University that SHOULD have successful XC programs

Kenyon College! Sorry too easy.

Colorado State men (women are competitive). Great college town, good pool of high school runners in the state to draw from, plus the altitude and mild weather should be an incentive for out-of-state recruits.

I will also add that I think Berryhill will make big strides with the men in the upcoming years. The women are doing well, so there is no reason to think the men's program won't be competitive in the near future.

university of texas at austin, they have to do better than 7th...

UNC-Asheville

good school. wonderful area to train in.

UMass-Amherst should be much better than they are. D1 school, huge student body, affordable school with good academics, great area to train, yet has lots of trouble competing with NESCAC/Ivy League/Out of region schools for the New England high school talent.

James Madison University.

Harvard. There not entirely awful, but what recruit wouldn't want to go to Harvard? Also, Boston is a great place to train. I'm sure high academic standards have something to do with it, but look at Stanford, Dartmouth (especially back in the day), & Princeton.

Ohio State women.

UVM. they got a good amount of money, a ton on the womens side and you can't ask for a much better place to train and they are really horrible.

UMASS' program has been poorly funded over the last decade. In fact, there had been talk of dropping the track program. However, the team is showing signs of improving.

a successful X-C program has nothing to do with the name of the university or how big it is, other than the ability to offer scholarships. It all boils down to the COACH and the runners he/she can bring in and turn into successful runners, which then, attract more successful runners.

yes, you hit the nail on the head. many smaller, no name schools through the years have put out better distance runners and X-C squads than many D-1 schools.

Penn State SHOULD.. although we've been getting some pretty good recruits.

mountains wrote:

Colorado State men (women are competitive). Great college town, good pool of high school runners in the state to draw from, plus the altitude and mild weather should be an incentive for out-of-state recruits.

I will also add that I think Berryhill will make big strides with the men in the upcoming years. The women are doing well, so there is no reason to think the men's program won't be competitive in the near future.

What is funny is that when I saw the title of the thread I first thought CSU. But one of the problems was under Hessel (sp?) the program thought that they were already a top notch program. He told me that I wouldn't have made the team if I tried to walk on (9:50 Colorado boy in High school).

I think that your 2nd statement is accurate. I think that they are still suffering from Hessel's reign, and that Berryhill understands that they are not a top notch program and need to build up. I know that they are getting two transfers that (at least one) should make an impact next year.

Florida

Davidson should be able to dominate schools like Georgetown in CC.

Western Guy wrote:

future.

What is funny is that when I saw the title of the thread I first thought CSU. But one of the problems was under Hessel (sp?) the program thought that they were already a top notch program. He told me that I wouldn't have made the team if I tried to walk on (9:50 Colorado boy in High school).

I am an old guy now, but what you say has a familiar sound. I went to a NAIA (now D2) school in the 70s that took in guys like you and turned them into 24:10, 8k X-C all americans and 14:10-14:15 5k guys and 3:45-3:55 1500m guys in track. Our whole midwest area was filled with d2 and NAIA schools who had runners doing much better than many of the D1 distance programs in the area. You succeed there at Western and run faster than alot of the high school stud-college flops there at Colorado State and beat them at some of the invitational in X-C and track and that will be your best revenge. That's what I and many others in my area did.

san diego state

Too stupid given that they are D3