2021 D3 XC Nationals Recap

If “spectating a cross country national meet” is not something that has ever graced your repertoire of experiences, there are a few unwritten rules you need to know going in. These were my biggest takeaways from the weekend:

1. Always be running or screaming (both simultaneously is also permitted).

2. Never go against the crowd...you will be trampled. 

3. Do not drop your phone on the course...it will be trampled.

4. Body paint is the preferred method of clothing...the colder it is, the more urgent the need to be painted and half-naked. 

5. Waving a giant team flag gives a certain competitive edge.

6. The more places along the course you’re cheering, the better your athlete(s) will run...their performance depends not on their own preparedness, but your merit as a spectator.

Photo Credit: Matt Rosenstein

While some of these sound more like recommendations on how to navigate a wildebeest stampede in The Lion King, the fan atmosphere at the national meet is what makes this experience so special for all involved. 

Performances did not disappoint, either, as this year’s national meet boasted some of the fastest times and most edge-of-your-seat performances in DIII history. John Carroll’s Alex Phillip and Loras’s Kassie Parker as well as the men’s team from Pomona-Pitzer and the women’s team from Johns Hopkins captured victories this weekend, but there were several other superlative achievements from Saturday that will also be etched into the NCAA history books.

The men’s race set the tone for the weekend, providing 23+ minutes of lead changes and savvy racing to get to the 8,000-meter finish line. The big dogs hung back initially, allowing CMS’s Stevie Steinburg to take the field through 1k in just over three minutes. Wartburg, hungry to assert some early dominance, packed four of their runners into the top 12 at the gun. As the race neared the one mile mark, Colby’s Tyler Morris, Wiliams’ Aidan Ryan, and formerly Wartburg’s fourth runner Joe Freiburger began to creep toward the front, slowly pulling the field along to a much quicker pace. 

By 3k, Morris, Ryan, and now JCU’s Phillip and Whitewater’s David Fassbender had taken charge of the race, crossing the timing mats in under nine minutes. This surge to the front played to the favor of JCU, who now led the way with Phillip and Jamie Dailey up front with 5k to go. A tired Wartburg started to fade, their remaining three runners who started in the top 12 now fighting just to maintain All-American status. They would soon be gobbled up by the runners from Pomona-Pitzer, who started the race sitting in 65th to 284th place from first to seventh, putting their team in 28th at the first kilometer, and, like sharks moving in on a target, were now just strides from stepping into the top 40. 

By halfway through the race, yet another lead change had taken place, as the duo of Ryan and Elias Lindgren were working together in third and fourth place behind Morris and Phillip to lead the way for first place Williams. Meanwhile, the scorers from Pitzer had all found each other at 38th to 45th place, ready to make their move into the top 40. Led by Lucas Florsheim, each Sagehen took turns stepping through the looking glass and into contention for a repeat national title. 

In doing so, Pitzer booted out the last of Wartburg’s scorers (minus Freiburger who was holding on strong in 8th place) from All-American status, as the Knights fell to a race-high 10th place and the Sagehens moved into first. Up front, Ryan and Phillip were now working together as they both crossed the 5k mark stride-for-stride in 15:04. Trailing behind them were Lindgren, Fassbender, Morris, CMS’s Henry Pick, and Suffolk’s Matyas Csiki-Fejer, the race still anybody’s to win. 

Anyone who has been following Phillip this season knows that if he doesn’t take the race from the gun, he’s sure to be planning a big move somewhere after 5k. At the national meet, this move has to be perfectly executed, as everyone up front has placed themselves there to win. One misstep or premature surge, and someone else is prepared to step into the spotlight. Ready or not, Phillip made his move at 6k, gliding around the turn near the finish line and getting an early glimpse at what could be his if he could just close the last 2k. As he started to separate from the field, Lindgren followed, knowing this was the move he had to cover if he wanted a shot at winning the title. 

With 1k to go, Lindgren moved into first, taking the burden of leading out of Phillip’s hands and the chance at victory into his own. As the two rounded the corner and entered the final straightaway, Lindgren was far enough ahead of Phillip for most to think he would pull off the upset and seal the deal as the 2021 national champion. 

But in a final burst of speed, figuring he hadn’t had the season of his lifetime to get second place, Phillip overtook Lindgren as they passed the awards stage about 50 meters out. Throwing his hands up in victory and shouting out in celebration just before the finish line, Phillip crossed under the banner as JCU’s first national champion in program history in a championship meet-record time of 23 minutes and 27 seconds, moving both himself and Lindgren, who finished in 23:30, ahead of UW-Platteville’s Ian LaMere. 

Photo Credit: Matt Robertson

Storming down the straightaway in third was CMS’s Pick, who few had anticipated to finish in the top three, but certainly earned his spot, having positioned himself perfectly within the top seven at 4k, surging to hang on when Phillip moved at 6k, and kicking hard to overtake Ryan as they entered the final stretch. He was one of eight athletes to run under 24 minutes in this race, making this race one of the most competitive in recent DIII history. 

The chase pack started to trickle in as the clock neared the 24-minute mark, carrying athletes who would make history in many different record books. 

Simon Heys, leading the way for the pack and finishing fifth place, became Wilmington’s first XC program All-American after lining up at the beginning of the race as the program’s first ever XC national qualifier, knocking out two milestones in one day. Fassbender, in 6th, led the way to UW-Whitewater’s highest ever finish at the national meet, capturing three total All-Americans in Fassbender, Christian Patzka, and Gunner Schlender. 

Pomona-Pitzer’s Colin Kirkpatrick finished in tenth after starting the race in 221st, leading the charge of Sagehens to a savvy first-place finish that produced a meet-high six All-Americans. Four spots behind him was teammate Lucas Florsheim, who made the biggest place jump from 1k to 8k as he started in 241st and finished in 14th. Pomona-Pitzer is just the fifth program in history to repeat as national champions following their 2019 victory. They finished 41 points ahead of runner-up MIT, who also wrote history as the highest finish in their program’s history, claiming an impressive five All-American spots. 

Photo Credit: Amy Rosenstein

Moving down the line of individual finishers at 15th, Gabriel Pommier crossed the finish line as North Central’s 127th All-American. Behind him, Phillip’s teammate Jamie Dailey placed 16th as the rest of the JCU team ran their way into fourth place, good for this program’s first national podium finish in school history. Wittier’s Benjamin White, Franciscan’s Liam Galligan, and Suffolk’s Csiki-Fejer all took All-American trophies back to their home institutions that were the first their men’s programs have ever seen. And the team from Lynchburg saw their highest finish since 1993 at 18th. Plenty of performances in the men’s race shone brightly this weekend to cap off a year that was quite literally “one for the books.”

Photo Credit: Emily Richards

The momentum and excitement carried over into the women’s race as Kassie Parker resumed her usual front-running tactics. It was no secret that Parker would take an early lead and attempt to run as close to 20:00, a new PR, as possible, as she hinted at this goal in a pre-race interview. As the gun went off, Parker did as she said she would, and it was clear from the start that only a few women would make an attempt at the 2019 10k Champion. 

One such competitor was Trine’s Evie Miller. Miller knew the course well as she boasted a 17 second victory during the Pre-Nats race in October. That 17s was the closest a competitor has finished to Miller all season, so she came into the weekend ready for a battle. She stated in her pre-race interview that her goal was to go to the front with Parker to give herself a shot. As many know, anything can happen at a national meet, so staying close enough is crucial, especially when the leader goes on a solo mission. 

Coasting about ten meters back through the first mile was St. Benedict’s Fiona Smith. Similar to Miller, Smith wanted to assert herself early to have the best possible chance to be within the top five. Despite her inexperience running cross country, Smith hung on like a savvy veteran. Trailing behind Smith was Tufts’s Danielle Page, another top contender, and finally, the chase pack, full of athletes running the conservative race, waiting to make their big moves. 

While the individual race was forming, the team battle was also starting to develop, as CMS decided Saturday was as good of a time as any to give reigning national champions, Johns Hopkins, a scare. Through the first 1k, the Athenas had their top 5 all in the top 60 and held a 93-171 advantage over the eventual champions. 

By halfway, Parker began to separate herself from Miller, and Johns Hopkins cut the deficit to just 18 points. Led by Ashley Heidenrich, the Hopkins squad found themselves in a similar position to Pomona-Pitzer’s men part way through the race, a position where they were ready to step into the top 40 and on their way to glory. At 3k, a nice pack of Heidenrich, Ella Baran, and Alex Ross now found themselves in the mid-20s. Up front, a new name pulled away from the pack, as Wellesley’s Ari Marks began to surge toward Smith and Page. 

At 2k to go, Marks’s rise to the front was enough momentum to catch both Smith and Page, a competitor Marks had just beaten in somewhat of an upset the week prior at regionals. Out to prove it was no fluke, Marks charged ahead with sights on the next competitor: Miller. 

Another athlete making a push to the top was Baran, who began to string out the Hopkins pack with a move into 19th place. Behind her, three teammates were now in All-American status with one more at 41st. CMS’s fifth scorer had now faded to 80th, and as the Hopkins pack continued to move up, they took a 6-point lead over the Athenas, ready to close in on their second and third runners. 

As the field approached 5k and athletes started to wind up for their final kilometer, Parker crossed the timing checkpoint in just under 17 minutes, still well ahead of the rest of the field. Rather than Miller trailing behind, however, it was Wellesley’s Marks, who had overtaken Miller and moved into second place, crossing the 5k mark in 17:11 and still picking up momentum. 

Ten places back, Baran moved ahead of CMS’s number one, Meredith Bloss, to further solidify Hopkins’s lead. At this point, it appeared that the Blue Jays would run away with the title unchallenged. However, as athletes concentrated their final effort to the finish line, Hopkins’s third began to fade hard as CMS’s two through five runners managed to make up a few places, the race now nail-bitingly close. 

Photo Credit: Loras Athletics

Parker rounded the corner into the final straightaway, cruising to an easy victory, her and Loras College’s first cross country national title. She crossed the finish line in 20:11, a time that moves her to the number two all-time fastest performance at the championship meet, ahead of Stevens Intitute’s Amy Regan and just 11 seconds behind three-time National XC Champion Missy Buttry. Behind Parker, Marks would finish runner-up, capping off a breakout year for the first-time national qualifier. Tufts’s Page cruised to third, while Miller and Smith hung on for fourth and fifth, respectively. 

In the suspenseful team battle, CMS finished just two points behind national champions Johns Hopkins in one of the closest races the Blue Jays have seen in awhile, as their victory added a seventh title to their resume in just nine past seasons. 

While CMS fell just short of the victory, their program did leave Louisville as the most decorated of any other team there, their combined men’s and women’s team finishes of sixth and second, respectively, giving them a composite eighth place ahead of Williams’s combined tenth place. Four of their women would walk away All-Americans to Johns Hopkins three, which has to make them feel good about the fight they gave under second-year head coach Marina Muncan. 

Another team who had to feel over the moon after this race was that of SUNY G, who entered this race tenth and finished on the podium at third. This squad proved they were a force to be reckoned with when they won the Niagara region with just 19 points, the lowest women’s team score from any region this year. Both Kathleen McCarey and Windsor Ardner earned All-American honors for their efforts, and the whole team walked away with team trophies, a memento of their hard-fought rise to the podium. As this whole squad is made up of cross country freshmen and sophomores, this could be the returning squad to make a run at Hopkins next year. 

Other notable team finishes were those of Pomona-Pitzer and St. Olaf, the former of which finished tenth, good for the highest women’s team finish in school history and the latter of which saw their highest finish since 2012 at 13th, far surpassing their ranking at 22nd. Just behind St. Olaf was the team from Wellesley, who finished 15th after coming in ranked 26th. All this to say that at the national meet, anything goes when you line up with intent. 

While some leave this meet ecstatic and others leave this meet disappointed, there is one fact that all can probably agree upon: it’s good to be back. Perhaps in longing for what wasn’t before, we realized that this weekend isn’t one that can be taken for granted. Maybe I was previously just out of touch, but I swear that this year the crowd was the loudest it’s ever been and the runners were the toughest I’ve ever seen.

D3 running is back in full force and it’s on the brink of something truly great.