2016 DI NCAA XC Championships

NCAA XC Championship Preview: Women's Teams Nos. 20-11

NCAA XC Championship Preview: Women's Teams Nos. 20-11

Check out the Nos. 20-11 women's teams heading to the 2016 NCAA XC Championship this Saturday, starting with the Eastern Michigan Eagles and ending with the New Mexico Lobos.

Nov 16, 2016 by Meg Bellino
NCAA XC Championship Preview: Women's Teams Nos. 20-11
WATCH THE 2016 DI NCAA XC CHAMPIONSHIPS LIVE ON FLOTRACK -- SATURDAY 11/19!

Check out the final breakdowns for each women's team heading to the NCAA Cross Country Championships this Saturday in Terre Haute, Indiana. Here are the previews for teams 20-11 in the women's race. 

No. 20 Eastern Michigan


​Region: Great Lakes, 5th
​Conference: MAC, 1st

The Eagles qualified for the NCAA championships for the first time since 2006, their second in program history. "The team did a great job of performing well in all of the big meets throughout the season, and we put ourselves in a great position to secure an NCAA bid," EMU head coach Sue Parks told emueagles.com. "It is very exciting to have the opportunity to compete at the very highest level as a team, and we are looking forward to seeing what we can do against the nation's best." Eastern Michigan is led by Jordann McDermitt, who was fifth in the Great Lakes region in 19:59 and qualified for the NCAA outdoor 5K last spring. And though the Eagles were only fifth in their region, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Eastern Michigan were all within 11 points of each other--a good sign that this squad could take down a majority of the GL teams on Saturday.

No. 19 Michigan State


​Region: Great Lakes, T-3rd
​Conference: Big 10, 3rd


The 2014 NCAA team champions have two key returners but have had a bumpy 2016 season. What kind of performance will we get from Rachele Schulist (fourth in 2014) and Ali Wiersma (21st in 2015)? The Spartans were a shocking 18th in Wisconsin, then bounced back at the conference championship, finishing less than 20 points away from winning the Big 10. Yes, they finished tied for third in the Great Lakes, but they lost the tiebreaker to Wisconsin, a team Michigan State beat by 58 points at the Big 10 meet. Spartans coach Walt Drenth praised Schulist's comeback last Friday to msuspartans.com and noted that Wiersma is coming back from an injury.

No. 18 Wisconsin


Region: Great Lakes, T-3rd
​Conference: Big 10, 6th

Sarah Disanza, the 2014 NCAA runner-up,​  made her return to cross country this fall at the Big 10 Championships (24th) but made a huge impact for the Badgers with a 12th-place showing at regionals. "We knew the door was open and the opportunity was there," UW coach Mick Byrne told FloTrack. "They seized the moment." The Wisconsin women put four between 11th and 17th, and if they can maintain that pack in Terre Haute, could sneak into the top 15. Their fifth runner, Shaelyn Sorensen, qualified for NCAAs as an individual last fall, so no doubt she's better than her 42nd place last weekend.

No. 17 Iowa State


​Region: Midwest, 3rd
​Conference: Big 12, 1st


Despite finishing third in the Midwest region, the Cyclones are a very good team. Iowa State was only 15th at Roy Griak and 8th at Wisconsin before winning the Big 12 Championship. The Cyclones strategically rested some of their key players throughout the season, namely 2013 All-American Bethanie Brown, who was Iowa State's No. 3 athlete (9th) at the Big 12 Championship and rested regionals. Had they inserted Brown in the lineup, the Cyclones would have likely auto-qualified.

Watch the Big 12 XC Championship women's race:


No. 16 Portland


​Region: West, 6th
​Conference: WCC, 1st

The Pilots women qualified for their first ever NCAA championship with a sixth-place finish in the West region. Their season leading up to the regional championship is really how they got there, though. They won the Roy Griak Invite, were fourth at Pre-Nats--ahead of South Central and West regional champions Arkansas and Stanford--and narrowly defeated BYU and San Francisco to take the West Coast Conference. All-American Lauren LaRocco has been brilliant all fall and will be a top 15 finisher, but Portland may have run into a major roadblock. Junior Parkes Kendrick (sixth at Griak, 28th at Pre-Nats) will miss the NCAA race for a Rhodes Scholarship interview.

No. 15 Villanova


​Region: Mid-Atlantic, 2nd
​Conference: Big EAST, 2nd

The Wildcats have been enjoying success this fall due in part to two of their middle-distance aces. Angel Piccirillo and Siofra Cleirigh Buttner went 1-2 at the Big East Championship, leading 'Nova to a runner-up team performance, just 13 points behind Providence. Buttner (2:02 800m) and Piccirillo (NCAA 1000m record-holder, 4:13 1500) have been trading off leading this team in each race, and a 34-second spread at the Mid-Atlantic regional was a sign that the Wildcats are ready to record their best finish since finishing third in 2011.

No. 14 Air Force


​Region: Mountain, 3rd
​Conference: Mountain West, 2nd


The Air Force women made school history as the first women's team to qualify for the NCAA championships in any sport. The Falcons were only two points behind defending NCAA champions New Mexico and placed two athletes in the top five (Carina Gillespie and Jaci Smith). Air Force head coach Ryan Cole, formerly at Arizona State, led much of the development of former NCAA champion and current Olympian Shelby Houlihan while in Tempe, AZ, and is now putting Air Force distance running on the map. "The women were phenomenal today," Cole told goairforcefalcons.com after the regional meet. "The girls have been building all season. They committed to the process of becoming an elite team over the past few years, and it's been really fun watching them build momentum."

No. 13 Notre Dame


​Region: Great Lakes, 2nd
​Conference: ACC, 2nd

Anna Rohrer is a legit contender to win the individual title, but how low can Notre Dame really go? Last season, Molly Seidel won, Rohrer placed sixth, and the Fighting Irish secured eighth as a team. Seidel is done, and even though Notre Dame finished second to North Carolina State at the ACC Championship by 21 points (one place higher than 2015 when Seidel and Rohrer went 1-2), the Irish don't have as strong a supporting class behind Rohrer this season. Still, this is one proven team with a ton of potential to crack the top 10 again in 2016. "Not having Molly here is one thing, but I think we all really pulled through to make up for it," Rohrer told FloTrack after the Great Lakes regional this past Friday.

No. 12 Harvard


Region: Northeast, 2nd
​Conference: Ivy League, 1st


We predicted Harvard at No. 13 coming into this XC season, and here we are thinking the Crimson are a top 15 team this Saturday. It hasn't been a smooth road. Junior Courtney Smith is a star, finishing sixth at Wisconsin, winning the Ivy League title, and capturing second in the Northeast region to lead Harvard to a runner-up finish. We saw good glimpses of the Crimson's potential at Wisconsin (where they finished 15th), but things have really turned around since their dominant Ivy victory. Freshman talent Judy Pendergast (109th in Wisconsin) finished sixth in the conference and regional races, proving that she's rounding into competitive form at the right time.

Watch Harvard's Workout Wednesday: 3x3K


No. 11 New Mexico


Region: Mountain, 2nd
​Conference: Mountain West, 1st

The reigning NCAA champions will need to have their best day if they want to secure a top 10 finish this Saturday. Obviously, Alice Wright is an individual contender and the top returner from last year. Calli Thackery was 15th in Louisville last fall and is a solid No. 2 to Wright (ninth at Wisconsin, 11th in the Mountain region), but gone are the historically low-scoring Lobos from 2015. They scored 109 points to finish a dismal 74 points behind Colorado in the region but still managed to finish fourth in Wisconsin. New Mexico's 3-5 can't afford to have a bad day if this team wants to finish in the top 10.

Watch the trailer for AWAY FROM HOME: New Mexico:


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