Villanova men go 1-2-3 at Princeton XC, still lose

This was Nova's A team. Same thing happened at Paul Short pretty much -- they went 1-2-4 but lost to Georgetown. This meet will count for NCAA qualifying purposes.

Clearly, Villanova has a very strong top three but #4 and #5 are holding them back. When I talked to coach Marcus O'Sullivan at the start of the season, he was hoping Warnick and Corbusier could step in and fill the roles of departed seniors Brian Basili and Sam McEntee but so far they haven't totally been able to do it.

It will be interesting to see what Nova will do at NCAAs. With Tiernan, Williamsz and Denault they've got three potential All-Americans. If Warnick and Corbusier can put it together, they could still finish in the top 10.

Also if Awad isn't himself, the Heps individual title will be up for grabs. Cornell's Ben Rainero and Columbia's Aubrey Myjer both had good runs over the weekend.

This was Awad's second race of the season.

Rainero has been looking very strong all season, and he's a possible upset if Awad isn't up to his 2014 form. Rainero did some co-leading back in the Battle in Beantown - finishing well too - and (from what I heard) at PreNats earlier today. He will push the pace at HepsXC.

Myjer did have a great Wisco meet, but not 100% sure if he's winning material quite yet. Maybe a dark horse. I'd add in Rutherford into the discussion as he was 1st team last year and looked pretty good at the Inter-Regional meet.

I believe that Nova has all of their freshman redshirted at the moment but may have to use some of them sooner rather than later.

2015 Main Line Invitational

Men's 4 Mile Run Individual Results (4 Mile )

these 2 guys (Nova freshman)

Comber, Casey

Unattached

19:30

Marston, Andrew

Unattached

19:35

were ahead of

Shurtleff, Clark

SR-4

Penn

19:36

Shurtleff was 12th at Princeton XC Invitational.

Those 2 freshman change the score to Nova 33 Penn 45.

But more recently both Comber and Marston were well back of both Warnick (VU #4) and Corbusier (VU #5) at Paul Short. Marcus is loathe to run frosh (unless they're bona fide freaks like Tiernan), I'd bet that both Comber and Marston keep the redshirts on (as, of course, will Wetzel, who hasn't competed this fall due to some minor niggles). One question is how the move from 8K to 10K will impact Warnick and Corbusier -- will it allow them to close the gap to Denault (VU #3) or not? Let's see what happens at Big East conference meet.

Why would a coach red shirt anybody now? They will only run 3 years for you and then transfer to another school (for grad school)for their 4th year without having to sit out.

In my opinion O'Sullivan brought this upon himself by refusing to put significant effort into developing athletes that were not blue-chip recruits. A few years back he had a Villanova student who repeatedly requested a tryout or a walk-on opportunity, and O'Sullivan never gave him a chance. The kid ended up running 2:22 while in college and he almost certainly could have contributed as a 10k/xc runner. However O'Sullivan seems to like miler types, particularly from other countries. Its hard to blame him given his background and the success he has had with internationals (whom I completely support), but if you have motivated athletes who want a spot on the team, I think it makes sense to lobby the AD for some roster spots and give a few more kids a chance.

my guess is Tiernen and Warnick leave after this year preceding the inevitable Alan Webb-esque decline of Villanova Running.