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The 2005 Grote Poll: Conference Meet Preview 2005 Grote Polls Now its getting into championship season. Less drivel and more factual ignorance and general misinformation from me. So it goes. I inexplicably left Simon Bairu out of the individual picks last week. Go ahead and put him in there somewhere around 6th and move everybody including Gaylord down a notch. WEST COAST CONFERENCE Alas, The WCC start with the biggest and the best. How many in a row will it be for the Pilots? 27? Will they sweep? Yes, theres no Antonio Lopez to break that up now. Hes a dedicated soldier of the mighty Brooks Manhattan Track Club. It should be a 15-point 1-7 cleanup for the guys in purple. I wont really pick team or individual places, that would be silly. Whats the difference? PAC-10 Conference Here is where things could get interesting. Arizona hosts in Tucson. Will the foreign brigade have enough pride to fight for the title on home turf? If so, they could push Stanfurd. Gone are the days when the meet was at The Farm every year good memories there both from winning as a Husky in 1993, and from watching as a Pilot, fresh off of our WCC triumphs earlier in the day. As much as I love to hate Stanfurd, I really can not pull for Zona to win. The rest of the field just isnt good enough to pull the upset. So, the picks: Teams: Stanfurd- Too deep, and just better than Zona. Arizona- Too much of a drop-off at 4 and 5. Washington- Highest finish in many moons. Arizona State- They have to start running better sometime. UCLA- Solid squad, just below the radar. Oregon- Ducks wont be down here for long with Vin. Cal- Getting some talent in there. Wazzu or 10. USC- When I fell at PAC-10s and got trampled, the only guys I was in front of were from USC scary. Do they and OSU even field club teams???? Individuals: Cheseret, Zona- Warm weather and home course he should be too good to lose here. Araia, Stanfurd- Still believe he should be their best guy. Mutanya, Zona- Good run at home seems to make sense. Gaylord, Ducks- Time to start racing at the front. Quasi-altitude should not effect him after all the time spent in altitude chambers. Not sure how the underwater treadmill will effect him in such a dry climate. Mandi, Washington Pierce, Stanfurd- Summer training in Boulder served him well apparently. Burchill, ASU- Ditto. Ramos, UCLA Gotcher, Stanfurd- Used to pick Goucher to win everything, he aint Goucher, he is Gotcher. Heath, Stanfurd- 4 in top 10 should help their cause. BIG 12 Conference This is where Dick Harter unzips it and lets it all out. Look out for the Horns, at least to finish 2nd or 3rd. The Buffs are still the Buffs. Texas beating CU in x-c would be quite similar to Texas beatin Oklahoma in The Red River War in football only it wouldnt be in Dallas, and nobody would give a rats ass. It should be hot and dry and fast down there in Waco, which should favor the guy whos the best and fittest anyway. Teams: Colorado- Nobody else has won a Big 12 Title yet. That Quiller guy knows his stuff. Much to my chagrin, there will be no Jersey guys who have last names beginning with a P running for the Buffs now or for the next two big meets. So it goes. I suppose that with the current state of affairs of the P guys hailing from Hunterdon County, the only guy who would more like to see them on the line for the Buffs, is Dick Harter, as his Horns would be that much better off. Texas- I wont sandbag for Vig too much and pick them 3rd or 4th. I think highly of them. As embarrassing as it is to admit, I watched something on the Food Network with Rachel Ray (who Id like to dropkick in the head) on Austin, and it looks like quite the place to be. I need to go there sometime, preferably in the 2 months a year when its not 100 degrees. Kansas- Nice showing at Pre-Nats Oklahoma State- Their coach is actually named Dick. Why does anybody go by the first name Dick these days? Missouri Texas Tech Iowa State Texas A&M Oklahoma Nebraska Kansas State Baylor Individuals: Schoolmeester, CU- Should be the favorite after Pre-Nats Chesang, Kansas- Defending champ will run better head to head. Nelson, CU Chelimo, Texas Tech Badass Boxer Dude, Texas Gray, Ok State Pifer, CU Manzano, Texas- Hell go from 55th to 8th in the last 300m. French Guy, Ok State Strang, CU BIG 10 Conference Along the same lines as Gaylord, might it be appropriate to start calling Withrow Waldo, as in quite obviously Wheres Waldo?. No because Withrow never went pro as a Nike posterboy and I hated Wheres Waldo? and still do if it actually still exists. I am pretty sure Withrow is in Madison, so we dont need to search for him. The question will be whether he is in Madison or whether he is in Minnesota for the conference meet. Teams: Wisconsin- No matter who does or does not run, they win. Indiana- Mild upset special, I figure big races for The Jeffersons and Haas. Iowa- Solid bunch. Minnesota- Home course deal. Michigan- Will get it done at regionals Ohio State- A real good 6th place team. Michigan State Penn State Illinois Purdue Individuals: Bairu, Wisco- Make-up call on my part. Solinsky, Wisco Jefferson, Indiana Olinger, Ohio State Woods, Michigan Eagon, Wisco Haas, Indiana McTaggert, Iowa Wagner, Wisco Somebody not named Withrow, Wisco SEC Conference If they gave out all-conference to Americans they would have to go to about 50 places to get 7 deep Teams: Arkansas- Not challenged. Florida Alabama- Can they close the 2 minute gap between the Kenyan team and their first US guy? Tennessee Ole Miss- After the first four in the conference, who knows? I know that as a Giants fan Im pretty happy with Eli Manning right now, so how about his alma mater in 5th? Auburn Georgia- Hartmann in Terre Haute? Mississippi State- Mississippi is the first big word I think I learned to spell correctly. Kentucky South Carolina- GameCOCKS. Very easy. Vanderbilt- Are not the Commodores automatically last in the SEC in everything? Individuals: Boit, Hogs Henok, Gators Bama Kenyan or 2. Lots of Hogs. ACC Conference I am getting bored and disenchanted. The disenchantment comes in part from the task at hand, but also in larger part due to my consumption of Hofbrau Oktoberfest while writing this piece of crap. Normally, anything German and having to do with Oktoberfest is stellar, but Hofbrau leaves something to be desired. Why did I stray from Paulaner and Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest? If it aint broke, dont fix it or something. Its not exactly swill, but its not quite up to Oktoberfest standards. Similarly, the ACC with NC State redshirting many, is not quite up to regular standards. So, Ill be brief. I will go with UVa for the win, even though I didnt get into the school, and know of at least one other blond person from NJ, who is much dumber than I am that got in and graduated (not referring to anybody who has been present at The Wall, or vacationed for spring break with the Night Rider). NC State 2nd. Clemson 3rd. Duke 4th. Wake 5th. Editor's Note: Mr Grote emailed us this: Left something out...I guess if people don't know that I'm at least half-a-retard by now, they are not paying attention. I left Florida State out of the ACC. They've only been there for over a decade. Lemoncello would be my pick to win, and the 'Noles may win on the team side, but I'll stick with UVa for their first ACC crown in many moons. HEPS Is it a conference or is it a disease? I dont know talk about places I was too dumb to get into look no further than these places. What looked like it might be a pretty tight race for now looks like a romp for Dartmouth. You never know, pride runs deep at these schools. Ill say its Dartmouth, then Cornell, Columbia, Brown, and Princeton, followed by Yale, Army, Navy (editor's note: Navy is no longer in the Heps), Harvard, etc. Princeton should probably be as high as 2nd, but I will continue to totally underrank and disrespect the Garden Staters, since I think you relinquish all claims to being a native by matriculating at an Ivy League Institution in the state. If I should make it to the meet on Friday, I would suggest and expect that the guy named Rob Grote on the team, throw rocks at me and/or kick me in the balls. Individually Ill say True barely beats Hyde. BIG EAST CONFERENCE Wow, does this meet take on a different complexion without Boston College or what? Well, actually, no, it just means there is one less team to beat Rutgers, albeit just barely. Notre Dame should win pretty convincingly, but Georgetown could challenge. If they dont, and Bumbalough doesnt run, I still blame Marc f-ing Bloom, even though he has nothing to do with it and Gambacini did the interview I read. After those two, you have a number of squads having disappointing years, namely Providence and Villanova. Individually, how about Benninger from ND? Pitt and Louisville could be OK team-wise, and the Kenyan from Louisville could be in the mix, as well. Its weird seeing a bunch of Midwestern hoops schools in the Big East. DePaul? I remember them being a top seed in the NCAA tourney with Ray Meyer several times in the late 70s and early 80s and choking most notably with Mark Aguirre. That should cover it. There are other conferences, but none that I feel like mentioning in depth. American will win the Patriot League. LaSalle will win the A-10. Iona will win its thing. And so on. NCAAs is 3 weeks from Monday clear a path.
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