NC State Woman’s XC rebuild

rauber has another year if she chooses to use it. Do any of the others have the extra medical redshirt/covid years?

You said that they would redshirt. That is why I said that they can no longer redshirt. They can be on the track roster but no more redshirting. They will be off of the XC roster which allows for only 20 hours of practice time. I have been coaching in the NCAA for 22 years. But you don't want to have a conversation. You want to be insulting rather than listening to facts. Every team will be impacted whether directly or indirectly. Total roster spots will decrease across the top school thereby resulting in excess bodies. A school like NC State will get even better recruits. The recruits who would normally be on the back end will then be pushed out. They will be willing to do extreme things in order to get on a team.

Hartman's performances are not surprising to me at all. I've been following her since before she ran in high school. I knew she would blossom into an excellent runner. It's too bad that Stephens is out this season. 3 to 5 need to step it up.

I agree. He claims that it was due to Henes' superior coaching rather than her talent.

Does anyone know how tall Hartman is? She looks like she’s at least 6 ft. I am not saying this is a bad way re her size but she looks so much bigger than most of the other women.

I would guess maybe 5'7"

Her '21-22 HS Gatorade award listed her as 5'10".

Graduate Transfer Fiona Smith is the only woman on the roster who is technically out of XC eligibility this Fall.

Sam Bush as well. (She won’t return until track).

If you have a method for figuring out which stars will falter, and which ladies will develop, please let us know.

Who in class of '25 are the merely good runners, who will become college all-americans?

It’s like growing a tree. You have to bury a good seed in fertile soil, water it every week, and protect it from pests and storms in order to grow a beautiful tree. Talent matters as much as a seed. If we put a talented runner in the right environment with a good coach, the success is not guaranteed but it should be largely consistent.

That's just the point, it's not consistent.

Bush, Hartman and Gapes all good runners coaches up.

Starliper, Hendrix, Walters, Quarzo1, Rauber, Quarzo2, Hall, Putman, Stevens, even so far Shea and Michalak not working out so well.

If we were sure about someone, all this inconsistency could be avoided in recruiting.

You will need to adjust your expectations of measuring success. Among the runners you listed, Starliper probably had a legitimate shot of AA if she couldve stayed healthy. Rauber is borderline top talent, and we need to wait and see how Shea and Michalak turn out in a couple years. Among the other runners, they should care more about college running experience rather than dealing with unrealistic expectations.

Tuohy is generational talent, and Chmiel is sure talent meeting expectations. Starliper is a minus one for below expectations, but Bush is a plus one for exceeding expectations. Henes will break even if Hartman and Gapes can finish AA this year.

My point was about the poster who said he was sure Hartman would develop to be a star.

No one is sure. It's easy 5 years later to say that smart coaches should have recruited Valby, Schweizer, Purrier, Hartman but it's mostly luck.

Touhy and Chmiel were not locks either, it just happened to work out.

Everyone else I mentioned were higher rated recruits than Hartman and Gapes; they just are not yet performing that way.

Michalak and Shea are surprisingly equal recruits to Touhy/Chmiel, so we'll see how that goes. Ya just never know for sure.

I'm a pack fan, just pointing out that recruiting is hard, even at schools like NAU, Oregon, Colorado, Stanford and NC State.

Cannot argue with that. I actually think if the coaches used to be different in terms of training, racing and individual/team management, nowadays they tend to be similar due to knowledge sharing and technology advancement. The difference is actually the ability to build trust among athletes and to have strong convictions even during hard days. The runners need to be simple minded, and dare to leave the thinking and management part to the coaches. Just do it.

Agree.

I still can't believe they managed to win the Natty last year without Chmiel. She finished third in the Natty the prior year behind Tuohy and Valby. That's a huge loss. Somehow for NC State someone steps up when needed...like Mareno, Bush, Tyynissmaa, Stephens, Rauber, Hartman, and now Gapes. Must be the system and coaching. No other coach had their team ready to win last year IMO.

There's a difference between athlete types. Moreno, Tyynismaa, Stephens and Rauber were all national high school stars, while Bush and Gapes were not.

Also check last years results closely, NAU and BYU ran abysmally. NC State ran pretty good, not perfect.

It was beyond a miracle that the pack won without Chmiel. They were not even the favorite with Chmiel.

In '24 both NAU and BYU more likely to perform well and fight for title...but we'll see.

BYU was definitely abysmal last fall but i think its a bit harsh to say NAU ran abysmally. You could argue that nationals was the best XC race in Larkin's and Reiss' careers. The rest of them were just a bit off, maybe 10-15 seconds, from where youd expect but thats only a few seconds slower per KM. Its razor thin margins at a meet that size.

Some of your older examples provide some evidence of the $hitshow that is recruiting and projecting high school success to the collegiate ranks. Every program has these types of examples of Gatorade award winners, highly-ranked talent and the like who simply did not pan out in college.

As for the rest, Quarzo2 is a RS-Freshman who hasn’t lined up since the World XC Championships in March. Hall would have been a RS-Freshman this year, but arrived at NC State injured and bailed on the program without explanation or fanfare. Stephens had a helluva freshman XC campaign in 2023, but fractured her sacrum this Spring and appears to be redshirting this season. RS-Freshman Putman and true Freshman Shea have run exactly three XC races for the Pack and true Freshman Michalak has run exactly twice. It’s simply too early for any of these Freshman and RS-Freshman to make your point.