There is one huge reason why NAU’s women’s cross country team is ranked No. 1 nationally, a reason that was prominently displayed Friday morning at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational: depth.
We’re talking as deep as the Mariana Trench here. The Lumberjack women — running without two top runners, Elise Stearns and Ali Upshaw — easily beat top top five NCAA teams, BYU and Notre Dame to take the title in the 5K race with five runners in the top 13 and just a 15-second spread among the scorers.
In the men’s race, a fierce battle in the final two kilometers of the 8K course saw Notre Dame edge NAU for the title, 55-68. The Irish trailed the Lumberjacks at the 6K mark by five places, but a strong finish assured the victory on their home course. Both Notre Dame and NAU men also showed impressive depth, but Notre Dame’s pack (8-10-11-12-14) stayed intact.
Though NAU showed impressive team running, there also were some standout individual efforts.
David Mullarkey, the senior transfer from Florida State, placed fourth overall in a blistering men’s race in 22:36, behind three speedy Kenyan freshmen (winner Ernest Cheruiyot of Texas Tech, Evans Kirui of Washington State and Patrick Kiprop of Cincinnati).
Karrie Baloga was the top Lumberjack woman with a seventh place finish in 16:16 over the 5K course, showing that her outstanding spring as a steeplechaser has carried over this fall.
Really, though, the story for the NAU women was their pack running. By the one mile mark, NAU had a 33-point lead over Notre Dame, with Baloga, Maggi Congdon and Alyson Churchill in the top 10. By 3K, NAU maintained its spread and saw Ava Mitchell, Alex Carlson and Nikita Moore move up. At the finish, NAU went 7-9-11-12-13. Even though BYU had the first and fourth finishers, Lexi Halladay-Lowry and Jenna Hutchins, NAU had Congdon 9th), Moore 11th), Carlson (12th) and Mitchell (13th) following Baloga.
To show just how impressive NAU was, its sixth, non-scoring runner Churchill finished 17th overall — better than either of the fourth runners from BYU or Notre Dame.
Baloga, a sophomore who transferred to NAU from Colorado last winter and made the NCAA finals in the steeplechase, has solid cross country credentials. As a true freshman at Colorado, she finished 82nd at the NCAA nationals. She’s certainly upped her performance since then, too. She and Congdon, a senior, showed consistency throughout Friday’s race, settling into the fifth and sixth spots at 1K and staying put through 3K before settling for seventh and ninth.
While Baloga and Congdon were maintaining pace, Moore and Carlson moved up several places in the final 2K, assuring an easy win for the team.
The men’s race started out like a sprint, with Texas Tech runners taking out a hot pace — 4:22 first mile, 4:06 second mile — before falling way off. That was to the advantage of Notre Dame and NAU, which emphasized pack running and a more consistent, reasonable pace.
By 3K, the NAU men had taken the lead over Notre Dame and Texas Tech, but the advantage shrank to just five points (60-64) at 6K, even though the Lumberjacks had all five scoring runners in the top 20. But Notre Dame bunched together and finished with just a seven-second spread between runners one and five.
That was just too much for NAU to overcome. Still, it was an impressive showing for NAU, which is in a rebuilding year. Mullarkey was in the mix among the leaders throughout, never dipping lower than sixth and settling into fourth by 6K. Justin Keyes, who won last weekend’s Dave Murray Invite in Tucson, was NAU’s second runner in 13th, followed by Kang Nyoak in 15th and Cory Gorgas in 16th. Colin Sahlman was NAU’s fifth scorer in 20th.
Gorgas, particularly, had a solid second half of the race, moving up from 29th place at 6K to 16th at the finish. Cael Grotenhuis was NAU’s sixth runner, while true freshman Manny Perez had a promising debut with a 27th place finish. (Perez had run unattached in NAU’s first two meets.) Santiago Prosser, one of NAU’s top runners, went from NAU’s second runner at 3K to seventh at 6K and then did not finish.
The men’s course at Notre Dame had been reduced this yar from 5 miles to 8K (about 46 meters shortened) this year because of construction of new dorm rooms. Even so, the men’s times were eye-popping fast. The previous Joe Piane course record was 23 minutes by Florida State’ Adriaan Wildschutt, but on Friday 17 runners broke 23 minutes. Cheruiyot, who finished fourth in the NCAA 10,000-meter finals last spring, ran a blistering 22:22.
The next big test for NAU squads will come Oct. 19 at the Pre-Nationals held in Madison, Wisc., site of November’s championships. Smith, speaking last week, said there is a chance that the women will field a full squad, with Upshaw competing and perhaps Stearns, coming back from injury.
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