2016 West Coast XC Predictions

By: Garrett Zatlin

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West Coast
Finish	Name	University
1	Alex Short	San Francisco
2	Nico Montanez	BYU
3	Rory Linkletter	BYU
4	Tim Ball	Portland
5	Jeff Thies	Portland
6	Jonathan Harper	BYU
7	Mitchell Briggs	BYU
8	Brayden McLelland	BYU
9	Stephen Mulhrein	Portland
10	Clayton Young	BYU
11	Ben Alcock	San Francisco
12	Nick Hauger	Portland
13	Caleb Webb	Portland
14	Spencer Hanson	BYU
15	Edward Shepherd	San Francisco
16	Mohammed Aziz	San Francisco
17	Timo Goehler	Portland
18	Gabe Arias-Sheridan	St. Mary's (Cal)
19	Brandon Vientos	Loyola Marymount
20	Brady Johnson	Portland
Team Scores
Projected Finish	Team	Projected Score
1	BYU	26
2	Portland	43
3	San Francisco	69

Unsure if racing: Troy Fraley (Gonzaga)

Individual

It's going to be a very interesting battle between Alex Short and Nico Montanez. Both are ranked among the top 20 in our Etrain rankings after their big races at Pre-Nats and Wisconsin.* Although they are both having breakout seasons, Short has been closer to this competitive level for a while now and this will be his 2nd legitimate shot at earning the individual title. Montanez will most likely do what he has to do in order to secure the team title. If it comes down to the finish, I'm going to take the San Francisco senior.

*Short was 7th at Pre-Nats. Montanez was 9th at Wisconsin.

Team

The team talk in the West Coast Conference is shaping up to be a bit more exciting than in year's past. Both BYU and Portland are top ranked teams in the nation this year and both squads have displayed excellent time-spreads. However, San Francisco is also entering the picture as Alex Short has given life to the Dons throughout this season.

While it may be competitive, I see BYU taking the conference title. They've been dominant all season and have the low-sticks that Portland lacks. However, both squads should be able to hold off the Dons who have some great front-runners of their own, but not quite the depth to keep up with Portland or BYU.