hi
hi
Last year at nationals (I don't feel like doing this for other years, but enough years in a row have looked roughly like this to merit calling it a trend as to which regions are doing well; the last three years, for example, have had teams from the mideast, midwest, atlantic, and calvin make up the podium finishes.):
1-atlantic (NYU)
2-mideast (Haverford)
3-atlantic (Cortland)
4-great lakes (Calvin)
5-midwest (UW Lacrosse)
6-midwest (UW Stevens Point)
7-mideast (Allegheny)
8-central (Luther)
9-mideast (CMU)
10-new england (Williams)
11-midwest (UW Platteville)
12-new england (Amherst)
13-central (St. Johns)
14-central (Nebraska Wesleyan)
15-midwest (Augustana)
16-midwest (North Central)
17-great lakes (ONU)
18-west (Willamette)
18-west (Occidental)
20-new england (Bowdoin)
21-west (Colorado)
22-atlantic (Geneseo)
23-central (Carleton)
24-mideast (Dickinson)
25-central (Wartburg)
26-new england (Tufts)
27-great lakes (Heidelburg)
28-atlantic (TCNJ)
29-new england (Trinity)
30-south (Rhodes)
31-great lakes (Anderson)
32-south (Emory)
This is pretty revealing. The atlantic, mideast, and midwest regions dominate the top, along with Calvin. The west and the south didn't do anything, placing their three qualifiers 18/18/21 and 30/32. The central and new england regions provide a solid supporting casts (remembering that Williams and North Central are two of the historically strongest programs (maybe two of the three, along with Calvin) in d3, so this isn't meant to be all that demeaning...). So the south and west shouldn't get auto bids. If the teams that win those regions have gone outside of the region, say to the Oshkosh invite (which has been the predictor of the finish at nationals the last two years), and beaten the good teams from the other regions, then they perhaps are awarded an at-large bid. The mideast, atlantic, and midwest should each get 5 auto bids. Calvin should get an auto bid. And new england and the central should each get 2 auto bids. That makes for a 20 team-field. The at-larges should then be awarded to up to two teams from the south or west who have actually beaten someone; the other at-larges should be used for the WIAC teams that get screwed because the midwest is so deep, and any teams in the mideast or atlantic or new england or central who seem deserving; with a maximum field of 32. But there's no need for 32 teams; you take a 20 team field, and are willing to let in 12 more if they have proven themselves.
Oh, and Kosgei and Cortland FTW.
pretentious easT-coaster wrote:
Last year at nationals (I don't feel like doing this for other years, but enough years in a row have looked roughly like this to merit calling it a trend as to which regions are doing well; the last three years, for example, have had teams from the mideast, midwest, atlantic, and calvin make up the podium finishes.):
1-atlantic (NYU)
2-mideast (Haverford)
3-atlantic (Cortland)
4-great lakes (Calvin)
5-midwest (UW Lacrosse)
6-midwest (UW Stevens Point)
7-mideast (Allegheny)
8-central (Luther)
9-mideast (CMU)
10-new england (Williams)
11-midwest (UW Platteville)
12-new england (Amherst)
13-central (St. Johns)
14-central (Nebraska Wesleyan)
15-midwest (Augustana)
16-midwest (North Central)
17-great lakes (ONU)
18-west (Willamette)
18-west (Occidental)
20-new england (Bowdoin)
21-west (Colorado)
22-atlantic (Geneseo)
23-central (Carleton)
24-mideast (Dickinson)
25-central (Wartburg)
26-new england (Tufts)
27-great lakes (Heidelburg)
28-atlantic (TCNJ)
29-new england (Trinity)
30-south (Rhodes)
31-great lakes (Anderson)
32-south (Emory)
This is pretty revealing. The atlantic, mideast, and midwest regions dominate the top, along with Calvin. The west and the south didn't do anything, placing their three qualifiers 18/18/21 and 30/32. The central and new england regions provide a solid supporting casts (remembering that Williams and North Central are two of the historically strongest programs (maybe two of the three, along with Calvin) in d3, so this isn't meant to be all that demeaning...). So the south and west shouldn't get auto bids. If the teams that win those regions have gone outside of the region, say to the Oshkosh invite (which has been the predictor of the finish at nationals the last two years), and beaten the good teams from the other regions, then they perhaps are awarded an at-large bid. The mideast, atlantic, and midwest should each get 5 auto bids. Calvin should get an auto bid. And new england and the central should each get 2 auto bids. That makes for a 20 team-field. The at-larges should then be awarded to up to two teams from the south or west who have actually beaten someone; the other at-larges should be used for the WIAC teams that get screwed because the midwest is so deep, and any teams in the mideast or atlantic or new england or central who seem deserving; with a maximum field of 32. But there's no need for 32 teams; you take a 20 team field, and are willing to let in 12 more if they have proven themselves.
Oh, and Kosgei and Cortland FTW.
No offense... but you trash the west when oh whats this? The 3 teams that qualified beat a fair amount of the bids from other regions as well. For instance, they beat 2 of the 5 atlantic region teams... So it follows that the Atlantic should qualify 5, while the west none? That makes a lot of sense?
There were only 4 teams from the Atlantic region at nats last year.
decisions decisions wrote:
No offense... but you trash the west when oh whats this? The 3 teams that qualified beat a fair amount of the bids from other regions as well. For instance, they beat 2 of the 5 atlantic region teams... So it follows that the Atlantic should qualify 5, while the west none? That makes a lot of sense?
Dude, I wear my bias on my sleeve, or at least my posting name. You're right, I was a bit too enthusiastic about the Atlantic. But still, if you score the regions like an XC race, scoring three for each region because that's as many as some regions have (it doesn't hurt that the south only has two teams, because their two still are beaten by everyone else's three), it looks like this:
Mideast-18
Midwest-22
Atlantic-26
Central-35
New England-42
Great Lakes-48
West-58 (I add 18, 19, and 21 for the tie)
South-62
Those team scores seem to indicate that my ranking of region strength was pretty right on, and that it means a lot more to come out of the top three regions. My numbers were probably off a little bit, but the spirit of what I said is pretty right on.
funny how as recently as two years ago some people used to bash or ignore the mideast, and yet this past year it was the strongest region in the country.
this has nothing to do with predictions, sorry.
atlantic region is gonna suck...
nyu is losing a lot
tcnj is gonna blow...
their top runner from last year guerrero quit
st. lawrence didnt' even make nationals last year and they lose donohoe
geneseo cross country program got cut....
i talked to cortland's top guy shamus and he said that their new coach is a former canadian football coach (cfl) and expects all of them to gain 50 pounds each...
RIT no longer runs and has found a new passion in long distance cartwheel racing
NJCU will wipe the floor with everyone
and kosgei is going pro
daniel larusso wrote:
atlantic region is gonna suck...
nyu is losing a lot
tcnj is gonna blow...
their top runner from last year guerrero quit
st. lawrence didnt' even make nationals last year and they lose donohoe
geneseo cross country program got cut....
i talked to cortland's top guy shamus and he said that their new coach is a former canadian football coach (cfl) and expects all of them to gain 50 pounds each...
RIT no longer runs and has found a new passion in long distance cartwheel racing
NJCU will wipe the floor with everyone
and kosgei is going pro
Thank God all that is happening! I will get a much higher place at NCAA's as a result.
(remembering that Williams and North Central are two of the historically strongest programs
Dude if you are going to talk historically, at least be historically accurate. Williams is not even the best program in the north east historically, a simple look at the pomona archive shows this. They are certainly up there, but I would not give them the top nod.
bump
NJCU?
Are you talking about 4x100m races held three years ago? Or 2008 XC?
I didn't realize the various malcontents they "rescued" from D1 programs after they failed out/got kicked out ran a whole lot of cross country. They certainly have the time, since they clearly haven't stepped foot in a classroom since the 5th or 6th grade.
elitist
bump
so based off of this inside information on the atlantic region, who will be in the top 4 and what order?
Cortland, then everyone else
yea cortland looks good for the atlantic region, but any ideas/info/predictions on 2,3,4, and maybe 5?
One thing is for sure...
the Mid-East is no longer the Mid-Easy region.
letsssee wrote:
cortland
nyu
lacrosse
calvin
amherst
wheaton
haverford
Why does everyone always rank Wheaton so highly at the beginning of the season? Brandon Mull's been good, and Scott Bradley is a great coach, but they've been preseason top 10 each of the past two seasons and then not made nationals.
they were 6th last year in the midwest, but then also graduated 4 out of their top 6. even with some impressive recruits, they'd be hard-pressed to make nats.
they return mull and another dude who ran under 15 min..from what i hear they have some pretty good freshman..should be second in the cciw and maybe top 5 at regionals if they run well