Pixler is done with eligibility, but I wouldn't be surprised to see her run unattached at a meet or 2.
Pixler is done with eligibility, but I wouldn't be surprised to see her run unattached at a meet or 2.
Kathy Kroeger, soph, Stanford could be awesome. She was hurt last fall in xc, but finished in the top group for the 5K at NCAAs in outdoor.
Howz about Colorado's Allie McLaughlin? She finished a very strong fifth last year as a freshman. You can see herr kicking away in the background as Bizzari is winning.
Depends if she can get back into form, but most of the top 10 returners are in the same boat. One thing in her favor is that she still has so much to learn that she could be in lesser form and still improve. If you could have put McLaughlin's 2012 head onto her 2009 body, she'da been 3rd place at worst.
returners from the top 20
19:51 Kendra Schaaf - died at the end from a kick-killing surge attempt, missed track, seemingly cleared to run XC
19:59 Amanda White - missed track, great kick, had a lot left
20:01 Allie McLaughlin - missed track, needed a :03 gap on White to beat her last year, also had a lot left, a prairieful of room for improvement
20:02 Amanda Marino - didn't really have a kick, missed some indoor
20:07 Emily Infeld - healthy and fit as far as I know
20:10 Risper Kimaiyo - same
20:11 Cecily Lemmon - missed track, missed a bunch of summer, gonna be tough to repeat top 20, let alone top 10
20:16 Sheila Reid - not her best day last year, good to go as far as I know
20:18 Rebecca Lowe - beats me
20:22 Pasca Cheruiyot - beats me
20:22 Emily Pritt - beats me
20:23 Jordan Hasay - a so-so day and not trained to run her best 6k from emphasizing track. Being done with Juniors, maybe they'll max her?
others
20:34 Megan Hogan - bellyflopped early and managed to limp her way back up to and briefly past the 4th group
20:42 Christine Babcock - had the nats course frosh record until McLaughlin nipped it, very capable of sub-20 dry
21:10 Alex Kosinski - 8th place 2 years ago, injury setbacks in '09 XC, strong track season, could also go sub-20 dry
21:35 Betsy Saina - great freshman track season if she can translate it to XC
Laurynne Chetelat - redshirt transfer to Cal last year
Megan Goethals - #1 freshman in the country
Ashley Brasovan - missed the last 18 months, #1 redshirt freshman in the country
Anyone else in the mix?
At last, an intelligent post that was fun to read and very informative.
Thank you, Berol.
Thanks, I'll throw in a couple of Stanfords.
21:03 Kathy Kroeger - "distance run" recommends her, what more to say? ;)
21:08 Alex Dunne - slowly building upon her high school successes, 3" slower than prenats, bet she ran with Kroeger until the last section
Don't forget Emily Sisson, the new High school USR holder in the 5000 (15:48). At the rate she's been improving, she could be a big threat.
I think this year will be dominated by younger runners, except for veterans like Sheila Reid.
But Jordan Hasay, Allie McLaughlin, Ashley Brasovan, Emily Sisson, Kathy Kroeger, Megan Goethals...the list goes on of talented freshman and sophomores who could really run well.
A lot of the older top returners didn't compete in track, so it'll be interesting to see how their seasons go...
2012 could be quite the nationals, all those as juniors and seniors with Chelsey Sveinsson thrown in.
Now a true senior, Alex Gits was 13th at World Junior XC in 2007. From what I can tell, that's like getting 6th or 7th at NCAAs. Gits has been one big stress fracture since then but was able to return to health at the end of this past track season. The darkhorse of darkhorses.
How 'bout some love for Marie Elizabeth (Mel) Lawrence at U-Dub? Injury problems as a frosh and junior. Ran good-to-great as a soph on that phenomenal 2008 NCAA champs team. My personal favorite to win. Hope she does and brings friend/foe Jordan right along behind her.
After having such a string of great champ runners starting with Kara Wheeler (Goucher) back in 2000 and progressing to Flanagan, Kim Smith, Johanna Nielson, Kipyego and Barringer, this is such an unusual year with 10-15 or more legitimate pre-season NCAA champ possibilities.
Stan Ford Jr.
didn't the other nielson (or nillson) win as well?
Ida was top 15 three times, best was 8th.
So those were all just rumors about her heading off to CU for grad school and competing for them? Bummer.
The rumors are true for outdoor track, false for XC and indoor.
GIts XC
2007 31st prenats (20:51), DNR conference, 3rd region (20:23), 53rd nats (21:12), 2nd junior nats (20:45), 13th junior worlds (20:41)
2008 29th conference (21:06) - only race of the season
2009 redshirt
Ah, alright. Shoot, there probably wasn't even a rumor, most likely just my ignorance. Thanks tho!
See, the thing I'm worried about is the coaching. This is why I think the runners at a school like Villanova, Florida State (or even Oregon), etc. could do well, because it is proven that these schools have good coaches who have consistently placed their teams high.
Names like Mel Lawrence, Christine Babcock, Megan Goethals are being thrown around. However, it looks to me like since Kelly MacDonald-Strong left, the situation at Washington hasn't been very good (I mean, Kendra Schaaf transferred) so I wonder how well they really will perform... the talent is there. Likewise with Emily Sisson at Wisconsin.
I've heard the one about Pixler running XC for Colorado at least 3 times. I thought she was done with everything until I looked it up last night.
see..... wrote:Names like Mel Lawrence, Christine Babcock, Megan Goethals are being thrown around. However, it looks to me like since Kelly MacDonald-Strong left, the situation at Washington hasn't been very good (I mean, Kendra Schaaf transferred) so I wonder how well they really will perform... the talent is there. Likewise with Emily Sisson at Wisconsin.
The coaching at Wisconsin has looked worse than it is as a result of several, generally independent factors and occurrences.
Sisson will have decent company at Wisconsin this year without having to run with the men; there were a large number of RS last year so the number 3/4/5/6 team members might not make a serous traveling squad this year (Wisconsin typically runs some early races where the runners not in the top 5 or even 10 get to race, and they list a total of 32 'eligibility F and So). In addition, they have a ton of freshmen that little is known about unless you follow the HS scene closely; maybe the most interesting is the Chicago-area girl who was the first from that designation to finish top 3 in forever, and who is primarily a racer rather than a time-trial person.
An interesting case in Cassie Hintz, who came with a tricky background. She has not competed in the last three years, really. I think that she has focused more on being a top engineering (civil) student.
whoops!
Alex Gits 2009 - 7th Stanford Invite (20:50), 15th prenats (21:01.8), 10th pac 10 (20:13.16), late-scratch West Regional, DNF nats
So many of these posts about coaches are ridiculous... Commenting on things that you don't really know..if you were an athlete at the UW you would understand that Kelly Strong didn't really coach or develop athletes. She was an "assistant" who acted as a friend to the athletes and acted very inappropriate on many levels. The athletes there are much better without her. She needs to grow up first before she can actually be a coach!
Wisconsin women well be very good (top15 at nats) this year, if they stay healthy. They are already racing their easy runs with sisson there and everyone wanting to prove they belong, so i can forsee injuries. Their top 5 should be sisson, grinaker, buetler, comfort then someone stepping up as the 5th runner.
Hintz stopped running competitively after getting over her eating disorder.