Colorado hosted the top ranked teams in the country at 5320’ altitude in Louisville, Co.  The altitude clearly affected some of the runners (Stanford super frosh Sean McGorty dnf’d).  

#1 Colorado men won with 28 ahead of #4 Oregon with 54 and #13 Stanford with 79.  #35 ASU was fourth 140 and #25 Washington was fifth with 142.  Oregon super-frosh Edward Cheserek (24:36) won a close race ahead of Stanford’s Jim Rosa (24:42) and three Colorado runners as  Colorado took 5 of the next 7 spots.

 #1 Arizona women took their first conference title with 69 points as they edged host #16 Colorado’s 75.  Next, #13 Washington edged #12 Oregon 111 to 113 with #20 Stanford in fifth with 129 points and #26 ASU with 138.  Stanford's Aisling Cuffe (video), 21:04, pulled away from the pack ahead of Arizona's Elvin Kebit (21:15) with 1k to go.  Arizona took 3 of the top 6 spots. Photos 

The best meet on Friday was the ACC Championships.  #5 Florida State women won the ACC championships in a tight battle with fast rising #10 Virginia 52-65. #19 Syracuse was third with 108 and #22 Notre Dame fourth with 124.  Juliet Bottorff was leading a pack of seven at 4k and eventually pulled away from FSU’s Colleen Quigley to take the title 20:05.9 to 20:13.9.  Early on FSU and Virginia were virtually tied but FSU’s  #4 and #5 runners moved up to give FSU the win.    

#14 Syracuse men took their first ACC title with 64 ahead of #18 North Carolina’s 84 #23 Notre Dame’s 105 and #33 Virginia’s 108.  Andrew Colley (23:37.9) of NC State won the individual title by 24.3 seconds.  North Carolina took 4 of the first 16 spots but #5 was 39th and Syracuse put their first five in the top 21.

Also on Friday #2 Arkansas women and #12 Arkansas men dominated the SEC meet.  The women (led by Dominique Scott’s 20:02.81) and men (Kemoy Campbell in MR and CR 22:58.73) both took the top three spots.

Saturday was the big day as #3 Oklahoma State dominated the Big-12 meet with 33 points to unranked Iowa State’s 77, #29 Texas’ 80, and #27 Oklahoma’s 104.  Defending champion Kennedy Kithuka dominated the race in 22:16.0 ahead of Kirubel Erassa of Oklahoma State.  Erassa led two other Cowboys in the top five.  The Cowboys took 5 of the first 12 spots.  

Another fast rising team, #8 Iowa State women, dominated with 33 points to West Virginia’s 104 and Oklahoma State’s 116. Marielle Hall of Texas won her first title over 6k in 19:38.3 ahead of Iowa State’s Crystal Nelson’s 19:49.3 as Iowa State took three of the next four spots and #5 runner was 15th.  Iowa State showed great depth with their 5-6-7 runners running together.   

The Big East women’s race portended to be great battle with 3 of the top 7 teams compeiting and it fullifilled it’s promise.  #4 Providence (28) proved it should be top ranked by defeating #3 Georgetown (47) and #7 Butler (66) as #5 runner Grace Thek returned to form and Providence placed its top 5 in the the first 13 places.  Senior Emily Sisson won the Big East title in 19:49 over Villanova’s Emily Lipari in 19:56 as Providence took three of the top four spots and a :59 split among top five.  Georgetown’s first runner was Rachel Schneider in fifth at 20:23 with a :42 spread.

The WCC men’s race saw essentially another (BYU Autumn Classic in September was the other) dual meet between #5 BYU and #6 Portland (took 13 of first 17 spots).  BYU won again with 30-48 score as BYU’s Jason Witt took the title in 23:14.  BYU took 5 of the first 11 and Portland had 2.  Portland took 4 of the next 5 spots as the first 14 runners ran under 24:00. 

 The Ivy league saw some new team winners as #10 Columbia (48) beat #15 Princeton (56), recently ranked Dartmouth (64) and #21 Harvard  (103).  Maksim Korolev of Harvard continued his breakout year with a victory (23:28.2) well ahead of Columbia’s Nico Composto (23:44.5) as Columbia had a :30 gap among their top five, taking 3 of top five spots and top five in top 20.  Princeton had a : 17 gap and top five in top 16.

The #11 Dartmouth women (38) took the Ivy League title for the first time since  over recent champ #24 Cornell (66), #31 Harvard (73) and #23 Princeton (95).   Abbey D’Agostino (19:40.8) won by 39 seconds over Columbia’s Waverly Neer (20:20.0).  Dartmouth took 5 of the first 13 spots.  

On Sunday the Big 10 ran it’s championship race and three teams (16 of top 23) put almost all of its top five in front of the other 8 teams.  #24 Indiana (51) beat #16 Michigan (66) and #7 Wisconsin (71).  Redshirt freshman Malachy Schrobilgen of Wisconsin took the individual title (24:16.9) ahead of Purdue sophomore Matt McClintock (24:17.9).  

In a deep women’s field #6 Michigan State women (43) won the conference title ahead of #14 Michigan (55), #15 Minnesota (68), #29 Penn State (143), unranked Ohio State (157) and #21 Indiana and #28 Wisconsin (158).  Freshman Erin Finn of Michigan won in 20:48.3 ahead of Michigan State’s Leah O’Connor (20:56.9).   The Spartans took three of the first nine spots and 5 of the first 15 and Michigan’s #2-#5 finished between tenth and 19th (:16).  

Other conferences had less competition.  For the men #2 Northern Arizona dominated the Big Sky meet, #8 Iona took MAAC, #9 New Mexico men and women took Mtn West, #11 Tulsa took Conference USA.  For the women #9 New Mexico took #17 San Francisco took the WCC and #18 William and Mary won the Colonial.  

Among top runners Laura Hollander (#9 ’12 NC XC) ran her first race in more than two months and won the Big West championship meet, UTEP’s Anthony Rotich (#4 ’12 NC XC) won Conference USA , UNC Charlotte’s Paul Chelimo (#10 ’12 NC XC) won Southern Conference, andW&M’s Elaina Balouris (#13 ’12 NC XC) won Colonial. '12 NCAA 10k third place finisher and undefeated this year by collegiate competition, Emma Bates won Mtn West