Races Thread - CROSS COUNTRY at 2023 NCAA Mountain Regionals (Lubbock. TX; Friday 11/10; Race times: #13 Women- 9:00 AM MT; #23 Men - 10:00 AM MT)

[AztecBuff]

Starting to see some info become available, so thought I'd start this thread now.

The men's and women's cross country (XC) teams race towards their next goal, qualifying for the NCAA Championships (scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 18th in Charlottesville, Virginia), by racing at the NCAA Mountain Regional this Friday, November 10th. This regional, one of nine nationwide, is being hosted this year by Texas Tech in Lubbock at Lubbock Christian U's. Chaparral Ridge Cross Country Course.

The women's race is scheduled to start at 9:00 AM MT, with the men's following at 10:00 AM MT.

Unfortunately, as usual for regonals, I can’t see any indication that any video coverage planned.

Some notes (just copied from my 2019 regional thread) about qualifying (I did modify the paragraph a little where I change it to note THIS year's situations vs. 2019's.):

"

• 9 regional races will determine which 31 teams for each gender get selected for the Championships.
  • The top 2 finishing teams in each of the regions are the 18 auto-qualifiers.
  • The remaining 13 teams are "At-large" selections. Unlike the team sport selection process most of us are familiar with (with their selection committees), the at-large teams in cross country are selected almost totally on a mathematical calculation based on how many wins the next highest regional finishers have accumulated over the 18 auto-qualifiers, and any other teams that have earned at-large berths earlier in the process (with a few exceptions). (The wins over other all ready selected teams are called "Kolas points".)
  • The at-large calculation has quite a few rules. For those interested, here's what looks to me like a couple decent descriptions of the process and rules - https://www.thestridereport.com/understanding-kolas . (The link to the left was the most succinct and isolated explanation I could find. The full explanation can also be found starting on page #14 at https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/ch...crosscountry/2023-24D1XCC_PreChampsManual.pdf .)

(Note - for some reason the tweet below has different start times than the live results link I posted below. For now, I'll assume the live results are the correct times.)




A few other Links:

Host Texas Tech regionals' homepage - https://texastech.com/sports/2023/9/29/copy-of-ncaa-mountain-regional

Mountain Regional Participant Manual (with schedule, course maps, spectator and team info, etc.) - https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/ch.../2023-24D1XCC_TexasTech_ParticipantManual.pdf

NCAA's regionals' information page (for ALL regions) - https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2013/11/7/division-i-men-s-and-women-s-cross-country.aspx

NCAA's regionals details and links page - https://www.ustfccca.org/meets-results/regional-championships-central?scope=R

Box Assignments - https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/ch...rosscountry/2023-24D1XCC_BoxDraw_Mountain.pdf

Kolas Calculator (Looks like it's being updated as regional races finish.) - https://xcquals.com/

Live results - https://live.pttiming.com/xc-ptt.html?mid=5853

 

[AztecBuff]

For this year, the Mountain Region looks to be, as normal, one of if not THE most stacked regions on both the men's and women's side, and with the Buffs not ranked as high as normal, it could be challenging for the Buffs to qualify for the finals. (In the most recent NATIONAL polls (released right after conference weekend), the Buff women are ranked #13 and men #23 nationally, but that only equates to being a #3 regional ranking for the women and #4 for the men. (The women are behind #1 Northern Arizona (NAU) and #3 BYU, with 3 other Mountain schools behind CU but still in the Top 30. The Men are behind nationally ranked #1 NAU, #3 BYU and #19 New Mexico, with Air Force right behind CU at #24.)

As the Buffs' worst than normal rankings indicate***, I was worried both teams might be in danger of not qualifying for the Championships final but, at least per the one Kolas calculator I could find, https://xcquals.com/ (NEVER seen it before, so hope its reliable), it looks like both teams might be OK as long as they take decent care of their own "business" and perform solidly in Lubbock. (The one disclaimer I always have to include with cross country is that, based on the way the Kolas point system works, any wierd results in any of the regional races could change ANY teams' prospects.)
(***In a way I'm always amused at myself looking at how expectations for teams can fluctuate based on expectations. Using the women's team, which I'd say is doing VERY WELL this year to be ranked as high as they are based on how many of their top runners look to be out due to health issues this season, - I can still occasionally think "wow, only ranked #13 this year, is this their WORST ranking in years/ in a decade or so?", and then I think another way and ask myself - is there ANY other sport at CU other than skiing (which has many less schools to compete against) that has been at #13 or better at ANY POINT of their seasons in this millenium?)

 

[AztecBuff]

With the 1st Regional race less than 11 hours away, wanted to post the cubuffs preview article - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/11/8/cross-country-colorado-determined-ahead-of-regionals.aspx

"
BOULDER - The Colorado cross country program travels to Lubbock, Texas on Friday to compete at the NCAA Mountain Regionals with hopes to qualify for the NCAA National Championships.

The Buffaloes are coming off the Pac-12 Championships where the men's squad placed fourth out of nine teams and the women placed third out of 12 teams. In both races, Colorado had a top-10 finisher as Austin Vancil and Karrie Baloga each came in eighth.

Baloga has had an amazing freshman season up to this point and she is coming off one of her best performances yet at the Pac-12 Championships in University Place, Wash.

"Going from high school to college your freshman year is a really hard thing to do and a big transition, but people like Emily Covert and Ella Baran have been really good mentors for me and they've helped me a lot," Baloga said.

She has high expectations of herself and the rest of the team as she looks to continue her success in Lubbock and help propel the Colorado women to nationals.

"I just try to soak everything in and enjoy the moment and obviously my goal is to win titles," Baloga stated ahead of regionals. "Everything I can accomplish, I want to, whether that's Pac-12 titles, regional titles, invitational titles or national titles."

Other big names for the women's squad racing in Texas include Covert, Baran, Samree Dishon and Katie Doucette. The men are led by Vancil as Noah Hibbard, Paul Stafford and Isaiah Givens look to be key contributors as well.

The Lubbock Christian Cross Country Course is hosting the races as the women's 6K will kickstart the day at 9 a.m. MT followed by the men's 10K at 10 a.m. MT. The women's course consists of two loops with the first lap being two miles. The second loop includes a mile stretch and a 1,200-meter wraparound to the finish line.

The men's 10K is made up of three laps around the course that add up to a total of six miles before the final turn with 0.2 miles to the finish.

The forecast shows for a mostly cloudy day with temperatures ranging between 39 and 53 degrees.

The Buffs face a challenging path to get to the NCAA National Championships in Virginia, but they are more determined than ever to do so. Across the nine regions, the top two teams from each championship automatically qualify for nationals. That leaves 13 teams remaining that can qualify and that is determined by points or wins prior to the regional championships. A more in-depth explanation of how the point system works can be found here.


HISTORY LESSON
The Colorado men's cross country team has won the NCAA Mountain Regional title 12 times dating back to 1997 while the women's team has won it 10 times. The last time the Buffs won the men's title was in 2015 and the last time they won the women's title was in 2017.

This is the very first time the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships will be held in Lubbock, Texas.
"

 

[AztecBuff]

The women's race is showing in live timing to have just started.

 

[AztecBuff]

Although the Utes get a minor upset over the Buff women and move CU to 4th overall in the women's regional race, believe every projection I've seen*** will have shown they've still easily done enough to advance to the Championships final!
(***As noted in the OP, cross country use a Kolas point system to mathematically determine, based on the finishing positions at each of the 9 regionals and who defeated the 2 auto-qualifiers in each region during the regular season, which at-large teams qualify for the Championships finals, so fans don't need to wait for a selection committee to tell them who's qualified.)

Way to go Buffs!


(I always consider these regionals as the epitome of the sports cliche of "survive and advance". The race also showed how tough and deep the NAU and BYU teams are, as they finished 1st and 2nd, and at least per a few Letsrun Forum posters were able to do this while each held out many of their top runners.)

 

[AztecBuff]

Uh- it looks like it's going to be a little more questionable for the men to advance, as they only finished 6th at the regional race when they were projected for 4th. (Based on the Kola calculator, they ARE still in. Hopefully the other teams that were projected to give them points perform or performed as expected in THEIR regional races.)

 

[AztecBuff]

Per the Kolas calculator linked to in the original post ( https://xcquals.com/, with all regions listed as final, the women have qualified for the finals in 27th (out of 31).

With 7 of the 9 regions for the men listed as final, and with me adjusting the Buffs to their actual finish and moving the Western Region to actual results through the top 7, the Buff MEN are also still showing in, although it's close. (They're showing in 30th of the 31 teams.)

Hope both those results hold up as being official!

 

[AztecBuff]

Article after today's races. - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/11/10/cross-country-buffs-xc.aspx
(Note - as it says, the NCAA Selection show is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon beginning at 3:00 PM MT. )

At least from everything I'm still seeing with the Kolas points calculations, looks like both Buff teams should be safe, with the women #27 in and the men #30 in the lists of 31 teams for each gender that qualified for next Saturday's finals.)

"
Cross Country November 10, 2023 Colin Wagner, CU Athletic Communications Associate

Buffs Await NCAA Announcement Following Regionals​

LUBBOCK, Texas. - The Colorado cross country program didn't perform up to its expectations at the NCAA Mountain Regionals here Friday morning, however the Buffs should still have enough to their resume to qualify for the NCAA National Championships.

The women's team placed fourth with 131 points while the men's team placed sixth with 169 points.

The women's 6K race started the morning and the Buffs placed fourth out of 20 teams. Ella Baran led the way as she was the first Buff to cross the finish line with a time of 19:47.5. Baran made big jumps after the two-mile mark, moving up 15 spots to an 11th-place finish.

Colorado sat in third for the majority of the race with Emily Covert being the leading runner. She began to slowly fall behind at the 4.5K mark, but she was still able to have a solid outing, finishing 20th in 20:07.4.

The next pair of runners to score for Colorado were Karrie Baloga and Katie Doucette. They placed 29th and 30th as they both recorded a time of 20:24.2. Rounding out the scoring-five for the Buffs was Samree Dishon with a 41st-place finish.

In the men's 10K, Colorado placed sixth out of 17 teams. After a fast start, the Buffs began to fall slightly, sitting in eighth through the first three miles. They managed to make their way back up two spots to sixth where they stayed for the remainder of the race.

Austin Vancil was Colorado's leading runner yet again, being the first Buff to cross the finish line for the third time this season. Vancil didn't fall out of the top-15 until the 8K mark where he moved down to 19th. He placed 20th in 29:29.8 and was just about five seconds ahead of the next Buff.

Following Vancil was Isaiah Givens in 30th (30:04.5) and Paul Stafford in 32nd (30:10.2). In the final stretch, Noah Hibbard made his way up seven spots to 40th-place and Caleb Niednagel moved up three spots to 47th. The five scorers for Colorado were unable to combine for a top-five team finish, instead placing sixth 34 points behind Montana State.

In each race, Northern Arizona took first place and BYU took second. Both teams now officially qualify for nationals. NAU scored 30 points in the women's race and 36 in the men's while BYU scored 59 points in the women's race and 89 in the men's.

The 2023 DI men's and women's cross country selection show will air on Saturday, Nov. 11 at 3 p.m. MT live on NCAA.com. The complete tournament field will be posted here shortly after it is unveiled.

31 teams per gender will be selected for the championships. 18 on each side will automatically qualify (two per region, from regional championships) while the remaining 13 for each of the men's and women's championships will be picked at large.
...
"

Here is a tweet summarizing the Buff women's results (don't see a tweet from the team yet giving detail for the men.) -

 

[AztecBuff]

Even though it is a mathematical calculation, always like to get the official confirmation.

OFFICIAL congrats to both the women's and men's teams for continuing their LONG RUN of excellence with being named as 1 of 31 teams for each gender to qualify for the NCAA Championships, scheduled to be competed this year next Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia!

Article - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/11/11/cross-country-colorado-receives-bid-to-ncaa-championships.aspx
"
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Colorado cross country program is headed to the 2023 NCAA Cross Country Championships after both the men's and women's teams were selected as one of the 13 at-large bids in each gender, the NCAA announced Saturday afternoon.

The Buffs continue the longest active men's streak of qualifying for nationals, now sitting at 32 straight trips. The women's team is advancing to the NCAAs for the 15th consecutive season while making it to 31 of the last 32 championships.

The 2023 NCAA Cross Country Championships take place on Saturday, Nov. 18 at Panorama Farms in Charlottesville, Va. The women's race is scheduled to begin at 8:20 a.m. MT, followed by the men's race at 9:10 a.m. MT. The events will be broadcasted live on ESPNU and the ESPN app with coverage beginning at 7:30 a.m. MT.

Tickets must be purchased online in advance to the national championships. No tickets will be sold on-site. Tickets are limited and expected to sell out. You can purchase tickets here.

Parking is only available at Fashion Square Mall with shuttles beginning at 6:45 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. and returning 11:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Tickets include parking at Fashion Square Mall, entry into the event, and roundtrip shuttle service.
"
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Ticket info link for any CU and/ or running fans in the Charlottesville area next weekend - https://virginiasports.evenue.net/c...237.1577060014.1699680221-82932236.1699680221