MIAC XC 2017

Seems he's struck a nerve

The IIAC does well at regions one year and suddenly they think they are king over everything. To be fair, neither conference has really "dominated" the region until this past year. Dating back to 2010 it has been pretty split down the middle when it comes to the top 6, though, the MIAC typically was the top finishing team and has done very well in terms of individual finishes. Not that that matters, though.

When you really look at it, the IIAC is sort of a one-trick pony when it comes to middle distance and distance events. That one trick is getting a few teams in to cross country nationals with maybe one team finishing in the top 15 ever 3 years or so. Other than that? eh, not much. Generally irrelevant outdoors on the track. They do better indoors, but that is because half the country doesn't really run indoors and another 1/3rd doesn't actually take the season seriously.

The IIAC women on the other hand are no joke. They are crazy good.

Guys, we're one region, one family. I know this is Letsrun, but do we have to be drinking so hard on the hatorade? Here is a poem I made:

I want the Central Region to be known as great,

But I see post after post that is spewing such hate hate.

We all have strengths, we all have talents,

St. Olafs 1500 guys are good at losing their balance.

Central has recruited some real fast ones,

Wartburg's girls, well they have nice buns.

Carleton's coach wears Hawaiian shirts

there are not many good words that rhyme with shirts.

Loras could maybe do okay this year,

But the Tommies are kings of guzzling beer.

Gustavus Adolphus, wow thats a mouthful

Better watch out for Wesleyan and their stud, Ash Gandul

I believe St. Johns can rise to the tops

Those hippies at Luther should probably cut those long mops

I see a beautiful future where we all come together

And hate on the South region running slow despite the nice weather.

5/10 needs heavy editing.

Hurts rhymes with shirts you certainly could have fit that in.

Does not roll off the tongue syllable-wise, but easily could be made to do so just by rephrasing.

Love the quote, but also good point. It would be awesome to see the Central Region kick some serious ass at Nationals this year

What I would like to see is the other conferences in the region really come in to their own. It seems really dominated by the two bigs in the MIAC and IIAC. I would love to see the competition level go up.

Also, it would be great to race each other more during the season. We are just a state apart but most teams rarely get to race each other.

Why would anyone think bethel has a chance to get 5th in the region? I mean they are good. But maybe top 15 good. They are not go that much higher in the region...

come together, right now wrote:

What I would like to see is the other conferences in the region really come in to their own. It seems really dominated by the two bigs in the MIAC and IIAC. I would love to see the competition level go up.

Also, it would be great to race each other more during the season. We are just a state apart but most teams rarely get to race each other.

It would be kind of cool for the MIAC to absorb the UMAC and boot out Superior. The result would be every single private school and every D3 school in MN against each other.

Imagine a summer track meet after natties that's IIAC All-stars vs MIAC All-stars. 4 or 5 from each in every event. The uniforms would be sick.

Why would the uniform be sick?

1. St. Olaf

2. Gustavus

3. Carleton

4. Bethel

5. Saint John's

6. Hamline

7. St Thomas

8. Saint Mary

9. Concordia

10. Augsburg

11. Macalaster

Jack Henschel for the win...

Like the list for the most part. It will probably ruffle some people's feathers, but I can see it. I struggle to see Henschel winning it, but top 5 isn't out of the question. For a lot of the cross races last year he went for broke just about every time. Meaning, he would go out with the leaders and hold on for as long as he could. Often times (every time) he came back hard with about a mile to go. With a year of college running under the belt, I don't doubt he could hold that a bit better. He is a talent, just not the smartest.

Often times there are plenty of runners who are overlooked on the grass due to their lack of a track resume. The MIAC very much holds a “what have you done for me lately?” mentality. And rightly so. What this allows us to do, however, is neglect those with poor track resumes that are good cross country athletes and hold those who are talented on the track but bad on the grass on a pedestal.

Below are the top 30 returners from last fall’s MIACs (excluding Berhe). While this is quite meaningless as runners get hurt, go abroad, graduate early, stops running, get sick, improve, have bad races, etc., it at least provides perspective.

No names stand out from the crowd substantially, but again, that is because most haven’t done much for us on the track. What should be noted is how young all of the returners are. Only 7 of the returners will be seniors this fall.

The first thing to jump out at me was, despite the most recent criticism, St. Thomas is in a phenomenal positon as of right now. They have 7 runners in the returning top 30. This is followed up by Olaf at 5, Hamline with 4, and so forth. The other thing to stand out was how Tremayne Collins is the top returner coming out of Saint John’s. His name has not ever really been brought up on these message boards before. He was 8th in the 10k in the spring with the only two returners beating him being Paul Timm and Keith Ketola, neither of whom are on this top 30 returning list.

Top returning finishers from MIAC 2016

9 - Tremayne Collins – SO – Saint John’s - 1

10 - William Anderson – SO – St. Olaf -2

11 – Cameron Meikle – FR – Carleton-3

14 – Tris Dodge – SO – Carleton - 4

16 - Jack Henschel – FR – St. Olaf – 5

18 – Thomas Lerdall – SO – St. Olaf – 6

20 – Eric Bakken – Jr – St. Olaf – 7

22 – Alex Wischnack – SO – Gustavus – 8

23 – Parker Rosenau – SO – St. Thomas – 9

25 – Sam Bell – FR – Hamline - 10

26 – Matthew Burgstahler – JR – St. John’s – 11

28 – Allen-Michael Burback – SO – St. Thomas – 12

29 – Andrew Fritz – JR – St. Thomas – 13

30 – Evan Hatton – SO – Bethel – 14

31 – Seth Glidewell – SO – St. Thomas - 15

33 – Fernando Benitez – FR – Hamline – 16

34 – Andrew Plumb – SO – St. Olaf – 17

35 – Austin O’Hare – JR – Saint Mary’s – 18

38 – Ryley Sanderg – JR – Gustavus – 19

39 – Brandon Krogman – JR – Saint Mary’s – 20

40 – John Mark Shields – FR – Bethel – 21

41 – Kyle Mehrhof – SO – Hamline – 22

42 – Daniel Mahota – SO – St. Thomas – 23

43 – Tony Duchenees – SO – Hamline – 24

44 – Chris Boranian – SO – Macalester - 25

46 – David Huffman – JR – Bethel - 26

47 – James Doherty – SO – Macalester – 27

48 – Spencer Urick – FR - St. Thomas – 28

49 – Eric Eicklund – FR – Concordia – 29

52 – Scott Helstad – FR – St. Thomas – 30

Athletes in top returning 30

St. Thomas – 7 (!)

Olaf – 5

Hamline – 4

Bethel – 3

Saint John’s – 2

Macalester – 2

Gustavus – 2

Saint Mary’s - 2

Concordia – 1

With this same consistency, not taking any hypothetical freshman finishes in to account and taking each athlete in their fitness as they were during last cross season (while justly unfair), this is how the team scores stack up with the returners this fall.

Saint Olaf appears to be in a safe position with their squad soundly defeating the rest of the MIAC. They can also find solace in that this does not even count Keith Ketola, Paul Timm, or Taylor Aarness. Even without those three, there is much youth in this team, so we can expect them to be in a podium position for the next 3 years.

St. Thomas seemed to have bided their time the past few years and are ready assume a 2nd - 4th place finish for the next few years and look formidable for a second place finish this fall.

Hamline was the big surprise here. They had a lot of big performances by their underclassman in the front. This might be their last chance at top 4 position for a little with half their top 7 going to be seniors.

Carleton will certainly do better than advertised solely due to Donson's return to the grass. As it stands without him, though, they are in a close battle for 3rd with Hamline.

Bethel and Saint John's will battle out the 5th spot, while a very young Macalester is sitting at 7th, and a gutted Gustavus squad falls all the way to 8th. They will take the biggest hit this fall with how many seniors their squad had last year. Thankfully they haven't any worry to fall any lower than that as Concordia, Augsburg, and Saint Mary's ensure that doesn't happen. In fact, as it stands, Saint Mary's does not even have a full squad to even score as a team. Hopefully that changes.

Again, this doesn't take freshman and other factors in to account. As many freshman showed last fall, anything can happen.

St. Olaf – 37 (104)

2 - William Anderson – SO

5 - Jack Henschel – FR

6 - Thomas Lerdall – SO

7 - Eric Bakken – Jr

17 - Andrew Plumb – SO

32 – Justin Furcich – SO

35 – Christopher Brenk – FR

St. Thomas – 72 (130)

9 - Parker Rosenau – SO

12 - Allen-Michael Burback – SO

13 - Andrew Fritz – JR

15 - Seth Glidewell – SO

23 - Daniel Mahota – SO

28 - Spencer Urick – FR

30 - Scott Helstad – FR

Hamline – 117 (276)

10 – Sam Bell – FR

16 - Fernando Benitez – FR

22 - Kyle Mehrhof – SO

24 - Tony Duchenees – SO

45 – Sam Jewsom - JR

60 – Anthony Paladie – JR

99 – Sean Ahlness - JR

Carleton – 120 (231)

3 - Cameron Meikle – FR

4 - Tris Dodge – SO

31 – Hiroshi Nakajima – JR

36 – Cullen Irvine – SO

46 – Andrew Ruvkun – JR

47 – Keenan Ronayne – SO

64 – Jonah Shaw – JR

Bethel – 134 (236)

14 - Evan Hatton – SO

21 - John Mark Shields – FR

26 - David Huffman – JR

34 – Sam Nelson – SO

39 – Andy Barnhart – FR

50 – Shinn Keaton- FR

52 – Taylor Huffman – JR

Saint John’s – 138 (238)

1 - Tremayne Collins – SO

11 - Matthew Burgstahler – JR

33 – Daniel Zoltek – JR

41 – Henry Boettcher – SO

48 – James Mathison – SO

49 – Dan Allen – SO

55 – Kevin Lamb

Macalester – 214 (388)

25 - Chris Boranian – SO

27 - James Doherty – SO

37 – Henry Harper – FR

54 – Jake Lepak – FR

71 – Ethan Endberg – SO

85 – Peter Jarka-Sellers – FR

89 – Spencer Grant – SO

Gustavus – 226 (409)

8 - Alex Wischnack – SO

19 - Ryley Sanderg – JR

51 – Roberty Nelson – SO

62 – Bridger Pavelka – FR

86 – Tyler Stordahl – SO

88 – Emmett Haberman – JR

95 – Andrew Wischnack - FR

Concordia – 465 (732)

29 - Eric Eicklund – FR

90 – Brandon Quibell – JR

106 – Nick Solheim – JR

116 – Brendan Johnson – JR

124 – Olsen Pancoast – FR

126 – Landry Hacklander – JR

141 – Luke Owens - SO

Augsburg – 623 (924)

94 – Ryan Moore - SO

111 – Jacob Van Houtan - FR

136 – Benjamin Erickson – SO

138 – Yasir Said – SO

144 – Jackson Gerber – FR

150 – Sean Adams – JR

151 – David Braun – FR

Saint Mary’s – Can’t score full team (287 with 4)

18 - Austin O’Hare – JR

20 - Brandon Krogman – JR

101 – Ben Borash

148 – Marlon Berrett-Dwyer - FR

Gustavus is as likely to get 8th at conference this year as Augsburg and St Mary's are to get anything other than last and second to last. Looking at only returners really doesn't say much when the MIAC as a whole is losing so much talent.

Great breakdown, thanks for doing the heavy lifting for those of us who are too lazy.

Wow....looking at it this way currently, we have 0 cross country studs left...that is a tough pill to swallow. We were riding the fine line last fall with Coffey and Bugler being the last of the old guard, but to actually get to that point is odd to say the least.

I will tell you one thing, though. This makes the individual competition for MIAC champion much more interesting. Even if it comes down to only St. Olaf runners, which one will it be?...

new guard, old story wrote:

Great breakdown, thanks for doing the heavy lifting for those of us who are too lazy.

Wow....looking at it this way currently, we have 0 cross country studs left...that is a tough pill to swallow. We were riding the fine line last fall with Coffey and Bugler being the last of the old guard, but to actually get to that point is odd to say the least.

I will tell you one thing, though. This makes the individual competition for MIAC champion much more interesting. Even if it comes down to only St. Olaf runners, which one will it be?...

The one that goes to Carleton. He can take a semester off, train for the 800, and still curb-stomp everyone. Anyone who wants to beat him will have to start their kick from 7.9km out.

DCG will probably win but I wouldn't be surprised if PT, Henschel, Ketola, and Lerdall then took spots 2-5. If Berhe comes back the 5 of them could go 2-6. Olaf stomps the rest of the field, again. Perhaps it will be a different story after the Class of 2021 Carls get a year of college level training under them.

reherhtr wrote:

DCG will probably win but I wouldn't be surprised if PT, Henschel, Ketola, and Lerdall then took spots 2-5. If Berhe comes back the 5 of them could go 2-6. Olaf stomps the rest of the field, again. Perhaps it will be a different story after the Class of 2021 Carls get a year of college level training under them.

I would be

I could see Macalester making a big push at conference this year. Real young, but has shown some potential. Plus, word on the street is that Henry Harper is gonna have a great sophomore season.