MIAC 2024 Cross Country

I think you need a top 3 finish to really be considered for COTY

There is no rule stating this, but giving him the men’s award over Macalester or St. John’s is as dumb as giving it to Power just because he really wants it.

Also, it really says something about Power when his team can have such a dominant victory and not earn the Coach of the Year award. We’ll see what happens this weekend. Power’s teams have never won a MIAC championship in any sport at home.

A more on point question -

If you’re a Macalester or St. John’s do you peak for the MIAC meet or Regionals/Nationals?

In your mind, is a top 3 MIAC team finish better than a top ten Regional finish?

Nobody is saying Mac/St. John's won't win MIAC's. And that they won't taper for Regionals to shock the world. Carleton could too. That's why we race.

Will Kelly 11th at the Big Sky meet. Pretty badass

I'm not super confident in time predictions as I made a couple weeks ago and didn't know the weather or anything. I don't know if the course is exactly the same as it was when 2022 Regionals were held there, where Whitewater's Christian Patzka won in 24:08. Some MIAC performances there of note:

24:44 Mohammed Bati
25:08 Andrew Skemp
25:39 Roy Llewellyn
25:55 Nick Ihrke
26:14 Ben Crotteau
26:32 Reece McKee
26:38 Indy Lyness
26:41 Josh Meier

Teams
1 St Olaf, 23
2 Macalester, 72
3 St Johns, 73
4 Carleton, 99
5 Bethel, 174
6 St Scholastica, 185
7 Concordia-M
8. Gustavus
9. Augsburg
10. Saint Mary's

Individuals
24:02 1 Mohammed Bati
24:32 2 Kevin Turlington
24:39 3 Andrew Skemp
24:45 4 Sean Hartney
24:58 5 Reece McKee
25:02 6 Ignacius Fitzgerald
25:04 7 Vincent Kaluza
25:04 8 Jack Deaver
25:05 9 Gabe Nichols
25:05 10 Tyler Edwards
25:10 11 Calvin Boone
25:15 12 Roy Llewellyn
25:32 13 Eamon Cavanaugh
25:50 14 John Ihrke
25:54 15 Aiden Chalmers

I missed this from 2022 Regional. Apologies if I missed anyone else.

26:03 Eamon Cavanaugh

25:58 16 Tyler Smith
26:00 17 Cole Stencel
26:02 18 Brady Goss
26:05 19 Nick Ihrke
26:14 20 Tyler Goss
26:15 21 Nick St. Peter
26:15 22 Angelo Fiataruolo
26:19 23 Indy Lyness
26:19 24 Quinn Hoisington
26:20 25 Hootie Hage
26:22 26 Josh Meier
26:25 27 Grant Graber
26:25 28 Olaf Coffey
26:26 29 Travis Brown
26:30 30 Jordan Galloway
26:30 31 Tor Olsson
26:30 32 Jacob Malecha
26:34 33 Derek Douglas
26:40 34 Ryan Bernstein
26:40 35 Joseph Gathe
26:43 36 Will Janzen
26:50 37 Ravi Achar
26:56 38 Isaiah Fitzgerald
27:02 39 Victor Lelinga
27:12 40 Nathan Neu

Those gol danged Phil Lundin recruits did it again…

Great day to be an ole

First time for the Oles that men and women have won the same year. First time the Ole men have ever won conference on their own course. Um yah yah

Nice job Oles. Let’s not overlook the usual late season surge of the Johnnies. Maxwell’s young group is headed in the right direction.

And what a dominant Bati race. He’s the national title favorite for sure. He’s doing stuff Wintheiser and Patzka never do.

:33 spread for their top five and they bring their whole top 7 back with some dynamite recruits coming in. St. John’s on the rise. Moving from 4th to second one one year puts Maxwell squarely into the coach of the year conversation.

Seems fair to think the COTY should go to a coach that actually earned it by improving his squad and doing something that hadn't been done in a while. St. John's made a huge jump and held off two teams that had been Regionally ranked. Also, that was Macalester's best finish since 1971. Both seem worthy of recognition. They didn't step into a strong program and win with someone else's recruits.

I can see an an argument for the Ole women's coach, but the Scholastica performance was also noteworthy

The Johnnies are the first non-Northfield team to finish top 2 for either gender since 2019. More to add to their acclaim.

Some context for Bati’s impressive run. The previous course record was set on a much cooler day - probably 29 degrees cooler. Patzka won by 9 seconds over Gregg, but he had company throughout. It stands to think Bati could have run much faster with competition. The fact is, the MIAC is down after the graduation of some All-Americans and some injuries slowing some of the returning All-Americans. That probably also tarnishes the luster of the Ole win.
Power shortened the course in 2022, although it is believed to still be long. So Bati’s times can’t be compared to the previous record holders Horton of Central and Wintheiser.

Bati running hard from the gun is a thing of beauty. We can only hope he does that in track and smashes Kelly, Bocovich, and Wilkinson’s MIAC records. If I’m his coach I only race him at Minnesota meets and any other D1 meets I can get into. Don’t waste your time with the mere mortals of the MIAC.

On a side note, an oft-mentioned Ole alumni coach won yet another state title. Despite a MIAC win, If Power doesn’t improve his public image and do better at the national level the alumni base will be very vocal in need for change. And I fully expect the result will be that Edina will need a new coach.

I realize St John's were the favorites for 2nd, but Mac had an opportunity to make history to place 2nd for the first time since 1968. And they were indeed in 2nd through all the splits, but couldn't hold off St. John's in the end, who put their 7 runner ahead of Mac's 5. Mac's prospects were hurt quite a bit losing two top 5 in Tor Olsson and Ben Crotteau, who made a valient effort coming off a stress fracture injury. Nevertheless, it might be the first time they've placed higher than 4th since 1970, but hard to know for sure, as MIAC are missing records of full results from much of the 70s.

I correctly predicted St. Olaf's score of 23, and originally was going to put Bati down for 23:56, but figured he wouldn't go all-out at Conference as long as he had the record, so I had 24:02. Did he still hold back? It'll be fun to see what he does in the final two meets.

I predicted the exact placings for these runners:
2 Kevin Turlington
3 Andrew Skemp
10 Tyler Edwards
12 Roy Llewellyn
29 Nick Ihrke
39 Victor Lelinga

And was within two seconds for time:
25:04 -> 25:05 Jack Deaver
26:05 -> 26:07 Nick Ihrke

Of the outstanding performances, I didn't even have Gael Manzur Strandlund in St. Olaf's top five, as he only ran 26:42 at St. Olaf earlier in the season, but he was fifth in 25:05. Tyler Smith also ran over 40 seconds faster than I predicted, placing 8th in 25:17. While Grant Graber was 23rd last year, he was only 27:34 at Drews, but bounced back to place 15th in 25:39. For underperformers, Travis Brown was 21 places down from my prediction at 50th in 26:56. I had Mac's Quinn Hoisington as continuing his progress and being the clutch #5 runner, but placed 54th.

Gustavus exceeded team expectations, placing 6th instead of my predicted 8th.

Do you have the source for 1971 results? What place was Mac? MIAC records just show incomplete results from that year: https://miac_ftp.sidearmsports.com/custompages/records/MXC.pdf

They do show Mac was 3rd in 1970. If you have results from 1971-78, I'm sure MIAC would appreciate you sharing them! I would think one of the MIAC teams would have printed results stuffed away in a rusty file cabinet.

Our coach has overall team results going back to 1947 (assuming they're correct). Mac was 2nd in 1971.

Year and place

1970, 2

1971, 2

1972, 4

1973, 5

1974, 5

1975, no place?

1976, no place?

1977, 6

1978, 4

1979, 6

1980, 6