NCAA Men’s XC — Team Battle Closer Than Close

STILLWATER, OKLAHOMA, November 19 — There was a bit of everything at the NCAA Men’s XC Championships.

In brief, Northern Arizona won its third straight team title while Stanford soph Charles Hicks was the individual champ, but as always with the hill-and-dale sport, there are stories behind the headlines.

For instance, there was something routine with NAU cementing its reputation as a generational program, with this win its sixth in seven years. The Flagstaff school is now tied with Oregon for No. 4 on the list of team champs.

There’s always something new at this meet. This time it was British-born (and US/UK dual citizen) Charles Hicks taking the win in 28:43.6, the first by a Stanford runner in that school’s storied harrier history and, given the pedigree of those who’ve run there, an indication of how tough it is to win.

He took the measure, barely, of NAU’s duo of soph Nico Young (28:44.5) and junior Drew Bosley (28:58). Rounding out the top 5 were Dylan Jacobs, the Notre Dame NCAA 10K champ now running for Tennessee, and Oklahoma State’s Alex Maier.

There was also a rarity: a numerical tie for the team title between NAU and host Oklahoma State; the former scored its 83 points off an adjusted 2-3-18-24-36 finish and the latter totaled the same off a 5-8-11-29-30 placing.

With that deadlock, the NCAA tie-breaking rule (each team’s runner vs. the corresponding finisher, with the best of 5 getting the big trophy) ruled the day, giving NAU a 3–2 edge. It was the second tie score in the 84 times the meet has been contested, but in ’42, with no tiebreaker in place, Indiana and Penn State shared the title with 57 points.

BYU ended up 3rd (132), top-ranked Stanford was 4th (190) and Wake Forest 5th (204) in the 31-team field.

There was also something kind of epic — and sort of cool as well — with the top 3 also the wire-to-wire top 3. The get-out-quickly-from-the-get-go race strategy planned by NAU was executed to perfection by the Lumberjack duo and the Stanford rival, who had the rest of the field running for 4th almost before you knew it.

Hicks was content to move along with Young and Bosley, with all sharing the lead at various times through the first 9K. They went through the halfway point in 14:16 with the chase pack well back at 14:27. Hicks said he noticed on the first loop the NAU pair were really strong on the downhills, but he’d pass them a bit on the uphills.

“I kept that in the back of my mind, and it started happening again on the second loop. And it didn’t hurt that much,” Hicks said. “So I started thinking I might be able to lay the hammer down. I cranked up the intensity just a bit to test them out. When I ended up in front, I had to kind of commit at that point.” That came with the end in sight as Bosley dropped a tad and Young struggled to counter Hicks’s move.

“I prefer to run strong, run aggressive, and keep a high intensity over the whole race,” Hicks said. “So they allowed me to run that kind of race I love to run where we’re just going for it, it comes down to who has more fitness, who’s done more miles, and who wants it more.”

The NAU guys moving hard early in the race caused Hicks’s race plan to largely go by the boards right away, but it also made it exactly the kind of race he had hoped for: hard from the start.

It was also just the kind of race that NAU coach Mike Smith wanted from his guys. “People talk about how tough the course is and I believe that makes them run much more conservatively,” he said. “Early in the race, some will play it safe, so that was our game plan. We wanted to capitalize on how much everyone was cautious. We wanted them to follow the plan and not let their nerves deter them.”

“I felt like there was no option but to keep to the plan,” said Young, who notched his second top-4 finish in 3 tries. “No one went with us so it just kind of ended up that way. When he broke away from both of us, I still had it in me to go with him, and I tried my best to, but I certainly didn’t know what was going to happen, because I was very tired at that point.

“I think the downhills more than anything kind of destroy your legs. Each hill takes a lot more out of you because of how taxing it is on your muscles. It’s hard to decide what to do on the downhills but we were taught to run on them.”
Having run here in the ’20 NCAA (Young placed 4th in that March ’21 race), he felt much better prepared: “This time I was in a much better place, knowing the course. I’m definitely learning. It’s increased my experience in championship races.”

The race sequence bears him out. Young and Bosley were never out of the top 3 after 1K. Santiago Prosser, NAU’s third man in 19th, was never lower than 32nd while fourth runner Brodey Hasty, who was 25th, was no lower than 44th and fifth man George Kusche’s worst place was his 39th at the end. The consistency paid off as NAU’s team score was 101 at the 1K mark and in the 90s until its final score.

Oklahoma State had a different approach with 276 points at the first K mark but then steadily diminishing numbers as its top 5 moved up steadily, especially after 5K when the Cowboys overtook Stanford and BYU en route to their tie with history.

“The guys hit it absolutely out of the park,” OSU’s Dave Smith said. “They did exactly what we said to do down to a letter, and it couldn’t have been run more perfectly. We said if we can get to 90 points or under 100, we’re going to win. It’s pretty rare to lose with 83 points.”

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NCAA XC MEN’S RESULTS

Stillwater, Oklahoma, November 19 —

Teams
(adjusted places)

1.	Northern Arizona	2-3-18-24-36 (79-127)	83
2.	Oklahoma State	5-8-11-29-30 (50-117)	83
3.	BYU	7-20-28-33-44 (45-49)	132
4.	Stanford	1-10-48-67-69 (101-162)	195
5.	Wake Forest	19-21-25-53-86 (99-144)	204

6. Wisconsin 212; 7. Air Force 264; 8. Colorado 281; 9. Tulsa 304; 10. North Carolina 323; 11. NC State 334; 12. Syracuse 340; 13. Gonzaga 400; 14. Washington 422;
15. Notre Dame 450; 16. Oregon 465; 17. Harvard 474; 18. Texas 506; 19. Villanova 513; 20. Tennessee 517; 21. Butler 553; 22. Virginia 557; 23. Arkansas 584;
24. Mississippi 598; 25. Montana State 599; 26. Utah State 618; 27. Alabama 683; 28. Colorado State 704; 29. Michigan 708; 30. Princeton 712; 31. Georgetown 752.

Individuals
†=not in team scoring
10,000m (255 started, 252 finished)

1.	**Charles Hicks’	Stanford-GB	28:43.6
2.	**Nico Young	Northern Arizona	28:44.5
3.	*Drew Bosley	Northern Arizona	28:55.9
4.	Dylan Jacobs	Tennessee	28:58.0
5.	*Alex Maier	Oklahoma State	28:58.2
6.	**Graham Blanks	Harvard	28:58.4
7.	*Casey Clinger	BYU	28:58.7
8.	Isai Rodriguez	Oklahoma State	28:59.9
9.	**Parker Wolfe	North Carolina	29:00.4
10.	**Ky Robinson’	Stanford-Aus	29:07.4
11.	†**Dylan Schubert	Furman	29:07.5
12.	***Fouad Messaoudi’	Oklahoma State-Mor	29:10.8
13.	Brian Fay’	Washington-Ire	29:11.0
14.	Aaron Bienenfeld’	Oregon-Ger	29:12.2
15.	Cormac Dalton’	Tulsa-Ire	29:16.0
16.	*Jackson Sharp’	Wisconsin-Aus	29:16.8
17.	Barry Keane’	Butler-Ire	29:18.0
18.	**Carter Solomon	Notre Dame	29:18.8
19.	**Santiago Prosser	Northern Arizona	29:19.5
20.	Zach Facioni’	Wake Forest-Aus	29:21.0
21.	Brandon Garnica	BYU	29:21.7
22.	**Luke Tewalt	Wake Forest	29:22.5
23.	**Shay McEvoy’	Tulsa-Ire	29:25.7
24.	**Patrick Kiprop’	Arkansas-Ken	29:27.1
25.	*Brodey Hasty	Northern Arizona	29:27.2
26.	*Aaron Las Heras’	Wake Forest-Spa	29:27.8
27.	*Haftu Knight	Texas	29:27.9
28.	Ryan Johnson	Air Force	29:28.0
29.	†Ryan Martins	Loyola-Chicago	29:28.8
30.	**Davin Thompson	BYU	29:28.8
31.	**Victor Shitsama’	Oklahoma State-Ken	29:29.0
32.	**Rory Leonard	Oklahoma State	29:29.1
33.	**Yaseen Abdalla	Tennessee	29:29.7
34.	**Bob Liking	Wisconsin	29:30.2
35.	**Creed Thompson	BYU	29:30.5
36.	Austin Vancil	Colorado	29:33.3
37.	†**Kirami Yego’	South Alabama-Ken	29:34.2
38.	Ian Shanklin	NC State	29:34.5
39.	George Kusche’	Northern Arizona-SA	29:34.9
40.	*Matthew Richtman	Montana State	29:35.7
41.	Yacine Guermali	Gonzaga	29:36.3
42.	**Luke Houser	Washington	29:37.8
43.	Andrew Kent	Colorado	29:37.8
44.	Isaac Akers’	Tulsa-GB	29:40.4
45.	**Rowen Ellenberg	Wisconsin	29:40.9
46.	*Nathan Lawler	Syracuse	29:41.4
47.	Christian Allen	BYU	29:42.0
48.	**Aidan Troutner	BYU	29:43.1
49.	Ethan Marshall	Air Force	29:45.4
50.	*Acer Iverson	Harvard	29:46.1
51.	**Devin Hart	Stanford	29:47.0
52.	**Joey Nokes	BYU	29:48.2
53.	**Ryan Schoppe	Oklahoma State	29:48.7
54.	Charlie Wheeler’	Wisconsin-GB	29:49.1
55.	Anthony Camerieri	Mississippi	29:49.3
56.	Thomas Vanoppen’	Wake Forest-Bel	29:49.4
57.	Sam Gilman	Air Force	29:49.4
58.	Paul O’Donnell	Syracuse	29:50.3
59.	**Wil Smith	Gonzaga	29:50.4
60.	Tom Brady	Michigan	29:51.1
61.	Michael Power	Tulsa	29:51.3
62.	**Ethan Strand	North Carolina	29:51.8
63.	***Izaiah Steury	Notre Dame	29:52.3
64.	**Brett Gardner	NC State	29:52.3
65.	†*Nickolas Scudder	Charlotte	29:52.3
66.	**Victor Kiprop’	Alabama-Ken	29:52.5
67.	Duncan Hamilton	Montana State	29:52.6
68.	Seth Hirsch	Colorado	29:53.4
69.	Charlie Sweeney	Colorado	29:53.8
70.	*Luke Combs	Air Force	29:55.4
71.	Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau	Stanford	29:57.2
72.	John Tatter	North Carolina	29:58.2
73.	†Marcelo Rocha	Providence	29:58.2
74.	†**Gable Sieperda	Iowa State	29:59.0
75.	**Thomas Boyden	Stanford	29:59.7
76.	*Hannes Burger	NC State	30:00.1
77.	**Bryce Lentz	Air Force	30:01.7
78.	†Tyler Berg	Columbia	30:02.2
79.	**Jack Meijer’	Wisconsin-GB	30:02.3
80.	**Ian Harrison	NC State	30:02.9
81.	Nathan Henderson	Syracuse	30:04.6
82.	Noah Carey	Syracuse	30:04.9
83.	**Evan Bishop	Wisconsin	30:05.6
84.	†*Abdirizak Ibrahim	New Mexico	30:05.8
85.	*Yonas Mogos	Utah State	30:06.3
86.	Brendan Fraser	Colorado	30:06.9
87.	†*Vincent Mauri	Arizona State	30:08.3
88.	Ryan Raff	Northern Arizona	30:08.6
89.	†**Ryan Kinnane	Auburn	30:09.5
90.	†Jake Ritter	Cal Poly SLO	30:09.8
91.	*Sean Maison	Air Force	30:10.0
92.	**Liam Murphy	Villanova	30:10.2
93.	†Fearghal Curtin’	Florida State-Ire	30:10.6
94.	James Gormley	Oregon	30:10.9
95.	**Isaac Alonzo	Texas	30:11.0
96.	†Alexander Korczynski	Northeastern	30:11.1
97.	†**Gabriel Sanchez	Indiana	30:11.3
98.	**Eliud Kipsang’	Alabama-Ken	30:11.6
99.	**Jack Jennings	Villanova	30:11.8
100.	Joaquin Martinez De Pinillos	Wake Forest	30:11.9
101.	James Mwaura	Gonzaga	30:12.4
102.	†***Victor Kibiego’	UTEP-Ken	30:12.7
103.	*Jake Renfree	Notre Dame	30:13.7
104.	Isaac Green	Washington	30:13.8
105.	*Derek Johnson	Virginia	30:14.7
106.	**Will Coogan	North Carolina	30:16.5
107.	†Titus Winders	Iowa State	30:16.9
108.	*Eli Bennett	Air Force	30:18.0
109.	†*Rhys Hammond	Cornell	30:19.0
110.	***Sam Lawler	Syracuse	30:19.6
111.	***James Overberg	Colorado	30:20.4
112.	Robinson Snider	NC State	30:20.7
113.	**Patrick Anderson	North Carolina	30:21.0
114.	*Connor Nisbet	Princeton	30:21.2
115.	**Hunter Appleton	Colorado	30:21.2
116.	Ben Mitchell	Wake Forest	30:21.3
117.	**Daniel O’Brien	Princeton	30:21.4
118.	**Cole Sprout	Stanford	30:22.9
119.	**Jesse Hamlin	Butler	30:23.7
120.	†*Zach Kinne	Duke	30:23.8
121.	***Marco Langon	Villanova	30:24.5
122.	†*Teagan Flanagan	South Alabama	30:25.2
123.	***Assaf Harari	Syracuse	30:25.2
124.	†Perry Mackinnon	Cornell	30:25.6
125.	*Camren Todd	Utah State	30:25.6
126.	†**Baidy Ba	Kent State	30:26.1
127.	Dereck Elkins	Mississippi	30:26.1
128.	Cullen McEachern	Gonzaga	30:26.7
129.	***Will Anthony	Virginia	30:26.7
130.	Charlie O’Donovan’	Villanova-Ire	30:26.8
131.	**Abdinasir Hussein	Oregon	30:27.4
132.	**Parker Stokes	Georgetown	30:27.8
133.	**Kyle Radosevich	Gonzaga	30:27.8
134.	†Ibrahim Kedir	La Salle-Can	30:28.3
135.	*Marshall Williamson	North Carolina	30:28.5
136.	***Justin Wachtel	Virginia	30:28.7
137.	†Antonio López Segura’	Virginia Tech-Spa	30:30.3
138.	*Cruz Gomez	Texas	30:30.6
139.	*Myles Richter	Arkansas	30:31.0
140.	***Will Muirhead	Oklahoma State	30:31.4
141.	*Mason Brown	Colorado State	30:31.6
142.	*Quinn Gallagher	Notre Dame	30:33.2
143.	**Wes Porter	Virginia	30:33.4
144.	*Tom Oates	Colorado State	30:34.0
145.	**Rodger Rivera	Texas	30:35.1
146.	**Quincy Norman	Oregon	30:35.7
147.	*Max Wehrli	Utah State	30:35.7
148.	**Yasin Sado	Virginia	30:36.2
149.	†George Wheeler’	Lamar-GB	30:36.4
150.	Sean Laidlaw	Georgetown	30:37.0
151.	***Colin Sahlman	Northern Arizona	30:37.0
152.	**Joe Ewing	Harvard	30:37.3
153.	*Zach Stewart	Michigan	30:37.8
154.	*Matthew Scrape	Syracuse	30:37.8
155.	***Ben Shearer	Arkansas	30:37.9
156.	***Shane Brosnan	Harvard	30:39.0
157.	†**Lachlan Wellington	Iona	30:39.3
158.	Mark Crandall	Utah State	30:40.6
159.	Cooper West	Montana State	30:41.7
160.	Josh Phillips’	Villanova-Aus	30:42.2
161.	Arjun Jha	Michigan	30:42.7
162.	*Alex Slenning	Oregon	30:43.1
163.	***Gary Martin	Virginia	30:43.6
164.	**Joe Waskom	Washington	30:44.4
165.	**Matthew Forrester	Butler	30:44.6
166.	Cole Bullock	Mississippi	30:45.5
167.	**Will Minnette	Butler	30:45.6
168.	Ed Trippas	Washington	30:46.0
169.	†*Bradley Makuvire’	Tulane-Zim	30:46.4
170.	***Rynard Swanepoel’	Wake Forest-SA	30:46.6
171.	**Sam Affolder	Washington	30:46.7
172.	†*Aden Smith	Michigan State	30:46.9
173.	†CarLee Stimpfel	Michigan State	30:46.9
174.	†Marquette Hanson	Missouri	30:47.1
175.	Jacob McLeod	Arkansas	30:47.8
176.	*Jacob Lewis	Tennessee	30:47.9
177.	Chris Maxon	Mississippi	30:48.2
178.	**Camden Gilmore	Georgetown	30:48.9
179.	*Dawson Besst	Colorado State	30:49.0
180.	**Aiden Britt	Mississippi	30:51.5
181.	Karl Thiessen	Tennessee	30:51.8
182.	*Jack McMahon	Butler	30:52.3
183.	***Myles Hogan	Princeton	30:53.0
184.	Rohann Asfaw	Virginia	30:53.1
185.	*Haftu Strintzos’	Villanova-Aus	30:53.9
186.	**Lars Mitchel	Colorado State	30:54.4
187.	*Thomas Chaston	Colorado State	30:54.5
188.	***Adam Spencer’	Wisconsin-Aus	30:54.8
189.	**Abraham Avila-Martinez	Texas	30:56.8
190.	***Vivien Henz	Harvard	30:57.1
191.	**Evan Burke’	Stanford-Can	30:57.4
192.	†*Isaac Basten	Drake	30:58.0
193.	†*Victor Neiva	North Texas	30:58.3
194.	Ben Fleming	North Carolina	30:58.6
195.	†**Luke Henseler	Pitt	30:59.2
196.	***Edouard Morin-Luzuy’	Butler-Fra	30:59.6
197.	†Jonathan Shields’	Boise-GB	31:00.9
198.	*Jacob Wiggers	Alabama	31:01.2
199.	*Carter Cheeseman	Notre Dame	31:02.0
200.	**Ben Perrin	Montana State	31:02.4
201.	**Elias Schreml’	Arkansas-Ger	31:04.6
202.	*Malte Propp’	Tulsa-Ger	31:04.9
203.	*Riley Moore	Gonzaga	31:05.5
204.	†*Jack Miller	Pitt	31:06.6
205.	David Melville	Harvard	31:06.6
206.	*Joshua Zelek	Princeton	31:07.5
207.	Ryan Murphy	Arkansas	31:08.5
208.	***Cameron Stein	Oregon	31:09.1
209.	**Hillary Cheruiyot’	Alabama-Ken	31:09.3
210.	**Matthew Rizzo	Georgetown	31:10.0
211.	**Leo Daschbach	Washington	31:11.5
212.	***Josh Edwards	Oregon	31:12.6
213.	**Brennan Benson	Utah State	31:13.1
214.	Caleb Garnica	Utah State	31:17.3
215.	**Michael Mooney	Colorado State	31:17.9
216.	**Ryan Adkins	Butler	31:18.6
217.	*Nate Kawalec	Tennessee	31:19.3
218.	Darren Harman	Utah State	31:21.0
219.	Shane Bracken’	Mississippi-Ire	31:24.9
220.	***Bryce Cerkowniak	Gonzaga	31:26.3
221.	†*Dennis Kipngeno’	A&M-Corpus Christi-Ken	31:27.9
222.	*Matthew Carmody	Notre Dame	31:29.1
223.	***Luke Lambert	Tulsa	31:29.8
224.	*Jack Stanley	Princeton	31:30.4
225.	***Lucas Guerra	Georgetown	31:31.1
226.	***Luke Venhuizen	Michigan	31:31.4
227.	**Jake Toomey	NC State	31:34.4
228.	***Nathanael Berhane	Texas	31:35.2
229.	**Eli Nahom	Tennessee	31:37.0
230.	**Oli Raimond’	Michigan-Aus	31:37.4
231.	Kevin Berry	Notre Dame	31:38.2
232.	*Brady Grant	Alabama	31:38.8
233.	**Levi Taylor	Montana State	31:44.5
234.	Nick Foster	Michigan	31:51.6
235.	Jack Fredian	Villanova	31:55.2
236.	*Max Nores	Tulsa	31:56.0
237.	***Emmanuel Sgouros	Texas	31:58.2
238.	*Jack Spamer	Michigan	31:58.6
239.	†*Taonga Mbambo	La Salle	32:04.0
240.	**Owen Smith	Montana State	32:04.0
241.	**Gavin Saacke	Alabama	32:05.1
242.	**Rob McManus	Montana State	32:08.7
243.	*Josh Shearer	Arkansas	32:08.8
244.	*Riley Buchholz	Tennessee	32:09.0
245.	Dalton Hengst	Mississippi	32:11.8
246.	**Jarrett Kirk	Princeton	32:12.7
247.	*Brock Dykema	Colorado State	32:15.8
248.	**John Malach	NC State	32:17.0
249.	**Brady Barton	Alabama	32:30.2
250.	**Abel Teffra	Georgetown	32:32.6
251.	**Ben Rosa	Harvard	32:45.1
252.	†**Jonathan Chung	Texas A&M	32:50.7

…dnf—*Shea Weilbaker (Georgetown), *Nicholas Russell (Santa Clara), **Anthony Monte (Princeton).