Official Biggest Positive Surprises From 2012 NCAA XC Regionals - Thread

That Aleyew Taye actually finished a race in a Georgetown uniform.

Biff Wellington wrote:

This is just the first race they've started to put it together.

Hence the surprise.

Harvard women

Paul Simonize wrote:

That Aleyew Taye actually finished a race in a Georgetown uniform.

The biggest surprise is that he's still in college

Georgia's men and women both qualifying. When did Georgia become this good? Also, anyone know if there's any chance Moussa runs for CU at nationals?

Futsum baby. Didn't expect him to be this good this fast.

Two Utah Valley University boys placing 11th and 16th at the mountain Regional. Neither were mentioned in Kellogg's "amazingly accurate regional predictions". The 11th placer was a 4:40 hs miler and the 16th placer was a 9:50 hs 2 miler. They ran 30:21 and 30:31 up in Ft. Collins yesterday.

UCLA men getting in from the west and the women getting 7th. The men had had a solid season, but to get 3rd in the tough West Regional and qualify for Nationals, great job Coach Braden!

Even Pete Watson's broken watch is right twice a day.

Sweet Nell Fenwick wrote:

Biff Wellington wrote:

This is just the first race they've started to put it together.

Hence the surprise.

NAU on the mens side. Who would think after graduating much of their top five and losing top guys Diego Estrado that they'd be challeging for a top 5-8 finish after winning regionals. Four of their top five (including top three) weren't even on the team last fall. Surprise, surprise.

On the women's side, everyone is going to be talking about Oregon this week, but FSU ran a tremendous race in their regional. If Winslow can run with Quigley, and their 4-5 run in the distance they did to Winslow, the Seminoles are going to be VERY hard to beat.

George Mason men had a great race had regionals. Right in their with some big dogs and beating W&M.

Oklahoma and Oklahoma State tying for first on place and time.

Purdue having TWO male qualifiers. And both being true freshmen.

Just call them freshman.

Gotcha wrote:

Purdue having TWO male qualifiers. And both being true freshmen.

I was reading this through to see if anyone else was going to post this. Plus, their entire scoring group is comprised of underclassmen.

Choo Choo Train wrote:

eltoro wrote:

...no one deserves it more than Jordan at this point.

Since when is this a factor in winning races? There is no such thing as deserving to win. Sport is not a charity

Of course there is such a thing as deserving to win. The person who runs fastest deserves to win. I agree it is not a charity, it is a meritocracy.

Gina Valgoi (6th in Midwest)

Jennifer Klugh (6th in Southeast)

Joane Pierre (7th in South)

Kristina Aubert (7th in South Central)

Rich Peters (9th in Northeast)

Michael Heller (10th in Great Lakes)

Josh McCabe (11th in Mountain)

Johnnie Guy (12th in Great Lakes)

How about the Michigan State men beating Notre Dame and nearly beating Indiana? Nice to see them put it together after a poor conference meet. They have some talent and finally got things to coalesce. Plus they had 4 sophs and a frosh in their top-7. Nice job Spartans.

Michigan State did run great at Regionals, huge surprise. The Big 10 is going to be awesome in the next few years. Lots of young teams with tremendous talent and great coaching.