Official 2014 DIII Cross Country Thread

It could be a close one again, but I'd say this time St. Olaf is clearly the one to beat.

St. Olaf only loses their #3, but gains a new stud in Paul Escher, who was 2nd in the 1500 in 3:48.12.

#1 Grant Wintheiser was 3rd two consecutive years and the top returning runner, with close competition from Kelleher, Padgett and Horton. 4th in 1500, 14:14 5000, I think he can make another big jump though.

#2 Jake Brown (4th in team scoring) was XC skiing through most of track, ran a 9:09 steeple and should be solid.

#3 Jake Campbell (21st) ran 14:37 5K and could have probably gone faster but was focusing on the 1500 (3:50.60).

#4-6 Paul Escher 3:48 1500

Calvin Lehn (46th) - Dealt with an injury in XC, MIA in track, so is the one wild card in question.

Philip Meyer (50th) ran a 31:06 10K, 4:02 1500. He will likely be a solid #4-6 guy throughout the season.

#6-7 slots likely filled by Dillon Davis (91st) (9:24 Steeple), Joe Coffey (4:02) or a freshman.

North Central loses FOUR of their top five with #1-3 in Crain, Klein and Hird and #5 Root, a pretty big deal. But other guys always seem to step it up, and they just have so many runners and loads of recruits and obviously one of the best coaches in D3 history.

#1 Troy Kelleher (23rd) is the top returnee, and broke through big in track with a 29:55 10K and beat Wintheiser to the line at Drake in 14:14.

#2 Travis Morrison - 30:28 10K

7 solid guys to fill out the remaining spots, plus whatever studs they recruit.

Ben Dickshinski (139) - 14:30 5000, 30:35 10K

Aron Sebhat (122) - 3:52 1500

Ethan Adlfinger - 9:15 steeple

Kevin McMahon - 30:46 10K

Tim Vazquez - 31:03 10K

Brent Gaither - 9:19 steeple

Matt Muth - 3:52 1500

Correction, Coffey had a 3:59 PR. Jake Brown was also 3rd at MIAC 5000. If he really only had a month and a half training after winning the USCSA title on March 18, then he should be even better after solid mileage this summer.

Root actually returns as a fifth year senior as a solid #3 runner:

#3 Ryan Root- 14:34 5k, 9:10 steeple.

If you compare them PR for PR (giving more weight for the further the event, as cross country is an 8k and therefore I weight the 10k far more than the 15), the two teams are actually super close.

St. Olaf

1.Winheiser- 3rd in xc, 2nd indoor 3k, 4th outdoor 15, 14:14 5k

2. Brown- 9th in xc, skiing during track? 9:09 steeple

3.Campbell- 31st in xc, 14:37 5k, 3:50 1500

4.Escher- 3:48 1500, 2nd at national 1500

5.Meyer- 75th in xc, 31:06 10k

Then 6-7 featuring as mentioned, Lehn who was MIA in track (but was top 7 last year), and Davis (both ran at nationals).

North Central

1.Kelleher- 35th in xc, 14:14/29:55, 3rd in 10k

2. Morrison- 8:20 indoor 3k, 30:26 10k

3. Root- 48th in xc, 14:34, 9:10 steeple

4. Dickshinski- blew up xc nats, 14:30/ 30:35 outdoors

5. Sebhat- blew up xc nats, 3:52 outdoor 15

Other guys who could make top 7: mcMahon (30:46), vasquez (14:52/31:04), adlfinger (9:15).

From a depth standpoint, as always, North Central is the deepest. Both sides are pretty top heavy and relatively experienced, although its tough to say how well St. Olaf's 1500 success will translate over to 8k.

Can only really talk about guys from this conference (graduated a few years ago, still follow closely)

Padgett from WashU has to be one of the favorites going in, solid times from 1500-10k, was pretty dominant until regionals in xc- maybe injured or worn out?

Potential All-Americans

- Garret Patrick WashU- 38th last year at NCAA, 21 @ MW regional, 14:48 5k

- Dharan Kadiyala NYU- 8th in XC region, 3:55 1500

- Sebastian Oja NYU- 10th at XC region, 5th in region in 2012

- George Degen Carnegie Mellon- 8:29 indoor 3k, 68 @ NCAA in 2012, underwhelming 2013-2014 in xc and track aside from that 3k.

One correction: St. Olaf's Dillon Davis was a senior, so he won't be around next year.

I'm always going to lean towards North Central just because their depth is insane. But it should be a great battle.

I might be a bit biased coming from New England but it looks like New England's shot at making some noise this year will be Williams. They return 4/5 from a 5th place team last year. Not quite there with St. Olaf and NCC but anything can happen over a summer.

Cotton (14:22, 29:50, 5th in 5k)

Mazaheri (14:29, 30:31, 9th in 5k)

Inde (14:42)

Ford (3:50, 25:50 in cross)

Townsend (14:56, 3:57)

(taken from NESCAC thread)

I watched Cotton and Mazaheri work together to run 30:15 and 30:31 at the NESCAC meet this year. It was very impressive to see them run times like that alone and in somewhat unideal conditions.

yeahhhh wrote:...its tough to say how well St. Olaf's 1500 success will translate over to 8k.

Other than the fact that those same guys won last year.

Your point may apply to the one unknown, Escher, who is an 800/1500 guy, so he probably won't be up for their #3 spot, or possibly even #5. If so, they should still be good with Lehn and Meyer.

And to be fair, their coach really focused on 1500 over anything else this season for some reason, despite the fact that Wintheiser should have had a good chance for 3rd in the 5000 final had he run it, and Campbell would very likely have run at lest low 14:20s if he wasn't focusing on the 1500 late season.

Amazing how North Central manages to always have such a deep roster though, respect!

Wintheiser and Brown might be able to pull off 1-2. Then the rest of their team just needs to not mess it up

hiram college for the surprise win

studs wrote:

Wintheiser and Brown might be able to pull off 1-2. Then the rest of their team just needs to not mess it up

Let's not go that far. Eli Horton, Andrew Padgett, Troy Kelleher, and Patrick Jenkins, among others, will be up there. Right now there is no reason to think that Brown will be top 3.

not all midwest wrote:

I might be a bit biased coming from New England but it looks like New England's shot at making some noise this year will be Williams. They return 4/5 from a 5th place team last year. Not quite there with St. Olaf and NCC but anything can happen over a summer.

Cotton (14:22, 29:50, 5th in 5k)

Mazaheri (14:29, 30:31, 9th in 5k)

Inde (14:42)

Ford (3:50, 25:50 in cross)

Townsend (14:56, 3:57)

(taken from NESCAC thread)

I watched Cotton and Mazaheri work together to run 30:15 and 30:31 at the NESCAC meet this year. It was very impressive to see them run times like that alone and in somewhat unideal conditions.

Cotton and Mazaheri are both injured and Williams has no depth after their 5th guy. They'll be lucky to be top 10 even if the rumors that Tully Hannan is transferring are true.

easy tiger wrote:

studs wrote:

Wintheiser and Brown might be able to pull off 1-2. Then the rest of their team just needs to not mess it up

Let's not go that far. Eli Horton, Andrew Padgett, Troy Kelleher, and Patrick Jenkins, among others, will be up there. Right now there is no reason to think that Brown will be top 3.

Brown will have a significant advantage because he will have a training partner also competing at the highest level. Horton, Padgett, Kelleher, Jenkins, Cotton will all be somewhat on their own with training.

That can be a double edged sword, though, as situations like this can cause teammates to run eachother into the ground

Leroy Jenkins wrote:

Brown will have a significant advantage because he will have a training partner also competing at the highest level. Horton, Padgett, Kelleher, Jenkins, Cotton will all be somewhat on their own with training.

Cotton has another 30/14 minute 10k/5k guy on his team who is also a junior.

It certainly seems like St. Olaf is doing all the right things-although it's unclear what those things are....they don't seem to train very much and they drink themselves into the ground every weekend. Despite this they are smacking PRs left and right, and seem to be incredibly healthy as a team.

Turtle Guy wrote:

It certainly seems like St. Olaf is doing all the right things-although it's unclear what those things are....they don't seem to train very much and they drink themselves into the ground every weekend. Despite this they are smacking PRs left and right, and seem to be incredibly healthy as a team.

They only drink themselves into the ground because they have the tolerance of a 3 year old girl. I'd like to see them try a Smirnoff 2k, I bet they wouldn't even finish.

Keith Sands. DISCUSS

Keith "The Blaze Bush" Sands, will smoke that Dickshintszy from NCC. Watch him tear up the CCIW and then natties.

DFL at nationals in the event with the least depth. All hale Keith Sands.