NAU did not have the most talented team on paper this year, Stanford did.
NAU had BY FAR the most talented team:
Nico - high school times of 7:56 and 13:40, 13:11 last year
Bosley - 4:07 mile 8:50 2 mile pre-super shoes, 13:25 last year
Kusche - transfered in as 3:57 miler and 7:50 3k, ran 1:47 in high school in south africa
Hasty - 4:00 mile and 8:00 3k in high school pre-supershoes
Sahlman - speaks for himself
Raff - 8:54 at altitude in high school
Stanford's times looked strong on the surface but none of their athletes have EVER broken 4 in the mile or an equivalent in the 1500. NAU had 6 that ran 3:39 or faster for 1500 last year with Nico and Kusche at 3:37.
This is such a simplistic way of looking at it, HS times are not the only measure of talent. Cole Hocker ran 4:07/8:56 in HS off of 30 miles a week. If he goes to Newbury Park he probably runs Sub 4 and Sub 8:40. Does that make him more talented, because he trained harder in HS?
Nico - high school times of 7:56 and 13:40, 13:11 last year
Bosley - 4:07 mile 8:50 2 mile pre-super shoes, 13:25 last year
Kusche - transfered in as 3:57 miler and 7:50 3k, ran 1:47 in high school in south africa
Hasty - 4:00 mile and 8:00 3k in high school pre-supershoes
Sahlman - speaks for himself
Raff - 8:54 at altitude in high school
Stanford's times looked strong on the surface but none of their athletes have EVER broken 4 in the mile or an equivalent in the 1500. NAU had 6 that ran 3:39 or faster for 1500 last year with Nico and Kusche at 3:37.
This is such a simplistic way of looking at it, HS times are not the only measure of talent. Cole Hocker ran 4:07/8:56 in HS off of 30 miles a week. If he goes to Newbury Park he probably runs Sub 4 and Sub 8:40. Does that make him more talented, because he trained harder in HS?
did you read the last paragraph? You can't call stanford the most talented team when ZERO of them have broken 4 in the mile. That's based on college times.
NAU has 5 guys on the cross country roster right now that have run 3:39 or faster (3:57 equivalent). Sahlman ran 3:56.24 for the mile in high school - none of the stanford guys have come with 3 seconds of his HIGH SCHOOL TIME.
Nico - high school times of 7:56 and 13:40, 13:11 last year
Bosley - 4:07 mile 8:50 2 mile pre-super shoes, 13:25 last year
Kusche - transfered in as 3:57 miler and 7:50 3k, ran 1:47 in high school in south africa
Hasty - 4:00 mile and 8:00 3k in high school pre-supershoes
Sahlman - speaks for himself
Raff - 8:54 at altitude in high school
Stanford's times looked strong on the surface but none of their athletes have EVER broken 4 in the mile or an equivalent in the 1500. NAU had 6 that ran 3:39 or faster for 1500 last year with Nico and Kusche at 3:37.
This is such a simplistic way of looking at it, HS times are not the only measure of talent. Cole Hocker ran 4:07/8:56 in HS off of 30 miles a week. If he goes to Newbury Park he probably runs Sub 4 and Sub 8:40. Does that make him more talented, because he trained harder in HS?
NAU returned 6 out of their top 7 from their championship winning team from last year.
They started the season as the heavy favorite, receiving 8 first place votes in the preseason poll. Stanford only got 2 votes. So even the coaches think NAU is the most talented.
This is honestly such a stupid statement. Like I get your thesis, but you are literally comparing apples and oranges. This was a 10k race, not a 1500. When he is talking about most talented, he means the team that went into the race with the highest chances of winning it. Maybe talented is not the right word and it's also subjective, but I fully back @ghost of Jim Ryun's thesis.
Stanford has 3 sub 27:50 10k guys (ok Sprout was injured and a couple of runners like Beaudoin-Russeau (hopefully did not mispell) and Boyden/hart who could have showed up more.
The argument should have been whether Oklahoma State was more likely to win than Stanford, not NAU, come on.
This is such a simplistic way of looking at it, HS times are not the only measure of talent. Cole Hocker ran 4:07/8:56 in HS off of 30 miles a week. If he goes to Newbury Park he probably runs Sub 4 and Sub 8:40. Does that make him more talented, because he trained harder in HS?
did you read the last paragraph? You can't call stanford the most talented team when ZERO of them have broken 4 in the mile. That's based on college times.
NAU has 5 guys on the cross country roster right now that have run 3:39 or faster (3:57 equivalent). Sahlman ran 3:56.24 for the mile in high school - none of the stanford guys have come with 3 seconds of his HIGH SCHOOL TIME.
You want to include their 400 PRs too while we're sharing irrelevant data?
He said he screwed up and they didn't have their legs under them, probably meaning they were doing too hard of workouts at that time to do race well at Nuttycomb. But maybe continuing to work hard in early October instead of pulling back for Nuttycomb is what allowed them to peak at the right time in November. They looked a little shaky earlier in the year but got the job done while some other teams looked great and didn't get the job done when it mattered most. So maybe he didn't really make a mistake, they ran their best at the right time.
This is such a simplistic way of looking at it, HS times are not the only measure of talent. Cole Hocker ran 4:07/8:56 in HS off of 30 miles a week. If he goes to Newbury Park he probably runs Sub 4 and Sub 8:40. Does that make him more talented, because he trained harder in HS?
did you read the last paragraph? You can't call stanford the most talented team when ZERO of them have broken 4 in the mile. That's based on college times.
NAU has 5 guys on the cross country roster right now that have run 3:39 or faster (3:57 equivalent). Sahlman ran 3:56.24 for the mile in high school - none of the stanford guys have come with 3 seconds of his HIGH SCHOOL TIME.
Cole Sprout ran 4:02 in high school, I’m sure he can run under 4 now that he’s run 27:42
Henes is not going to leave NC State. She is a lifer there. She went to NC State and was Laurie Gomez before she married Bob Henes who also went to NC State and was also an All-American. Their daughter went to NC State. They’re not leaving.
does he "own" it when his athletes are unemployable because they got a degree at a 5th- rate institution ?
There’s a lot of reasons people are unemployable, the college you attended is not. A business degree at NAU is worth more than women’s studies degree at Stanford.
I agree and disagree.
While someone getting a business degree from NAU probably won’t have an issue getting a good job as long as they’re smart and a hard worker, the student getting the women’s studies degree from Stanford will more than likely get admitted into a top law school, B school, or even med school providing that the requisite classes for med school were taken.
The vast majority of students getting degrees similar to “women’s studies” from top liberal arts schools such as Stanford, the Ivies, Chicago, WashU, or wherever, have their eye on something larger like law, medicine, etc. Fact…
This is such a simplistic way of looking at it, HS times are not the only measure of talent. Cole Hocker ran 4:07/8:56 in HS off of 30 miles a week. If he goes to Newbury Park he probably runs Sub 4 and Sub 8:40. Does that make him more talented, because he trained harder in HS?
did you read the last paragraph? You can't call stanford the most talented team when ZERO of them have broken 4 in the mile. That's based on college times.
NAU has 5 guys on the cross country roster right now that have run 3:39 or faster (3:57 equivalent). Sahlman ran 3:56.24 for the mile in high school - none of the stanford guys have come with 3 seconds of his HIGH SCHOOL TIME.
There was a breakdown a while back that 5k PR’s are actually the best predictor of NCAA XC team success. As several athletes stated post meet, the team placings don’t change drastically over the last half of the race. 5k ability allows you to handle the early intense pace that you don’t get with a track 10k.
I think the difference was NAU went for the win the entire race from the gun, same as they have raced in the past. OSU tried to backdoor the win and come from behind and were just short. I think it proves you can’t win this meet without going all in from the start (in normal conditions). If you look at the year NAU lost to BYU it was the opposite, early on BYU dominated the race with the lumberjacks chasing.
NAU did not have the most talented team on paper this year, Stanford did.
NAU had BY FAR the most talented team:
Nico - high school times of 7:56 and 13:40, 13:11 last year
Bosley - 4:07 mile 8:50 2 mile pre-super shoes, 13:25 last year
Kusche - transfered in as 3:57 miler and 7:50 3k, ran 1:47 in high school in south africa
Hasty - 4:00 mile and 8:00 3k in high school pre-supershoes
Sahlman - speaks for himself
Raff - 8:54 at altitude in high school
Stanford's times looked strong on the surface but none of their athletes have EVER broken 4 in the mile or an equivalent in the 1500. NAU had 6 that ran 3:39 or faster for 1500 last year with Nico and Kusche at 3:37.
Last time I checked, NCAA men's XC was 10K, not 1500M.
It's a 10km XC race, not a 1500m ... Mile times mean little in NCAA cross. Strength is so much more important especially since you're racing 2x10km in 7 days. 5k PBs are a better measure of talent since not everyone has run 10ks.
If you want to know why Mike Smith the greatest college coach ever go watch his interview after their 2019 loss. College xc coaching is so much about the people and the mental side, training is all the same. 10 mile tempos, mile reps at threshold etc etc. None of that is special. There’s a reason all these kids want to go to NAU and want to run for Mike Smith even though there’s dozens of schools with bigger budgets and better academics.