OAC Outdoor Conference...predicttions?

With respect to the high jump, the wind was very tough and not many of the jumpers could adapt. It also wasn't very warm, so I think that is why there were such low heights there.

distance points only:

Ohio Northern(77 points, 7 All-OAC, and 4 OAC champs)

Mount Union - 50 points (5 All-OAC)

Heidelberg - 29 points (2 All-OAC)

Otterbein - 29 points (2 All-OAC)

Otterbein also had a freshman distance runner pr by 13 seconds in the 1500 to place 4th and 37 seconds in the 5000 to take 4th.

She is one hell of a runner, I see her doing big things in the future.

XC predictions:

1) Mount all the way. No one will challenge the top spot, it will be a race strictly for 2nd in the OAC next season. Mount returns everyone and simply replaced Velliquette with Basista, which is basically an even trade. Sigmund's going to be a stud this fall, and Ford and Bernard are going to be incredible too. This team could have four runners in the TOP FIVE at conference. No one can compete with that.

2) ONU, but only slightly. Lewis and Adam will be a very good 1-2, and O'Brien should be a solid number three man. After that they'll have to depend on someone like Aaron Stiger, who has a TON of talent, but is extremely streaky and has achieved little success in college. Porter could also be looked to for help, but this team is going to need solid contributions from it's freshman.

3) Heidelberg. Lasch is going to be a top-15 in the nation type of runner next year. If Simpson can pull himself together again I think he has an outside chance at All-American status and Butcher should be a solid three-man, but after that the Berg will be struggling to find consistent help from a four and five. However, this sounds a lot like the story last year, and by the end of the year a couple young guys ran well enough at the bottom to lift Heidelberg to the top spot in the OAC at Regionals and Nat's. Still, the Berg's top three (Lasch, Simpson and Wysocki) ran basically perfect at the end of the year, and with the way they just looked in outdoor, who knows if they can do it again.

4) Otterbein. The Cards are going to be much-improved in '07. I think we'll see a return to greatness for Eric Green (ran very well as a freshman), and should have solid contributions from guys like Castrillo, French, Weaver and Schneider. The team's going to need some new faces to come in and help though, and they could still fail to have a SINGLE All-OAC competitor. Not because they aren't good...but because the "BIG THREE" are simply better. I think we could see a repeat in '07 of what happened last fall. The entire top-10 filled with nothing but Mount, Northern and Berg. The only people I could see preventing that would be maybe one Otterbein guy, Walters from Muskingum, and maybe a Baldwin Wallace guy if they race perfectly. Should be a fun season.

I've heard from talking to some Otterbein people that the coaches feel pretty about their recruiting class, especially on the track. How many guys can come in and make an impact right away, I have no idea, but it sounds like OC is back on the upswing.

I disagree with the rankings of the teams for cross. Northern should be in front of mount. We do not know how sigmund will come back since he was MIA all of track season. Ford was awful from indoor all-ohio to the end of the season. I say mount is weaker than northern considering how track went.

I agree with nope...

Mount, on paper, is probably stronger than ONU next fall...

but while Sigmund and Ford were doing exactly nada on the track this spring, ONU had

O'Brien: 48/1:49/3:53/8:48

Adam: 15:17/31:4x

Lewis: 15:29/32:3x

Porter: 1:55/4:01

Thatcher: 15:30/9:40st

Potential is one thing, but in the "what have you done for me lately?" race, ONU is head and shoulders above Mount now. Even Mount's proven studs (velliquette, Basista, Garro) are running times that they ran two years ago. Don't see a ton of improvement, while ONU continues to get better.

If the OAC meet is run in rounds this year(IE Tuesday, Thursday,Saturday) I pick Stiger FTW.

ill agree...mount blows. from what i hear they have a lousy program and ill garantee berg and nothern place ahead of them in cross conference

take for example garro and velliquette:

garro ran a 1:51.xx his sophmore year and has yet to even touch that

velliquette ran 3:51 last year and barely even provoed this year

not to mention there other 'studs' who have yet to do shit

In the Mount guy's defense, there was a significant coaching change.

ha, it's funny people are already talking about cross right now. Pretty sure summer goals/rest are higher up on most people's minds right now.

markmywords wrote:

ha, it's funny people are already talking about cross right now. Pretty sure summer goals/rest are higher up on most people's minds right now.

Rest? Rest from what? I thought you D3 guys only ran like 50-60 miles a week.

yea, 50-60 miles a week for most of the freshman and the 800 runners.

or the women

speaking of... who's looking strongest on the women's side? ONU graduated their top cross pack, but they have the most numbers which could keep them at the top... could Otterbein sneak up there without Keesee? Their freshman wasn't much of a factor in cross but if she steps up like she did in track it could help them a lot. Some of Mount's girls seemed to disappear after cross so I would say BW is looking the strongest at this point, especially with Ashley Scullion poised to win. Thoughts?

gibbons strained his good hamstring on his second attempt and no heighted because of this - it finished him for the season. he went 15-6.25 this year. not bad for a 128 pound kid. he won last year's outdoor OAC as a frosh at 15-5 and change and also finished 2nd at the indoor meet last year. he was sick at the oac indoor meet and either won or finished 2nd at the outdoor all-ohio. so saying he tends to no height is ridiculous.