No. 2 Colorado
Region: 1st at Mountain
Conference: 1st at Pac-12s
2016 NCAAs: 3rd
How They Will Win: Colorado's biggest strength this year has been the close pack, on and off the course. Looking at the results from the meets so far season, the Buffaloes' first and fifth runner have only been separated by 33.75 seconds on average. This year, the Buffaloes had the difficult task of returning from disappointment from the 2016 NCAA Cross Country Championships, when the heavily favored Buffaloes fell to No. 9-ranked Oregon and Michigan. Compared to the third-place podium team from last year, the 2017 team only lost one senior but returned two NCAA champions and a title-winning DMR squad. The talent remains, but the "it" factor of this team -- according to NCAA 3K champion Dani Jones -- is the shift in culture.
"Our main goal this year was to have a great dynamic outside of training and racing," Jones told FloTrack's Johanna Gretschel. "Spending a lot of time together outside of practice has helped us a lot. I can get on the line and know that all those girls are my closest friends and we would do anything for each other. We were probably stronger last year with the individuals we had, but we're more closely knit this year and that's why I feel better about this team."
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The closeness of this year's Buffalo squad is also evident in races. At Notre Dame, Colorado beat New Mexico with 36 seconds separating the No. 1 runner from the No. 5. At Pre-Nationals, the team fell to Oregon with 59 seconds separating the first from the fifth, but the Buffaloes quickly rallied for Pac-12s to beat the Ducks with just 32 seconds between race winner Jones and fifth woman Tabor Scholl. And most recently, the team ran a conservative race to win the NCAA Mountain Region and beat New Mexico to automatically qualify for the championship. If Colorado can rally the top five to place within the first 25 finishers at NCAAs, the title could go to the Buffaloes.