Spartan Invite at MSU results??

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For any interested and not wanting to sort through sites, it is up now

http://msuspartans.cstv.com/sports/c-xc/msu-c-xc-body.html

grand valley guys put a woopin on msu

Who needs results....

But the women pitched a shutout.

I was there. Was that MSU's whole men's team? It seemed like a few were missing (not just Stephan Shay who is supposed to be out of there). David Bills? I was getting the impression that not everyone was running. Grand Valley did look good, for what that's worth. The times were decent too, for all the higher finishers, based against previous years.

Michigan State's women look GREAT. Nicole Bush ran nearly two minutes faster than last year! Alissa McKaig was 19 seconds faster this year. Sarah Price was nearly 2 minutes faster. It looks like they have many, many good frosh runners. On paper, the Wolverines are probably still the team to beat in the Big Ten, but MSU's women look very good.

The meet seemed like it was in a down year this time with no Michigan and no Eastern Michigan.

On another note, in the high school race, twelfth grader Maverick Darling from tiny Ovid-Elsie h.s. looked like he was sprinting--and he just sprinted away from everyone right from the gun. He won the race by over a minute (61 or 62 seconds in front of second place). A state champion in XC both 10th and 11th grade, he hit the two mile mark faster than the college guys did (according to the announcer). He was going 5k and the college guys went 8k, but he still looked impressive--perhaps the most dominant performance we've seen here in Michigan since Dathan Ritzenheim. He did not run well at Footlocker last year, but he appears to have a lot of talent. Has anyone heard of him before?

Yeah, everyone who follows Michigan H.S. running knows of Maverick. Very talented. He won his heat at (maybe the 3rd heat) at NON (2 mile) in 9:05. Hopefully he stays in Michigan for college.

Maverick Darling? How are those weekend doubles at the local Show Me Them Big Things! going?

In the National XC Poll, MS was picked 10th, but only 5th in the Big Ten. That is going to be a difficult league meet. In fact, Big Ten teams are picked to finish 1 2 3 in both the Midwest and Great Lakes Regions.

I didn't really want to make any predictions about where MSU might be--I'll go with where the experts ranked them. It's just so hard, especially at the beginning of the season, to figure out where everyone is because we can't get good information like we can for NCAA football (where the heck did Stephan Shay go? for example).

Claire Maduza appears to have left Wisconsin's team, so it's nearly impossible to guess where they might be in terms of rankings. So that's one example.

I was just very pleasantly surprised by the Spartans today. They looked better in the meet than they did on paper. Nicole Bush looks very fit, and ready to run with McKaig. Too bad MSU doesn't still have Danette Doetzel--she's been underperforming since moving out of East Lansing (now at Providence).

It's also true that Michigan (Wolverines) could very easily have won NCAAs last year if their top two runners would have placed about 20th, where they should have been, instead of in the 50s. Bad races happen. They're both back this year so I do think they have an even better chance of success. Colorado appears to be decimated and rebuilding (never count them out though), and Stanford lost a couple women and may be complacent. Look out for Arkansas too (and next year: Arkansas and Princeton).

Shay is now a stormin' Mormon:

http://www.runnercard.com/runner/data/512/1153/result/Mens_4_Mile.htm

apparently 3 years of Joe Shay was enough for Drenth.

MSU will be lucky to be much better than 7th in the region this year.

GVSU ran well for a"DIVISION 2" team, but if you take the "Division 2" conversion they actually lost the meet. I mean according to some of the idiots out there who think lower division schools cant run with D1 teams. :) and there is some kind of difference, when its still just a race and anything can happen

or maybe shay got worn out of drenth?

weird how shay is running great now don't you think?

I like Stephan Shay too, but he does seem to run best at the beginning of the season, rather than toward the end.

Michigan State doesn't seem to have the team they need to be competitive in the Big Ten or the region, and they're desperately seeking a potent First Man, but I'm hoping they're building toward something good for the next several years. I certainly remember the Jim Gibbard era. Walt Drenth could be the best XC coach MSU has ever had.

Word from Spartan camp is that Rita is the real backbone to BOTH MSU cc teams. Even the men's team prefers Rita's personality and knowledge to Drenth's.

I've seen Rita coaching the women, and no doubt she knows what she's doing. People sometimes give her short shrift because she's so pretty, but she also seems smart and teaches her runners how to be tough.

Sounds familiar. Most of Drenth's individuals/teams run best before the end of the season.

Drenth is without a doubt the best coach MSU has ever had. He may be somewhat gruff, but his kids love him and he gets everything out of the talent that he does have. Remember, they finished 17th at nationals last year with Shay having a crappy race. It's not like that team was rolling in talent. Rita knows what she is doing, and is improving as a coach, but the kids respond to Drenth, no doubt about it.

As far as Shay, if you knew Joe Shay, you'd know he is nothing short of the epitome of an overbearing little league parent who never grew out of it. Definitely the patriarch of a great running family, but has been a problem for the coaches wherever his children have been. Most of the MSU guys wish Stephan nothing but the best, but is Joe continues his pattern of behavior, Coach Eyestone is going to be reaching for some advil.

I don't know if I would say he is the best MSU coach ever.

MSU used to have the record for most NCAA cross country titles based on the teams from the 50's and 60's. There were a couple of decent coaches before Gibbard.