Socon thread?

I dont think App will put 8 in the top 10 again but, based on Paul Short, App might 15 everyone this year. They put three guys under 25 and Houser was at 25 flat. Elon won their meet this weekend over UNC. What is Hagen Stone like as a course? The times did not look fast but a good team effort. UNCG looked better this week but their is still room for improvement. The freshman from UNCG looks like he may take top honors this year and Wyatt and Rutz ran fast right at 26:00. Hammond ran 25:1X and Roach ran 26:0X for Western. And the big news of the week was that Harden raced this weekend hahah. I guess that make the rumors true. He ran behind Hoyt and they both ran mid 25's. Where was Divinie? I would think they would bring him to a large scale meet like that. I hope he is not hurt... again. They could be a solid second place team if they run their entire team at socon. Well great job this week fellas. I am looking forward to seeing everyone race at App and conference is only three weeks away now.

Good luck to everyone in the next few weeks.

I spoke too soon earlier today. Bean from Samford ran 23:49 at Auburn today... that would likely break up a 15 point score. They also had a guy at 24:58 and another at 25:02. The times looked extrmely fast though. The winner (from Auburn) ran 22:16 which is about 4:28 a mile. Also the UGA guys that ran at Western two weekss ago all improved their times by over a minute so....

Course at Auburn was extremely short and fast. Those times are not real 8K times. Don't tell me this guy from Samford was running high 25's and all of a sudden he dropped over a minute off his PR. I heard the course was well under 8K.

Elon's website mentioned how they defeated UNC, which would have been amazing if it were not for the simple fact that it was UNC Club XC. The website failed to mention that small fact. Hagan Stone is a pretty fast course.

App and Davidson are the clear 1-2 right now. I'm not going to put too much thought into these times because every course is different and when you race against the best teams in the country at races like Paul Short and Louisville, you're bound to have some fast times. App will not score 15. Conference will be much more of a challenge then people think. Most everyone treats XC like track with regards to comparing times and you simply cannot do that. Every course is different and every race varies with the caliber of competition.

Let's give Furman a shot at their home meet next weekend before we say Davidson is the clear #2. I still think Elon's right in the thick of things, too. Hagan Stone is a fair course, but I would not call it fast due to the mulch surface. I'm glad to see Ricky Myers and Harden back in the saddle. Davidson was also missing Thad Sieracki, so that should help them. It's a shame UTC didn't race at Louisville this year, as I would have like to see how they stack up with Davidson on both the men's and women's standings. Hammond is running well this year. Looks like a 3-way battle for women's individual crown between Meghan Gaffney, Caroline Sanker, and Tara Gietama (UTC).

As was stated earlier, Auburn's course is a joke and is undoubtedly short, but Bean will be an all-conference contender. I heard a rumor that they've changed all-conference from top-10 to top-7 and now 8-14 are second team. Can anyone confirm?

Oops cont., what are your allegiances?

Doesen't matter what Furman does on their home course because times will be slow compared to the race tracks at Paul Short and Louisville. They aren't even contenders this year. Bean is very talented, but not sub-24 talented. I have not heard anything about a change in all-conference.

Harden is my pick for runner of the week. Don't run for a year and a half and in your first race a 25:40? Amazing!

yeah I'm going to have to go ahead and say that Auburn was at least a minute short for the top guys...Sam Chelanga will be top 5 at nats this year and he broke Paul Short's course record by a lot, other than that it was the same race it always is--just a lot more competitive this year. Auburn's times are utterly ridiculous... 22:15 for the winner?

The samford dude will be all-socon, but he isn't that good.

App won't perfect score it. right now here is the top 10 based off of this past weekend.

1. Desta

2. Mitchell

3. Bean (Samford)

4. Morgan

5. Meyer (App)

6. Houser

7. Hammond

8. Divinnie (didn't race, injury?)

9. Walker (App)

10. Hoyt

Teams:

1. App

2. Davidson

3. Furman

4. Elon

Freshman of the year:

1.Thompson (UNCG)

2. Soderman (App)

3. Moen (App)

I don't know why everyone is still talking about furman. Their upperclassmen have yet to show anything this year, besides morgan, and their freshmen are already looking tired. App and Davidson look to be clear contenders for 1 and 2, respectively. Furman will have to climb on morgan's back and hope he pulls through if they even want to think about 3rd.

Morgan better tell his teammates to "Rojo" if they want a shot at anything. I'm also tired of Woffrod sandbagging every race they've been in this year. It's time they man up and start to race.

QED

agreed, furman hasn't done anything at all. i don't see them being top 3. and that was pretty busch league of samford's coaching staff to actually submit those "8k" times to soconsports for the weekly rankings. it will be pretty funnye when they have one guy under 26 come conference time with those nasty prs of theirs.

Me? I ran at Western... so I am not an App fan and I was not that fast. I am however, friends with several guys on the team... or guys that were on the team. Socon should be good this year but App does look to be the clear favorite. The 15 point remark was not to offend anyone, but it was meant to start a fire in at least one Socon runner’s arse.

At this moment 15 points is very possible. But (!), out of Morgan, Hammond, Hoyt, Bean and Harden, I am sure one can squeeze in the top 5. Berry and Divinie are also able to break that up, but I am not sure of their status. And I agree that Furman looks like crap right now but they always do at this point of the season. But they ALWAYS pull it off at conference, so I wouldn’t put anything past them. Running is fun.

I only get on here because I like to see what runners in the conference think about each other. I don’t run anymore but when I did I tried to make friends with everyone in the Socon. Anyone that has ever spoken to me knows that my comments are not meant to be taken too serious, but rather with a chuckle at the end. I am not a journalist, I am not a coach and I am by no means a running expert. I just like to talk about running.

As always, good luck fellas. I am looking forward to seeing the results from the App meet in a few weeks.

Dylan

Someone else might be able to squeeze into the top 5? Come on man. p-morgan beat divinie at eye opener and divinie beat all the app guys but mitchell at winthrop. the app guys are not going to go 1-5.

oh, and can any of the app guys run 23:49? nope, but cameron bean can...

I know those three names are capable of beating the guys from App... that is why I listed them among several other top runners. I am not saying App "will" go one through five, I am saying this team is better than last years team that only allowed three non-App runners to be named all conference. Calm down, everything will be fine.

I am also sure Bean is an extremely talented runner, but I don’t believe he took two full minutes off his PR from last year.

if you ask me, cameron bean should be nominated for runner of the year. 23:49? no runner in the conference can even touch that......oh wait--conference isn\'t a 7.6k race, riiiiight. well right now the all-conference spots consist of: divinnie, morgan, hammond, bean, and the top 6 app guys. (whoever they may be)

Bean named runner of the week! Let's see if he can break Furman's course record set at the 2001 NCAA Cross Country finals. 23:31 watch out!

I am actually quite looking forward to seeing the results of the Furman meet. Furman has a much harder course than Auburn so I do not believe Bean's time will be anywhere near 23 minutes, but I do think the Bean v. Morgan will be one hell of a showdown. Furman also tends to step their game up at their home meet and continue that momentum through conference. This meet should also let us know how Samford will contend come SOCON and how big of a threat Bean will be for the individual title. Good luck to everyone in that race.

Something interesting will happen this weekend... Keep your eyes open!

Bean beat Morgan by 20 seconds at Furman. No one broke 26 (Furman's course is a bit harder than Auburn's). Furman beat Samford as a team though. This could mean one of three things:

1) Furman is finnaly running well

2) Samford did not "race" this meet

3) Samford is not as good as the Socon rankings make them out to be.

Oh... and Berry is running unattached... again

I dont know if I missed somthing, but did that interesting thing happen this weekend?

Maybe that person was talking about Bean creaming Morgan, or perhaps they were talking about UTC running their best guys for the first time all season. In any case, Samford's men's team (their women's squad could do it) will not challenge for the top 3 at SoCons, but Bean is a contender. UTC looks good compared to the lack of attention anyone has given them. Expect Berry to race at SoCons, giving UTC probably the best 1-2 with Kirwa. David Moore is not running as well as last year, but he could still sneak into the top 10. Their freshman Vasquez is a solid 4, but once again, UTC is going to suffer mightily unless Baltimore or Huwe has the race of their life. I say they get 3-5, depending on how well Elon and Furman bring it.

Predictions:

1. ASU

2. Davidson

3. UTC

4. Elon

5. Furman

6. UNCG

7. Samford

This may be the deepest SoCon men's team field ever. Notice I didn't say most competitive, as ETSU, UTC, and ASU had some absolute studs back in the day. But there are 7 teams with a shot at the top 3 this year.