2021 MAC XC Predictions

I always find these threads entertaining but am always a bit perplexed that the person that tarts them doesn't first give their own predictions..."Go..."

I'll give it a "Go"

Men Team

MAC men's XC just isn't the same with the teams that have dropped XC, particularly Akron. Clayton Murphy must be disgusted. BGSU men's XC is not as strong as it used to be since it no longer has a track team. Dave Wottle must be disgusted. Eastern Michigan will win comfortably.

1 Eastern Michigan

2 Miami

3 Toledo

4 Buffalo

5 Ohio

6 Kent State

7 Central Michigan

8 Bowling Green

Men Indvidual

1 Baldvin Magnusson Eastern Michigan

2 Matthew Chesum Toledo

3 Josh Park Ohio

4 Toby Gualter Eastern Michigan

5 Anthony Camerieri Miami

6 Chris Devaney Eastern Michigan

7 Jacob Harris Toledo

8 Andy Payne Eastern Michigan

9 Josh Hill Eastern Michigan

10 Obsaa Feda Miami

Women Team

1 Toledo

2 Miami

3 Bowling Green

4 Akron

5 Ball State

6 Ohio

7 Central Michigan

8 Eastern Michigan

9 Buffalo

10 Northern Illinois

11 Kent State

12 Western Michigan

Women Individual

Toledo will crush the field

There are more women's teams than men's teams so I'll pick 15

1 Joy Chirchi Toledo

2 Faith Linga Toledo

3 Carmen Riano Miami

4 Semra Karaslan Toledo

5 Kailee Perry Bowling Green

6 Elka Machan Ball State

7 Emily Vining Toledo

8 Lou Trois Toledo

9 Katie Vitou Miami

10 Katerina Shuble Bowling Green

11 Ava Nuttall Miami (Ohio)

12 Julia Dames Toledo

13 Emily Paupore Central Michigan

14 Lindsey Scarton Akron

15 Beth Arentz Akron

EMU has been running absolutely horrible this season compared to expectations on the men's side (I have no knowledge of the women). With that said...

1. Miami (not as good as they should be, but better than EMU)

2. Toledo (ran well in B race at pre-nats)

3. EMU

4. OU - only because they'd don't have a 4-5, otherwise I'd put them ahead of EMU

5-the rest - who cares... they aren't any good.

Individual

1. Park...he was slam dunk earlier but just struggled big time last weekend

2. Camereri (sp?)...who knows with this guy

3. Magnuesson (sp?)

4. Chesum

5. who knows?? BG kid? Buffalo kid? Kent kid is running well

previous poster has 5 EMU ahead of Miami's 2nd - that just cannot be the case, but we'll find out.

I'm going to guess you attend Miami. Funny, given they recruit some of the best guys in the midwest, then turn them to dogwater. Torpy twins had okay careers, but overall could've run much better under a more stable coaching staff.

A bunch of rich kids who only have won the MAC once in the last twenty years- that was the year EMU was at it's lowest.

EMU likely will be a top-8 team in the region this year, so in a smaller meet, with all of their presence at the front, I'm going to guess EMU wins like 32-62 easy. Magnuesson, Gualter, Hill, Payne, and Devaney all have run sub-14 or 14:0x-14:20, so it's really fair to assume they'll take this rather weak conference in a blowout.

mid american conference aka 3 schools wrote:

EMU has been running absolutely horrible this season compared to expectations on the men's side (I have no knowledge of the women). With that said...

1. Miami (not as good as they should be, but better than EMU)

2. Toledo (ran well in B race at pre-nats)

3. EMU

4. OU - only because they'd don't have a 4-5, otherwise I'd put them ahead of EMU

5-the rest - who cares... they aren't any good.

Individual

1. Park...he was slam dunk earlier but just struggled big time last weekend

2. Camereri (sp?)...who knows with this guy

3. Magnuesson (sp?)

4. Chesum

5. who knows?? BG kid? Buffalo kid? Kent kid is running well

previous poster has 5 EMU ahead of Miami's 2nd - that just cannot be the case, but we'll find out.

What was that again? I thought that you said that Miami was better than Eastern Michigan, Junior. It also looks like EMU put 5 in front of Miami's 2nd.

What's your excuse? Too sloppy for the Redhawk runners?

re: MAC Picks (predictions from last week)

1 Eastern Michigan

2 Miami

3 Toledo

Women Team

1 Toledo

2 Miami

3 Bowling Green

Wow - you were surprisingly close. Well done! I privately predicted EMU would do well on the men's side and Toledo would win on the women's race, but could not have called the individuals as well as you did. I also would not have guessed Toledo was as deep as they were on the women's side.

I watched the races today (I live a mile and quarter from the course - how could I not go?).

Toledo men did better than they have in a long long time (and finished second). On the women's side Toledo put five in the top 20. Impressively strong showing.

Fun races to watch although the course is not laid out for optimal spectating.

Also attended the race, was not very spectator friendly, but was interesting enough. Cool area, but quite wet out. Really wasn't a race at any point. Buffalo looked like they were ready to challenge for the win early on but dropped all the way to 5th, no one near the front for them. EMU had 8 guys in the top 20 and several near the front at all times and Magnusson won pretty handily despite the 3 second win. Harris from Toledo ran great, as well as Toledo's team. 2nd place is great for their men. Even doing so without Chesum running the race that was expected. Miami was lifeless it seemed. They had a couple of guys near the front come halfway but watching the race, it seemed as if some of their typical higher finishers didn't have much fight in them. They moved backwards in a race that didn't seem like it was a crazy pace, but potentially the conditions, and maybe just a bad day, led to this. Either way it was not even a race, and Miami's top finisher was 6th when he was likely heading into the race with the intent of winning, and their third finisher was behind Eastern's 8th .

Following the MAC for a while, it was interesting seeing how this year played out. Eastern won pretty handily last year as well, but with Payne and Devaney in the top 4, and this year, Gualter and Hill were in the top 5 (Magnusson finishing 3rd and 1st), so even with Payne and Devaney seemingly not where they were last year, they're depth showed. Miami had some finishes last year and this year that made it seem like a potential real race could happen with Eastern seemingly underperforming this year, but the MAC meet seems to always shake up a little differently than expected, and there is certainly a lot of pride at play with these men.

It's also noteworthy to point out the superb MAC career of Josh Park. In the last four years, he has finished 1st, 3rd, 1st, and 2nd. That has to be one of the best four year runs of any conference runner ever. Obviously the extra year was fortunate in these finishes, nonetheless he has been a consistently great runner come the conference meet every year, and in XC that is not easy to do, especially at a school that has not produced any sort of team success, though this year they finished 4th, with two good finishes behind Park. That typically hasn't happened, and the drive and consistency needed to perform at an underperforming school is very impressive. It's unfortunate he's not able to participate in conference meets on the track, he would certainly mix it up in the longer distances, and now, clearly Toledo would as well. The lack of men's track teams in the conference is very sad, as well as Akron's no longer XC team. While certainly interesting still, this conference would have much more exciting conference track meets if it weren't just dual/tri meets between Akron, which has recently been a battle between Akron sprints vs EMU distance indoors, and the tri meet that is Miami, Akron, and EMU outdoors.

MACtion!