D3 Conference XC Weekend
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On Monday morning the week of the conference meet, eyes flash open in frenzied anticipation. Each layer pulled overhead to protect from fall’s sudden bite is reminiscent of the many layers to a season: the summer miles, extinguished sickness and injuries, death marches through afternoon races in September sun, interregional rivalries. Like armor on a soldier, stepping foot outside of college lodging in these many layers and into the world means accepting the invite of battle, shaking hands in agreement with the challenge ahead: conference weekend.
For many teams, conference week is unlike any other. The conference championship is the meet you hear about before the season even starts, when captains stuff you into thick-aired locker rooms to recite team goals, or perhaps even before you even step foot on campus, when the recruiting coach proudly shows off all of the conference awards in the trophy case. It marks the end of a season for the majority of D3 runners who don’t go on to compete at regionals and nationals, and is the meet where almost anything can happen with enough team spirit, perfectly executed tapers, and just a sprinkle of conference magic.
When I was a student at ONU, I could expect an opening speech from Coach on the Monday before conference in which he explained, holding an empty pasta sauce jar high above his head, that everyone must live life this week as if they are in a glass jar: no unnecessary risks like pickup basketball or riding on your boyfriend’s bike handlebars. You may go as far as one alum did and skip class for the entire week to make sure your brain was extra sharp. If you did anything to expose the fragility of the hypothetical glass cage around you, then *CRASH*--he shattered the jar on the sidewalk and occasionally got a few gasps from gullible freshmen–your glass jar would be broken and the team’s conference performance in danger.
While the cautionary glass jar speech was a particularly unique and memorable element of conference week celebration at ONU, I also enjoyed several other more widely practiced traditions across D3 teams, such as a two-mile time trial under the lights on Friday night (with Darude’s Sandstorm, my pump up song to this day, playing on a loop during the men’s race) and dress-up themes assigned to each day of the week.
Thuan Nguyen, a cross country and middle distance runner at Nazareth University who is preparing for Empire 8 Championships, shared that Nazareth’s team also coordinates a dress-up spirit week with the following themes:
Monday- Gender Swap Monday
Tuesday- Coach Heymann Cosplay
Wednesday- On Wednesdays We Wear Pink
Thursday- Highlighter Day
Friday- Halloween Gear
“It’s fun because we all get to dress weird, maybe in something we would never wear before,” Nguyen said. “It helps our team hype up for conference because we’re not worrying too much about the meet but enjoying every day leading up to it.”
With such an emphasis on this end-of-season meet, it can be a source of reprieve and even strength to unify with teammates through laughter throughout the week. Once race day arrives, the focus sets in and the battle begins.
While Nazareth will likely have a large showing at Empire 8’s on Saturday credited to the fact that their campus is right down the street from hosts St. John Fisher, Empire 8 newcomers in 2024 SUNY Geneseo take championship meet attendance to a new level.
T-Team, or “travel team” is a SUNY G tradition started by head coaches Dan Moore and Chris Popvici when they were in Knights jerseys themselves in the early 2000’s. They gathered a crew together and drove an RV to nationals to support the competing athletes, and the concept has stuck ever since, making it a major SUNY G tradition.
“You’ll see [T-Team] with flags and capes everywhere on the courses during conference/regionals/nationals,” said Geneseo senior Sierra Doody. “They have a bunch of unique chants that they do both before and during races.”
In honor of conference week this week, SUNY G held a cape-making night to prepare T-Team for the festivities this weekend and beyond into the postseason. On race day prior to the race, T-Team will call out the names of every racing athlete, who will then run out to give high fives all along the start of the course, giving racers an extra reminder of why they line up.
When it comes down to it, conference week traditions really are the reason athletes take to the starting line just about every other weekend in the Fall–not necessarily because wearing a cape and screaming or dressing up like your coach gives you the purpose that would otherwise be missing–but because conference week spirit is the glue that sticks everything together. It reveals to us our history, our camaraderie, and our strength, and in the race’s final kilometer this weekend, when thoughts of doubt begin to creep in, those same doubts find that they cannot get past the sticky glue web of tradition. For it is one that is woven in respect, admiration, and the desire to do your best for those you smile alongside all year.
In the spirit of covering all Conference meets this weekend, here are the 40 questions we’re asking about each conference.
Atlantic East: Will Marywood sweep both titles again for the eighth year in a row?
AMCC: How many PSU Behrend athletes can Alfred State displace from the top 10 on both sides?
ARC: Where does Loras’s Isaac Bourne wedge himself into Wartburg’s scoring lineup?
ASC: Should they change the course into a 6-8km-long scavenger hunt for storybook characters in Abilene?
C2C: How many kilograms of emissions are released on cross-country flights to Sunnyvale, Calif.?
CCIW: Will North Central exceed the number of stars on the American flag with conference titles after this weekend?
CCS: Will anyone race in costume in the only D3 conference meet happening on Halloween?
Centennial: Can anyone stop Emmanuel Leblond or Johns Hopkins women?
Conference of New England: Does Tassey take the start line to help Roger Williams to a fifth straight title? Three seniors swept the women’s race last year–who will rise to the top this year?
Empire 8: How many wins must SUNYG collect until we can confirm that their streak has been re-established?
Great Northeast: Are Colby-Sawyer women on their way to a sixth conference title? Will there still be an after-party on a Sunday night?
HCAC: Is Cashdollar the coolest last name across all conferences and could it be the last name of the top HCAC freshman?
Landmark: Can Cris ever write about this conference without typing “MORAVIAN DAWGS”?
Little East: Will Haley Oliver win her third straight conference title?
Liberty League: Can anyone stop Jules Bleskoski and RPI men?
MAC: How confident are Lebanon Valley men that they can win this after they beat MIT at Paul Short? Can anyone beat Misericordia freshman standout Madison Hedglin?
MASCAC: Last year the Bridgewater State men and Westfield State women scored 23 and 20 points respectively - can either finally dip under 20 points this weekend?
MIAA: Is 2025 the year Hope men break Calvin’s 37-year long streak? Who will win the epic face-off between Trine’s Sydney Swick and Calvin’s Sophie Bull?
MIAC: Will Instagram user MIAC Stephen A Smith be in attendance?
Midwest: Does the MWC have better corn than the American Rivers Conference?
NAC: Is the NAC jealous that they have one less ‘C’ than the NACC?
NACC: Will any Green Bay Packers spend their pre-game Saturday coming to see if MSOE can bag their fifth straight NACC title? (Jordan Love, if you’re reading this, it’s kind of a big deal!)
NCAC: NCAC newcomers John Carroll beat OWU by one point at All-Ohio in the women’s race. Who will win the conference rematch, and can DePauw take down both teams to win another conference title?
NESCAC: Did the Conn College coaches leave the course at Harkness set up these last two weeks or are they cursing under their breath as they set up the course for the second straight meet?
NEWMAC: Will MIT women retain their longest conference winning streak of women’s teams by adding an 18th title? Do MIT men make it 27?
NJAC: Does not having to pay tolls on the most direct route to Stockton give TCNJ an edge against their toll-paying competitors?
NWC: Assuming the George Fox men and women reach double digits in combined straight titles in Tacoma, Washington on Saturday, how soon after will they go celebrate by witnessing the indescribable Tacoma Dome?
OAC: For four years in a row, John Carroll has swept the OAC. With the Blue Streaks now in their first year in the NCAC, who will be the new OAC victor on each side? Will Otterbein continue the tradition of carving team jack’o’lanterns for starting boxes?
ODAC: Will Coach Sam Llaneza get more nervous from the sidelines than he did on the start line?
PAC: Will any non-competitor or spectator be cheeky enough to bring a bottle of Mead to the conference course in Meadville, Pennsylvania?
SAA: In a mascot war, would a 7-man squad of randomly picked, time-travelled Vikings (Berry College) or Colonels (Centre College) come out on top in a cross country race?
SCAC: Will the lack of familiar 14,000 peaks on the horizon unnerve the Colorado College men and women enough for them to somehow fumble their 7th and 5th straight titles in rural Texas?
SCIAC: How should an Athena properly celebrate after 15 soon-to-be straight titles?
SLIAC: How much can Cole Glover from Eureka and Alexis Martinez from Greenville gap the rest of the conference runners by?
SUNYAC: Does the SUNYAC actually miss Geneseo and Brockport?
UAA: WashU has a $13 Billion endowment but can’t build a dedicated cross country course in St. Louis so they have to host the UAA Conference meet in Edwardsville, IL. How confused is the rest of the conference that they have to fly to Edwardsville, Illinois?
United East: Could a freshman win the men’s race between Sevan Ikeda and Mason Kaminski? Will Elizabeth Lucason win her third consecutive meet in a row?
UMAC: How much more Superior can the UW-S men prove themselves by winning yet again against an otherwise entirely Minnesotan conference?
USA South: After several days straight of battering rain in North Carolina, will the course in Misenheimer dry up enough by Saturday to produce regionally competitive times?
WIAC: Will the Matthai twins do rock, paper, scissors down the finish line chute to decide who wins?