2016 PAC 12 XC Predictions

By: Garrett Zatlin

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PAC 12's
Finish	Name	University
1	Edward Cheserek	Oregon
2	Sean McGorty	Stanford
3	Grant Fisher	Stanford
4	Ferdinand Edman	UCLA
5	Matthew Maton	Oregon
6	John Dressel	Colorado
7	Ben Saarel	Colorado
8	Colby Gilbert	Washington
9	Michael Williams	Washington State
10	Tanner Anderson	Oregon
11	Garrett Sweatt	Stanford
12	Sam Prakel	Oregon
13	John Whelan	Washington State
14	CJ Albertson	Arizona State
15	Ryan Forsyth	Colorado
16	Andrew Gardner	Washington
17	Robert Brandt	California
18	Alex Ostberg	Stanford
19	Trent Brendel	California
20	Joe Klecker	Colorado
Team Scores
Projected Finish	Team	Projected Score
1	Oregon	52
2	Stanford	55
3	Colorado	76
4	UCLA	127
5	Washington State	136
6	Washington	153
7	California	186

Unsure if running: Alex Ostberg (Stanford), Thomas Ratcliffe (Stanford)

Individual

No one is going to be surprised by my pick to win it all. Whether he decides to pull away early or to kick at the end, King Ches will defend his crown this weekend. They might as well just give him the gold medal now.

Of course if Cheserek weren't in the race, it would most likely come down to the Stanford duo who had a nice showing at Wisconsin with Fisher getting the best of McGorty. I'm also really high on guys like Maton and Edman. They have put together breakout races and have been pretty consistent overall. Having them in the top five shouldn't be all that surprising. 

Team
It's never easy to make decisions like these, but I have to go with the Oregon Ducks over Stanford. Both teams ran very well at Pre-Nats and Wisconsin, but Oregon has shown that their top five can consistently run well on the same day. Stanford had awesome finishes from Sweatt, Keelan, and Wharton at Wisconsin, but those three don't often run well on the same day. The addition of Thomas Ratcliffe and Alex Ostberg may remedy that problem, but it's not a given that those two will even run this weekend.

That's not to say that Oregon is without vulnerabilities of their own. They have a great top five, but their depth is lacking. At Pre-Nats, freshman Austin Tamagno was a DNF while Bryan Fernandez placed 151st. Oregon can run well on the same day, but they have much less insurance then Stanford does.