Most Obscure Collegiate Teams to Expereince Consistent Success at the National Level?

I saw during the hurricane evacuation that a ways south of the U of Miss there are some nice rolling hills, forest, and surprisingly cool temps already in September, so I wonder if maybe the state of Mississippi is actually quite a good place to train distance in the fall, winter, and early spring.

run for place wrote:

Usually when something like this happens in d1, it's because the program got a bunch of new scholarships. Syracuse and Furman come to mind recently in men's d1, I think that was the case for those two, and wouldn't be surprised if it were true for Ole Miss too.

Ole miss is kind of like Arkansas back in the day - a lot of academic money as well. Remember, the xc coach isn't the head coach so it's not like he's getting all of the scholarships

Tribed wrote:

William & Mary

Dominant for a 5-10 year stretch last decade.

William and Mary is a great academic institution. Lots of people want to go there. Also, they spend scholarship money on distance runners only. Not hard to see why they have been successful.

I remember when in basketball Gonzaga and BlinnCC in T&F were obscure schools .

William Sport wrote:

Penn University. Truly incredible for a technical college in Williamsport, PA to get athletes like Isaiah Harris, Cas Loxom, etc.

You are thinking of Penn Tech and the great Jake Shedden.

Midwest = snow..nah wrote:

Every school in the midwest

Make sure you don't accidentally include OSU in that group.

Portland has under 4000 students and no track facility. None.

University of Mary. Shithole in North Dakota, just built a track. Have national champ in Alexis Zesis and a solid squad behind her.

Trackfan55 wrote:

Adams State

Without Question, Adams State maybe the most consistent in track and cross country and mens and women programs.

Portland doesn't count as a track team...when they start producing an occasional NCAA qualifying sprinter, field event or thrower, I'll consider them.

Iona is tough to top as I see it.

I'll throw my SUNY Albany in the mix. Not top tier, but plenty of top 5 finishes in its D3 days and in its D1 incarnation it has won its conference meet something like a dozen times straight and has also won IC4As in recent years (although the treat it as a championship meet when no one else does anymore).

Furman University.

2800 students in South Carolina.

Not close to fully-funded scholarships.

$67,000 to attend.

That would apply to most of the teams being discussed. Perhaps you would be more comfortable rooting for U of Nike, ahem, Oregon.

dinger hum wrote:

Portland doesn't count as a track team...when they start producing an occasional NCAA qualifying sprinter, field event or thrower, I'll consider them.