2008 Div I XC Freshman Performances

Bobby Aprill placed 6th at the EMU Fall Classic in 31:32, improving on his time of 32:16 on the same course earlier in the season. Hopefully he'll get to run the Big Ten conference champs.

Aw yea. Look at the frosh throwin down! WOW.

01 Galen Rupp, Oregon, 22:55.14

02 Luke Puskedra, Oregon, 23:32.11

03 Chris Derrick, Stanford, 23:38.17

04 Garrett Heath, Stanford, 23:41.18

05 Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott, Oregon, 23:42.50

06 Yosef Ghebray, California, 23:43.03

07 Jake Riley, Stanford, 23:44.29

08 Drew Shackleton, U.C.L.A., 23:45.89

09 Andrew Wheating, Oregon, 23:46.79

10 Jeremy Mineau, Washington, 23:47.40

01 Ben True, SR, Dartmouth, 23:59.6

02 Michael Maag, Princeton, SR, 24:32.4

03 Zac Hine, Cornell, SR, 24:43.3

04 Ben Sitler, Princeton, JR, 24:46.1

05 Chas Gillespie, Harvard, JR, 24:47.3

06 Brian Leung, Princeton, FR, 24:48.8

Hard to tell if Princeton could be top 10 material, as it's hard to compare courses.

Fastnbulbous wrote:

The Freshman at the Notre Dame invite were less impressive, Joe Miller ran well,

44 Joe Miller, FR, Notre Dame, 24:32.

Are you talking about this Joe Miller?

That's him crawling towards the finish line at the state meet.

89 Joe Miller 12 Toledo St. John's 16:52.74

Fastnbulbous wrote:

Leung did do well at the Princeton invitational. Anyone know what happened to his teammate Donn Cabral?

He's coming back from severe plantar fasciitis.

BIG EAST MEN XC CHAMPIONSHIP MALE FRESHMAN

1.Joseph Miller Notre Dame Fr M 14 14 507 25:00 5:02

2.James Grimes Georgetown Fr M 21 21 455 25:14 5:05

3.Matt Hughes Louisville Fr M 22 22 472 25:16 5:05

4.Carl Mackenzie Villanova Fr M 24 24 633 25:21 5:06

5.Tito Medrano Syracuse Fr M 26 26 610 25:24 5:07

6.Eric Finan Cincinnati Fr M 28 28 403 25:28 5:07

7.Dominic Channon Providence Fr M 31 30 539 25:30 5:08

8.Pat Dupont Syracuse Fr M 33 32 607 25:31 5:08

9.Griff Graves Syracuse Fr M 38 37 608 25:39 5:10

10.Greg Karies Pittsburgh Fr M 40 39 522 25:46 5:11

01 German Fernandez, Fr, OK State, 23:47

02 Shadrack Songok, Sr, Texas A&M, 23:53

03 John Kosgei, Jr, OK State, 24:01

04 Ryan Vail, Sr, OK State, 24:01

05 Colby Lowe, Fr, OK State, 24:05

06 Guor Marial, Jr, Iowa State, 24:15

07 Kiel Uhl, Sr, Iowa State, 24:20

08 Jordan Kyle, Jr, Colorado, 24:28

09 Chris Pannone, Sr, Colorado, 24:35

10 Kevin McNabb, Texas A&M, 24:37

13 David Chirchir, Jr, OK State, 24:43

17 Matt Barnes-Smith, Sr, OK State, 25:02

18 Daniel Watts, Jr, OK State, 25:02

45 Brian Gosnell, Sr, OK State, 25:36

53 Sean Fleming, So, OK State, 25:56

Fernandez is looking really sharp. Looks like he will be a candidate for top 5 at NCAA. Colby Lowe had an amazing race too. OK State will give Oregon a good challenge.

ACC

01 Ryan Foster, GR, Virginia, 24:27.7

02 Tim Ritchie, SR, Boston College, 24:30.0

03 Devin Cornwall, JR, Virginia Tech, 24:30.8

04 Bobby Mack, GR, NC State, 24:30.9

05 John Martinez, JR, NC State, 24:33.8

13 Ryan Hill, FR, NC State, 24:47.2

15 Mike Hammond, FR, Virginia Tech, 24:54.3

20 Will Mulherin, FR, Virginia Tech, 25:12.8

22 Bobby Moldovan, FR, NC State, 25:14.4

27 Mike Fout, FR, Florida State, 25:22.1

28 Stephen Clark, FR, Duke, 25:26.6

I forgot to mention that Jake Riley is a redshirt freshman. What a great success story. Speaking of redshirts, Stanford looks good for next year too, as they have four more top recruits who could do great things as red shirt freshmen. Johnson and Havel are good enough to have been candidates for a #5 spot this year.

Ben Johnson, Fr, Stanford, 24:55 Stan Invite (9:07 Steeple)

Kevin Havel, Fr, Stanford, 25:14 SI (7th at 2007 Footlocker)

Riley Sullivan, Fr, Stanford (19th at 2007 Footlocker)

Miles Unterreiner, Fr, Stanford, 25:46 SI (28th at 2007 Footlocker)

01 Hassan Mead Minnesota SO 24:26.4

02 Landon Peacock Wisconsin SO 24:35.9

03 Chris Rombough Minnesota SR 24:42.1

04 Christian Wagner Wisconsin SR 24:46.7

05 Kyle Dawson Penn State SO 24:48.2

06 Sean McNamara Michigan JR 24:48.7

07 Jack Bolas Wisconsin SO 24:50.5

08 Timothy McLeod Indiana SR 24:51.4

09 Jesse Luciano Iowa JR 24:52.2

10 Justin Switzer Michigan SR 24:53.7

22 Vince McNally Penn State FR 25:08.4

25 Elliot Krause Wisconsin FR 25:15.6

Vince McNally was the top true freshman of the meet. From Connestoga Valley, PA, he placed 23rd at the 2007 Footlocker Championships. This performance puts him in the top ten of the true U.S. freshmen. That's excluding Ryan Prentice, Ben Johnson, Kevin Havel and Bobby Aprill who didn't get to run Conference, and Cabral, Finnerty and Darling who are injured. It seems taht Aprill could have been right around Krause.

01 Mesecho, Girma FR Auburn 23:11.26

02 David, Tyson JR Alabama 23:16.26

03 Kibet, Elkanah JR Auburn 23:20.35

04 Kibioywo, Felix JR Auburn 23:26.98

05 Bor, Emmanuel JR Alabama 23:31.26

06 Maiyo, Augustus SR Alabama 23:31.95

07 Criscione, Jeremy SR Florida 23:35.05

08 MacPherson, Scott JR Arkansas 23:41.38

09 Kutingala, Abraham SR Alabama 23:43.25

10 Kirwa, Andrew SO Alabama 23:53.05

21 Fernandez, Eric FR Arkansas 24:43.51

27 Elliott, Rick FR Arkansas 24:56.44

29 Edwards, Zac FR Alabama 24:59.06

33 Matthews, Julian FR Auburn 25:08.92

Those are some fast times. Any guesses how that course compares to the ones used for PAC 10 and Big 12? Champion Girma Mesecho is originally from Ethiopia. However, he went to high school in Lilburn, GA, placed 9th in the 2006 Footlocker Championships, and 9th at the 2007 NON 2 mile in 8:56. Was he injured throughout last year? Anyone know if his parents live in the U.S.? Is he a citizen?

Other new names are Rick Elliott of Arkansas, from Springfield, MO. He has PRs of 9:16 and 4:12. Zac Edwards of Alabama, from Roanoke VA. With only a 9:19 2 mile PR, he's running better than guys with 9:06 PRs (specificially Tito Medrano and Max Kaulbach).

Here's my picks for top 15 so far. After this weekend's regionals, I'll make a new list with predictions on where they'll place at NCAA, for the ones who make it.

01. German Fernandez, OK State, 23:47, 1st Big 12

02. Girma Mesecho, Auburn, 23:11, 1st SEC

03. Chris Derrick, Stanford, 23:38, 3rd Pac 10

04. Luke Puskedra, Oregon, 23:32, 2nd Pac 10

05. Colby Lowe, OK State, 24:05, 5th Big 12

06. Brian Leung, Princeton, 24:48, 6th Ivy Hep

07. Eric Fernandez, Arkansas, 24:43, 21st SEC

08. Ryan Hill, NC State, 24:47, 13th ACC

09. Michael Hammond, Virginia Tech, 24:54, 15th ACC

10. Rick Elliott, Arkansas, 24:56, 27th SEC

11. Zac Edwards, Alabama, 24:59, 29th SEC

12. Vince McNally, Penn State, 25:08, 22nd Big 10

13. Elliott Krause, Wisconsin, 25:15, 25th Big 10

14. Joseph Miller, Notre Dame, 25:00, 14th Big East

15. Michael Fout, Florida State, 25:22, 27th ACC

It's too bad we won't get to see Finnerty, Darling, Cabral, Keveren, Taye, Aprill, Prentice, Johnson or Havel run. It would have made for a killer pack. Hopefully all of them will get to run next year.

Not sure if that guy from Auburn is a true frosh. From the poster above, sounds like he ran footlocker in '06 and NON in '07, nothing from high school in the '07 xc and '08 track seasons. Wouldn't this then make him an '07 high school graduate, therefore not eligible for "true frosh" this year? Just want to verify, since that has been discussed on this thread.

No, he was a junior for the 06-07 season but was ineligible to compete in 07-08 because he was too old.

Great thread, it certainly seems like this year the true fresh will make more of an impact than ever. It seems like you've got to have 6 in the top 20, pretty close to the highest ever, I would think.

nice list, miller is a beast something like a 9:20 guy in high school running in the 3-4 spot for a rising nd team

why do you have derrick ranked ahead of puskedra when puskedra beat him at pac-10's?

it's possible this could be a year where the top freshman could compose a winning team by themselves

g. fernandez

puskedra

derrick

mesecho

lowe

i don't know they would handle 10k, but they would be a very good 8k team.

Great point! I follow it pretty closely and never thought about it but it will be interesting to see how the top 5 true fresman "score as a team" at nationals.....

Good to see some conversation here!

I think Derrick will handle the transition to 10K better than Puskedra. Looking at the end of the Pac 10 race, Derrick was closing in fast. He would have almost certainly caught Puskedra if he had another 2K.

Final Split

6:17.81 Galen Rupp

6:22.27 Chris Derrick

6:24.39 Garrett Heath

6:26.57 Yosef Ghebray

6:27.83 Jake Riley

6:28.98 Luke Puskedra

6:29.40 Mark Matusak

6:29.76 Drew Shackleton

6:30.98 Andrew Wheating

Derrick showed huge potential last April with his solo 13:55 5K. A couple weeks later he ran an 8:48 while already showing symptoms of mono. Puskedra peaked in the summer with an 8:47. Derrick was out for a few months, and is playing catchup, but I think he's going to surprise some people with a top 7 finish at nationals.

I hope they both run great, and I also mentioned earlier in the thread that Team Freshman's score will beat any of the actual teams.