Seriously what do we know about their training, recruiting, coach, etc???
Have a good chance at repeating as champions
Seriously what do we know about their training, recruiting, coach, etc???
Have a good chance at repeating as champions
They are good cause they work hard and improve consistently. Hold the horses on repeating for a second. They did lose a fair amount of their national title team. They do have some good runners in the wings so I think they will have a chance but there are a lot of good teams. Now the year after next, look out. They have a steller recruiting class coming in this year and would still have Schulist.
Aside from O'Connor and Kroll, who do they lose? The next 3 years I would bet alot of money they place top 5 every year.
Otwell, she was their #4 at nationals, #3 most of the year.
Losing 3 of the top 5 from nationals is a lot. Wiersma is ready to step in and I think Raquel Serna is as well. Will be interesting to see if any of the freshman are not red shirted. Quite a talented class coming in. Fuller is a stud but hasn't been great at cross but if she works hard could be insanely awesome.
They have good depth so they will be solid and I woulsnt argue they will be top 5 for a while and contend again but 3 of top 5 is a lot to replace.
Her dad used to be the coach at CMU and has coached at Manistee for a few years since moving up there. He's done a great job with her and I'm sure it's a bit of a difficult dynamic being a coach and father. She had an outstanding career culminating in running a 2:07 and 4:44 this year. Should be ready to take the next step with great coaches at MSU.
Indoor? wrote:
Otwell, she was their #4 at nationals, #3 most of the year.
Losing 3 of the top 5 from nationals is a lot. Wiersma is ready to step in and I think Raquel Serna is as well. Will be interesting to see if any of the freshman are not red shirted. Quite a talented class coming in. Fuller is a stud but hasn't been great at cross but if she works hard could be insanely awesome.
They have good depth so they will be solid and I woulsnt argue they will be top 5 for a while and contend again but 3 of top 5 is a lot to replace.
What is Brenders situation eligibility wise? Wiersma, Serna, Landwehr, and Kovacic should all have breakout years. Fuller, along with most freshman, most likely all, will redshirt. Is there anyone i can't think of?
How does their coach train them? What's their training like? It should help Leah is staying in East Lansing.
Brender was senior. Stassen is back. Have some other 800 girls Wilberding and Beazley too.
Indoor? wrote:
Brender was senior. Stassen is back. Have some other 800 girls Wilberding and Beazley too.
Do they have 6k stength? 12 times their main event. What other freshman aside from Beazley can contribute?
Replacing 3 of the top 5 would be hard for most schools but Michigan State's top 7 were better than the top 5 on most other teams last year. One of the things that made Michigan State so great in the 2014 cross country season was their depth. They could have still won many of their meets if one or their top runners was out.
Michigan State had a very good list of freshman last year and has maybe an even better group joining this year. I am confident that all of this year's recruiting class will be red-shirted for cross country. Just look at the new class's times compared to the 5000 meter track times of the returning women. It will take at least one or two years for most women to improve enough to earn a spot on such a talented cross country team. Track is a little different story for some. I would expect Annie Fuller to be competing for MSU on the track team her freshman year. I doubt any other recruits will be competing other than as unattached until their sophomore year. Not that they are not good but they will need time to improve and earn spots on a talented DI team.
Based on last fall’s rankings and this year's track times the following is my best guess as to MSU's top cross country runners for 2015. I think that last 2 or 3 spots will be up for grabs by any of the women listed after the top 4 depending on who is healthy and will have improved over the summer. There are other women on the team with great potential too that I did not list due to a lack of published times.
1) Rachele Shulist
2) Lindsay Clark
3) Alexis Wiersma - 16:23 for 5000 during 2015 track season
4) Katies Landwehr- 16:27 for 5000 during 2015 track season
5) Sara Stassen - last result on 3/27
6) Allison Lunau - 16:36 for 5000 during 2015 track season
7) Raquel Serna - 16:48 for 5000 during 2015 track season
) Shelby Jackson - 16:27 for 5000 during 2015 indoor season
but no outdoor times
) Molly Jeakle - 4:34 for 1500 indoors but no outdoor times
) Kelcy Welch - 2013 Footlocker Midwest Regional winner.
) Kennedy Beazley - 18:00 for 5K during 2014 cross country
) Nicole Kowalchick - no results since 2014 cross country so will have to wait and see
) Kayla Kavulich - no results since 2014 cross country so will have to wait and see
) Aubrey Wilberding - 18:06 for 5K in 2015 cross country season
Others are not listed here due to lack of recent results but they too could make it into the top seven.
Melanie Brender started at MSU in the fall of 2010 so I don't think she has any eligibility left. Otherwise, she would be on the above list.
Next year they will have Holly Bullough. She cannot sign yet but if you know the Bullough's and in particular know Holly, you know she will be going to Michigan State. She too could be running for the MSU track team her freshman year. She won't likely run on the cross country team her freshman year unless her 5K cross country times this fall drop into the low 17's. From Michigan this year only Audrey Belf or Sarah Kettel have had the 5K cross country and 5000 meter track times to indicate they could be among the top 7 as freshman when they join a competitive college team. Kettel has publicly stated Michigan State is among the schools she is considering. She has mentioned others schools too, in-state and out-of-state, but has not indicated her top choice(s) yet. It would be another great recruiting class for Michigan State if they recruit Bullough, Kettel and others such as potentially Rachel Bonner, one of three Michigan girls which included Belf and Kettel who made it to Nike Cross Nationals in 2014.
For the 2016 cross country season MSU will still have the following:
1) Rachele Shulist
3) Alexis Wiersma - 16:23 for 5000 during 2015 track season
6) Allison Lunau - 16:36 for 5000 during 2015 track season
7) Raquel Serna - 16:48 for 5000 during 2015 track season
) Shelby Jackson - 16:27 for 5000 during 2015 indoor season
) Molly Jeakle - 4:34 for 1500 indoors but no outdoor times
) Kelcy Welch - 2013 Footlocker Midwest Regional winner.
) Kennedy Beazley - 18:00 for 5K during 2014 cross country
) Nicole Kowalchick - no results since 2014 cross country
) Kayla Kavulich - no results since 2014 cross country
) Aubrey Wilberding - 18:06 for 5K in 2015 cross country season
) Kenzie Weiler - if she continues to improve
) Amber Way - has great potential after some injuries in high school held her back
) Annie Fuller - if she improves enough in 6K by 2016
) Karrigan Smith - if she improves enough in 6K by 2016
) Sarah Kettel - if MSU can recruit her - 16:41 in 5000 at Gina Relay during her junior HS year
Lindsay Clark, Katie Landwehr, and Sara Stassen will be gone in 2016. So in 2016 they may be replacing 3 of their top 5 again but will have a lot of women coming back and so they should have little problem being competitive once again. MSU will have at least 11 women who could potentially improve enough to make them as competitive if not more competitive than in prior years.
Spartan Dogs wrote:
Seriously what do we know about their training, recruiting, coach, etc???
Have a good chance at repeating as champions
I did not directly answer your question in my prior posting so will reply now.
I am not sure the training is that much different for the top teams.
Michigan high schools have been producing a lot of talented distant and mid-distant runners. One may be able to ague that they have been producing more than neighboring states such as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and others. Michigan and Michigan State has had success in recruiting their talented in-state runners and some from out-of-state. Now that Michigan State won the NCAA Cross Country Championship it may be even easier for them to recruit out-of-state runners for 2016. They already had a good slate of 2015 female recruits lined up before they won the national championship.
Coach Drenth and Assistant Coach Senakiewich have great reputations as coaches.
Coach McGuire at Michigan also has a great reputation as a coach. Michigan women's team did not have the success last season in cross country that many expected due to at least two injured runners. Another issue was Michigan is they did not have the depth of Michigan State.
One strength for both teams may be in recruiting runners with some demonstrated talent in high school and developing them into highly competitive collegiate DI runners. Both teams have recruited in-state runners this year who have shown talent in high school but likely did reach the national level of recognition in high school due to injuries. We know that other college teams have recruited more high school runners with national name recognition but have been unable to develop them or enough other runners to have a strong top 5. I'll be interested to see how Michigan's and Michigan State's recent recruits continue to develop under these coaches.
Wiersma more of 10k. 9th at conference so she has strength
I'm amazed at the talent and depth Michigan state has! Thank you so much for all that knowledge. It is more than appreciated.
Also a girl from Nebraska in this years current class. She's good.
Lots and lots of cytomel.
EPO
Indoor? wrote:
Also a girl from Nebraska in this years current class. She's good.
Yes, the girl is Jeralyn Po from Lincoln North Star High School in Nebraska. Her times this past year are very close to Kenzie Weiler's so Michigan State has a very good list of mid-distance and distance recruits with Jeralyn Po, Kenzie Weiler, Annie Fuller, Karrigan Smith, and Amber Way.
Annie is exceptional fast in the 800 and 1600. Karrigan is the next fastest in the 800 and 1600. Kenzie and Jeralyn are close in terms of all their event times. Amber Way may have been the fastest in the 3200 and 5K this past year if she had not been derailed at times with injuries. With the help of the coaches and trainers at MSU she may in time become the fastest cross country runner on the team from this recruiting class. Annie Fuller may be able to improve her 5K times now that she is done with basketball and she may want to try the steeplechase--she is tall with very long legs. Kenzie and Karrigan kept busy running in the winter during which they competed in MITS and New Balance Nationals Indoor. I would say it was another excellent recruiting class of mid-distance and distance runners for Michigan State. I doubt any other team even has even 4 recruits for 2015 as qualified in the mid-distance and distance events much less five recruits.
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Spartan Dogs wrote:
Do they have 6k stength? 12 times their main event.
A woman whose main event is the 500m is rarely a major contributor in cross, no?