A lot has been made of the new Big East Conference not being the same as the old conference we all knew and loved. That’s mainly because college basketball is starting up again and a lot of the realignment done was to favor the schools without football and that are basketball dominant. 

The shuffle has also changed the scene of cross-country running.

This conference no longer has last year’s champions from the men’s race as the Syracuse Orange announced their move to the Atlantic Coast Conference in September 2011. This also means that last year’s champion Martin Hehir will not be out to defend his title. The Syracuse women finished sixth overall.

The losses to the ACC do not just stop there as the world will not get their first peek at the Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s mustaches at Big Easts. They finished third last year with Jeremy Rae (3rd, 24:39.39) and Martin Grady (8th, 24:46.52) crossing the finish line in the top 10. The Notre Dame women finished fifth. 



Other Big East losses
Cincinnati (Men - 7th, Women - 8th) to the American Athletic Conference
Connecticut (Men - 9th, Women - 2nd) to the Atlantic Coast Conference
Louisville (Men - 6th, Women 13th) to the American Athletic Conference
Pittsburgh (Men - 12th, Women - 9th) to the Atlantic Coast Conference
Rutgers (Men - 11th, Women - 10th) to the BIG 10 Conference
South Florida (Men - 13th, Women - 11th) to the American Athletic Conference

WOMEN’S RACE: TOP RANKED BATTLE
While this means we may not longer see many Syracuse and Georgetown basketball rivalry games, there will be quite the showdown in Wisconsin as No. 3 Georgetown and No. 4 Providence will square-off on the Wayne E. Dannehl Course. The Hoya women look to defend their 2012 conference title.

Neither team has seen each other on the season just yet.

Georgetown will be flying into Milwaukee riding on a victory at the Pre-Nationals Meet title. They were just two years removed from winning the 2011 NCAA Championship on that same course. Six of their runners finished in the top 50 and surprisingly none of them placed in the top 10. Sophomore Samantha Nadel was their top girl in 14th place. 18 places later, their 5th runner crossed the finish line and they were victorious.

Junior Annamarie Maag didn’t even run in the varsity race with the Hoyas and won the women’s open race in 21:19.7. Last year, she was 10th at the Big East Championship overall. There is serious team depth on coach Michael Smith’s squad.

The Friars finished third at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational. They were led by senior Emily Sisson who ran 19:44 for second place. Not too far behind her was sophomore teammate Sarah Collins in fifth place (19:53)and senior Laura Nagel in ninth place (20:00.)

The main issue for the Friars early on in the season has been finding the right runner to close out their top five. Coach Ray Treacy remained confident in his squad’s training that they would round into shape at the proper time. 

The team’s fourth and fifth women in Wisconsin were freshman Catarina Rocha (37th, 20:31) and sophomore Molly Keating (138th, 21:20.) Do not get worried by Keating’s placing as there were 288 runners in the race and the field is expected to be smaller at the Big East Championship.

SLEEPING ON BUTLER? 
The newcomers to the Big East finished third at the Pre-Nats meet. They moved up 13 spots from their last ranking as a result of their showing in Terra Haute and are now ranked No. 7 in the nation. Talk about a jump. 

Senior Katie Clark was the team’s top girl as she snuck into the top 10 running 20:19.59. She was 22nd at the NCAA Championship last year and took second at the 2012 Great Lakes Regional Championship.

Junior Mara Olson finished 23rd at Pre-Nats, but just two weeks before that was fourth at the Roy Griak Invitational. She beat several of the Arizona women that make up the No. 1 team in the nation.

The move out of the Atlantic 10 should bring them a share of the spotlight with Georgetown and Providence.

EMILY LIPARI’S CROWN
Villanova’s Emily Lipari kicked down the final stretch at Van Cortlandt Park to capture the 2012 Big East crown as a junior. This year, Lipari looks to extend the streak of Wildcats individual crowns to five as Sheila Reid holds the 2009, 2010 and 2011 titles.

The Long Island native (accent and all) finished seventh at the Pre-National Meet behind big names like Emma Bates of Boise State and the Florida State duo of Colleen Quigley and Hannah Walker. 

Nicky Akande finished third at the Big East Championship last year and finished 21st in Terra Haute, two weeks ago. Akande is also a senior and should be expected to run with her teammate as they did in the back hills of Van Cortland a year ago. The newcomers from Butler could also challenge the front.

Going into the hills, Villanova breaks up the Providence core in the front. Emily Lipari ahead. #bigeastxc pic.twitter.com/EwmPCtBt

— Chris Chavez (@Chris_J_Chavez) October 26, 2012

Note: Villanova was so close to having another individual title in 2008 when Frances Koons finished second. The Wildcats did take home the team title that year. 

THERE’S A MEN’S RACE TOO
With Syracuse and Notre Dame gone, two of the top three teams from last year are gone. This year appears to be a battle between the Providence and Villanova men.

The Friars are ranked 19th, while Villanova holds onto the 26th spot. Providence junior Shane Quinn is the top returner from last year’s race after finishing runner-up to Hehir. Villanova brings back Sam McEntee, who was 17th overall as a junior. The Wildcats finished 5th overall with 114 points in 2012.

The Georgetown Hoyas did not run senior Brian King at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational. Their top runner was graduate student Andrew Springer, who placed 54th overall. The pack was separated by less than a minute, so as the field gets smaller they could fare better in the standings.

Butler also received votes in the last USTFCCCA Division-I rankings.

Lastly, FOR NARNIA...

Note: The projections for the women's race are independent of the analysis. They're also a crapshoot, since we really only had data on the top six teams. Still, it's going to be a battle for that Big East team title.

Place   Name                   School
1       Emily Sisson           Providence
2       Emily Lipari           Villanova
3       Sarah Collins          Providence
4       Katie Clark            Butler
5       Laura Nagel            Providence
6       Samantha Nadel         Georgetown
7       Katrina Coogan         Georgetown
8       Nicky Akande           Villanova
9       Mara Olson             Butler
10      Madeline Chambers      Georgetown
11      Haley Pierce           Georgetown
12      Katie Good             Butler
13      Rachel Schneider       Georgetown
14      Catarina Rocha         Providence
15      Olivia Pratt           Butler
16      Rachel Paul            Georgetown
17      Kirsty Legg            Butler
18      Clare Fischer          Xavier
19      Abby Fischer           Xavier
20      Stephanie Schappert    Villanova
21      Kelsey Smith           Georgetown
22      Kellie Greenwood       Marquette
23      Molly Keating          Providence
24      Angel Piccirillo       Villanova
25      Audrey Ramos           Xavier
26      Jacqueline Kasal       DePaul
27      Jessica Albers         Xavier
28      Julie Williams         Villanova
29      Kayla Spencer          Marquette
30      Taylor Hynes           DePaul
31      Sarah Mazzei           Xavier
32      Brittney Feivor        Marquette
33      Shelbi Burnett         Butler
34      Colleen Weatherford    Butler
35      Elisia Meyle           Marquette
36      Rebecca Pachuta        Marquette
37      Alison Parker          Marquette
38      Maddie Ivy             Creighton
39      Erin Murphy            Providence
40      Jessica Sanborn        DePaul
41      Caitlin Bungo          Villanova
42      Sydney Harris          Villanova
43      Paige Skorseth         DePaul
44      Rachael Sollman        Xavier
45      Sarah Ball             Marquette
46      Bryanna Allison        Providence
47      Hannah Pulliam         DePaul
48      Courtney Sawle         Creighton
49      Michelle Duffy         St. John’s
50      Lauren Sharp           DePaul
51      Nyala Edding           Seton Hall
52      Kerri Butler           St. John’s
53      Veronica Thompson      St. John’s
54      Stephanie Vanpelt      St. John’s
55      Michelle Vanpelt       St. John’s
56      Mary Migton            Seton Hall
57      Tiffany Evanego        St. John’s
58      Jasmine Gomez          St. John’s
59      Emily Mauser           Creighton
60      Emily Peterson         Creighton
61      Vanessa Miller         Creighton
62      Desyre Blackburn       Seton Hall
63      Kristen May            Seton Hall
64      Amanda Catherall       Seton Hall
65      Tiffany Callanan       Seton Hall
66      Ruth Ryan              Seton Hall
67      Meagan Wilderson       Creighton

Place  School      Points
1      Providence  46
2      Georgetown  47
3      Butler      57
4      Villanova   82
5      Xavier      120
6      Marquette   154
7      DePaul      186
8      St. John’s  263
9      Creighton   266
10     Seton Hall  296

Chris Chavez is a staff writer for Flotrack and a journalism major at Marquette University. He once beat Joey Fatone of NSYNC in a half-marathon. Feel free to to reach him with any questions, comments, or feedback on Twitter or by email. Chavez will be on-hand at the 2013 Big East Championship bringing you live updates and interviews from Wisconsin.