same top 4 places in both genders: 1) navy 2) army 3) boston 4) bucknell .... maybe throw a Lehigh or Lafayette in there but doubtful
same top 4 places in both genders: 1) navy 2) army 3) boston 4) bucknell .... maybe throw a Lehigh or Lafayette in there but doubtful
Hot Takes heading into Patriot Leagues for the Men
Army is getting 3rd this year and Marshall Beatty won't be in the top 10. Matt Mason can take his Runner of the Week award and shove it because Russell Sullivan and Conner Melko will be bringing the wood. Holy Cross will get last place and Loyola will shock the world and get 7th. Lehigh, Bucknell, and Lafayette will have a pillow fight for 4,5,6.
Team Champion: Navy
If you think Bucknell is a top four team with that ass-clown Donner running the show, think again.
1. Navy
2. Army
3. Boston
4. Lehigh
5-10. Suck
Hot take - Navy has the potential to perfect score this meet. At their dual meet with Army, they had a solid top 3 with 4 and 5 not behind. I don't know what's going on with Mathias but if he can get back to where he was at the beginning of the season, Navy won't be able to be beat. I think Beatty is still going to be a valid contender, Army seems to be able to peak perfectly every year for this meet. If Conner Melko finds his rhythm, he will be dangerous too, being on his home course and all. Matt Mason has been improving every race so I wouldn't be surprised to see a good place out of him.
The only thing Beatty would do by running well is stop the Navy sweep
Which teams will take the Monday off classes to party post-conferences? My Guess:
Navy: Regional Contenders need their rest
Army: Drown in sorrows, no party
Boston: Yes
Lafayette: Who Cares
Bucknell: Probably the night before too
Lehigh: Peak early by drinking on the bus ride home, followed by bed time.
bump this thread... one hour till the gun goes off for the women's race, make your final predictions now!! Will be interesting to see if Ramos and Beatty defend their titles from the road race last spring, thoughts?
1 - Navy - 20
2 - Army - 55
3 - Boston - 80
4 - Lafayette - 134
5 - Lehigh - 139
6 - Bucknell - 140
Top 3 as expected, Navy was dominant. Boston should be a lot better. Hats off to Lafayette, nobody here picked them 4th.
Bucknell has really been on an awful decline this last few years in both genders... can't remember the last time the women placed as low as 4th
Some quick post Men's PLC thoughts
Two words to describe the meet: Pillow fight.
Wow, Marshall Beatty absolutely brought the wood and made me look like a fool for doubting him. Impressive. The Naval Academy proved once again that they are no joke. Bucknell crapped themselves the last 2k, no surprise there.
Two Coaches that should be fired after today:
1. SEAN GRAHAM (American University) - Scholarships and you still manage to lose to Lafayette, Bucknell and Loyola.
2. Jim Kavanagh (Holy Cross) - Just retire already. You've had a good run.
Two teams that deserve applause.
1. Lafayette: They somehow managed to come back from the grave this year and look like a real team when it mattered.
2. Loyola: just had their best finish EVER in the Patriot League. Good for them.
Some final thoughts:
Lehigh blew up again, and BU did pretty good even with a new distance coach and an idiot head coach (talking about you, Gabe)
I agree with your top two points. I don't ever want to call for a coach to be fired, but AU is regretting firing Centro Sr.
The Navy and Lafayette coaches are phenomenal, best in the league and some of the best in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions. Navy has a shot at qualifying for NCAAs this year because Villanova and G-town looked weak at their conference meet and historically those teams struggle over 10k. If Mathias and Brady can be in the top 15 they can score an upset.
Lafayette was a joke (last place in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 , literally last in 7 out of 9 years from 2008-2016). New coach in 2017 and now 3rd place in 2020 and 4th in 2021. Miraculous turnaround for Lafayette. I went to fact-check Loyola's best ever finish (7th) and I was surprised that even Loyola would consistently beat Lafayette.
Remember when Gabe fired his distance coach because one of his boys leaked that he was canning him after the season on the job board
What a clown
Team is just going to get worse and worse as this group leaves and her replaces them with mediocre sprints kids
At least he gets to chase Twitter clout tho
There has to be something going on at American. I can't come up with a reason why they are doing so shockingly poorly over the last few years. The fact that Colgate has been so close, and have now, beaten American with Colgate having no scholarships, and no financial need or academic admission slots is mind boggling.
Does anyone know what is going on over there?
Exhausted wrote:
There has to be something going on at American. I can't come up with a reason why they are doing so shockingly poorly over the last few years. The fact that Colgate has been so close, and have now, beaten American with Colgate having no scholarships, and no financial need or academic admission slots is mind boggling.
Does anyone know what is going on over there?
Colgate men were last, you must be talking about the women. Lafayette doesn't have any scholarships or admissions slots, they've been ahead of AU for several years. It makes their success even more impressive.
AU is a distance only program with 3 paid distance coaches. It's a total failure. Graham is a middle distance runner that can't coach long distance to save his life, even at Kentucky.
You all leave Gabe Sanders alone, he's having to figure this head coaching think out as he goes.
Your information on Lafayette's recruiting support is wrong.
Lafayette has no recruiting support. As a program alum, I know they have no scholarships, admissions slots, or funding. Most of their top runners are 10:00 high school 3200 walk-ons who would not have been given a spot on most teams in the Patriot League.
I don't know when you graduated but I know the track program had support in the mid 2000s and has only received more through the years. A quick look at their roster and milesplit and here are their mile or 2 mile prs from HS.
TA 9:53
EA 9:35
AB 4:27
JB 9:52
BC 4:27 9:47
CE 4:26 9:39
SF 4:39
AG 10:18*
SH 4:32
TL 4:27 9:49
RM 9:43
BO 9:21
AS 4:34
JS 4:27 9:43
Their top 5 ran the following in HS...
9:21
9:35
4:26 9:39
4:27 (9:34)
4:27 (9:34)
I don't want to take anything away from their performances (they've run great) but to say they are a bunch of 10:00+ 2 milers is wrong. There is only one athlete with a 10:00+ 2mile pr equivalent HS performance on their entire roster.
These boys are good, to say that none of them would have been given a spot on any other Patriot League team is unfair and a disservice to their talent.
Custer's Last Stand wrote:
If you think Bucknell is a top four team with that ass-clown Donner running the show, think again.
1. Navy
2. Army
3. Boston
4. Lehigh
5-10. Suck
Etters might be the worst coach in the league. Slavin is a 5th year with a 9:16 3200 from high school. Demassa another 5th year, 9:28 in high school. Melko was a stud in high school with 4:16, 9:06 and 14:47. Etters can only get Melko to 30th in the Patriot League? Lederer was 9:27 and Kyle Burke was the PA state champion in the 1600 running 4:16 and 9:28.
Compare that to Navy with Mathias at 9:24 in high school. Brady 4:23 and 9:48. Keeny 4:19 and 9:14. Clark 4:20 and 9:13. Briggs 1:52, 4:13 and 9:25. Bowers 4:23 and 9:42. Nelson 1:55, 4:22 and 9:49.
Lehigh was significantly faster in high school and they have 2 graduate students, but Navy scores 20 and Lehigh scores 139.
colgate cavity wrote:
Exhausted wrote:
There has to be something going on at American. I can't come up with a reason why they are doing so shockingly poorly over the last few years. The fact that Colgate has been so close, and have now, beaten American with Colgate having no scholarships, and no financial need or academic admission slots is mind boggling.
Does anyone know what is going on over there?
Colgate men were last, you must be talking about the women. Lafayette doesn't have any scholarships or admissions slots, they've been ahead of AU for several years. It makes their success even more impressive.
AU is a distance only program with 3 paid distance coaches. It's a total failure. Graham is a middle distance runner that can't coach long distance to save his life, even at Kentucky.
Reason American is bad: Sean Graham
The program had been on a slow decline when Centro was there, but Graham hasn't been able to turn things around at all. The program is in a tail spin close to crashing.
How can the men get beat by Loyola when Loyola doesn't even sponsor men's track?
It will be interesting to see what their recruiting class looks like this year. I remember they signed quite a few men and women a while back which makes me believe they have scholarship still, but results indicate something isn't right.
Maybe American is going non-scholarship? I guess time will tell with if they sign anyone?