On February 7th, 2015, the United States Cross Country Championships was held in Boulder, Colorado. The race provided some insight on how the American men will fair two years removed from the team’ silver medal in Poland. In addition, the Junior Race gave us a look at some of the possible future stars of American XC.
The thing that stands out the most from the open race is Chris Derrick’s continued dominance of American cross country. Derrick covered the 12k course in 36:18, finishing an impressive 30 seconds ahead of the second place finisher, Robert Curtis. This was Derrick’s third consecutive victory at the US XC championships, which leaves me wondering why no one has brought up the nickname “CD3” (Jarrett is going to love that, I’m sure of it). If three straight titles weren’t impressive enough for Derrick, the dude is still only 24! He has a long and successful career still ahead of him, and if the Americans are going to repeat their success in China this March, Derrick will have to impressive.
Rounding out the Americans behind Derrick and Curtis will be Dathan Ritzenhein, Ryan Vail, Patrick Smyth, and my man Maksim Korolev. The team includes a lot of household names, but I’m still most impressed and excited by Korolev. Yeah, I’m a big fan of him, but his performance cannot be overlooked. To make the team, the Stanford grad student Korolev beat out familiar names like Ben True, Andrew Colley, and Joe Stilin (Stilin is a familiar name for me because his aunt my Spanish Professor last year. She said he was going to the Olympics. She didn’t know a ton about running, or Spanish for that matter). I know Korolev hasn’t done a ton on the track to go crazy about, but it’s time to give the man credit. He has finished top five at NCAA Nationals back to back years, and is one of only a handful of guys to beat Edward Cheserek in recent memory (off the top of my head, Lukas Verzbicas, Lawi Lalang, Brad Nye, Jake Leingang, and Korolev). Now he’s made a Worlds team, and has a degree in Regenerative Bio and Human Development from Harvard, and will receive a Masters in Engineering and Scientific Management from Stanford. This guy’s résumé is off the charts, and he’s only 23. If you’re not convinced Maksim Korolev is that dude, here is a picture of him from prom:https://twitter.com/bigmakkmclovin/status/543179386220851201/photo/1. Point, set match; Mak is the man.
In addition to the open race, we got a look at some of the young up-and-comers through the junior race. This 8k saw Utah native Conner Mantz, a senior in high school, take home the title, edging out Oklahoma State freshman Cerake Geberkidane and Colorado commit John Dressel. While many would’ve liked to Geberkidane take the win as a reassurance of his talent given his mediocre performance during the normal cross country season, a second place finish does tell us something: Geberkidane is improving, and he has what it takes to be a competitive college runner once he finds his bearings at school (see my other piece of the Class of 2018 for more on Geberkidane). Moreover, with Dressel’s third place finish, we now know Colorado has added another weapon to their already stacked team. For almost any other program, this sort of performance would have an incoming freshman look like a contender for a varsity spot, but Colorado’s depth makes Dressel’s XC debut likely for the 2016- 2017 season. Most who follow this race closely would consider Mantz’s victory an upset, but this guy ran 8:52 as a junior for 3200 meters, and I’m sure this performance will set him up for a big outdoor season. While Mantz has yet to announce a decision for next year, but look for his name come cross country season in the fall.
While America’s silver medal two years ago has a lot of people excited for the team this March, the squad will be missing a big piece: Ben True. True, who ran 13:00 for 5k at Peyton Jordan in the spring, was the top American finisher in Poland in 2013, and was sixth overall. Despite his obvious talent, True only managed an 11th place finish at the US championships. I would be surprised if the Americans could repeat their 2013 finish in China next month, but certainly a medal is not out of the question. Hopefully our American heroes can prove that US distance runners cannot be overlooked.
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