1. Mark Wetmore is a wizard (but we already knew that). ​No. 8 Colorado lost to No. 4 Oregon by 39 points at Pre-Nats and scored more points in a weaker field there than No. 2 Stanford did at Wisconsin. None of that mattered today, as the Buffs won their sixth straight Pac-12 title 41-47-58-94 over Stanford, UCLA, and Oregon, respectively. No one has beaten the Colorado men in cross country since they've joined the conference.​

Today's win came thanks to John Dressel and Ben Saarel running to their potential, and Zach Perrin running out of his mind. Perrin was fourth today; he was 38th at Pac-12s and 195th at nationals last year and 30th at Pre-Nationals this year.

Full Pac-12 results
Men's Saucony Flo50 team rankings



Also, we didn't exactly learn anything here, but it has to be mentioned--Edward Cheserek won his fourth straight Pac-12 cross country title. In a conference with legendary alums, no runner had ever done that.

For some context, @KingCheserek just did what Pre, Rono, Lagat, Salazar, Rupp and Lalang could not - win 4 league XC titles.

— Oregon Track & Field (@OregonTF) October 28, 2016

2. The women's individual national title is wide open ​after Alice Wright and Calli Thackery ran Brenna Peloquin's legs off today at the Mountain West meet. Peloquin was the favorite to win nationals after big wins over Erin Finn at Roy Griak and Wright and Anna Rohrer at Wisconsin. But today's race showed that Peloquin can be beaten with a hard pace from the gun--even at home. Wright, Finn, Peloquin, and Rohrer have to be considered roughly equal favorites to win nationals now, with maybe a slight edge to Finn. And considering that Thackery and Air Force's Carina Gillespie beat Peloquin today, the door is open to wild cards like Thackery or Washington's Amy-Eloise Neale.​

Women's Saucony Flo50 individual rankings
Full Mountain West Conference results
MWC race replay

3. The Colorado women are by far the best team in the country. ​The No. 1 Buffaloes ​had yet to race No. 2 Washington this year, and the Huskies looked like title contenders after Wisconsin. (Hell, Meg and I picked them to win this meet.) But Colorado put three women in the top four and four in the top nine to rout Washington in Tuscon this morning, 33-74. Washington was closer to fourth place than it was to first. No one can beat the Buffs at their best; everyone else's best hope is that Colorado's No. 5 has a bad day at nationals.

But even that hope diminished a little bit today. Colorado's 5-6-7 runners, Sage Hurta, Mackenzie Caldwell, and Melanie Nun, finished 4.3 seconds apart today. Only one of them has to run well in Terre Haute for Colorado to win.

Women's Saucony Flo50 team rankings

4. ​Syracuse is progressing back toward its 2015 form. ​A year after ​scoring 46 points at ACCs and going on to win nationals, the Syracuse men scored 29 points at their conference meet. That's mostly due to the rest of the conference, but still an encouraging sign as the Orange try to defend their national title. Joel Hubbard and Philo Germano were 35 seconds behind Justyn Knight, almost the exact same gap they had behind their leader at Wisconsin. But Iliass Aouani was right in front of them today instead of 25 seconds behind them like he was in Madison.

Colin Bennie will still have to step up for Syracuse to be a real threat to Northern Arizona--fifth in the ACC is not on par with his eighth-place national finish from last year--but they're headed in the right direction.

Full ACC results

5. ​Villanova's Patrick Tiernan is back. ​Hello! The 2016 Olympian and 2015 NCAA XC runner-up made his debut at the Big East ​meet today and cruised to a win. His presence in the front pack will make NCAAs that much more exciting.

Full Big East results

6. ​NC State finally has its whole team, and they're very good. For the first time in over a year, both Frazier sisters raced on the same day for the Wolfpack. Wesley impressed with a tenth-place finish in her first race in nine months, while Ryen was just seven seconds behind Wesley after not cracking the top five at Wisconsin. That was enough for NC State to win the conference by 21 points over Notre Dame, even without Erika Kemp (seventh overall/team no. 1 at Wisco) finishing in its top five. If Kemp and the Fraziers are on at the same time, this is the second or third best team in the country.

7. ​Stanford's loaded freshman class won't wait​. Elise Cranny didn't race for the Cardinal today, and they still beat Oregon after losing to them by 75 at Pre-Nats. The reason? Huge races by the freshman trio of Fiona O'Keeffe, Christina Aragon, and Ella Donaghu, who went 11-14-20 to help No. 11 Stanford knock off No. 3 Oregon and come within nine points of No. 2 Washington. That's probably O'Keeffe's best race since September of last year, when she was a senior in high school.

If Cranny's foot heals in time for NCAAs, Stanford has a shot at the podium. But if it doesn't, the freshmen and Vanessa Fraser are good enough to get this team to nationals and a single-digit finish there.

8. Don't bet against the Arkansas men, though Mississippi has finally arrived. Though Arkansas won its seventh straight SEC title (and 24th in 26 years), Mississippi ran maybe its most complete race of the Ryan Vanhoy era. After taking turns running well at Notre Dame and Penn State, MJ Erb and Sean Tobin both had good days on the same day. And Olympic Trials darling Craig Engels was Mississippi's fourth man after being outside of its top seven all fall.

None of that was good enough to beat Arkansas, though, who debuted Andrew Ronoh and put all five scorers in the top nine. With the chaos in the Pac-12, the Razorbacks look a lot like a podium team.

Full SEC results

9. This could be UCLA's best men's team in a long time​. The Bruins haven't finished in the top ten at nationals since taking ninth in 1982, but this could be the year they return to the top ten. At Pac-12s today, they beat No. 4 Oregon and were within 17 points of potential top-five teams in No. 8 Colorado and No. 2 Stanford. That was their second straight strong performance after finishing a solid sixth at Wisconsin.

10. Thomas Ratcliffe is the real deal, ​but Stanford has yet to put it all together. Coach Chris Miltenberg officially pulled the redshirt off his star freshman today, and Ratcliffe proved him right with an eighth-place finish. But Stanford lost today in part due to a surprising off day from Sean McGorty. If McGorty was third behind Cheserek and Grant Fisher, Stanford would've beaten Colorado 43-44. But he was seventh--just nine seconds ahead of Ratcliffe--and the Buffs continued their Pac-12 dominance.