This past weekend of NCAA cross country gave us a much clearer picture of how the rest of the 2019 campaign will unfold. With the Nuttycombe and Pre-National Invitationals bringing together the best squads across the country, team title favorites strengthened their cases while top individuals emerged from the crowded pack to position themselves at the front heading into the postseason.

Here are five takeaways from the busiest weekend of Division I cross country to date:

Business As Usual For NAU

Through the invitational portion of the 2019 season, the Northern Arizona men have given every indication that they are going to win their fourth straight NCAA title in November. On Friday at Nuttycombe, the Lumberjacks obliterated No. 2 Stanford 59-133 in typical NAU fashion: all five scorers in the top 21 and a scant 16-second spread.

The most impressive part is that Mike Smith’s crew continues to dominate while swapping in new athletes. Of their top five in Madison — Luis Grijalva, Geordie Beamish, Abdihamid Nur, Theo Quax, and Drew Bosley — only Grijalva was an NCAA scorer last year. And they can be even better: Junior All-American Blaise Ferro had an off day on Friday in finishing 70th, while redshirt freshman Brodey Hasty did not compete.

Alicia Monson Is Back

After an injury derailed much of her 2019 outdoor season, it was easy to forget just how good Wisconsin’s Alicia Monson was between cross country and indoor track last year. The senior served a reminder on Friday by blowing the doors off everyone in the final mile at Nuttycombe, including Weini Kelati and Taylor Werner, the first- and second-ranked women in the NCAA.

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Now, Kelati beat Monson handily by 12 seconds at Notre Dame two weeks ago, so perhaps these women are more even than Friday’s race would indicate. But it does appear that the Alicia Monson who beat Kelati for the NCAA indoor 5K title in March and who ran 8:45 for 3,000m is rounding back into form. That’s bad news for the other individual title contenders.

What Happened To Oregon?

All the momentum that the Oregon men gained from an upset win over BYU three weeks ago at Bill Dellinger has now been lost after the Ducks laid a 10th-place egg in Wisconsin. Other than a solid 12th-place run from Cooper Teare, UO was varying levels of meh behind him as their next best man was 58th. A 46-second spread doomed them on a day when UCLA, a team they beat at Dellinger, bettered the Ducks by over 100 points at Nuttycombe.

A glass half full outlook says that this group should only improve from here as true freshman and last year’s Foot Locker champion, Cole Hocker (64th at Nuttycombe) gains experience. Simultaneously, better days can be expected from Jackson Mestler (106th), who was Oregon’s top runner at nationals last year in 73rd. If everyone runs to their capabilities in five weeks, this can still be a top-seven team in Terre Haute.

But any expectation of a podium finish that looked possible after an early-season defeat of BYU — who beat fourth-ranked Colorado at Pre-Nationals on Saturday — has now evaporated after the Ducks’ lack of depth and inconsistency left them thoroughly overmatched on Friday.

As tough of a day as it was for the men, the Oregon women are in full-on rebuild mode after losing their top three to graduation from last year's third-place team. That showed at Nuttycombe as they finished way back in 14th place. Coach Lehman-Winters' squad lost to a bunch of fellow at-large contenders on Friday, which could put the Ducks' NCAA bid in a precarious position over the next few weeks.

Washington Women Take A Big Step Forward

No team made a bigger leap this past weekend than the Washington women, who won Pre-Nationals over third-ranked BYU despite resting their top runner, freshman Melany Smart. Now, the Cougars were without star power, too — Dellinger champ Whittni Orton sat as well — but those two basically cancel each other out to give the Huskies a season-defining win. The Arkansas women are still a tier above everyone else right now, but Washington has suddenly entered the NCAA title discussion.

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After a lackluster fifth-place performance at Notre Dame two weeks ago, UW turned things around with much better races from Shona McCulloch and Lilli Burdon; 39th and 60th last time out, McCulloch and Burdon were 12th and 21st, respectively, on Saturday. 

BYU and Colorado Men Both Need A Fifth Man

While BYU and Colorado crushed the rest of the Pre-Nats field and were separated by just two points in Terre Haute, both teams had a shared weakness exposed on Saturday: the need for a stronger fifth man. Led by Conner Mantz’s individual win, the Cougars showed they have podium potential team again this year, but the minute-plus spread on Saturday isn’t going to cut it when they return to Indiana in a month. Over 31 seconds passed between BYU’s fourth and fifth finishers at Pre-Nats.

The gap was nearly as large for the Buffaloes between their final two scorers (29 seconds), a frustrating result for CU considering that their top three of John Dressel (eighth), Joe Klecker (ninth), and true freshman Kashon Harrison (11th) all crossed within three seconds of each other.

No one is likely to beat NAU this year, but if one of BYU or Colorado can fix their No. 1 weakness by Nov. 23, that team will have a beat on the runner-up trophy.