DIII Cross Country: 2011

SteepleMeister wrote:

Could that be an extension of a battle between Oxy and Colorado College for the top spot? Maybe. Looks like there are seven teams in the hunt: Oxy, LaVerne, CMS, Pomona-Pitzer, Colorado College, Whitworth and Willamette (not in any particular order). I'm guessing that 3 teams make nationals from the region, so should be an interesting battle between the above 7.

I don't see Colorado College making it to Nats at all, let alone fighting Oxy for the win. Rankings just came out by the way:

1. Oxy (1)

2. Whitworth (5)

3. CMS (3)

4. Willamette (4)

5. Colorado College (7)

6. Linfield (6)

7. Lewis and Clark (8)

8. La Verne (10)

9. Pomona-Pitzer (2)

10. Pacific (NR)

Does anyone here have some inside info on Pomona-Pitzer? Did they lose a guy to injury or something? I heard a runner at the SCIAC meet broke his leg during the race, not sure who who ran for or if it's true. That's a big drop in the rankings though.

the sauce? huh. like, the klein-sauce?

The Sauce wrote:

I don't see Colorado College making it to Nats at all, let alone fighting Oxy for the win.

That's because you pay attention to the rankings, which had Pomona-Pitzer as a one seed just a few weeks ago. Listen to your heart.

giant johnson wrote:

The Sauce wrote:

I don't see Colorado College making it to Nats at all, let alone fighting Oxy for the win.

That's because you pay attention to the rankings, which had Pomona-Pitzer as a one seed just a few weeks ago. Listen to your heart.

you know, i think you're right. After listening to this song and taking your advice, listening to the heart is a good idea.

wait, is that you Giant Johnson in the front row? yeah, you with the mullet! That IS YOU! I Know it! I listened to my heart tell me it was you.

The Sauce wrote:

Does anyone here have some inside info on Pomona-Pitzer? Did they lose a guy to injury or something? I heard a runner at the SCIAC meet broke his leg during the race, not sure who who ran for or if it's true. That's a big drop in the rankings though.

"The Sauce" must be some Oxy fan-boy. Anyway, it was a CMS runner who fractured his fibula with about 1100m to go. He still finished 21st.

The Sauce wrote:

Does anyone here have some inside info on Pomona-Pitzer? Did they lose a guy to injury or something? I heard a runner at the SCIAC meet broke his leg during the race, not sure who who ran for or if it's true. That's a big drop in the rankings though.

Colin Flynn DNF'd for PP. He wasn't the one who broke his leg, idk what was wrong with him. He had been between first and fifth for them all season, most recently 5th at multi-duals. So if he had run out of his mind and been top 5 they could have won, a very good race would have put them in second, but they probably would have been 3rd.

Basically the drop to 9th just means this region is a giant cluster**** and there are a LOT of teams who will be in contention for a spot at nats.

The Sauce wrote:

I don't see Colorado College making it to Nats at all, let alone fighting Oxy for the win.

The West Region is very close with no dominant team, but clearly you seem to favor Oxy. Who else would you put in the top 3?

It does not seem fair to think that the west region should receive an extra national entree like you are assuming they will. They should receive the required two and the Midwest region or even the Mideast should receive an extra. The West region teams are not even close to the same level as the 6,7,8 teams in the Midwest region. It doesn't seem fair to leave a more talented team home because they live in the Midwest. The 5th team from the Midwest region is consistently in the top 10 at nats, I think that speaks for itself.

Midwest Dominance wrote:

It does not seem fair to think that the west region should receive an extra national entree like you are assuming they will. They should receive the required two and the Midwest region or even the Mideast should receive an extra. The West region teams are not even close to the same level as the 6,7,8 teams in the Midwest region. It doesn't seem fair to leave a more talented team home because they live in the Midwest. The 5th team from the Midwest region is consistently in the top 10 at nats, I think that speaks for itself.

It might not be fair for the West to receive any at-large bids, but I'm just looking at all of the regions under the current rules that only 5 teams can come from any one region. Suppose that every team in the top 35 from the now 2-week old poll went to nationals, with only 5 max from each region and of course each region getting a minimum of 2. Then it would look like this:

Atlantic: 5

Central: 3

Great Lakes: 3

Mideast: 5

Midwest: 5

New England: 5

South/Southeast: 2

West: 3

This totals 31 teams, leaving still one more at-large bid. This is why I think that 3 teams from the West will make Nationals, and it being somewhat of a toss-up as to which region gets the last at-large bid.

Yeah, it's not fair. But it's also unfair that most of the Midwestern schools that have student body populations 2-5 times larger than any West region school aren't D2.

Midwest Dominance wrote:

It does not seem fair to think that the west region should receive an extra national entree like you are assuming they will. They should receive the required two and the Midwest region or even the Mideast should receive an extra. The West region teams are not even close to the same level as the 6,7,8 teams in the Midwest region. It doesn't seem fair to leave a more talented team home because they live in the Midwest. The 5th team from the Midwest region is consistently in the top 10 at nats, I think that speaks for itself.

how is this "unfair"? there are no rules or mandates that force the schools in the west to have a smaller student body than those in the midwest. look at new england: the majority of those schools are under 3-4,000 students and they are some of the top running teams in the country.

not 99% wrote:

how is this "unfair"? there are no rules or mandates that force the schools in the west to have a smaller student body than those in the midwest. look at new england: the majority of those schools are under 3-4,000 students and they are some of the top running teams in the country.

this is because we rule the country

College isn't high school. It's not like coaches are recruiting some gangly freshmen who got cut from the football squad; they're recruiting kids. Look at North Central; they've got 2600 students total and yet they're consistently one of the best teams in the division.

Haverford has <1200 students.

Size doesn't matter!

However, when it costs less than $15K to attend these Midwest schools and they have top notch facilities there is a big advantage. Let alone that they have discount tuition offers to neighboring states! NCC costs significantly less than just about ANY school on the east coast or west coast. IMO all UW schools should be D2. It is sad they get off on beating up schools with strong academic traditions and no state funding.

Another thing to remember. Although the student pop. may be larger, all these kids are home grown. NCC gets a lot of Illinois talent and the entire WIAC conference is just Wisconsin kids who stayed in the state. The consistency that this region shows to be the most dominant is crazy. Realistically 3 of the top 5 on Nov 19 could be from the Midwest.

Just off the top of my head, NYU, Washington U, MIT, Williams, Haverford, Chicago, and Carnegie Mellon all cost at least $50,000/year and consistently go to nationals. Try again?

For the record, NCC is NOT as inexpensive as you think- tuition plus room and board is near 38 grand a year. Not the 15k you seem to think it is

SteepleMeister wrote:

The West Region is very close with no dominant team, but clearly you seem to favor Oxy. Who else would you put in the top 3?

I see it has a battle between the SCIAC teams for top 3. Yes, I favor Oxy, but it should be a good battle up top and close between CMS and Pomona-Pitzer (assuming the guy that dropped out of the race is otherwise healthy).