2023 Pac 12 Championships' thread - CROSS COUNTRY (University Place, WA; Friday, 10/27; Men's race - 11:10 AM MT, Women's - 12:10 PM MT)

[AztecBuff]

Buff cross country begins its post-season this Friday, 10/27, as it heads to Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place (south of Seattle), Washington for the last Pac 12 Championships for this sport (at least for the vast majority of the schools participating).

The Men's 8K race is scheduled to begin at 11:10 AM MT and the women's 6K at 12:10 AM MT. Coverages on the Pac 12 Network begin at 11:00 AM MT and noon MT, respectively. (See the below for links and more information.)

Heading in, looks like the conference is not quite as strong nationally as in some prior years, especially on the men's side, but a LOT of conference pride and positioning for NCAA's are still on the line. The Buff men are the highest ranked team in the conference at #9 in the Coaches' Association Top 30 ( https://www.ustfccca.org/2023/10/fe...ns-cross-country-national-coaches-poll-week-4), with Stanford the only other ranked team at #25. On the women's side (https://www.ustfccca.org/2023/10/fe...ns-cross-country-national-coaches-poll-week-4), Stanford leads the way at #5, with OSU (#9), Oregon (#14), Washington (#19), CU (#20) and Utah (#21) also ranked.

Go Buffs!!!

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Championships links (will fill in missing links (if I remember) as they become available):

Pac 12 homepage - https://pac-12.com/2023-pac-12-cross-country-championships and/ or https://pac-12.com/cross-country/event/2023/10/27/pac-12-championships

Host (Washington's) homepage - https://gohuskies.com/sports/cross-country or https://gohuskies.com/gameday/cross-country-vs-pac-12-championships/cross/390/

Coaches' Association general Conference Championships homepage - http://www.ustfccca.org/meets-results/conference-championships-central

CU notes - Not available as I type this.

Final Entry lists - https://gohuskies.com/documents/2023/10/26/2023_Pac-12_XC_Entries.pdf

Link to link to live results - https://pntfo.trackscoreboard.com/ .
Live results direct link - https://pntfo.trackscoreboard.com/meets/20231027/events
(Just for reference, link to LAST YEAR'S live results - https://finishedresults.trackscoreboard.com/meets/10980/events .)

Live coverage - If like the prior few years, both races are scheduled to be shown live on all seven Pac 12 Network channels. For those whose Cable/ Satellite/ Cord Cutting subscription includes access to any Pac 12 channels, assume it can also be streamed through a link at https://pac-12.com/cross-country/event/2023/10/27/pac-12-championships .

 

[AztecBuff]

Preview for the Championships -




Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/10/25/buffs-ready-for-last-pac-12-cross-country-championship.aspx

"
BOULDER - The University of Colorado cross country program travels to University Place, Wash., this Friday to compete in its final Pac-12 Cross Country Championship before the Buffaloes depart for the Big 12 in 2024.

Championship day will start with the men's 8K race at 11:10 a.m. MT followed by the women's 6K at 12:10 p.m. MT. The University of Washington is hosting the meet at Chambers Creek Regional Park.

On the men's side, Colorado leads the Pac-12 while being ranked ninth in the USTFCCCA Coaches Poll. The top threat to the Buffs are the Stanford Cardinal who come in at No. 25 in the rankings.

Earlier this season, the Cardinal placed ninth at the Virginia Invitational while Colorado placed 12th. The Buffs, however, got their payback at Nuttycombe with a seventh-place finish as Stanford came in 20th. If Stanford's second-best scorer from the Virginia Invitational runs on Friday then the race should be a lot more interesting.

Four of 10 Buffs who competed at last year's Pac-12 Championships have returned to race for the title this year. Out of those four, Austin Vancil and Isaiah Givens are the leaders of the group as they were the top-two finishers for Colorado at Nuttycombe.

Givens, the redshirt freshman, has surprised a lot of people with his vast improvement throughout the year. In the 8K at the Virginia Invitational he was the sixth Buff to cross the finish line with a time of 24:33.8. At Nuttycombe he shaved just about 40 seconds off his 8K time and was Colorado's top runner.

Noah Hibbard, James Overberg and Paul Stafford are also looking to turn heads in Washington, expecting to round out the scoring five for the Buffs. The remaining competitors for the black and gold are Hunter Appleton, Jake Derouin, Caleb Niednagel, Grady Rauba and Charlie Welch.

Other teams to look out for in the men's 8K Friday morning are Oregon and Washington.

The Colorado women's team looks to win its third consecutive Pac-12 Cross Country Championship this year, however they are faced with a very tough path to do so. The Pac-12 has six ranked teams in the USTFCCCA Coaches Poll, four of which are ranked higher than the Buffs.

No. 5 Stanford is the favorite to win the women's title followed by No. 9 Oregon State and No. 14 Oregon. The other Pac-12 teams in the NCAA rankings include No. 19 Washington, No. 20 Colorado and No. 21 Utah.

For the Buffs, just three of eight women who ran at last year's Pac-12 Championships are competing again this year. Those three athletes are Emily Covert, Ella Baran and Whitney Valenti.

The returning Colorado trio will be joined by a pair of transfers in Katie Doucette and Samree Dishon. Also representing the Buffs on Friday are Elliot Pribramsky, Tiya Chamberlin and Karrie Baloga.

Baloga, similarly to Givens, is a very promising young star for Colorado. She is the only CU freshman woman being sent to the Pac-12 Championships and rightfully so. In Virginia, Baloga finished as the second-fastest Buff behind Covert and then again in Wisconsin behind only Baran.

Colorado head coach Mark Wetmore has high expectations for both Givens and Baloga along with the rest of the team as the Buffaloes enter their last Pac-12 Pac-12 Cross Country Championship.

The forecast for Friday in University Place, Wash., shows a mainly sunny day with a temperature high of 49 degrees and low of 32 degrees.

Both races will air live on Pac-12 Network with coverage beginning at 11 a.m. MT.


HISTORY LESSON

Since joining the conference in 2011 the Buffaloes have won eight men's and six women's Pac-12 Cross Country titles.

The Colorado men's team won the conference championship in its first six years as a Pac-12 program.

The Colorado women's team won the conference championship three years in a row from 2015-2017 and has won the title the past two years.
"

 

[AztecBuff]

Highest (in the Pac 12) ranked Buff men get upset*** by a bit and finish 4th with 80 points (behind (in order), Stanford (41), Washington (50) and Oregon (60)) .

They're going to need to work on whatever happenned and get ready for the BIG regional race in a couple weeks.

(***While an official upset, hard to know how much of an actual upset it was, as some XC teams hold off some of their top runners until late in the season.)
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Coverage of the women's race begins at noon MT on all Pac 12 Network channels, with the race scheduled to begin at 12:10 PM.

 

[AztecBuff]

The women (who have had a tough year on the health front) finish a solid 3rd by a point over the Ducks. (The Buffs end up with 87 points, behind only Washington (58) and Stanford (60).)

 

[AztecBuff]

Details for the Buff men's and women's finishers. (Nice sign for the future on the women's side with true frosh Karrie Baloga finishing in the top 10.):







Edit- Full results:

Men's - https://static.pac-12.com/sports/cr...hips/2023_Pac-12_MXC_Championship_results.pdf

Women's - https://static.pac-12.com/sports/cr...hips/2023_Pac-12_WXC_Championship_results.pdf

 

[AztecBuff]

Pac 12's highlights of the races -

 

[AztecBuff]

Congrats to the 5 Buffs named to the All-Conference (all 2nd) teams!