DIII Cross Country: 2011

Welp-- no wonder the thread died-- because everybody started talking about how hard MIT is, and how Calvin sucks. Well played-- let me explain how nationals will go: NC, Calvin, or a team from Wisconsin will win. Calvin has been incredible for the past always. So have the other crazy teams. What will be interesting this year will be which individual pulls out a stunning first. The Great Lakes region's course is not short-- by a half mile-- as some earlier idiot suggested. I feel like they would have caught that (also, the 24:3x runners would have run 22:3x). And the students at MIT work about as hard as the students at William and Jefferson, or Albion, or any other small, very good and difficult college. They aren't, after all, graduate students (when it actually gets hard)-- nor are they personifications of what you saw on "Good Will Hunting." But wouldn't it have been kind of cool to talk about who's gonna run well this weekend some more? Because I think it's fun for all of us to get to stick up for our particular regions, and point out what other people haven't gotten a chance to see out of some of these runners, because they're from crazy far away, and they're not D1, wherein we could get some coverage. I'd love to know why you all think my guys will be challenged by your guys in the race-- because it's fun to talk about. To get excited for the big race Saturday...

But please-- do go on about MIT's curriculum, and how perennial champion Calvin sucks at nationals every year.

Wow, someone put a lot of thought into this.

Fact: Calvin has performed lower than their national ranking every national meet since the 2006 fluke.

What? "students at MIT work about as hard as Albion." Where do you get this? Who has ever even heard of Albion, off the D3 xc message board?

Fact: I'm pretty certain the entire 13-year-old Letsrun population could identify that short course jab as trolling.

Is there a non-NCC/Haverford team out there that could pull it off? I wasn't at all impressed with either team's race at their regionals, but then again, there really is no other obvious contender.

J. Mark Ruhl wrote:

Is there a non-NCC/Haverford team out there that could pull it off? I wasn't at all impressed with either team's race at their regionals, but then again, there really is no other obvious contender.

Nationals can be unpredictable, just like any meet. Except turnover is more common at nationals due to some teams busting their butts and other teams fading or going out too hot.

Although it is unlikely that a non-NCC/Hav team steals the day, I wouldn't be too quick to completely throw out WIAC schools like Wisconsin-OshKosh or SUNY Geneseo, Calvin, or even Wheaton out of the picture. Stranger things have happened. It will definitely be an exciting meet; on the individual side of things as well. I am particularly excited to see the competition for third and fourth place trophies.

look out for CMS, WashU, Calvin, and Oshkosh...those are my 4 potential upset teams...

especially CMS out there from Cali

CMS will not fair well in the weather. take them out of that list :P

1 North Central (Ill.) 42

2 Washington (Mo.) 114

3 UW-Oshkosh 136

1 Haverford 52

2 Dickinson 129

3 Allegheny 131

What did you want, a perfect scores???

you are a dumba$$

rumination wrote:

look out for CMS, WashU, Calvin, and Oshkosh...those are my 4 potential upset teams...

especially CMS out there from Cali

Yeah man, and Centre out there from Kentucky. I mean, you never know...

Is there a live online feed??

lovemesomediii wrote:

Is there a live online feed??

Not sure how good it will be but..

NCAA.com will webcast each of the NCAA Cross Country Championships this weekend for free. Links to the actual webcast will likely be posted on NCAA.com a few hours before start time.

Division I: Monday, November 21, Terre Haute, Ind.

Men’s race starts at 12:08pm ET. Women’s race at 12:58pm ET.

Division II: Saturday, November 19, Spokane, Wash.

Women’s race starts at 2pm ET/11am PT. Men’s race begins at 3pm ET/Noon PT.

Division III: Saturday, November 19, Oshkosh, Wis.

Women’s race starts at Noon ET/11am CT. Men’s race begins at 1pm ET/Noon CT.

More on the championships will be posted throughout the week on USTFCCCA.org.

That was an email sent to our SID.

I watched the DI race last year via this feed. Worked well enough.

They ran a much tighter race at their conference meet. I will personally be curious to see if Dickinson can put anything together. Looked terrible at regionals but was ranked as high as fourth prior to that. They have a couple guys who could mix it up in the top 20 if they dont run poorly

less than 48 hours, get stoked sons.

Fast Action Jackson wrote:

1 North Central (Ill.) 42

2 Washington (Mo.) 114

3 UW-Oshkosh 136

1 Haverford 52

2 Dickinson 129

3 Allegheny 131

What did you want, a perfect scores???

you are a dumba$$

At regionals last year, NCC put up 37, and Haverford 24. Teams go in to regionals every year with slightly varying objectives and wildly varying levels of competition, so that could explain the higher scores. My opinion, though, is that the higher scores at regionals could possibly indicate that the Big Two aren't quite the clear favorites that they were last year. Maybe it's possible that there's just more parity, and I'm a dumba$$. (In fact, I am either way) But I wouldn't be shocked to see another team take up at least one of the first two spots.

I found that Willy Kaul ran 24:00 a few years back, and NCC also averaged 2438 2 years ago. My bet is the race will be around 2405, alot of people will go out to hard thinking the course is easy, but alot will come backward. Should be a good course for Haverford with their track speed, though NCC comes here alot and knows the course well. I dont think anyone from Haverford has ever raced here. Should be one heck of a meet, this seems to be one of the deepest years for a top 15 team in DIII in probably 20 years or more. Alot of teams have good tight packs. StLaw will need big races from 3n4 men, Oshkosh is strong through 3 but might be really weak at 5. I think there are 12 teams that can finish between 5th and 10th.Any predictions?

1999 DIII Nationals at Oshkosh/Lake Breeze: 71 guys 24:59 or faster. A few guys sub-24:00. Anyone know if the course is exactly the same or has it changed in 12 years?

So I ran against Haverford and Dickinson at most of my meets this year... though not right up front with those guys unfortunately. But they're both very strong teams. Haverford didn't have quite the same pack they usually do at regionals, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were just taking it easy before nats. After all, they knew they were going, no question.

Big Dick did not race well last weekend -- but someone (I forget who) had a very good point about the start. It was a split start, and half the teams (inc. Dick) got shafted somehow. That side was a solid 10m behind the other half when they merged, letting Hford and Allegheny stay up front while the dickinson guys got shoved into a huge mess.

Haven't seen anyone from outside the region race this year... but my sense is that the coaches' polls have done a decent job. Don't think anyone can touch NCC and Haverford for the top two. I expect Dickinson to challenge for 5th-ish, but there ought to be a lot of teams in there. Look for Allegheny and Elizabethtown in the 10th-20th range again -- Etown also got shafted in that start, I think, and Reichert didn't have a great day. But they will be strong, I guarantee.

Johns Hopkins has been incredibly inconsistent. When they're good they're very good, but some days they just suck. Look for them right up with Allegheny and Etown if they're on, and look for them in dead last if the right version doesn't show up.

The NCAA committee made me change the course in '99, it was a good 160meters short, maybe more. The current course for the most part has been in use since 2004

rumination wrote:

look out for CMS, WashU, Calvin, and Oshkosh...those are my 4 potential upset teams...

especially CMS out there from Cali

only CMS would have so much faith in themselves to post this even when facing other, possibly stronger teams.