First big test of the season
It’s finally October, which means D3 now has a front-row seat to some of the spiciest matchups of the year, and D3GD finally has some matchup data for rankings. The nation will be split between two big meets: Paul Short and Pre-Nats.
Paul Short
At Paul Short, look for No. 1 NYU versus No. 5 Middlebury versus No. 8 SUNY Geneseo on the women’s side, and No. 1 SUNY Geneseo versus No. 2 NYU versus No. 10 Amherst on the men’s side. This year, all ranked D3 programs will compete in the single White Race, providing a true head-to-head match up.
The biggest story up front is about two Niagara region rivals: NYU will line up for the first time this season in each of their respective championship-distance races, while SUNY Geneseo comes off of strong momentum from sweeping the RPI Fairgrounds showcase this past weekend. SUNY G women, in particular, showed that they are a force to be reckoned with when they took down ranked Vassar and placed all of their scorers in the top 10. Their men’s program has held onto a No. 1 ranking since pre-season, and will put this to the test for the first time when they face national title threats NYU.
In the men’s race, No. 10 Amherst will be looking to stay as close as possible to SUNY G and NYU, but they will have to battle No. 12 Carnegie Mellon for a top three finish. Both teams come off of wins from their last races. Carnegie Mellon has yet to race any ranked D3 teams, so a win against Amherst could make a huge statement. Amherst will also face No. 18 Wesleyan for the third time this season in a tiebreaker for best out of three–Wesleyan won the early-season Little 3 Championship, while Amherst won the Cardinal Invitational on Wesleyan’s home course. Watch for inter-regional matchups between the Mid-Atlantic’s No. 21 Lebanon Valley, the Mideast’s No. 22 Middlebury, the Metro’s No. 24 Haverford, the Northeast’s No. 26 Bates, the Great Lakes’s No. 29 John Carroll, and the South’s No. 32 Emory. Look for unranked Case Western and Roanoke to try to shake things up.
The race for the individual crown on the men’s side could go to anyone. The returning favorite is likely NYU’s Theo Udelson-Nee, who has not raced since his third-place All-American finish in the outdoor 5k. The front pack will likely be made up of the violet and blue jerseys of NYU and SUNY G, but watch Wesleyan’s Dylan Cote, Carnegie Mellon’s Ollie Moss and Nicolo Fasanelli, and Amherst’s Harrison Dow to make a push for the win as well. Cote won the Cardinal Invitational ahead of WPI’s Everett Mosher, who just took down the entire SUNY G team at RPI, so watch out for Wesleyan in the race’s final 1k.
Other programs to watch for in this year’s Paul Short women’s race include No. 5 Middlebury, whose only D3 loss so far this season is to No. 2 Williams. Look for them to break up the Niagara region tension between NYU and SUNY G. We will also get to see some interregional competition between the South’s No. 12 Emory, the Mid-Atlantic’s No. 13 Carnegie Mellon, the Mideast’s No. 16 Wesleyan and No. 17 Amherst, the Great Lakes’s No. 20 John Carroll, and the Northeast’s No. 29 Bates. Look for programs just outside the rankings like Brandeis, Case Western, and Oswego State to make a case for a future bid.
In the individual race, returning champion Audrey MacLean from Middlebury is back from abroad and finding her stride. Look for her to be in a pack of Violets along with a few Tartans and perhaps even her teammate Claire Palmer.
Pre-Nats
While seemingly half the country heads east, the other half heads north, like the subject of a Noah Kahan song (except, we’re not exactly sure Kahan was talking about Minnesota). What is generally the annual Running of the Cows at the Bill Huyck Cross Country Course in Northfield, Minn. will serve as this year’s pre-national sneak peak. Both races are loaded with talent that is sure to turn the rankings squarely on their heads.
On the men’s side, six top-10 ranked teams will line up including No. 3 Johns Hopkins, No. 4 and defending national champions UWL, No. 5 Wartburg, No. 6 MIT, No. 7 RPI, and No. 9 Pomona-Pitzer, making this a true nationals preview. Johns Hopkins comes in as the favorites after showcasing a 29-second pack at the Virginia Invitational, but UWL’s 36-second pack from Roy Griak trails closely behind. This will be Hopkins’s first championship-distance race, and their squad of Brady Ott, Caleb Tenney, Anthony Clark, Connor Fanberg, and Cedar Nichols-Barnhart will have their work cut out for them to beat a remodeled-but-extremely-deep UWL team.
No. 5 Wartburg also comes in with impressive depth, sweeping both of their meets this season out to at least eight places. We have yet to see what Isaiah Hammerand is capable of up front for this team. Look for him to mix it up in the front in a flock of Eagles and Jays. No. 6 MIT, No. 7 RPI, and No. 9 Pomona-Pitzer likely have the most room to surprise this weekend, as all come in with strong teams that have yet to face the trio of podium contenders up front. Not-to-be-forgotten No. 11 WashU comes off of a strong victory over North Central and is also a likely contender to shake things up. Over half the ranked teams in the country will meet in Northfield ready to prove us completely wrong in our rankings, so make sure to keep your browsers loaded and ready.
Loras, Rose-Hulman, Macalester, MSOE, and more will all look to make a case for an early nationals bid.
Up front, watch for Hammerand, Pointer duo Mateo Alvarado Venegas and Logan Murphy, Hopkins trio Ott, Clark, and Tenney, and West region rivals Jerry Xu of CMS and Jefferson Wright of Pomona-Pitzer to make a push for the crown.
Three out of four podium-ranked teams on the women’s side will throw down in an epic battle in Northfield this weekend. No. 2 Williams, No. 3 Johns Hopkins, and No. 4 UWL will preview what will look a lot like the national championship sans returning favorites NYU. Williams brings forth the strongest roster on paper: returning All-Americans Kate Tuttle, Tamar Byl, and Morgan Eigel, and freshman sensation Sophia Capozzi. Johns Hopkins, however, matches their number of returning All-Americans with Carter Brotherton, Mia Kotler, and Storrie Kulynych-Irvin. Add to the mix Sydney Shock, Natalie Boquist, and newcomer Alexia Tubbs, and we have ourselves a race.
UWL comes into this race as somewhat of a dark horse with fewer proven frontrunners, but they have arguably the best pack of any other team entered. At Roy Griak, only nine seconds elapsed from their first to their sixth runner. Watch for western powerhouse CMS, who comes off of a strong showing at UCR, and up-and-coming Tufts, who has already faced and held its ground next to Williams twice this season, to also enter the conversation. No. 10 WashU is also expected to exhibit a strong showing coming off of John McNichols. Nineteen out of 32 ranked teams will be present in Northfield, making this a loaded field. Unranked Central College, George Fox, and Colby seek some interregional wins.
In the battle for the individual crown, watch for an epic battle to unfold among Vassar’s Haley Schoenegge, Williams’s Tuttle, Johns Hopkins’s Brotherton, and Stevens Point’s Faith Wehrman. Schoenegge is undefeated this season and is seemingly yet to be challenged. Can she keep her streak alive against Tuttle and Brotherton?
Most of the nation will be in action in Pennsylvania or Minnesota on the kickoff weekend to October, but UChicago (No. 6 on the women’s side and No. 8 on the men’s side) will opt for Joe Piane at Notre Dame, while No. 14 North Central men head to Louisville, No. 18 Washington and Lee women go to Richmond, No. 26 OWU races at home, and No. 32 Bowdoin travels to Keene State. No. 17 WPI men’s team has a bye week.
We’re sponsoring our own newsletter. Glory Days Track Club has been an idea we’ve been mulling over for a long time. We rolled out the Instagram in the winter, and had a few athletes run under our club name. Things got in the way, but now we’re back with merch for the club.
We’re rolling out two different hats: one running hat and one everyday snapback hat. More information about the club will be rolling out this fall, but who doesn’t love a good hat?
$36 for each hat, or $65 for both — discount applies automatically. Think of this as a way to support D3 Glory Days, and you get an awesome hat as a thank you.
