DIII Cross Country: 2011

aopinrgaroe · 2011-06-02T09:46:54-04:00

Now that track has concluded, I figure its time to get this thread going... In the team race, I think it will be between North Central, Haverford and Calvin. North Central will probably be the favorite again, as they return 5 of their top 7, including two all-americans from cross, plus Kerley who was 5th in the 10k. They also are super deep every year (they return 8 guys who have run sub-15) so chances are they will put seven guys on the starting line with a shot at all-american or at least top 50. Haverford returns only three from the winning team last year, but two were all-american in cross and the other got 3rd in the 1500. They also have great depth with a handful of other guys who have run sub-15 or sub-31, so they should definitely be up there. Calvin returns 5 of their top 6 from their 8th place finish, including Kramer who will probably have a shot at the individual title and should definitely be a top 10 guy. Among their other returners they've got two guys who qualified for nationals in the 10k and a 9:16 steepler, so that makes for a pretty legit returning four. They dont seem to have the same depth as Haverford or North Central and they might have fifth man troubles, but they are historically a really good program so there's a decent chance someone will come out of the woodwork. There are a couple other teams that could be fighting for a podium spot and could potentially surprise and do even better. Dickinson just missed the podium last year and returns three guys who finished in the top 62, and I think they have a few others who have run well in track. UW-Oshkosh returns their top 6 (they got 11th last year) including Stymiest, who was 7th last year. On paper St. Lawrence could be quite good as they return a few all-americans and got 3rd last year, but I have seen nothing from their guys in track and I'm not sure how much depth they have. Stevens Point, Geneseo and WashU also return a few good guys, but again don't have the same depth. Williams had an off year last year and got 18th, but they return everyone and are a pretty good program so I wouldnt be surprised to see them up there.

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14 years ago 11/22/2011 10:20am EST

re: here is a scary thought

Impressive showing from the NESCAC men:

6. Williams

7. Bates

9. Tufts

12. Midd

15. Bowdoin

And women (at least from the top 3):

2. Middlebury

3. Williams

11. Amherst

20. Tufts

Best league in D3 this year.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 10:29am EST

re: adddf

adddf wrote:
Impressive showing from the NESCAC men:
6. Williams
7. Bates
9. Tufts
12. Midd
15. Bowdoin
And women (at least from the top 3):
2. Middlebury
3. Williams
11. Amherst
20. Tufts
Best league in D3 this year.

That is pretty damn impressive, but its also easier to show dominance when your conference is split into different regions. I'm guessing some of the WIAC schools could have qualified elsewhere if they weren't stuck in the midwest.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 10:29am EST

re: Ex Texas D3 guy

Part of the problem with the South is that high school running there isn't very good. That translates up into colleges in D1 and D3 since there aren't as many good runners to recruit in the first place.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 11:09am EST

re: Freelove

Freelove wrote:
Part of the problem with the South is that high school running there isn't very good. That translates up into colleges in D1 and D3 since there aren't as many good runners to recruit in the first place.

That's definitely part of it, and it explains some of the disparity. But I went to school in Texas, and while it may not be a total hotbed of distance talent, it's still a pretty large state with plenty of fast kids. And my college team had, I believe, plenty of talent. We just didn't do much with it. Our head coach didn't expect much of us, and we met those expectations. I'm out of school a few years now, but my school is still chugging along doing the same thing. And why shouldn't they? It's easy, and squeaking out a team spot or a couple of individual spots is always possible, because it's the South.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 11:22am EST

re: Spare Me

All of the NESCAC schools aside from Hamilton are in the New England region.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 12:05pm EST

re: adddf

Well shit, my bad then. I guess I wasn't paying attention. The strength of the NE goes unnoticed sometimes because of the MW. They really should think about mixing up the regions to make things a little more equal. The last few years have had way too many strong teams in the same regions and hardly any in the others.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 1:48pm EST

re: adddf

Its pretty clear that the MW and NE are by far the best regions. Part of that is that there are so many schools in each region. The south and west have less then twenty teams while the MW has more than forty...its no wonder those teams took the last spots at nationals.

Normally Id say the WIAC is the best confrence in the country, but this year the CCIW was almost as strong with NCC, Wheaton, and Augustana. Add Wash U to that and you have more than half a dozen teams better than any school in the west or south. It sucks for school like Chicago who never make the nationl meet despite being a perenial top 30 team.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 2:01pm EST

re: 5050

Bottom line, not a lot of DIII Schools in the South/Southeast.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 2:01pm EST

re: run10miles

run10miles wrote:
Its pretty clear that the MW and NE are by far the best regions. Part of that is that there are so many schools in each region. The south and west have less then twenty teams while the MW has more than forty...its no wonder those teams took the last spots at nationals.
Normally Id say the WIAC is the best confrence in the country, but this year the CCIW was almost as strong with NCC, Wheaton, and Augustana. Add Wash U to that and you have more than half a dozen teams better than any school in the west or south. It sucks for school like Chicago who never make the nationl meet despite being a perenial top 30 team.

There are more schools in the south and west, I assume that it's just that some of them don't want to travel all the way to a regional meet halfway across the country if they know they are going to finish near the bottom of the region. This doesn't really have an effect on the quality of the region, though if you took out the bottom 10-20 teams from the MW,ME,NE,etc. you could probably say the same thing.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 3:23pm EST

re: NCAC

NCAC wrote:
There are more schools in the south and west, I assume that it's just that some of them don't want to travel all the way to a regional meet halfway across the country if they know they are going to finish near the bottom of the region. This doesn't really have an effect on the quality of the region, though if you took out the bottom 10-20 teams from the MW,ME,NE,etc. you could probably say the same thing.

I believe there are 20 teams on the Men's side, and 20.5 on the Women's side (Mills College has dual NAIA/NCAA status, and decided to run NCAA Regionals this year). UC Santa Cruz only just got a Men's team back, and their program is Independent anyway.

We are home to such illustrious programs as Chapman University (Independent until next year) and CalTech. Even when Regionals is not in SoCal, these teams tend to make the trip.

There are a few good teams and Individuals on both the Men's and Women's side. The Women especially, with the Pomona-Pitzer runner getting 3rd, the CMS women getting 4th, and CMS's top runner running the 6th or 7th fastest DIII time ever earlier this year before getting injured. As for the Men, well, they all blew it this year. They weren't supposed to be super impressive (CMS supposedly had some big injury issues, same with Pomona-Pitzer which prevented them from even qualifying), but they definitely underperformed, especially on the individual level (Brainard, Kleinsasser, Castillo).

14 years ago 11/22/2011 3:44pm EST

re: 555-5555

555-5555 wrote:
Bottom line, not a lot of DIII Schools in the South/Southeast.

True, but I think sending a school or two like WashU down there would really help balance things out.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 4:45pm EST

re: He Hate Me

St. Louis really isn't in the South, though. You're talking about turning an 8 hour trip into 15+ hours or an expensive flight.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 6:54pm EST

re: Azaleas

Azaleas wrote:
St. Louis really isn't in the South, though. You're talking about turning an 8 hour trip into 15+ hours or an expensive flight.

I understand that, but Virginia and North Carolina are even further away and teams from those states ran regionals in Texas. It might take some work/planning, but there has to be a way to balance things out a little. There is no reason why the MW or NE should have 7-8+ deserving teams fight for 5 spots every year while teams like Lynchburg and Centre get auto bids only to finish last.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 8:00pm EST

re: Spare Me

Interesting read about the women's winner, Del Piccolo, on the Williams Athletic website. Apparently she wasn't even their #1 runner at the beginning of the season. She looks a lot like Jennifer Gossels to me... which, speaking of, does anyone know what happened w/ her? Did she transfer to another school? So weird that she won the outdoor 10K and then didn't run XC.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 8:19pm EST

re: delpiccoloooo

delpiccoloooo wrote:
Interesting read about the women's winner, Del Piccolo, on the Williams Athletic website. Apparently she wasn't even their #1 runner at the beginning of the season. She looks a lot like Jennifer Gossels to me... which, speaking of, does anyone know what happened w/ her? Did she transfer to another school? So weird that she won the outdoor 10K and then didn't run XC.

She's still enrolled at Williams and is supposedly running track. Your question won't get answered in this thread because either the posts or the thread itself would get deleted.

14 years ago 11/22/2011 8:47pm EST

re: delpiccoloooo

delpiccoloooo wrote:
Interesting read about the women's winner, Del Piccolo, on the Williams Athletic website. Apparently she wasn't even their #1 runner at the beginning of the season. She looks a lot like Jennifer Gossels to me... which, speaking of, does anyone know what happened w/ her? Did she transfer to another school? So weird that she won the outdoor 10K and then didn't run XC.

If you've seen either in person the extent of the similarity of their appearance is their height and the williams uniform

14 years ago 11/22/2011 10:20pm EST

re: 1000 words

anyone know where I can find some photos from the meet?

14 years ago 11/23/2011 6:22pm EST

re: yoooo

14 years ago 11/23/2011 6:49pm EST

re: TrollFace

TrollFace wrote:
CALVIN Y U NO RUN FAST?

Been wondering the same thing. 7 places over their national rank? Calvin is better than that, we've seen it.

14 years ago 11/24/2011 1:46pm EST

re: ThisIsHowWeDoIt

Are results from the prediction contest ever going to be posted?

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