FloTrack made their individual conference predictions here, are giving you the chance to win free Saucony swag here, but this is where you can find the juiciest storylines heading into NCAA XC conference weekend.

FloTrack will be at the ACC and Big Ten Championships giving you all the live updates and post race interviews.

Heavyweights Collide For ACC Men's Individual Title

Justyn Knight won the early-season Battle in Beantown and followed up with a runner-up finish at the prestigious Wisconsin Invite

While here at FloTrack we think the No. 2 Syracuse Orange have the team title in the bag, the men’s individual title is a bit more of a question mark. While ‘Cuse has three Saucony Flo50 top 25 individuals, including Wisco Invite runner-up Justyn Knight and last year’s conference champion Martin Hehir, a new ACC favorite has emerged in Thomas Curtin, the 2015 Pre-Nats winner who took down King Cheserek. While Cheserek’s race plan was different from Curtin’s from-the-gun aggression, Curtin still held him off and emerged as a serious contender for this conference title.

But wait, a few weeks before Pre-Nats it was Duke’s Shaun Thompson who took down Curtin by nearly 30 seconds at Princeton. And we cannot forget last year’s runner-up Ernest Kibet and his teammate Edwin Kibichiy of Louisville. Did the ACC just become the hardest conference to win individually on the men’s side?

Knight and Hehir are sub-4 milers so if it comes down to a sit and kick, they appear to be the favorites (However we shall never forget Thomas Curtin’s stellar 5K performance at the Iowa State Classic). But if Curtin employs his Pre-Nats strategy will anyone join him?


Fun fact: Curtin beat Hehir and Thompson in 2013, finishing second behind NC State’s Andrew Colley. He redshirted XC in 2014.

Can Notre Dame Women Be First To Go 1-2 At ACC Championships Since Shannon Rowbury And Clara Horowitz In 2005?

Molly Seidel won the NCAA Outdoor 10,000m last spring and cemented herself as a contender for the cross country individual title this fall

The Notre Dame women have the best 1-2 punch in the NCAA. I said it. It’s true! With Stanford’s Elise Cranny out, the hope of a Cranny-Aisling Cuffe performance looks bleak. Let’s now focus on the 2015 NCAA 10K Champion Molly Seidel and two-time Foot Locker winner Anna Rohrer (How fun! Seidel also has a Foot Locker title, too!) as the most dynamic duo. With Seidel leading the way, they finished third and eighth at the Notre Dame Invite and second and 12th in Wisconson. Can they sweep the ACC? The only ACC members who have come close to stopping them both come from NC State.

Freshman Ryen Frazier recorded a commanding victory in South Bend, while senior Samantha George was right behind Rohrer in Wisconsin. Now Frazier was a bit off in Wisconsin but surely she’s figured out what went wrong by now.

If Seidel and Rohrer pull this off, they will be the first female duo at the ACC Championships since Duke's Shannon Rowbury and Clara Horowitz accomplished the feat in 2005.

Michigan Men And Women Both Have A Chance To Bring Home Some Hardware

Check out the trailer for the newest FloFilm, INSIDE: Michigan!

The last time both Michigan men and women won Big Ten Championship titles was in 1993. That year, the men snapped an eight-year Wisconsin winning streak. Though the Badgers have won 18 of 21 team titles since, the rising Wolverines should make the team battle a little more interesting this year.

Last year the Badgers scored 47 points to Michigan’s 77. Led by Malachy Schrobilgen, Wisconsin put their top five in the top 18, while Michigan’s fifth and final scorer was all the way back in 28th. The difference this year will be Michigan’s Mason Ferlic and their improved top five spread. Since finishing a disappointing fourth last fall at this meet, Ferlic defeated Schrobilgen in the indoor and outdoor conference 5K, as well as winning his first Big Ten steeplechase title. Schrobilgen (fifth) and Morgan McDonald (10th) both took down Ferlic on their home course a few weeks ago, but the difference will be Michigan’s Connor Mora. The junior did not make the travel squad in 2014, but has since been Michigan’s second or third runner consistently this fall. With his presence, the Wolverines may be able to match Wisconsin’s usual Big Ten depth.

The women’s side looks a lot different than last year. Where 2014 NCAA Champion Michigan State stomped on the competition with 26 points, the Michigan Wolverines fell to third after a devastating injury kept Erin Finn out of the race. The injury bug has hit the Spartans this season and Finn and Michigan No. 2 Shannon Osika are back and on fire this fall. Their win at Pre-Nats over Pac-12 heavyweights Colorado, Oregon and Stanford propelled them to No. 2 in the Saucony Flo50 and they look to win their first title since 2012 this Sunday.

Even if Rachele Schulist runs (She is entered but did not race at Wisconsin), the Spartans are without last year’s fourth-place finisher Lindsay Clark and obviously lost three key members of their winning squad to graduation. The Big Ten trophy has been in East Lansing four of the last five years, and it may be making a trip back to Ann Arbor after Sunday’s 6K competition.

Grant Fisher, The Rosa Twins And Graduate Transfer Collin Liebold To Debut For Stanford In Pac-12 Showdown

Jim Rosa will run his first cross country race since the 2013 NCAA Championships tomorrow at the Pac-12 Championships in Pullman, Washington

My original title for this segment was “Who Is Running at Pac-12s!?” but thanks to the great people at Stanford, we now know.

Jim and Joe Rosa, Grant Fisher and Collin Liebold will all debut in their Stanford uniforms for the 2015 season tomorrow at the Pac-12 XC Championships, according to Stanford’s athletic website.

Could this mean? Were we not crazy ranking them No. 2 all along? Wait, what?

Obviously we don’t know the extent of Jim Rosa’s fitness, but we know Sean McGorty, Garrett Sweatt and Joe Rosa have raced well this season, as well as Fisher’s unattached performance in September. On paper, this is a solid top five, and Colorado has yet to race Ben Saarel in uniform. Without Saarel, it appears the Buffaloes will be relying on strong performances from freshman John Dressel (46th at Pre-Nats) and Ryan Forsyth (51st).

And what about the Ducks? They’ve been runner-up now for two straight years and will likely get a third-consecutive individual title by Edward Cheserek. Freshman Matthew Maton ran well at the Washington Invite, but did not compete at Pre-Nats. Had he run, the Ducks would have likely had all five men in the top 40 at Pre-Nats, but they still lack the low-stick guarantees that Colorado and Stanford possess.

On the women’s side, the Colorado and Oregon women will face off in a battle that may replicate itself in a few weeks at the NCAA Championships in Louisville, but let’s throw in frontrunner Aisling Cuffe of Stanford in there, too. Cuffe won the individual title two years ago before sitting out in 2015 with injury, but Colorado’s Erin Clark grabbed a big win at Pre-Nats and will lead the Buffalo charge. Colorado (runner-up) and Oregon (third) were only 24 points apart at Pre-Nats, so there is no clear favorite in this team battle. The Ducks were without Maggie Schmaedick and Annie Leblanc that day and will bring them to the start line in Pullman. The Buffs don’t have anything to hide, except maybe that sub-16:00 5K runner Carrie Verdon, who redshirted 2014, is better than her 92nd-place Pre-Nats showing.

Both Buffalo teams swept the Pac-12 Championships in 2011, their first appearance in the conference, and could make history by replicating the same feat tomorrow. The only individual still on the team who ran in 2011? Ammar Moussa.