D2 Pre-Nationals – Saturday, Oct. 22 – 10:40 a.m. (PT)  [Meet Info] [Live Results] [Course Maps: Men | Women]
University Place, Wash. – Chambers Creek Park

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SNEAK PEEK
While it won't be that sneaky, the Colorado School of Mines Men's and Women's Cross Country teams will get an early look at the course for the 2022 NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships this Saturday. They flew to the greater Seattle, Wash., area on Thursday to race at D2 Pre-Nationals hosted by Seattle Pacific at Chambers Creek Park in University Place, Wash. Four races appear on Saturday's schedule, but the Orediggers will only appear in two. The gun for the men's DII 8K will sound at 10:40 a.m. (PT) and the women's DII 6K will is slated for noon local time.
 
WEATHER REPORT
The weekend forecast looks to be a typical Pacific Northwest weekend. Rain is scheduled to start on Friday with showers continuing most of the day Saturday. The high on race day projects to be 51 degrees with a low of 41 degrees. While potentially miserable for fans, the conditions should be near perfect for cross country with very few runners overheating. The big question will be how much rain falls on the course and how soft it becomes. Everyone else should layer up and grab an umbrella.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
There will be live results of both races featuring Orediggers on Saturday. The timing company is Pacific Northwest Track and Field Officials. They will be running the results through AthleticLive with links in this story, on www.minesathletics.com and on Twitter Saturday morning. There is no live video of any of the races on Saturday.
 
COURSE PREVIEW
Saturday's races will be run at Chambers Creek Regional park which is directly adjacent to Chambers Bay Golf Course about 40 miles southwest of Seattle proper. None of the course crosses the actual golf course, but portions does go around the driving range and other portions of the park. Overall, the course is two loops that are linked together as you can see on the maps linked above. The women will do to complete circuits of both loops and start a third on the larger loop before cutting back to the finish. The men start with two shortened trips around the larger loop before heading to the smaller loop and complete essentially two full circuits of the course. There are no trees, the large majority of the course is grass, and any incline is gradual or rolling as opposed to sharp and steep.
 
IT'S A PARTY
The two exclusive DII races alone feature 27 men's teams and 30 women's teams. There are 222 men slated to race, and 239 women. On the men's side, six teams appear in the current national rankings and three others have at least received votes at some point this season. The nationally-ranked men's teams set to race include #1 Mines, #5 Chico State, #10 Western Colorado, #20 Western Washington, #22 Simon Fraser, and #25 Cal Poly Pomona. The women's guest list includes five teams that are currently ranked and five more that have at least received votes and one ranked as high as #9 during the season. Among the five currently ranked teams are #3 Mines, #11 Western Colorado, #12 Chico State, #20 Biola, and #29 Western Washington. Also notable are two different Hawaii programs making the transpacific trip while the Alaska system is sending two teams and Wilmington out of Delaware will be in attendance. That means nearly every corner of the United States will be represented.
 
OREDIGGER LINEUP
Ten men and 10 women make up the Colorado School of Mines competition roster this weekend. Daniel Appleford, Chris Cathcart, Duncan Fuehne, Steven Goldy, Luke Julian, Andrew Kaye, John O'Malley, Dillon Powell, Loic Scomparin and Max Sevcik will run for the men. Zoe Baker, Margaux Basart, Ashleigh Loe, Molly Maksin, Holly Moser, Clare Peters, Alex Raichart, Grace Strongman, Brin Strouse, Alayna Szuch.
 
WEEKEND DEBUTS
Saturday marks multiple Oredigger debuts on multiple levels. The first is Daniel Appleford who will make his collegiate cross country debut in a Mines uniform. He was one of the first true freshmen to run in uniform during Head Coach Chris Siemers' tenure. Additionally, Chris Cathcart, Duncan Fuehne, Luke Julian, Andrew Kaye, John O'Malley, Dillon Powell and Loic Scomparin will all make their 2022 season debuts. That group alone touts a total of 19 USTFCCCA All-America awards between cross country and track & field. Every other Oredigger runner has exactly one race under their respective belts in 2022.
 
QUICK HITTER
Colorado School of Mines Men's and Women's Cross Country have not competed in the Pacific Northwest since the 2013 NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships in Spokane, Wash. At that race, the men of Mines placed fifth in the nation behind Andrew Epperson, Derek Alcorn, Phil Schneider, Marty Andrie, Frank Socha, Seth Topper, Drew Kerschieter. Chloe Gustafson competed as an individual qualifier for the Oredigger women and finished 52nd out of 244. In their careers, those eight individuals combined to win 26 USTFCCCA All-America awards between cross country and track & field.
 
ZOE BAKER
It was only a matter of time before the name Zoe Baker filled an entire section of a preview. The Mines graduate student and distance star made history once again as she was named to the national Top 30 for NCAA Woman of the Year earlier this month. She became the first Oredigger to ever advance to the Top 30 for the prestigious award. The Top 30 includes 10 from each of three NCAA divisions. The selection committee will select three honorees from each NCAA division for a total of nine finalists. From those finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will choose the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year and announce the winner at the NCAA Convention in January in San Antonio, Texas. Read Zoe Baker's entire profile for the award HERE.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Oredigger men and women competed last weekend at the Trojan Invitational hosted by Colby Community College in Kansas. Ethan Grolnic finished #8 for the men and led them to a third-place finish in the team standings. Mines' women ran three individuals and had no team score as Lexi Herr led the way with a 12th-place finish.
 
AT THE HELM
Colorado School of Mines Cross Country Head Coach Chris Siemers is in his 11th season at the helm for the Oreidgger men and women. Headlining his resume are a pair of NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championships which Mines' men brought home in 2015 and 2019. Over the last decade, Siemers has built Mines into a national power in distance running. On the men's side, 19 Orediggers have earned 35 Cross Country All-America honors under his guidance. That has led to five RMAC crowns (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021) and four NCAA South Central Regional titles (2016, 2018, 2019, 2021). No men's team coached by Siemers has ever finished lower than fifth in the nation. On the women's side, seven individuals have earned eight Cross Country All-America honors under Siemers' watch. As a team, the women earned their first national podium finish in 2019 by finishing third at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships and added a second in 2021 by taking fourth place. Mines' women have finished as high as #2 at both the RMAC and regional championships on multiple occasions.
 
NATIONAL RANKINGS
The latest edition of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association (USTFCCCA) DII national rankings came out on Tuesday of this week. The men of Mines remained alone at #1 for a second straight week. The Oredigger women held strong at #3 for a second consecutive week as well. In the men's poll, behind Mines, were #2 Adams State, #7 Colorado Christian, #10 Western Colorado, and #14 UCCS. The women's list featured Adams State at #1 and UCCS at #4 to make a Mines sandwich near the top. Also checking in were #12 Colorado Christian, and #21 CSU Pueblo. In total, the RMAC boasts five men's teams and five women's teams in the nation's top-30.
 
WORLD CHAMPION
In late June of this year, Oredigger assistant coach, Colorado School of Mines graduate and Mines Athletics Hall of Fame member Dr. Mark Husted earned the title World Champion. He competed in three different events at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Finland where he took gold in the 5,000-meter run, silver in the 1,500-meter run and fourth in the world in the 800-meter run. While a student-athlete at Mines, Dr. Husted was a six-time USTFCCCA All-American and two-time NCAA Division II National Champion.
 
FAMILIAR FACES ON STAFF
The Colorado School of Mines cross country coaching staff is chalk full of decorated alumni. While the aforementioned Dr. Husted has worked with the team since 2011, the 2022 season sees the return of two more Oredigger greats. Running power couple Grant and Chloe Colligan (nee Cook) returned to Golden and to Mines as assistant coaches. Grant Colligan competed in cross country and track & field at Mines from 2014-2020 and earned 10 USTFCCCA All-America awards while helping the Oredigger men win the first national championship in the history of Mines Athletics in 2015. Chloe Colligan, who competed at Mines as Chloe Cook from 2014-19 was a three-time USTFCCCA All-American including two honors in the mile. She was the #1 runner for Mines' women in 2019 when they took third in the nation, marking the first podium finish in program history.
 
EPPERSON TAKES THE REINS
Oredigger cross country and track & field alumni seem to have a penchant for coaching. Earlier this year, Andrew Epperson was named Head Cross Country Coach at NCAA Division I Colorado State in Fort Collins. He took the reins from another familiar face in Art Siemers, older brother of Mines Head Coach Chris Siemers. Epperson competed for the Orediggers from 2009-13 and then served as an assistant coach for three more years after that. As a collegian, Epperson was a two-time USTFCCCA All-American in cross country. During his coaching stint in Golden he helped the Orediggers to the 2015 national title. Professionally, Epperson represented the United States in the marathon at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar and has qualified for two U.S. Olympic Marathon trials. He graduated from Colorado School of Mines in 2013 with a degree in mechanical engineering. Epperson went on to earn a master's degree in mechanical engineering with a focus in biomechanics. He currently has both CSU's men's and women's teams nationally ranked.
 
THE ROAD TO CHAMBER'S BAY
The 2022 NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships are slated to run on Friday, Dec. 2, at Chambers Creek Regional Park in the greater Seattle, Wash., area. The path for the Orediggers to get there started at the Roadrunners Invitational and then went to Colorado Springs on Oct. 1, Colby, Kan., on Oct. 15. After the national preview this weekend, it will be the RMAC Championships in Durango, Colo., on Nov. 5 and the regional championships at Washington Park in Denver on Nov. 19. Since it is a NCAA Division II Fall Festival year, all fall sports (besides football) will compete for their respective national titles on the same weekend across the city of Seattle.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Mines next races will be the postseason. The Orediggers are slated to run at the 2022 RMAC Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Nov. 5, in Durango, Colo. A full preview and any live coverage information will be released the week leading up to the event at www.minesathletics.com.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines cross country on Twitter and Instagram at @csmtrack. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.