With two years passing since the last NIRCA Championship race, this weekend’s races certainly have a lot more unknowns than usual. Looking at things individually, only 2 runners return from 2019’s Top 20 finishers: Adam Sawicki from Michigan (10th) and Alexander Livernois from Indiana (13th). While there may be less former top finishers in the field, there’s certainly not a lack of talent or depth as shown in some impressive Regional finishes.

The last two NIRCA XC Individual Champions came out of the Pacific Regional, and this year’s regional champ Mikolaj Krajewski will be looking to continue that streak. Krajewski, from Cal Poly Distance Club, finished the Pacific Regional (a 4 mile course compared to 8k for the other regions) in 21:46 to beat runner-up Ian Lawrence (UC-Davis) by 20 seconds.

The fastest 8k finish at 2021’s Regional Championships belong to Nick Wolk (Pittsburgh) who defeated runner-up Zach Holden of Virginia (not competing this weekend) by 9 seconds with a time of 25:01. Watch out for Wolk at the front of the field this weekend, as he leads Pittsburgh for a potential podium finish as a team. Rounding out the top 3 at the deep Mid-Atlantic regional was Alexander Horgan (Delaware) in 25:23.

The Great Lakes Regional was contested on this weekend’s course at Blue River XC, and was led by a 1-2 finish from Michigan runners Brandon Shepherd (25:32) and Addison Smith (25:46). Shepherd and Smith were followed by Aidan Bustillo from Michigan State (25:58). All three will be hoping to use their experience at Blue River to race towards a high finish this weekend. The top returners from 2019 mentioned above, Sawicki and Livernois, finished 8th and 10th respectively at Great Lakes, but both runners certainly have the talent and experience to make some noise at the top of the Nationals field.

The most dominant Regional finish certainly belongs to Cameron Leonard (Northeastern) who won the Northeast Regional in 25:16 to beat the field by a full minute. Leonard is certainly content with leading a race, and it will be interesting to see if he tries to run away from a talented field at Nationals early in the race as he did at Regionals. His teammate, Thomas Hinds, finished 2nd in the Northeast in 26:16 and will be looking to help Northeastern to improve on their 3rd place team finish in 2019.

Eldon Warner of Illinois (25:43) had a 29-second margin of victory over teammate Bram Osterhout (26:12). The duo led a close team race against Minnesota, who were led by a 4th place finish from Isaac Maruyama (26:23). The final podium finisher from Great Plains was Jack Moran of Iowa State (26:21) who could capture a 4th Individual XC title for his school with a breakout race. Iowa State already holds the highest number of men’s inidvidual champions with 3 consecutive titles from 2015-2017.

Rounding out our 2021 Regional Champions is Scott Greeves from Tennessee (25:44) who took home the Southeast regional title in a tight race that saw the top 4 separated by just 10 seconds. He was followed by Eduardo Rodriguez (25:49 - not competing this weekend) and Hayden Marshall (25:53) of Georgia Tech. Lanier Derbyshire of NC State (25:54) rounded out the lead pack from the Southeast Regional.

Prediction:

Of the 6 Regional Champions, only 3 raced at 2019 XC Nationals: Shepherd (45th), Leonard (29th), and Krajewski (23rd). There are lots of new faces this year, and a lot of time since the last time many of the top runners have competed directly. On the flat, winding course in Shelbyville, I would expect all these top Regional finishers to establish themselves in a lead pack within the early miles, but it is hard to predict who will come away with the title.

1st - Cameron Leonard, Northeastern

2nd - Nick Wolk, Pittsburgh

3rd - Mikolaj Krajewski, Cal Poly

Highest Returning Finishers from 2019

Adam Sawicki, Michigan, 10th

Alexander Livernois, Indiana, 13th

Brendan Hehir, Northeastern, 22nd

Mikolaj Krajewski, Cal Poly, 23rd

Matthew Balogh, Penn State, 27th

Cameron Leonard, Northeastern, 29th

Hudson Godfrey, Princeton, 31st

Eli Eckert, Indiana, 33rd

NIRCA Men’s National Champion

All-Time Top 25 8k Performances at NIRCA XC Nationals