Official 2017 D3 Cross Country Thread

Luke Maher's stach was looking strong at regionals. If coaches are eligible, he could take that title.

Blue collar mileage has been shown to suppress staches. Look it up, its science. We should be celebrating the guys with pre-pubescent faces. Those are the guys doing the real work,

A little late to the party but why is everyone so mad that the Midwest regional course was short? It's cross country not track, times don't matter.

UAAlum wrote:

A little late to the party but why is everyone so mad that the Midwest regional course was short? It's cross country not track, times don't matter.

SOME of us are trying to become PROFESSIONAL athletes, and having fast xc times help a lot for that sweet, sweet nike contract.

STILL the midbest wrote:

All these east coast and mid atlantic fan boys throwing mud at the Midwest course to hide the sh!t stains left in their shorts after seeing results come in. It’s probably scary now knowing the Midwest runners are faster and better racers than all you!

Ok so when the midwest doesnt grab atleast 30 AA spots, will you retract this garbage statement? Plus, you really think that many guys ran as fast as LaMere?

[3.1]Miles Davis wrote:

STILL the midbest wrote:

All these east coast and mid atlantic fan boys throwing mud at the Midwest course to hide the sh!t stains left in their shorts after seeing results come in. It’s probably scary now knowing the Midwest runners are faster and better racers than all you!

Ok so when the midwest doesnt grab atleast 30 AA spots, will you retract this garbage statement? Plus, you really think that many guys ran as fast as LaMere?

This is actually something I've thought about. If the course was 100% accurate, how many of these guys will have run their best race at regionals? If we're talking 40+ second lifetime PR's here, you're probably going to feel it for a few days. It will be interesting to see how the teams perform compared to the other regions this weekend and if that will be a factor.

Speaking of midwest, I guarantee NCC, LAX, and WashU all podium this weekend

Midwest fanboy wrote:

Speaking of midwest, I guarantee NCC, LAX, and WashU all podium this weekend

In what?

[3.1]Miles Davis wrote:

Ok so when the midwest doesnt grab atleast 30 AA spots, will you retract this garbage statement? Plus, you really think that many guys ran as fast as LaMere?

Yes, of course "midgets" thinks so. And all 30 are going to win tomorrow, by 29 seconds each!

Seriously, I long for the olden days of (my) HS, when many courses were awkward off-lengths, and times weren't a factor at all. As someone else said, even if all courses were exactly 8k/6k, variations in footing/turf, topography, mud, wind, etc., all play a huge role. Really can (almost) only compare within a race/course. Even then, some runners like the mud, some like hills, etc.

Anyway, good luck to all running tomorrow. Regardless of time, I hope everyone comes off feeling like they left their guts on the course.

Weird, I think spell check changed "midbest" to "midgets"... yup, just did it again. Sorry, didn't mean to insult (that way)

Doesn't matter if the course was short or not, it was fast. It was somewhere between 1:35-50 faster than the pre-national course for context.

I'm not saying the field improved that much, im saying the course was that much faster. On average, people don't improve much at all over the course of a season. Its pretty easy to compare courses when you have that many runners in the race.

Midwest-fast wrote:

Weird, I think spell check changed "midbest" to "midgets"... yup, just did it again. Sorry, didn't mean to insult (that way)

Well, Midwest does have Patel and O'Gara.

I love how every year all these people from New England talk so much crap about the Midwest right before Nationals. Then without fail, the Midwest takes a giant, steamy dump all over the teams from New England. When will they ever learn...

Too bad LR now excludes D3 from the prediction contest. It should at least be an option.

Here's my top 15:

North Central

Haverford

Geneseo

Christopher Newport

Pomona-Pitzker

Wis - La Crosse

Calvin

RPI

Amherst

MIT

Rhodes

Washington U

Loras

Carleton

Wartburg

Any chance of someone like Haverford upsetting North Central like St Olaf did four years ago? I don't think so. Sure La Crosse still has a shot at 2nd, and perhaps Loras could be higher, or a team like Carleton could continue their upward trend and break into the top 10, but for now this is my guess.

Individuals:

Darin Lau

Grant O'Connor

Isaac Garcia-Cassani

Dhruvil Patel

Jared Borowsky

Grayson Reed

Kevin Veltre

Otto Kingstedt

Andy Reischling

David O'Gara

Dennis Maloney

Andrew Philipose

Henry Woods

Zach Lee

Neil Saddler

If any coaches are reading this to get some last minute insight, I think a really interesting strategy would be to tell your runners to run at about 80% effort tomorrow during the race. Really feel good in the last mile. That way you can speculate a lot about how high you *could* have placed if you ran all out. Heck, maybe you could have won! It also makes it so that your athletes can continue training without a break and peak nicely for the December early season indoor meets.

Think about it.

Conn College course at Harkness is a great regional course and overall location. The only issue might be parking. Williams is also good but the town is in the middle of nowhere. At least Waterford, CT is right off I-95.

Woods didn't even win his region and was not top for Haverford at Paul short, either. Potentially Haverford has 3 very low sticks but unlikely they will be lower than any of NCCs top couple guys. My sense is that if Haverford wins, it comes from a very tight pack. Certainly this tough course favors guys from hillier areas like the mideast and northeast over the Midwest. However, the Midwest is without a doubt the deepest.

who is instagramming/periscoping the race?

Mideast first 100 hero wrote:

Woods didn't even win his region and was not top for Haverford at Paul short, either. Potentially Haverford has 3 very low sticks but unlikely they will be lower than any of NCCs top couple guys. My sense is that if Haverford wins, it comes from a very tight pack. Certainly this tough course favors guys from hillier areas like the mideast and northeast over the Midwest. However, the Midwest is without a doubt the deepest.

The Midwest is not all flat. Loras is from Dubuque, IA, where I grew up, which is in the Mississippi Valley, full of steep hills and bluffs. Not quite as hilly as San Francisco, but there's tons of killer hills to train on. Plenty of hills to be found in MN and WI too.

Anyway, from the DI results, apparently anything can happen.