Atlantic Region XC 2008

Cartwright was injured last year and has had a history of injury problems so it wouldnt surprise me if he's not running this season.

From what I've heard they run their athletes into the ground at Brockport during XC anyways and it's probably caught up to Cartwright.

Beck at Fredonia was a hell of a pick-up for the Blue Devils. It's about time someone gave him a chance at coaching. I think he's gonna do some great things for them there and he inherited a young and talented team already. Look for Fredonia to be contending for top 3 if they stay healthy and SUNYAC's and maybe in a few years putting their name up there with Cortland and Geneseo.

Anyone know what's up with Oswego? They've had 3 different XC coaches in the last three seasons? Too much hockey up there and no time for any other sports or what?

Notice the pace of the geneseo group on the long course. Someone said "not so good" but its the second weekend in september...?? They are fine. Tons of depth and expectedly training through the meet.

Why would they run at Brockport? a 5k with no competition compared to them. They'd probably sweep Fredonia and go 2 - 6 there. This whole board is retarded thus far.

Cortland, Geneseo, SLU then TCNJ for top 4 - five teams will not qualify this year.

Wow... only 4 teams qualifying and NYU is not among them. I know they're not as strong as last year, but if only 4 teams go, NYU will be one of them. If NYU finished 5th at regionals, we might end up getting 5 teams.

yech wrote:

Wow... only 4 teams qualifying and NYU is not among them. I know they're not as strong as last year, but if only 4 teams go, NYU will be one of them. If NYU finished 5th at regionals, we might end up getting 5 teams.

Good point(s)!

At this stage of the season, it's fair to have NYU ranked outside the top four: they've only run once, at 5km, and were dusted by a good-but-not-great Marist team (props to Marist, by the way--that program is making real progress). In fact, as mentioned above, someone had told me that the Violets won't even be running 8km until October.

BUT: I think yech's last sentence is probably correct. If NYU is a close fifth at Regionals, and also competitive at the Preview and against its five(!) ranked opponents at the UAA meet, it's really likely that the Atlantic Region will send five men's teams to Nationals.

run and gun wrote:

Look for Fredonia to be contending for top 3 if they stay healthy and SUNYAC's and maybe in a few years putting their name up there with Cortland and Geneseo.

Anyone know what's up with Oswego? They've had 3 different XC coaches in the last three seasons? Too much hockey up there and no time for any other sports or what?

Top 3 at SUNYAC's is possible but putting their name up with Cortland and Geneseo compared to the teams that Cortland and Geneseo have produced in the past is pretty bold to say.

If you're saying that the Cortland program will falter a bit in the future (next 3 years) and Fredonia may beat them that is more beleivable.

While the budgets may or may not be fair, an issue at Oswego continues to be lack of quality athletic facilities and upper-level support for anything besides the previously mentioned hockey programs. Boyce is now at Pacific University (Oregon), not Willamette.

I dont know about Fred going top 3 anytime soon just cuz Beck is their coach. He's a good runner but so was Swanson. He was there for a while and they never really did anything. Not saying Fred's not a good team I just dont think a different coach will make that big of a deal.

Top 5 @ SUNYACs

1. Cort

2. Gen

3. Brock/Platt

4. Brock/Platt

5. Fred

Oz wrote:

run and gun wrote:

Anyone know what's up with Oswego? They've had 3 different XC coaches in the last three seasons? Too much hockey up there and no time for any other sports or what?

. . .

This year, Andrew Hunsinger, who was the Asst. Coach last year, took over with no xc experience and is starting out with a new team with only 2 runners from last year returning.

although my time there was well spent, i have to say that most of the budget goes to hockey, regardless of what anybody else says.

Really interesting. Oswego's AD, I saw from their website, is Tim Hale--who coached URochester cross-country to a DIII national championship (and I think they were second by like one point another year). I'm sure he has to deal with the realities of Oswego's hockey emphasis, but it's hard to believe that he'd be unsympathetic to development of the xc/tf program.

Anybody know whether Andy Hunsinger (nice earrings in his photo!) is any relation to longtime Colgate coach Jan Hunsinger?

absolutely is a relation (son?) Jan is a very good friend of one Tim Hale.

I would'nt want a cross country coach that's a former fat sprinter... (he looks like Ronald McDonald)

jfakl;d wrote:

I dont know about Fred going top 3 anytime soon just cuz Beck is their coach. He's a good runner but so was Swanson. He was there for a while and they never really did anything. Not saying Fred's not a good team I just dont think a different coach will make that big of a deal.

Yeah man, he totally did squat. All these fools who think they'll do well are idiots because as apparently only you and me know 2 years ago means more than last year.

yes, Jan is Andrew's grandfather and I think he also worked at Oneonta with throws for a bit

Don't knock him unless you know him. He's a good guy, very outgoing and personable. He's a bit out of the ordinary but he absolutely loves everything about track and field and continues to be a student of running. Athletes like him and he has good relationships with them, knows how to handle them... point bank, he's a good coach, tons of knowledge acquired from Brett Wilmott and his own experience. Oh, and his assistant coach is a former SUNY NP xc/mid-distance guy who knows his stuff.

I meant Hunsinger, I know nothing at all about Oswego's former coach

Rowdy Ryan wrote:

Brockport will re-take the 3rd spot this year...no doubt

Well, it is obvious you run for Brockport so there is really no point in telling you that you are a moron for posting something like that with nothing to back it up. Not to mention after the way Plattsburg has been running (16:10 average for 5k as opposed to 16:42 for “port”) and the beating that Fredonia handed them.

I believe the same can be said about Plattsburgh Ryan. It isn't too smart for an unproven freshman to get on here and start making bold predictions. If 5k times mean nothing because we run an 8k, wouldn't those people who haven't run xc before have an even harder time running an 8k? Plattsburgh and Fredonia have some solid LD runners on their squads. Your squad is lead by a miler. Have you run on or seen the Plattsburgh course? That is a course with very bad footing. If you look back at when SUNYAC's was there, only 3-4 guys ran sub 26 for 8k, two of which were All-Americans.

Here is where he got the Plattsburgh times:

http://www.acs.brockport.edu/~mkrueger/Atlantic_CC/results/2008/plattsburgh_men_8.30.08.htm

1 St. Lawrence 24 2 3 4 7 8 9 13 16:04.8 0:24.3

2 Plattsburgh 33 1 5 6 10 11 12 14 16:07.6 0:48.9

I believe Brockport will be a competitive team, but I think Plattsburgh should and will beat them at SUNYAC's and by even more at regionals, Fredonia gets the nod over them as well, IMO.

But then again, who cares. Top 5 is what matters and its Cortland, Geneseo, SLU, NYU, TCNJ.

I'll give you most of your points, but once again, I don't think that the Plattsburgh course is as slow as you make it out to be. Also, I don't know where you got 3-4 sub-26 minute guys from since the results,

http://www.finishright.com/XC/XC%202004/SUNYAC%20XC%20CHAMPIONSHIPS.htm

(scroll down for the men), clearly show 9 were sub 26 minutes and 18 were sub 26:30, so I don't buy the "Plattsburgh is a slow course" bit. Since I ran the course that year, I can also attest to the fact that the footing was terrible during that race too with very muddy/slow trails.

Geneseo's top 5 averaged under 26 minutes there even. And for the record 3 were All-Americans, DeShane, Joslyn and Nally.

Compare times from SUNYACs in 2004 (at Brockport) and 2005 (at Plattsburgh). It's easy to see that the Brockport course was much slower. I hated that course.

I don't really have a point I guess. I'm just tired of hearing how slow the Plattsburgh course is, when I've run it and I know it's not slow. Ok, I'm done with it, sorry for the rant.

I agree with this. Like it or not Brockport's top man is a miler, not an LD guy, and most of the team remains yet unproven. At this point I think it is going to be close between Brockport, Plattsburgh and Fredonia. Like you say, those teams aren't even fighting for a top 5 spot, so who really cares?

Alright, so I guess I forgot how many guys went under 26 minutes in 2005. But I believe it is safe to say that the talent and competitiveness of the SUNYAC conference as a whole (other than just Geneseo) began in 2004 with Cortland's team trying to challenge Geneseo and then became even more so in 2005 with the addition of Nally, Little, Henry, the breakthrough of DeShane, Kolb and Forma. What I meant by 2 people were All-American was in that year. I know Nally is an AA, I'm not THAT clueless.

I as well ran Brockport and felt that it was a boring course, sure, but it was a lot of straight running and grass without any major hills to slow you down. I guess we will see how good everyone is in another week!