I personally; however, DID think they’d be better than this. It’s been surprising all season long with their massive spread.
Stephens being out has hurt them. Hartman & Gapes are solid. I’m surprised that Rauber was back as far as she was. They’re still relevant and they’ll be back.
I’m a massive NC State fan, but I’ve never been surprised about Rauber. Except when she actually has performed at a “decent” level.
I personally; however, DID think they’d be better than this. It’s been surprising all season long with their massive spread.
Stephens being out has hurt them. Hartman & Gapes are solid. I’m surprised that Rauber was back as far as she was. They’re still relevant and they’ll be back.
Rauber apparently missed a lot of summer training...in effect they returned their 4/5 or maybe 5/6 runners from last year and that is it. It seems like some of the younger runners are a year away at least. Smith after falling 100 m from finish barely got to her feat and slowly moved toward the finish only to fall again. But even take that out they are 4th at best today I think.
I personally; however, DID think they’d be better than this. It’s been surprising all season long with their massive spread.
Stephens being out has hurt them. Hartman & Gapes are solid. I’m surprised that Rauber was back as far as she was. They’re still relevant and they’ll be back.
Yep still relevant, but struggling. Hartman and Gapes way over achieving, but the 3-10 depth really has had no one step up.
Now Hartman and Gapes could be top 10 at nats, who'd have thunk that?...but will someone else join in to help.
Rauber apparently missed a lot of summer training...in effect they returned their 4/5 or maybe 5/6 runners from last year and that is it. It seems like some of the younger runners are a year away at least. Smith after falling 100 m from finish barely got to her feat and slowly moved toward the finish only to fall again. But even take that out they are 4th at best today I think.
Problem is largely about recruiting misses, or just how hard recruiting can be. (Maybe why 28 yr old Kenyans are popular).
The famous Touhy Class, now 5th yr seniors.
Touhy - pro, Starliper - at CU, Shulz - bench strength, Hendrix- at High Point, Walters - now D2, Quarzo - injured.
Recent transfer Abbey Loveys now at BC was 20th.
Rauber 86th - returning from injury.
The strong sophomore class.
Stephens - injured, Putman 103rd, Napoleon 59th, Hall - not on roster, Quarzo - bench strength.
The freshman stars.
Michalak - injured. Shea - 29th.
That is just a lot of recruits that do not convert to results (right now).
Conventional wisdom says they will be great next year with Engelhardt and friends coming in, but as you can see above it's not straightforward.
From the current true freshman class, Rachel Forsyth looked most promising today for MSU at Big10. We'll see how it goes in 3 weeks.
Rauber apparently missed a lot of summer training...in effect they returned their 4/5 or maybe 5/6 runners from last year and that is it. It seems like some of the younger runners are a year away at least. Smith after falling 100 m from finish barely got to her feat and slowly moved toward the finish only to fall again. But even take that out they are 4th at best today I think.
Problem is largely about recruiting misses, or just how hard recruiting can be. (Maybe why 28 yr old Kenyans are popular).
The famous Touhy Class, now 5th yr seniors.
Touhy - pro, Starliper - at CU, Shulz - bench strength, Hendrix- at High Point, Walters - now D2, Quarzo - injured.
Recent transfer Abbey Loveys now at BC was 20th.
Rauber 86th - returning from injury.
The strong sophomore class.
Stephens - injured, Putman 103rd, Napoleon 59th, Hall - not on roster, Quarzo - bench strength.
The freshman stars.
Michalak - injured. Shea - 29th.
That is just a lot of recruits that do not convert to results (right now).
Conventional wisdom says they will be great next year with Engelhardt and friends coming in, but as you can see above it's not straightforward.
From the current true freshman class, Rachel Forsyth looked most promising today for MSU at Big10. We'll see how it goes in 3 weeks.
recruiting on the girls side has always been a crapshoot. I agree with your overall point that there have certainly been some misses but that is hardly an NC State specific thing. Every top program has high school stars show up and get injured or have improvement stall out. But just like other top programs they have lower rated recruits like Hartman or Gapes thrive under the training. Does it matter if its the top recruits who are the stars as long as they have stars?
recruiting on the girls side has always been a crapshoot. I agree with your overall point that there have certainly been some misses but that is hardly an NC State specific thing. Every top program has high school stars show up and get injured or have improvement stall out. But just like other top programs they have lower rated recruits like Hartman or Gapes thrive under the training. Does it matter if its the top recruits who are the stars as long as they have stars?
Completely agree it happens everywhere, look at recent Stanford, NC and Colorado.
Also love the kids who develop in college.
My point was this year really should not have been a rebuild for the pack. If just a few star recruits had worked out, they would have been ok.
recruiting on the girls side has always been a crapshoot. I agree with your overall point that there have certainly been some misses but that is hardly an NC State specific thing. Every top program has high school stars show up and get injured or have improvement stall out. But just like other top programs they have lower rated recruits like Hartman or Gapes thrive under the training. Does it matter if its the top recruits who are the stars as long as they have stars?
Completely agree it happens everywhere, look at recent Stanford, NC and Colorado.
Also love the kids who develop in college.
My point was this year really should not have been a rebuild for the pack. If just a few star recruits had worked out, they would have been ok.
Similarly, next year not any sure fix either.
Im not sure i agree that there should not have been a rebuild. The point of saying high school stars dont become college stars pretty often is that just because they have "top recruits" on the roster doesnt mean the expectations should have been there. I have expectations for people who have shown something at the NCAA level. With Leah Stephens out injured they returned very few proven runners at this level. This is the definition of a rebuild year imo. Their hope is that some of the talent shines through over the next two seasons this winter and spring so that they can have expectations again next fall. I dont think anyone would be shocked if one of Shea or Michalak had a great indoor or outdoor season and maybe someone like Napoleon had a great steeple season to lift the expectations for next fall.
1 reason is because they immediately added two kids from Elon (the xc coaches previous school) and these two got thrown into the deep end of the ACC. They were at Elon because they can't compete in the ACC.
All these Duke kids have had a hellish last 12 months + Mattoug left via the portal
Stephens being out has hurt them. Hartman & Gapes are solid. I’m surprised that Rauber was back as far as she was. They’re still relevant and they’ll be back.
Rauber apparently missed a lot of summer training...in effect they returned their 4/5 or maybe 5/6 runners from last year and that is it. It seems like some of the younger runners are a year away at least. Smith after falling 100 m from finish barely got to her feat and slowly moved toward the finish only to fall again. But even take that out they are 4th at best today I think.
One thing I noted is Shea is trending up nicely from her Adidas meet result. The Clemson runners times today were over 3:00 higher than the earlier 5K result on that course, while Gapes was about 3:00 higher and Hartman was about 2:50 higher and Shea was only about 2:40 higher. Some other NC St runners were 3:30 to 4:00 higher
I get ACCN and ACCN+ in my cable package and could not believe how Martin left Wolfe and Strand in his wake over the last mile. According to the stats, Martin was 18:50 at 6.5K and 22:17 at 8K. That is 3:27 for the last 1500m if these times are accurate.
I don't believe 3:27 for the last 1500m is accurate...
Take a look at the M 7K and W 5K marks ( and ditto for 5K and 3K) on the course maps. Clearly at least one of the two is way off. Either the 8K course is short or the 6K course is long, or both. I'd lean toward the former.
This is interesting. In addition to adding Kevin to distance running, Duke also added a former runner and asst. to Henes. Hopefully, they can get a few good recruits and turn this around.
Kenyetta??Iyevbele was hired in July 2024 as an assistant coach (distance) for the Duke track & field and cross country program. Iyevbele joins the Blue Devils'
I don't believe 3:27 for the last 1500m is accurate...
Take a look at the M 7K and W 5K marks ( and ditto for 5K and 3K) on the course maps. Clearly at least one of the two is way off. Either the 8K course is short or the 6K course is long, or both. I'd lean toward the former.
