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

kirwa is going to win. he wasn't 100% while recovering from illness in track and he killed everyone. now that he's back healthy again, it is going to happen again.

do you all realize the course at s. indiana is really hilly and tough? has kirwa ever run well on a course like that?

this is not track where he can chill, sit on someone, jog, let someone else do the work some more, and then outkick them in the last 200m. cross country is more of a run hard the whole way thing and he will get dropped when braun and medigovich decide to drop him, they have faster pr's and they are proven excellent runners on tough coarses. kirwa should be top ten though.

you are underestimating kirwa. he has all of ONE bad race in his life, last year at cross nationals. he completely obliterated medigovich in both track races last spring. two years back in track he nearly took out scott bauhs in the 5k when bauhs was fresh and kirwa was doubling back. kirwa will go down as one of the best runners in d2 history. he's already got three outdoor titles, and perhaps an indoor one.

and regarding PR's, his 10k (28:36 for the win) is superior to anyone in the field.

you forgot about the course being really hilly. if it were flat he'd be in the race. fail

oh and 28:36 (when did he run that?) 10k is not =to 13:36 or 13:40 5k anyway

by the way, his indoor mile title was super weak, he got his shit wrecked in 09 in the mile

How would you say SIU's course compares to Slippery Rock's course from last year?

Slippery Rock wasnt a difficult course. Fairly fast except for hill at start

Kirwa beat Sang on the pre-nats course back in September, and everyone seems to be jumping on Sangs banwagon to be top 4

he ran 28:36 to dominate the mt. sac B-heat in 2008. with regard to kirwa's 5k PR (14:01), he ran it in a tactical national finals in 2008 after winning the 10k. kirwa's races that week: 29:14 to win the 10k over medigovich by 10 seconds, 14:24 to win his 5k heat, then 14:01 in finals behind bauhs (14:00 for bauhs and medigovich was 14:20).

as for 2009 indoor, he was sick. he hadn't run for multiple weeks going into it. you can try and convince yourself that he just isn't tough, or cannot handle a tough course, but that isn't the case. he's already raced on this course this year, and he won easy over sang.

kirwa will win nationals.

And your thoughts on his race last year at NCAA's in XC, after going undefeated in the regular season? Braun did beat him there!

Braun beat him last year. True. And because Braun beat him once at nationals, Braun must always beat him at nationals. You have me beat.

What about his race at Nationals in XC last year? I think the point some people are making with Kirwa is that he isn't super consistent in NCAA's races.....yet.

cure-wa wrote:

Braun beat him last year. True. And because Braun beat him once at nationals, Braun must always beat him at nationals. You have me beat.

I think people are simply putting more stock in Braun's overall championship performances. When you combine his track resume with his solid XC Nat's performances, he's a stronger pick.

braun has beat kirwa at the last two ncaa champs, and only lost to two of the best collegiate runners of all time: nico and bauhs. is that cool?

Kirwa is only a soph in cross so he couldn't have lost twice in cross. He lost last year because he went out with Bauhs and died. The snow also did not help. I am not going to say he will win definitely but I can't believe everyone is jumping on Sangs wagon when Kirwa beat him. Also how can you say that the guy has not be consistent at national races when he has 4 national championships in 2 track seasons and 1 cross season. Seams pretty good to me.

Look for Tyler Emmory GVSU to step it up big time @ the big show. Mr consistency will go top ten and help the lakers get back on the podium on the mens side. And women...FTW

nico almost lost at s. indiana the last time they held nats, no kenyan will win on this challenging coarse. not kirwa, not sang, not mwei.

Former d1er wrote:

He lost last year because he went out with Bauhs and died.

One could say he lost because he wasnt good enough to win?

I don't understand the logic behind this. Kenyans never seem to have trouble with 'challenging' courses at the world XC championships. Why would SIU's course be any different?

richrad cont wrote:

nico almost lost at s. indiana the last time they held nats, no kenyan will win on this challenging coarse. not kirwa, not sang, not mwei.

This is kind of disingenuous. Bodor kind of snuck up on Nico at the end of the race. Nico took it out in 4:20 or something stupid like that and ran alone for most of the race.