NowhereLandAggie wrote: ↑

November 11th, 2024, 8:08 pm

https://www.ksl.com/article/51186147/sa ... mpionships

I wonder how open the coaching staff is to JC transfers and if any of these runners are available. SLCC won the National JC championship two years in a row.

Regionals happen later this week on the 15th in Reno, NV.

I didn’t realize this until a few days ago, but SLCC’s coach Isaac Wood used to be on the staff at byu and is heavily involved with the REP. I would not be surprised if SLCC becomes a farm team for BYU.

Probably not as much as you think. There will most likely be a few, but most of them will be more likely going to other schools. BYU has a very high level of recruiting right now. If they could keep their higher roster numbers, more would make the move.

Stucki wrote: ↑

November 5th, 2024, 2:03 pm

USUMAE wrote: ↑

November 5th, 2024, 1:48 pm

Stucki wrote: ↑

November 4th, 2024, 1:43 pm

Four Utah boys teams are in the national rankings right now. Herriman and American Fork are both in the top five, Riverton is 17th and Taylorsville is 24th.

On the girls side, Lone Peak is in the top 10 and Timpview has 2 girls that are nationally ranked with one in the top 5, and possibly #1 after what she did to the Sugarhouse Park course next week.

There is enough talent that all the Utah schools could be very good recruiting only Utah kids, especially on the men's side and to a lesser extent on the women's. BYU had carried much larger rosters than they have in the past which will spread the talent a bit.

I hope we can figure out a way to capitalize on that. I see no reason we can’t be a program that at least qualifies for nationals every year.

The current staff focuses on recruiting in Utah and Idaho but gets a few from outside that footprint. I agree we should be in contention to qualify for nationals every year, qualifying most years.

The girls depth in Utah high school cross is a little lighter than the boys, but there are still enough legit D1 kids to be contenders.

It's interesting. NAU has only one girl and one boy on their cross-country team from Arizona and zero (0) from Utah: https://nauathletics.com/sports/cross-c ... m-m-roster

I like that we have Utah athletes, and I know we punch above our weight, but I'm noting that NAU is taking a much different approach and succeeding.

travelingagg wrote: ↑

November 13th, 2024, 1:51 pm

Stucki wrote: ↑

November 5th, 2024, 2:03 pm

USUMAE wrote: ↑

November 5th, 2024, 1:48 pm

Stucki wrote: ↑

November 4th, 2024, 1:43 pm

Four Utah boys teams are in the national rankings right now. Herriman and American Fork are both in the top five, Riverton is 17th and Taylorsville is 24th.

On the girls side, Lone Peak is in the top 10 and Timpview has 2 girls that are nationally ranked with one in the top 5, and possibly #1 after what she did to the Sugarhouse Park course next week.

There is enough talent that all the Utah schools could be very good recruiting only Utah kids, especially on the men's side and to a lesser extent on the women's. BYU had carried much larger rosters than they have in the past which will spread the talent a bit.

I hope we can figure out a way to capitalize on that. I see no reason we can’t be a program that at least qualifies for nationals every year.

The current staff focuses on recruiting in Utah and Idaho but gets a few from outside that footprint. I agree we should be in contention to qualify for nationals every year, qualifying most years.

The girls depth in Utah high school cross is a little lighter than the boys, but there are still enough legit D1 kids to be contenders.

It's interesting. NAU has only one girl and one boy on their cross-country team from Arizona and zero (0) from Utah: https://nauathletics.com/sports/cross-c ... m-m-roster

I like that we have Utah athletes, and I know we punch above our weight, but I'm noting that NAU is taking a much different approach and succeeding.

Arizona doesn't have the depth of high school talent that Utah has. NAU has to recruit nationally and internationally to get their talent. I can only think of 2 Arizona products on the men's roster during their recent run, Tyler Day and Abdihamid Nur.

Unofficially 4th at Regionals which puts us in qualifying range for Nationals

With the points from earlier meets, that finish should be a lock for running in Madison next Saturday. Wyoming in 6th may get in as well.

That was exciting to watch and follow the live scoring. Great run Aggies!!

I’m pleasantly surprised, I thought we’d get 5-7.

It looks like we ran a smart race and were able to move up as the race progressed.

Onto Nationals!

They finished fourth after going in to the race ranked eighth in the region. By finishing fourth, they finished ahead of two top-30 teams in CSU and WYO. They also beat Colorado, which was receiving a few more votes than we were before the race. Very good performance from our guys. We'll be in the national championship race for sure.

AggieInTucson wrote: ↑

November 15th, 2024, 8:23 pm

They finished fourth after going in to the race ranked eighth in the region. By finishing fourth, they finished ahead of two top-30 teams in CSU and WYO. They also beat Colorado, which was receiving a few more votes than we were before the race. Very good performance from our guys. We'll be in the national championship race for sure.

I talked to a track coach last night at the VB game that I knew. He said as long as they ran a good race today, the men would get into the NCAA championship. The coach was expecting it. It looks like they will get an at-large bid.

Stucki wrote: ↑

November 15th, 2024, 1:47 pm

With the points from earlier meets, that finish should be a lock for running in Madison next Saturday. Wyoming in 6th may get in as well.

FloTrack projects USU in as the 7th at-large bid for the men.

https://www.flotrack.org/articles/13024 ... tions-2024

NAU obviously didn't get the auto-bid, but they are #2 at large behind Stanford according to projections. The autobids first:

2024 Men's Auto NCAA Bids
Great Lakes: Notre Dame, Wisconsin
Mid-Atlantic: Villanova, Princeton
Midwest: Oklahoma State, Iowa State
Mountain: BYU, New Mexico
Northeast: Syracuse, Harvard
South: Alabama, Ole Miss
South Central: Arkansas, Tulane
Southeast: Virginia, North Carolina
West: Washington, Oregon

And the at-large bids:

2024 NCAA Men's Team At-Large Projections:
Stanford (3rd, West)
Northern Arizona (3rd, Mountain)
Eastern Kentucky (3rd, Southeast)
Virginia Tech (pushed by Wake Forest) (4th, Southeast)
Wake Forest (5th, Southeast)
CBU (4th, West)
Utah State (4th, Mountain)
Colorado (5th, Mountain)
Wyoming (6th, Mountain)
Furman (6th, Southeast)
Butler (3rd, Great Lakes)
Georgetown (3rd, Mid-Atlantic)
Tulsa (3rd, Midwest)

They received a bid as a team along with Wyoming. BYU, UNM, Colorado, and NAU are also heading to nationals. 4 at large teams and 6 of the 31 total from the mountain region. 2 Texas Tech runners are going as individual athletes, and 1 from Weber State.

There could be more, but the Mountain Region could be the most competitive of all of them going to Madison next week.

Just a reminder, the men's 10K will be on tomorrow. It will be on at 9:10. This is the 2nd fall sport to make a NCAA championship tournament (the equivalent with cross country being one race) at USU.

Out of 329 teams, they have a chance to be ranked in the top 20 or maybe higher. A very impressive feat. It will be on ESPNU or ESPN+.

https://www.espn.com/watch/catalog/2fd5 ... categories

USU men finished 22.

Camren Todd finished 25th overall, which was good enough to be All-American, 40 seconds behind the winner Graham Blanks of Harvard.

Congratulations to the men. 22nd out of 329 teams.

BYU won both the men's and women's team titles.

One thing that impressed me about this team was their tendency to move up during races. Hopefully we can keep this up!

Also, Logan Garnica won the Elite 90 award for having the highest GPA in the entire field

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15Hd4SqrbC/

Also, super cool that USU has won that award every single time they've made a nationals appearance!

This is my last post on the topic since the season is over, but here is the full 10K. If you never have run in a race like this, you don't understand the amount of energy it takes nor the commotion of bodies around you, particularly at the start.

It is impressive to watch the 255 runners come out on a 35° day in Madison, WI with the vehicle and drone footage. The 2nd place runner, from Eritrea via UNM, ran half the race without his shoe.

The finishes are a cool sight as well if you fast forward towards the end.

The start of NCAA XC is one of the very best things in sports.