LRC note. We've don't need two thread son the same topic so we merged them. The other thread was titled, "porscha dobson and sean mcnulty NEED to leave Dartmouth."
We've long stated that coaching threads are the hardest to moderate as people get really fired up. Ivy League threads are probably a close second. Combine the two and it's difficult. As a result, we're requiring registration to post moving forward. Please remember you are talking about real people.
It's not even his fault he was hired for the job but the train wreck is actively happening and people that could stop it are just promoting the pr campaign. Oh to be in power with a privilege to protect it
Just not true. Dartmouth has had plenty of distance success. The problem right now is that they had a good coach who replaced their longtime coach and was building some success. He was then canned as part of a power struggle with the director of track and cross country (not a distance coach). The coach who replaced him promptly injured nearly the whole team. Dartmouth *can* have success because Dartmouth *has* had success. But those recent developments mean that we’ll be lost in the wilderness for some time now.
The past 2 distance coach hires have been a DISGRACE to Dartmouth. They were both really bad but this new guy, whose name I refuse to even speak, was an unaccomplished D3 coach from Transylvania Univ who had never coached a sub 15 5k runner before arriving at Dartmouth.
Dartmouth should be able to contend with Princeton and Harvard in cross country because they have the most places to train. The wilderness vibe at Dartmouth is a huge selling point to distance runners. 99.99% of all distance runners would rather train in Hanover over anywhere else in the league including Boston. You have to stop at a light every 30m in Boston or take vans. Princeton has like 1 trail. New Haven is a ghetto.
Incompetence is killing Dartmouth.
Absolutely on point here. However their fall from grace has been going on from at least 2010 not 2020. While the distance coaches are mediocre you must look at the Director of the XC/Track programs as a whole. Completely bungled. Barry at the very least had vision while it was hit or miss most of the time they had some hits. And don’t say their women’s program is so stellar because they’ve only had Abby D. Giordano and Pappas are the Harry Norton’s of the women’s world. Even UNH had Purrier, programs get the stars every great once and a while and they were riding off Vin’s success for decades.
Columbia and Penn have more veteran coaches. I would argue they are obviously not top of Ivy league, but they have seen highs and lows. Ireland and Dolan are solid coaches.
Fat-fingered a down vote on this by accident. Meant to upvote. Both Dolan and Ireland have been successful in the past, and I am sure they will continue to be successful.
The firing of Justin Wood will set the team back 4+ years, and maybe more if the new coach (Sean McNulty) continues to fall short. Due to a power struggle with the Director of Track and Field, Justin was canned 1 day before the 2022 cross-country season and all his recruits were ghosted until his replacement was hired in December 2022. This meant there was basically no recruiting class coming in and the current sophomores Justin had recruited to Dartmouth quit or transferred.
The roster is the smallest I have ever seen it with 14 athletes. Only 4 freshman and 2 sophomores. Combine that with your #1, #3 and #4 runners getting hurt and you end up with 6 healthy bodies on the start line at regionals and get 20something place. So McNulty "injuring the entire roster" isn't complete hyperbole if Dartmouth couldn't even yield 7 athletes for regionals. When the roster is this small there is no room for that kind of error.
There had been 5 distance coaches on the Men's side in the 3 years since Barry Harwick retired. The situation is such that I'm not sure what recruits would want to come to Hanover. The future already looks dim due to poor recruiting and now injuries and bad performances at big meets (Heps and Regionals) is even more discouraging for prospective athletes. It is going to take a monumental coaching effort to prove McNulty can develop talent and make Hanover a desired location for top distance recruits again.
The two highlights since McNulty joined have been Eric Gibson setting the 1k school record (2:21) and DJ Matusz winning the Heps outdoor 800. Both of these results were either immediately followed by a stress injury or occurred when a stress injury already been sustained. So is that good or bad coaching? I'm not sure.
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