Montana State and New Mexico--Nationals??

Mt. St. is actually sitting pretty well. They have wins over weber and one from the SE. They should be on the board to get in early; however I think most of the great lakes will get in front of them. If they could get weber again at the conf. meet then they would earn another point...2 wins over weber plus the one over the SE.

New mex needs to be in front of either CSU Weber NAU to get pushed in.....if they are in front on Mt. State they might make it.....

again all is speculation, once the region rankings come out I will run a predicted NCAA at large selection based on rankings and let all know who gets in and at what position

The first thing that New Mexico has to do is show up to the race healthy. This did not happen on Saturday. Three of the top four out with injuries does not bode well for future results at regionals especially in a region with the depth that the Mountain has. New Mexico also must face the fact that maybe they are already peaked out. They ran extremely well at their home meet and at Stanford, and regionals is FOUR WEEKSAWAY! Maybe the current problems are the result of too many hard intervals too soon. Little nagging injuries and dropping out of races points to the downward side of a peak. Just the facts ma'am, just the facts.

A Mountain West Fan

does montana states win over weber carry as much weight cuz it was before pre nats?

i think, like many times in the past, that msu is gonna be on the wrong side of the bubble. At least Lyle Weese should have no prob getting in on an individual basis.

Montana State was 12th in the overall scores when the two prenats races were combined (see Mike Scott's analysis in XC Xpress, also posted on letsrun), so they are looking pretty good.

The way the system works is that teams MUST be selected by order of finish at regionals. The points are important only in deciding how many at larges go to each region. Based on how well the Mountain region did at prenats, they should probably get 4 at large teams for 6 total. (Recent points -- you only get points for wins over auto qualifiers -- are more valuable than old ones when the at larges are being allocated.) Which teams get those slots depends only on finish order at regionals, nothing else.

I don't believe that beating ranked teams from your own region helps you gain an at-large bid... unless you beat them at the regional meet, of course. As a result, Montana State's defeat of Weber early in the year means nothing more than a good race on that day. I may be wrong though...

Mt. State's win over weber in the eyes of the ncaa is a win. if they can get them at conf it would count as 2 wins.

the process is very simple. ranked teams mean nothing....it is only who you have beaten that is selected into the meet. There is no subjectivity in the process.