NCAA XC Weekend Recap: Ratcliffe Sighting, NAU Is Back & Freshmen Impress
NCAA XC Weekend Recap: Ratcliffe Sighting, NAU Is Back & Freshmen Impress
Notable results from this past weekend's xc action.
We are 11 weeks away from the 2018 DI NCAA XC Championships LIVE on FloTrack! Here are some notable results from this past weekend.
Thomas Ratcliffe Sighting!
Stanford men returned to the grass at the San Francisco Invitational running a pre-determined controlled tempo pace. Their entire squad finished within 0.8 seconds of each other. Notably, making his return to racing was redshirt sophomore Thomas Ratcliffe. This was Ratcliffe's first race since running a 7:53 indoor 3k on January 28th, 2017.
D.J. Principe also returned to the grass running his first xc race in a Stanford uniform after redshirting all of last season. Grant Fisher and Alex Ostberg did not race instead opting to do a workout.
Defending Champs Debut
Defending champions Northern Arizona men debuted their squad at the George Kyle Invitational, notably sophomore Blaise Ferro and freshman Brodey Hasty did not race. Lomong won the 4.5 mile course in 22:59.
| PL | NAME | YR | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | Lomong, Peter | SR | Northern Arizona | 22:59.3 |
| 2 | Raff, Ryan | FR | Unattached | 23:02.5 |
| 3 | Baxter, Matthew | SR | Northern Arizona | 23:05.3 |
| 4 | Day, Tyler | SR | Northern Arizona | 23:15.1 |
| 5 | Beamish, Geordie | JR | Northern Arizona | 23:19.7 |
| 6 | Nelson, Harvey | RS | Unattached | 23:30.0 |
| 7 | Grijalva, Luis | SO | Northern Arizona | 23:44.2 |
| 8 | Quax, Theo | FR | Unattached | 23:44.4 |
Title Contenders Shine
- Stanford women went 1-2-3 at the San Francisco Invitational including Elise Cranny who despite having zero track eligibility decided to return to Stanford for one final cross country season.
- Iowa State men put up a perfect score at the Hawkeye Invitational led by junior Festus Lagat who didn't race at NCAAs last season due to injury. Notably, junior Thomas Pollard was 24 seconds off the front group of Cyclones.
Other Notable Highlights
- No. 8 Michigan women’s redshirt freshman Camille Davre won her debut race at the Michigan Open.
- No. 8 Campbell men beat unranked Duke by just 2 pts at the Elon Opener with a full squad minus Ronald Cheserek.
- No. 10 Notre Dame women debuted their top freshmen Jacqueline Gaughan and Elana Denner going 1-2 at the Crusader Open.
- No. 16 Penn State women's top freshman Julia Paternain won her debut race at the Dolan Duals.