NCAA D1 Cross Country Championships – News – NC State, Oklahoma State Take NCAA Cross Country Team Titles

NC STATE, OKLAHOMA STATE TAKE NCAA CROSS COUNTRY TEAM TITLES
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2023 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved – Used with permission.

   NOTE: This story was written remotely –Ed.

(18-Nov) — Overcoming the loss of a key athlete and strong competition the women of North Carolina State and the men of Oklahoma State won the team titles at today’s NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships at Panorama Farms in Earlysville, Virginia, just outside of Charlottesville.  The Wolfpack women, the two-time defending champions, eked out a one-point win over Northern Arizona, 123 to 124, despite losing the services of one of their best athletes, Kelsey Chmiel, to a leg injury.  The Oklahoma State Cowboys upset the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, 49, to 71, placing five athletes in the top-15.

In the competition for individual honors, Florida’s Parker Valby literally ran away from the field, covering the 6-kilometer course in 18:55.2 and winning by a comfortable 10 seconds.  Harvard’s Graham Blanks became the first Ivy League man in the 86-year history of these championships to claim an individual title, breaking away from his last opponent, New Mexico’s Habtam Samuel, in the final kilometer.  Blanks clocked 28:37.7.

VALBY IN A HURRY (AGAIN)

At last year’s championships Valby tried to run away from the field but was eventually reeled in by NC State’s Katelyn Tuohy and had to settle for second.  But not this year.  After a fast (downhill) first kilometer in 2:54.1, Valby showed her cards and surged into the lead.  She built a nine-second lead by 2-K, and that mushroomed to 18 seconds by 3-K (9:14.9).  She was just running on feel, she said.

“I had no idea,” Valby said during her post-race interview on ESPN when asked if she was aware of how big her lead was.  “My coach (Will Palmer) told me to trust my instincts, trust my gut, and don’t look back.  I mean, once you go for it, there’s no looking back.”

Behind her a chase pack of eight had formed: Alabama’s Hilda Olemomoi and Doris Lemngole, Arkansas’s Sydney Thorvaldson, NC State’s Tuohy, Notre Dame’s Olivia Markezich, Oklahoma State’s Billah Jepkirui, Texas Tech’s Juliet Cherubet, and Harvard’s Maia Ramsden.  Northern Arizona’s Elise Stearns was just slightly farther back.  By 5-K (15:44.7) that group had done nothing to gain ground on Valby who was starting to feel a little uncomfortable.  She began rubbing her right side.

“I’ve never gotten a side stitch in a race before,” Valby said….