! ! ! ! 2009 DII Cross Country ! ! ! !

well no one has yet to say that adams is even beatable, so i mean that western is racing for second (adams must choke to lose) like everyone else on these boards has implied. western has been picked a clear 2nd by everyone, so therefore everyone else is racing for 3rd most likely (western must choke to not get second). is that too complicated to infer yourselves?

Thanks for your response, but that is just an asinine thought (don't take offense, unless you wrote it originally) because with the few races in the year why would Western hold back because of the thought that Adams is unbeatable and if they blow up they are going to be beat by Mines, there is just too much pride in that program for that bull shit. What if Adams was to fall apart (which has happened in the past) and Western held back, they would still lose rather than win. For Mines to beat Western, it would take a very big blow up by Western, even bigger than an Adams blow up to lose nationals. You have to remember that these two teams are the cream of the crop, and after some of the past weekend performances, they are far ahead of the third ranked team.

I will say Adams will loose!

Look at their last performance. That wasn't "the best team in college running" many claimed they were.

They were a good team, not a great team. And they cannot win against the top five by not being being great.

Just watch. It will be a bigger crash and burn due to everyone's expectations.

a - braun looks beat

b - kenyan looks like hes won his last race

c - megdi will be good for 4th

d - and that makes a weak weak team.

Plus Martin's ego will push them too hard. Just watch.

They say it as a joke....they think they are funny. har har har

15flatiswhereitsat wrote:

what is up with everyone picking montana state in the top 10?

crouch is not training currently

and adams is gonna lose cause braun's 23:5_ shows he's beat

never was anything said about western holding back, no one holds back in big races. adams wins, westerns second... my prediction for nationals and every time they race each other this season. try to add your reasoning and logic to your posts

Top D2 results:

U Mass Lowell wins New England Champs averages 25:11, DII teams have won these champs the last few years. Not sure how seriously the big DI's take it, but nice win and shows that Lowell is a top 10 threat this year.

Abiline Christian gets beat by Tarleton State, who know how good this team is. Doesn't seem like they will have depth again this year, still probably a top 10 team, but they must get at least one of their new foreign athletes eligible, even then it could be a very tough year.

Mines dominates at a small meet at Hays State, with a stellar 24:47 average and shows some depth. Could this be the year they crack the top 4?

Grand Valley State averages 25:38 on a fairly challenging course and loses to a tough Michigan team. Like always tons of depth, but do they have the front runners to grab another trophy?

Southern Missouri wins the GLVC-MIAA CHALLENGE over some top 20 DII competition.

My two cents rankings going into the Conference Championships:

1) Adams State

2) Western State

3) Colorado Mines

4) Chico State

5) Grand Valley State

6) Western Washington

7) Queens

8) UMass Lowell

9) Central Missouri

10) Alaska Anchorage

doesnt lowell always run really fast then choke at nationals? and im gonna assume that was a fast course and decent weather. and also im gonna assume bad or even awful weather for GVSU(tough course-25:38) and Mines(easy course-24:47). GVSU, Mines, and Chico should have a dogfight at nationals, i dont think mines should be ranked ahead of them though, they each have more all-americans and have actually raced some decent competition this year

adams

western

gvsu

chico

mines

ww

umass

alaska

miss central

s. indiana

stonehill

weather at Ft. Hays on saturday: 28 degrees, drizzle, 18-20 mph winds

http://www.fhsu.edu/athletics/crosscountry/bios/2009fhsu.shtml

Funny, weather at Disney World XC Meet near Orlando was a baumy 89 degrees with about 85% humidity.

New Rankings Bump, what does everyone think?

http://www.ustfccca.org/assets/rankings/div2/2009-xc/09-d2-mxc-national-week5.pdf

Top 10 looks pretty good to me. ACU dropped a ton, they are still a top 2 or 3 team in their region in my book. Anybody know what's up with their new European's, are they gonna run this year? I also think Alaska Anchorage should be ranked a little bit higher. These two teams are actually quite similar, 3-4 solid foreigners but they both lack depth.

umass in the top ten again- let the choking begin, apparently dont realize their runners are only ballin' after they graduate

the south central has like most of their teams ranked but none will crack the top ten unless abilene pulls some illegal strings, which i wanna see their guys run cause it wasnt their fault

team michael crouch is somehow still ranked 6th with crouch injured, i hope he can compete soon

and most importantly, s. indiana better be ready to throw down on the night of the 21st of november

"none will crack the top ten unless abilene pulls some illegal strings, which i wanna see their guys run cause it wasnt their fault"

---------

please expand on this. why aren't their guys eligible yet? and what isn't their fault?

I thought Abiline could only run 5 total foreign athletes in track and cross combined this year, because of NCAA violations with foreign athletes. Makes sense that only three will run cross this year and their runners from England and France are redshirting.

Ramk em wrote:

New Rankings Bump, what does everyone think?

http://www.ustfccca.org/assets/rankings/div2/2009-xc/09-d2-mxc-national-week5.pdf

Looks good to me. I'd switch 3 and 4 though

Some extra thoughts on the top teams:

Adams - Possibly one of the best DII teams ever. The 5k Performance list from last year is all the evidence you need. They have had some years where they have drastically underperformed at nationals when they should have won (Los Angeles and Pensacola.) But neither of those teams had the talent that this one does, so I don't see it happening this year.

Western - Year after year these guys prove that they run well when it counts. Other than North Carolina, when they were decimated by injuries, name a year that they didn't run their best race at nationals. And their peaking actually seems like it might have improved under Coach Michel. They don't have the talent that Adams does, but I've learned my lesson and would bet on them against everyone else in the country, no matter how bad they run in September and October.

Grand Valley - They return everyone but Chris Hammer from the 5th place team. They have tons of depth to fill in that void. They should be better than last year considering they ran 5 frosh and only have to replace Hammer. I also figure that there will be more Laker fans than anyone else in Indiana.

Chico - The loss of Bauhs is huge and don't underestimate the loss of Marquez. This Jimmy Elam guys seems to be a huge addition, and they look like they have better depth than in past years. But I can't see them being better than last year, which is why I have them behind GVSU.

Mines - The best team Mines has ever fielded. They return their top 4 from Slippery Rock plus their injured #2 man in Aaron Swift. Then they added Sean Gildea, a true frosh whose been in their top 5 at every race. They've also had 4 redshirt freshman crack their top 7. They legitimately could be 3rd, but they've never beaten Chico or GVSU, so I need to see it to believe it.

Abilene Christian - Who knows where this team should be ranked. If they get 5 foreigners to run well, they win. If not, they have finished as low as 8th. I would have hesitated to rank them below Mines up until this point, but they only ran 5 guys at their home meet on saturday and the 4th was 2 minutes behind their 1st. What happened to Tanui and White. That team could have challeneged Adams for the title. Oh, and if Maina was listed as a senior last year, how is he running again?

Should be fun to see how everything shakes out. First good race of the year will be RMACs in two weeks. Wash Park should be an awesome venue.

bump

to boulderunner:

adams team is not one of the best ever, they have two of the best runners ever but their 3-5 is lacking even though they are one of the deepest teams ever behind them

agreed about western peeking really well at nats

chico and gvsu are both strong. gvsu is consistent and chico is not this season. i see gvsu's 4-5 guys pounding chico. then theres mines who could potentially beet them both or get dominated by lack of all-americans

and abilene cannot beat adams this year, even if their foreigners can magically run

yeah, but who will win the title next december? http://d2cross.blogspot.com/