Official 2014 Pre-Nats Discussion Thread

The only college x-c meet of note in Arizona is the George Kyte Invitational in Flag. And that is Sept. 7th.

Absolutely zero out-of-state teams in attendance; none from Cali, or even SUU (3 hours away).

Trialswatcher wrote:

Oregon is not beating Colorado, even if they were given mini bikes.....

This is a lot worse than today in a bigger deeper field, they do not even need Pearson, and I thought it was fairly obvious by now they were going to red shirt him?

CU has 6 in before Oregon's 3, Oregon really could have used something out of sub 4 and 13:39 Elkaim, one of these years in cross. But this is not even close.

Lol, let's hand the trophy to Colorado right now and not even bother with the last month of XC season. Colorado is unbeatable! If Colorado loses NCAAs it will be THE GREATEST UPSET IN NCAA HISTORY and likely spark a congressional investigation.

I recall some unbeatable Colorado and Stanford teams who found a way to lose on the day it counted.

Not sure if it has been said yet but today was an 8K opposed to 10K. I think 10K favors CU as well.

Go duckies wrote:

I recall some unbeatable Colorado and Stanford teams who found a way to lose on the day it counted.

Really? Even assuming you can find a C.U. team displaying even close to the 2014 rendition's level of dominance (you need to review the results of the Rocky Mountain Shootout if you're not already aware of them), in which year(s) did the Buffs fold at Nationals? I'm not saying that C.U. or anyone is choke-proof, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an example of a favored C.U. team cratering in the clutch.

Had they finished side by side you could suggest it wasn't an all out effort. They finished 25 seconds apart, they were racing.

Wtfhmmm wrote:

Had they finished side by side you could suggest it wasn't an all out effort. They finished 25 seconds apart, they were racing.

Can you entertain the possibility that there is a continuum between "absolutely all-out" and "taking it kinda easy," and that the C.U. guys therefore might have held back in the beginning (and stuck together) and then raced all-out in the last 3K or so?

i have first hand from Winn that oregon trained through the race and are only focused on nats.

phenom_ wrote:

i have first hand from Winn that oregon trained through the race and are only focused on nats.

first hand info*

The team that looks really scary going forward from this weekend's meets is Wisconsin. That is a young, fast team.

phenom_ wrote:

i have first hand from Winn that oregon trained through the race and are only focused on nats.

...whereas Colorado, which won by an improbable amount, was peaking for pre-Nats, just like last year.

It astounds me the extent to which people let fandom demolish any logical sense they might have.

pin racer wrote:

Oh just stop with this already. Colorado is a lock for the title unless they lose a bunch of guys to injury. They pushed everyone around today, and the other contenders haven't impressed lately. Oregon, Stanford, and NAU all have problems with their 3-5. Syracuse looked good at Wisco, but their pack is not in the same league with Colorado.

Something that I don't think we're talking about enough, is Ammar Moussa's massive improvement this year.

Ammar Moussa was 54th (Colorado's 6th man) at last year's Pre-Nats.

Detecting a Huge Cloud of B.S. wrote:

Wtfhmmm wrote:

Had they finished side by side you could suggest it wasn't an all out effort. They finished 25 seconds apart, they were racing.

Can you entertain the possibility that there is a continuum between "absolutely all-out" and "taking it kinda easy," and that the C.U. guys therefore might have held back in the beginning (and stuck together) and then raced all-out in the last 3K or so?

Actually, this sounds exactly like wetmore instructions (minus the "all out" thing). He'd likely say run AT pace and then if you feel comfortable the last 3K push yourself but don't go hard enough to puke.

Honestly, Colorado should redshirt Pearson. It looks like they can comfortably win without him this year. And that would leave them in the driver's seat for a three-peat. They would return Saarel, Pearson, Moussa, Murphy, Perrin and Peterman. I also wouldn't be surprised if they picked up one of the hs studs. I could see Grant Fisher or John Dressel being lured by Wetmore. Maton from Oregon could have the most upside though. If they get 2 or 3 really good recruits, they could just keep the ball rolling. Why stop at 3 straight?

Looks like they are going to redshirt Pearson. Unbelievable really to just take the guy who finished 17th last year out of the equation. Don't forget too that Connor Winter will be back next year as well. That will give the Buffs 4 5th year seniors on next years team with Pearson, Murphy, Moussa and Winter.

I also think that Perrin and Peterman may not even see action next year with the top 5 spots locked up and 2 freshman from the 2014 class in Ethan Gonzales and Ryan Forsyth looking really strong.

I have a strange hunch that John Dressel may be coming to Colorado next year too. This CU dominance could go on for quite some time.

The winner of the men's white race was Luis Vargas of Elon in 24:20 which would have placed him 8th in the men's blue race. The time would have placed him in front of the 3rd runners from Colorado and Oregon. Not too bad for a guy that runs for a program that does not have men's indoor and outdoor track.

where is Sarah Baxter? injured still? redshirting?

Luis will contend for a 10-15 spot at NCAAs. He also broke Ryan Hill's course record for 5k at Wake Med in Raleigh running 14:29 a few weeks back. He hasn't been able to race anyone yet.

There's really no relevance in saying Oregon was training through the race. They said the same shit all of last season. On Flotrack theres videos of Fleet and Stinson dismissing pac 12s and west regional as "training through" and "meaningless" after blowing up in the last 2k. So don't read too much into that. Winn has improved this year, and could be their #5. Everyone but ches and jenkins seem very inconsistent right now. In Haney steps up and Pepiot is as good as last year, they could see 2nd or 3rd. But I would trust NAU to get their stuff together before them.

Colorado

NAU

Oregon

Syracuse

Stanford

Oklahoma State

Portland

Iona

Wisconsin

anyone have video of the race besides flotrack?

Good one wrote:

phenom_ wrote:

i have first hand from Winn that oregon trained through the race and are only focused on nats.

...whereas Colorado, which won by an improbable amount, was peaking for pre-Nats, just like last year.

It astounds me the extent to which people let fandom demolish any logical sense they might have.

The Oregon fanboy-dom on here is ridiculous