Give us your biggest surprises/flops from 2013 Pre-Nats and Wisconsin

IONA MEN?!?

DDR wrote:

IONA MEN?!?

The average person doesn't get that.

What you meant to say was the #18 Iona men finishing third at Pre nats when they came in as only the 7th highest ranked team.

Cuffe finished very high. Where is she ranked? How many women are ahead of her? She looks to be in very good shape this year

Trent Lusignan of South Dakota State ran well at Pre-Nats to finish 19th.

I thought Stanford and Iona both ran well there.

Colorado backed up their ranking.

The 3 freshmen in the top 9 proved themselves.

Emma Bates came back from her loss to the HS girl out at Dellinger, very exciting finish in the Women's race today.

At Wisco:

The home team surprised me a lot. I thought they could be good if Finnerty was fit and some of the younger guys made an impact but they finished 4th without any extra help.

Individually, Koroslev as was already mentioned as well as Colley and Aaron Nelson ran very well.

John Simons of MN ran poorly and as a result the Gophers were 7-9 positions lower than they should have been.

Duke women for sure

Villanova and Oklahoma State women were pathetic. Cowgirls have no chance at NCAA.

Wisconsin women's race was LOADED. I think 24 or 25 of the top-30 were in that race. Very few teams from PreNats will make the NCAA's unless auto. PreNats is pathetic compared to Wisco.

#2 FSU, #5 Georgetown, #6 Oregon, #11 Stanford, #12 Colorado, #14 Michigan, #15 Virginia, #18 Villanova, #19 Oklahoma State, #20 Butler, #21 William and Mary and #23 Princeton all ran in the women's Pre Nats Blue race. Most ran their full lineups.

Butler women on the surprisingly good side and Nova women on the other side.

Oklahoma State is not a good team. Ranked way too high based on only having raced at home. They have no chance at NCAA. Villanova will still make it based on Paul Short and Piccorillo not basically not passing out.

There will not really be any at larges out of PreNats. Princeton will not make it out either unless they auto.

Looking at maybe 8 teams at NCAA from PreNats and 23 from Wisconsin.

Coach Pink wrote:

Duke women for sure

I agree. What on earth happened to them?

They appear to have imploded. Which seems impossible knowing the talent on that team. Those 3 freshmen should be way out front!

Lara Hollander din't show for last meet or either of these. Bummer! I assume that she is hurt.....

Coach Pink wrote:

Duke women for sure

They were ranked 17th and finished 25th at Pre-Nats. Not good,

And Isaac Wood ranked them #1 right in the pre-season? Letsrun was right when they said that was crazy.

Arizona, Dartmouth were amazing

Abbey D is unstoppable

Oregon, Duke, Cory McGee all flopped

FSU were reasonable

No Laura Hollander? Another injury?

CaL women only had one finisher at Pre Nats but I thought they were supposed to bring a team.

Womens Side wrote:

Villanova and Oklahoma State women were pathetic. Cowgirls have no chance at NCAA.

Wisconsin women's race was LOADED. I think 24 or 25 of the top-30 were in that race. Very few teams from PreNats will make the NCAA's unless auto. PreNats is pathetic compared to Wisco.

It was actually 18 at Wisco and 12 at Pre-nats, with a pretty even balance of teams in the top 20.

Who are you rooting for from Wisco that you think is endanger of not making it?

The championship is a 10k.(correct me if wrong) this gives Iona a huge advantage as they have always had solid 10k guys

Cal_Poly_Dad wrote:

Lara Hollander din't show for last meet or either of these. Bummer! I assume that she is hurt.....

I'm afraid that the clock has struck midnight for Laura. This is the oldest story in women's running: dramatic weight loss works great for 18 months and the poof. Also missing this year are Allie Woodward, Allie Cash and Ashley Erba. On the HS side it's Anna Rohrer and Clare Flanagan. This is a preventable pattern for coaches, parents and friends who will speak up when it counts.

I couldn't help noticing the difference in outcomes between BYU's Jason Witt and Solomon Haile of Arkansas.

Witt is talented, but having gone on a mission during what would be typically a sophomore year, it is difficult to discern whether athletes like him ever will pan out. But it is clear he is now running at a top NCAA Div. 1 level. BYU's culture and system makes it difficult to predict success. And yes, he is physically more mature than most.

Haile is to me no surprise. He was an overage high school athlete. This point is not being made to raise the high school eligibility issue, but rather a reflection that he likely had far less upside potential than most top high school runners. I was curious when Arkansas recruited him. They certainly train with rigor. But again, I am not surprised at the results.