Looks like McDonald transferred from Brandeis. That hurts them for this season, but it looks like they have a slew of talented frosh coming in. This team will be very good in 2008.
Tomas quit. No big surprise here.
There were three stud frosh revealed in the coaches preview. Two to Williams, a 4:15 and a 4:11 miler, and a 9:13 guy to Trinity. Also of note, Trinity is apparently getting 7 new freshmen. This will double the size of their team. Perhaps they will be a force for the next few years.
Footed wrote:
Ladies and gentlemen, Keene State.
That was about the funniest post I've ever seen on here.
Since Williams' top two recruits will probably play better in track, I think Keene could challenge Williams based on how they did in track. They do have an injury concern however and I don't know any of the details.
If Abrams is the only one to regress on the Bowdoin team, I'd say Trinity/Bowdoin at #3 and #4
I have Amherst at #5, but this really depends on how their freshmen, particularly Yochum and Harrison, perform.
Brandeis losing McDonald drops them out of my top 5, where they have an edge because of their deep freshman class over a group of Conn, Middlebury, MIT, and USM.
Predictions:
1) Williams - as said before, they just have too many guys. For most teams you have to figure a few guys will go down but for them it just doesn't matter. Their only problem is picking the right 7 guys with. (stolen from another post)
The rest of these teams have problems it should be really interesting. If one or two of these teams put it together Williams is beatable.
2) Keene- They had a good year on the track and are a year older last year was a rebuilding year. They also seem to be running pretty decent this summer. If they can control there first mile in the race they will be ok.
3) Bowdoin- Have the talent to be the winner but as always seems to be the case they will underachieve.
4) Amherst - with or without Morrissey they are the 4th or 5th best team.
5) Trinity-They will be as good as anyone up front the only factor is the depth. If a guy or two develop or a freshman can help right away they will be in the top three teams.
6) Brandeis- could actually have been a factor had MacDonald not left school if they can put it together on a day they will make the NCAAs. They didn't seem to all run well at the same time at any point last year.
7) Tufts- Could finish in the top three as well if they are able to build off of last year's regional showing and Kantos comes back as he left.
8) MIT- Will run well end of September and early October until the inevitable slide starts.
So what does everyone think of any of the teams chances against NYU at the Conn College invite?
nyu sucks get out of here d-bag
I am running XC in fall for Middlebury. I used to play soccer. I run the 800. Watch out.
What are we watching out for exactly?
Kelleher is not running for Keene this fall does that shake up the predictions at all?
source?
Well, Kelleher is not on Keene's 2007 roster (www.keene.edu/athletics/roster.cfm?isport_id=4).
Tufts is getting Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot - a 9:47 two-miler who was meant to run longer. He is light, fast, and tough.
And I have to add that "recruits" in Div. III are often paper recruits - lots of "talent" never makes into October, never mind a four year career.
No one else is going to call out this guy for self-promoting a 9:47 2 miler? Come on Tufts, don't go sucking your own dicks just yet.
At 9:47 he is only running 4:53 pace on the track? Are you kidding? You need SOME speed to run 8K xc. The women are all light, "fast," and tough too.
What has this stud done in xc?
speaking of tufts Kantos is back in the US running 1536 at cigna.
Let's just examine -
What did Marzuki Stevens run in high school? 10 flat
What did Michelle Rorke do in college? Not much
How many 1:55 types go to Tufts/Trinity and never run a race? Dozens.
7 recruits in D3 usually equals 2 runners.
And BTW, I am 15 years out of college, not some Jumbo "sucking his own dick."
I was on a NESCAC championship team (Bowdoin '91) that went like this:
HS - 9:40 two miler
HS - 4:25 miler
HS - 10:00
HS - 10:08
HS - 10:11
HS - 10:25
HS - 10:30
On that team, there were three or four recruits who had run 9:40 or better who never made the top seven.
just because good hs guys don't run well in college and slow ones sometimes do run well in college doesn't mean a 9:50 recruit is going to run well enough to push tufts ahead of a lot of teams better than him. you can't possibly mean you'd rather have a 9:50 guy come in than a 9:20 guy.
So basically you're saying that a team should stockpile mediocre talent? If you had your choice between a 9:30s guy and a 9:50s guy, you would take the 9:50s guy?
I am in awe of your genius.
You graduated in 1991 and you're still posting about Bowdoin amongst a pack of 19-year-olds?
Move on, my friend.
My point is this: No recruits have to run in Division three. Many high schoolers don't have the maturity to adjust to college life and run successfully or to keep competing after high school. Especially when many recruits come from h.s. teams where their egos are constantly inflated. What makes the difference, as I said before, is when you get a good group within a decent parameter, when you get 4 or 5 of ten recruits to run for four years. I mentioned that Tufts was getting a kid I coached in high school who falls into the range of times that most good DIII cross-country runners have.
I am simply saying that to tout these paper recruits who have run "4:11" or "9:15" as impact players this year is a bit premature. I'll check back in November and see if experience proves me right or wrong.