Midwest D1 Regional Results

Missouri had a HUGE race. Wow!

netzo wrote:

Angela Bizzari (2nd) sure has had a great freshman year

Interesting case. She won the Ohio HS Div. I xc title as a freshman (and junior) and won the 3200m title all four years but things never worked out for her in Footlocker competition (never made nationals) so her national profile remained relatively low. She is a true freshman so perhaps we'll see her take a shot at the world junior xc team.

wow...minnesota really stunk it up besides chris.

goldygopher wrote:

wow...minnesota really stunk it up besides chris.

Their team look like it died on paper. If you see this happen year after year wouldn't you think it is time for a coaching strategy change? I follow the team and remember Vega winning last year even though he was hurt early season. Why is it that he stays healthy and gets worse? I really thought Plas had learned a lot recently but his only chance is to bring in more foreigners like before if he wants to compete.

Minnesota in 6th? Ouch. Do they have any sort of a realistic chance for an at large bid? This region was really tough this year eh? Good points about Plas too...I think he needs to make a better effort recruiting outside of MN.

I have been dissed for smashing Plascenia for before as being the worst coach in NCAA DI (which I know is an exaggeration), but he continually ruins good runners.

I beg Mike Torchia to transfer to Wisco. to prove this point.

They are more talented than any team in this region on a yearly basis and always suck. Yes, they get to nationals every year---out of by far the weakest region in the country.

I watched both races and the Minnesota guys just sort of drifted back, drifted back, in a big group all race long. Man, it hurt to watch. Rombough, though, really moved over the last 3K, but it was VanDenend's day today. He and Uhl were together at 9K, (Jason Bill was up there for a long time, too) but VanDenend just burned Uhl off and had too much lead for anyone to catch.

The women's race had a big comfortable pack until the woman from Iowa just blew it wide open at 4K. There were 8-10 women together, they did a little loop behind a hill, and when they came back around she must have had 30-40 yards already. Wow.

Plas is a terrible coach. His teams always underperform. Torchia's a rookie, I wouldn't put any of this on him.

But, lately Plas has been getting his hands on the top in-state runners. Maybe he needs to just come to the realization that MN runners ( not necessarily Torchia) aren't that good. Out of all the guys from MN on the team, the only one who did anything was Vega. But then again, Vega won the regional last year, so this wasn't a good race for him.

Plas needs to quit wasting his time on most MN runners and us Rombough's success to get his hands on some good wisconsin runners.

Dr Smith - what were the course conditions? i know northwest wisconsin got hit w/ as much as 16" of snow - anything on the ground in minn?

Off the top of my head I can think of 6 guys that have run 9:10 to 9:15 in high school who never broke 25:00 for 8k under Plas.

6 guys between 910 and 915? After experience in the Minn program I can't recall 6 in the last 5 or so years...care to elaborate??

jaybird wrote:

Dr Smith - what were the course conditions? i know northwest wisconsin got hit w/ as much as 16" of snow - anything on the ground in minn?

Excellent course conditions, but cold. No snow (it pretty much missed the Cities ... this time), sunny, just a little wind, but right around freezing.

Its no secret wrote:

Plas is a terrible coach. His teams always underperform. Torchia's a rookie, I wouldn't put any of this on him.

But, lately Plas has been getting his hands on the top in-state runners. Maybe he needs to just come to the realization that MN runners ( not necessarily Torchia) aren't that good. Out of all the guys from MN on the team, the only one who did anything was Vega. But then again, Vega won the regional last year, so this wasn't a good race for him.

Plas needs to quit wasting his time on most MN runners and us Rombough's success to get his hands on some good wisconsin runners.

Well a frosh from MN ran fourth today, even though she was 'only third best' last year in MN HS ranks (until FL).

It's good to see Missouri run well, they're program has really improved in the middle distance and distance over the last couple years. Is it possible that the Midwest region will only send the automatic qualifiers as the at large board thinks is true? Either way, great job Tigers.

On a side note, how did Minnesota blow up like that? I thought they were a shoe-in

Gary Wilson is MN women's coach, not plas. That's why the women's team doesn't choke routinely.

The women's team actually qualified, unlike the men's.

If you look at the results, Minnesota's 3-7 were 38, 46, 47, 49, and 51. Obviously they were probably pack-running, and they probably just got out too slow. I heard the mile went out in like 4:43 on a very tough course...I don't even know if Griak goes out that fast, and this was a 10k.

But from looking at the results, if Minnesota's 3-7 finish 10 seconds faster, they take third with about 116 points.

How about the fact that my Iowa Hawkeyes beat Minnesota when it counts, not at Griak, not at Big Tens, but now. Great peaking every year. Cannot wait to see if it's enough for an at-large. Possible at-large for both men and women, too. I wonder if Iowa has EVER won the individual men's AND women's races in the SAME year. GO HAWKS!

Mike Lundgren wrote:

How about the fact that my Iowa Hawkeyes beat Minnesota when it counts, not at Griak, not at Big Tens, but now. Great peaking every year. Cannot wait to see if it's enough for an at-large. Possible at-large for both men and women, too. I wonder if Iowa has EVER won the individual men's AND women's races in the SAME year. GO HAWKS!

Are you serious? Iowa peaking when it counts?

First, I would like to see evidence of "great peaking every year." The consensus has been the exact opposite. I can only think of 2004 as a year that the Hawks ran their best race at the end of the season.

Second, I think you might want to check with Iowa's AD and ask him if the Midwest Regional is more important than the Big Ten meet. The regional is a prelim race for nationals.

Third, I would argue that Iowa ran a very average race. Vandenend ran great. He looks like an All-American. MacTaggert may have run his worst race of the year. Iowa's third was more the result of the fact that they are a good team and a couple of good teams ran poorly at regionals.

Fourth, Iowa's best race this season, so far, was Pre-Nats. They beat Kansas, who spanked them here, and were 15 points behind Notre Dame. They also spanked Misoouri by almost 200 points at Pre-Nats and barely hold them off at regionals by one point!).

My take - Iowa is a good team that ran an average race. If MacT can rebound they could have two potential All-Americans and low sticks will always help more in a big meet like NCAAs than a samller meet.

Iowa sends both teams to Nationals. Go Hawks!