2012 NCAA XC D1 preview

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The D1 NCAA Cross Country championships will happen this Saturday.  The race is being held at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park in Louisville, Kentucky. The women’s race will begin at noon and if you can’t make it out to Louisville, you can watch the race online here. Flotrack and the Runnerspace will have updates from the course.

The most recent coach’s poll has Florida State University (FSU) led by Coach Karen Harvey as the favorites coming in. FSU annihilated the competition at their regional meet, sweeping the top three places and scoring a mere 24 points. They have never won the NCAA cross country title, but have finished as the runner-up in 2009 and 2010. Oregon comes in at the number two spot, while they have not won a cross country title since 1987 (that would be 25 years ago); they are the 3 time defending champions in indoor track. Their regional meet was closely contested.  In fact, Stanford and Arizona are ranked fourth and fifth in the coach’s poll. Iowa State is ranked third with a strong win in the Midwest regional and a minute gap from their first to fifth runner.

In the women’s race, Oregon’s Jordan Hasay is the top returner by taking runner up by only a second to Shelia Reid. Is she tougher than the Footlocker curse?  No women’s winner of the annual Foot Locker-sponsored national high school cross country championship has ever gone on to win an NCAA championship in 31 years. There are plenty of other contenders. UTEP’s Risper Kimaiyo will be in the mix.   Iowa State’s Betsy Saina, the constant contender, won a tough regional meet in 19:51 over Aliphine Tuliamuk-Bolton (19:55) of Wichita State. Freshman phenom, Laura Hollander of Cal Poly will also be in the mix after winning the Wisconsin meet earlier this year.  FSU’s runners will surely be up in the top, don’t be surprised to see Violah Lagat in contention for the win.

Don’t forget to tune in Saturday at noon EST to see the results. 

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