I didn’t watch any cross country this weekend. Nada. No XC for this guy. I didn’t even watch the Mountain West Championships, even though they were the only conference (I think?) to live stream their races, God bless their souls. (Again, I didn't watch so I could be wrong here.) Nope, not a single 8K or 6K was seen by me, whether it be in-person, on the interweb, or by smoke signals. And that’s totally fine. 

 

See, I had more important business to attend to. My wife and I had a kid. And he’s totally awesome, and totally cute, and totally just as much work, or more, as you might have expected. Totally. So yeah, I didn’t have no time for no conference weekend that spanned Friday to Sunday. My little nocturnal newborn made sure of that.

 

But even with my owl-like mini-human turning my nights into days and my days into “how many photos can I take of him wearing this ridiculous onesie?” sessions, I still managed to check in on the going-ons in collegiate distance running. Why? Because conference cross country is the best thing outside of NCAAs, of course, and this weekend matters. IT DOESN’T MATTER MORE THAN OUR SON, HONEY, but the conference championships are a huge source of pride for the runners that we sometimes forget aren’t just mindlessly wandering through the fall like drones on their path to NCAAs. The three-day hysteria that is cross country’s conference weekend is where all of the best rivalries were/are born, and thus, it’s the place where the true identity of a team starts to resemble the end product. 

 

So, given the importance, and despite me not watching any cross country this weekend, just know that I saw everything. And by that I mean I followed along on Twitter. I might be a dad, but hey, I was a millennial first.  

 

Here are my conference takeaways:

 

If Edward Cheserek Makes PAC-12 History, Does It Make A Sound?

For a guy who has won more NCAA titles than times I’ve flossed over the last two years, a PAC-12 victory is hardly more than a blip on the radar for Edward Cheserek as he heads towards another inevitable national championship on November 21st. As King Ches has made dominance more and more routine over his two-plus years at Oregon, the coverage of his greatness generally amplifies to a higher decibel when he loses than when he wins. As humans with a desire to constantly be entertained, we want to see more than just one side having all the fun. 

 

But even though Ches ran away from everyone as expected on Friday in Pullman, this victory will have been in vain if we don’t use this opportunity to stop and appreciate how lucky we are to exist in the Edward Cheserek era. This dude has made winning boring, and that is a really hard thing to do. 

Luckily for all of us, Cheserek’s third-straight conference title came with a little extra juice, a reminder that we as fans should not forget to count our blessings. When the Oregon junior hit the tape in 23:06.3 on Friday, a comfortable seven seconds ahead of Stanford’s Sean McGorty, he became the first in conference history to string together a trio of wins in consecutive years. His third PAC-12 title ties him with league legends Steve Prefontaine and Henry Rono for the most all-time, but he stands alone as the only person to go back-to-back-to-back. That’s right, Edward Cheserek is now the greatest cross country runner in PAC-8/10/12 history, and he only had to better the most beloved runner in American history and Henry F’in Rono to do it. And he still has another year to go. 
 

 

Please don’t let this go unnoticed, world. Or at least give credit where it's due when Ches becomes the first to win three straight NCAA XC titles in three weeks, where he'll once again match Rono and Prefontaine (and Gerry Lindgren) for the most in history. 

 

Good Weekend For Anti-Foot Locker Curse Crusaders

Look, I don’t believe in sports curses. As a Cubs fan that has had to deal with the supposed existence of a championship-yielding billy goat, I choose not to waste my time with such nonsense, despite my Cubbies still being titleless since 1908. It’s just dumb. 

 

I have the same opinion regarding NCAA cross country’s famous “curse”— the one that apparently afflicts former women’s Foot Locker champions— it’s stupid and it’s dumb and wait a minute why hasn’t a Foot Locker Champ won an NCAA XC title by now? It just doesn’t seem possible.

 

Four past Foot Locker champions are currently competing in the NCAA, and two of them proved yet again this weekend that they just might have what it takes to end the spell once and for all, should the spirits allow, of course. Our two brave souls go by the names Molly Seidel and Aisling Cuffe. 

 

Notre Dame’s Seidel emerged as a potential curse-breaker when she won the thrilling NCAA 10K in June, but I had lost some faith in the 2011 Foot Locker champ when she was only third at her hometown Notre Dame Invite on October 2nd. That faith has now been restored, first with Seidel’s runner-up finish at Wisco and most recently after the Irish senior’s utter demolition at ACCs on Friday. 

Molly Seidel went all beast-mode at ACCs

There, Seidel cruised to an easy 32-second win over teammate and fellow curse hunter Anna Rohrer, which sure, shows that the competition level wasn’t exactly elite without any other NCAA title contenders in Tallahassee, but also that she ain't playin no games, either. Remember: Seidel finished six seconds behind N.C. State frosh Ryen Frazier just a month ago on her home course, and this weekend she returned the favor with a 46-second gap on the freshman. Given her rise throughout the season, Seidel should be in potential hex-breaking shape by NCAAs.

 

Our other potential curse conquerer is Cuffe, Stanford's 5th-year senior who won the 2010 Foot Locker crown by a monstrous 34-seconds, and on Friday won her second career PAC-12 title despite missing all of 2014 with injury. Cuffe owns the highest NCAA XC finish by a former FL champ since Jordan Hasay’s runner-up showing in 2011 with her fourth place finish in 2013, and her ascent back to full fitness makes her a legitimate candidate to make history in Louisville. Like Seidel, she didn’t face any other NCAA title contenders at her conference championship, but I know that Cuffe still has the 15:11 5K ability in there somewhere, which makes her serious anti-curse material. 

 

Standing in the way of these two will be Boise State frosh Allie Ostrander, whose last two performances have established her as the NCAA favorite. After her stunning, record-breaking victory at Wisco, Ostrander appears poised to keep the streak alive for at least another year after her commanding 16-second win at the Mountain West Championships, an easy W over the powerful New Mexico Lady Lobos. Cuffe and Seidel are running well right now, but Allie O is on another level. 

 

Still though, given that a freshman hasn’t won the women’s NCAA individual title in 30 years, Ostrander will have to crest a mountain in Louisville that is nearly as steep as the one facing Seidel and Cuffe.

 

Side note: I mentioned Rohrer earlier, but our fourth active FL champ, Penn State’s Tessa Barrett, won’t receive much attention for her 12th place showing at Big Ten’s, but she played a key part in the Nittany Lions' upset victory over #2 Michigan on Sunday in Chicago. Barrett, a redshirt freshman, isn’t in the individual title discussion, but her performance put a bow on a great weekend of racing for all four curse-stricken ladies. 
 

Wisconsin’s Nightmare Gets Worse

The bottom officially dropped out for the punch-less Badgers on Sunday, as the once fourth-ranked Wisco men were eighth at the Big Ten Championships, their worst finish EVER in conference history. Didn’t think I’d use the words “worst” and “ever” to describe this talented team in 2015. After all, this team was 10th at NCAAs last November with three freshmen and a sophomore making up four of their top five. 

 

Mick Byrne’s group plummeted in part because their #1 guy, two-time Big 10 champion Malachy Schrobilgen, had to drop out due to an injury, but even if the junior had won his third straight conference title on Sunday, the Badgers would have only finished sixth. This team has bigger issues right now than just Schrobilgen.

Wisconsin's Morgan McDonald (132) and Joe Hardy 

Morgan McDonald (5th) was solid for the second race in a row, while fellow sophomore Joe Hardy (10th) bounced back after a miserable day at the adidas Invite two weeks ago, but outside of that, it was downright ugly for the Badgers. Wisco’s 3-5 runners combined to tally 184 points, which by itself was more than the seven teams ahead of them scored with five. 

 

Make no mistake, this team is struggling so mightily largely due to injuries, as key contributor Ryan Kromer (99th at NCAAs ’14) has not competed this season and Carl Hirsch (14th at Big Tens ’14) has thus far been a shell of his former self in 2015 (Hirsch was 78th on Sunday). Also, glaringly missing from Byrne’s arsenal in 2015 are 2013 NXN champion and redshirt frosh Kai Wilmot and 2014 Foot Locker runner-up Olin Hacker, who would certainly be difference makers if they were in prime shape. 

 

This season has gone from promising to controversial to disappointing to full-on panic mode in the span of four meets, and now with Regionals returning to Madison for the fourth straight year on November 13th, the Badgers really need to auto-qualify on their home course to ensure that they don’t miss NCAAs for the first time since 1971. 

 

That seems unlikely at best right now. 

 

Check out this week’s Winners and Losers!