DIII Central Region

Agreed central, it is CC and a bad day can spoil a season of training for anyone. Steve Pasche with his SJU upbringing seems to peak his runners at the right time. That should help make this a tough race. Does the fact that this meet as well as nationals is only a short drive from campus for the Johnnies change anything? Maybe the many times the Minnesota kids have run this plays in? Charlie Mahler has a nice article on his blog about the course that made me think about it. Could the home cooking advantage play out for the Central runners on the 17th? The one thing that is for sure, I can't wait for this next three week-ends in Northfield.

http://downthebackstretch.blogspot.com/

i have to agree with griddler on this one. dunker may be a "gamer", but all that means is that nobody knows who is showing up to the race. Is he going to run great? or is he going to race like he has the rest of the year. the thing about erichsen is that he is so damn consistent. you can think dunker will have a great race, but you know that erichsen is going to have a great race.

Men's Prediction:

SJU

NWU

Luther

Carleton

Grinnell

Erichsen for the win, with Busche edging Dunker for 2nd.

Women's Prediction:

Luther

NWU

St. Thomas

St. Olaf

Carleton

Dobyns for the win, with Borner taking home 2nd.

Thus sayeth the Lord.

I think people are underestimating Spencer from Grinnell on the women's side. She hasn't had to run hard for a while. I have to agree with the above predictions for teams. Grinnell women may finish in the top 5 if they can get their 1 and 2 in the top 5. I do remember that people were picking them to finish 4th last year when they destroyed the region. That's not likely to happen this year, though.

Ok, Brooklyn is obviously a Luther runner.

If you ask me last year was an fluke for that entire squad. Luther will fail to send anyone but Dobyns and Busche to Nationals.

Thus sayeth Me.

Why are we underestimating Spencer? I think Dobyns is better. I do think Spencer can be Borner.

Glad there will actually be a race for 1st this year for the women.

days away. what will unfold...

Well if that is the case, then im fairly certain they would qualify more than those two runners as individuals. Definitely mckay on the men's side as well, and im not sure about their women's side. The women probably have a shot at winning it though and improving on their finish last year at nationals. With two front runners on the men's side, you probably cant count them out on qualifying. I also don't think last year was a fluke, so I almost expect to see good things on both sides come saturday. It would surprise me if they ran as well as the team last year, but they still have a strong enough team to make it to nationals, especially considering the region doesn't seem very strong this year for the men.

I think the central region will get 4, maybe 5 teams this year for the men. It should be a close race between nwu and sju for 1st and 2nd. 3-5 will be another close pack with the carls, luther, and wartburg. Hamline and grinell will duke it out for 6th and 7th this year.

I think Borner deserves a little more credit.

Looks like it was a fluke for the entire Luther squad again...maybe next time you should listen to the word of the Lord.

I hate cheering for Luther. It kind of feels like praying to Allah. But I'm dumbfounded as to how everyone keeps underestimating them as a squad. They won IIAC's last year, had 2 All-Americans, Finished 5th or 6th at the national meet last year, Swept the IIAC's this year, have 2 should be All-Americans, have a great coach, and are running stronger as a team as the year goes on. They may not be a top 5 or even 10 team this year but saying they wont contend for a spot to nationals is frickin' unbelievable.

So, assuming that the Central will get all five possible team spots, and I feel this will happen as the top four are ranked in the top 25 and the fifth was just two points off fourth, the following are making the trip back to St. Olaf for nationals:

Teams

Nebraska Wesleyan

Luther

St. John's

Carleton

Wartburg

Individuals

Ben Grant, Loras

Dan Greeno, Bethel

Carl Gladistch, Bethel

Chris Delaubenfels, Gustavus Adolphus

Eric Osterhaus, Simpson

Brad O'Neil, Coe

David Swanson, St. Olaf (admittedly not much of a trip for him)

So, what do people think? Obviously 3rd for the Johnnies is a disappointment given their top 10 ranking, but you must give it up to NW and Luther for very solid races. Wartburg fought back after a bad race at IIAC although their fifth man killed 'em again. Carleton also did very well considering their best guy was 17th. Grinnell was a big disappointment. They just got back into the National Polls and they conk out when it matters. I wonder if they tried to duplicate their conference win by going out slow then running in a pack? Given the times all around and where Grinnell ended up, I imagine they just found the race to be too fast for them to pull off the pack attack.

As far as the individual placings, all the best people were in the front for the most part, so top 10 was not much of a surprise other than Chenoweth having a bad day by his standards. Erichsen wins, no real surprise there either. Grant 2 and Busche 3, again no surprise.

The individual qualifiers seem about what we all expected, except what happened to those two guys from Hamline? Bauer was first guy out I think but Steinbrecher I thought had a real rough day. Oh, and who the f*** is Brad O'Neil from Coe?

Okay looking back I missed Steinbrecher he is only about 10 seconds behind Swanson for the last spot (presumably) so not a "real rough day." Guess I thought he'd do better though.

I was not able to be there. How did the men's race shake out? Lokks like the Neb. guys were pretty tough. I know St. Johns beat them @ Lacrosse.

I was not able to be there. How did the men's race shake out? Lokks like the Neb. guys were pretty tough. I know St. Johns beat them @ Lacrosse.

noone cares about rankings.

Nobody cares for your attitude.

Speaking of the SJU performance, it appears the 1-3 guys did about what was expected. Their 4-7 had a tougher day, so the team fell back a bit. Rankings in CC to start the season are mostly based on history and graduation. The Johnnies took the line at the regional without two rostered runners who scored for them at nationals last year. So their "rank" seems a little high as of today. The true rankings of course, will be out about 12:30 this Saturday!

How many all-americans can the region produce this year?

I see maybe five or six. What has there been in the past?

I only ask because I am entirely too lazy to look it up!