New England DIII XC

Middlebury really made a statement out there today, and even though Bates wasn't at Franklin, beating Geneseo is a pretty solid statement as well.

Conn and Bowdoin are really lagging behind, especially after yesterday. Horowitz looked to be a mess out there yesturday and looks like the Canadian is not living up to all the hype, maybe it is too difficult being in a new country?

I think the top 5 teams are a virtual lock (Midd, Bates, MIT, Williams, Tufts), but the order can vary, with Amherst (anyone notice Sheetz out there), Bowdoin, and Conn behind.

1-5 split = !

1-7 split = @

Midd

!- 1:36

@- 2:09

MIT

!- :50

@- Coach is to scared to actually run his guys so they can stay top in the region... lets just hope they don't screw the region over when they go out to Oshkosh

Tufts

!- 1:44

@- 2:50

Bates

!- :40

@- :51

Williams

!- :40

@- 1:21

MIT once again decided not to race their whole team we have no idea. I wish they're coach would sack up and stop trying to play games... no clue

Going off of depth I would say that Bates, Williams, and MIT, could all have one of their top 5 have a bad day and they would have a guy right behind them to fill in. I think Tufts and Middlebury's spread is to big and if any of their top 5 has a bad day they are done... so I am regrettably saying that the region leader is still MIT, with Williams, then Bates, followed by Midd and then Tufts. I think that Midd and Tufts again have great front runners but their 1-5 is not strong enough in my eyes to show up when it counts, no hate just going off their spread and depth.

People who have yet to show up:

LeDuc: What is up with him, I know he comes to race at the end of the season so I hope to see him then.

Graboys: Has been progressing nicely the past few weeks and would not be surprised if he is top 20 in the region, hes got 5 weeks and the man is a competitive animal.

Cassidy: If the Jumbos manage to get him healthy they will be a force to be reckoned with...

Mr. Canada: ... Con College ... sound like coby

Coby: One of the most talented athletes to run in DIII, fact is you actually have to race in order to prove it... I hope this already all-american star doesn't go out like countless others.

--- anyone else???

Any races this coming weekend?

in terms of depth, there's more to be seen by looking at sub-v, and I'm sure none of these teams have finalized the seven guys who are gonna step on the starting line in New Brunswick... obviously the sub-varsity race is a different ballgame, but the times are still relevant

2. 66 Williams ( 26:33 2:12:41)

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1 3 Max LaBerge 26:11

2 4 Chris Lee 26:14

3 10 Matthew Wyatt 26:33

4 20 Ford Smith 26:45

5 29 Steve Mendoza 26:58

6 ( 38) Henry Koster 27:07

7 ( 41) Mark Springel 27:12

-that's five guys faster than #7 Raduazo, who must have been involved in the fall, but their top 3 sub-varsity guys seem to be in the mix with their 5-6 guys in the varsity race

4. 167 Tufts ( 27:01 2:15:05)

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1 23 Brian Mclaughlin 26:47

2 24 Samuel Garfield 26:49

3 25 Samuel Hansen 26:51

4 42 John Mccauley 27:13

5 53 Gregory Hardy 27:25

6 ( 58) Robert Mcshane 27:32

7 ( 63) Jamie Norton 27:36

-that's three guys with faster times than #6 in varsity and four more with times faster than #7, although they were both involved in the pile-up at the start

6. 196 Middlebury ( 27:08 2:15:36)

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1 12 Taylor Sundali 26:34

2 34 Jeff Colt 27:03

3 37 James Stormont 27:06

4 44 Sam Craft 27:14

5 69 Leif Castern 27:39

6 (107) Anthony Lee 28:30

7 (161) Derek Satterfield 30:29

-compare to #6 at 26:35 and #7 at 27:05 in varsity, but their depth drops off a lot faster (not that it should matter)

9. 269 MIT ( 27:24 2:16:57)

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1 11 Andrew Erickson 26:34

2 59 Justin Bullock 27:32

3 60 Kris Frey 27:33

4 68 Chadd Kiggins 27:38

5 71 Matt Jordan 27:40

6 ( 97) Matt Weaver 28:13

7 (103) Jay McKenna 28:25

-unless they were resting a few of their top guys they could be seriously hurting in terms of depth if anything goes wrong with one of their top five

MIT raced at least 6--one guy (one of their freshman?) passed out about halfway in. Not sure about their seventh.

I don't think you can accurately assess the spread of teams' 1-5 runners right now considering the pileup, which took out some teams' 5-7 runners, notably those of Williams and Tufts.

I think Midd is the clear favorite right now, then MIT and Williams (considering their depth in the sub-v race and Raduazo's fall), then Tufts and Bates. Then a HUGE drop off to Bowdoin.

Any of those top 5 teams could beat each other on any given day.

Ephalum wrote:

I don't think you can accurately assess the spread of teams' 1-5 runners right now considering the pileup, which took out some teams' 5-7 runners, notably those of Williams and Tufts.

I think Midd is the clear favorite right now, then MIT and Williams (considering their depth in the sub-v race and Raduazo's fall), then Tufts and Bates. Then a HUGE drop off to Bowdoin.

Any of those top 5 teams could beat each other on any given day.

It seems to me, that if bates can get Graboys back into shape they should be right there with Midd at the top. Hate to say it, but they look awfully tough to beat.

grayarea wrote:

It seems to me, that if bates can get Graboys back into shape they should be right there with Midd at the top. Hate to say it, but they look awfully tough to beat.

why? what have they done to show this?

y? wrote:

grayarea wrote:

It seems to me, that if bates can get Graboys back into shape they should be right there with Midd at the top. Hate to say it, but they look awfully tough to beat.

why? what have they done to show this?

Why... well lets go back and see what grayboys did last year, consistently ahead of dilts most of the season, and ran 14:38 indoors for the 5k... and your asking why??? They also just beat the #5 and #11 team in the country... by 20+ points. I think they deserve a little bit of credit although they still have a lot to prove in regards to the other top 4 teams. Its true the fall may have caused some times to be thrown off, but no more than 10-15 seconds because it was so early in the race. I mean this region has an opportunity to put New England on the map at nationals. I think all of the top five teams can contend for top 10 spots if they continue to race the way they have been. That may be a bold statement but New England is young and restless. I just hope that we get to send 5 teams and that there is no dramatic upset like last year with MIT coming out of no where and winning it. Its personal this year boys.

stride wrote:

and your asking why???

Improper homophone usage will not be tolerated in DIII related forums, as we should hold ourselves to a higher academic standard than the common DI and high school posters. Thank you all for your compliance.

I apologize... any body know if other regions beside the mid-west have a chance at 5 teams? Also what is the word with cassidy? Schmidddty is gonna win it. After reflecting on previous comments, I have no idea who is gonna do what... regionals cant come sooner.

I also am not sure what exactly Bates or Graboys has done to give that idea. I get winning an out of region race was pretty good but in region they only beat bowdoin by like less than 3 points, and got crushed by tufts. Since then I haven't seen much different, maybe just racing weaker teams. with graboys, idk what his deal is now, but he has done nothing and he's running consistently miserably, so im betting if bates is going to nationals, they are doing it without him, or without him as a scorer. I think Tufts, Midd, Williams, and MIT are the top dogs with a drop off after. Midd and Tufts have the frontrunners right now, but Koima will be up by the end, and I am not sure about MIT's top guy having the ability to stay with those guys, but they have a strong pack. You know that MIT and Williams will be ready to go at regionals so my prediction is Midd, Williams, MIT, Tufts, in that order

you can't just assume that guys like graboys and cassidy will magically be healthy and fast at regionals. if they haven't done anything to show that theyre in the kind of shape they were last year, then as far as any of us know they aren't.

The #5 and 11 teams in the country are weak competition?

hey wrote:

The #5 and 11 teams in the country are weak competition?

While by no means certain, it is at least plausible that MIT, Midd, Tufts, and Williams are all stronger than Bates, but the Bates victory at least proves that New England stacks up better against the other regions than people realize. I wouldn't say that New England has been all that underrepresented in the rankings this year, but I think quite often the region is overlooked.

Granted, I think New England is especially strong this year, this also raises the question of why the region's teams, especially last year, have performed poorly at the national meet. I don't know the answer to this, but it could be in part that nationals is always on a midwest course, and also because the New England squads often beat themselves up just trying to get to nationals.

tufts was NOT tempoing

weak competition wrote:

Granted, I think New England is especially strong this year, this also raises the question of why the region's teams, especially last year, have performed poorly at the national meet. I don't know the answer to this, but it could be in part that nationals is always on a midwest course, and also because the New England squads often beat themselves up just trying to get to nationals.

i mean, NE's fourth team middlebury finished 21st at nationals last year, and based on how tight the region was bates probably would've been close to that, ahead of some other teams who got at-large bids, so while there were no teams challenging for the championship I don't think the region finished that poorly overall.

How could a sub 14:30 guy not break 27!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF are they doing to that kid at conn.

Bates will be very good if Graboys gets healthy and runs up to par. Also, if Cassidy returns to form for Tufts they will be very solid. Bowdoin has looked REALLY terrible so far this season. Midd is solid and MIT is solid. Williams will be there.

Based on results from the season so far, I see regionals being:

1. MIT

2. Midd

3. Williams

4. Tufts

5. Bates

All 5 of these teams deserve to go to the big dance.

With all this talk about cassidy and graboys, I have more respect and am more curious about how cassidy does because he has not run yet so he still has a shot to come back and run fast. He showed hes got skills last year and it is posible the coaches are just holding him out until he is 100% ready to go. Then tufts will be dangerous, especially with rand as a strong threat to win regionals. On the other hand I do not get all this "if graboys comes back..." stuff. He is back, he has run and he is not running fast enough to make any difference. I get he was decent last year, but the truth is I could run 14:42 for the 5k and then come back and run terribly in the fall and it also would not matter. It's not a mystery, we've seen what he can do. So if you think bates is going to do well, just post that, don't say that "graboys will come back", unless you have inside knowledge. It seems like these guys are getting unwarrented respect for might happen when we should be talking about fast runners, like Rand, LeDuc, Koima, Raduazo, Dilts, Hannan, Harper... I think even after this weekend, Williams and MIT are clearly the top dogs because they are good teams and they always are ready at regionals. Tufts is just a hair behind them, but could swap with them at any point.