Title Contenders
No. 5 Portland
Jeff Thies told FloTrack after Wisconsin that Portland is aiming for the national title.
Region: 1st at West Region
Conference: 2nd at West Coast Conference
2016 NCAAs: 13th
How They Will Win: Like NAU, the Portland men have a very strong top three in Emmanuel Roudolff-Levisse, Jeff Thies, and Nick Hauger. The trio was 10 seconds behind the Lumberjacks' Trouard, Day, and Baxter at Wisconsin, but it's more than possible for the Pilots to reverse that result this weekend. Portland head coach Rob Conner has been purposely reticent about his squad this season, holding four of the top six men out of the West Coast conference championships and even predicting that BYU could put a perfect score on them at conference (which they did). Both Conner and top man Jeff Thies were confident about their NCAA title chances even after losing to defending champs NAU by 73 points at Nuttycombe, which indicates they likely have a lot more in the tank.
That thought seemed true at the West Regional, as Roudolff-Levisse dominated the field and led a 1-2 finish with Thies, plus Hauger a mere three seconds back. Their No. 4 and No. 5 men will need to have breakout performances to make it to the top of the podium; Logan Orndorf has improved from 116th at Pre-Nats last year to a top-40 guy at Wisconsin and the West Regional, while Noah Schutte, a second-team All-American in the steeplechase, shook off a tough 121st place showing at Nuttycombe to a 29th place run in the West Region. The improvement trend is there and the Pilots just need to keep riding it to capture a win.