re: Women are National XC Champs and Complete the Calendar Year Triple Crown

Nationals is a numbers game. The more you qualify the better chance you have to win a team title. Top 48 performances put up nationally before the qualifying end date get to go to prelims. Best prelim times go to Nationals. There's almost no chance the women don't repeat. This is the strongest and deepest team Harter has ever had. The men are qualifying 8 as of today based on past performances. Honestly, that could work to their advantage since there won't be a lot of qualifiers having to run multiple races. E.G. they could push the pace and get points where they otherwise wouldn't in a season meet. Top 10 isn't a stretch and if they get a few breaks 5th-6th could be possible.

It's actually kind of effed up because the way nationals are run, conference championships really don't mean anything. However, top performances is the most fair way to choose.

Edited for clarity on qualifying.