DIII New England XC 2012

dem lordy jeffs wrote:

Amherst. come on, son.

worst coached team in the region. nedeau takes dedicated, talented runners and runs them into the ground. works for monsters like murner and yochum, does not work for the average nescac runner

Ok so now that the pre-season is over and the same 5 teams everyone knew were going to Nationals are going, who from New England is gonna come ready to play for the real race?

I say Tufts a lock for top 3, but can't see any other NE team in the Top 10, as those teams clearly peaked a week early.

Medford Maniacs wrote:

Ok so now that the pre-season is over and the same 5 teams everyone knew were going to Nationals are going, who from New England is gonna come ready to play for the real race?

I say Tufts a lock for top 3, but can't see any other NE team in the Top 10, as those teams clearly peaked a week early.

i could see all 5 teams placing top 15, with midd bowdoin and bates being locks for top 12, and any one of them could be top 5 on their best day. williams probably doesn't have the depth to place top 10 this year, but lee could definitely get AA and that will help. tufts is the anomaly right now. they clearly have the potential for a podium finish, but they looked pretty awful all the way through yesterday. maybe they peaked at nescacs, maybe they will peak next week.

Medford Maniacs wrote:

Ok so now that the pre-season is over and the same 5 teams everyone knew were going to Nationals are going, who from New England is gonna come ready to play for the real race?

I say Tufts a lock for top 3, but can't see any other NE team in the Top 10, as those teams clearly peaked a week early.

Or maybe Tufts peaked three weeks early?

I think Midd, Bates, and Tufts have the tightest packs that will help them out the most in the deeper field. It could obviously go any way between the NE teams. I'm mostly curious as to whether people think any individuals will step it up next week who were off at regionals.

A few thoughts about Regionals yesterday.

1) Congratulations to Middlebury. They were the quiet hunters out there yesterday. No talk, just business.

2) Where will Horowitz finish at Nats?

3) Tufts with a swing and miss. That was one of the bigger chokes of late. No surprise that it's Tufts who did it.

4) MIT choked as well. They weren't going to Nats, but that was an ugly race.

5) Two teams with two individuals going left little room for other teams to get some love.

6) Who will the top individuals be from NE at Nationals, and where will they finish?

Tufts once again showed their superior planning and team management this weekend. Much like an experienced racquetball player who has already qualified for the final playoff rounds, tufts used tasteful misdirection to keep the entire New England region in the dark. You would think Marks fading over the last few miles and finishing out of all region would be a sign of a burned out and potentially broken runner, right? NO you would be an idiot, incapable of admissions to The Tufts University (the top school actually in Boston, Harvard is in Cambridge). In reality what none of the other schools could see was Marks quietly laughing at each runner passing him, knowing that they have been lulled into a sense of false security.

It was clear that rather than a team who has peaked too early, tufts is once again proving it's mastery of the art of subterfuge.

My enlightened opinion:

Tufts has 4 all americans and beats Haverford finishing 2nd to North Central losing on the tie breaker (Tyler Andrews is detained for questionable facial hair in the Indianapolis Airport)

This had never occurred to me... due to our multiple campuses, Tufts IS arguably the top school in Boston (not to mention Medford, Somerville, Grafton, and Talloires)

Regionals was incredibly close, don't think any team separated themselves from the others. Tufts had been up front for most of the season but fell back Saturday. Midd stepped up. Hard to predict where the teams will finish in relation to each other next Saturday. All should finish top 15, one should podium. Can't see the podium team being Williams or Bowdoin due to depth problems but can see any of the other three finishing up there.

Individuals predictions:

Top 10: Horowitz and Rand. Could see Horowitz second.

Top 20: Davies and Seekins.

Top 35: Leduc, Lee, and Wallis/Marsh/Cummins

Miss Scarlett, in the library. wrote:

A few thoughts about Regionals yesterday.

1) Congratulations to Middlebury. They were the quiet hunters out there yesterday. No talk, just business.

2) Where will Horowitz finish at Nats?

3) Tufts with a swing and miss. That was one of the bigger chokes of late. No surprise that it's Tufts who did it.

4) MIT choked as well. They weren't going to Nats, but that was an ugly race.

5) Two teams with two individuals going left little room for other teams to get some love.

6) Who will the top individuals be from NE at Nationals, and where will they finish?

1) I've always liked Middlebury. Schmidt was the embodiment of their work ethic. Congrats to them.

2) Horowitz will finish second. He's dominant in New England.

3) Yep. Bad race by Tufts. Don't be surprised when they bounce back next week though.

4) MIT seems to have a history of performing better at their conference championship meet than at Regionals, save the recent year they won.

5) Actually it's three teams each with two individuals going. The region was absurdly top heavy this year.

6) Obviously Horowitz. Davies might also go top-10. I think anyone who finished in the top-10 at Regionals has a shot at All-American.

7) I'll add a thought. It's interesting how Springfield even outperformed their own fanboys' expectations. Still couldn't dance with the big boys though.

Middlebury will crash and burn at Nationals. They have been riding a high for too long. Bates will strike once again and be 5th. Tufts finished 5th at Regionals and then 9th at Nationals in 2011. They will be in the top 10 once again.

mit and amherst were both nationally ranked going into the race. what a joke.

I think we will see top 15 if not top 10 performances from all five NE schools. The scores were so close; I had never seen something like that before. Compared to previous regionals this was a great one for Tufts. 6 days to kick off the rust and I think they'll be fighting midd and bates for a possible podium spot. Weak #5 runners for Williams and Bowdoin will hurt at nationals

assfs wrote:

I think we will see top 15 if not top 10 performances from all five NE schools. The scores were so close; I had never seen something like that before. Compared to previous regionals this was a great one for Tufts. 6 days to kick off the rust and I think they'll be fighting midd and bates for a possible podium spot. Weak #5 runners for Williams and Bowdoin will hurt at nationals

No WAY all 5 teams are top 10. NE is good, but 1 team will have a bad race, almost guaranteed. Also, I don't see any NE team making the top 4. Haverfod, Calvin, NCC are just too good. Midd Tufts and Bates have the best shot, but all of them have just "ok" 5th men. Yes they are really good teams, and all 3 have a chance to finish in the top 10, but I think a podium finish is a little bit of a stretch.

The beaver: nature's engineer! wrote:

Also, I don't see any NE team making the top 4. Haverfod, Calvin, NCC are just too good.

1+1+1=3!

counting wrote:

The beaver: nature's engineer! wrote:

Also, I don't see any NE team making the top 4. Haverfod, Calvin, NCC are just too good.

1+1+1=3!

Wait, let me check.

Yeah, I got that too.

I don't eat raisin bran.

1.) Yep. Congrats to Middlebury. And congratulations to the '91-94 Buffalo Bills while we're at it

2.) Horowitz looked good, I can see him being in the top 20.

3.) Hard to say Tufts choked. Obviously we're used to seeing Tufts win, but no use blowing your load to early. Look at your past few Super Bowl champions. All wild card teams that were smart enough to do just enough to make the playoffs and save their energy for when it really mattered.

4.) If you want to talk about choke jobs, MIT is where it's at. Why do they seemingly always peak for their conference meet? We get it, you win the NEWMAC, congratulations. Did you really need to peak to beat Clark? Even the Springfield kids could do the math and figure out Regionals was more important than NEWMACs

5.) Yep. Pretty funny seeing the Lyndon State kid thinking he could just run away from the region then crashing and burning. Guess someone has never ran against real NESCAC competition.

6.)I think the top individuals will be Rand, Horowitz, and Davies, in order. Likely in the 5-15th range

7.) It wasn't so much that Springfield outpreformed their fanboys expectations as it was that the even the Springfield fanboys couldn't see the humiliating collapses of MIT and Amherst. Sure they were 1 spot out of nationals but they were 70 points behind, clearly can't hang with the big dogs. However, I look forward to watching them battle it out with Trinity for 30th place next year.

How in God's name did Trinity go from a national qualifying team to 30th in the region in like 6 years?

I wasn't at the race, but coming in 9th after leading isn't exactly crashing and burning.