Interregional Take-aways
This thread is dead, so gonna try to revive it.
1. UWL is not going to run away with nationals. Wartburg was a close 2nd, 12 points off at Augie. UWL's 23:41 avg at Joe Piane had me thinking nationals was a foregone conclusion. UWL is very beatable. Definitely some guys I expected more out of from UWL. I don't expect either team to be challenged too much the rest of the season unlike in years' past, so not too much more info on this head-to-head prior to nationals.
2. Leblond is the favorite for nationals. He's the only guy yet to lose to any D3 comp, had an impressive 6th at Paul Short, and now was a runaway winner in Conn with decent comp. I had G. Matthai as the favorite after Joe Piane, and his historical wins against Leblond, but he was a clear 2nd at Augie to vanWestrienen. Leblond has an historical advantage in xc over vanWestrienen with 3 AAs compared to Isaac's 0. Don't sleep on Isaac though because he looked phenomenal at Augie, even after an early-season loss to Hammerand.
Bati is the big dark horse, and we probably won't know much about him until the start line at nationals. I expect Leblond, Bati, Isaac and G. Matthai to be competing for the individual title in what really should be anybody's race, but Leblond has been the best thus far.
3. Shifting to Conn teams, JHU was a 15 point winner. They also had the best 1-5 avg across Augie and Conn (two fast courses, but ofc Leblond brings that down a lot). Dark horse come nationals. Deserve their #3 ranking for now.
4. Tufts, Geneseo, NYU, Williams and MIT are all fairly tight. Should be interesting East, Niagara and Mideast title races when you throw in RPI's 3rd from Augie, and expect all to compete for podium. I like Geneseo to emerge from the rest because of their historical ability to peak.
5. Haverford revives themselves from a terrible PS performance. Not too far off Swarthmore at Rowan, and that should be your two teams battling for the annual Metro region singular bid. Haverford seeks to get back to the national meet after losing their 31-year streak last year. Swarthmore tries to make it to nationals for the first time.
6. End of an era??: North Central was 5th at Augie, Pomona was 8th and Whitewater 12th. NCC lost to RPI and UChicago. Quite possibly the first time those teams beat NCC.
7. Also want to shoutout teams that improve a ton from years past. Big ups to WIAC teams Platteville and Stevens Point for their 6-7 finish at Augie, these teams definitely in that top 5-10 hunt.