The Pac-12 women's team race is the most competitive conference showdown of the weekend and will mirror the podium battle at the NCAA championships in a few weeks. Saucony Flo50-ranked No. 1 Colorado, No. 2 Washington, No. 3 Oregon, and No. 11 Stanford will all face off against each other for the first time this year after impressive showings at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational and Pre-National Invitational. Colorado, Oregon, and Stanford faced each other at Pre-Nats, where the top-ranked Buffaloes claimed the team title with a low score of 93 points. The third-ranked Ducks followed in second with 154 points, and the Cardinal finished sixth despite missing front-runner Elise Cranny. In the same weekend, Washington claimed the victory in Wisconsin where the Huskies beat previously ranked No. 5 North Carolina State and No. 2 Providence. 

The three best teams in the country will finally compete against each other Friday in Tucson, Arizona, at the Pac-12 Conference Championships. 



Here are the top four storylines fans can look forward to from the much anticipated conference matchup:

Colorado has the 'best front four ever'

Prior to winning Pre-Nationals, Colorado head coach Mark Wetmore laid down the gauntlet when he said that his women's team had the "best front four ever." The statement has been backed up on two separate occasions so far this season. First, the Buffaloes ran four all-time best performances on the historic Rocky Mountain Shootout home course. Led by a victory from Erin Clark, the Buffaloes ran the No. 3, No. 5, No. 8, and No. 11 all-time best marks on the Boulder, Colorado, course. Clark's sub-20 minute run was eye-opening as only former CU greats Jenny Simpson and Kara Goucher have run under 20 minutes on the course. 

Two weeks later, the Buffaloes approached the first competitive meet of the season by sweeping the team title at Pre-Nationals. Clark threw down an impressive kick to finish second to race winner Erin Finn. She was followed by teammates Kaitlyn Benner (12th), Dani Jones (17th), Makena Morley (26th), and fifth scorer Sage Hurta (36th) for a team score over 60 points lower than runner-up Oregon. 

After the victory, Clark told FloTrack that she looks at the No. 1 team ranking, but more than anything, she has faith by seeing what her team has accomplished in practice every day. 

How will Stanford finish without Elise Cranny?

The Cardinal's sixth-place finish at Pre-Nationals is impressive given the fact that the team's top scorer was out with an injury. All American Elise Cranny traveled to Terre Haute with the Stanford team only to suffer from an unexpected injury during Friday's pre-meet practice. Cranny was held out of the meet as a precaution and watched her teammates compete while she walked on crutches at the LaVern Gibson course. 

Stanford women's head coach Elizabeth DeBole told FloTrack that Cranny will not be racing at the Pac-12 championships. 

"She continues to recover from a foot injury sustained at the Pre-NCAA meet," DeBole wrote in an email. "The plan is to have her ready to race at the NCAA championships in November."

Even without Cranny, Stanford boasts a tight squad with a number of young talent in freshmen Christina Aragon and Ella Donaghu who placed 41st and 48th at Pre-Nationals, respectively. Without Cranny, it will be tough to crack the top three team finishes at Pac-12s, but the Cardinal could see some potential breakthrough performances from its younger members.

Washington could have the best team since 2008 NCAA championship squad

As Washington head coach Greg Metcalf says, the Huskies ran "aggressive and assertive" at Wisconsin with a loaded squad. The performance demonstrated a shockingly deep group of women who commanded the victory against a host of ranked teams. The performance earned the Huskies a jump in the rankings from No. 3 to No. 2 after beating previously ranked No. 2 Providence. 

In an interview with Jonathan Gault of LetsRun.com, Metcalf talked about the team's Wisconsin victory and the looming Pac-12 showdown with Colorado, Oregon, and Stanford. Metcalf also discussed the performances of his top two runners--Amy-Eloise Neale and Charlotte Prouse--who have overcome adversity in the past year to develop into confident top racers for the Huskies. Neale suffered a tibial stress fracture after her freshman year and struggled to regain consistent health in the following year. She finally started to see results during the 2016 track season where she emerged with a 1500m PR of 4:13. Most recently, Neale finished fourth in Wisconsin, which Metcalf said was "probably the best run of her college cross country career." 



Prouse has become a standout in cross country after a freshman year where she broke her arm in the middle of the steeplechase water pit at the Pac-12 Outdoor Championships. She continued on to place ninth in the NCAA final and eventually sixth at the World U20 Championships with a personal best of 9:44. Prouse finished right behind Neale in fifth place overall at Wisconsin.

RELATED: Charlotte Prouse Using Humbling First Year to Lead UW in 2016

Even with front-runners Neale and Prouse, Metcalf was excited about the fact that his squad contains many "interchangeable parts."

"I think that we have interchangeable parts all over," Metcalf told LetsRun. "We have two freshmen in Kaitlyn Neal and Nikki Zielinski, I think they're the freshman equivalent of adding two lightning bolts to our team. ... I look at our team right now and I think Katie Knight was our seventh girl this weekend and she was the Pac-12 champion at 10K. Anna Maxwell (UW's No. 6 at Wisco) ran 4:12 last year for 1500 meters."

Oregon will be led by a star freshman and a comeback

A talented freshman has emerged as the Oregon Ducks' team leader this season. Katie Rainsberger came to Oregon as one of the most sought-after recruits in the country--No. 1 U.S. junior outdoor all-time mark in the 3K--and has lived up to the hype in her first two races for the Ducks. Rainsberger's first race came at the Washington Invitational where she finished second to Prouse. She followed the impressive run with a sixth-place finish at Pre-Nationals. She was the only freshman to finish within the top 15 of the race in Terre Haute, Indiana. She also beat every Pac-12 conference competitor in the race, with the exception of Clark. 

After her Terre Haute debut, Rainsberger told FloTrack that the team was in the middle of a "tough [training] block," implying that there is more to come from the Ducks. 



After a breakthrough 2015-16 season that included All-American finishes in cross country, indoor, and outdoor track, Alli Cash is finally back competing for the Ducks and should be a welcomed addition to the squad at Pac-12s. Cash opened the 2016 cross country season at Pre-Nationals where she finished 48th overall, but women's head coach Maurica Powell maintained that "she's not even up to full speed yet."

"It was good to have Alli Cash back with us. She's not even up to full speed yet so she's only going to get better from here," Powell told GoDucks.com after Pre-Nationals. 

Last year, Cash finished sixth at Pac-12s, sixth in the West region and 31st at the NCAA championships. If she continues to progress from her Pre-Nationals debut, Cash should be a formidable scorer for the Ducks.