GLIAC XC 2018

Remember, the GLIAC is now a shell of its former self w/the departure of some VERY good teams. Whether MTU will finish 3rd....wait until mid-season and see how they're doing. The GLIAC nearly resembles the MAC on the men's side, a gutted conference.

The poll was likely probably conducted by the GLIAC coaches. In situations like that, you're not allowed to vote for your team, so GVSU probably voted for Northern Michigan and Saginaw Valley.

Think the poll is accurate, or will there be some surprises?

When you ask if Michigan Tech is going to be that good are referring to their men or women? Their Men's team finished 3rd last year and only 1 of their top 7 was a senior.

I'd say that the poll is fairly accurate. I can definitely see this year being a tight race for third on the men's team side, considering that GVSU and SVSU are likely leagues above the rest of the conference. I think the interesting side will be with the individuals. GV/SV will probably have a fair bit of their team up front, but I am interested to see if Panning gets the title or if Woldemichel or a SV guy can challenge.

Idnividuals could be a good race. Will Panning and Woldermichael run to win or chill out and save it for nationals? Guys who could break up GVSU's top-5: Goforth, Frasier, Eisengruber, Pahl? For the women, could GV actually sweep this year?? Allison Dorr, Katelyn Smith, Etelamaki from Ferris all could possibly break up their top-5.

The race for 3rd with the guys should be good. Parkside the favorite? Somewhat of an unknown. Mich Tech? Ferris?

Looks like a few GLIAC teams will be at the MSU Spartan Invite this weekend. Should give some good insight on where teams stand. Anyone know if GV will run their "A-team"?

Looks that way. Entries are viewable on direct athletics. More than half of the GLIAC will be running.

Today's D2 Men's poll for the Midwest Region includes 3 GLIAC teams in the top 10: GV/1, Saginaw/3, and UW Parkside/9.

and there are 4 gmac schools ranked in the top 10.

Interesting results from Spartan invite. Northwood looks much improved, Ashland and Ferris not so good, Tech didn't race some top guys. Redshirting? Big dropoff after the two valleys this year. Also NMU women didn't race their #1 but overall look to be way down. Tech also didn't race their top two.

We need to return to the days of old where Kyle’s Killer Lemonade and GLIACXC graced our eyes with top-notch GLIAC analysis. It’s what letsrun needs.

FormerGliacBadBoy wrote:

We need to return to the days of old where Kyle’s Killer Lemonade and GLIACXC graced our eyes with top-notch GLIAC analysis. It’s what letsrun needs.

Agreed. They are the heroes letsrun needs (as it pertains to the GLIAC).

Lots of conference schools competing at Lewis this Saturday. SVSU racing the full squad for the first time this fall? Could they challenge GV with Goforth, Frasier, Eisengruber, and some younger talent??

For the women it looks wide open after GVSU this year. How about Mich Tech being ranked 15th in D2?!

GLVCer wrote:

Looks like a few GLIAC teams will be at the MSU Spartan Invite this weekend. Should give some good insight on where teams stand. Anyone know if GV will run their "A-team"?

SVSU and GV didnt run their full A teams, they will both probably run their full A teams this weekend at Lewis. Spartan did show how bad MTU is. They were hyped up on the ranking but its clear that they have no shot at SV or GV.

Its sad how bad the GLIAC is. Any of the top 4 GMAC teams, Cedarville, Walsh, Malone, and Hillsdale could beat SV and absolutely obliterate MTU and down. They might even have a shot at getting close to GV.

Zero GMAC teams have a shot at GVSU. Did you see the Loyola results?

Thanks for the kind words! I still follow the website, I just don't post much anymore. As far as the GLIAC, most of the XC courses are different than what I ran on and I am only familiar with a few coaches in the conference these days. So any analyses would basically be based on results available to everyone. I still follow the teams though. That said...

GVSU has to be the conference and regional favorite. They have the two best runners by a fair margin. Panning and Woldemichael are two of the best distance runners in GLIAC history. They put 7 runners under 25:00 at Loyola. While XC times are variable, guys like Steible and Domagalski finished high at GLIACs last year and have posted strong track times. Masayesva finished 6th at NAIA nationals last year. Renner beat these guys. They had 5 other runners under 25:40. SVSU is definitely the favorite to finish 2nd. Tough call after that. Look out for Wayne St. now and in the future. They brought in a large, talented class. Good luck everyone!

Umm... wrote:

Zero GMAC teams have a shot at GVSU. Did you see the Loyola results?

I saw the Loyola results and quite honestly UNIMPRESSIVE. Those results should only make one team scared.. and that is Grand Valley State University. Reason being... they were way too fast for this early in the season. I have insider information that GV has been doing high intensity track workouts for 3 months now. They CANNOT sustain that until November. And what follows? They have NO depth. Any GMAC school would eat them up if Panning or Wolemach got injured or burnt out (hint: high possibility of that)

GV's glory days are over.

High intensity track workouts for at least 3 months you say... So since early July? Can you describe these workouts in detail since you have the insider information? It would counter to traditional GVSU training plans and overall philosophy. I don't see the times they ran way to fast for this time of year. The program has always been volume/strength based to run 10k races in November. Why would they change that? Coach Baltes is smart enough not to design a training program for peaking in 8K races at the end of September, two months before Nationals. The beauty of the sport every team will line up during the championship season and the results will speak for themselves. Good luck!!

Lol that dude is a troll. He's been all over any GMAC thread as well and sounds an awful lot like the Malone guys used to on this thread when they were in the GLIAC. Several of the GVSU guys log on R2W and they have been doing 50+ minute fartleks, long tempos, and mile repeats. Hardly high intensity track work.

MCC! MCC! wrote:

Lol that dude is a troll. He's been all over any GMAC thread as well and sounds an awful lot like the Malone guys used to on this thread when they were in the GLIAC. Several of the GVSU guys log on R2W and they have been doing 50+ minute fartleks, long tempos, and mile repeats. Hardly high intensity track work.

I am not a troll, although I've been called one on here before. But those people who label me as a troll also tend to be wrong because I know what I'm talking about. It may be controversial (yes, maybe I exaggerated Gv's high intensity training) but it is still true, one of GV's top guys goes down and the GLIAC and even the region is up for grabs.

Hate on me all you want. But, you wont be calling me a troll come November.