It has always amazed me how lopsided the men’s side of this conference has been the past 10 years or so, and the trend continues. CU, UO, Stanford and Washington have all been top tier while Arizona, ASU, Cal and WSU have all been stomped. UCLA is the wild card that seems to wander between the 2 sides from year to year. Such a stark difference between top tier and bottom tier programs, none of the bottom teams ever have a prayer of cracking the top 4 on their best day.
I did a little more digging on this. Here are the finishing team positions from the past 10 championships, starting in 2014 and ending in 2023. Note: there are only 9 Mens teams
It’s incredible how consistent these results are for a full decade & through multiple “cycles” of roster turnover. Over the course of 10 years the year-to-year variation of team finishing positions is remarkably small. Below is a breakdown of how many occurrences each year-over-year variance had.
75% of finishes were within 1 position or the same position as the prior year. Only 8% of the time did a team have a +\- of 3 or more.
But that’s all she wrote for the PAC12. See you in your next lives in the new super-conferences..going to be very interesting for some of these teams going from a 9-team conference meet to 16+ team fields in the Big10/Big12 conferences.
Over the course of 10 years the year-to-year variation of team finishing positions is remarkably small. Below is a breakdown of how many occurrences each year-over-year variance had.
To clarify, this means each team’s finishing result versus their prior year. For example, the only 4 position variance was Cal going from 9->5 in 2022/23, and a zero or “same” place variance is Stanford winning back to back in 2022/23 (1->1)
As opposed to “4 teams finishing in different positions from where they finished the prior year”, that is not the math I did for the above figures.
Another nugget: with the exception of UW in 16, 17 & 19, in all 10 years CU, UO, UW and Stanford have shared the top 4 positions amongst one another. It’s an exclusive club up top!
It has always amazed me how lopsided the men’s side of this conference has been the past 10 years or so, and the trend continues. CU, UO, Stanford and Washington have all been top tier while Arizona, ASU, Cal and WSU have all been stomped. UCLA is the wild card that seems to wander between the 2 sides from year to year. Such a stark difference between top tier and bottom tier programs, none of the bottom teams ever have a prayer of cracking the top 4 on their best day.
I did a little more digging on this. Here are the finishing team positions from the past 10 championships, starting in 2014 and ending in 2023. Note: there are only 9 Mens teams
It’s incredible how consistent these results are for a full decade & through multiple “cycles” of roster turnover. Over the course of 10 years the year-to-year variation of team finishing positions is remarkably small. Below is a breakdown of how many occurrences each year-over-year variance had.
75% of finishes were within 1 position or the same position as the prior year. Only 8% of the time did a team have a +\- of 3 or more.
But that’s all she wrote for the PAC12. See you in your next lives in the new super-conferences..going to be very interesting for some of these teams going from a 9-team conference meet to 16+ team fields in the Big10/Big12 conferences.
Wtf happened to ASU? Back when Walt and Louie were there they were respectable. They’re an absolute joke.
I think she learned her lesson. There should be a big pack not going with Valby and the few who go with her.
No inside info here . . . but Bunnage probably got the ok to stick w/Valby & Tuohy at Nuttycombe for as long as she could . . . which turned out to be 2.3k . . . just to find out what it feels like to run that fast and learn what it will take to become a future NCAA champion.
As a result, Amy fell back to 13th . . . finishing 15 seconds behind Kaylee Mitchell/OR State in 4th . . . who finished 3rd yesterday at Pac-12s . . . 10 secs behind winner Bunnage.
Also, worth noting Bunnage finished 5 secs behind Maatoug/Duke at Nuttycombe . . . and Maatoug just ran the xc race of her life yesterday at ACCs to finish only 7 seconds behind Tuohy in 2nd.
Unless Lemngole/AL thinks she was off yesterday at SECs and decides to go for the win at NCAAs . . . it will be Valby & Tuohy out front . . . then a very elite chase pack including Lemngole, Chmiel, Maatoug, Mitchell . . . and Bunnage . . . then everyone else . . .
I think she learned her lesson. There should be a big pack not going with Valby and the few who go with her.
I doubt anyone will be going with Valby at Nationals.
It will be the same as last year. Valby will take off all by herself, and Touhy will be the only one to try to catch her.
Everyone else will be racing for third place.
Even though Lemngole and Olemomoi just got burned, I think there is a chance they go out . I could sort of see Bunnage trying for it again, Machu, some others...
Tuohy also can't let her get away like that this year or the gap will be a lot bigger than it was last championships... I don't know if she has a choice if she wants the title.
I doubt anyone will be going with Valby at Nationals.
It will be the same as last year. Valby will take off all by herself, and Touhy will be the only one to try to catch her.
Everyone else will be racing for third place.
Even though Lemngole and Olemomoi just got burned, I think there is a chance they go out . I could sort of see Bunnage trying for it again, Machu, some others...
Tuohy also can't let her get away like that this year or the gap will be a lot bigger than it was last championships... I don't know if she has a choice if she wants the title.
When all the points are tallied, there might be some shocking results when looking at the podium berths. Some literally could be decided by one or two points, if not a tie.
So is Tuohy’s first priority to go for the National Title, or is it to hold her position and not give up any sticks to the chase pack?
Even though Lemngole and Olemomoi just got burned, I think there is a chance they go out . I could sort of see Bunnage trying for it again, Machu, some others...
Tuohy also can't let her get away like that this year or the gap will be a lot bigger than it was last championships... I don't know if she has a choice if she wants the title.
When all the points are tallied, there might be some shocking results when looking at the podium berths. Some literally could be decided by one or two points, if not a tie.
So is Tuohy’s first priority to go for the National Title, or is it to hold her position and not give up any sticks to the chase pack?
This was not a question Tuohy faced last year, when NCState was clearly the dominant leader.
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