DIII Cross Country 2009

Central Region Fan wrote:

Linda Keller a freshman from Minnesota Morris beat Jenny Scherer at Roy Griak.

Is Morris even D3?

How I see things after this weekend:

1. North Central (dominate in Oshkosh, heavy fave for nats)

2. Cortland (not as strong a perf. at Loch Haven)

3. UW Lacrosse (improving, 3 possible all-americans)

4. Geneseo (another solid win in Rochester)

5. Allegheny (tough close loss to NYU, but prob the better team)

6. NYU (came to run in Oberlin; proves they are for real)

7. Stevens Point (tight spread behind NCC)

8. Haverford (good performance at Princeton)

9. Dickinson (got #3 man back in last meet)

10. Williams (off after weak showing in NEs; missed #2 guy)

11. Augustana (not too too far from SPoint)

12. Calvin (just behind Augustana)

13. Southern Maine (surprise win over Williams last week)

14. Emory (we'll find out how good they are at UAAs)

15. UW Platteville (have lost a lot of time to LAX since Griak)

D3Watcher wrote:

How I see things after this weekend:

1. North Central (dominate in Oshkosh, heavy fave for nats)

2. Cortland (not as strong a perf. at Loch Haven)

3. UW Lacrosse (improving, 3 possible all-americans)

4. Geneseo (another solid win in Rochester)

5. Allegheny (tough close loss to NYU, but prob the better team)

6. NYU (came to run in Oberlin; proves they are for real)

7. Stevens Point (tight spread behind NCC)

8. Haverford (good performance at Princeton)

9. Dickinson (got #3 man back in last meet)

10. Williams (off after weak showing in NEs; missed #2 guy)

11. Augustana (not too too far from SPoint)

12. Calvin (just behind Augustana)

13. Southern Maine (surprise win over Williams last week)

14. Emory (we'll find out how good they are at UAAs)

15. UW Platteville (have lost a lot of time to LAX since Griak)

Well reasoned. I doubt that the voters will see it that way, but I think your logic is pretty sound.

The voters generally seem reluctant to bump a program up too fast, so I doubt that NYU will move to 6th. But they're always ready to give a team a major hit after an off day, so I can't see Allegheny's maintaining its position.

Bowdoin, who looked mediocre at Open-NEs had a much better day today and took down USM

http://athletics.bowdoin.edu/sports/fall/mxc/2009-10/stats/2009statemen.htm

Was it just the small race and slow course (times look around 1 min slower than at Franklin), or is Bowdoin a threat to qualify for nats?

The Maine state meet is a very small meet, pretty much a dual meet between Bowdoin and USM. A larger race favors USM much more, however it also looks like there #1 and #2 guys had off days, as there #2 guy are open's was there #4 this weekend. I also heard that the course is veryyyyyyy slow and challenging.

why does a larger race favor S. Maine?

These are great evalutaions...however I think that Point should be ranked a little higher and that goes to for the outher midwest region teams, Augustana, Platteville. Probably the toughest region 5 always go.

Given that USM's top 4 or 5 guys all aran withing 5 seconds of one another, leads me to believe they ran the race as a pack perhaps as a tempo. They had a tough Race last week, as a program they have to run this race because its the "state" meet but probably care much more about dealing with Keene State and company at the Little East meet and then regionals than this race.

It looks like 9 teams from the Midwest could be ranked in the next national rankings. Seems like there should be some regional restructuring.

Anyone predicting Mitchell to beat Borner at nats after her win at Oshkosh this weekend? I'm not sure but it might be closer than I thought.

run4fun247365 wrote:

And the women's team race, anyone going to beat Calvin? My first reaction is definitely to say no.

Calvin will win easily. They dominated the field at Oshkosh running without their top runner (Jess Koster).

Also, another freshman who could do well is Alison Steinbrunner from Ohio Northern, who got 5th at Oberlin this past weekend.

NCC for men

Calvin for women

Is a 13 point win dominating? Who knows what other teams are missing...

Okay, maybe dominate was a little too strong. But the amazing thing about this Calvin team is just how deep they are. Even without their top runner they had their top 7 in the top 30 of a huge race, whereas WashU only had 4 in the top 30. I think on any given day they will have some combination of 5 women have really good races and that will be enough for them to win it. Lauren Bergstrom, who was AA last year, wasn't even in their top 5 at Oshkosh, and I'm guessing she just had an off day.

Midwestties wrote:

It looks like 9 teams from the Midwest could be ranked in the next national rankings. Seems like there should be some regional restructuring.

Or some division restructuring...

Central Region Fan wrote:

Midwestties wrote:

It looks like 9 teams from the Midwest could be ranked in the next national rankings. Seems like there should be some regional restructuring.

Or some division restructuring...

Why would you want to weaken the division?

stat freak wrote:

Okay, maybe dominate was a little too strong. But the amazing thing about this Calvin team is just how deep they are. Even without their top runner they had their top 7 in the top 30 of a huge race, whereas WashU only had 4 in the top 30. I think on any given day they will have some combination of 5 women have really good races and that will be enough for them to win it. Lauren Bergstrom, who was AA last year, wasn't even in their top 5 at Oshkosh, and I'm guessing she just had an off day.

...and WashU, who "only had 4 in the top 30", had TWO 4:35 1500 runners not score. The girls race is wide open.

Midwest

1, 3, 5, 10, 11, 18, 25, 30

Atlantic

2, 4, 7, 14, 26, 34

Mideast

6, 8, 9, 19, 28

New England

15, 17, 23, 24, 33

Great Lakes

16, 29, 31, 35

West

13, 21, 27

Central

20, 22, 32

South/Southeast

12

Being from the New England Region I find this complete bullshit that we have been taking hits on the rankings left and right.

I admittedly have a northeast bias but the national rankings just make no sense. Middlebury gets Moody-Roberts back and drops a place in the rankings?!? Williams trains through but has a freshman who hasn't raced yet finish 20 second behind Wilfert (tufts) and drops in the rankings!?! Amherst doesn't run and goes up two places?