MIAC Track 2024

Does Smith have Outdoor eligibility? That would be pretty cool to see.

With that being said, Outdoor season belongs to the Johnnies.

I fully support this! Well done, 'updaterofthings'! Your perspectives are thoughtful, constructive, and devoid of unnecessary negativity.

After a long talk with Ian Curtis I've decided that I can find the sunny side of any situation. And math is fun. Um Yeah

I believe we must note some of the dark horses in the MIAC coming into the outdoor season.

1. Ethan Martel: Keep a watchful eye on Ethan Martel in the 1500m – he's a noteworthy contender worth following. Despite facing challenges during the indoor season, I expect Martel to stage a formidable comeback in the outdoor 1500m. His racing demeanor and self-assurance positioned him just 3 seconds behind Ash in his debut 1000m as a collegiate racer.

2. Grant Scheneider: Just like Martel, it's plausible that Schneider encountered some setbacks during his winter training. I'm optimistic about witnessing his improvement and watching him accelerate into the fast heat of the 1500m at the conference.

3. Gabe Nichols: Labeling Nichols as an underdog may seem surprising, given his previous performances. However, with a loss to Tor outdoors last year and facing an exceptionally fit Boone at the indoor event this year, it's reasonable to acknowledge that Nichols isn't the favored athlete outdoors. Nevertheless, my belief is that Nichols will find his form and pull off a victory in the outdoor 1500m.

They'd be better off going for the Dmed record at Drake, easily attainable. I don't think they have a shot at 7:33 though.

Is Martel the Oregon transfer?

Augsburg will open up at Point Loma while Hamline and Bethel are at Redlands.

At Point Loma, Getinat is taking on some Minnesota rivals in former Edina ace Russell Gokemeijer in the 800 and Shef West (Blake School) in the 1500m.

Bati is the top seed by a lot in the 5K, but should be able to work with 10K National Qualifier Alec Gironda. Bati ran his PR at this meet last year, so hopefully we something equally impressive.

Not distance related, but noteworthy - At Redlands, Joel Smith is opening his season as the second seed in the 400m Hurdles.

My brother has now visited three MIAC schools. His comments were interesting. He's visiting St. John's and Gustavus soon, so I'll share after that. I ran for one of the schools, but am remaining out of since it's a different coach.

Macalester - This coach is very organized. He has big plans for the future and their rate of improvement is tremendous. He didn't spend as much time with the team as other schools and the dining hall wasn't anything too exciting.

St. Olaf - got a vibe of you should come here because we're already good, but we don't need you from the coach. The tour guide was weird and said several odd things about atheltics, but he really liked the team. Contrary to what we have read, the team seems to like their coach even and they appreciate his flexibility even if some of the training is odd. They have a documentary on the 2023 XC season in the works.

Carleton - Ricks spent half the visit talking about other schools and he talked forever, but both my brother and dad really enjoyed their meeting. The are very excited about the incoming class and think they will challenge the Oles. The team wasn't around, so he'll want to follow up on this visit. Carleton seems to have a lot more academic conflicts than the other two and their schedule creates some training interruptions. That worried him a bit.

Why do we care about the visits? We know everything we need to know about Power and Ricks. Unless your brother is a 4:10 miler, we won't expect anything different from what we already know.

If he is, he should check out Scholastica. He could replace Lars on their DMR.

Bati for the win in California! The time isn’t anything too special, but he ripped a 60 second last lap to top a national qualifier. Definitely an encouraging wok.

Asfaw had a strong double. The 800m will be interesting.

Bocovich opened his outdoor season with a converted sub 29! He has gotten so much better after leaving Northfield.

Would’ve been nice to see Bati try to go out faster. He does ok in sit & kick but probably needs to learn to lead a race on the track.

Why would he do that when everyone else will do the work? It seems like it pays off close to 50% of the time. Not bad odds.

Nationally, Bethel is 2nd in the 100m, 1st in the 200m, 3rd in the 400m, 1st in the 110 Hurdles, and 1st in the 400m Hurdles. Every spot is a different person!

Because a 14:46 in a meaningless early season race won’t get you to nationals. I guess if the goal is 5 more conference titles and maybe one more trip to cross nationals and 0 trips to track nationals then keep it up.

Anyone else notice how much better the Oles get when they leave Northfield?

Just reading some alumni training logs of recent grads and it is striking.

I think it’s safe to Bocovich would have had a similar progression if St. Olaf offered grad programs. The altitude training is certainly a boost. I’m also excited to see a MIAC runner crushing it the D2 level.

I’ve never understood when posters crap on programs for having runners become faster after graduating. That means they’ve been set up well for future success. And more importantly, they still have a passion for the sport. That doesn’t happen everywhere and should be celebrated.

There is also something to be said about taking away college stresses and college social habits.

I've held my tongue about the stupidity of Ole training, but I've looked at recent strava posts and just have to ask what in the world Power is thinking.

Having every athlete do a DMR by themselves as a relay doesn't seem to have any scientific function in a training cycle. I noticed none of their top athletes did it. I'd be ticked if I were someone not quite on their nationals squad about having to do something so stupid while the "good" athletes just hit another split tempo or are hurt and crosstraining. Speaking of split tempos, I'd hope he has them trained enough to do a full tempo at this time of the season, but it appears not.

A teammate shared that this an annual tradition the Oles do, called a Hokem Karum. Evidently Power did it during his unillustrious college career. So is the DMR element just to be cute?

Ironic that the original description calls it an easy early season event. Not something I'd do in the middle of March.

The Hokum Karem style cross county meet has its beginnings at Wabash College.
The Hokum Karem, designed to provide runners with early season competition on a practice basis, places runners on two-man teams and adds the relay aspect of track meets to cross country. The two-man team races on a six-mile course, with each runner alternating miles. Both runners on the two-man team run three miles, so the distance isn’t quite as challenging as a five-mile cross country course. While one member of the team is running, the other rests. At the end of each mile, the runners exchange batons and the incoming team member gets to rest while his partner runs the next mile.

I’m sure his career was very illustrious in his dilluted little mind.

They do this every Wednesday in August in como park in St. Paul.

This is the running equivalent of listening to Andrew Cogley talk about basketball