........PSAC.......

it seems each year the conference gets deeper and deeper. Which is great. it makes people step their game up. If our conference had 15 guys sub-15 come outdoor that would be awesome. Even better if 5 or 6 of them could make the NCAA Meet.

You idiots are discussing track b/c most of you stunk during xc. XC not even finished and youre busy discussing your pipe dreams.

As for the ROCK and new recruits...here\'s the breakdown of their incoming froshs for Fall09\':

*Jakub Zivec from Minnesota, Nike XC Heartland Reg. Championship

*Andrew Colley, Jamestown VA

*Dave Olster, Verona NJ...NJ State Champ

*possible still in the work, North Penn\'s #2 guy at PIAA XC this year.

*A transfer from Lehigh, Michael Toris...think that\'s his name? Ran 14:32 5K at Raleigh Relays last year. He\'s a JR.

the rock guys are all around pretty cool and well liked throughout the conference, but wow, you are not helping them out. you are a d-bag, way to represent slippery rock well, i'm sure those guys WHO ACTUALLY RUN, appreciate it. and as for all your "recruits" you THINK you have coming, the PSAC will believe it when they all sign. don't forget you have Grey coming to help next year...he's God's gift to earth.

Best of Luck on getting all of those guys to come to slimy pebble!!! You are embarrassing your team by posting that shit

Indoor is kinda lame. No offense. People who are talking about it on here are even worse. Seriously, there's a Rock grad assistant talking trash on here? Good for you for being book smart and making it into Grad School. Shame on you for being dumb enough to type up garbage like that. I hope someone on the team talks some sense into you. Writing like that is very childish. Get a clue.

So, is the weather still looking nasty this weekend? I'd love to see some photos or video of the races.

Look since my name says I am a Doctor I am a Doctor! yay! And to think some people go to school to be a Doctor. I just came to letsrun and my dreams became reality!

[quote]cross country season wrote:

"Seriously, there's a Rock grad assistant talking trash on here? Good for you for being book smart and making it into Grad School."

Im not from SRU idiot. Im a GA at Allegheny. I dont know the SRU either. Boro is the best though

I don't care where you're from. You are still a dumb ass.

Nice finish to the Ship.Women. 6th in Nationals is great.

Neely Spence has a long and awesome future ahead in the sport. You made the PSAC proud, as did Dell. Men side:Clark,Weiss, Hahn, nicely done. Pixler must be a beast.

Nice runs by Clark & Weiss, but for the most part the PSAC guys were an embarassment at nats. Top team in 16th?? Only 3 guys in the top 30?? Pretty poor.

It has been a long time for being on here but I agree that overall the men were an embarrasment. The conference is so weak now I am not sure what has happend. We never were great as a confencence but at least we were discent.

Clark, Weiss, Hahn, and Spence...way to represent the PSAC well. Congrats to the Ship ladies on an impressive performance!

Not sure what happened on the guys side, but definitely a disappointing race from a team standpoint. Lock Haven bombed as Pomerantz had a horrible race, and Edinboro as a whole (with the exception of Hahn and McLaughlin) also had an off race. Maybe both of them peaked too soon?

Is it bad coaching or lack of talent or both? It looks like at least 10 D3 teams would be able to win our conference.

So how about the other track events? I mean, the champion graduated in pretty much every single event, so everything is pretty wide open. Here's how I look at the distance events:

(for indoor)

800-After losing perennial PSAC champ Sean Strauman, and losing Dave Sanford who was the indoor PSAC champ last year in the wake of Strauman's injury, I'm looking for 3 people to take over the reign of the 800. I think it will come down to 3 people, Phil Rector and Jason Jamieson from SRU, and Victor Garcia from Mansfield. Should be a nasty race, and really could be anyone's to win. Also keep an eye on Matt Gordon from West Chester, Josh Neyhart from Ship, and Chuck Kascur from Cal.

Mile-Another wide-open race, with a lot of top talent still returning from last year's track season. Look for it to come down to Neyhart and Brady from Ship, Pomerantz from Lock Haven, Langdale from WCU and Hilton from LHU.

3000- Another wide open race that will be dominated by the distance powerhouses. Clark, Weiss, and Reagan(assuming they will run it) should be clear favorites for this event.

5000- In probably the most stacked race of the day, look for Clark and Reagan to run away with it. A nice pack should follow, with runners such as Beegle, Getz, Hilton, Shelly, Gaudet, Sitler, Gracey, Stockley, Walton, Leonard, Yeatts, and Stetler.

And we can't count out any newcomers who may have a breakout season!

Should be awesome to watch!

coaching vs talent wrote:

Is it bad coaching or lack of talent or both? It looks like at least 10 D3 teams would be able to win our conference.

That is not true. There are only 9 DIII teams better than our top ones.

A couple of thoughts from Nationals...

On the women's side, I thought lil' Spence ran a really tough race. Jessica Pixler (SPU) is really tough and, as defending champ, ran the race that she should've run...go to the front and push the pace and don't let anybody hang around. Congrats to Pixler and her coach, fellow Seattle Club Running Company club member Erika Daligcon, who in her first year as head coach continued the longstanding tradition (established by running legend Doris Heritage) at Seattle Pacific with an individual champ and a 4th place team finish.

Neely (who I still can't believe is in college as I remember her barely walking when we were stretching at Heiges Field House my frosh/soph years at Ship) wouldn't just let her win and hung on for as long as she could. We all know Neely is talented (she's got good genes from both Steve & Kirstin), but the fact that Neely was able to hang on for 2nd is a testament to her mental toughness. I know that the rumors abound that Neely will be xfering to Baylor, but I really hope that's not the case as I'd love to see her lead this very talented young Ship team for years to come.

Also, I thought Mary Dell (2nd runner for Ship) ran a great race at Nats. Dell finished 25th at Nats after finishing 10th at Regionals. A very impressive run by the sophmore. That finish, along with the fact that all the Ship ladies did what they were supposed to do (ie, nobody bombed) were the key to their 6th place finish...an awesome team performance.

The Ship ladies team has a bright future ahead of them...but, will have to continue to add talent if they are going to beat Adams (who returns their #3, #4, and #5 runners who finished 19, 22, and 24 respectively). And, Grand Valley, who finished second will likely be the favorite for next year's title as GV returns 4 sophs & a junior, all of whom were top 50.

And, I would be remiss not to give a shout out to Jaime Wright who, in her last collegiate cross race, secured All American honors by finishing 20th at Cooper’s Lake. A great race and substantial improvement over her 84th place finish last year. Harp, who just missed AA honors can hopefully follow in Wright’s footsteps and do it next year, as a senior.

On the men's side, I thought the overall performances by Lock Haven & Boro were slightly worse than expected, but, not nearly as bad as many people on this board perceive. Both teams looked flat off of the starting line...a mile into the race the back of the pack was filled with Haven runners -- never a good sign. Haven just looked like a team that was tired...either from a long year which included a victory at regionals or perhaps were battling some illness, as they just didn't seem on top of their game. Russell usually has his guys ready to run, so not their best performance, but they seemed a bit flat this past weekend.

With that said, when you look at this team, none of us should've expected them to finish higher than say 12th. Haven didn't even make Nats last year and while they ran solid this year, they lack a front-runner and are not as strong as past years at the #4 and #5 slots. Some noted that Pom had an off day, but even if he would've run great, he would've finished near Hilton & Getz, would would've shaved off about 70 pts. but still placed them behind #16 Boro.

With regards to Boro, this is a very young team. No Josh Arthur, no Dave Nimeira. There is something to be said for Senior leadership, and this team didn't have it this year. There were only two returning runners from last year’s 14th place team (Hahn & McLaughlin). So, finishing in the top-10 should not have been expected. On a good day, I thought they’d finish 12th. Saturday wasn’t a good day, but it was a solid performance for a young team.

Hahn proved he'll be the favorite in the conference next year...and ran the race we all expected him to run last year. Nice to see him make up for last year’s performance. McLaughlin seems to have run basically the same race at Nats he ran last year…which is very solid. These two will be a strong anchor going into next year making Boro once again the far and away favorite for the region (I’m guessing Haven will take issue with that comment...but no offense intended).

From an individual perspective, it was great to see Weiss finish out his career with a solid 11th place finish and another All-American honor. Weiss was an incredible asset to the PSAC both on and off the XC course and will be missed. Best of luck to you Jeff.

Chris Clark ran a great, great race. Sitting in 8th/9th through much of the first half, he ran as strong as a second half of the race as anybody, except maybe for Crouch from Queens. Both Clark & Crouch looked really solid over the second half of the race, but Bauhs (Chico) and Braun (Adams) had opened up too much of a gap.

It was to tough to watch Regan. We all wanted him to just magically jump ahead 6 places or so to ensure he would get AA, but it wasn’t going to be that easy. He ran as tough a race as he could (dude looked like he was hurting a the mile mark)…a very gutsy performance. One that serves as a reminder just how tough it is to become all American. While not quite as stellar as his 12th place finish from a year ago in Joplin, I bet Regan would admit that this one was even more special, as he clearly had to fight every step of the way to become a repeat All American.

It was interesting to watch both races up-front, as I thought both the men’s and women’s races played out the same. The favorites (Pixler for women and Bauhs for men) went to the front and pushed the pace. The challengers (Spence for women and Braun for men) both ran incredibly tough races, doing everything in their power to not let the favorites get away from them. Those upfront races and the toughness shown by all four of those runners – coupled with the cold & snow – made this an epic cross country race. It is the epitome of why I love this sport.

Also, it was great being able to travel back from Seattle to the Rock and see so many familiar faces – Spence, Papa, Ed Fry (at his last cross meet), IUP Alum (Eric Shafer, the General, the infamous Johnny Karpacs, etc.), Jo Rupp (Millersville) and Carl Leonard (Boro) who both remind me how old I am, as well as the many others I saw & chatted with. Also, it was great to be able to sneak in a long run on the North Country trail at Morraine. I forgot how awesome it is to run to run on the snowy trails of western PA.

Another cross season in the books…and already, I can’t wait until next year.

Hoovis

One other thing I should mention, Pap is under appreciated as a coach. He often gets his runners to perform their best at the end of the season. Rock had 3 all americans this year...that's impressive.

Hoovis

Ben Hatch in the 800

probably not the winner, but he should be up there.

there is no way ben hatch will win PSAC's. his PR in the 800 is 1:54.02. there are a HANDFUL of guys better than that. my guess, he goes 1:55 low indoors, 1:54 high outdoors. maybe he'd do better, but IUP's Ralph White is an idiot.