DIII Cross Country 2009

Edgar Kosgey?

kosgey will be top 5. He looks to be running significantly better than last year when he was 10th.

Whoops, forgot about him:

Revised:

1-Kosgei

2-DuBois

3-Heyman

4-Spain

5-Kosgey

6-Flynn

7-Dan Ramsey

8-Wilhelmy

9-Jesse Faller

10-Kyle Brady

11-Sean Curry (freshmen from Cortland)

run4fun247365 wrote:

Yeah, Mitchell had her appendix out over the summer, so she was a little bit behind, but I could see a pretty heated battle between her and Borner, and really the only thing that matters is how you're running at the end of the season! Could see a few other women step up... the Midwest is STACKED...as you mentioned, O'Grady is pretty solid as well as Childs-Walker from Carleton, Scherer from St. Norbert, Kraayenbrink from Wartburg. I'm pretty positive the National Champ is going to come out of the Midwest!

Women Top 10:

1. Marie Borner (Bethel)

2. Ayla Mitchell (Oshkosh)

3. Megan O'Grady (Carroll)

4. Joanna Johnson (Oberlin)

5. Simone Childs-Walker (Carleton)

6. Wendy Pavlus (St. Lawrence)

7. Jessica Koster (Calvin)

8. Anna Kraayenbrink (Wartburg)

9. Jacqui Wentz (MIT)

10. Jenny Scherer (St. Norbert)

Why is everyone putting DuBois ahead of Heymann? They just raced two weekends ago and Heymann beat him by about 30 seconds running 24:12.

1. Kosgei

2. Heymann

3. DuBois

4. Curry

5. Ramsey

6. Marker

7. Flynn

8. Spain

9. Kosgey

10. Wager

Serious Atlantic Region bias.

You are on crack if you think Ramsey is in the top 5, let alone top 50.

Give me a break - get real, the kid is a total choke artist. Now is about the time in the season when he'll start to blow it.

My rankings are based on the results I've seen and how people have run thus far. Not on who you think might choke in the future and who might peak well. Hope that clears up any confusion.

That's a pretty solid list. I know Borner, Mitchell, Johnson, Koster, and Kraayenbrink are all seniors. What about Pavlus and Wentz? If so, that only leaves 3 non seniors on the list, again proving how difficult it is to succeed at Nationals, especially in XC, as a freshman/sophomore.

run4fun247365 wrote:

That's a pretty solid list. I know Borner, Mitchell, Johnson, Koster, and Kraayenbrink are all seniors. What about Pavlus and Wentz? If so, that only leaves 3 non seniors on the list, again proving how difficult it is to succeed at Nationals, especially in XC, as a freshman/sophomore.

Pavlus is a junior but I think Wentz and Scherer are both seniors.

There is no way that Kosgey isn't top 5 as of right now. He just ran 24:41 at franklin and he ran a safe race.

While that time has been good in the past this year its just not as impressive. Franklin Park is extremely fast and is short of an 8k. Even though 24:41 seems great when you compare it to what we've seen so far this year out of DIII, best case scenario he's 5th right now and thats a stretch.

Its pretty well known that Franklin Park is around 7920 meters. With the extra 80 meters I'd say the effort would be worth around 24:50. Lots of guys have run faster than that so far this year. I think he'd be around 10th more realistically. Still a very solid performance.

He was third. Look and see how other DIII runners in recent years who got third at this race did at nationals.

Hint: The last one to do it won nationals.

Franklin Park rarely is as fast as people say it is. It is worlds slower than Paul Short and many of the other tracks in the midwest. There are 2 pretty significant hills on the course. Furthermore, this past weekend the course was soft and wet, definitely not conducive to fast times. I'd say it was at least 15 seconds slower than normal.

EVERYONE knows that Franklin Park is composed mainly of "Agrostis Palustris" which is also known as Creeping Bent Grass and is grown on golf courses. Paul Short only has Turf-Type Fall Fescue which on average is .07 seconds per mile slower than Agrostis Palustris (maybe .08 seconds per mile slower if you are a Nike fan). It is a coarse-textured medium to dark-green grass and it's leaves are rolled in the bud. It has short and rounded auricles and an extensive root system which is why it's so tough and resistant to constant traffic. This will create a slower course. If you knew ANYTHING about ANYTHING you would at least know this. And FURTHERMORE, when it gets wet it secretes a magic chemical that evaporates into the air and when inhaled by collegiate cross country runners it increases V02max INSTANTLY which allows for REALLY fast race times. Therefore...you are WAY off in your predictions my friend.

OK yeah so even more proof of how difficult the transition seems to be to the college level. Don't see many freshman/soph on either the men's or women's side in the top 10 at Nats.

That being said, just out of curiosity, are there any freshman/sophs on either the men's or women's side that could defy the odds? I guess O'Grady & Childs-Walker are both sophomores...

I really cant see Kosgey winning nationals this year. Top 10? sure. Winning? Probably not.

best. post. ever.