NCAA DIV 1 X COUNTRY PREDICTIONS

1. Colorado

2. Wisconsin

3. Oregon

4. Iona

5. UTEP

6. NAU

7. Stanford

8. Virginia

9. Arkansas

10. Oklahoma State

11. Texas

12. Minnesota

13. NC State

14. Cal

15. Louisville

Individuals:

1. Lomong

2. Vaughn

3. Mcdougal

4. Curtis

5. Rupp

1. Josh McDougal (Liberty)

2. Lopez Lomong (NAU)

3. Matt Withrow (Wisconsin)

4. Jacob Korir (EK)

5. Bobby Curtis (Villanova)

6. Galen Rupp (Oregon)

7. Brent Vaughn (Colorado)

8. Emmanuel Bor (Alabama)

9. Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott (Oregon)

10. Stephen Samoei (UTEP)

1. Oregon

2. UTEP

3. Northern Arizona

4. Wisconsin

5. Iona

6. Colorado

7. Arkansas

8. Stanford

9. Oklahoma State

10. NC State

1.Iona

2.Oregon

3.Colorado

4.UTEP

5.Wisconsin

1. Jacob Korir (EKU)

2. Josh McDougal (Liberty)

3. Lopez Lomong (NAU)

4. Galen Rupp (OU)

5. Bobby Curtis (Nova)

6. Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott (OU)

7. Matt Withrow (Wisc.)

8. Emmanuel Bor (Ala.)

9. Wesley Korir (UL)

10. Brent Vaughn (CU)

1. OU

2. UTEP

3. NAU

4. Iona

5. CU

6. Wisc.

7. UVA

8. Ala.

9.Ark.

10. NCST

NAU

Wisco

Oregon

UTEP

Colorado

Lomong

McDougal

BUFFS in both divisions...

The top six teams could each win it, the next four could be on the podium but are not good enough in a year with so many good teams (they are not all going to have a bad day). If Alabama does something about #5 (and 4?), they would be a contender for a podium but that is always a constraint.I might rank Rupp higher than 6th, but you have him there and also have OU winning. Colorado might get another into the top ten, as might NAU and UTEP (and Eagon might be up there given another three weeks).

alright so it seems like no1 is giving lopez lamong enough respect or shad daddy at oregon....oregon as a team truly seems unbeatable...iona and utep will crumple down the stretch like always and the power houses such as colorado and wisconsin will rise to the top once again...the cinderella team is NAU they have there shit together with their 1-2 punch look for them to turn heads at nationals....here are my pics

individuals

1.lopez lamong(untouchable)

2.winthrow

3.shadrack

4.rupp

5.bobby curtis

6.mcdougal

7.jeremy johnson (UNM)

8.samoi(utep)

9.brent vaughn

10.jacob korir

Teams

1.oregon

2.colorado

3.NAU

4.wisconsin

5.utep

6.iona

And look for the mountain region to kick serious ass that is by far the best region in the country..

irun wrote:

1. Matt Withrow

2. Josh McDougal (Liberty)

3. Lopez Lomong

4. Jacob Korir (EK)

5. Bobby Curtis (Villanova)

6. Galen Rupp (Oregon)

7. Brent Vaughn (Colorado)

8. Emmanuel Bor (Alabama)

9. Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott (Oregon)

10. Stephen Samoei (UTEP)

I edited your post and put Withrow to #1, because I'm sure that's what you meant.

Galen and the Ducks

Da badgers

Colorado

Iona

Lopez and friends

Arkansas

stanford

The (Diamond) Miners

OU = Oklahoma . . . UO = Oregon

Lomong, McDougal, Rupp, Kiptoo-Biwott, Withrow, Curtis, Vaughn, Korir, Korir could all be in a lead pack which would be epic and up for grabs. Unless Lopez isn't in contention near the finish, he has the best closing speed. Many others to throw in the mix at the front as well...

I like the first posters but I changed a few:

1. Colorado

2. Wisconsin

3. Oregon

4. NAU

5. UTEP

6. Iona

7. Stanford

8. Virginia

9. Arkansas

10. Oklahoma State

11. Texas

12. Minnesota

13. NC State

14. Cal

15. Louisville

Individuals:

1. Lomong

2. Mcdougal

3. Vaughn

4. Curtis

5. Rupp

But if the course is a mess then colorado wins hands down and I think vaughn takes it.

Girls I'd say:

1.stanford

1. colorado

then dont really care about who's after

Its gonna be close this year.

Individual:

1. jenny baringer

2. salley kipyego

3. Brie fendelgle(sp?)

4. diane nukeri(sp?)

Mens Teams

1. Colorado

2. Oregon

3. Iona

4. NAU

5. Wisconsin

6. UTEP

7. Stanford

Mens Individuals

1. Rupp

2. Withrow

3. Vaughn

4. Lomong

5. McDougal

6. Korir

7. Curtis

8. Pifer

Arkansas will shock all of you! Can't believe you guys are forgetting about this powerhouse!!

1. Ducks

2. NAU

3. Badgers

4. Hogs

5. Buffs

GO HOGS!!

I am not certain that Lomong has a better finish than Withrow does. I have not seen anyone pass him at the end of the race and have seen him move up often. Apparently he was second coming into the finish and ended up winning by 3 seconds. I still do not know for sure what he has, as he has won all of his races and might not have been really pushed, or maybe he was just able to catch Mead. One thing is for sure, Mead is one heck of a freshman.

is the meet usually televised? and if so who televises it

each year i think i learn a little more about what it takes to do well at nationals. let's analyze it a little.

you have runners who race 8k all season (4-5 mile races) and then for the last two, most important(arguable?) meets of the season, which are separated by 2 weeks, they race 10k (6.2 mile race). so they have to maintain a high level of strength the whole time, because the races at the end are going to require a little more strength and endurance, plus they'll be tougher, so a big factor i think is what teams have put in the best base training from the summer to early fall. that's criteria one. the other criteria is how well they are prepared within the season for that race. obviously the best coaches know how to do this best, and schumacher, lannana, wetmore, and mcdonnell come to mind. so teams like utep, iona, oklahoma st, may show some impressive performances for a race or two in the middle of the season, but the real question is do they have the background work to be able to not only sustain their physical strength and endurance at the end, but be able to up it a little bit despite their bodies being slightly more tired toward the end of the season. josh mcdougal lives, eats, breaths, and sleeps high mileage, and it has shown, although not last year for reasons unknown to me, but perhaps it had something to do with jimmerson coaching over him a bit and introducing some new elements to his training(?).

i think that wherever colorado and oregon are right now as they stand physically and physiologically in shape, they'll be able to step it up a knotch(a bigger knotch than the other top teams) at nationals. i'm not saying they'll win, but they'll be able to step it up from wherever they are now much more than others, even at the longer distance and with tougher competition.

a lot of unpredictability comes with runners 3-7 i think, and sometimes the top runners(like last year's solinsky, mcdougal), but those runners are usually in those positions because they don't have the strength other runners do, so what do you think is going to happen to them when they need to race 2 10k races 2 weeks apart at the height of their shape? some smart coaches, who have the ability can afford to substitute some runners while keeping others in their top 7 and still make their way to nationals.

bottom line, i know a lot of this sounds obvious and a lot of it you already know or have thought about, but i deffinately expect colorado to be up there competing, but i am not sure of how utep, iona, nau do at the end of the season, because a lot of it is a reflection of their base from the beginning, and how they've prepared specifically for that race. iona did well last year, but i wouldn't say they did anything that wasn't already predicted by many they would do. and utep and nau weren't able to race a full squad last year, but they have been able to beat a bunch of teams on the nationals course this year, so they have a pretty good race experience in their back pockets going into regionals and nationals.

i agree with the poster who said that the top 3-5 teams can win it, and the next 3-5 teams could be on the podium. personally, i think these kinds of seasons are a bit more interesting than one team dominating the whole season and more than likely is expected to win it, which in this years case some might say would be oregon, but i don't know how those kenyans at utep peak for the 10k at the end of a season. unfortunately, i would have to rule out wisconsin for the crown, simply because unless they have a stellar team, colorado is sure to beat them out. i don't know why i ranked wisconsin over colorado to begin with, so i would change my ranking to this:

1. oregon - lannana

2. utep - kenya

3. iona - better 1-4 runners

4. nau - good 1-4 runners

5. colorado - don't have the 4th, 5th man to make it higher

6. wisconsin - still kind of young, next year will be better

i also think that because iona ran so well at last year's natinoals, they have the better experience and confidence going into this years nationals(assuming they get there), which is why i am ranking them over nau. i could see colorado going as high as 2nd, but diego mercado, carlos trujillo, kenny klotz, daniel mercado, and whoever might be filling in the ducks' 3-6 spots will need to be on their game that day, and lannana will probably make sure that happens.

and then so much always does happen come race day. last year solinsky and mcdougal finished way back, iona solidified themselves as a national powerhouse, and the stanford boys realized they might be able to learn something from their girls team.

- p.s. utep did have a slow start to the season, if you remember, they finished 6TH at the dellinger invite. i wonder if anything could be extracted from that, as in, maybe they'll be peak better later in the season. ?? i dont know.

tigranya wrote:

Arkansas will shock all of you! Can't believe you guys are forgetting about this powerhouse!!

1. Ducks

2. NAU

3. Badgers

4. Hogs

5. Buffs

GO HOGS!!

Sorry but the hogs really havent done anything to deserve to be in the top 5 especially over colorado. Honeslty arkasas's best years are behind them and they just dont have the caliber that they've had in the past. Especially this year, they have a bunch of unknowns and are missing some key guys like cormier and strang. They will be lucky to even finish in the top 10.

Nice post, more response later. Here are the new rankings. Not a lot of surprises, with minor adjustments, most notable being that Wisconsin Fr/So ran tighter and higher up and so they moved back up some, while Michigan and Notre Dame both fell a bunch (Michigan was going to beat Wisconsin, but ended up 5th?).

1. Oregon (13) 390 1

2. N Arizona U 367 2

3. UT El Paso 362 3

4. Wisconsin. 345 6

4. Iona......... 345 4

6. Colorado.. 336 5

7. Arkansas. 301 8-tie

8. Stanford... 295 15

9. Virginia... 284 11

10. California 259 8-tie

11. North C St 255 7

12. Okla State 245 18

13. Louisville 226 19-tie

14. Georgetown 200 16

15. Minnesota 188 22

16. Univ Texas 176 14

17. Alabama... 164 12

18. Providence 147 23

18. Tulsa...... 147 17

20. Portland. 145 21

21. UCLA.... 136 19-tie

22. Notre Dame 132 13

23. Michigan... 110 10

24. U. Florida 108 30

25. William&M 67 28

26. BYUniv.... 61 26

27. Arizona St 56 25

28. CalPolySLO 47 27

29. Princeton 29 NR

30. Ohio State 27 NR

Also receiving votes: Iowa State 25, Weber State 23, Florida State 10, Syracuse 10, Villanova 6, Indiana 2, Texas A&M 1.