DIII Cross Country 2009

Point loses a lot in their top 3. Hopefully they can get some guys to step up and fill some spots.

Brad from Coe, What does the Central region look like this year? I think Nebraska Wesleyan has won the region the past few years but I don't know what 2009 looks like.

Early predictions for top 10 women:

1. Borner

2. Mitchell

3. McNamara

4. Childs-Walker

5. Scherer

6. Navarre

7. Paulsen

8. Schnell

9. Bergstrom

10. Surtees

Central Region Men:

Nebraska Wesleyan keeps their entire 7 from regionals, and St. Olaf loses their 2nd and 4th, but they keep Ruon the All-American and this guy Marotz has gone from not-even-close-to-all-region last year to running a 30:45 or so in the track 10k. If he can keep that kind of stuff up for XC, they probably won't miss the loss of O'Neill and Green much. St. John's surpised everyone at regionals last year, they lose their number one but no one else. St. John's NEEDS someone new to step up though, last year at regions they basically did their magic with 5 guys. Their six and seven were wayyyyyyyy back. Grinnell loses their leader and no one else, while Loras loses its 3rd and 4th from regions. Luther loses their number one, unfortunately it's the guy who got 8th in the nation, and their 2nd best guy was like 1:30 behind him at regionals. Hamline absolutely bombed at regionals last year, they lose their 1 and 3 from regions but their new likely #1 Ian Bauer is really good. He got 12th at the region last year, but it wasn't enough to go to nats. Hamline might be a good team, might not, but Bauer will figure in the front either way. The team fight should mainly involve those, barring of course improvements / freshmen. Looking at last year though, none of them should be all that high at nationals, except perhaps St. Olaf who oughta be much better than last year and could sneak top 10 on a good day, and maybe Nebraska Wesleyan could do alright. I think their best guy got hurt between regionals and nationals and couldn't run, so their performance at Hanover isn't entirely indicative of what they were/are capable of.

Individually, the MIAC looks pretty good. Greeno, 2x all-America, returns for Bethel, Augsburg's Haglund (the afforementioned 56th placer) is back after a 30:49 on the track, and Macalester's Wade Ekstrom, who missed NCAA's in cross by one place, went on to go like 3:51 for 1500 and make the outdoor NCAA final. Those three seniors will be solid, for sure.

The IIAC is like the region as a whole, getting weaker. Last year, a whopping three of us went to NCAA's and we're all gone. The leading contenders here must be two seniors: John Fry of Loras, who could be an individual or on a qualified team, it's a toss-up, and Lane Moser of Coe. Moser went 15:05 and 30:50 last year. Fry had a lesser track campaign but was 17th in the region last year in XC, perhaps he's just more of an XC guy, but he'll be ready to roll. Loras could take the conference title, they have a bunch of newly-sprouted 1500/800 studs such as Dreyer and Sulkin who were in the 3:56-58 range, if those ones are also now good at XC they oughta take it. Otherwise, Luther has its same old anonymous pack as always, but this year no all-American stud(s) to lead them. Coe and Simpson each keep all except their top guy, so who knows what they can bring to the table team-wise, but on paper it looks like Loras and Luther are the best again. Coe had major track improvements from several of their guys, so they might be in there, we'll see. Loras is probably the most likely IIAC team to qualify, but I wouldn't think they will until we see how those mid-D guys translate to 8k running. That will make or break them.

Just for fun, I predict:

Team Quals:

1. St Olaf, 2. Neb Wes, 3. Loras, 4. Grinnell

Individuals (alphabetical order)

Bauer, Ekstrom, Gamble (Carleton), Greeno, Haglund, Moser, Stevens (St. John's)

Ruon, if he learns to run in the cold this year, gets top 10 at NCAAs. Even last year when he couldn't he was top 25, so...

umm ever heard of Schaffhouser??

St John's will be fine. Their sixth from last year, Ruairi Moynihan, had a great track season and will be right with their pack this fall. In regards to St Olaf, I believe Marotz was injured during cross last fall so that could explain his being so far back at both regions and nationals. Gamble from Carleton had a stellar indoor track season and should be considered a top national contender as well assuming he keeps improving. This region could be loaded individually.

i've last at pretty much every other post on this thread.

by the way, north park is going all the way. they got a couple of sweet new recruits that you all gotta look out for

Never to early to start this..What's going to happen? No one is going to care but a bunch of puds because it's D3.

coloradostuddmuffin wrote:

umm ever heard of Schaffhouser??

Heard of her, yes. Think at the moment that she'll get top 10 again, probably not but we'll see. Maybe she is just more of a cross runner, but her track results were unimpressive, especially compared with some of the other top women. Provoed in the indoor 5k, barely, but didn't make nats, provoed in the outdoor 10k (not in the 5k), barely made nats, and then DNFed at nats. Plenty of women she beat at nats last year seem to be improving, whereas she seems not to be.

Good one! Don't listen to this tool.

Who's everybody going with for top 10?

Oh, and to add to the Central stuff, I forgot to mention Andrew Tobben of Cornell. 15:10-or-so 5k guy, probably around 25th??? at regions last year. Cornell's not much of a team right now, but Tobben'll be in the hunt for nationals individually. He's only a junior so if not this year then probably for sure next year.

Any summer updates? Any road race results??

Saw that some North Central guys were top 20 in the Bix 7 the other weekend.

I'd have to say as the season approaches, the heavy favorites are NCC and Cortland of couse, ncc returning 6 of 7 and cortland returning 4 of 7 (of which those 4 are in the top returning 30 of the country). I wouldn't sleep on williams or lacrosse either though, williams especially returning some strong frontrunners

Any comments on New England region?

Brad ONeil - SR - Coe College wrote:

Oh, and to add to the Central stuff, I forgot to mention Andrew Tobben of Cornell. 15:10-or-so 5k guy, probably around 25th??? at regions last year. Cornell's not much of a team right now, but Tobben'll be in the hunt for nationals individually. He's only a junior so if not this year then probably for sure next year.

15:10 guy in the hunt for nationals inividually? Maybe he will be, but your evidence of 15:10 and 25th in the central region does not put him in any hunts.

I imagine that he meant that the kid would be in the hunt to MAKE nationals individually, which IMO is a realistic goal for a 1510 guy the year prior.

i think so wrote:

I imagine that he meant that the kid would be in the hunt to MAKE nationals individually, which IMO is a realistic goal for a 1510 guy the year prior.

This guy is right.

Should be a good battle up front. Can't wait for the season to come. What big meets are there this year? Oshkosh? What else for D3?