Women’s 6K
The women started first, at 9:20 Central time on a crisp (28-30 degree) day with some wind. The rolling two loop course looked firm.
TV coverage for these championships were great, perhaps one of the best ever for a running event and by far the best I have seen for cross country. The announcers, John Anderson, Carrie Tollefson (an NCAA champion), and Kyle Merber (ran in the NCAAs twice), were enthusiastic and knowledgeable. They had video from the lead vehicle, one of those ATV/gators, and from drones. The lead shots were sometimes broken up, although it was mostly good, while the drone footage was suburb.
The field took off as a mass, and it took several hundred meters before the lead group coalesced, with the favorites in front. Through the first split, just over 1 km, Valby and Tuohy were in front, but they were essentially even with the top group. Valby began pressing the pace at about 1.5 km and opened a gap. Initially Tuohy went with her but she dropped back. At a sharp turn Valby did veer off the curve, apparently following the lead vehicle instead of the tangent. That cost her maybe a half a second.
There was much post-hoc criticism of Valby and her course running acumen, not to mention not wearing socks on a fairly cool, almost cold, morning. Although she was not perfect on the tangents, and Tuohy was generally better, that drift was the only time that it really cost her.
Crossing 2K in 6:36, Valby took a 3 second lead over Touhy and mass of the lead group, which was yet to string out. The lead stretched to 9 seconds at 3K, with Tuohy leading a pack of 30 runners on the wide course. Soon after, Tuohy began to chase, and no one was really able to challenge her. The lead stretched to 12 seconds at 4K, and the announcers began to question whether the gap was too big with just 2K to go. Valby was definitely holding strong, but Tuohy seemed to be even more powerful and you could see that the gap was closing a bit with each stride.
At 5K the difference was 6 seconds, with Valby in 15:59, Tuohy in 16:05 and the pack another 6 or 7 seconds back. At this point the race appeared to be Tuohy’s, even though she was behind because she was gaining each time the camera angle changed. With 500 to go she was just a couple seconds back. Would Valby hold off the former teen phenom?
Over the final turn which was on an incline, Tuohy passed on the Valby’s inside. Yeah, that was another tactical error for Valby but the effect was miniscule, maybe a few tenths of a second. Nevertheless, that was all the fast-closing Tuohy would need, she was in control as she headed down to the finish over the final 200 meters. She pulled away decisively, and built enough of a gap to even let up over the final 40-50 meters, raising her gloved hands in victory in 19:27 a new course record. Valby closed in 19:30, while fast closing Kelsey Chmeil of NC State took a solid 3rd, having gapped the pack over the last kilometer.
In the team race for most of the way it was a battle between NC State and Alabama, but everyone knew that the even-starting/even-pacing New Mexico team would move up. And that’s what happened. In the end Alabama’s top 4 were ahead of NC State’s (even though State had all 4 in the top 25), but it came down to the 5th runner, and NC State’s runner was 7th, to Alabama’s 127, so the final score was 114-166. As expected New Mexico ran as a pack and although their top runner was 20th, they finished strong with 140 points to take 2nd. Oklahoma State was 4th with 201 points, and a surprise University of North Carolina placed 5th with 242 points.
Here are the top individual results
PLACE ATHLETE 6K PTS
1 Katelyn Tuohy, NC State [SO] 19:27.7
2 Parker Valby, Florida [SO] 19:30.9
3 Kelsey Chmiel, NC State [JR] 19:37.1
4 Elise Stearns, Northern Arizona [SO] 19:43.9
5 Bailey Hertenstein, Colorado [JR] 19:45.1
6 Hilda Olemomoi, Alabama [FR] 19:45.6, 3:30.5
7 Natalie Cook, Oklahoma State [FR], 19:46.3
8 Olivia Markezich, Notre Dame [JR] 19:46.4
9 Amaris Tyynismaa, Alabama [JR] – 114, 19:48.2
10 Addie Engel, Ohio State [SO] 19:50.4
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