U of Illinois-watch out

Now they need 4 more sub 9 HSers coming in, and maybe they will make nationals...

Illinois has had good recruits in the past as well. It didn't seem to help them all that much.

Illinois really hasn't gotten many stellar recruits anyway. Just because they get a few XC all-staters or sub 4:14 guys doesn't mean they'll do stuff necessarily

Always seemed to me like the place where all the good but not top-class Illinois recruits go to never be heard from again. Not sure why.

Dale and Reiser are a good start, now they just need to nab the top two or three kids in the state for the next three years and have a coach that stays for longer than a couple years and maybe, just maybe, they'll have a legit team. Getting sixth in Big Tens is nothing to get too excited about. Finish top four and prove you can beat Tulsa and Oklahoma regularly and then we can start talking nationals. Odds are one of the two stud recruits won't pan out.

tkdxcman wrote:

Always seemed to me like the place where all the good but not top-class Illinois recruits go to never be heard from again. Not sure why.

End of thread

Last few top guys went out to Stanford. Thought the trend would continue with the way they have been running out there. Good for the Illini, but the way they consistently f*ck up the talent there is mind numbing.

It will help if they can keep them running in the NCAA 8 years after they graduated, like Topfer.

Who's the last good guy they had at Illinois? Jason Bill?

Bill sucked in college. And he's a tool.

Trent Hoerr was all-American 2007.

Craig Virgin

Yeah, Craig Virgin represented the Illini pretty darn well.

Paul Jellema wrote:

Bill sucked in college. And he's a tool.

Trent Hoerr was all-American 2007.

JB hardly sucked in college, he just never put it together in a championship race. He ran a 23:59.4 at Pre-Nats in 2004, placing him just behind Ryan Hall, Nate Brannen, and Nick Willis (pretty good company). I wouldn't consider him a tool either. Maybe it's just guilt by association for you due to his roommate?

Trent did come after Jason and was all-American.

The difference is that neither Bill nor Hoerr were the top Illinois recruit as seniors. The last FL inidividual qualifying recruit the Illini got was Jeremy Stevens from the small school ranks. I think Reiser is the first large school champ to pick UIUC in a generation.

The top 3-4 runners from the state have gone elsewhere going back to god knows when until Stewart arrived. What he did with McClintock at Purdue as a freshman bought him some credibility upon arrival in Champaign. 3 out of the top 6 at the Midwest regional were from Illinois today. The list of Illinois runners who have chosen anywhere but Champaign is pretty mindblowing: Broe, Torres, Sage, Jager, Derrick.... How Stewart develops Reiser and Dale will help him either begin to get many of the top in-state runners or go back to same old cycle. Illinois regularly loses to Wisconsin, Iowa and Notre Dame for Chicago area recruits. A coach who could land 3 out of the top 4 runners in Illinois every year and had the skills to keep them healthy would win trophys in both the B1G and nationally.

They picked up a 13:54 5k, 4:05i Mile, 8:47 3k SC, and 3:48 1500 transfer. He is hurt now though.

Really I just wanted to drop an obscure Jason Bill reference and rip on Topfer. But good info all around.

Former Illini wrote:

JB hardly sucked in college, he just never put it together in a championship race.

[/quote]

Bingo. Jason Bill was a practice champion and did well at "regular season" meets his first 3 years. He was able to qualify for NCAA a couple times, but the region was really weak.

He and his roommate were tools.

Dillon Lafond is the 13:54 guy from a D2 school (without a track). He came to Stewart with a stress fracture, they just happened to find it after he was already there.