TEMPE – It's known as the Pre-National Championships Invitational for a reason. The race in Louisville, Kentucky, this weekend will feature some of the best teams in the NCAA at "Tom" Sawyer State Park where this year's NCAA Cross Country Championships will take place.
Saturday's "Red" and "Black" races will feature more than 50 men's and women's programs in four sections, making it the largest field ASU has been entered in this season.
While the men's races will feature seven top-30 teams, with No. 2 and No. 5 BYU and Arkansas making the trip to the Derby City, the women's race features 14 squads ranked in the top-30 or receiving votes, including top-ranked Colorado and No. 2 Oregon.
"Pre-Nats is always a fun race," head coach Jeremy Rasmussen said. "It's arguably one of the best meets of the year. There are at-large bids or points out there, so for us to try and take advantage of that and really putting ourselves in a position to compete with those teams is really important."
The Sun Devil women haven't come out on top this season, but the West Region's ninth-ranked team has steadily improved as the season has progressed with the additions of Samantha Ortega, Cecile Lejeune and Chelsey Albertson.
The ASU women finished eighth at Roy Griak without Lejeune, defeated Pac-12 rival UCLA for the second time this season, and finished less than 20 points behind Abilene Christian, and 30 back of Colorado State who both received votes for the top-30 this season.
Abilene Christian will toe the line with ASU again in Louisville, but the Devils will likely be without Lejeune again.
"Unfortunately, we'll be without Cecile again," Rasmussen said. "But the ladies going are ready to fill the void and work together to put us in a position to be successful."
For the men, John Reniewicki has been the Sun Devil No. 1 since his return at the Dave Murray Invitational, but true freshman Jackson Lewis pushed his way into the No. 2 spot at the Roy Griak Invitational, continuing his steady climb within the team.
After opening the season as the No. 4 finisher, Lewis finished as the No. 3 and No. 2 runner in the following meets. He has been ASU's most consistent runner as he is the only man who has scored for the Devils in all three meets this season.
Alexis Nichols shares the same achievement on the women's side.
The Pre-Nationals Invitational will be available for fans to watch on a live stream provided by FloTrack with a valid subscription. The men's "Red" seeded race begins at 7 a.m. PT, and the women's "Red" seeded race starts at 7:45.
The "Black" unseeded sections of the races begin at 8:30 and 9:15 a.m., respectively.
Teams that are in the seeded races will be allowed seven athletes. All other team members will be in the unseeded race.
Race Day Info
The Pre-Nationals Invitational will get started at 7 a.m. PT with the men's seeded 8K race. The event will be live-streamed on FloTrack and is available for viewing with a valid subscription.
The women's seeded 6K race follows immediately at 7:45 a.m. Each team is only allowed seven athletes in the seeded sections, so all remaining athletes will run in the unseeded runs, which begin at 8:30 (men) and 9:15 (women).
Results for all four races will be provided on the host website, gocards.com, following the completion of the day's events.
Arizona State's results and a full recap of the meet will be available on thesundevils.com following the completion of all four races.
What to Watch For
The Sun Devil women will face a tough circuit of teams this Saturday in Kentucky, but ASU's Samantha Ortega and Chelsey Albertson are looking to continue their groove with two races already under their belts, now.
The women face the more loaded of the two fields with 14 programs ranked in the top-30 or receiving votes in the most-recent USTFCCCA poll.
The biggest challenge will come from No. 1 Colorado, but with four top-10 teams in the way, collecting the first win of the season will be a daunting task. However, any win over, or good outing against, a ranked opponent is valuable in cross country, where head-to-head matchups can make the difference in an NCAA Championship at-large bid.
This year, a return trip to the "Tom" Sawyer State Park is the ultimate goal for many cross country teams across the country, ASU included, as the Louisville course is the site for the NCAA Championships in November.
Sophomore Alex Stevens makes his season debut for the Sun Devil men this weekend after sitting due to injury.
John Reniewicki and Chelsey Albertson are the Sun Devils' highest-finishing returners from this race a season ago, but back in 2016, Terre Haute, Indiana, hosted the Pre-Nats runs. No Sun Devil on the current roster has ever run at the "Tom" Sawyer course as a collegiate athlete.
This could be ASU's last chance to face elite competition this season before the Pac-12 Championships at the end of October. The Sun Devils host the ASU Invitational on Oct. 20, but team entries have not been confirmed.
Ortega, Reniewicki lead the way for ASU in Minnesota
Samantha Ortega led the way for the Arizona State women, finishing 25th and helping the Sun Devils take eighth with 242 points in their return to the Roy Griak Invitational, Saturday in Minneapolis.
Ortega's finish reflects her consistent run on the 6K course. Despite being in 39th-place through the first kilometer, Ortega was only three seconds off the leader at the mark. She methodically moved up as the race progressed to become the Sun Devils' top-finisher on the day with a time of 22:29.1.
Senior Chelsey Albertson was the second-best finisher for ASU in the women's race, taking 51st, and Courtney Lewis finished 60th in her season debut.
Alexis Nichols (62) and Anna Pruter (68) were the other two scorers for the Sun Devils. Pruter has now scored in all three of ASU's meets this season, and is the only Sun Devil to have done so with her two ninth-place finishes from the George Kyte Classic and Dave Murray Invitational earlier in September.
San Francisco won the women's title as four of the Don's scorers finished in the top-four.
The Sun Devil men started the day for ASU and finished 12th with 324 points, four points off 11th-place South Dakota.
Just like ASU's last outing, John Reniewicki was the squad's top-finisher, this time taking 41st in the loaded field.
True freshman Jackson Lewis finished 73rd overall, and did so after surging through the field through the last 3K and passing nearly 30 runners on the way. Lewis was as far back as 112th after the first 3K and finished the 8K race in 27:10.6.
The Sun Devil's third-best finisher was Ryan Normand in 86th, and true freshman Erik Gonzalez took 96th, while Michael Renner completed the scoring when he crossed the line in 102nd.
Sun Devil Entries – Pre-Nationals Invitational
Men: Nick Dale, Erik Gonzalez, Jackson Lewis, Ryan Normand, John Reniewicki, Michael Renner, Alexander Stevens
Women: Chelsey Albertson, Billie Jo Dytrt, Daan Haven, Courtney Lewis, Alexis Nichols, Samantha Ortega, Anna Pruter, Angela Saitta
Looking Back
Last season in Terre Haute, the Sun Devils men took 34th and the women finished 31st.
Chelsey Albertson and John Reniewicki are the Sun Devils' highest finishing returners from a season ago, but four other men and women also competed at the meet last year.
Sun Devil Women Hold Firm at No. 9 in Region
With less than a month left in the regular season, the Arizona State women still own the No. 9 rank in the West Region for the third-straight week.
The region has seen little movement in the region since week two.
The Pac-12 still dominates the table, claiming 10 of the top-15 places, with the Sun Devil women coming in at No. 9, ahead of Oregon State, UCLA and poll debutante Washington State.
Oregon and Stanford own the top-two places, while Washington (4), California (7), Arizona (8), ASU and Oregon State show the conference's dominance in the region.
On the men's side, the Sun Devils dropped out of a volatile top-15. While Stanford and Oregon have remained the top-squads for the entire season, the rest of the region has seen dramatic changes week-to-week.
Most recently, Boise State and the Huskies of Washington climbed three spots, while Washington State dropped five and Loyola Marymount made their regional ranking debut.
Sun Devil XC to Host ASU Invitational in October
Arizona State's annual home meet the ASU Invitational is back for the 2017 season and scheduled for Oct. 20 at the Karsten Golf Course.
The men's four-mile and women's three-mile runs will begin at 8:30 and 9:15 a.m. Friday morning. A course map and complete meet information is available online at thesundevils.com.
Teams interested in competing in the events can enter online at direct athletics, and individuals can do so by contacting the meet director Jeremy Rasmussen.
All entries must be submitted by Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. PT and entries will be considered final. The opening day for entries will be Oct. 1 at 10 a.m. PT.
More information about the meet is available online on the Sun Devil cross country page at thesundevils.com.
Saturday's "Red" and "Black" races will feature more than 50 men's and women's programs in four sections, making it the largest field ASU has been entered in this season.
While the men's races will feature seven top-30 teams, with No. 2 and No. 5 BYU and Arkansas making the trip to the Derby City, the women's race features 14 squads ranked in the top-30 or receiving votes, including top-ranked Colorado and No. 2 Oregon.
"Pre-Nats is always a fun race," head coach Jeremy Rasmussen said. "It's arguably one of the best meets of the year. There are at-large bids or points out there, so for us to try and take advantage of that and really putting ourselves in a position to compete with those teams is really important."
The Sun Devil women haven't come out on top this season, but the West Region's ninth-ranked team has steadily improved as the season has progressed with the additions of Samantha Ortega, Cecile Lejeune and Chelsey Albertson.
The ASU women finished eighth at Roy Griak without Lejeune, defeated Pac-12 rival UCLA for the second time this season, and finished less than 20 points behind Abilene Christian, and 30 back of Colorado State who both received votes for the top-30 this season.
Abilene Christian will toe the line with ASU again in Louisville, but the Devils will likely be without Lejeune again.
"Unfortunately, we'll be without Cecile again," Rasmussen said. "But the ladies going are ready to fill the void and work together to put us in a position to be successful."
For the men, John Reniewicki has been the Sun Devil No. 1 since his return at the Dave Murray Invitational, but true freshman Jackson Lewis pushed his way into the No. 2 spot at the Roy Griak Invitational, continuing his steady climb within the team.
After opening the season as the No. 4 finisher, Lewis finished as the No. 3 and No. 2 runner in the following meets. He has been ASU's most consistent runner as he is the only man who has scored for the Devils in all three meets this season.
Alexis Nichols shares the same achievement on the women's side.
The Pre-Nationals Invitational will be available for fans to watch on a live stream provided by FloTrack with a valid subscription. The men's "Red" seeded race begins at 7 a.m. PT, and the women's "Red" seeded race starts at 7:45.
The "Black" unseeded sections of the races begin at 8:30 and 9:15 a.m., respectively.
Teams that are in the seeded races will be allowed seven athletes. All other team members will be in the unseeded race.
Race Day Info
The Pre-Nationals Invitational will get started at 7 a.m. PT with the men's seeded 8K race. The event will be live-streamed on FloTrack and is available for viewing with a valid subscription.
The women's seeded 6K race follows immediately at 7:45 a.m. Each team is only allowed seven athletes in the seeded sections, so all remaining athletes will run in the unseeded runs, which begin at 8:30 (men) and 9:15 (women).
Results for all four races will be provided on the host website, gocards.com, following the completion of the day's events.
Arizona State's results and a full recap of the meet will be available on thesundevils.com following the completion of all four races.
What to Watch For
The Sun Devil women will face a tough circuit of teams this Saturday in Kentucky, but ASU's Samantha Ortega and Chelsey Albertson are looking to continue their groove with two races already under their belts, now.
The women face the more loaded of the two fields with 14 programs ranked in the top-30 or receiving votes in the most-recent USTFCCCA poll.
The biggest challenge will come from No. 1 Colorado, but with four top-10 teams in the way, collecting the first win of the season will be a daunting task. However, any win over, or good outing against, a ranked opponent is valuable in cross country, where head-to-head matchups can make the difference in an NCAA Championship at-large bid.
This year, a return trip to the "Tom" Sawyer State Park is the ultimate goal for many cross country teams across the country, ASU included, as the Louisville course is the site for the NCAA Championships in November.
Sophomore Alex Stevens makes his season debut for the Sun Devil men this weekend after sitting due to injury.
John Reniewicki and Chelsey Albertson are the Sun Devils' highest-finishing returners from this race a season ago, but back in 2016, Terre Haute, Indiana, hosted the Pre-Nats runs. No Sun Devil on the current roster has ever run at the "Tom" Sawyer course as a collegiate athlete.
This could be ASU's last chance to face elite competition this season before the Pac-12 Championships at the end of October. The Sun Devils host the ASU Invitational on Oct. 20, but team entries have not been confirmed.
Ortega, Reniewicki lead the way for ASU in Minnesota
Samantha Ortega led the way for the Arizona State women, finishing 25th and helping the Sun Devils take eighth with 242 points in their return to the Roy Griak Invitational, Saturday in Minneapolis.
Ortega's finish reflects her consistent run on the 6K course. Despite being in 39th-place through the first kilometer, Ortega was only three seconds off the leader at the mark. She methodically moved up as the race progressed to become the Sun Devils' top-finisher on the day with a time of 22:29.1.
Senior Chelsey Albertson was the second-best finisher for ASU in the women's race, taking 51st, and Courtney Lewis finished 60th in her season debut.
Alexis Nichols (62) and Anna Pruter (68) were the other two scorers for the Sun Devils. Pruter has now scored in all three of ASU's meets this season, and is the only Sun Devil to have done so with her two ninth-place finishes from the George Kyte Classic and Dave Murray Invitational earlier in September.
San Francisco won the women's title as four of the Don's scorers finished in the top-four.
The Sun Devil men started the day for ASU and finished 12th with 324 points, four points off 11th-place South Dakota.
Just like ASU's last outing, John Reniewicki was the squad's top-finisher, this time taking 41st in the loaded field.
True freshman Jackson Lewis finished 73rd overall, and did so after surging through the field through the last 3K and passing nearly 30 runners on the way. Lewis was as far back as 112th after the first 3K and finished the 8K race in 27:10.6.
The Sun Devil's third-best finisher was Ryan Normand in 86th, and true freshman Erik Gonzalez took 96th, while Michael Renner completed the scoring when he crossed the line in 102nd.
Sun Devil Entries – Pre-Nationals Invitational
Men: Nick Dale, Erik Gonzalez, Jackson Lewis, Ryan Normand, John Reniewicki, Michael Renner, Alexander Stevens
Women: Chelsey Albertson, Billie Jo Dytrt, Daan Haven, Courtney Lewis, Alexis Nichols, Samantha Ortega, Anna Pruter, Angela Saitta
Looking Back
Last season in Terre Haute, the Sun Devils men took 34th and the women finished 31st.
Chelsey Albertson and John Reniewicki are the Sun Devils' highest finishing returners from a season ago, but four other men and women also competed at the meet last year.
Sun Devil Women Hold Firm at No. 9 in Region
With less than a month left in the regular season, the Arizona State women still own the No. 9 rank in the West Region for the third-straight week.
The region has seen little movement in the region since week two.
The Pac-12 still dominates the table, claiming 10 of the top-15 places, with the Sun Devil women coming in at No. 9, ahead of Oregon State, UCLA and poll debutante Washington State.
Oregon and Stanford own the top-two places, while Washington (4), California (7), Arizona (8), ASU and Oregon State show the conference's dominance in the region.
On the men's side, the Sun Devils dropped out of a volatile top-15. While Stanford and Oregon have remained the top-squads for the entire season, the rest of the region has seen dramatic changes week-to-week.
Most recently, Boise State and the Huskies of Washington climbed three spots, while Washington State dropped five and Loyola Marymount made their regional ranking debut.
Sun Devil XC to Host ASU Invitational in October
Arizona State's annual home meet the ASU Invitational is back for the 2017 season and scheduled for Oct. 20 at the Karsten Golf Course.
The men's four-mile and women's three-mile runs will begin at 8:30 and 9:15 a.m. Friday morning. A course map and complete meet information is available online at thesundevils.com.
Teams interested in competing in the events can enter online at direct athletics, and individuals can do so by contacting the meet director Jeremy Rasmussen.
All entries must be submitted by Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. PT and entries will be considered final. The opening day for entries will be Oct. 1 at 10 a.m. PT.
More information about the meet is available online on the Sun Devil cross country page at thesundevils.com.