginia Tech after winning the ACC championship and NCAA D1 Pre-Nationals meet in mid-October.  Edwin Kibichiy of Louisville is the closest of his competition from the ACC meet. Cleo Boyd of Virginia was fourth and two-time USTFCCCA.org athlete-of-the-week freshman Ryen Frazier of North Carolina State was fifth at the ACC meet and they will be battled by Regan Rome and Emily Stites of William and Mary for the individual title. 

The Great Lakes region championship is led by the Michigan teams (#7 men and #6 women) and #18 Notre Dame and #19 Michigan State women. They will contend with teams that had high expectations this year, Wisconsin men and women and Indiana men. The battle for the second automatic qualifying spot on the men’s side will be very interesting. 

The northeast region will also be top loaded. #2 Syracuse and #4 Iona will battle on the men’s side and #4 Providence has a very experienced group. They are solid favorites to advance to the NCAA championships this year. The Arkansas men (#8) and women (#7) are favored to win their third and fifth consecutive South Central regional titles, respectively. 

#9 Oklahoma State men and #12 women will be favored in the Midwest regional. #18 Oklahoma and #20 Tulsa will battle for the second automatic spot on the men’s side and #14 Iowa State and #20 Minnesota will battle on the women’s side for the second spot. Top Big East men’s teams #15 Georgetown and #17 Villanova will renew their battle at the Mid-Atlantic regional as Big 10 champion #13 Penn State will battle #16 Georgetown for the top spot on the women’s side.