HEPS Cross Country 2012

C/M Runner wrote:

I hope Cornell has a better day on Saturday. I do believe they can contend with a top 10 spot.

Guesses for top 42 (All-American):

Bendtsen

Arroyo Yamin

Korolev

Spenser

D'Agostino (top 3 contender)

Kellner

Feldman

I believe Cornell actually ran faster (average) at Regionals than at Heps--on what I'm told was a slower course--so I don't think they did really *badly* at Regionals, though I'm sure they wanted better.

They had seven in before anyone else, so they've got backup if one of their front five fades a bit; Providence and especially UConn, who both ran *great* races (finally putting their best lineups together) don't have as much of a fallback.

I actually could see Shearer with her teammate Kellner--Shearer was the most impressive runner I saw at Heps, though she didn't seem to handle downhills particularly well--and of course Sorna has already finished ahead of Kellner earlier this season. Those three could do very well, and I think Cornell's 4-7 have been underappreciated. The team's got a top-ten shot for sure.

Good pick on Feldman. This woman has extraordinary talent, and P. Farrell--as he has so often in years past--seems to have his runners producing their very best at the end of the season. As a middle-distancer, she can probably cope with the hot opening pace at NCAAs (the real distance types might be a bit adrift) and then come up with a decent finish.

Ok, I didn't realize the regional course was slower than Heps. So perhaps they could be a higher final ranking, but there could be other teams (who like Providence and UConn) could have everything fall in line at NCAAs.

I'll definitely be following this by twitter come Saturday.

Any other thoughts on the races?

C/M Runner wrote:

I was very surprised to see Harvard make it, considering how Yale bested them at the annual Harvard-Yale meet earlier this year.

I believe that if they had even just lost the tie-breaker to BC then they would have been out as they didn't have any points. Just goes to show what coming up big at Regionals can do.

The spread between Harvard's top five finishers was under 38 seconds, tighter than any other team in the field. What is even more amazing is that Silva, who normally runs first, finished fourth. Kudos to Hanley, Kelly, Alvarez and Guidera - all finished better than their flo rating would have predicted. In particular Alvarez ran a stunning race from the 3.5K split to the finish. She was 63rd at the split and picked up to finish 48th. Her 2.5K finishing split was 27th fastest in the field. Few ran smarter than she did.

If I'm coach at Harvard, I like my team's chances at Nationals

FYI: Hepstrack is doing a fun prediction contest for NCAA XC. List the top five Ivy finishers (including alumni). Entries close on Friday at 11:59pm

http://hepstrack.com/challenge/

Congrats to all Heps runners at NCAAs!

And naturally, congrats to Cornell's two all-Americans!