Bad News for Oregon

Tell it like it is wrote:

Well even if you imagine that Luke and Lukas go 1 2 in the race and you imagine that Chad Noelle ran in an Oregon uniform as opposed to unattached. Oregon still loses 34-37.

Losing by three points to potentially the best team in the country is pretty good by my standards.

Sure they probably won't win nationals but they should be top 10 definitely. Might be a slight rebuilding year but nothing too serious.

I think you forgot that Mac Fleet didn't run either. With all the young freshmen, don't you think Oregon will be pretty much on par with Wisco by the year-end? If that is the case, Oregon is pretty damn good this year. No bad news here.

They will be a top 10 team at Nationals. Lananna also made it clear that they are focusing on outdoor track Nationals and the Olypmpic Trials.

How is losing 34-37 to arguably the best team in the country a bad thing? Seems legit to me for a team that is "young and rebuilding." Luke, Lukas, and Mac Fleet will greatly help this team. Parker Stinson seems to have made great strides and ran right with the Wisconsin All-Americans.

I can see this team having 3-4 All-Americans at NCAA's and that would put them right in the thick of things. This team is better than Lananna is letting on. He'd love to downplay everything and then come out of nowhere to get a trophy.

Seriously, these guys are good...Maybe the best distance recruiting class of all time plus Pusky, Stinson, and Shrader? Yeah, they're not super deep, but they'll put a very solid 7 out there when they choose to do so. Lananna trying to play the underdog is weak and pathetic, but who can blame him!

yeah...um wrote:

Tell it like it is wrote:

Well even if you imagine that Luke and Lukas go 1 2 in the race and you imagine that Chad Noelle ran in an Oregon uniform as opposed to unattached. Oregon still loses 34-37.

Losing by three points to potentially the best team in the country is pretty good by my standards.

Sure they probably won't win nationals but they should be top 10 definitely. Might be a slight rebuilding year but nothing too serious.

True, but... would Wisconsin continued to have their 1-4 guys run behind their #5 guy and have the #5 guy wait until the very end? I doubt that LV will beat all of the Wisconsin top 5, and it seems likely that he will not beat any of their top 4, and certainly would have been less likely to do so this early in his re-building phase. No, Vin and Mick both realize that the Dellinger race is not a face off between foes but a race opportunity that is part of the development of the squad. That is why Wisconsin ran the guys that they did this year and the different make up last year when the Wisconsin adidas Invite was two weeks earlier.

This week Vin and company needed to know who was developing for the 3-7 slots, while Mick wanted to see what running a version of a top team would yield. It worked OK for both as Vin got a pretty good performance from a couple of guys.

Finally, why is Mac Fleet better than, say, Parker when the distance is 8k/10k not 1500m?

Pump yer brakes people, Oregon THIS YEAR is not in the company of Wisco. Losing 34-37 in a PERFECT case senario for oregon does not put you as equal teams. People are forgetting 1) Wisco did ALL the work and just finished comfortably(pretty much a 90-95% type effort) minus #5 connor who went after hall at the end while Stintson was all out. 2) MOST importantly, the time gaps. Shrader/top freshman were 40sec off the lead pack- not much points in a dual but the world of a diff at the big dance. 3) Luke and Lucas are studs, but I would say they are in equal company as wisco's top4, maybe a hair behind(lukes injury/lukas just a FR). either way i wouldnt bank on them both besting all 5 badgers.

This said Oregon is still a top 10 and quite possibly a top 5 team

"This said Oregon is still a top 10 and quite possibly a top 5 team"

Yeah, I think 99% of Division I XC teams in the US would take this as their bottom line...

Alan Arkin wrote:

"This said Oregon is still a top 10 and quite possibly a top 5 team"

Yeah, I think 99% of Division I XC teams in the US would take this as their bottom line...

Right. More like 15 teams tops TOPS out of about 280. Cross Country is a very predictable sport. About 4 teams in a typical year have a realistic chance to win. About 10-15 have a chance for top 5 and about 20 have a chance for top 10. Another 50 have a chance to qualify. And about 200, well I don't know what they do about team goals. Probably finish top half of their conference.

I should change that to about 50 teams in the nation have a realistic chance to qualify for Nationals, and only 3-5 per year have any hope to win. Usually by the time the race rolls around it's down to 2-3.

Honestly guys I don't see how anybody's beating stanford this year.