Big Sky Fan wrote:
Feel we've seen what Eastern Washington and Idaho State have to offer.
In the first unimportant meet of the year? Hmmm, you must not know the coaches of either of these two teams very well.
I think this weekend will paint a much different picture about both ISU and EWU.
But that's just an educated guess, will be fun to see it play out.
We'll find out. When saying I think we have seen what they are, it doesn't mean anything negative. Those are both very solid teams.
I think the top three teams are NAU, SUU, and Weber, beyond that it's a battle between EWU, ISU, and Montana State.
What did we learn?
More questions than answers for nau women. Overall they did not impress. Where is Paige gilchrist? Where was Ernst? Are they hurt? Was expecting Townsend to run better. I thought she would be top 20. Her stock in the conference falls although she is still top 10. Even without 2 of their top 3 nau was still the top team in the conference. Southern Utah is a solid team but nothing special.
Sarah Reiter killed it with her to 10 performance. She is clearly the head of the class in the big sky. Nice runs for Angie Nickerson of S. Utah and Makaila Malespina of NAU.
So Idaho State beats Montana St on tie break and loses to Eastern by only something like 10 at the massive field of Griak. Sounds like we have a big showdown between those teams come conference. We seem to continue to forget about Idaho, however.
My rankings currently
1. NAU
2. SUU
3. Weber
4. Idaho
5. Eastern Washington
6. Idaho St
7. Montana St
Kurius wrote:
My rankings currently
1. NAU
2. SUU
3. Weber
4. Idaho
5. Eastern Washington
6. Idaho St
7. Montana St
Agreed.
Women rankings ATM-
1. Weber
2. NAU
3. Idaho
4. SUU
5. Eastern Washington
6. Montana
7. Portland State
Yes, was expecting more from the NAU women, SUU wasn't really that far behind them. I wasn't surprised by Townsend, seems she's steadily been fading the last few seasons.
Reiter is very good, crazy to think she was 7th at the conference meet a year ago. She'll still be challenged by the Weber women, but she's the class of the conference for sure. EWU and Idaho St. teams did not look good on the women's side.
Women's team rankings:
1. Weber
2. NAU
3. SUU
4. Montana State
5. Idaho
6. Eastern Washington
7. Montana
8. Sacramento St.
9. Portland State
10. Idaho State
11. Northern Colorado
12. North Dakota
Looks like there should be a few good matchups this weekend in the conference. A lot of these are yet-to-be-seen matchups that should really define the order for the top half of the conference.
Washington Invite
Eastern Wash v. Idaho (m or w?)
Montana Invite
Idaho (m or w?) v. Montana v. Montana St.
Notre Dame
SUU (men) v Weber
That's a big turnaround for EWU, Griak last week, UW this week.
Hope they survive the season.
Same thing SUU is doing. Not exactly unprecedented. I think SUU has more than Griak showed.
Bigskyguy wrote:
Reiter is very good, crazy to think she was 7th at the conference meet a year ago.
Fun thread. Nice to read some good comments on a great conference.
Here's a little insight-
Big Sky's went down at elevation on a tough course.... Very unlikely Sarah would beat all the top altitude girls....or even want to with a shot at qualifying for nationals on the line the following week, and don't forget that the goal isn't just to get to nationals but the goal is the run your best race of the season there. So that being said, I think she did it just right.
So 7th place really isn't such a weird result when you consider the other variables.
-CS
We have a head coach on here?
Give us some predictions C. Shane.
Good insight on Reiter, you know better than any of us.
Bigskyflyguy wrote:
We have a head coach on here?
Give us some predictions C. Shane.
Good insight on Reiter, you know better than any of us.
Predictions about this weekend? Oh gosh, I don't do predictions.... Pointless until it matters since so many coaches are doing different things this week.
Honestly it's a pretty heavy training week for most so I don't think this week will say much.
I do think Idaho is very strong on both sides and it will be fun to see SUU and Weber rep at ND.
Based on the results from the Montana and ND meet:
It looks like SUU is substantially better than Weber on men's side.
Idaho's women might be able to challenge Weber and NAU. Appear way better than MSU based on similar competitors Gonzaga and Montana.
MSU men added a guy to line up and appear better than ISU and Idaho. Gonzaga ran more guys today than they did 2 weeks ago against Idaho.
My takeaways from this week so far:
1. Probably fair to say that Weber has overstated their quality on both sides. However, kudos to their men's team for definitely improving over last year's squad.
2. SUU's men lost A LOT and are still really good. Hawks, Tate, Ahmed, Szogi are a tough group to replace.
3. Montana State seemed to add a new #3 to their men's roster, further clouding the picture for that 4-6 team race in the men's division. Using Gonzaga as a common opponent between MSU and Idaho, it seems like Montana St/Idaho/Idaho State/Eastern Washington are virtually tied for those spots. Should be a great race in Moscow!
4. Without checking rosters it seems that Montana St's women MIGHT be better than Idaho. I may have been wrong on this one. The women's race will probably still go to Weber but then anything could happen after that. MSU, Idaho, EWU, SUU, etc.
Excited to see EWU and Idaho race at UW tomorrow.
This wil reveal more.
BIGS GUY wrote:
My takeaways from this week so far:
1. Probably fair to say that Weber has overstated their quality on both sides. However, kudos to their men's team for definitely improving over last year's squad.
4. Without checking rosters it seems that Montana St's women MIGHT be better than Idaho. I may have been wrong on this one. The women's race will probably still go to Weber but then anything could happen after that. MSU, Idaho, EWU, SUU, etc.
The Weber women are very solid, hard to imagine them not winning BSC.
UM women tied MSU and beat Gonzaga, continue to head the right direction.
Wait. Hard to imagine Weber not winning? Are we watching the same results? People on here are quick to put down a team like NAU after Griak, but still think Weber is going dominate the women's side. Weber has a solid top girl, normally their two is good, but it starts to drop off after that, especially from 3-5. They still could very well win the conference, but to annoint them the champion may be a bit premature.
Washington Results:
Idaho men almost had their entire top 5 in before EWU's 1st on men's side. Not even close.
Idaho women over EWU pretty comfortably. This was not really close either.
These results were not surprising if you had been paying attention.
So looks like Idaho is as good as predicted. Unless Coach Shane can come on here and say his squads had an off day it looks like UofI is going to be looking at 2 likely top 4 finishes.