XC Leaders Emerging

While it's not this blog's specialty, I do like to keep an eye on the Cross Country results.
The times they run aren't as important as their margins of victory.
Whether they break a Course Record has no or little significance.
The Team titles?
This blog doesn't really care!

So why report XC results at all?
Why not just take a long (and deserved!) vacation from the burden of putting out over 100 posts per year?
The best reason is that XC often reveal the names of the next season's (INdoors or OUTdoors!) leaders on the TRACK in distances ranging from 1500 to 10000--and including the 3000SC!

Also, in a sort of reverse realm of thinking, we can see which Track record setters do NOT do so well over hill and dale!
Believe me, that list is long!!

All that said, here's the latest from XC--especially the Collegiates.

Anna Rohrer led Notre Dame's team with her 16:11 win at the Joe Piane Invite.
Alice Wright was 5 seconds back, with Bethan Knights another 5 behind Wright.
Sarah Collins was just 9th, 26 seconds behind Rohrer.
Sean Tobin took the Men's race in 23:31, three seconds in front of George Parsons.
Jonah Koech was 5th in 23:52.

The UDub Invite in Seattle saw Ed Cheserek dominate.
Duhhh!
He won by 19 over Jerrell Mock, who's been having a good season.
Sam Prakel and Matt Maton took 3rd and 4th, while Grant Fisher was 29 seconds in back of the King, with Blake Haney another 11 behind in 12th place!
Huskie Soph Charlotte Prouse won the Women's race in 19:36 over Oregon's stud Frosh Katie Rainsberger, who ended just 6 seconds behind!
Amy Eloise-Neale and Harvard's Courtney Smith were almost tied in 3rd and 4th, both timed in the 19:47's!

Angel Piccirillo won Paul Short by 15 seconds in 19:56.
Scott Carpenter's 23:36 led Kierin Clements's 23:37 and Gilbert Kirui's 23:39 to victory.

An interesting match of Collegiate Frosh---running unattached--saw Austin Tamagno beat Levi Thomet by 1 second, winning the Willamette Invite in 24:31!

Erin Finn is now 3 for 4--losing only last week's Griak race to Brenna Peloquin!
And she again won by a huge margin--this time, it was by 24 seconds at the Louisville Classic, her time 16:26.

John Dressel beat Ben Saarel by 36 seconds in the Rocky Mountain Shootout race, 24:37 to 25:13.
Another race there saw Joe Klecker win in 24:41.
Erin Clark's 19:53 beat Kaitlyn Benner's 20:01.

Elise Cranny's 20:02 took the Stanford Invite over the 20:06 of the unheralded Peyton Bilo, who is a Soph at Cal Poly.
Hannah DiBalsi was far back in 18th, 1:22 behind Cranny!
Thomas Ratcliffe--the 4:01 HS Miler--beat Emmanuel Rotich by two seconds, 23:17 to 23:19.
Not bad for his first Collegiate race!!

Vincent Kiprop (23:03) and Karissa Schweizer (16:09) took the Chili Pepper races!
Kiprop won by 30 seconds, while Schweizer could manage just a 2 second gap in front of Devin Clark!
Nikki Hiltz finished in 10th place, 33 seconds behind Schweizer!

Anything conclusive yet?
Ches looks to win again at NCAA's, but watch for Ratcliffe, Dressel, and Justyn Knight, whose fast win last week went unreported by me!
Sorry!
Allie Ostrander is either injured, or otherwise hurting, as she's yet to race this year!
But she's still considered one of the faves for NCAA's.
Erin Finn--despite that 1 loss (to Ostrander's Boise State teammate!!)--looks super formidable!
Rohrer and Cranny are others to watch.
Watch for Frosh Rainsberger to sneak into the Top 10.

Betsy Saina won the Great Scottish Run Half-Marathon, her 67:22 a PR by over 2 minutes!
Helah Kiprop's 68:52 in 2nd was also a PR.
Callum Hawkins set a Scottish record with his win in 60:24!
Moses Kipsiro's 60:54 was well back!

The Lisbon Marathon saw Sarah Chepchirchir PR by 6 minutes with her 2:24:12 win!

In another exhibition event---NOT legit for record or list purposes!!--Jenn Suhr wowed her hometown fans (including her mom and dad!!) with a clearance at 16-5.25 (5.01).
I have no idea what her day included---if she started at a lower height---how many bars she cleared before the 5.01---or how many attempts she was allowed at each height.
In an exhibition, rules are made to be broken!
List-making or not, it was still an astounding performance for the recently (VERY) sickly Suhr!
BTW, the bar jiggled some, but stayed on!

Finally, an interesting picture appeared on Twitter.
It showed HS Mile star Kate Murphy winning her XC race in record time.
Holding one end of the finish line tape was---Mary Cain!
Mile Split called it the "Photo of the Year".
My first thought was---if Cain had RUN that race, Murphy would have cleaned her CLOCK!!!

See you soon.