! ! ! ! 2009 DII Cross Country ! ! ! !

dear umass lowell, please stop posting about yourselves, this includes your alums, they are not ballin and neither are you.

-thanks, everyone else on letsrun

solis low 14? since when?

Believe me it is not us at UMass Lowell or Ruben posting about ourselves. We think it is stupid as well.

Did everyone know that DBU women qualified for the real NCAA2 CC Nats this year?

so your saying Adams state's 7th guy would have beat donnan, that is crazy. Who is their top 7 and who is on the B team?- there must be some studs sitting at home!!!!!!!!!

true he's ballin but stupid to say what we already know

Here's my thoughts:

Individuals

1) Aaron Braun - On a slow hard course, after two runner-up finishes, no way he loses this one.

2) Amos Sang - I think he looks better than Braun on paper, but intangibles favor Braun.

3) Brian Medigovich - Has been with Braun every step of the way, could be anywhere in the top 3.

4) Ruben Mwei - Less consistent than his American teammates and could fall lower than this, but will finish here if he runs to his potential.

5) Iain Donnan - Last year he surprised me with his toughness on a tough course, he does it again here.

6) Daniel Kirwa - 2 years ago I would have said there is no way that he doesn't win this race but he seems to have stalled a bit recently.

7) Tyler Pennel - If he stays healthy, he is my early pick to win in 2010.

8) Ryan McNiff - Adams gets half the top 8. The best race all day might be Adams vs. the Field.

9) Glarius Rop - Based on other peoples performances at the Atlantic region, I think that course was 1:30 slower than the Central Region. If that's true, this kid is extremely overrated. But he hasn't been pushed, so who knows.

10) Marko Cheseto - Could be higher but Anchorage doesn't seem to peak well.

11) Nicaise Kazingo

12) Jordan Welling

13) Edwin Cruz

14) Michael Pierce

15) Loren Ahonen

Teams

1) Adams - Going on the assumption that there wasn't as much depth in 1992, this is the best team in the history of Adams and D2. Final Score Adams 29, Rest of the Field 29.

2) Western - This year will also be the most boring team race as the top 2 are total locks.

3) Chico State - They hurt for a 5th runner at regionals but if a guy like Scanlon gets up where he should be they will have no problem getting third. If not they fall to 5th.

4) Mines - Yep, I'm gonna go ahead and pick them ahead of Grand Valley, and this is probably where the team race gets the most interesting. Mines has been running 40 second 1-5 pack splits all year off of Zywicki who was a 14:20 guy indoors. And they have had 6 regular contributors to that pack, so they have room for error that Chico and GVSU don't.

5) Grand Valley State - They are a little bit of an unknown because of how young they still are. People improve a lot between their freshman and sophmore year and they ran like 5 freshman last year. But they had an 85 second 1-5 spread off of a 14:45 guy.

6) Western Washington - The best of the rest but they will be a ways behind the top 5. They get 4 spots for the west region next year though.

7) Missouri Southern - Compare times with a guy like Sang and you realize that this team is for real. They are probably getting overlooked because we can't compare them with a legit Abilene team like in the past.

8) This spot is a tough one to pick, so I'll leave it open:

On paper it's Anchorage but they blew up so hard in PA last year, that I hesitate to put them here.

I also like Metro, their girls peaked out of their minds at regionals. Did the guys peak for regionals too, or do they have something left? And is Nesbitt a better coach than Julian?

Saginaw Valley looked very good at regionals.

Southern Indiana, might be able to sneak in there on their home course.

That's all I got! See you in Evansville!

What about Queens? I think they could be top 8 even if Crouch doesn't run...anybody know if he's running?

ochocinco wrote:

What about Queens? I think they could be top 8 even if Crouch doesn't run...anybody know if he's running?

He is out from a groin injury but is on the road to recovery. Will be back shortly for track.

Boulderunner wrote:

8) This spot is a tough one to pick, so I'll leave it open:

On paper it's Anchorage but they blew up so hard in PA last year, that I hesitate to put them here.

Anchorage will not be in the top 10.

My predictions are as follows:

1. Zadicklick (grand valley)

2. Angus Macdonald (U mass)

3. Crouch even though he lost his big toe

4. Mokoya (Regionals was a fluke)

5. Chocolate (Henderson State)

6. Werewolf man ( A state)

7. Ian Donnan (guaranteed to push the pace)

8. Tanui (acu is the bomb this year!)

9. Kirwa (hes a decent runner but he needs a lot of work)

10.Hogarth ( hes only 50)

112.Balls (chico)

No way Werewolf man gets 6th!! NO F'IN WAY.

The two issues that I have is where you put Ahonen and that you left Crouch out. Ahonen is moving up just like he did last year. Last year he was 11th in the region and then 12th at nationals. At conference he was 12th, almost 30 seconds behind Cruz. Then at regionals he placed 8th by outkicking Cruz. So by moving up to a 10k, two weeks later, a harder course (nats looks harder than the central region course) and going down to sea level helped him quite a bit. My point is that he shows up when it counts. I would place him around 10th.Even though it is rumored that Crouch is hurt and has been out for a while, I don't see him being out of the top 15, just because he is that good of a runner. I mean that the kid did run 13:40 last spring, that just does not disappear after a few weeks off.Also besides his regionals race Sang does not look like a runner up to me, but damn that race was impressive so I wont argue you on that point.I would also look out for Laban Sialo, I feel that he had an off day during regionals. I know that he has lots of talent and heart, and feel that he can do better than that race shows, I could be wrong though.

92% chance amos sang doesnt make the top 5, 71% chance he doesnt make the top 10, he has done nothing significant in cross or track period

Brian Medigovich and Aaron Braun are the top 2, kirwa is close, mwei isnt

These picks are good, but they are purely academic. Everyone knows that things don't always play out the way everyone expects at nats. Let's have predictions that aren't so safe!!

Or is that what makes nats. exciting, when the aces falter and the darkhorses ride!

RMAC goes 1-5!!!

Braun

MedG

Pennel

Rueben

Donnan

????????Sang the past 2 years has doubled in the 5/10k & was All-America in both races, both years. He's been the most consistent ACU runner since Naimadu. He was injured @ CC Nats last year & didnt run.I'd give him a 90% chance of top 5, 95% of top 10, and 100% chance of you talking out of your bung hole.

g-zellin wrote:

92% chance amos sang doesnt make the top 5, 71% chance he doesnt make the top 10, he has done nothing significant in cross or track period

Brian Medigovich and Aaron Braun are the top 2, kirwa is close, mwei isnt

I follow D1 and D2 pretty closely and as of what I have seen-

Donain will not be top five- he couldn't break Adams state's top 7 at regionals - if you include the open race results where Cragg, Sellers and Gautier ran the 5th,6th and 7th fastest times of the Day.

As far as i am aware Adam's team is

Braun,Medigovich, Mwei

Mcniff

Cragg

Sellers

Gautier

From the results at the Jamboree it looks like 7 Adams guys who would be top guy for 95% of teams in D2 will be sitting at home. This kind of makes the bickering for who is going to finish 3,4,5th pretty trivial when Adams 8th and 9th guy beat Mines' number 1 at regionals. Adams put 3 runners (who will not be on the nationals team) ahead of an individual qualifier- pure madness!

I can't believe Kirwa isn't getting more love. The guy won the 5k and 10k outdoors. He hasn't been challenged all year basically and people act like he won't be top 10. As long as it doesn't snow he will be up front and this year he have anyone who is heads above him and will take it out too fast for him.