Princeton is literally Harvard's Heps XC cryptonite. H had the team lead until the last mile, but the fifth runner faded badly. Another year of a #1 projection #2 finish to P.
I was at the meet. Gibby seemed happy with the finish. It seems as if he’s content with second place. Saretsky, on the other hand, had tears in his eyes as the race finished.
I was at the meet. Gibby seemed happy with the finish. It seems as if he’s content with second place. Saretsky, on the other hand, had tears in his eyes as the race finished.
I ended up not being able to make it at the last minute but doubt Gibby was "happy" but he's also realistic. They were missing a couple of guys and it cost them. When I was following it online live, I thought to myself, "If they have any trouble in their top 5 they are screwed as 6 and 7 are way back." And that's what happened.
Harvard has amazing brand recognition and recruiting advantages (as does Princeton) but they are limited in quantity of spots and that hurt them. Princeton gets more numbers I believe.
Harvard's winless streak is older than me. It extends to 1972. Yale's extends from the 1940s.
In fact, Yale has never won an Ivy xc title - when they won it was before it was known as the Ivy League.
What do you want Gibby to do? Cry? That's weak. I'm sure he wants to rally the troops like he seemingly does every year and get them ready for NCAAs.
But on behalf of Jonathan Gault and Wejo, I'd like to welcome Graham Blanks to a club we are members of. It's a great honor to induct him as he's the most prestigious member yet. What do Rojo, Wejo, Jonathan Gault and Alex Gibby have in common? Zero Heps xc team titles on their CVs. There were times in our lives where we'd likely have given up fingers or toes to win one and yet today none of us even made it to the meet to watch.
Life goes on.
This post was edited 36 seconds after it was posted.
Reason provided:
I added in the 1972 stat to the title.
Rojo, why would Harvard have fewer spots than Princeton? Honest question. My experience has been that Harvard's training usually is much more boom-or-bust than Princeton's: their top athletes reach higher peaks, but they also lose a lot more distance runners to injury and burnout. I would think this is a larger cause of their annual poor depth at Heps than "fewer spots."
Admission slots for the Ivy schools are carefully negotiated. There is a league maximum for the total across all sports, and then some schools choose to be under that. Once the total is decided, the AD doles them out to the various sports as they deem fit.
Each school also has an Academic Index to meet on average across all teams. The AD sets a score for each team to ensure their programs hit the average. In general, track will carry hoops, and distance will carry track. This is more extreme for some schools than others.
Harvard definitely seems to be on the low side of the number of slots, but they also seem to be the school where a letter of recommendation for a non-slotted athlete helps the most--especially if the student athlete is legacy.
Road Guy has it right. It's up to the AD, and Princeton given their historic success (and I presume Samara's size of personality) has (deservedly) commandeered a big portion whereas Harvard I believe has fewer spots due to very stiff competition from basketball, crew, etc.
Rojo, why would Harvard have fewer spots than Princeton? Honest question. My experience has been that Harvard's training usually is much more boom-or-bust than Princeton's: their top athletes reach higher peaks, but they also lose a lot more distance runners to injury and burnout. I would think this is a larger cause of their annual poor depth at Heps than "fewer spots."
See the posts about the AD. But when I was coaching at Cornell, it absolutely drove me nuts to hear the schools at the HYPe complain about their recruiting problems.
I think your post about the training is interesting as well. Another Ivy coach actually said that to me last week - they thought there is more variance with the Gibby training. He works them hard so if they hit they hit big but higher risk for injury.
I'd like to welcome Graham Blanks to a club we are members of. It's a great honor to induct him as he's the most prestigious member yet. What do Rojo, Wejo, Jonathan Gault and Alex Gibby have in common? Zero Heps xc team titles on their CVs.
I'd like to welcome Graham Blanks to a club we are members of. It's a great honor to induct him as he's the most prestigious member yet. What do Rojo, Wejo, Jonathan Gault and Alex Gibby have in common? Zero Heps xc team titles on their CVs.
Princeton is just better coached. PERIOD. Not saying Gibby is a bad coach, but Princeton is more consistent in their performances, stays healthier, and their guys develop better over 4 years.
Princeton returns EVERYONE next year. No seniors ran. Harvard will have a hard time beating them in the next 2 years as well.
Their No. 2 finisher was a senior. (Princeton redshirts a bunch of guys, and Bendtsen is a senior academically.) But I’m not denying they will be hard to beat.
Rojo, why would Harvard have fewer spots than Princeton? Honest question. My experience has been that Harvard's training usually is much more boom-or-bust than Princeton's: their top athletes reach higher peaks, but they also lose a lot more distance runners to injury and burnout. I would think this is a larger cause of their annual poor depth at Heps than "fewer spots."
Really? I thought it was because this race was a preview of Future D-Bags of American 1%.
Their No. 2 finisher was a senior. (Princeton redshirts a bunch of guys, and Bendtsen is a senior academically.) But I’m not denying they will be hard to beat.
Rojo, why would Harvard have fewer spots than Princeton? Honest question. My experience has been that Harvard's training usually is much more boom-or-bust than Princeton's: their top athletes reach higher peaks, but they also lose a lot more distance runners to injury and burnout. I would think this is a larger cause of their annual poor depth at Heps than "fewer spots."
See the posts about the AD. But when I was coaching at Cornell, it absolutely drove me nuts to hear the schools at the HYPe complain about their recruiting problems.
I think your post about the training is interesting as well. Another Ivy coach actually said that to me last week - they thought there is more variance with the Gibby training. He works them hard so if they hit they hit big but higher risk for injury.
On the men’s side, just wondering who are Gibby’s big “hits” with the exception of Graham of course.