D3 Mideast Region XC Predictions

Individuals:

This is a no-brainer. Charlie from Haverford will destroy the competition at Regionals. He will go on to choke at natties, but that is for another thread. The only other guy who will compete is Ernie Pitone. He had a decent track season, breaking the 14:40 mark. If "Rowdy" Steiner from Allegheny gets his shit together, he may have a chance for second with Ern.

Teams:

Carnegie Mellon pulled a race out of their ass at Regionals last year. I don't see them doing that again, especially with Degen heading west. L'Archer had an okay track season, but I don't see him competing with the other frontrunners from the Mideast teams.

Johnny Hopkins choked at nationals like CMU and really did not impress me in the spring. Look for Arnold to hopefully bounce back from tough races on the oval. They need all the help they can get.

Widener looks amazing. I already mentioned how much I love Ernie, but they also have my boy Will McDermott, who blazed a 14:28 en route to nationals this spring. In true form, he did not run too well in New York but he's quite young. I can't wait to see him kill it at regionals. Perhaps he deserved a mention individually but he is such a team player.

Dickinson: HA

Allegheny: Watch out for the young guns on this squad! Steiner may return for some senior leadership but they are strong behind him. Regan and Violette both busted some sub 15 5ks recently and Carter Smith came close.

Haverford: I have no idea

Predictions:

1. Charlie

2. Ernie

3. McDermott

1. Widener

2. Hopkins

3. Allegheny

It could go a variety of ways this year. On paper, CMU is the favorite to repeat, but I can't see them doing it again. That's just me. Haverford and Dickinson are looking real bad on paper with the loss of some good seniors, but they always seem to be good. That leaves Widener, Hopkins, Swarthmore, Etown, and Allegheny.

Team wise I say Widener wins, but it's going to be a real mixup for 2nd-7th. I could see the other teams I mentioned going in any order.

Individually, I've gotta go with Charlie of Haverford, followed by Ernie. Watch out for a few other guys. Jared Schatz of Messiah had a crazy breakthrough track season (9:09 steeple and made the national final). Also watch out for Logan Steiner of Allegheny. Not sure what's been up with him but he could do really well. Some other names to watch are Arnold of JHU, Flank of Muhlenburg, Kakkar of Swarthmore and Trama of Elizabethtown.

Regardless of the result, should definitely be an exciting season

I wouldn't look past Will McDermott of Widener. His 14:28 puts him way up there with Charlie. Charlie seems to be more mid-D with his 1:52/3:43. I have to go with Will at 8k.

You seem to forget that in addition to teh 1:52/3:43, Charlie also ran 14:21 and 8:13. He's not exclusively mid distance. If it's close at the end of an 8k, Charlie can outkick anyone in the region

Delaware Valley Uninversiy will surprise everyone and bring a team to regionals this year-if we have enough people show up!!

Pitone will win the region.

McDermott will be top 5.

Widener will win.

Up until last year, Widener always choked at regionals. Maybe last year was a fluke

Calling it right now, Mason Hepner will win it all. He will outkick Charlie in the last 200 with the help of his speed shorts.

that's right brother man

hey hey the dicks are back at it again!

CMU coaching change is the wild card.

CMU's coaching change will make no difference in the first year. Maybe years down the road, but not this season

Allegheny has developed a strong program and has recruited several talented runners. Watch for them to finish well in 2015.

Bobcat wrote:

Allegheny has developed a strong program and has recruited several talented runners. Watch for them to finish well in 2015.

They are no longer in the Mideast region

We aren't talking about the 2017 season dingus

since when?

D3XC2017 wrote:

Bobcat wrote:

Allegheny has developed a strong program and has recruited several talented runners. Watch for them to finish well in 2015.

They are no longer in the Mideast region

Says who?

i think there is some odd rule that if your conference straddles a regional border you can be in a region with the rest of the conference. that is how franciscan (oh), d'youvuille (ny) and thomas more (ky) got into the mideast.

it would be smart for Allegheny to go into the easier great lakes region with the rest of the ncac. but did they really do it?

Compiled a list of 5k PRs going back two seasons for each of the team contenders (Allegheny, Carnegie Mellon, Dickinson, Elizabethtown, Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore and Widener) to see which teams have good 5k runners (few run the 10k outdoors and 8k times are inconsistent). My list includes everyone that has run close-ish to 15:00 (~sub 15:10) and below. Doubt this says much since it leaves off some really good cross country runners (Stefan Arnold, George Degen, etc.), but still interesting.

Logan Steiner 14:35.96 SR Allegheny

Luke Regan 14:57.39 SO Allegheny

Randy Violette 14:58.91 JR Allegheny

Dan Cheung 15:09.69 JR Allegheny

Ryan Archer 14:51.68 JR Carnegie Mellon

Ryan Auld 15:03.52 SO Carnegie Mellon

Brian Bollens 15:05.00 SR Carnegie Mellon

Zach Trama 14:55.05 SR Elizabethtown

Charlie Marquardt 14:21.63 SR Haverford

Sam Fujimori 14:54.92 SR Haverford

Jimmy Gorman 14:56.97 JR Haverford

Mike Brier 15:00.58 JR Haverford

Henry Woods 15:08.85 SO Haverford

Schaffer Oschstein 14:41.07 SR Johns Hopkins

Tyler Wolfe 15:04.82 SO Johns Hopkins

Sid Kakkar 14:53.18 JR Swarthmore

Spencer Friske 15:08.66 SR Swarthmore

Will McDermott 14:28.88 JR Widener

Ernie Pitone 14:38.32 JR Widener