NCAA XC Weekend Round-Up: Sleeping giants and Notre Dame on the horizon

Sep 23, 2013 by Mitch Kastoff

DUKE’S BOTTORFF RUNS CR, THE FRESHMEN TRIO MAKES THEIR DEBUT

In her first race since her seventh place finish at the U.S. Championships 10k (33:33.77), #4 Duke’s Juliet Bottorff took home the win at the adidas XC Challenge in Cary, NC. The former NCAA 10k champion “covered the first half of the 5,000-meter course conservatively before dropping the pace and running a negative-split en route to a new course record of 16:28.9,” according to goduke.com.

Duke's number one has been on a solid run of form the last few months. Last spring, Bottorff set personal bests at both 5k (15:49.45i) and 10k (32:58.00). She finished 27th at the NCAA XC Championships in the fall.

But it wasn’t just a day for records. The Blues Devils finally unveiled their highly touted trio of Wesley Frazier, Haley Meier, and Hannah Meier who finished third (17:15.4), fourth (17:15.8), and seventh (17:31.3), respectively.

Hailing from North Carolina, Frazier knew the WakeMed Park course pretty well. Back in 2009, she ran the previous high school course record of 17:10.0 (it’s now #3 all-time).

We’ll find out what the group is made of when Duke makes the trip to the Notre Dame Invitational on October 4th.

FSU ROLLS AT PRE-ACC, WILL FACE DUKE NEXT AT NOTRE DAME

The #2 Semionles made the trip to Beeson Park in Kernersville, NC to check out the course for ACCs. They also picked up an easy win, too.

Sleeping giant Hannah Walker, who you might remember from FSU’s #4 recruiting class ranking, lead the way for FSU. The junior transfer ran 20:42.71 for the win with teammate Colleen Quigley finishing second in 20:59.8. Ohio University’s Juli Accurso was third in 21:05.00.

We’re just waiting for FSU to let Walker off the chain and see what she's made of over 6k. We’ll hopefully find out when they clash with Duke in two weeks.

Remember last year in South Bend, IN when there was quite a few FSU jerseys up front?

SPEAKING OF SLEEPING GIANTS, IONA’S KATE AVERY STEAMROLLS AT VAN CORTLANDT

We’re always in the business of keeping track of incoming transfers. Iona’s sophomore transfer Kate Avery had a very comfortable win at Iona’s Meet of Champions, where her winning time of 21:31.03 was nearly a minute in front of second place finisher and teammate freshman Maya Rehberg.

Her win wasn't any sort of record (or even a top-25 mark at the Meet of Champions), but that's not why we're intrigued. Avery, like FSU’s Walker, will certainly be one to watch this fall because she brings a lot to the table.

In 2013, Avery set personal bests in the 3k (8:58.90), 5k (15:35.12), and 10k (33.27.44 at the Penn Relays). If she was a collegian last year, she would have been ranked third in the indoor 3k, fifth in the 5k, and fourth in the 10k.

The Iona women are ranked eighth in the Northeast Region and while they might not make a trip as a team to nationals, don’t be surprised to see Avery in Terre Haute, IN this November. The first big test for Avery will come on October 5th at the Brooks Paul Short Invitational.