You’ve watched the races, read the recaps and evaluated the top teams. Now, let’s look at five people who helped make this year’s NCAA Cross Country Championships incredible. 

Morgan McDonald

The crowd in Madison was fantastic. They were this way, in part, because the home team was relevant in both races with men’s and women’s individual title contenders. 

Morgan McDonald whipped them into a delirium as he stormed down the homestretch to win his first NCAA title. The volume at the finish line rivaled a raucous indoor track meet, and for a moment, I forgot I was outside in the snow underneath five layers of fleece and cotton. 

McDonald’s finish made that possible and his stretch run with Grant Fisher was everything cross country fans wanted to see. 

The high stakes and unforgiving nature of the meet channeled perfectly through McDonald, a senior who redshirted last year so he could have the chance to win at home. He’s run 13:15 in the 5000m and represented Australia in international competition, but this victory was the one he wanted the most. 

It’s not hyperbole to say this race was two years in the making. With all that anticipation, McDonald stayed calm for the entire race, biding his time, and waiting… waiting. Each time his name was mentioned on the PA, a cheer went out. Those cheers turned into a roar on the final 200 meters—a stretch he’s run countless times in practice before. 

“I just went for it,” McDonald said.

Dani Jones

In her final cross country race, Jones walked away with a team and individual title. After the race, the Colorado team said they wanted a white Christmas, complete with cold, snow and wind. They thought the tougher the conditions, the better they would fare. The outcome certainly bore that out. 

Colorado put six in the top 30 and turned what was supposed to be a highly competitive team race between a handful of teams into a blowout. Even without Jones, they would have won the meet. 

But the senior lifted her teammates. Makena Morley, who placed eighth, said she started to kick because she saw Jones winning the race. 

Matt Baxter

Baxter proved he is capable of having an off-race on Saturday. Luckily for NAU, a bad day for Baxter still means 15th place. 

But Baxter deserves credit for making the lead-up to the meet far more entertaining. His ribbing of BYU and Wisconsin in the days prior enlivened the men’s competition. It would have been easy as a member of the two-time championship team to keep his guard up and churn out platitudes for three months, but that’s not who Baxter is. 

Also, finishing 15th added a bit of drama to what ended up being a comfortable win for NAU. Tyler Day led the team with a sixth-place finish and all their scorers finished in the top 29 to score a 39-point victory. 

Still, there was a moment when Baxter fell off the lead group where the three-peat looked in peril. Because of his consistency, we’ve never seen Baxter crater, and we just didn’t know how far he would fall. 

“I’d be worried if it was anyone else but Matt Baxter,” NAU coach Mike Smith said after the race. “He could fall off like that and completely manage this situation. I knew he would and that’s exactly what he did.”

Conner Mantz

Both his coach, Ed Eyestone, and teammate, Rory Linkletter spoke glowingly of the redshirt freshman from BYU after his 10th-place finish. His incessant surges kept the race honest and interesting. 

Mantz did something similar at Pre-Nationals, but this was a much deeper race with much bigger implications. It didn’t matter to Mantz—he ran back the same strategy and it worked, leading BYU to a second-place finish. He said after the race that he began to feel it at 6K, though he didn’t really seem fazed until the final mile.  

“He’s going to be fun to watch over the next three years when he’s doing that as a freshman,” Eyestone said. “It’s almost a sort of Prefontaine-type thing where I want to put myself in front and give myself the best chance to win.”

Weini Kelati

The New Mexico sophomore entered the race as the favorite and shook up the race at the 15-minute mark. The surge was expected, though most anticipated she’d do it earlier and try to get away from the kickers like Dani Jones and Jessica Hull. 

Her cushion wasn’t enough as Jones reeled her in the last straightaway. Their individual battle was a microcosm of the meet—New Mexico was good, but Colorado was just phenomenal. But Kelati will be back at this meet next year and with five of the top seven runners returning in 2019, it has all the makings of a classic.