Top NCAA DIII X-Country teams

Berdan never AA'd

He was in the 10k outdoors two years ago and has ben to ncaa's in xc, but has never AA'd.

julianno graduatedso he is out and as far as a dark horse in the DIII race watch out for teams in the scac conference. ( claremont, la verne, whittier...)

you know what, you'd think cortland state would have a better team since jack daniels is their coach

Is Juliano even coming back for XC? He has been running 800s all over the East Coast and Canada as of last week. What about Klooster, is he graduated? What happened to Stelljes during track?

Klooster was a senior eligibility wise.

Juiliano is apparently done. I had heard some scattered rumors to that end.

Elizabethtown, for a decent amount of talent, they sure did just about nothing in track. Where the hell is Berdan?

Lacrosse? I'm sure losing their top 3 runners who were all All-Americans last year won't hurt a bit, yeah right. The Midwest is going to be the toughest region to get out of again, especially because they couldn't get it done at Nats last year, only get 4 berths. Augie loses there best guy, and they weren't particularly impressive in track. They will always be just out of the money, only because they have so many bodies. On another board I read some kid posting how they are all happy to get these 9:50 two milers, "studs" Guess what, every school in the region has at least one 9:30s kid, and the UW schools all have like 9.

The real team to watch is UW-Oshkosh. They return Eamon McKenna and Nick Boehlke, Boehkle ran a 30:33 at Junior Nats a few weeks ago. They return quite a few good athlets, and they finished 6th last year, despite not having any All-Americans.

Any teams or individuals out of the central region to watch out for? Maybe that kid who passed out at Nats last year or a team other than Nebr Wesleyan?

Central region should be tough, to a degree.

I read somewhere else about someone from Grinnell thinking they were going to rock since they had young guys ready to roll. Young guys don't win championships. They didn't even make it last year.

Wartburg, Hamline, St. Thomas, and of course, Nebraska Wesleyan should contend and probably all return to NCs.

Individually, Marcus Murphy has not been the same since he passed out on the home stretch in Rock Island. He's run okay since then, but has been very inconsistent. Outdoors he opened up with an early 31:09, and that was as good as he got. He ran a couple of other decent races, maybe even went provo in the steeplechase at a last chance meet, but not as good as I thought he might be. Levi Ashley from Nebraska Wesleyan should contend highly in the region too. He's young, and he's been good for a long time, at the h.s. level in Nebraska. But he and his N.W. buddies didn't do as well as I thought they might in track either. In Minnesota, Kreger and Preus both return, I believe. They were both All-Americans last year and had steady, decent track seasons. Tyson Kieth from Wartburg should be up there too. He ran something like a 30:47 in late May, and Wartburg always does pretty decent.

The Central Region will have some tough individuals...that have been mentioned, but the teams (except for Nebr Wesl) are going to be weak. St. Thomas, Wartburg, & Hamline all have contenders up front but no depth (due to graduation, etc).

What have the Elizabethtown guys been up to that makes them so confident they will be that much better next year? Where are they training, what are they doing?

midwestguy wrote:

What have the Elizabethtown guys been up to that makes them so confident they will be that much better next year? Where are they training, what are they doing?

probably running

MIT aint bad for a bunch of smart guys.

I agree with one of the earlier posts, Oshkosh is the team to watch out for. I know they faded late in the year last year, but they have 4-5 guys that have potential to be top 5 at Nat's.

North Central is very young, but has a great shot at top four or five. They return all american Pat Rizzo, plus Andy Enright, who is a soph, who really turned it on and should be up with Rizzo during cross. They also got a 9:17 two miler, Nick Hird from IL, and he won his state race in that time with ease. He will be exciting to watch improve at NC. NC will be one to watch.

oshkosh has 4 or 5 guys that could be top 5! let's mail them the trophy and give them 15 points.

Sorry, I didn't mean top 5 in the same meet...just meant that between Cisewski, Boehlke, Groose, McKenna any one of these guys has the potential to be top 5 at Nat's, if they log the miles. Not to mention they have 3-4 more National qualifiers sitting on their roster (mostly indoor qualifiers). You are right though, I can see that I grossly overstated what they may do this season. Sorry.

look for grinnell's adam booth

that appears on the end of the 2001 championship film that looks REAL bad?

He isn't the guy that is falling all over the place. He is the guy that somehow continued to run although it appeared that 90% of his body was horizontal to the ground. It would have been nice if the camera would have gotten a better shot, you only get a cross-section of him.

I have a feeling that a New England school(not sure which one yet) is going to finally break through and win it all

I suppose some Elizabethtown talk is going to start up again? It would be refreshing to see a NE school take home the crown...They clearly have the talent.

Who are the top NE schools this year?