The womens cross country team had 6 or 7 All-Canadians in each of the 4 years I went to school there, up until 2013. Looking at the 2017 Canadian University xc championship results, they managed only 1 All-Canadian this year. Can anyone explain how the greatest xc dynasty in Canadian history has fallen off so dramatically in the past 4 years?
I'm not sure what if anything has changed, but the Guelph women have really fallen off from those glory years. There's definitely been lots of injuries and health issues, and they're probably getting less top rookies now that girls are avoiding that program and going elsewhere. It's kind of a guys guy program.
Yeah but the guys team is back on top of the podium.
My friendwas on the team. She was/is constantly injured. DST(or whoever makes their program) just doesn’t do enough injury prevention or specific programs designed for each girl.
Guelph just brings them in, puts them at high mileage, and sees who can survive.
Personal insight wrote:
My friendwas on the team. She was/is constantly injured. DST(or whoever makes their program) just doesn’t do enough injury prevention or specific programs designed for each girl.
Guelph just brings them in, puts them at high mileage, and sees who can survive.
Part of good coaching is having your athletes healthy and improving, and they're just not getting the job done with the Guelph womens team.
No wonder they can't stay healthy, they're all so old.
The women finished a close 5th this year and won the previous 12 national titles. Many top recruits were not on the team likely being held out by the best coach in Canada to allow them to ease into university running after long and successful summers on the track. The men won the national title again and will return everyone next season. Not much wrong at Guelph.
Great program wrote:
The women finished a close 5th this year and won the previous 12 national titles. Many top recruits were not on the team likely being held out by the best coach in Canada to allow them to ease into university running after long and successful summers on the track. The men won the national title again and will return everyone next season. Not much wrong at Guelph.
The top recruit left Guelph in the first few weeks, and this team has had a LOT of injuries in recent years. It's been a struggle keeping track of how many women have left Guelph in the past few years; they are great recruiters, but have done a terrible job of coaching and developing most women.
DST is not the best coach in Canada if he can only coach men, while his women's team is riddled with health issues.
As some of the team likes to say, I'd rather be injured in Guelph than healthy in Toronto or Kingston.
#RollRiver
Great program wrote:
The women finished a close 5th this year and won the previous 12 national titles. Many top recruits were not on the team likely being held out by the best coach in Canada to allow them to ease into university running after long and successful summers on the track. The men won the national title again and will return everyone next season. Not much wrong at Guelph.
There are 16 women on the Guelph XC roster; 8 of them were entered for the 2017 USports Championships. Who are the "many top recruits" among the remaining 8, listed below, that were HEALTHY and were running fast enough to warrant being entered in the 2017 USports Championships?
Mackenzie Cameron 2nd year
Isabelle Gerardi 1st year eligibility, 2nd year academic
Kiana Gibson 1st year
Heather Petrick 5th year
Olivia Romaniw 4th year
Christina Sevsek 1st year
Julijana Sevsek 1st year
Sarah Welch 3rd year
1st years at the Queens meet,
Gerardi did not race
Gibson was their #11 runner
C Sevsek was #7, behind Queens #6 runner and Queens did not field their full squad that day
J Sevsek was #10
Most likely, Guelph sent the 8 fastest women they currently had to Victoria.
bleedblue wrote:
I'm not sure what if anything has changed, but the Guelph women have really fallen off from those glory years. There's definitely been lots of injuries and health issues, and they're probably getting less top rookies now that girls are avoiding that program and going elsewhere. It's kind of a guys guy program.
Where have you been in 2015 and 2016? They've got the same issues with recruiting as the women's have and it showed big time last year. Sometimes, stuff happens and teams will have a setback season. Look at Laval this year, everyone was writing them in as if they were guaranteed CIS champion back in September. However, injuries and stuff had gotten to that squad and they were beaten by Calgary of all teams.
The good thing is that at least, DST knows he's going to have to rely on developing his underclassmen in order to get back to the podium as we have seen with the men's squad this year. The top recruits now know there are other options besides Guelph.
RunWild wrote:
bleedblue wrote:
I'm not sure what if anything has changed, but the Guelph women have really fallen off from those glory years. There's definitely been lots of injuries and health issues, and they're probably getting less top rookies now that girls are avoiding that program and going elsewhere. It's kind of a guys guy program.
Where have you been in 2015 and 2016? They've got the same issues with recruiting as the women's have and it showed big time last year. Sometimes, stuff happens and teams will have a setback season. Look at Laval this year, everyone was writing them in as if they were guaranteed CIS champion back in September. However, injuries and stuff had gotten to that squad and they were beaten by Calgary of all teams.
The good thing is that at least, DST knows he's going to have to rely on developing his underclassmen in order to get back to the podium as we have seen with the men's squad this year. The top recruits now know there are other options besides Guelph.
Well, in 2016 I was in Ontario reading an article about the Guelph Gryphon recruiting class that included nearly 3-times as many distance men as it did women. Based on this article, they clearly do not have the same issues recruiting distance men as they do distance women, at least not in 2016.
https://gryphons.ca/news/2016/8/31/track-and-field-gryphon-track-announces-talented-recruiting-class.aspx?path=trackSee what Guelph does indoors. They are a machine and they are loaded with talent. Any top program will have people leave the team for any number of reasons. The program has the highest of standards and achieves the best results year after year. In X they won gold by the men and a close 5th place for the women. By any standards that's great. Detractors of Guelph are complaining a lot but not doing much on the trails or track.
not even close wrote:
Great program wrote:
The women finished a close 5th this year and won the previous 12 national titles. Many top recruits were not on the team likely being held out by the best coach in Canada to allow them to ease into university running after long and successful summers on the track. The men won the national title again and will return everyone next season. Not much wrong at Guelph.
The top recruit left Guelph in the first few weeks, and this team has had a LOT of injuries in recent years. It's been a struggle keeping track of how many women have left Guelph in the past few years; they are great recruiters, but have done a terrible job of coaching and developing most women.
DST is not the best coach in Canada if he can only coach men, while his women's team is riddled with health issues.
DST has won the last 5 coach of the year awards in the OUA. His women finished second to a good Toronto team at National Indoors last year. What are you talking about? The program has 34 National track and cross titles. He's the Top coach all time in any sport in Canadian University Sports. His women had a 12 in a row national title streak in X. Definitely the best coach - male or female track and X.
gryph alum wrote:
As some of the team likes to say, I'd rather be injured in Guelph than healthy in Toronto or Kingston.
#RollRiver
What's a Gryphon?
gryph alum wrote:
As some of the team likes to say, I'd rather be injured in Guelph than healthy in Toronto or Kingston.
#RollRiver
Who says this? I have never heard it.
The main issues that I've heard have been the number of distance women unable to stay healthy. In terms of whether they have received good coaching during their time in Guelph, their own lack of progression and injuries would be a lot more relevant than whether the indoor track team earned a medal, thanks in part to contributions from other event groups that are coached by other coaches.
But, this seems to be a common trend when the issue of what's happening to the distance women in Guelph comes up. Responses essentially conveying messages along the lines of 'the men won so don't worry about the distance women', or 'the indoor track team is doing well so don't worry about the distance women'. Fact based posts, like the link to the 2016 list of recruits, get ignored.
What happened to their top recruit Laura Dickinson, she is no longer listed on their roster. She was another big 5,000m talent, along the lines of Yungblut and Petrick, who seem to have gotten injured a lot in Guelph.
Looks like they're releasing some video coverage or something later this week, hopefully we can finally find out what is happening to all the distance women in Guelph.
TimHorton wrote:
gryph alum wrote:
As some of the team likes to say, I'd rather be injured in Guelph than healthy in Toronto or Kingston.
#RollRiver
What's a Gryphon?
Toronto is the place to be , great City and campus. this is a Griffin or Gryphon .
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cb/1a/b8/cb1ab8639d49b75d1de89e13bdced050.jpg