MIAC 2024 Cross Country

I seriously don't know how you come up with so many weird lies exclusively to trash the oles.

Jakob Battrup Sabo was the only 24 year on olaf.

This is a weird lie

Kellys girlfriend is 18, it"d be super weird if he was 25.

There is chatter on the national thread that the Oles may be 5th in the Region. I assume that means they expect four WIAC squads or maybe a Carthage/MSOE to be ahead of them.

Good chance if he’s back he dusts everyone in conference again, but as you all probably are well aware, there are no age restrictions in D3 so maybe he should take 10 year off dust the next generation and maybe 10 years later he could dust the all the Miac babies being born today.

Carleton roster posted on TFRRS. They may have found their 5th from one very strong group of a 9:40, 9:55 at altitude, 9:49, and guy with a very common name who may be fast too.

Wikk that be enough to hold off the Oles and Johnnies?

Don't count out Mac from that group, but the Carls have reason to be excited for the future. If this class develops like the Juniors, the 2025 season will be even more epic.

Power proudly told my high school teammate that other MIAC schools have scorers that he told were too slow to run for St. Olaf.

Is that

A. Good to set high standards.

B. Poor sighted with regards to developing athletes (i.e - the D3 model)

C. Bound to bite him in the rear when better coaches (including the reigning MIAC COTY) beat Olaf with "lesser" athletes?

I doubt he said it that way to a recruit or recruits family.

Even Phil had recruiting standards. He could sometimes be convinced to let persistent emailers join. Their roster is still around 40 men which is huge for a sport where only 5 men score and 7 run big meets.

And to be fair the Oles had 13 of the top 30 at the championship last year. So in a sense, that is probably true when teams have a team average of over 27:00 and scorers running over 28:00.

Roy is JD Vance

A huge Bethel freshman group has some solid potential. More middle distance orientated, but they add some much needed depth. Will be interesting to see if Lelinga improves at the 8K distance and any of the young guys slide into the top five.

My mid July rankings 1 moth out from training camps (agreed upon in conversation with 5 miac runners from scholastica, mac, olaf, carelton and gustavus and 2 coaches present (unnamed))

1) Olaf (until Carleton proves otherwise with a strong 4-5 runner) cant bet against the reigning champs. This team also knows how to kill the moral of smaller teams at the big meet with their crazy depth

2) Carelton - this is really close.. Gabe Roy and Indy all place top 10 at miac, the san diego freshman and others will fill in the gaps but dont count out josh meier from kicking down other teams 5-7 runners

3) Macalester - This is probably their year if it ever happens it is now, unfortunate olaf still has too many super seniors recruited by phil and Carleton may just be unstoppable. They have thier guys, tor is back, reese looks great this is a team that has been building.

4) St Johns- really good mid-d guys but the 8k distance will stretch them thin compared to a mac team that sems to have peaked for 2024 with mostly 10k-5k athletes ready to crush the back half of the 8k.

5)Gustavus ( they really are in postion for a solid 5th... dont see the other schools touching them barring injury, brauer, smith, and a younger and distsnce based 3-6 pack has the depth that these other teams lack but not enough top power to propell them into the mix

6)Bethel- with this recruiting class and a stong outdoor season i think they win the battle of the bottom half

7) Scholastica- Many think they will fall to bottom 3 without lars and tucker from last years dream team... however Nathan neau and derek douglass will fill in as decent depth to prevent taking 4 awful scores and whatever Calvin does. instead i suspect neau to get top 25 and douglas to score between 30-45... after that yea its gonna suck but those 2 alone shall help save this team from rock bottom plunge.. save that for next year

8) Concordia- they have potential to hit 6 and maybe even 5 but their history and inconsistency keeps them down here in my opinion.

9) St. Marys- I think they are on a small come up

10) Augsburg- 2 years post Augsburg hype and were back down here at 10... Mo will likely 3-peat unless Boone has a kick after being able to grind it out the distance way with Mo from the start.. after MO though oof this team is tough so many random injuries, inconsistency etc. I thought their coach was up and coming but at this point maybe there is a reason mo doesn't listen to him always

11) Hamline- rip the 2019 squad that was peak hamline... maybe they challenge st marys if st marys falls lower than expected but yikes this team needs so help...

Power’s best recruiting job has been to convince Curtis, Lynn, Cote, and Estrada to return. He tried to get Kelly to return but he’s too busy training with a legit coach in Montana. If I’m an underclassman, I’m pissed Power took my chance to be a top 7 guy away by violating the old (and now changed) MIAC rules to bring back these super seniors.
I’ll be curious to see how Ian’s summer of cross training in Europe will prep him for the Fall. I always felt like Power’s training crushed him and other coaches would have helped him to have a much more elite career.

Nice writeup Brodie!

The real question is whether Carleton can sweep MIAC's and the Karhu - if Power isn't too chicken to add the Karhue and Rolex back to his schedule.

People say this every year about all sorts of teams and look where it gets them every time. This was even said about the royals last year with incoming Lelinga, Thompson, St. George, and Graber. One saw mild distance success, one saw mild mid-distance success, and the other two were nonfactors. This year, it’s again Graber, Lelinga, probably Hage, and a bunch of nobodies. Quit the big class=big jumps mentality. 15 minutes on milesplit tells you another mediocre season is in store for Bethel.

It’s literally Rick’s fault they got canceled. We have acmer now bc the carls keep ducking

I somewhat understand the anti-Northfield vitriol. They’ve had a nauseating amount of success others would like to enjoy.

Is all the hate toward the Ole Coach justified? Do we hate him because he has a huge roster or because he is a good recruiter but doesn’t fit the image of a runner? He may look like a D3 jv offensive lineman, but some of the most fit (and accomplished from a running standpoint) have the worst teams. If he’s truly such a terrible person his teams will get worse once Phil’s recruits graduate, which he says was two years ago btw.

I for one am sick of it all. If you have something funny to say or a real analysis I’m all for that. The UAA and NESCAC threads are terrific. Ours are just sad.

I see the Oles are hiring an XC assistant. Did Power’s ego and insistence on his bizarre training drive another coach away?

Is it worth applying or will the assistant have no say in training and just be there as buffer between disgruntled athletes and Power? Would he even hire another MIACer?