Atlantic Region DIII XC

I believe he/she means better than teams from other regions. If so, I agree...the atlantic region got screwed.

I totally agree. I think St. Lawrence got screwed more than a little bit. I mean, I know the South regional was very close, but taking a very close 3rd place from a weak region over a very good 5th place from a strong region doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Does anyone think that St. Lawrence couldn't beat at least one of the teams from the south region? I'm not going to say they could have won the south region, and they certainly didn't run very well over the past couple of weeks, but St. Lawrence should have made nationals.

Shoot, RIT and UR could probably have qualified for nationals out of the South too, if all they had to do was get 5 men in before Texas Tyler. Their 5th man ran 27:48(!), nearly 2 minutes back from their 1-2 guys. There are, in my opinion, 8 teams in the Atlantic region who could have beat Tyler in that race. There are probably 6 teams who could put all 7 men in before Texas Tyler's 5th.

I'm excited to see where Donohoe and Howard finish in comparison the the guys from Texas-Tyler and Mt. Union. It'll be interesting to see how they stack up on the same course.

They only took two teams from the south, Texas-Tyler did not get in.

Well don't I look like an ass, lol.

Either way, they got gipped.

I graduated from SLU last year and I know that while people on the team may read Lets Run, they don't post here. And I don't really understand why you go out of your way to attack the messenger without bothering to give them credit for not thinking that SLU should get in before teams that beat them at regionals (contrary to the at-large bid system).

That said, I would hardly say that SLU did not perform down the stretch. All year on this board people have been saying SLU is going to burn out and they didn't. Their average team time was 25:34, which is more than respectable. They finished 5th compared to 11th last year (a bad race for some and disastrous for others). The fact is they have performed all year and were it not for being in one of, if not the, best region in the nation they would have qualified for nationals.

From 4 years of running I would say any team that is able to get their time average time under 26 is a solid team. This year 8 teams did.

As for teams that SLU beat in the last 3 meets of the year who go into NCAAs Trinity (who both RIT and SLU beat at Saratoga) is one. I won't say SLU or RIT is better than them since as should be obvious to all there are other factors in XC that we will not know about. Likewise it will be hard to compare the 12 people who broke 25--a time that in the past sets people up well to finish top 20 in NCAAs (Regionals 2004 for example)--to other regions. I think SLU deserved to qualify at-large and was dissapointed to see they did not. However, there is nothing that can be done about it now (no 21st place NCAA meet like a 3rd place game in soccer) and I have to assume the people selecting had good reasons for doing so.

That said we can only hope the 4 teams that are going to NCAAs will perform admirably, as I think they will.

937, not to discredit your post, and everyone ran really well this past weekend, but the course was definitely either a fast or short course. So the fact that SLU averaged 25:37, isn't really what you're making it out to be.

At NYU invite, there weren't course modifications at the far end of the grass field to account for people being lapped like there were at regionals. This probably shaved off 20 meters or so. On top of that, the weather was about as perfect as you're going to get for a race. Add that on to a course that is 70% on a cinder trail, and you have yourself quite the fast race. I would say the length contributes to no more than 5 seconds. Maybe the NYU coach can give us some insight on that?

Off topic, but our good friend Hany is acting like, well, himself again. I don't mind some of his cockiness, but to disrespect your opponents the way he does just rubs me the wrong way. Also, he might very well run 13:40 this spring, but he'll just end up 6th at nationals again when it counts.

http://www.trackshark.com/blogs/division3blog/2190/Interview%3A+Hany+Abdallah+of+New+York+University.html

P.S. - Their names are DeShane, Kosgei and Erichsen, Hany. Guess you won't mind Peter K. calling you "that NYU kid" after he whoops up on you this weekend.

This is why we need to go back to old way of getting into NCAA's. This way, as many people think is very stupid! I mean leaving it up to other people to choose who gets in? I mean come on that is retarted. Bringing back the old way would eliminate all the after talk of who got screwed and who shoulda got in. The fair way is to bring back the old way because atleast with that way you knew what you needed to do and if you didnt get 4th or 5th or whatever you needed to get in your region then your not going, old way is better, enough said.

the nyu coach said it was 8-12 meters short if you go back a page or 2, that isn't really that much. The times were fast because of the weather and the whole race was run on a cinder track basically.

I ran D-III xc from 2000-2004, and while I always liked leaving the regional meet knowing whether or not I qualified for nationals, I can understand how the old method way somewhat flawed.

Say the top five teams in your region each have seven seniors. Four of the teams qualify for nationals, and all place in the top 15. This will earn your region five teams the next year (if I remember correctly). However, all of the quality runners in your region graduate, and you're left with five teams going to nationals who have no reason to be there. This also shuts out regions who may have had significant improvement in the past year, but due to teams underperforming at nationals the previous year, do not earn the extra berths. To me it doesn't make sense that Team A doesn't get to go to nationals in 2007 because Team B stunk in 2006.

The new method is flawed as well. Unlike D-I, most D-III teams do not race out of their region, and when they do, it's usually only against neighboring regions. Sure, once in a while a team like NYU will fly out to Wisconsin, but for the most past team stay local. So the voters are not allowed to look at early season meets when teams may have had common opponents, only meets like regions and conference. This can lead to a significant amount of regional bias as some coaches (not all, mind you) may not have much knowledge about teams on the other side of the country.

There may be a better system out there, but no matter how they are selected, some deserving teams will always be at home the third weekend of November, and some poor teams will always be running nationals.

Can't wait to see that NYU kid get smoked at NCAA's

As a lot of people are saying, the course wasn't off by that much and is well within what I'd consider a safe margin of error (+/- 10-15 seconds) for an XC course. Saratoga is another course that is questionable, but the times are still comparable and while they may be a bit quick it is still an accomplishment worth noting.

I would rather trust people who actively follow the sport than an equation myself. I don't know how much people remember, but the old system made it easy for a team to lose national qualifiers and hard to get them back. It took years for a region to rebuild from one bad year. I think this happened with the women a few times. While the system that is in place now isn't perfect I would say it is a vast improvement. If any system for qualifying for NCAAs needs to be improved it would be the one we use in track, but that is another issue.

Man I agree. I think that NYU kid needs to shut his trap until he can actually win a major race. So D3 doesn't provide enough competition for that NYU kid? Funny, I don't think I've ever seen him come in first at nationals. That NYU kid is doing a good job at putting a target on NYU's back this weekend.

the next jim ryun? wrote:

Off topic, but our good friend Hany is acting like, well, himself again. I don't mind some of his cockiness, but to disrespect your opponents the way he does just rubs me the wrong way. Also, he might very well run 13:40 this spring, but he'll just end up 6th at nationals again when it counts.

http://www.trackshark.com/blogs/division3blog/2190/Interview%3A+Hany+Abdallah+of+New+York+University.html

P.S. - Their names are DeShane, Kosgei and Erichsen, Hany. Guess you won't mind Peter K. calling you "that NYU kid" after he whoops up on you this weekend.

IDK, I find his brashness a bit refreshing. I agree with him that we are far too politically correct at times, and we need people to step up and grab life by the balls, even if it makes you sound cocky. If you don't believe 100% that you will win before the race starts, then you have already lost. If that is the mentality, why does he need to be PC and hide that? I respect him for speaking how he truly feels. I'll certainly be rooting for him after that interview.

After reading that amazing interview by the Atlantic Region's greatest Runner of All time, it makes me wonder how badly he is going to Burn everybody at Nats. I would certainly agree that 4:55 is way to slow for the first mile since he runs 24:20 on a routine basis. You know what else is funny, the reason Kosgei is called that "Hamilton kid" is because its hard to recognize who someone is when all you see is their back. Do any other people find this to be a little much from just another guy who has No Regional Titles, No top 5 National finishes, and someone who isn't even considered to be a Kicker? By the way, consider shorts over the tights

There's a difference between being confident in your abilities and being cocky to the point of annoyance. Look at Yuot. He knew he was a great runner, and even had the confidence/balls/whatever to pull off that ridiculous triple at NCAAs. Yet he was a nice guy who always had upmost respect for his teammates and opponents.

That kid from NYU obviously lacks respect for his opponents, so why should I have any respect for him?

Hey come on guys lets keep the gloves up. If I see another low blow Im taking a point away.

Everyone's such pussys grow up its a f***ing interview all of you need to stop whining about a trackshark interview. Who cares what the kid says and i bet the kids he blew off in his interview really dont care either. Im so sick everyone just whining about some interview