Northern Arizona Lumberjacks cross country explained

Northern Arizona Lumberjacks Cross Country
University:Northern Arizona University
Conference:Big Sky Conference
Conference Short:Big Sky
City:Flagstaff
Stateabb:AZ
State:Arizona
Coach:Mike Smith (6th season)
Nickname:Lumberjacks
Men Champ:2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022
Men Conference Champion:1971, 1978, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023
Women Conference Champion:1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Men Ncaa:31
Women Ncaa:18

Northern Arizona Lumberjacks cross country are the cross country teams of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Lumberjacks compete in the Big Sky Conference at the Division I level in the NCAA and are head coached by Mike Smith.[1]

The men's team have won 6 national championships and were runner up 5 times, and the women's team were the national runner up 1 time. Many of the team's runners compete in the Olympic Games, with alumni representing a total of 11 nations since the program's foundation.[2]

History

Men's team

The team was runner's up at the NCAA Men's Division I Cross Country Championship in 1988, 1995, 2013, 2019, and 2023.[3]

Since 2016, the Northern Arizona men's team has been considered as the nation's leading program in NCAA Division I, winning a three-peat National Championship run from 2016 to 2018 and being undefeated in the regular season. The team has won 20 of the last 25 Big Sky team championships and won 17 of the last 25 Big Sky individual titles as of 2017.[4] The team has been consistently ranked in the top 3 of the USTFCCCA national coach's poll since the start of the 2016 season.[5] The team was the runner up in the 2019 national championship. In the first tie-breaker ever to win the National Championship, the Lumberjacks narrowly won the 2022 iteration of the National Championship over Oklahoma State University to complete another three-peat.[6]

The 2017 repeat title closed out a perfect season with a 53-point victory, placing five athletes in the top 40. The victory was the lowest score (74) at the NCAA Championships since 2014, and the Lumberjacks became the first repeat champions since 2013–14. Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Mike Smith earned the Bill Dellinger Award as National Men's Coach of the Year and also picked up both the Big Sky's Men's and Women's Coach of the Year awards. In track and field, Smith was named the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Mountain Region Women's Indoor Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2018.

Women's team

The women's team was a national runner's up at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championship in 2023 by 1 point behind North Carolina State.[7]

National championships

Men's team national championships (6)

NCAADivision ICross Country2016Stanford125–158
2017Portland74–127
2018BYU83–116
2020Notre Dame60–87
2021Iowa State92–137
2022Oklahoma State83–83* 3-2 tiebreak

Women's individual national championships (2)

1986Angela Chalmers16:55.49
2005Johanna Nilsson19:33.9
Men's Championship Results
YearCoachPlacePoints
2023Mike Smith2nd71
20221st83
20211st92
20201st60
20192nd163
20181st82
20171st74
2016Eric Heins1st125
20144th188
20132nd169
20124th191
201114th374
20109th217
20094th190
20086th281
20074th190
2004John Hayes24th521
2003Ron Mann3rd190
20027th247
20014th193
20007th-Tie269
199912th370
19987th295
199612th328
19952nd142
19944th181
199119th368
199019th421
19882nd160
19878th264
198610th269
198417th357
1971Dr. Leo Haberlack9th294
Women's Championship Results
YearCoachPlacePoints
2023Mike Smith2nd124
20226th257
202123rd532
202011th318
201914th406
2008Eric Heins23rd536
20077th357
2005John Hayes12th388
2003Ron Mann15th407
200210th333
200112th367
199911th381
199817th423
199610th261
19929th267
19913rd184
199014th317
198913th293
198814th291
198711th226

Rivals

When Mike Smith became head coach in 2016 NAU turned into a national cross country powerhouse, developing a rivalry with the other nationally ranked leader, the BYU Cougars. NAU defeated BYU in the 2018 Championship while next year BYU defeated NAU in the 2019 Championship. The rivalry has been considered as "the best in a long time" and "the greatest in NCAA cross country history."[8] [9]

Media

The team was exclusively featured in the FloTrack documentary The Program: Northern Arizona that followed them in their championship 2016 season.[10] The team was again featured in the five-part docuseries NAU: Running With The Boys that followed them throughout their 2019 season.[11]

In 2023, former NAU runner Matt Baxter published Running Up the Mountain. The book chronicles the start of the Lumberjacks men's cross country dynasty as well as the team's connection to the Flagstaff community.[12]

References

  1. Web site: Cross Country. 2021-02-22. Northern Arizona University Athletics. en.
  2. Web site: US Olympic Track and Field Trials Include Six with Ties to NAU . 2023-03-08 . Northern Arizona University Athletics . en.
  3. Web site: NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships ::: USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meet History ::: USTFCCCA. 2021-02-22. en-US.
  4. Web site: How Northern Arizona became a distance running powerhouse NCAA.com. 2021-02-22. www.ncaa.com. en.
  5. Web site: Rankings History List Progression. 2021-02-22. www.ustfccca.org.
  6. Web site: NC State Women Repeat, NAU Men Win on Tiebreaker at the 2022 NCAA DI XC Championships RunnersWorld.com. 2022-11-20. www.runnersworld.com. en.
  7. Web site: INFORMATION . NAU SPORTS . 2023-11-18 . NAU ROUNDUP: Cross country teams both place second at nationals . 2023-11-19 . Arizona Daily Sun . en.
  8. Web site: 2017-10-17. BYU vs. NAU Looking Like One Of The Best NCAA XC Match-Ups In A Long Time. 2021-02-24. Citius Mag. en-US.
  9. Web site: Collaboration. T. S. R.. 2019-11-23. The Group Chat: D1 Nationals Reactions. 2021-02-24. The Stride Report. en.
  10. Web site: The Program: Northern Arizona (Trailer). 2021-02-23. www.flotrack.org. en.
  11. Web site: NAU: Running With The Boys. 2021-02-23. www.flotrack.org. en.
  12. Web site: Hartman . Mike . October 18, 2013 . NAZ Elite This Week: Baxter completes marathon of writing 'Running Up the Mountain' . December 20, 2023 . Arizona Daily Sun.