2012 MAC Cross Country

Can anyone challenge EMU now that Tec Adams is gone for CMU? Can any of the women's teams hope to compete with Toledo?

After this weekend, anyone want to change their predictions?

Is Hough out for the season (hurt, sick, or just redshirting) or will he be racing in two weeks? That could change things for Akron. If he raced this weekend they would have beaten Buffalo.

Miami was the big winner this week. That Kenyan transfer is the real deal, I will be moving them way up in my rankings. They didn't run their 9:02 guy though. Is he sitting out this season?

Heller looked great in NY this weekend. Without Tec, I'd say he will be up there with Terefe. Kent's 3, 4, 5 will need to step up to contend for a spot in the top three though.

Stacks should be top 5 in the MAC and Drudge was 7th last year. If their 3-5 guys close that gap, they will be right with Miami. On paper, CMU's guys have better PRs but I think Miami's 3-5 were better this week.

Toledo didn't run the Kenyan at their season opener. If he runs like he did early in the season last year, they could surprise some people.

Buffalo was 3rd last year but they lost a bunch of guys from their top 5. They had a 30 second gap from 1-7 this weekend though. If they get a guy into the top 10, he could pull a group up with him.

Ohio didn't look very good at Penn State, but they should improve as the season goes on.

BG will improve with their new coach, but they have a long way to go still.

How did Miami land this Kenyan? Is Coach Mandrell finally on the hot seat to be competitive again at least in xc?

"This Kenyan" is Stephen Kiplagat, formerly of St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. He was 4th at D3 Nationals 2 years ago, 12th last year, but had eligibility remaining. He's at MU on an academic scholarship to work on his master's degree. Not a recruit in the common sense of the word -- cross country and track are secondary pursuits to Mr. Kiplagat.

They even were as an undergraduate. He frequently came into the xc season horribly out of shape (~27:00 8ks) and finished his jr year in 24:20 shape 2 months later. Super talented, but tended to disappear for extended periods for whatever reason at SLU. No real track credentials to speak of either, considering his talent level.

CMU EMU and WMU are not branch schools, do you even know anything about the MAC

moversandshakers wrote:

dumb question? wrote:

Have finished in the top 3 in conference each of the past 4 years, including 2 championships. You make it sound like they have fallen off tremendously. 3rd during a down year is better than most places during their best year.

They were on the verge in 2008 of becoming a national level program. They have dropped down to mediocre at best. At one point they had a tremendous amount of talent but now they are mentioned in the same sentences as branch schools (CMU, EMU, WMU). Nobody is saying they need to keep up with Toledo, but they should at least be on the verge of nationals or closer to Toledo in the MAC at least. Bring back Mrs. Gary!

bump

It was quire a day at Beaver Island State Park. It rained all of last night and the course was quite muddy (although not what it was 5 years ago) but slower times were expected. Terefe ran conservatively until he needed to separate and make his move. Central came to run as was expected, as did Miami. Akron was quite a surprise today. This was Hough's second race back and he seemed to be run very well. The rest of their guys, 2-5, had a 2 second split and were all in front of every other team's 4th man. It was a pretty impressive performance for them.

On the Women's side, Toledo was absolutely dominate. 24 points at any conference meet is quite impressive. Acurso looked very good as well.

Best of luck to all MAC runners at regionals in two weeks.

Like when Wisconsin's men went 1/2/3/4(or5)/6/7/8/9. The poor guy in 9th got beat by one man from another team and did not even get All-Big Ten Second Team. Wisconsin 16(or 17) Big Ten- 47(or 46). [Of course, there was always UTEP, but not all of those guys were legal.

Think Tec Adams regrets not trying in school now that it seems his team could've won conference w/ him running?

Way to go!

Thank you Tec. We appreciate it.

EMU will have to run better than this if tht want any kind of chance at NCAA bid.

Looking at the results, Toledo women ran 1 senior, 2 juniors, 5 sophomores and a freshman. Doesn't look like they plan on slowing down.