2007 NCAA Championships Recap:

NCAA champion Sally Kipyego (Texas Tech) runs alone just after 2k in the 2007 NCAA D-1 Women's Cross Country Championships 
Photo by miscott.

The two-time defending champion Stanford Cardinal arrived in Terre Haute as the overwhelming favorites to win the 2007 NCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Championships.   If successful, the Cardinal would be the first team since Villanova's six-year streak in the early '90s (1989-1994) to successfully three-peat.

The other favorites for team trophies included Florida State, Oregon, Princeton, and Arizona State -- although most observers agreed that beyond Stanford, the team race was amazingly wide open.

Individually, Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego and Colorado's Jenny Barringer -- last year's champion and silver medalist respectively -- both returned to the starting line.

In the year since last autumn's harrier championships, Kipyego had won three NCAA titles on the track and shattered the collegiate record for 10,000-meters, while Barringer had won the U.S. steeplechase title, lowered the collegiate best in the steeplechase, and represented the United States at the World Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Osaka.

Kipyego toed the starting line at the Laverne Gibson Championship Cross Country Course undefeated this fall, winning by comfortable margins at the Jackrabbit Open,  Paul Short Invitational, Chile Pepper Festival, Big 12 championships, and the NCAA Mountain regional.

Barringer opened her season with a course record over the year-old new 6km course at the Laverne Gibson course at the Pre-Nationals meet, then suffered two losses -- both to Kipyego, who runs for another Big 12 school -- at the Big 12 meet and the NCAA Mountain Regional.

Florida State's Susan Kuijken, last spring's NCAA 1500 runner-up, added some additional interest to the individual competition since was the only other undefeated competitor in the women's field and had briefly held the course record in Terre Haute for about a half-hour before Barringer lowered it during the next Pre-Nats race.

The lead pack at 600-meters; Kipyego (at the right in red), Colorado's Barringer (just behind in black and gold), Florida State's Susan Kuijken (in maroon and gold), and Iowa's Diane Nukuri (in black) had already separated themselves from the field. 
Photo by miscott.

Unlike 2006 -- where she bolted to a big lead at the sound of the starter's pistol and simply opened up the lead over the rest of the race -- this year, Kipyego was content to run with the leaders -- which included Barringer, Kuijken, and Iowa's Diane Nukuri -- and the foursome quickly edged away from the field over the first 400 meters.

Kipyego(660) leads Nukuri (in black behind Kipyego), Barringer (127), and Kuijken (204) at 1200-meters. The rest of the field is visible behind, with Michigan State's Nicole Bush (377; in green behind Barringer), Arkansas' Chtistine Kalmer (31), Florida State's Barbara Parker (206; in maroon behind Kalmer), Georgetown's Melissa Grelli (behind Parker in blue), and Penn State's Bridget Franek (532) at the fore.
Photo by miscott.

"Last year I was excited and ran hard from the start," said Kipyego afterwards.  "This year I planned to start slow then build up."

Barringer -- who typically sits back early, then moves up in the latter stages of the race -- wasn't conceding the race to her conference rival:

"I knew I wanted to go for it," said the Colorado junior.  "Second place isn't good enough for me.  I wanted to challenge Sally.  I wanted to risk it all."

The chasepack at 1800-meters: Kuijken (204), Barringer (127), and Nukuri (behind Barringer) chase Kipyego, while Bush (377) gamely attempts to maintain contact with the chasepack.
Photo by miscott.

The quartet ran together down the long downhill towards the kilometer and up the hill to the mile before Kipyego began to assert herself on the downhill from the mile to 2km and began to edge away from the field.

Behind the front runner, Michigan State's Nicole Bush ran alone in fifth with the team battle shaping up just behind her.

Stanford positioned itself well early in the race.  Ari Lambie (614) and Teresa McWalters (615) push the pace up the hill from 2km to 3km, with Grelli (behind Lambie), Coastal Carolina's Diane Jepchirchir (in dark blue behind Grelli), UNC's Brianna Felnagle (obscured by McWalters), Parker (206), and Lindsay Donaldson (794) identifiable in the pack.
Photo by miscott.

Stanford established themselves early with West Regional champ Teresa McWalters and 2006 fourth-placer finisher Ari Lambie both running in the top 10.  Team captain Lauren Centrowitz was keeping the rest of the Cardinal juggernaut together, with Alex Gitz, Kate Niehaus, Katie Harrington, and Centrowitz running between 40th and 50th at 2km, giving Stanford a score of around 150 points at that point.

"We didn't want to do anything -- for lack of a better phrase --"cute" or acrobatic," said Stanford coach Peter Tegen.  "All we needed to do was avoid mistakes, so we weren't running for individual honors."

Florida State had Barbara Parker in sixth to join Kuijken in the top 10, with the rest of their scorers in the top 100 at the 2km for a midrace split of  about 220.  Brigham Young, Arkansas, Oregon, and Providence also established themselves well early with scores between 260 to 290 points at the 2km.

Barringer (127), Kuijken (204), and Nukuri (314) continued to battle each other up the long hill before 4km.
Photo by miscott.

Kipyego continued to edge away from the field on the uphill following the 2km, with the trio of Barringer, Kuijken, and Nukuri staying together but also creeping away from fifth place Bush.

The team battle is heating up on the hill before 4km, with Stanford's Lambie (614) battling for fifth with Grelli (222), while off Lambie's shoulder, McWalters can be seen starting to lose contact.  Michigan State's Bush (377) has drifted back a bit, while Oregon's Nicole Blood (506) and teammate Alex Kosinski (behind Bush) move into the top 10.  Florida State's Parker (visible over Kosinski's right shoulder) is also in the top 10, putting three teams -- Stanford, Oregon, and Florida State -- each with a pair in the top 10 at 4km.
Photo by miscott.

The top four maintained the same running order through 4km, while back in the field the team race was heating up.  Stanford's Lambie and McWalters continued running well up front, although McWalters lost contact with Lambie on the long uphill from 3.5km to 4km.  Gitz, Niehaus, Harrington, and Centrowitz each moved up between 5-10 places apiece over that challenging 2km as Stanford's mid-race team total dropped to about 100 at 4km.

Oregon's Nicole Blood and Alex Kosinski moved into the top ten, while behind them Zoe Buckman picked up around 60 places to run in the top 60 alongside Bria Wetsch as their team score improved to approximately 210.

Florida State's Kuijken and Parker maintained their spots in the top 10, while the other three Seminole scores also remained in roughly the same places as the team totalled 230 points.  Princeton was close behind with 248, while Arizona State's 2-3-4 runners moved up an average of 40 positions apiece to improve the Sun Devil's score from 465 to 324 over that split.

Kipyego runs alone through the final inner loop before 5km.
Photo by miscott.

Up front, Kipyego continued to extend her lead -- 11 seconds at the 4km -- over the final rolling inner loop. 

Barringer (127) begins to pull away from Nukuri (204) and Kuijken (204) over the final inner loop before 5km.
Photo by miscott.

Barringer began to pull away from Kuijken and Nukuri between 4km and 5km, while Bush was caught and dropped by Lambie and Georgetown's Melissa Grelli and running with Oregon's Blood.

During this section, Stanford's McWalters and Princeton's Liz Costello began to suffered the effects of the fast early pace and drifted back through the pack.

Kipyego sprinting for the finish in a course-record 19:31.
Photo by miscott.

Kipyego powered up the slight incline of the final 400meter stretch to shatter the course record with a 19:31.

"I think it was more exciting to win this year," said Kipyego.  "Last year I didn't know what to expect and was just excited to run.  This year I raced Jenny a lot and knew she was really strong at the end."

Kipyego started nursing school this fall and had to run as many as three-quarters of her workouts alone.

"My coaches worked around my schedule and my teammates would sometimes wait to run with me," said the two-time champ.  "They really motivated me."

Barringer grabs the silver in 19:48.
Photo by miscott.

Sixteen seconds behind, Barringer claimed second in 19:48 -- essentially equaling her former course-record performance.

"I want that really coveted NCAA title," said Barringer.  "I'm closing the gap.  [Sally's] getting better, I'm getting better.  She makes me a better runner."

Kuijken claims bronze in 19:58.
Photo by miscott.

Kuijken pulled away from Nukuri over the final kilometer, with the Seminole finishing third in 19:58, while Nukuri claimed fourth in 20:07.  

"I tried to stay with Kipyego as long as possible," said Kuijken.  Then I worked together with Barringer for the middle of the race.  I still had my kick to come in third."

Behind them, the Spartan's Bush battled her way back up to fifth in 20:14, with Virginia's Emily Harrison sixth in 20:15, Florida State's Parker seventh in 20:17, Oregon's Blood eighth in 20:18, Stanford's Lambie ninth in 20:19, and Georgetown's Grelli tenth in 20:20.

Behind Lambie, Stanford's Centrowitz claimed 27th in the team scoring, Harrington 30th, and Gitz 37th...while the crowd watched an obviously spent McWalters struggle, stumble, then finally crawl across the finish -- stopping when her torso crossed the line (but before her chips would have registered).  How many places had she lost?   This one would have to wait for video review.

Meanwhile, Oregon -- whose last team appearance at the NCAA championships was way back in 2000 -- had Kosinski 11th in the scoring, with Buckman moving up to 29th, Wetsch in 55th, and Sarah Pearson in 75th.

Florida State pretty much maintained the same score all the way through the race, with Kuijken and Parker claiming 3rd and 6th in the scoring, and runners in 49th - 83rd - 95th  to total 236.

Arizona State continued their excellent come-from-behind strategy to claim the final trophy with a team score of 251 points (almost half of the 465 total from 2km!!).

After much delay for the video review, word finally trickled out that Stanford had totaled 145 points -- McWalters finished 43rd in the team scoring -- and would have still won if either their sixth or seventh runner would have had to score for them.

"With one mile to go, we looked almost untouchable," said Tegen -- who now has five NCAA harrier team titles to his credit: Wisconsin 1984 & 1985 and Stanford 2005, 2006, & 2007.  "But then lightening struck. Teresa felt really bad.  I'm very proud of the team -- they did everything they could to win."

With Stanford's win, Ari Lambie moved into a very elite company as one of only four runners who would win four NCAA harrier team titles-- the others were Villanova's Cheri Goddard (1989-92), Nnenna Lynch (1989-92), and Carole Zajac (1990-93) -- as she ran on Cardinal championship squads in 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Interestingly enough, Stanford's three wins 2005-07 are the three highest winning team scores: 2006-195 points, 2005-146 points, 2007-145 points.  The next highest is Villanova's 1992 score of 123, followed by Stanford's 2003 score of 120.

For the tenth year (with a year off in 2005), I am produced my NCAA Women's Cross Country Analysis detailing the top teams and individuals that comprise the Division 1 women's harrier scene.  I listed the teams in order of the most recent NCAA Coaches Poll -- an order that I may not always agree with!  Unless otherwise noted, the numbers in parentheses following individuals' names indicate that runner's finish at the '06 NCAA meet in Terre Haute; "FL" refers to that runner's finish at the Foot Locker Championships.

Most of the information used to compile this analysis came from individual institutions' athletic web-sites, media reports, and Walt Murphy's X-Country X-Press.