OAC Track 2012

The problem at Otterbein is that they replaced a 60 something year old coach with charisma that the team loved with a 60 something year old coach with no charisma that the team at best is luke warm towards.

Strong performances from the throwers from Mount and BW. Those were entertaining events to watch and those guys will represent well at NCAAs!

It is only going to get worse at the 'bein before it gets better.

Great. A coach with knowledge like Dave Lehman versus a recruiting guru like Dougie. Doug knew absolutely NOTHING about track as he came in from Earlham College as an assistant football and head baseball coach with NO track background at all. Doug may have been loved and he won, but it really irked me about what he did not know about track and the way he would just blow up like he was in an umpire's face. Winning was fun - no doubt. But having a knowledgeable coach is more intriguing.

No one cares how terrible Otterbein's coach is. We get it. Alumni don't like him & they are terrible. Otterbein has been bad the past 10 years. Stop posting about how terrible your terrible D3 school is. No one cares.

Yeah lets dump the otterbein talk until they do something (except for their long jump girl). There are so many other things to talk about with this conference. Like how almost every conference champion is going to nationals or is really close.

Clearly the recruiting guru situation worked out a whole lot better for Otterbein. It actually brings up an interesting topic. How many good teams are coached by people they don't care for? Do the Mount athletes really love Lucas? Is Maus super popular in Ada?

OAC Meet had some really impressive results given the weather. Looking at NCAA qualifiers for women from the long jump, triple jump, javelin, hammer, shot, disc, 4x100, 100,200,400, IM, 100h and 4 x 400, 1500, 5k and 10k. Pretty impressive.

For the men, there seems to be qualifiers in the HJ, LJ, TJ, looks like at least 4 in all the throws minus javelin, the IM, 110HH, 10k, 1500.

Really strong conference this year.

And maybe Capster Josh Woods will remember how to run 21.51 like he did 2 years ago and long jump well over 23 feet as he should be doing by now. What's going on at Cap with all their NCAA qualifiers that are still in school from the last two years? Seabrook ran 55.89 last year and she didn't even run the open at the OAC meet. Emily Sheets in the high jump and discus - she was field athlete of the year last year at the OAC meet and did squat this year. I think Goerig and Trump graduated. Except for maybe injuries, how come these kids are not reaching their potential this year with a new coach from D1? The teams aren't great (4th and 10th), but they always have a few NCAA qualifiers each year.

Thoughts on the distance events:

Muller ran a smart 5k and did just what he needed to beat Dan Smith. It looked like it was just a steadily increasing push from over a mile out. Those two were obviously head and shoulders above the competition.

In the 10k Jake Smith moved pretty hard in the last couple laps. People seemed to think he had miscounted when he started sprinting with 2 laps to go. But if he did, he held it together pretty well.

ONU was impressive in the 1500 and 800. 1, 2, 3 in the 800. Before that, it looked like they might manage the 1, 2, 3 in the 1500, but Johnson struggled on the homestretch and faded back a few spots. Still a very strong showing.

Simmons ran a good steeple for the win. Still needs to drop some time to make nationals. Impressive that ONU got the second spot too.

By far the most disapointing thing about Capital is their 800m girl. She came in and ran in the 2:1X's as a frosh and just never got any better. It seems like she could've/should've been an All American and just couldn't make that leap for whatever reason.

I see a few disapointing things from the recent OAC Championship meets. First Otterbein yes has fallen far from the top of the heap in the conference and it is a shame with where they are located and facilities they should be much better than they are right now. The otters use to be a top program in the conference. Second I think, even though they are still top 3 in the conferece is ONU is no longer a complete team. Yes distance is outstanding but since the previous 3 coaches have left Maus has turned it into a completely distance and mid distance oriented team. Northern use to score big in field and sprints now just a handful of points. Big upswings would have to be Wilmington and Muskingum, looks like both those teams are on the upswing.