NCAA Regionals: Surprises and Chokes

Montoya had a very good race at regionals. I will have to agree that his season has been mediocre and has been in the shadows of many top freshman around the country, but his race on Friday makes me think he's back. Did he qualify for Nats? He is a middle distance runner, but was also a top cross runner in high school, so the expectations were there for him to be a top cross runner in college as well. Hope ASU doesn't waste his talent. This kids has all the right tools to be great.

University Of South Florida came in dead last in the South region for the second year in a row. I guess that is not really a choke job, just a bad program.

Air Force is probably one of the best programs for what they get recruiting wise and with no 5th year seniors, should be interesting to see how they place at nats

Mickfloot wrote:

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

In addittion to the dismissive comments about Regionals (true but in poor taste), the way Fleet was talking about Nationals "coming down to the last few k's" with a pretty relaxed attitude had me thinking - has this dude ever run at NCAA cross? It's a pretty unrealistic outlook.

Sure, you have to be tough and race the last few kilometers, but you're going to be hanging on for dear life from the gun there buddy. This ain't going to be a damn waiting game - just nutting up and not dying the last 2k. Place changes are few and far between in the last 2k for the 20th-40th range he'll likely be in.

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On another note, UNC tanked BIG TIME and all the SE region qualifiers should buy them a round of brews after NCAAs.

He didn't run at HEPS championships due to a leg injury per Harvard's twitter. Could have raced just to get his team through.

Princess Ellen wrote:

How about Leakos of Harvard nearly finishing outside of the All-Region mark (33rd) at VCP. I expected him to be closer to his teammate upfront who mentioned he took it easy anyway. Leakos almost missed the NCAAs if Harvard hadn't been one of the last teams in. Oh well, live to fight another day I suppose.

newsflash wrote:

On another note, UNC tanked BIG TIME and all the SE region qualifiers should buy them a round of brews after NCAAs.

UNC did indeed tank, I wouldn't say that they are that much better than Virgina and NC State though. I think it was more of a case of Virgina and NC State vastly under preforming all year but they both came together and got the job done this past weekend.

Princess Ellen wrote:

How about Leakos of Harvard nearly finishing outside of the All-Region mark (33rd) at VCP. I expected him to be closer to his teammate upfront who mentioned he took it easy anyway. Leakos almost missed the NCAAs if Harvard hadn't been one of the last teams in. Oh well, live to fight another day I suppose.

Looking at the photos from the NE Regional meet, Leakos was up in the front with Korolev for most of the race. I think he just faded badly as he could just be used to the 8km and not quite ready yet for the 10km.

Photos can be found here:

Biased wrote:

[quote]bro loco wrote:

UVA Men are going to be nasty the next few years. They didn't even run Connor Rog, who's a beast. They are a very young team.

Have you not heard about Connor Rog though? He's injured and will not be running for a very long time.

UVA Men are going to be nasty the next few years. They didn't even run Connor Rog, who's a beast. They are a very young team.[/quote]

Have you not heard about Connor Rog though? He's injured and will not be running for a very long time.[/quote]

What did happen to Connor Rog?

What is the deal with the Duke program on both the men's and women's sides? With the resources of a school like Duke (not to mention the world class education) why aren't both teams consistently nationals qualifiers. Especially when the men return virtually their entire 2012 qualifying team and the women get an unreal recruiting class. Seems like the coaching isn't there.

Women's team consistently underperforms like none other.

Men's team isn't even close to being fully funded and had some injuries.