What about it?
What about it?
Eric Hoover for the win
Nine looks fine?
Etown rocks again...
'essiah any good?
Pride a slow ride?
Does any other team matter now the Landmark left the platter?
The teams that left fot the landmark didn't matter before they left....
the best teams were and still are Etown, Messiah, Widener, and Juniata
is Juniata still in the MAC? I don't know why, for some reason I thought that they were one of the teams leaving, perhaps I was wrong.
Anyway, regarding the upcoming season on the men's side, I feel that Messiah and E-Town will be battling it out upfront (and Juniata as well if they are, in fact, still in the MAC. Behind them will be Desales and LVC. Then after that will be a huge drop off, so a solid top 4 (or 5) and then not too much unless Widener gets a massive recruiting class.
can etown reload again? they lose a lot of talent off last years team
Juniata is listed on the Landmark website as a member. See
http://www.susqu.edu/Sports/releases/Spring06/landmark.htm
I'm not certain those teams that left significantly hurts the conference as far as the level of competitiveness goes. Maybe a little in xc, and more so in track. In xc, the conference meet will still be good, and probably closer than last year, particularly due to the graduation losses at Etown. If they don't get a few recruits in this year, and Messiah does, I think Etown will have a battle.
On the women's side, both Messiah and Etown should be competitive. It could come down to the unknown recruit or someone who steps up this year.
But let's face it, at the regional level, the conference will have problems being competitive with the top teams. Getting a team to nationals on the men's side will be difficult, particularly after bombing in '06. At best, the region will get 4 teams like last last. Haverford and Allegheny will be strong again. CMU will be good. So will Dickinson and Salisbury.
Best hope lies on the women's side, but I wouldn't be surprised if our region only gets three teams to nationals this year. Dickinson will be strong again, and Haverford will be right there too. After that, it could be a toss-up with Allegheny, Etown, Messiah, and Salisbury.
The conference meet will be awful this year, just like it was last year and will continue to be awful in the years to come. If Juniata were still in the MAC, that would make it a little more exciting with them and Messiah battling it out for the title. But the level of talent has been on a downward slope these past few years. I will say it now, 1-2 at conferences will be Eanes and Black of Messiah. Then St Clair and Bear of Etown shouldn't be too far behind. But other than those 4 will there really be anyone good? Unless teams do a good job recruiting, I doubt there will. The other teams who are still in the conference are DeSales, Leb Val, and Widener? I think Nastus returns for DeSales and maybe Himmelreich for Leb Val, and they are alright, but not great. And does Widener even have a team anymore? So after my brief preview, this season will be a very mediocre championship.
Hopefully the track meet will be better, but again, there is slim picking in there too. The jumping events will be bad now that Juniata and Susqu are gone. The same goes for the throws. The distance events will be just like cross, unexciting and for the sprinting events, it will just be Drew Graybell of Etown.
How about we let the season unfold before we proclaim it a mediocre championship eh champ? And maybe you didn't hear but last year's conference meet was just a tad bit muddy!
Who cares if the MAC course was muddy? If you look at the regional results, it will confirm was the previous poster was saying - the talent level in the MAC has been on the decline for the last 3-4 years, and there is a good chance the trend will continue with teams leaving the conference.
There will be no great teams in the MAC this year. Maybe just 1 or 2 top 10 regional teams.
the MAC championship course was really muddy and there was parts where runners were running through water. It also rained heavily the day of regionals so that course was a little muddy too. Don't say there wont be any great teams in the MAC just yet. You don't know what teams have yet and how much teams trained over the summer.
I'm not trying to harp on this point, but again, it does not matter if the course was muddy. That has nothing to do with how good the teams were. Look the the regional and national meet results for the last few years, and you will see that the MAC has not stacked up as it did a few years ago.
Unless a school has brought in some phenomenal recruits, it won't change where the MAC fits in the regional or national landscape for the coming year.
maybe its not that the MAC teams aren't as good in the region as they were a few years ago but maybe its that everyone has caught up and been/performed better than MAC teams in the regional meet
The teams that left the MAC are not irrelevent. Susquhanna, Moravian, and Scranton all were solid teams. Juniata actually became good over a few years, when I was in the MAC the Eagles were TERRIBLE. Teams come and go, get better and get worse. Just because you don\'t win a conference crown doesn\'t make you a bad team.
Drew still sucks like a monkey...from an XC standpoint, the sooner we get rid of Del Val, Albright, Lycoming and FDU Madison the world will be a better place.
What the MAC loses does not make up for what it gains. Seriously do Arcadia, Eastern, Manhattanville and Alvernia even know how to run?
At the very least we get the best of the ol\' PAC in Miseri.
I guess your post suggests that the region is getting better than MAC men's teams, this is true over the last three years. However, there is one team in the MAC that has kept pace with the region over past three years - the Etown Women:
Last three overall team finishes / Avg team finish:
1. Dickinson (2nd, 1st, 1st / 1.333)
2. Haverford (4th, 2nd, 2nd / 2.667)
3. Etown (3rd, 3rd, 4th / 3.333)
4. Allegheny (1st, 7th, 3rd / 3.667)
Dickinson has been to Nationals each of those 3 years (with two top 10 finishes). The other three teams have been 2 of the 3 years. Etown being the only other team to finish in the top 20. Historically, over the past 10-15 years, Etown does not even come close to the tradition of the other teams on this list. Not even close.
Out of the teams coming into the MAC, misericordia isnt a bad pick up at all. This past year they did beat juniata at desales and scranton a few times. They also were in the mix with the mac teams at regionals. I am not saying they are a powerhouse, but they could make some noise in the years to come.
Miseri is the best team coming in, but unfortunately they don't make up for Susqu., Moravian, and Juniata...
I think its rather fortunate that the Greyhound women aren't the power they were in the late 90s and early 00s. That would have been a loss. But maybe Mr. Runners World can bring them back to life.
Rumor is a lot of local state qualifiers are headed to Misericordia this fall (however, this fall they will run their last championship in the PAC). They should be much improved. They begin joining the MAC for indoor and outdoor track.
It will be a two team race on both the men's and women's side of the MAC this fall (Messiah and Etown). It has been that way for years on the women's side and it hasn't been more than three teams deep on the men's side in a long time.
Scranton could have been considereed decent as far at the conference level is concerned in the past. However, the past 4 years they've been irrelevant, aside from Mecuri being a strong individual.
Moravian's mens team has also been a joke for a while. Though, the loss does affect the women's side.
Susquehanna's mens team has been a joke also aside for Gleason and now Thistle.
Juniata is the only serious loss to the MAC as far as current history is concerned. I believe coach Cutright has shown that when given hardworking idividuals, regardless of their talent, he can coach them to achieve respectable preformances.
Etown, Messiah, and Widener are the best teams in the Conference as far as xc is concerned. I say thsi of each for differnt reasons.
Etown has the coaching, the legacy, and the team unity that always makes them good, even when they're working with less than stellar recruits.
Messiah has the talent. The attraction of a Chrisitan education brings so many talented runners to them. They're able to run solid despite some shortcomings in their training.
As for Widener, though they took a huge blow losing most of the top 5 from 2005 and now Macharia and Francisco are gone, I think their presence in the conference will still be important, because Touey is a great coach. He may not have the right guys now to field a competitive team, but I don't beleive they'll be out of contention for long. He has the expertise and experience that puts him on the same level of Straub from etown and well above the other MAC coaches. You give him some hardworking runners he'll have another good team.
Other schools always produce some solid individuals that make things interesting but don't contribute to the team competition of the sport. I'd say most of these individuals are the result of luck, that good kids are interested in school location and academics over athletic reputation and less with recruting and coaching, which is completely fine.
i think king's is a possibly a team on the rise in the MAC, they have a guy who could possibly win the MAC this year and a couple of other good guys coming back, plus from what i hear from a friend they might have a few good freshmen coming in. I think its possible they could be top 5 with the teams that left and the teams that are still in the conference