2018 IIAC XC Thread

So this name change huh?

Wow. Kind of uninspiring isn't it?

Funny, as a conference delegate (representing a school's interests/views at the conf. lvl), I was told I had to be onboard with the new name. Fast forward to yesterday and they email out dates for our video conferences and in-person meetings, all labelled IIAC. And so I say, the IIAC lives! FIGHT THE NAME!

When you think about it, the only reason the conference caved in to NW's complaints about exclusion is because the WXC women lost conference at BVU and the trophy we handed them was a big, wooden state of Iowa. They looked at it like it was the first time they realized the 1st "I" in IIAC stands for Iowa. Then last winter the Lorass men's basketball team choked and NW got the auto-bid into the National tournament and go on to be national champs. At this point, NW is too important to the conference's reputation and visibility at the national stage that Chuck Yrigoyen's hand was forced. Too bad he still picked a god awful name. Really? American Rivers? That's the best you can do Chuck?

I’m always confused about how every year this thread is filled with Wartburg talking about how good they are gonna be in that given year. When in reality this conference is run by the Loras men and Nebraska Wesleyan women. So until warthog can back up their talk with a championship, I think they should get back to training so they can actually back their talk up on the course because, Both the Loras men and Nebraska Wesleyan women look strong again this year.

Speculation time is OVA! Now is the time to look at head to head results. Has there been any conference match-ups yet? Luther is hosting UD and Loras at the All-American meet tomorrow, so that should start to clear up the conference pecking order as well as the regional pecking order as several MIAC teams are scheduled to race there as well.

As a current Wartburg runner, I think it will be a very close year. We're definitely good, but our coach and I have a lot of respect for Loras. Anything can happen in October, especially on a tough course.

So far we have (using TFRRS "IIAC" meet results):

UD>Coe @ Mount Mercy

Central>Simpson>Coe @Grinnell

Loras>UD>Luther @Luther

UD & Coe are the only connectors rn, so all we can really do is seperate teams into tiers:

Tier 1: Undeated in Conference competitions (also having conference competitions)

Central

Loras

Tier 2: Better than Coe

UD

Simpson

Tier 3: Worse than UD

Coe

Luther

Unknown:

BVU

NWU

Wartburg

I fully expect Luther to beat UD at conference, but other than that & for now I'm good with these tiers. Any other meet results that could help paint the conference picture so far?

You mention a tough course. I dont know anything about it. Have you seen it? Ran on it?

Any surprises from the early season meets? Did the Loras men look a little better than expected in their first meet? Will anyone challenge wartburg and Nebraska Wesleyan women?

Curious Iowan wrote:

Any surprises from the early season meets? Did the Loras men look a little better than expected in their first meet? Will anyone challenge wartburg and Nebraska Wesleyan women?

It's tough to tell at the moment, Wartburg looked good but ran on the Illinois State meet course, which is fast. They ran fast times regardless though. Loras ran at Notre Dame and looked alright, but nothing special. Carroll sure sucked it up though. Not really sure what's up with him but so far doesn't seem as good as he used to be. I guess we'll see but right now Wartburg just seems way better

What was impressive is Central had a great race @ Grinnell.....with there too 5 all being freshman. Look out for them to make some noise in the next few years

Lookouttt wrote:

What was impressive is Central had a great race @ Grinnell.....with there too 5 all being freshman. Look out for them to make some noise in the next few years

Yeah 4 straight 3rd place finishes at conference behind Loras and Wartburg

I have seen the conference course with my own eyes. It's tough, true xc style---don't expect fast times.

Ummmm, what’s the IIAC??

Uhhhhhhh, crawl back into your hole.

Which ARC team are running GRIAK? Might see some head to head battles?

Bruce Denton 2.0 wrote:

..........

Sorry fake Bruce. There is only one.

"Bruce Denton is Bruce Denton, the famous American clock cleaner."

IIAC Fan wrote:

Uhhhhhhh, crawl back into your hole.

Which ARC team are running GRIAK? Might see some head to head battles?

According to the outdated entry list from the Minnesota website only Nebraska Wesleyan is running

Lots of em are going to the wartburg meet. Griak was moved back a week to the same weekend as Dan Houston meet. Should see some good local compeition