NCAA Regionals: Surprises and Chokes

BOISE STATE 4TH IN THE WEST REGION!

EGGHHHHHH

Craig Nowak is really shaping up to be something big. It's always nice to see a true american progressing the way he has been.

Paavo Nurmi wrote:

SURPRISES: Georgia and NC State Men.

Georgia had a lot of surprises come up out of nowhere and helped them fill out their top 5 tremendously. Hats off to Coach Norton and Cunniff for peaking these guys at the right time AGAIN.

Norton deserves ZERO credit for what the Georgia men were able to do today, he is nothing more than a figure head for the UGA cross country team. If anything, the Georgia men managed to qualify in spite of what Norton and the UGA athletic department have done for that team. Cuniff has complete control of the distance runners and has done some pretty good things over the last 2 years with limited resources.

Can someone explain what exactly happened to the Duke women and the UCLA men this year?

how about this for a weird surprise:

Arizona State Mens: #32

Arizona State Womens: #32

They're, not their, dumb A S S.

A Duck wrote:

Their loaded. Oregon coming within ten points of them was the real news.

The same teams, as usual, over-achieved, and underachieved:

Men's XC---

Best with their given talent: Portland, Colorado, NAU, Columbia, Wisconsin, Iona, Oklahoma State, Nova

Worst with their talent and resources: UCLA, Minnesota, Duke, Cal, ASU

Up and comers: New Mexico, Boise State

Arizona State Men:

32 in 2013

32 in 2012

35 in 2011

32 in 2010

Ouch

ASU - worst? Give me a break. They have 1.5 scholarships for distance and are always in the mix. You, my friend, have zero clue. I would say ASU does the most with what they have than any one. Ridiculous. I know for a fact they raced with 5 walk on's at regionals. Portland, CO, NAU, Wisco, Iona, OK State, NOVA - those are distance schools - 6-10 schollies in their teams. I could see Minn, Duke and CAL on that list, but please tell me how ASU is doing worse. Credit to Quintana. Quite honestly, I don't know why Quintana stays at ASU. He is clearly a good coach. Be neat to see him with the resources of, let's say, CAL.

Trent Lusignan 2nd in the midwest for South Dakota State!

A Duck wrote:

furdog wrote:

Suprises/Upsets

NC State over UNC to get pushed in after a not running well at Griak, Wisco, or ACCs. Geigers proves his magic once again.

Duke women bust. Hope to see this crew get it together in the years to come.

BYU gets Ward back, he finished 3rd and then they almost choke.

Stanford rises up to beat Oregon, huge race from Achoo who is mainly a miler, or at least was.

Georgia bouncing back after a rough year to win the South region by 1 point over Florida.

In what world was Stanford beating Oregon an upset?

Stanford did not rise up as some lowly underdog.

Their loaded. Oregon coming within ten points of them was the real news.

--------------------------------------

WTF are you talking about?

Oregon's been the much higher-ranked team all season, and has beaten the pants off Stanford till yesterday.

The most interesting part of yesterday was the slightly-embarrassing way the Ducks tried to play it off.

"We don't care about this race at all."

"We were just jogging."

"It was a tempo run."

Stinson and Fleet better back that up big-time next week, or they're gonna look really stupid.

And it doesn't look like they're gonna have Jenkins swoop in to bail them out.

It's on them.

Not sure about the Duke women who always seem to have some drama, but the UCLA men lost their #1(All-American last year)to injury who would have been a top 10 at regionals which is a 50 point swing and would have moved them ahead of AZ State. Still wouldn't have made it, but if they had him during the season, they may have gathered more wins during the regular season. Oh well, it's in the books now!

How about Martin smith and Iowa state already beating his former team Oklahoma

I know every course is different, conditions are different, not everyone ran hard. Let's get that out of the way. BUT it would still be awesome if someone compiled all the results from this past weekends regional races just to see where teams placed. It's interesting to the stat nerds (me being one of them. If I had enough time, I'd do it. If anyone's interested, GO FOR IT!!!!

Paavo Nurmi wrote:

Washington placed 9th in the West region. Behind the likes of Washington St., Cal Poly, UCLA, and Arizona State. At Wisconsin they finished 15th beating teams like Air Force, Indiana, Texas, Dartmouth, and Florida whom are ALL going to Nationals. Talk about tanking.

Metcalf is a pro at getting his teams to tank when it counts.

I've never under the focus of times in cross country. No way are courses are the correct distance most of the time. Then you take into account the hills, footing, and turns and you just can't compare. It's just head-to-head competition.

I think it would be more interesting to see who improved the most from last year or a comparison of rankings (all 15) and results. Can't say I'm that motivated at the moment. Anyone else?

Nova Nation!!!! Won both team titles, won both individual titles, and had both runner-ups....what program can say that? Talk about being in Beast Mode. But I gotta had it to Gina. I'm sure she heard all the criticism throughout the season and got her runners to run well when it mattered most. Now let's see if they can do it at nationals....on both sides.

[/quote]

Norton deserves ZERO credit for what the Georgia men were able to do today, he is nothing more than a figure head for the UGA cross country team. If anything, the Georgia men managed to qualify in spite of what Norton and the UGA athletic department have done for that team. Cuniff has complete control of the distance runners and has done some pretty good things over the last 2 years with limited resources.[/quote]

"Limited resources"??!! Every kid in the state of GA wants to walk-on to UGA. I'd say the giant "G" logo from flagship University is enough.

What a dumba$$ comment to make. Doesn't matter. Arrogant Oregon. Without Cheeseman the race would matter very much.