Final D II Rankings-Men

Some things that jump out at me:1. Harding beats Kennesaw and falls behind them in the rankings. Probably right as Hardings 5th might be lucky to crack the top 100.2. Based on the course photos on the nationals website, it doesn't look to be a strength course. I think that hurts guys like the two WSC runners, Rotich and Rugema. Probably helps Cordes and Joseph. If it's windy, that'll help even more! Not sure which category Kezes fits into. It could really help Kemboi, too, if he's healthy.3. Edinboro stays put at 10, hmm? Setting everyone up? Wouldn't put it past DW:-)4. Abilene and WSC are closer than they've ever been, and Abilene just might have the edge in experience.What have I missed?

My top ten predictions:

1. Western

2. Abilene

3. Chico

4. South Dakota State

5. Kennesaw

6. Adams

7. Grand Valley State

8. Fort Hays State

9. UMass- Lowell

10. Edinboro

you guys severly underestimate Lowell, granted their region is weak and all but theyre having a great year.

methinks MOSO deserves a little more love.

i made a mock nationals with course time conversions based on what ive seen and followed all season. here is what i came out with for my top 10. i didnt have southeast or east region results by the way.

1. abilene

2. western

3. chico

4. sd state

5. missouri southern

6. grand valley state

7. harding

8. adams

9. kennesaw

10. uc-davis

Chico won't beat sd state. There good but not that good. There region is weak so they always look good.

chico had a smaller 1-5 gap than sd state did and i dont think lowery can handle eggers. sd state can stay close 1-3, but chicos 4-5 runners pull it out.

regardless of how good North Central is , SDSU's 1-5 gap is still 1:37. That's a lot of guys at nats, especially this year when it appears the depth is as good as it's been for awhile. SDSU appears to have more depth up front, but that fifth might hurt 'em.

dont get me started about big gaps.

Eggers beat Lowery last year at nats. and was a few seconds behind Doe. Interesting. Should be a great battle up front and in the trenches! Nats will be an absolute dogfight this year (!) w/ a lot of really close teams duking it out for the title, the hardware, and the top 10.

Title: Western, Abilene

Hardware: SDSU, Adams St., Chico St., UM Lowell, Harding, UC Davis, Grand Valley, Central MO

Top 10: Truman, Edinboro, Hillsdale, Kennesaw, Ft. Hayes, UAA

whats with eberly and mcrae...did they go hard or no.

someone who saw it or knows tell me.

thanks

Mcrae went hard at 3miles and didn't get caught by eberly until 300m to go so it was a battle. I think it's interesting how in the last three races a different WSC guy has been number one. Makes for an interesting nationals I think. Adams is ranked lower than I thought they would even after their disgrace at regionals. Abilene and WSC will go head to head but I think it will be the 4th and 5th runners that will end up making the difference. We'll see, personally I can't wait to see what happens. My money is still on WSC because of their experience.

Western is my pick based on their amazing depth. Nine runners in front of Colorado's number five; Seven runners All-RMAC, Seven runners All-Regional. To match the depth they have three of the top returners from last year's national meet in Josh Eberly, Chris Siemers, and Paul McRay. All three could win the national title on the right day. Abiline is tough, but the lack of depth will hurt them at the National meet. It will be a close race with South Dakota State, Adams, and Chico battling for the next spots. My pick for national champ is a toss-up between Chris Siemers and Josh Eberly.

I think Hillsdale needs to be considered better than Grand Valley at Nationals...They have been there before....GVSU hasnt plus Hillsdale has a legitamate top runner in larson, where as who knows what happened to Rogers....

how can ou say hillsdale has a better chacne when they have not beat GV at all in any meet this year..Larson is legit and best of luck to him, the hillsdale guys are great and i hope they represent the region well, BUT, GV was only a couple seconds away from putting their 5 and 6 (19th, 21st) in front of hillsdales 2 and 3(17th and 18th) and who cares if they have been there before, how many of the guys on that team where on the team last time they made it?....as far as anything else, not everyone is tops every day, all out efforts at regionals only matter if you are no going to the next one....go great lakes region