Why BYU Is Our No. 1 Team Today
Why BYU Is Our No. 1 Team Today
This past weekend we saw the unexpected in NCAA cross country action.What we thought was going to be an epic battle between pre-season No. 1 Stanford and No
This past weekend we saw the unexpected in NCAA cross country action.
What we thought was going to be an epic battle between pre-season No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Syracuse was not the case. Instead, Stanford decided to rest three of its top seven (Sean McGorty, Grant Fisher, and Alex Ostberg), and out of nowhere No. 14 BYU stole the show, upsetting a full-strength Syracuse team.
Stanford head coach Chris Miltenberg said he's never run his guys in these type of conditions before:
BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said it was too early to anoint BYU as the number one team in the nation:
It's important to look at the UVA results in the right perspective. Without McGorty, Fisher, Ostberg, and NCAA mile champion Henry Wynne of Virginia in the results, we truly don't get a full understanding of who beat who. Also, Campbell's 1-2 punch of Lawrence Kipkoech and Amos Terer most likely won't be part of the team scores come November. Thus, we removed all the teams except for BYU, Virginia, Stanford and Syracuse from the results, and added the four missing athletes' probable finishes.
The resulting score:
42 BYU
50 Syracuse
52 Stanford
71 Virginia
In our eyes right now, the order of these results should be reflected in our rankings. This isn't necessarily our prediction of who would win the national championship today or in November. Oregon, Arkansas, Georgetown, or Northern Arizona may well do that; Syracuse or Stanford might too. But none of those teams have accomplished as much as BYU has this season. BYU beat the preseason top two teams and likely would have beaten them even if they ran full-strength squads. That's more than any other team in the nation has done so far to earn the No. 1 ranking.
FULL SAUCONY FLO50 RANKINGS HERE
What we thought was going to be an epic battle between pre-season No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Syracuse was not the case. Instead, Stanford decided to rest three of its top seven (Sean McGorty, Grant Fisher, and Alex Ostberg), and out of nowhere No. 14 BYU stole the show, upsetting a full-strength Syracuse team.
Here were the reactions from the three head coaches…
Syracuse head coach Chris Fox said it was a punch in the gut that they needed:Stanford head coach Chris Miltenberg said he's never run his guys in these type of conditions before:
BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said it was too early to anoint BYU as the number one team in the nation:
Our reaction…
BYU is the No. 1 team in the NCAA right now:It's important to look at the UVA results in the right perspective. Without McGorty, Fisher, Ostberg, and NCAA mile champion Henry Wynne of Virginia in the results, we truly don't get a full understanding of who beat who. Also, Campbell's 1-2 punch of Lawrence Kipkoech and Amos Terer most likely won't be part of the team scores come November. Thus, we removed all the teams except for BYU, Virginia, Stanford and Syracuse from the results, and added the four missing athletes' probable finishes.
PL | ATHLETE | YR | SCHOOL |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Sean MCGORTY* | SR | Stanford |
2 | Justyn KNIGHT | JR | Syracuse |
3 | Grant FISHER* | SO | Stanford |
4 | Nicolas MONTANEZ | SR | BYU |
5 | Clayton YOUNG | SO | BYU |
6 | Henry WYNNE* | JR | Virginia |
7 | Colin BENNIE | JR | Syracuse |
8 | Philo GERMANO | JR | Syracuse |
9 | Jonathan HARPER | JR | BYU |
10 | Rory LINKLETTER | SO | BYU |
11 | Garrett SWEATT | SR | Stanford |
12 | Brent DEMAREST | JR | Virginia |
13 | Iliass AOUANI | SO | Syracuse |
14 | Brayden MCLELLAND | FR | BYU |
15 | Zach HERRIOTT | SR | Virginia |
16 | Mike MARSELLA | SR | Virginia |
17 | Daniel CARNEY | SO | BYU |
18 | Sam WHARTON | JR | Stanford |
19 | Alex OSTBERG* | FR | Stanford |
20 | Kevin JAMES | FR | Syracuse |
21 | Mitchell BRIGGS | SR | BYU |
22 | Chase WEAVERLING | JR | Virginia |
23 | Lachlan COOK | FR | Virginia |
24 | Will LAUER | FR | Stanford |
25 | TJ HORNBERGER | SO | Syracuse |
26 | Alex CORBETT | FR | Virginia |
27 | Griff MOLINO | FR | Syracuse |
28 | Jack KEELAN | JR | Stanford |
The resulting score:
42 BYU
50 Syracuse
52 Stanford
71 Virginia
In our eyes right now, the order of these results should be reflected in our rankings. This isn't necessarily our prediction of who would win the national championship today or in November. Oregon, Arkansas, Georgetown, or Northern Arizona may well do that; Syracuse or Stanford might too. But none of those teams have accomplished as much as BYU has this season. BYU beat the preseason top two teams and likely would have beaten them even if they ran full-strength squads. That's more than any other team in the nation has done so far to earn the No. 1 ranking.
FULL SAUCONY FLO50 RANKINGS HERE
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