NESCAC XC 2021 Thread

NESCACs is at Wickham this year, right? Great course for a 5k, but have they ever hosted an 8k? Will be interested to see how that goes.

pollsrstupid wrote:

NESCACs is at Wickham this year, right? Great course for a 5k, but have they ever hosted an 8k? Will be interested to see how that goes.

bump, anyone know what the course is like? looks like it's supposed to rain all week so it'll be a mess regardless

8k at Wickham does another big loop out by the road/ stone wall and back in by the bid cage.

There have been plenty of 8 k races at Wickham.

Go Mammoths...looking for a big bounce back race for them at NESCACs this Saturday

Mammont Szn wrote:

Go Mammoths...looking for a big bounce back race for them at NESCACs this Saturday

Hate to disappoint, but this will not be the year for the athletes formerly known as the Lord Jeffs.

manville wrote:

8k at Wickham does another big loop out by the road/ stone wall and back in by the bid cage.

There have been plenty of 8 k races at Wickham.

Oh ok. Odd that they didn’t run an 8k for the invitational that was there earlier in the season.

purpledow wrote:

pollsrstupid wrote:

NESCACs is at Wickham this year, right? Great course for a 5k, but have they ever hosted an 8k? Will be interested to see how that goes.

bump, anyone know what the course is like? looks like it's supposed to rain all week so it'll be a mess regardless

They postponed HS state meets so NESCAC could have a clean course. They knew the private school kids couldn’t have a course torn up by a bunch of public school kids.

manville wrote:

purpledow wrote:

bump, anyone know what the course is like? looks like it's supposed to rain all week so it'll be a mess regardless

They postponed HS state meets so NESCAC could have a clean course. They knew the private school kids couldn’t have a course torn up by a bunch of public school kids.

lol I don't think they postponed the HS meet bc of nescacs, idk if you went to hs in CT but if it was gonna rain on the day of the state meet, even for track, they loved to postpone it

Men: Williams 51, Middlebury 59, Colby 78, Tufts 121, Bates & Amherst 141, Conn 153

Morris, Kessler, Lindgren, Tuohy-Gaydos, Wagude (Aidan Ryan dnf)

Women: Williams 65, Tufts 78, Midd 93, Amh 94 (by my hand scoring)

Page, Kearny, Girard, Davis, Richardson, Parr (Kulik went from 8th at 2.1k to 83rd at 5k)

https://live.pctiming.com/meets/11661/xc-events/380789/scores

Sorry, that's Midd 93, Bates 94, Amh 151 -- can't decipher my own scribbles

Thoughts on Aidan Ryan DNF-ing at ~6k? Almost cost them the team title. Looks like in the past 2 years, he's really only performed at Conn's Harkness course...

https://www.lacctic.com/runners/17732

could that mean a good performance at Regional's + underwhelming at nationals?

I'm not all that concerned about Aidan Ryan pulling out, it was a tough day, and without knowing the reason, its not worth speculating about how it impacts future championship races. He could just as easily PR regionals (it is the Conn College course after all) or he can pull out. The depth of Williams was good enough to win without him, and that should really be the story. Especially considering one guy lost a shoe in the first 200 yards and another took a nasty fall and was pretty banged up for the entire race. Quite frankly, Williams top 7 didn't have a great day. It reminded me of Nationals in 2019. Honestly, I think only their 1st year phenom had a good race. And yet they still beat the best teams in the Nescac and there isn't anyone better in the region. I don't think anyone should assume that everything bad will happen again in a week. But then again, thats why they run the races.

Anyone else notice how young the Nescac is this year? I know some of the ages are skewed because of covid, but at the Nescac Champs there were 2 true freshman in the top 7 this year, and 4 in the top 20. No idea if thats ever happened before, but looking through the results, it looks like only 2 in the top 20 won't be back next year. And a quick search of the recruits shows there were 6 runners who were under 4:20 in the mile in high school and 2 who were under 9:00 in the 3200! Those are insane times for Div 3.

I'm guessing it's more likely that this is an artifact of bijan's algorithm overestimating that course's difficulty rather than aidan ryan not being good at cross country

I heard he was walking around all week in a boot

Thoughts on how the NCAA q's are gonna shake out in the mideast and east regions? 4 teams from the east and 5 teams from the mideast? Which teams are gonna make it, and which teams will be the first ones out?

thats a tough question, I don't see 5 teams from the mideast at this point. I know Amherst is ranked 32nd, but I don't know if they have earned the right to move past some of the other regions. I would say Willams gets the win and then Middlebury, RPI, and Vassar are the qualifiers. Amherst would be my alternate and I just don't see how Conn College sneaks in unless they have a dominate performance on their home course (which is possible). As for the East, I think thats 4 as well. MIT is a lock on the win, and Colby and Tufts were solid at Nescac. I also think Bates has done enough to sneak in. But WPI is definitely a little tough the justify this year. Especially when you have 5 spots guaranteed out of the midwest (maybe more). Going to be a good race.

Connecticut College could easily finish 4th, ahead of Vassar, which could allow both to get in. Bates is probably safe if they’re fourth in the East, but Tufts might be shakier if Bates beats them at regionals.