MIAC XC 2021

What makes you think that! Several national champions haven’t broken 25:00 on the Ole course.

a former MN high school runner wrote:

I am confused by status of University of Saint Thomas-MN. Summer, 2020 it was stated all Saint Thomas varsity athletics would be D-1 by July, 2021. Athletic.net still has Saint Thomas listed as a M.I.A.C. school. I tried to email athletic.net for clarification. They are mad at me because I roll athletic.net emails to spam, so athletic.net won't respond. I see the football team has a D-1 schedule. I saw on athletic.net Saint Thomas had a meet versus Saint Mary's. Are Saint Thomas out of M.I.A.C. for XC or not?

Mistake on athletic.net’s part. The MIAC actually got cancelled after St. Thomas left. No good schools left so there was no point in continuing the conference.

St. Thomas would be lucky to beat Gustavus at MIAC. Tommies got carried by their sprints at outdoor MIACs, Morey Smith was the only guy who won and Zach Haire got his career ended by Mueller. Everybody else is nobodies and D1 wannabes. True fact: every single Tommy barely went to the MN state meet and was fully anonymous there. Summit League is the most offbrand athletic conference this country has ever seen. Hamline has several more MIAC championships in the 21st century then St. Thomas. Have fun going to a conference meet in Oklahoma!

St. Thomas acts like their recent success has anything to do with their coaching or development, and not affirmation- seeking shmucks flocking to their program because they desperately need the clout of being a D1 athlete but aren't smart or fast enough to go to an actual school. Have fun becoming an alcoholic on daddy's money, getting married at 19, and losing to SDSU for the next two decades just like you lost to Olaf and Carleton for the last two.

I hate to interrupt this nice conversation but wtf is this garbo conference lmao

Facts tho

Sad Really wrote:

a former MN high school runner wrote:

I am confused by status of University of Saint Thomas-MN. Summer, 2020 it was stated all Saint Thomas varsity athletics would be D-1 by July, 2021. Athletic.net still has Saint Thomas listed as a M.I.A.C. school. I tried to email athletic.net for clarification. They are mad at me because I roll athletic.net emails to spam, so athletic.net won't respond. I see the football team has a D-1 schedule. I saw on athletic.net Saint Thomas had a meet versus Saint Mary's. Are Saint Thomas out of M.I.A.C. for XC or not?

Mistake on athletic.net’s part. The MIAC actually got cancelled after St. Thomas left. No good schools left so there was no point in continuing the conference.

No smiley face. I assume you are joking.

I am not surprised Saint Thomas left. Once Saint Thomas began buying real estate near original MacPhail Music Center, but I assumed Saint Thomas would eventually join Concordia-Saint at D-2 level. I assumed incorrectly.

I always though Minnesota State-Mankato or UMD would be the other D-1 university in MN.

Oles are feelin dangerous on their home course #whoop

Carleton takes the men's race 50-59. Ladies turn now.

Olaf ladies avenge the men, storming back in the last mile to win 37-43.

Munir: the people's champ

Much soul-searching at the Quack Shack regarding a 4th consecutive MIAC L to Carleton. Early reports from the Oles' post-race team meeting indicate that Brian Power misread 8000 as 800, which explains all the speed work the Oles have been doing. The team's Marlboro infatuation was also discussed at the MIAC postmortem, with Reuben Kosche quoted as saying "We thought that inhaling all the smoke would turn us into fire-breathing dragons, but it turned out this was not the case." All signs point towards the Oles finding some pretty decent 1500 runners in their rando depth ranks and having a good track season before once again finding a way to choke in the 2022 XC season. Back to the drawing board in Bubland.

Carl’s to the Ole’s this AM

https://youtu.be/u1dFr4V_RIA

Rough day for the Gusties. Hope to see them rebound for Regionals. The Johnnies and Oles ran better than I expected. I didn't expect the Oles to be that close to Carleton. Bocovich saved them. He seems to run well on the course. Stumbo will be back. Sub 25 for Munir on that course is impressive. Will he run track too?

Love MIACJeff staying true to Ole JV mode in blasting the the new coach in his first MIAC meet - where they finished a mere nine points out second and closest finish since 2016. Didn't the Tommies beat them two years ago too? With a team of all underclassmen, the Johnnies could surpass them in the next few years. Concordia is clearly on the rise too. If someone can teach Leo Smith he doesn't need to lead every conference race, he will become dangerous.

Why do the Oles take so long to meets on TFFRs?

Their coach will post the results on TFRRS after he spends his morning creating a more Instagram reels.

Some musings on the MIAC meet 8 days out from regionals:

- Props to St. John's. Lloyd Young is legit and the rest of their guys showed up to finish third.

- Stumbo ran like shit, but I predict he will qualify for nationals individually. He has this habit of clutching up at regionals and punching his ticket to nationals even after meh conference performances. The rest of Gustavus, on the other hand, is in trouble. I really don't think they ever had it in them - they claimed that they "tempoed" the ole invite, but were only ~10 seconds faster AT BEST on the same course nearly two months later. Some of their guys only sped up by a few seconds. Maybe they had a bad day, but I wouldn't bet on the squad making any waves at regionals. besides Stumbo.

- St. Olaf ran great. They ran just about a good of a race as they could have - albeit, Kelly and Curtis probably have been a couple of places higher, but not too much. I don't think is because of some late-season fitness the team has acquired, but rather that Bocovich decided to show up. Bocovich was MIA at Rowan and Eau Claire but rebounded in a big way at MIACs and gave the team the low stick they sorely need to be competitive. Kosche, on the other hand, seems to have gotten quite a bit fitter. He started off the season slow (27:17 at Ole Invite) but seems to have caught up to fellow senior Elliot Cassidy to finish 14th and 11th respectively. That being said...

- Carleton ran better. Unlike past conferences where Carleton relied on an Ole choking, such as Christopher Brenk in 2019, or getting carried by a Wilkinson and Mueller 1-2 to win the team title, this year they won the battle upfront and their 5th guy held on just enough to for them to win by 9. Lavey ran a ballsy race that paid off with a 2nd place finish, and Santos, Nakasaka, and Bowman managed to all place top 10. Naksaka seems to finally be living up to the potential he showed his freshman year. From a 26:33 at the Ole invite to a 25:21 at MIACs, he also seems to have gained some fitness.

What does this all mean for regionals:

- 1st and 2nd is some combo of Whitewater and La Crosse - these teams are in a different tier in the North region. I do believe Whitewater will win as La Crosse suffers from the St. Olaf problem of having a different top 5/top 7 each week.

- The second tier of teams, fighting for spots 3-5, is St. Olaf, Carleton, Eau Claire, and Oshkosh. I predict that Carleton and St. Olaf triumph over the WIAC schools in this tier for 3rd and 4th. but,

- Carleton could very well lose to St. Olaf at regionals. Carleton's biggest weakness at MIACs was their 5th man. Sather was 43 seconds behind Bowman. In this denser race, if Bocovich can be a front runner and if Curtis, Cassidy, Kosche, and Kelly can run like they did at MIACs, they could overtake Carleton in team scoring. Lavey, Santos, and Nakasaka ran great at Eau Claire, finishing 3-5-10 and Bowman has been trending upwards since Carleton ran at Lewis & Clark. Thus, Sather is the key piece for a Carleton 3rd place finish.

Should be a good one folks!

Wow, Concordia Moorhead men finished in the top half of MIAC for the first time in as long as I can remember. Crazy.