Obligatory post about "what's up with Windle these days"
Nick Hall blah blah blah
The following post might come off as "douchey" but it's really frustrating when the same things come out of this thread every year. No one ever has concrete evidence on WHY someone or some team will win. Just the simple "they're going to be good this year because I think so". Looking at Running2Win, GVSU's guys are putting in the typical GVSU summer. This is why one of their guys will win (i'm about 95% sure of this....5% of insurance there ;)). They're tougher than most because of how hard they work. Most of them are red-shirted and getting their butts kicked for years before they make an impact, and Jerry runs them hard over the summer and throughout the year. There's no secret as to why they're better and it can be seen objectively if you take the time to look. Tradition is a huge motivator for those guys. Look at other schools in the conference.....multiple teams with individuals or under-developed young kids around the same ability level. Hartman (SVSU) could make an impact in the coming years, but not quite yet as his kids are young and still adjusting/buying into the program, but he's got knowledge of what it takes to compete with GVSU. With coaching changes and transfers I don't see a lot of teams doing anything absolutely huge. Ashland is down and likely will continue to be mediocre over the next few years before the admins decide to give Coach Scott a budget to work with (if they stay in the GLIAC) and he can go find some athletes that can front run (aside from Hall/Knack/maybe Cutler)
Bottom Line: No one is a threat to GVSU. Who cares who wins the individual title? GV has always raced with a team-first mentality and we saw it last year at conference/regionals. They train through and get the meet done. The only thing they care about is NCAA's, so I don't think debating who's going to win individually or team-wise is even worth it at this point. Eddie Kompf is going to SVSU, not sure how none of you guys didn't just go find his social media accounts and see that he's been talking about it regularly.
Before anyone gets super butt-hurt, I don't go to GVSU and I didn't like them when I competed against them, but I definitely respected their team and staff because they grind harder than most.