TEMPE – There are more than just conference crowns on the line for the Sun Devils as they lace up Friday morning in Palo Alto, California for the 2018 Pac-12 Cross Country Championships.
"Along with improving on last year's performance, when there's a Territorial Cup Series point on the line, you want to do whatever you can to beat the U of A and snag that for the program," men's head coach Cory Leslie said.
The Sun Devils could earn two crucial Series points from Arizona this weekend. The points are ones the Cats have taken from Devils three out of four times since 2015, but ASU swept for two-straight years prior.
"We want to make a step forward and try to beat the school down South," women's head coach Jeremy Rasmussen said. "We need to be within 30 seconds of each other from 1-5 and we need to put our top people in the top-30. If we do those things, we'll have a shot to improve our scores from last year and to improve our placing from last year."
Even with a small field, nine men's teams and 12 women's programs, the competition will be some of the best either program has faced all season with the Pac-12 making up six of the USTFCCCA top-30 on the men's side, and putting four women's programs in the top-25, including No. 1 Colorado.
"These are the best teams in the country, this is the best conference in the country," Leslie said. "More than half of the conference is nationally ranked. This is a chance to see not only where we stand, but also create some excitement and fuel that thought that we do belong here."
Daan Haven has led the way for the Sun Devil women all season, but Samantha Ortega has had the most success at conference championships in her career with a top-25 finish coming back in 2015.
"I think Daan and Samantha are ready to work together and lead the group with Alexis, who's also had a great season up to this point," Rasmussen said.
While Stanford has the home-field advantage, ASU and the rest of the Pac-12 schools aren't going into the meet completely in the dark on the ins and outs of the Stanford Golf Course.
"There were a handful of schools who went to race at the Invitational earlier in the year and I think it's nice to know what the course lends to you and also know what it takes away," Rasmussen said. "The only way that helps you though, is if you're able to take those things away and apply them to the next race."
The 2018 Pac-12 Championships will be live on the Pac-12 Network and results will be available on pac-12.com through Record Timing.
Rankings Update
For the first time since the preseason poll, the Sun Devils were represented in the USTFCCCA Regional top-15 as the women jumped into 12th after a solid run at the Pre-Nationals Invitational.
Coach Jeremy Rasmussen's squad is the seventh-highest ranked Pac-12 program in the region ahead of Cal (14) and Washington State (15).
Nationally, the Pac-12 still owns 10 combined spots on both top-25 polls with the No. 1 Colorado women leading the way.
Oregon comes in at No. 4, Stanford at 6 and Washington rounds out the women's side for the conference at No. 16.
As for the men, defending conference champion Stanford check in at No. 4, Washington at No. 7 and six-time Pac-12 champion Colorado is tied for eighth with Boise State. The Ducks of Oregon (11) and Bruins of UCLA (12) fall in just behind the conference leaders, and Washington State slots in at No. 29.
Regionally, only two programs on both sides (USC and Arizona women, ASU and U of A men), and did not appear in a ranking in week five, proving the conference's depth.
The Pac-12 Championships: A Brief History
There have been seven Pac-12 Cross Country Championships since the Conference of Champions expanded to include Colorado and Utah back in 2011.
For a majority of those races, the Devils have been a mid-table finisher with the women taking sixth four times, and the men finishing sixth once but cracking the top-four twice.
In that span, the conference men have been chasing Colorado as the once dominant Big 12 side transitioned easily into the Pac winning six-straight team titles until Stanford dethroned them for the first time last season by only six points.
The CU women have been nearly as dominant as the men, owning four titles and three since 2015. Oregon has two and Arizona took the 2013 crown.
The Sun Devils have had one individual champion since the expansion in ASU great Shelby Houlihan back in 2014. Houlihan led the Devils four-straight years with top-10 finishes from 2011-2014.
Nick Happe and Garrett Seawell have had the best finishes for the men with Happe taking 11th in 2012 and Seawell finishing 13th the following season.
While the women have not had a back-to-back individual champion in seven tries, and Stanford's Aisling Cuffe as the only two-time champion, the men have been ruled by dynasties of Arizona's Lawi Lalang (two straight) and Oregon's 17-time national champion Edward Cheserek (four straight). Grant Fisher of Stanford has a chance to become the Pac-12's third repeat champion this season as he ran away with the title last year in Seattle.
A Look Back: 2017 Pac-12 XC Championships
Chelsey Albertson earned her first all-conference cross country honor at last year's Pac-12 Championships when she crossed the line in 14th in a season's best 19:23.6.
The achievement was Arizona State's first all-conference honor since Shelby Houlihan won the individual title in 2014.
ASU's No. 2 was Alexis Nichols, who ran her best 6K of the season to finish 58th. The time was nearly two minutes better than what she ran at her last outing in Louisville two weeks ago.
Overall, the Devils finished ninth with 232 points. The result saw the Devils drop the women's cross country Territorial Cup point as the Wildcats took seventh as a team.
In the men's championship race, ASU finished ninth as well with 282 points.
John Reniewicki finished 66th, and Erik Gonzalez took 72nd to finish as the Sun Devils' No. 2 runner for the first time this season, and score for the fifth consecutive race.
American Distance Renaissance Led by Devils
While names like Desiree Linden and Shelby Houlihan are popping up in national headlines across the country, their exploits are nothing new to those from Tempe as those two and a handful of former Sun Devils have been leading a renaissance for American distance running in the past two years.
Linden's notoriety surged after she became the first American woman in more than 30 years to win the Boston Marathon, a feat she accomplished this past April.
As for Houlihan, along with competing with some of the best women in the world in the 1,500-and 5,000-meter runs, she's owned the American circuit by claiming seven U.S. titles since 2017 alone.
Elsewhere in the world of distance running, Amy Cragg-Hastings won the bronze medal at the IAAF World Championships in 2017. The medal was the USA's first since the 1980s in the event.
Pac-12 Continues XC Dominance
There have been some astronomical changes made across the NCAA this past summer in an attempt to shift the landscape of cross country.
Coaches have moved, transfers have bolstered already strong lineups and recruiting classes have raised some eyebrows.
The Pac-12, however, remains unbothered on its perch as the deepest and most-competitive conference in the NCAA.
Over the past three seasons, no Power Five conference has put more teams into the NCAA Championships than the Pac-12 with 19 men's programs toeing the line for gold, and 16 women's teams.
On the men's side, the closest conference to the Conference of Champions is the ACC with 13, and even though Syracuse has the lone Power Five NCAA title since 2015 (NAU has won back-to-back), the Pac-12 has nine top-10 finishes to the opposite coast's three.
The women have competition from the Big Ten's 14 entries, but again the Pac-12 has them doubled in top-10 finishes with eight to its four.
Oregon won the women's title in 2016, and has been sandwiched by wins from New Mexico.
Postseason Push
With six men's teams and four women's teams in the USTFCCCA rankings, this weekend is yet another opportunity for the Sun Devils to grab key wins over some of the best in the region and in the country ahead of the West Regional Championships.
Even though on the men's side, the loaded West Region has sent six teams to the NCAA Championships in three-straight seasons, a top-six place at the regional meet does not guarantee any program a spot in Wisconsin come November.
Every program needs to have a resume worthy of a bid and the Pac-12 Championships gives both squads one more crucial opportunity to pick up wins over some of the best teams in the nation before they have to race most of them again at the Regional.