Welcome to the ultimate LAC showdown!
With indoor on the back burner, Middlebury out west, Williams down south and a whole host of other teams braving the freezing rain in Connecticut today, it’s about time to take a look at the ultimate conference champ, just over a month away at tufts.
Early predictions (don’t take too seriously)
Conference title:
Tufts. Historically good at track, I’m assuming their dining hall has good choccy milk
Runner up:
Williams or Amherst. Williams has a lot of good athletes across the track but they lose to Tufts in the field events. Amherst is more balanced but lacks the sheer amount of points Williams accumulates from distance events alone.
4th: Bates. Good school to get your masters. A really solid throws squad, + a few good distance runners and sprinters to net a few points, doesn’t score much if at all in the jumps. Perfectly positioned in 4th, far enough behind Williams/Amherst but far enough ahead of the rest of the conference
Sidenote: if the conference were just the schools from mass vs the schools not from mass, Mass would absolutely cook and win easily. Best state in new england hands down
Now for the fun predictions of the PREMIER events
800 meter dash of legends
W-Zachary liu walter. Gonna eat up this field like a pan of nestle toll house
Silver-Gonna give this one to Ross Tejeda of Bates. Gonna be real close, within spiking distance of mr. walter
Bronze-Some fast amherst 800 guy, Davis seems like the best of the bunch. Half of the guys between 3rd and 8th will be from amherst
1500m sprint:
Gold-Tobias L’Esperance Kerckhof! Carrying on the torch of Travis Martin
Silver-Will Goddard, Bowdoin’s absolute studmuffin. Where’s his brother Ziggy at? Middlebury needs him for steeple!
Bronze: Nate Lentz. A reliable scorer for Williams, he’ll probably do this instead of the 5k and let Lucey take the dub there.
3k Steeple EPOCH:
Gold-Hottest man in the NESCAC Ivan Appleton gets this one.
*Silver*-Might regret this but DeNatale. He’s great at steeple but had a bad indoor, gonna give him the benefit of a doubt and suggest he comes back
Bronze-Gonna go for Alex Friedman of Tufts. Will get 2nd if DeNatale has a bad outdoor season
Bronze(alt)-Calvin Cummings. A dark horse pick but this league has been lackin a bit in the steeple department, I think he’s easily capable of a 9:20
Spooky scary 5k:
Gold-Legendary ginger kid John Lucey. His soul wasn’t crushed by all the hills at purple valley, xc nescacs or nationals, and he will easily win his first track nescac champs
Silver-Nedward Farrington. A powerful beast to say the least. He’s great at the 15 but there’s probably more room for error in the 5k
Bronze-Dark horse pick but Chris Ratcliffe. Broke 14:40 to kick off his outdoor season, watch him run sneaky fast this season
Commercial break 10k:
Gold-Chuckie Namiot. Man makes 10ks look easy peasy.
Silver-Alec Gironda. Took a nice W in Cali this weekend, and is an absolute endurance warrior
Bronze/4th-I see those two guys from Conn (Mellitt & Bush) taking the next two spots. Just like the sith, there are always two conn runners that run filthy in the 10k each season, no more, no less.
4x8 carnival
Gold-Amherst. These boys are as sharp as can be when it comes to a two lap race
Silver-Bates. Got a lot of fresh young mid distance talent
Bronze-Williams. Assuming they send studs
Honorable mentions: Middlebury and Tufts score if these teams sit out their studs.
And there you have it! Feel free to spew hate and praise as you please!