Patriot League Cross Country 2017

So after this weekend's results, how do things look on the men's end? I would say:

1. BU

2. Navy

3. Army

4. Bucknell

5. American

6. Lehigh

7. Holy Cross

8. Lafayette

9. Colgate

10. Loyola

you have bucknell listed twice

Birch Guy wrote:

So after this weekend's results, how do things look on the men's end? I would say:

1. BU

2. Navy

3. Army

4. Bucknell

5. American

6. Lehigh

7. Holy Cross

8. Lafayette

9. Colgate

10. Loyola

still have boston #1?

Did BU run their full team at Paul Short? If so, that was a rough outing.

Nice showing from Navy, pretty good for AU's top three, then they fell off a cliff.

Anyone who was there have some insight?

This is it:

1.Navy

then it's a toss up between Army, American, Lehigh and Boston

6.Bucknell

then all those other schools....

BU number 1 faded bad and cost team apx 140 points

Unfortunately after this weekend it is clear that no athlete from the bottom four schools will be displacing any points in the top six competition, which means things are going to continue to be very tight in 2-6 this year

RebelXC wrote:

This is it:

1.Navy

then it's a toss up between Army, American, Lehigh and Boston

6.Bucknell

then all those other schools....

It looks like army is the clear #2 behind navy, although boston's lack of depth won't hurt as much in a smaller meet like patriot leagues, assuming Luevano just cratered at paul short and there's no underlying issue.

-American looks fairly strong 1-4 but doesn't have the low sticks or the depth to contend.

-Lehigh generally runs really well at paul short so i think we've seen them at full force, although Kravitz is very talented and I would expect him to move up. they are definitely deeper 7-12 than American, and should be in good shape at home.

-Boston has two issues: their back-end scorers are a little below where they need to be, and their top 2 haven't looked very good. seal and luevano should contend for the win but seal was only the 9th fastest patriot leaguer at paul short (with no bucknell), and luevano obviously had an off day. i expect that they will improve between now and the league meet.

-Navy looks good. They had a front-runner, a fast pack 2-4, and another nice pack 5-7. They are not as deep as previous years beyond that, but they are the clear favorites.

-Army has a nice 1-4 and a respectable back end. The Star Meet will be a great indicator of how prepared they are to contend.

-Bucknell is the wild card after not racing at Paul Short, running split squads between UVA and a low-key 4k. They lost very little from last year's team and have some potential low sticks. They are also traditionally pretty deep.

Early Picks:

1) Navy

2) Boston

3) Army

4) Bucknell

5) Lehigh

6) American

Boston U? More like Boston Poo! Am I right guys?

-Triple Crown Brown

bustinks wrote:

Boston U? More like Boston Poo! Am I right guys?

-Triple Crown Brown

you are not wrong.

A great last weekend of XC before the Patriot League championships definitely shook up the individual and team race.

Weekly Recap:

-Army edged out Navy in their dual, as John Valeri of Army narrowly defeated Kevin Murray and Jake Brophy of Navy. Army won by placing 1,4,5,6,10.

-Boston U. looked much improved at Pre-Nationals. Paul Luevano was 22nd in a deep field running 23:31, and Alexander Seal also dipped under the 24 minute mark.

-Bucknell and Lehigh did battle at Penn State. Lehigh's aggregate time was 2 seconds faster than Bucknell, but Bucknell managed to best them by 6 points. Pat Reilly was 7th in a strong field that included Oklahoma State, Penn State, and Villanova.

-American ran at Princeton, where Alaeldin Tirba was 7th overall in 24:14.

Individual Thoughts and Projections:

-Paul Luevano had the best race of the season at Pre-Nats, but tanked at Paul Short.

-Valeri turned the tides on Murray, the top Patriot League finished at Paul Short.

-Reilly was a second behind Murray at Paul Short and had another strong race at Penn State.

-Seal has fantastic mile speed and looked improved at Pre Nats.

1) Luevano

2) Murray

3) Reilly

4) Valeri

5) Seal

6) Brophy

7) Dorflinger

8) Tirba

9) Bordash

10) Donley

Team Thoughts and Projections:

-Army won the Star Meet with great runs 1-4, but they had a 45 second gap from 4th to 5th (on a shorter than 8k course). That gap will be trouble at Patriot Leagues, where back-end runners from deeper teams like Navy, Bucknell, and Lehigh will fill in the gap.

-Navy was the favorite after Paul Short, but was missing Josh Hanna (24:09, Navy's #2 at Paul Short) at the Star Meet. Cory Donley also struggled after running 24:12 at Paul Short (he was Navy's #3 there, but was 10 seconds back of Army's #4 at the Star Meet). Their depth can be questioned as behind Collison (their #4 at the Star Meet) they have the relatively unproven Jacob Shewbert and Michael Karls (24:43,24:44 at Paul Short, but little in the way of track credentials). They are not a thin team like Boston or American, and can afford a little room for error as they have 6 strong scorers, but they won't be packing in 7 in the top 14 like last year.

-Boston U.'s top two rebounded nicely at Pre-Nats, but their depth looked even shakier than at Paul Short. Brett Davidson, their #3 at Paul Short (24:30) did not run, and their 3-5 were 24:44, 25:06, 25:12 on a lightning-fast course. They only ran 1 other runner and he was 2nd-to-last.

-Bucknell finally ran a full squad against another Patriot League team and eeked out a win. Their top 2 should be in the mix as Dorflinger was the 5k indoor champ and Bordash was 10th last year at Lafayette. Stupak was 19th last year and looks to be improving after a late start to the season. Sussman looks to be having a solid season and was 5 seconds back of Lehigh's #2 at Penn State. The #5 spot has been a revolving door for them so far this season. They have candidates to fill that spot respectably, but one will need a breakthrough race for them to have any hope of contending.

-Lehigh is similarly built to Bucknell, and they will have the home-field advantage. Pat Reilly looks to be having a breakthrough senior season, and Kirshenbaum has been a serviceable #2 (24:30 at Paul Short). Their 3-6 have rotated throughout the season and were in the high 24s-low 25s at Paul Short. The concern with Lehigh, like Bucknell, is that their depth won't help them if it's running > 25:00 equivalent performances.

-American is pretty thin, but they have a strong #1 (Tirba 24:14 at Princeton), and their 2-4 are in a good spot (24:43-24:50 at Princeton). They all have great 1500m credentials and should be helped out by the relatively flat Lehigh course. Their #5 was a serviceable 25:13 at Princeton. Expect a glut of runners around the 25 minute mark; if Sommer (American's #5) is on the low end of that pack, they could be in contention.

Picks:

Wow, this is tight. Davidson and Hanna not running this weekend means that all these teams have holes in their lineups. I'd rate Davidson's chances of running at PLCs as higher than Hanna's, as I can't see a Navy senior missing the Star Meet unless something is wrong. That hurts Navy a lot, but I'm still picking them as (slight) favorites based on their depth at Paul Short. Boston will drop without Davidson but are probably the favorites with him. American looks ever so slightly stronger than Bucknell everywhere but #2, and Lehigh's #3 on are questionable. It's very difficult to make determinations about Bucknell because they haven't run any time trial type 8ks this year. I could see all 6 teams being within 25 points of each other.

1) Navy

2) Boston

3) Army

4) American

5) Bucknell

6) Lehigh

Very good assessment of this much stronger than usual league.

Very good assessment of this much stronger than usual league.

what happened to maura henderson? is she hurt?

i think the teams will stack up more like this:

1.navy

2, army

3. boston

4. lehigh

5. bucknell

6. american

Holy Cross is going to shake things up. Have been sitting several Kenyan recruits including 3:52 miler Cedward Eserek. Get read for them to early bring it after a season of lying in wait and prepping for a bid at the national title

holy cross? more like

shmoly shmoss

8 dayz til patriotss.. 8 nightz til post patriotss party!! whose gonna get down and dirty??