Part II:
Prominent athletics journalist Liam Boylan-Pett wrote great article! about the beauty of the opening seconds of the mass start of a cross-country race. However, this is from the viewer’s point of view.
It’s not particularly easy to find the right spot when you’re literally walking the course, and if you get too far down from the start, you could end up with an extremely long walk to the next spot. So when the gun went off for the men’s race, I decided to interview the 4th place women Silvia Jelelgo Instead of Clemson. I thought the teams weren’t going to turn around Panorama Farms forever, so I had to make the most of this two hour window while the race continued to get interviews and photos.
Race commentary was provided over the loudspeaker Ian Brookswith his posh British accent and Daniel Cutright. They were purchased by UVA to provide some expertise to the match, which was a good investment for the spectator experience. It is often the case that athletic department communications personnel may not be knowledgeable and have limited knowledge outside of their teams.
With all the action and every kilometer ticking by, this race seems to happen at warp speed. I don’t know what it feels like to run a 10k in under 30 minutes, but when I ran a 10k it felt like time was moving five times slower. A note to any psych departments out there. This could become a good scientific study.
Furman’s Christopher Knight has a small lead at the first split (2K) over George Coulty of Virginia Tech and Gary Martin of UVA. I was surprised when I looked at the board and saw that this gap was only a fifth of a second. Again, it’s kind of a warp speed effect.
As anyone who has seen a big race knows, it’s very rare for a race to break open early, so I had a good 7K before the pack split up. The first 70% of the race gave me the opportunity to line up interviews and create a perfect image on the two main mats (thanks Flash results) Again, perhaps the course is so popular because 7 of the 9 intermediate checkpoints in the 10K race occur at just two points, making it very easy to be a spectator.
It was also heartening to see such a great spectacle of spectators, including female runners who finished their race and still had the energy to run to cheer on their male teammates.
I predicted the results This race will feature Rocky Hansen, Elsingi Kipruto, Gary Martin and Eastern Kentucky’s top two runners in the top five (Taha El Raouy and Justine Kipkoech), followed by George Coultey and the top two runners from Kentucky, Colton Sands from UNC and several Virginia runners rounding out the bottom four dozen.
My predictions weren’t too far off, though I didn’t foresee Eastern Kentucky making such a strong run for the lead. Morocco’s El Rao finished third, another runner I’d never heard of before, Brian Kimutai (sorry I didn’t know you existed before this race, Bruan), finished 6th and the Colonels 6th in the top 27. Also, I heard later that my pick, Justin Kipkoch, was recovering from injury and was expected to hit his prime next week.
As you’ve probably heard by now, Rocky Hansen won the race free and clear, and his team took the title as well.
I interviewed Hansen last spring after she finished third in the 5K at NCAAs because I was proud of her third place finish. I came to see how the underclassmen fit in well at NCAA nationals to overcome the toughest hurdle. It seems like everyone has a chance, regardless of conference state/country of origin or competitiveness, but the number of freshmen or even sophomores is slim. So yes, I believe this is the new glass ceiling, and Rocky broke it because I think he’s the only sophomore man last year to compete in the longer distance. (Edit: I looked this up and I think Charlie Sprott of Wake Forest placed in cross country, Simeon Birnbaum in the 1500. Benjamin Balazs may have been a sophomore when he placed in cross country, and Tinoda Mazzaza placed in the 800, and that’s still not counting my competitive years. With a 13:13 as a sophomore, that’s something 🙂
I noticed a certain shift in confidence in Hansen when I interviewed him again yesterday. I’m not suggesting he was still a timid pod in March, but he worked the crowd and the interviews with the confidence of a superhero who had just saved someone from a burning building. I have to think this bodes well for the week ahead.
I also spoke with three all-region women from the University of Virginia, and they talked about the nerves of waiting to hear if they were selected for nationals. Fortunately, this is different than NCAA basketball selection Sunday, as I believe (I may be wrong, so if you’re armed with a calculator and knowledge of the system, you can figure it out before the announcement.
It was refreshing from the men to know that this was a happy ending for everyone. Since this region did so well in KOLAS points, it was comforting to know that everyone else did. No less than six teams advanced to Nationals with Colas points, and two Kentucky runners I predicted would finish in the top 10.
One of my last interviews was with Kentucky English junior Edward Byrd, who was such a nice guy that he didn’t notice that I called him Eva throughout the interview (sorry). I told him he caught my eye last year when he beat Stanford’s top guns at last year’s Gans Creek Invitational, and he explained that he had competed in the U20 Championships in Europe just before that race, so he peaked on a different schedule. She currently has a 13:33 PR for the 5K and her goal is to get it down to 13:25 so she can qualify for the Commonwealth Games Trials. It appears the reason he hasn’t hit All-American yet is because his efforts to be internationally competitive may not fall on the same calendar as the NCAAs.
I should Also note here that if I’m following a region, it’s going to tend to be because I’m a student at two of these schools and know people who ran at two or three other schools. I tend to revel in the fact that Kentucky is in this region, because as someone who has spent my entire life in different parts of Virginia (seven different cities to be exact), I can tell you that the Carolinas and Virginia are pretty closely related in terms of human distribution, while Kentucky is considered exotic.
At the same time, it’s worth noting that the cross-country teams in these squads are exotic in ways other than what I’m implying; I spoke with two parents for Eastern Kentucky whose son is the only American in the men’s top seven today. The team includes people from Spain, Morocco, Kenya, England, Portugal and New Zealand.
Edward Byrd went to Kentucky because he did not see the English universities as having the competitiveness or facilities offered here. Between Byrd and George Coultey from Virginia Tech (also English), I find the British to be great interview subjects, but I already knew that.
Earlier this year, I hadn’t been to a track meet in person in 15 years. After college I tried coaching for a few weeks and that was it. Since then, I have competed in three RunBlogRun meets in 2025: the Indoor NCAAs in Virginia Beach, the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, and the Division I Southeast Regional Cross-Country meets.
I was told by colleagues in the media tent that the runners are the most approachable and friendly athletes when I arrived. That’s been true from college athletes who didn’t have good days to high school coaches to Olympians. I bumped into NCAA 800 champ Makayla Paige and she remembered me from over half a year ago and she was very gracious in an interview I happened to walk through the first time (unfortunately, the video for this video is corrupted so no chance). Speaking of people with that name, my first media interview this year was with the LSU Distance Medley Relay squad, and Michaela Rose (fourth in the nation) was as gracious as ever when I admitted that this was my first interview of the day.
Is this the main reason to go cross country racing if you don’t do the sport? It’s not required, but it’s a nice perk to see such a positive community.
