Syracuse... Dude...

I'm not sure if Syracuse will pull a top 3 in the next few years unless something big changes (Tooker goes full super saiyan or they pull a huge recruit). But I firmly believe they are a top 10 team.

Not sure who they are courting for recruits, but currently on their roster Affolder, Tooker, Hockenbury give some hope. Affolder really didn't go anywhere in his races this year after leading the country in HS, but it takes time to adjust to college training/racing.

A good note to point out, earlier season races, the 5th man (after knight, bennie, tooker, germano) rotated quite a bit. Between Hockenbury, Dragon, Kevin James.

Flipp wrote:

Went for it wrote:

Bring the doubts. It’s just motivation to them. They’ll be back.

What good is this "Haters are gonna hate..." comment? Are you saying they didn't choke? Are you saying they wouldn't be motivated to do better if some message board didn't bring attention to it?

I should have clarified. I was responding to the Long-term prediction and meant that concluding from Saturday that they won’t be a top program in the long-term would be the motivation. No one could disagree that they had a bad day.

money talks wrote:

They did blow it this year and may be done being a national contender for a few years, but they did accomplish what 99% of teams can't and will never be able to do. Win the team NCAA championship and the individual championship. Albeit not in the same year but in the same recruiting cycle.

I'm sure they have a slew of young talented runners itching to get their moment. And with all that scholarship money Syracuse will find another knight or martin hehir and they'll be back.

I hear what you are saying in theory, and I agree with it, but Justyn Knight is a 3:39/13:17 runner before his senior season, and now an NCAA XC Champ. How many like him are there every year? I would say just 1-2 every four years. In the last 4 years Cheserek and Knight and Tiernan were at that level. (and Tiernan ran 13:31 as a freshman and was just at 13:27 his last year).

When there are that few stars that good, odds are that Syracuse won't get one, not every four years.

But they have their stuff together and now have a long string of Nationals appearances and recruiting will be like it is for MSU Basketball. In other words, they stumbled but they have proved they have the goods to belong with the schools like Colorado, OSU, NAU, Wisconsin, etc.

They are one of those schools now and will be until they have a weaker track record.

lolsrune wrote:

back to the drawing board

Vid?

Does anyone think the Northeast Regional course had anything to do with the results? Course was in awful shape with mud and ice, got to think that racing 10K on that 9 days out from Nationals wasn't a great thing. Look at how poorly all of the NE teams raced

eastregion wrote:

Does anyone think the Northeast Regional course had anything to do with the results? Course was in awful shape with mud and ice, got to think that racing 10K on that 9 days out from Nationals wasn't a great thing. Look at how poorly all of the NE teams raced

Possibly. Also the cold weather- it does slow you down about 8-10 sec per mile (20 degrees, not including wind), so running 5 takes 4:51 effort. Maybe there are other effects of racing in the cold- I don’t know.

You could say this can’t be true because Knight ran well- but then, he is the one guy you know for sure he was not close to max effort in regionals.

orange juiced wrote:

Yeah i don't understand the whole thing about BYU choking. Ranked #2 going in, finished 3rd. That doesn't seem all that unimpressive.

Syracuse, geez. Ranked 3rd finished 13th and without Knight they would have been worse than 25th.

With Knight graduating, dare I say that Syracuse's short time as an elite program is about to vanish? Not saying they'll stop qualifying for NCAAs but it seems like over the long run they're more of a 15th in the country kind of program and not a perennial top 5.

NCAA finishes since 2009:

2009: 14

2010: 14

2011: 14

2012: 15

2013: 10

2014: 5

2015: 1

2016: 3

2017: 13

They won the thing in 2015 with the same coach?

You do know that it's mighty tough to win at that level? Just making it to the big dance is pretty darn good!

John Clendon wrote:

I'm not sure if Syracuse will pull a top 3 in the next few years unless something big changes (Tooker goes full super saiyan or they pull a huge recruit). But I firmly believe they are a top 10 team.

Not sure who they are courting for recruits, but currently on their roster Affolder, Tooker, Hockenbury give some hope. Affolder really didn't go anywhere in his races this year after leading the country in HS, but it takes time to adjust to college training/racing.

A good note to point out, earlier season races, the 5th man (after knight, bennie, tooker, germano) rotated quite a bit. Between Hockenbury, Dragon, Kevin James.

It’s just strange how they handled Affolder this year. Don’t you think this season was a wasted year of eligibility for him. If he wasn’t ready or not fully recovered from high school injury then wouldn’t a red shirt season make more sense this season? It just seems like he would’ve been better off to use that when older and stronger and healthy in the next few years

Syracuse has had the same coaching staff since 2005, Chris Fox and Brien Bell.

I'm of the opinion that in 2015 when they won everything went perfectly for them. Knight and Hehir ran excellently. Bennie had the race of his life finishing 8th ( 56th in 2017). Colorado had a bit of an off day.

I don't think they are going to be a team you can consistently count on to be top 10 every year (or most years) they should be able to squeak in sometimes. They had 3 really great years finishing 5th, 1st, 3rd. Most teams can only wish for a 3 year run like that. But 13th this year makes me think they're headed back to where they've finished 6 out of the last 9 years which is a 10th to 15th type of program. Which is very good, but probably not what they want or promise to their athletes.