HEPS XC 2013 OFFICIAL THREAD

kibitzer didn't mention Harvard in the women's top 3. In my opinion, Harvard is more mid-pack this year due to the strength of Dartmouth, Princeton, Columbia, and Cornell in the women's battles. It seems like there is a good gap between those 5 and then Penn-Brown-Yale in terms of the team race. Then again, this is my opinion.

I think some people are maybe forgetting that Abbey's 1-stick is a lot more helpful to her team in a meet with hundreds of women, compared to the several dozen who'll be running at Heps.

I agree with C/M that there are at least four genuine contenders for this year's title. The race could be as close as it was two years ago--I could stand a repeat of that result, though (but not a repeat of that weather, please). Though Dartmouth will enter the Heps with a considerably higher national ranking, I'd say Dartmouth and Cornell probably should be considered co-favorites.

And I can easily picture neither of them coming out on top!

BRF wrote:

I think some people are maybe forgetting that Abbey's 1-stick is a lot more helpful to her team in a meet with hundreds of women, compared to the several dozen who'll be running at Heps.

I agree with C/M that there are at least four genuine contenders for this year's title. The race could be as close as it was two years ago--I could stand a repeat of that result, though (but not a repeat of that weather, please). Though Dartmouth will enter the Heps with a considerably higher national ranking, I'd say Dartmouth and Cornell probably should be considered co-favorites.

And I can easily picture neither of them coming out on top!

It's going to come down to the 3-4-5 runners for the team title. Cornell has a good 1-2 of Sorna and Shearer, while Dartmouth has D'Agostino and Giordano (and Giordano, who is only a sophomore and was the top frosh from Heps last year, has improved leaps and bounds this year). Columbia has Neer and Princeton has Curham. I cannot recall any additional names right now but I would need to check out the team spreads and compare like-course times in order to help me understand the team races a heck of a lot better (thank goodness for a lot of Ivy presence at Paul Short and Wisconsin to help me out!). I got a lot of studying to do this week...

HEPS MEN'S XC PREDICTIONS

1. Leakos Harvard

2. Korlev Harvard

3. Bendsten Princeton

4. Udland Princeton

5. Geoheagan Dartmouth

6. Arroyo Princeton

7. Bleday Dartmouth

8. Awad Penn

9. Sienko Columbia

10 Pons Princeton

11 Composto Columbia

12 McDonald Princeton

13 Everett Columbia

14 Gregorek Columbia

15. Purnell Harvard

16 Owens Princeton #6

17 Boyle Columbia

Princeton 35

Columbia 64

Harvard 18 through 3

Dartmouth 12 through 2

HEPS MEN'S XC PREDICTIONS

1. Leakos Harvard

2. Korlev Harvard

3. Bendsten Princeton

4. Udland Princeton

5. Geoheagan Dartmouth

6. Arroyo Princeton

7. Bleday Dartmouth

8. Awad Penn

9. Sienko Columbia

10 Pons Princeton

11 Composto Columbia

12 McDonald Princeton

13 Everett Columbia

14 Gregorek Columbia

15. Purnell Harvard

16 Owens Princeton #6

17 Boyle Columbia

Princeton 35

Columbia 64

Harvard 18 through 3

Dartmouth 12 through 2

Props, as always, to anyone who makes *specific* predictions, theGuess. (I don't have the knowledge or the cojones to do that.) Your guess makes it easier for me to see a big picture of the meet--thanks.

FWIW: Apparently Cornell, which graduated so much talent, has also lost (injury, etc.) what were projected to be this season's top four or five men--at least I haven't seen them in any results...

any guesses between brown-penn-yale?

I say brown

kgm wrote:

any guesses between brown-penn-yale?

I say brown

If you mean on the men's side--I'd definitely say look out for Penn.

MEN'S PREDICTIONS

1. Korolev Harvard

2. Leakos Harvard

3.Bendtsen Princeton

4. Geoghegan Dartmouth

5. Sienko Columbia

6. Composto Columbia

7. Pons Princeton

8. Bleday Dartmouth

9. Gregorek Columbia

10. Everett Columbia

11. Udland Princeton

12. Arroyo Yamin Princeton

13. Purnell Harvard

14. Awad Penn

15. Dooney Yale

16. Boyle Columbia

17. Mcdonald Princeton

18. Talbot Dartmouth

19. Golestan Columbia

20. Sterling Dartmouth

21. O'Sullivan Dartmouth

22. Conner Yale

23. Eimstad Cornell

24. Williams Princeton

25. King Dartmouth

TEAM

Columbia 46

Princeton 50

Dartmouth 71

Harvard 81

Penn 135

Yale 141

Cornell 182

Brown 221

Wow--that's putting it out there! I'd say just about every one of those picks is defensible, too.

...Except I cannot see H going 1-2 on Princeton's home course. I'm also going to go with PU for the team win, even though recent results point the other way--but I agree it's going to be super-close.

Heps Men's FloRating Rankings Based on Personal Best FloRating achieved in 2011-Present

If you score the meet you get...

41 Columbia

43 Princeton

70 Harvard

84 Dartmouth

etc.

01 | 223.1 | SR | HAR | Maksim Korolev

02 | 217.3 | SR | HAR | James Leakos

03 | 211.9 | SR | PRI | Chris Bendtsen

04 | 210.1 | SR | COL | Jake Sienko

05 | 209.4 | JR | COL | Daniel Everett

06 | 209.4 | SR | COL | John Gregorek

07 | 208.3 | SR | PRI | Alejandro Arroyo Yamin

08 | 207.4 | SR | COL | Nico Composto

09 | 207.0 | JR | PRI | Sam Pons

10 | 206.4 | SR | PRI | Tyler Udland

11 | 206.3 | SR | DAR | Will Geoghegan

12 | 204.4 | SO | HAR | Tom Purnell

13 | 204.1 | SR | DAR | John Bleday

14 | 201.9 | JR | PRI | Matt McDonald

15 | 201.6 | SR | PRI | Jonathan Vitez

16 | 201.5 | SO | PEN | Thomas Awad

17 | 201.1 | JR | DAR | Silas Talbot

18 | 200.7 | FR | COL | Jack Boyle

19 | 200.1 | SR | DAR | Henry Sterling

20 | 199.2 | JR | YAL | Matt Nussbaum

21 | 198.8 | SR | COR | Max Groves

22 | 198.6 | JR | PRI | Eddie Owens

23 | 197.6 | SO | YAL | Kevin Dooney

24 | 197.4 | SR | DAR | Steve Mangan

25 | 196.6 | SO | YAL | Alexander Conner

26 | 196.4 | JR | DAR | Dylan O'Sullivan

27 | 195.7 | SR | HAR | Kurt Ruegg

28 | 195.1 | SO | HAR | Chris Allen

29 | 193.4 | JR | HAR | Will Geiken

30 | 192.9 | SO | COR | Brian Eimstad

31 | 192.9 | SR | COL | Byron Jones

32 | 192.4 | JR | HAR | Nephat Maritim

33 | 192.0 | JR | YAL | John McGowan

34 | 191.6 | SO | COL | Ben Golestan

35 | 191.1 | SO | DAR | Curtis King

36 | 190.7 | SO | PEN | Brendan Smith

37 | 190.5 | FR | YAL | James Randon

38 | 190.2 | JR | COR | John Schilkowsky

Bendtsen on his home course is extremely threatening- I see him taking the top spot in a big kick over the Harvard 1-2.

Top 5:

Bendtsen

Korolev

Leakos

Bleday (yes)

Sienko

A couple fo thoughts on the upcoming HEPS XC meet:

Overall

This looks like a repeat of last year's meet where Princeton held off a Columbia team tipped to win the meet. Harvard, while significantly stronger than its injury plagued team from last year, still will have to overcome the ghosts of recent HEPS past, where their runners have significantly underperformed.

Princeton

They have more talent than their results this year suggest. They are stronger than these numbers would indicate. Of course, they have the home field advantage, no doubt important in a close competition. And, the coach manages the team to peak in the championship season.

Columbia

Solid results at Notre Dame and Wisconsin have the Lions an impressive top ten in the NCAA or the first time in memory. With the haunting memory, though, of their second place finish in last year's XC HEPS, there will be some gnawing psychological hurdles to overcome if they are to upend Princeton from their three-year perch atop HEPS XC.

Harvard

In Leakos and Koralev, Harvard has some all-ivy talent. Harvard's fate, however, rests on the ability of Leakos and Koralev to rise above the yips that have sabotaged their HEPS performance in both their previous efforts. Whether they have peaked too early, of they have a psychological block going up against the likes of Princeton on Princeton's home field, all eyes will be on these two as they battle it out for a solid fourth place team finish, Harvard's best in years, as well as Ivy First Team status. Last year neither one was able to break int the top 15 finishers.

Hey fun., is it just me or is there no Brown in that top 38? Is Brown REALLY that weak this year? I would like McGurrin would make it in there.

But both Brown squads are not included in the FloRatings, even though they ran in the Paul Short Gold race with all of the other schools.

kibitzer wrote:

kgm wrote:

any guesses between brown-penn-yale?

I say brown

If you mean on the men's side--I'd definitely say look out for Penn.

...

Are you guys joking? Yale's (men) crushed Brown and Penn (and Cornell) every time they've raced together.

On Friday Cornell had its annual Reif Memorial meet:

http://www.tfrrs.org/results/xc/6085.html

As in past years the Big Red men used the five-mile race to determine the last two runners for their Heps squad. Looks like the women did the same this year with their 5k race. Anyway I think each squad's top ten didn't run.

[Note to fun.: I don't think Schilkowsky is running this season--injured? C. Kellner made an appearance for the women but evidently is not fit after her summer injury. Nice to see her back running though.]

It was fun to see a bunch of the Cornell track guys run in the men's 5k--hurdlers, multis, jumpers, sprinters. Some of them were pretty good!

***brown for the women

C/M Runner wrote:

Hey fun., is it just me or is there no Brown in that top 38? Is Brown REALLY that weak this year? I would like McGurrin would make it in there.

But both Brown squads are not included in the FloRatings, even though they ran in the Paul Short Gold race with all of the other schools.

Correct Brown doesn't have anyone with a FloRating over 190.0

Ithacan wrote:

On Friday Cornell had its annual Reif Memorial meet:

http://www.tfrrs.org/results/xc/6085.html

As in past years the Big Red men used the five-mile race to determine the last two runners for their Heps squad. Looks like the women did the same this year with their 5k race. Anyway I think each squad's top ten didn't run.

[Note to fun.: I don't think Schilkowsky is running this season--injured? C. Kellner made an appearance for the women but evidently is not fit after her summer injury. Nice to see her back running though.]

It was fun to see a bunch of the Cornell track guys run in the men's 5k--hurdlers, multis, jumpers, sprinters. Some of them were pretty good!

Good info.

Was anyone else running this weekend?