MIAC CC 2007

True, SJU isn't going to beat LaX, but to say that they are not in the same league is just unintelligent. Erichsen and Fermoyle will take 1,2 and for the most part I agree with what people are saying about the top 10 except for possibly boumester and murphy. Boumester got beat by 7 or 8 johnnies alone at the SJU invite and true this is an early season meet and he might improve, but so will all the other runners in the MIAC including the johnnies I'm sure. As for Murphy, I haven't seen him race yet this year but from what I've heard, I'm not too impressed. Is he going to come on strong at conference?

Is that what you said last year too about Saint John's and LaX? Tim Miles has a philosophy called "peaking at the right time", something the Johnnies seem to do very well come championship season. (exception: 2005 MIAC Championship)

my handicapped grandmother runs faster than boumester. did you see LaX's griak times?

LaX is overrated and i'm going to puke if I see another one of their stupid videos on flotrack.

ps. SJU's varsity did not run at Eau Claire.

what were so bad about LaX's Griak times? It's one of the hardest courses in the nation...you probably wouldn't know that though because you don't even run there.

you know whats funny, lax team is full of a bunch of guys who think they are great, wanted to run d1 really badly, so went to lax, only to a)not improve and b)compete with 20 other guys who are all equal in talent from meet to meet. their jv is almost as good as their varsity because they dont really have top runners. just a bunch of guys coming in at about the same time. its a good thing they wasted all their time at lax, when they could have gone to a community college and recieved a better education. but its a good thing that tommie runner transfered there because we all know transfering schools to get to a better running program is the smartest thing one can do. especially at a d3 level...

haha thats funny... yeah, lax may have beat sju at eau claire. does that really matter. like the post above said, tim miles peaks his runners when it matters. the same thing can be said about luther. those two teams were getting smoked by lax early in the season, but were completely different teams come conference and after. lax is good no doubt, but at this point it doesnt matter. sju and lax are both good teams and itll be fun to see what happens come nationals, not a month plus before.

So... Don Fritsch does not know how to peak his guys for championship races? Take a look at the La Crosse tradition over the years; the Johnnies are not even in the same league. Besides if everyone is so good, why arent they beating LAX?

yeah their times were weak. i ran 26:30 there as a sophomore.

LaX is overrated. nuff said.

I sincerely doubt that either the Johnnies or LaCrosse runs their studs. LaX top guys have already run on the course once this year at the Olaf invite. The Johnnie guys have not, but unless someone with more knowledge of the situation suggests otherwise, I would not expect to see any top-7 guys tomorrow.

Now, something more interesting to talk about is the NEW course at St. Olaf. If you haven't heard, they are doing something to that loop down by the highway (with the long hill). Thornton is not sure whether they will be done for regions or not, but for tomorrow, the 8k course will start the same way, but have only one lap around the thousand loop, then go through the little 300 meter loop and across the fields the same, do the pond loop, then loop around like the 6k course. Once you get around the pond the second time, it goes back to the 1000 loop, does another lap around it in reverse, then goes to the finish. This should make the course slightly quicker because it removes one of the two significant hills.

Um, I'm pretty sure LaX won the Griak. And by 52 points. you don't get a break on that course at all, the longest flat excluding maybe the finish chute is probably 70 meters. I wouldn't discount them for their times at Griak, especially considering they won a 35-team meet with at least four or five ranked teams, which usually means you had a pretty good day. The Johnnies can definitely beat them if they have a great race. Especially at a bigger meet, where the winning team score could be 70 or 80 points, having two front-runners is a huge help.

so it takes out the finishing hill? or the hill during the 2nd time around the thousand loop?--of course the backside of that hill seems steep too.

its gets rid of the long, grandual, slanted hill that parallels the road you drive to get onto campus. from the sounds of it, it will be a faster course, not sure if the length changes at all though. knowing thornton, he will make sure it is at least 8k on the shortest route possible route.

brink of sanity wrote:

does anyone else think Carleton or Hamline can take down SJU at MIAC? 1:10 spread from your #2 to your #3 will lose a conference meet. SJU needs VanBruggen back in the worst way.

In this case, a 1:10 spread is not too alarming because Erichson and Fermoyle are running exceptionally fast. Their #3-5 could still be top 10. Erichson could be top 5 at nationals with Fermoyle close behind. Dustin Franta ran #3 at the first meet and #8 at the last one. Freshmen aren't always consistent, but they tend to improve a lot. They'd have to lose at least two of their top guys to worry about losing conference. They won't be missing VanBruggen until nationals, when they'll need everything they've got to improve on that 5th place.

I think the question should be, who might beat Carleton? Hamline has Murphy back. Will Gleason make an end of season appearance like Jeff Metzdorf in '05? Metzdorf was injured the first half of the season, and ended up 2nd at Conference and 23rd at Nationals.

Macalester and St. Thomas are running strong too. I think you'll see Mac running even better on the 13th at the UW-Oshkosh Brooks Invitational.

funny because its true wrote:

you know whats funny, lax team is full of a bunch of guys who think they are great, wanted to run d1 really badly, so went to lax, only to a)not improve and b)compete with 20 other guys who are all equal in talent from meet to meet. their jv is almost as good as their varsity because they dont really have top runners. just a bunch of guys coming in at about the same time. its a good thing they wasted all their time at lax, when they could have gone to a community college and recieved a better education. but its a good thing that tommie runner transfered there because we all know transfering schools to get to a better running program is the smartest thing one can do. especially at a d3 level...

Is somebody a little envious???

The course will definitely be 8k. It follows the women's 6k course exactly until the turn to the finish, where it continues back across the soccer fields, back around the 300m loop and does another 1000m loop. The way I see it, you get 6k+350ish across the fields+300m loop+1000m loop+350ish across the fields, and the finishing stretch will be exactly the same, only you approach it from the other side.

You are describing a course that is different from the course that is shown on the national meet sight. What you are describing seems a lot more fan friendly. You would get a much better look at the runners. Would they really change the course at this point? If it is to be changed wouldn't that change have to be run today as well?

Yes, it would. And it was. The course they ran this morning was exactly the one that I described. Times were super slow, it was 85 degrees at St. Olaf at noon when the men's gun went off. North Central had probably 5 of the top 8 or 10. Swanson ran out of his mind for second place, and Haglund was maybe 4th.

Not only was it really hot, the course was soaked too.

LaX, SJU and Carleton didn't run their top men. St. Thomas was missing Sames. It's hard to tell with the slow times, but Grinnell isn't looking that great -- a slot at nationals should be up for grabs between St. Olaf, STU, Hamline and Macalester if they can beat both Grinnell and Luther.