Gapes breaks 19 at Pre-Nats, BYU beats NC State
The top two women's teams in the country split the day on the course that hosts NCAAs next month.
Hannah Gapes of NC State won Pre-Nats in 18:57.6, becoming the first woman ever under 19 minutes on the LaVern Gibson 6K course, per Jonathan Gault. LetsRun says that took 16 seconds off the previous course record.
The team race went the other way. Second-ranked BYU beat top-ranked NC State 84-88, and they did it without Jane Hedengren, who LetsRun says was out with an illness. BYU were led by Taylor Rohatinsky, who LetsRun says was cleared to run a fifth season of cross country after a judge granted her a temporary restraining order.
BYU's pack did the work
The margin came from depth rather than one big run at the front. Gault counted seven BYU runners across the line before any other team had four. That is the whole story of a four-point win, one team putting a wall of scorers in before the other team finishes counting.
Gapes still had the individual day of the meet. Nobody had gone under 19 minutes on that course before, and she did not just sneak under, she took 16 seconds off the record.
The men's race
Eighth-ranked Syracuse won the men's team title with 115 points. Tulane's Silas Kiptanui won the individual race in 23:17.4.
What it actually means
This is the same course that hosts NCAAs next month, so the two best women's teams in the country just got a dress rehearsal on the exact ground that decides the title. Gault called it directly, writing that there is a "Rematch on the same course at NCAAs next month." BYU won this one short-handed, which makes the rematch more interesting than the four-point margin suggests, because Hedengren's illness is the sort of thing that resolves in a month.
None of that is a prediction. A four-point gap in October is close to noise, and NC State had the fastest runner on the day by a wide margin. But if you want one line to carry into November, it is that the number two team beat the number one team without its star, on the course that counts.
Some incredible depth from BYU, who had seven runners across the line before any other team had four.
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