Who Was the Biggest Disappointment at NCAAs?

Tyler King, UW. After having the race of his life at regionals (5th, lead UW to the win) he gets 249th out of 252.

What's happened to Moussa, he was what type 6 last year and seems to have struggled to get back to that sort of fitness again.

Saw a photo of his recently and he looks a lot more muscular / possibly heavier than when he ran xc last year - a contributing factor and perhaps a sign he's not been putting in as much mileage this year?

Not ideal for someone probably looking for a pro contract in the next 6-8 months.

The whole UW team was a disappointment.

The same programs perennially disappoint. Talented guys will get fast under almost any coach, but only the good coaches have their guys ready when it counts.

As usually, the biggest men's disappointments/worst coaches were: UCLA, Minnesota, Florida State, Cal, Washington. These are teams with tons of talent that goes to waste each year. Bummer.

Zero surprise about Curtin flopping. If he runs at Iona, or Colorado, or 'Nova, he finishes 5th (but probably 6th at pre nationals).

Was strange to see Minnesota do so poorly after they ran so well at regions.

The Gophers program is designed around getting to nationals.

Their athletes are way too good to settle for this minimal expectation. Plasencia is way too hard to fire. MN needs to let him be director, but hire a high quality assistant from inside the state to manage training and athlete development.

ryanhallsoffday wrote:

1. No 2nd low-stick for Colorado

2. Cuffe in 117th

3. Williamsz in 214th

4. Joe Rosa in 97th

5. Mason Ferlic 67th, was a top-ten contender

Yeah, this is spot-on. Colorado State had two guys across the line before Colorado's second man. And we can all say what we want, but from 1 year ago when we saw that they would have nearly everybody back from that Championship team, we all thought and we all said that they were the favorite. Winter, Moussa and Saarel have all placed higher last year.

Try your hardest ... wrote:

ryanhallsoffday wrote:

1. No 2nd low-stick for Colorado

2. Cuffe in 117th

3. Williamsz in 214th

4. Joe Rosa in 97th

5. Mason Ferlic 67th, was a top-ten contender

Yeah, this is spot-on. Colorado State had two guys across the line before Colorado's second man. And we can all say what we want, but from 1 year ago when we saw that they would have nearly everybody back from that Championship team, we all thought and we all said that they were the favorite. Winter, Moussa and Saarel have all placed higher last year.

I'm confused why Moussa went backward so much. It was his whole season too, not just this race.

Saarel we know was sick.

Winter stagnating his placing wasn't that bad really. Pretty par for the course for most runners.

Their top 4 really had a great day honestly. It's just too bad for them Saarel and Moussa weren't where they were a year ago.

Big 12 champion DFL!

Coach T wrote:

Ole Miss. Woof.

From preseason darkhorse choice by FloTrack and being viewed by many as a top 5 team, to second-to-last at the National meet, only narrowly outperforming a dismal UT men's squad.

Disappointing to say the least.

Coach T

did anyone else see the "negative' splits of these four guys (including the Ole Miss runner) up to the 5k mark?

119. John Lawson (Cal) 15:45.0 -5.25.0 up 133 places

125 Sergey Suchchickh (UCLA 15:46.2 - 5:23.0 up 126 places

181. George Yator (Louisville) 15:57.9 -5:31.2 up 73 places

196. Robert Domanic (Ole Miss) 16:02.6 -5:25.4 up 57 places

did these guys all take a shortcut to the 5k mark?

Kip Litton

Mike Rossi

Except four teams only go to the podium, and four teams are given trophies. Why so negative on a team (Oregon) that came in seeded ninth and finished on the podium and with the 4th place trophy?

Goucher Needles wrote:

The same programs perennially disappoint. Talented guys will get fast under almost any coach, but only the good coaches have their guys ready when it counts.

As usually, the biggest men's disappointments/worst coaches were: UCLA, [bMinnesota, Florida State , Cal, Washington. These are teams with tons of talent that goes to waste each year. Bummer.

Zero surprise about Curtin flopping. If he runs at Iona, or Colorado, or 'Nova, he finishes 5th (but probably 6th at pre nationals).

Maybe these days, yes, but they had a good run from 2010 to 2012. Probably more a function of the individuals on the team rather than the staff leading them.

real outsider wrote:

Midfontaine wrote:

You are, your lack of covering Oregon meeting their goal to at least take 4th, podium.

4th is not true "podium," except in "everyone's a winner" land where we make the podium a mile wide.

All the NCAA sports give trophies to the top 4 teams because that is how championship brackets work for team sports.

I'm not sure why Moussa is being mentioned so much- his fifth last year was a HUGE outlying result in his career so far.

I'm not going to look it up, but I don't think he was top 20 before that and didn't even qualify for nationals on the track last spring.

He ran out of his mind last year and returned to the mean this year.

In the know... wrote:

Joe Rosa has to be disappointed with 97th, but highly doubt they could have nipped Colorado even if he ran well.

Joe has probably done the math, if he finished with his brother and McGorty, they would have finished ahead of Colorado and probably Syracuse. That is something that he will probably think about a lot, which has to suck.

ryanhallsoffday wrote:

1. No 2nd low-stick for Colorado

2. Cuffe in 117th

3. Williamsz in 214th

4. Joe Rosa in 97th

5. Mason Ferlic 67th, was a top-ten contender

This is a good list.

I'd add:

- McClintock in 133rd (was 19th last year and had a great season going this year)

- UVA Men. 22nd? They shoulda been a contenda. I'm starting to believe the notion that Watson is an excellent recruiter but grinds his guys into the ground (his best guys have the least time in the program).

- Mich Men. 9th is nothing to sneeze at, but they should have been higher. I think they put too much energy into winning B1G and Regionals. How does Ferlic go from AA last year, almost winning B1G, winning Regionals, to 67th? The running gods are fickle...

- NC State Men. In fact the whole ACC except for Louisville (home course?) under-performed. UVA, NC State, VA Tech did poorly. No one thought FL State was good--they proved us correct.

- Sam Warton. From AA last year to 207th? He's been consistently below last year's level, so it wasn't a total surprise.

Regarding the ACC- I would only add that Syracuse performed about as expected and therefore did not underperform.

NC State has been doing what Syracuse has been doing (distance only) for 40 years while it takes Syracuse 10 years to win. So many NCAA programs are built on just making Nationals and not bombing when there.