yeah duh wrote:
St. Olaf had an 8th-place finisher last year who finished 116th (85th in the team race). I'd say it speaks to how good they are that they were able to keep it so close despite getting about 70 more points from him than they probably expected to get three or four weeks ago.
I don't think it's fair to construe my original post as any criticism of St. Olaf, so I struggle to understand your tone. My post was simply a response to the idea that North Central was "lucky." When you have two evenly matched teams, lots of variables impact the outcome, simply because the margin is small… but those variables are part of the sport.
My disagreement with observer or perhaps even the famously humble Al Carius (if that's what he said) is largely a semantic one. To me, "lucky" implies unusual benefit from circumstance. It implies events that one would consider an outlier in the sport. I don't see that in this race. Both teams lined up to race, neither team was at it's best, and North Central won. Observer and I basically agree- the circumstances of this race favored the deeper team, and depth is an important part of the sport. No luck in that.