D3 XC 2010

Mjolnir wrote:

I run for a MW team and clearly we have more teams in the top 30 than will make it, but who cares? No top 5 team is ever going to get left behind. If your team doesn't get to go to nationals, that's too bad, but you weren't going to win anyway.

This.

People arguing that the Midwest deserves so many bids need to stop. Everyone has their chance in the regional meet to earn their trip to nationals...all you have to do is perform and finish in the top 5. If your team doesn't finish in the top 5 at regionals you are not a contender for a trophy at nats. Same thing with individuals...this year in the Midwest the last qualifying individual finished somewhere around 25th at regionals, and if you can't finish in the top 25 of your region you are not a contender for All American. The people complaining about being left out are teams and individuals that would finish around the middle of the field. Sorry, but the quality of the national meet isn't lost by not having you there. Work harder, better luck next year. Sounds harsh, but it's reality.

5 teams or 10 teams from the midwest, doesn't matter. The truth is that the Midwest layed the smackdown on the rest of the country yesterday. 2 podium teams and the rest in the top 11 along with 12 individual AA. It doesn't matter where the race was run, the midwest would have been the strongest anywhere. Congrats to all the Midwest and WIAC runners in the race. It's been a pleasure racing you this season.

wilfredo wrote:

natsnatsnats wrote:

Middlebury women won with no All-Americans. how often does that happen?

Midd had 3 all americans

I think the first poster was right, maybe wilfredo was looking at team scores? including the individuals, Midd's top 3 women were 40, 46, 49

It's really no use even arguing with the MW guys. Yeah, their region is good, but its because they lack academic standards, which is also why they can't argue or understand why they're wrong.

gulls wrote:

So i just found out Salisbury's freshmen who qualified for nationals (was the 9th fastest freshmen in the country) never ran xc in high school and didn't even think he would make the team at the start of the season

he played soccer and ran track in high school

look for him to be up there in the next few years

How did you determine he was the "9th fastest freshmen in the country" ? Simply by who the frosh were at NCAAs? You would be wrong in doing that considering NCC had 2 frosh that went 25:07 and 25:09 who didn't even get to run at MW Regional. UW-Lacrosse had a 25:1X as did Augustana and U of Chicago 25:2X at the MW Region. Not taking anything away from the kid but to determine the fastet frosh in the country you would need to run a head-to-head xc race.

Yeah they're full of terrible schools like U. Chicago and Wash U. oh wait

Teemster wrote:

It's really no use even arguing with the MW guys. Yeah, their region is good, but its because they lack academic standards, which is also why they can't argue or understand why they're wrong.

We need look no farther than the Miss America Pageant where there is only ONE, count them, ONE representative per state. If you finish second in your state pageant, you aren't going to win anyway, so you won't be missed.

And I think that pretty well states our case.

Teemster wrote:

It's really no use even arguing with the MW guys. Yeah, their region is good, but its because they lack academic standards, which is also why they can't argue or understand why they're wrong.

[/quote]

Really guy?

Central Region: Grinnell, Luther, Hamlike, Nebraska Wesleyan...ever heard of any of these academically. Hell NO.

Southeast Region: Lynchburg, Centre, Trinity, Emory...only Emory is notable.

Northeast and Mideast have some good academic programs CMU, Amherst, Williams, MIT, NYU, Brandeis so on...

MW Region: WashU, WIACs, U of Chicago, Augustana

I would say the MW Region is definetely "smarter" than the Central or the Southeast and on par with the Mideast.

can we please change the subject? This is not the "Does the DIII Region System Work" Thread, this is about the D3 national championships. We've been waiting all year for the last two days, and now they've happened, and no one has anything to say? Please, start another thread about the regions debate - or else people on LetsRun will have good reason to think that DIII is stupid (which it obviously isn't).

I thought it was a pretty good race. Does anyone have any thoughts on how it played out? Surprised? Angry? Happy? Sad? Excited? Let down? Anticlimactic? Thoughts on the course? Strength of the field? Weather? Wartburg College? Fans? Tailgating?

Anything but the inequality of the fcking regionals system.

Dickinson for 5th place? What???

I thought it was a great race all around. It seemed to me that the top three teams were far and away better than the rest of country this year and if the race were run again either NCC, Haverford, or St. Lawrence could have won. That being said Haverfords win was pretty awesome, what a group of runners, 5 all americans seems pretty unreal to me. Also feel a bit redeemed, I personally questioned why Spain was the far and away favorite and why people thought he would win by like 40 seconds. Great individual race, wish I could have watched it cause the feed was garbage. Who do you guys think the biggest surprises or movers were from and individual and team standpoint this year? What about disappointments?

-I think the individual surprise would have to be Anders from Haverford

-Thought the team surprise was 5th place Dickinson. I remember people saying they would not even make Nats this year. 10 second spread is unreal.

-I think the biggest disappointment has to be Alleghany. Ranked second all year and just did nothing at regionals or nats. Makes me wonder if they were sick or something.

I would not be surprised to see next years top 5 contain 3 of the same 5 teams (Haverford, NCC, and Dickinson)

So which teams over OR underperformed.

Elizabethtown women. Chaa!

winners losers wrote:

So which teams over OR underperformed.

I think over/underperforming is just a nice way to say you were actually more or less fit than you originally thought.?

Bleaker wrote:

The MW needs to be quiet and appreciate the fact that they already have a nice advantage. Nationals is always in the MW so they have to travel less and because it's there, it's usually a pretty flat course, which the MW teams are used to. Other regions simply aren't as used to those types of races. I think the only team that would have a right to complain right now would be Colby but considering they had their top two there and go 91, 149 they would have been contending for last place.

You just gotta go out there and run, and good job to everybody that did that today. Shame on all those who tried to ruin the day by complaining.

I run in the central region. We're in the MW area of the country too, and have fairly flat courses. By your logic shouldn't we be running better?

Also, Grinnell is ranked 18th of liberal arts colleges. Maybe not the most heard of school, but certainly academically rigorous.

Mister Big Brain wrote:

We need look no farther than the Miss America Pageant where there is only ONE, count them, ONE representative per state. If you finish second in your state pageant, you aren't going to win anyway, so you won't be missed.

And I think that pretty well states our case.

yeah really. just cause the top 37 finishers in the miss california pageant make miss wisconsin look like a farm animal, doesn't mean they should all make it and you should leave miss wisconsin at home.

I'm a little puzzled that the NYU women didn't do better. Their #1 ran head-to-head with some good people during the season--I'm told she hit the deck during the NCAA race? Anyway, they finished 28th, after being ranked ~18th going in.

The Violet men, OTOH, ran about where people expected. WashU confirmed its men's conference championship by being the first UAA team to finish.

To me the D3 MW region is very similar to men's Big East basketball. Lots of hype, loaded with good teams who beat each other up through the season and conference championships, and then underperform at the big dance.