Cornell has lost Kellner who has a stress fracture and didn't race yesterday. That's huge since she was their number four and could have probably been three or two on any given day. I'm wondering if they'll be able to get her back in time for Heps.
Cornell has lost Kellner who has a stress fracture and didn't race yesterday. That's huge since she was their number four and could have probably been three or two on any given day. I'm wondering if they'll be able to get her back in time for Heps.
Outlook for Princeton Men.
Sam Pons dominated the field. If he can be up there with Bendtsen, Arroyo, and Udland that will help Princeton's top 4
Uh oh wrote:
Cornell has lost Kellner who has a stress fracture and didn't race yesterday. That's huge since she was their number four and could have probably been three or two on any given day. I'm wondering if they'll be able to get her back in time for Heps.
HUGE!?!! How will they survive? They have such a small team! They only had 10 women within 30 seconds of last year's Heps second placer (Shearer) at their first meet yesterday!
You do realize that Shearer didn't run what she was capable of running so the 10 girls within 30 seconds of her is a bit much. With the field being so deep this year it'll make a difference when the bigger races actually come around.
Harvard has skunked Yale 1-2-3-4-5 on the men's side of the 100th battle between the two schools.
Harvard T&F / XC @HarvardTrack_XC 4h
James Leakos bringing home the Men's title and leading a 1-2-3-4-5 SWEEP! #GoCrimson
Harvard dominated the women's race as well 20-34:
http://www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/w-xc/2013-14/releases/20130914jdcwgp
Uh oh wrote:
Cornell has lost Kellner who has a stress fracture and didn't race yesterday. ...I'm wondering if they'll be able to get her back in time for Heps.
Whoa, big development. Stress fractures vary, obviously, but Cornell seems to be fairly conservative about bringing people back from them, so I'd be surprised to see Kellner this season, unless she broke it early in the summer and is already well on the mend.
But there seems to be a strong "step up" mentality on that team (a couple in their top group in 2012 had definitely been second-line in previous years), so it should be interesting to see who takes advantage of the openings in the top seven/twelve.
Even with Kellner, I didn't think that people should see Cornell as a lock to three-peat at Heps. They still deserve to be favored at Heps, I guess, but that race looks pretty open to me. Watch out for Princeton!
Thanks for the link to HY results. Looks like Harvard would the early answer to "which men's team will be fourth at Heps" (assuming--probably safely--that Princeton/Columbia/Dartmouth will be top three, not necessarily in that order).
kibitzer wrote:
Thanks for the link to HY results. Looks like Harvard would the early answer to "which men's team will be fourth at Heps" .
A few random comments i had when reading your post.
1) In terms of growing the sport,I just realized that all results should include the year of the runners? I clicked on the results and my first thought was, "What year are these guys whose name I don't recognize?" And that's frome someone who coached in the league for 10 years.
When you are coaching, you sort of forget how super focused you are in and how much you know but others don't. All meets should have results as most fans are casual.
I could easily see some alum like one of my brother's friends coming to Letsrun and seeing 100th H-Y meet, clicking on results and thinking, "Ok, we may not be close to harvard this year but is there hope for next year?"
But it's hard to do that without years included.
2) As for Harvard being 4th, when I was doing my research for our NCAA preview, it struck me that Harvard is one of 7 schools with two sub-14 guys. When you have two low sticks like that, it's hard to not finish at least 4th in your conference.
3) How good is Leakos? Wow. He was almost 90 seconds ahead of Yale's top guy. That's pretty studly.
4) Where is the sub-4 HSer Cotton? I remember seeing him at outdoor heps last year and figured he'd be showing up this fall?
kibitzer wrote:
I assume the Stony Brook Inv is a "nothing" meet--maybe a shakeout race, or an audition for the rookies?--that the varsity would be unlikely to race (though they might do it as a tempo run...
I stand corrected:
http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9600&ATCLID=209260192The Stony Brook meet included Providence!
Though the Lions fell to the Friars (men and women), they were solidly competitive. The men may have focused on pack running, as Providence had the first three guys across the line; but Columbia showed extraordinary depth.
The Columbia women may have used a box-and-one strategy, letting Neer run ahead. Once again, Providence had the up-front strength to take the win--though it's interesting that both Providence squads had fifth-finisher problems (granting that the Friars may not have been running all *their* personnel). Columbia finished six before the US's #1 squad finished its fifth. The Lions absolutely should be a major factor in the Heps women's race, which looks like it could be ungodly.
Good for the Columbia women but I think them putting 6 in front of Providence's fifth is more a reflection of how incredibly weak Providence is at #5. This has been an annual problem for the Friars in recent years and no doubt Ray Treacy will find a way to get someone going by the time things really matter. And, frankly, their #4 wasn't particularly impressive either but given Rocha's credentials you have to think she'll move up closer to their "Big 3" later in the year as she gets her feet wet in college.
But Providence's bona fides as a #1 national seed is for another thread. The Columbia women have some great first-year recruits but the bigger concern for them is how those first-years seem to be off to a slow start and the group that backs up Neer doesn't have much history of success at the HEPS level. Then again, it is early and one shouldn't read too much into a first meet for anyone!
Compare that to the "supporting casts" of Cornell, Dartmouth and Princeton (at least based on recent track HEPS results) and it seems like these three may be the best teams this year. But Columbia has been known to lie low early in xc and with a great runner like Neer, hopefully my Lions will come on strong once again.
I would add Harvard in to the mix of top teams (and they looked great beating up on Yale yesterday) but whether they can turn it on after a lackluster track season remains to be seen. The success of their overall track program (winners indoors) seemed to hide the fact that a long distance group that qualified for the 2012 NCAAs in xc seemed to disappear at the HEPS track meets in 2013. But they're young so maybe they are just learning. And they do have some real talent there and with some enthusiastic young coaches.
No doubt it will be a far more interesting women's league than last fall when Cornell romped (favorites this year with yet again more runners with HEPS level experience and success than the others...although other teams have improved!) but at the same time, I'm not sure all that much has changed from just a few months ago when these teams convened for the outdoor HEPS at Princeton: Cornell, Dartmouth and Princeton had the best group of returning runners then and appear to now as well.
Anyone at the HY dual and can comment on the new and (presumably) improved Franklin Park? Are the courses basically the same?
The results for the men note "route was not properly run". What happened there?
The 8k course was always a bit short but 23:32 would be an all-american level performance on the old course. (Why were they running so hard in mid September at a dual meet??)
http://yalebulldogs.com/sports/m-xc/2013-14/files/H-Y_Results.html
I don't know how hard Providence ran or what their plan was, but I do know that Columbia ran very controlled. All five of their guys were together at 7800m when one of them asked their coach if they could go. Columbia did not race yesterday. They looked very good.
I would agree, however, with Providence 2nd man sitting out and the course being long by about 100 meters makes for a strong effort by both teams. We could possibly see 5 from the east region in the ncaa's. The 27th will start to show the true form of teams.
Princeton results in Newark, DE:
Note that the Princeton men went 1-7; and four of the Tigers' top seven women were frosh.
1) it would be nice to see years, but since I follow the squads a bit, it isn't as critical but I could see how it could help other viewers.
2 & 3) yes, Korolev and Leakos are both very talented, but they have both had the same problem the last 2 years - inconsistency! They were in the front of th XC pack last year at Heps XC and then they boinked. Korolev won the indoor 3k last year (home turf) but doesn't perform in outdoors (especially when getting lapped at NCAAs 10k). Leakos didn't even finish the 10k at Heps. I don't know if they have mental issues or injuries (I believe injuries plagued them 2 years ago), but I feel like a broken record talking about this. I hope those two can get their magic together for their senior year since I believe they both have the talent to be all-Americans in XC, but they need to get it together.
4) Cotton doesn't really do xc. I know he is on the roster but I wouldn't expect him to do too much
jklsadf wrote:
I don't know how hard Providence ran or what their plan was, but I do know that Columbia ran very controlled. All five of their guys were together at 7800m when one of them asked their coach if they could go. Columbia did not race yesterday. They looked very good.
This is the most columbia post ever.
Agreed, since they are just not that good. Go Big Green or Red! The Lions suck!
This will be an interesting fall. The Lions do not suck. The Brown Bears OTOH... I don't know much about the men (who did very poorly) but the women have had some good recruits. Other than Caldwell, nobody showed on Saturday.
Come now, at least they didn't include a super hip instagram photo of themselves running.
They're all probably using PEDs... I'm pretty sure of it.