Atlantic Region XC 2008

J/w why were times at Brockport so slow, especially for the winners Kosgei and Conn. Kelsey seems to be running hard in the picture on Brockports page. SUNYAC's at Brockport years ago was pretty fast.

and....is Princeton's course slow?

it was very hot and humid on a deceptively slow course

so what does this do to the rankings? how much weight does a 5k hold?? Where would U of R stack up against the likes of Plattsburgh and St Lawrence??

not much, it was a 5k in most likely the exact opposite conditions that they are going to face at regionals in november at a chilly st lawrence course.

The 6k was long... don't know about the 8k i assume that's right because the D1 regional meet is there.

Does anyone know if that was TCNJs complete team this weekend. If so they are in trouble this year, absolutely nothing impressive about their times even if their coach had them run controlled.

the only way a team could be in any real trouble this early on is if their top guys are seriously injured and out for the season.

looks like only freshmen ran the 8k for tcnj. It also looks like kopnicki and bocchino didn't run the 6k.

kopnicki is hurt again for tcnj. dont know if its as serious as last xc season. if he is, thats a big blow to tcnj. him healthy, with guerriero is one of the best 1-2 punches in the NCAA, let alone the atlantic region.

Am I the only one who thinks that the latest polls are a joke? Hamilton droped out of the top 10, they didnt do that well at Brockport but I dont think they should be out of the top 10. Did Brockport run everyone this past weekend? If not then I think they should have stayed in 8 spot. Also Fredonia, does anyone honestly think they should be ahead of Plattsburgh and Brockport? They had a decent showing at Brockport but still have a very big gap between their 2 and 3 guy. I no they beat Brockport but I dont know if thry ran everyone. Ohh well I guess we'll just see what happens in the weeks to come.

Who Am I wrote:

Am I the only one who thinks that the latest polls are a joke? Hamilton droped out of the top 10, they didnt do that well at Brockport but I dont think they should be out of the top 10. Did Brockport run everyone this past weekend? If not then I think they should have stayed in 8 spot. Also Fredonia, does anyone honestly think they should be ahead of Plattsburgh and Brockport? They had a decent showing at Brockport but still have a very big gap between their 2 and 3 guy. I no they beat Brockport but I dont know if thry ran everyone. Ohh well I guess we'll just see what happens in the weeks to come.

Hamilton just barely had 2 guys under 17 minutes in a 5k, I think they are fine right where they are. Having a 1 next to their score at regionals won't mean much when the other four are in the hundreds.

Who Am I wrote:

Am I the only one who thinks that the latest polls are a joke? Hamilton droped out of the top 10, they didnt do that well at Brockport but I dont think they should be out of the top 10. Did Brockport run everyone this past weekend? If not then I think they should have stayed in 8 spot. Also Fredonia, does anyone honestly think they should be ahead of Plattsburgh and Brockport? They had a decent showing at Brockport but still have a very big gap between their 2 and 3 guy. I no they beat Brockport but I dont know if thry ran everyone. Ohh well I guess we'll just see what happens in the weeks to come.

It's probably old-fashioned, but I still think teams should be ranked based on performance--you should be able to rank from meet results (who beat whom) only.

If Team A holds its top ten guys out of competition and races Team B; and the lower-ranked Team B consequently beats Team A; then B beat A and deserves to be ranked (this week) ahead of A.

Everybody says that the only ranking that really counts is the last one (I agree), and that polls during the season are just for amusement (I agree), so of course coaches may rank however they wish. But were I a coach, I'd rank based on who does what on a given weekend, not who was kept out. IMHO rankings shouldn't be based on woulda/coulda/shoulda, but on "didda."

Also, how is it that a lot of great (Nationals trophies) teams were able to run full-distance races six or more times, not so many seasons back, and now they just can't manage to have their delicate varsity guys race five miles more than once or twice (aside from championships)? How is it that dual meets (from which individuals and teams can learn so much) are practically non-existent in DIII?

The 6k was somewhere around 100m long. Even thought that is the case, times were still not overly impressive. It was humid as hell out there. Even running a light distance run out there was unbearable.

Dong wrote:

The 6k was long... don't know about the 8k i assume that's right because the D1 regional meet is there.

Completely disagree. In the end winning a National title is the most important thing. Why risk running your top guys and have them get injured, sick, or frustrated and break down. Most regions and conferences in DIII field very weak teams. Would it make sense for SUNY Cortland, SUNY Geneseo, or even NYU last year to drive 2-5 hours to go out on a slow course with no competition and race against their team due to the lack of talent in most races. Instead it seems smarter to get solid workouts in during the week and leave going to the well later in the season. Look at any successful DI or DII program you will not see their varsity guys pounding back to back 8ks week in and week out.

kibitzer wrote:

Also, how is it that a lot of great (Nationals trophies) teams were able to run full-distance races six or more times, not so many seasons back, and now they just can't manage to have their delicate varsity guys race five miles more than once or twice (aside from championships)? How is it that dual meets (from which individuals and teams can learn so much) are practically non-existent in DIII?

Sounds a little bit too much like a "back in my day" post to be taken seriously. Racing gives experience, yes, but athletes don't need to be beaten over the head with it. Jump in some shorter stuff and run fast, do your workouts and tempos at longer distances, put in your mileage, and rip it at Regionals.

If you want to talk about racing experience, didn't someone say that TCNJ threw all of their freshman in that princeton 8k? Wasn't that to give them racing experience?

No one is saying "Don't run any 8ks before XX date" but there is no reason to throw your A squad in a big/long race every weekend. I'd much rather have my teamates chomping at the bit for that big race.

the real top 10

dudes...

Cortland

Geneseo

SLU

TCNJ

NYU

Ithaca

Plattsburgh

Rochester

Fredonia

Hobart

chicks...

Geneseo

Ithaca

TCNJ

Cortland

SLU

Plattsburgh

Brockport

Hamilton

Rochester

RPI

How does Hobart fit into the top 10?

I don't think we can count NYU out this much. They have done the same think for the past three years. They do very short marathon pace run for the first race and then shock everyone out of the water two weeks later. I saw them running the other day and they looked strong. Go PLATTSBURGH!

Okay, including The 'Bart in the top ten may have been an attempt at humor on rage's part. Still, they have a decent program. I think their roster has about 2% of the school's students, and other than Vassar they may be close to the top of cross-country-only (no track) programs in NYS.