It's time somebody kicks off the annual prediction thread for the D3 mideast region xc season. Who will impress? Who will collapse? Who will replace Charlie with a terrible collection of earrings?
Team: On the team side of things Carnegie Mellon looks impressive, returing almost their entire team after placing 3rd in the region last year. They have a strong pack and an all-american contender in Ryan Archer and will be tough to beat. Haverford looks, as usual, to be a good bet to take 2nd in the region. They lose Charlie and several other talented seniors, but have a strong one-two punch in Gorman and Woods and are always very deep and have shown an ability to reload year after year. After a clear top two the region is very much in flux. Etown loses almost everything and don't look to be a contender. Johns Hopkins was a disapointment last year but had a successfuly season on the track, if some of their 1500m runners can step up to xc they have the potential to be strong. Widener has an excellent top two in Pitone and McDermott, but they will need to find capable 3-5 runners if they are going to make any noise as a team. It looks like it may be a weaker year on the team side of things, but not many people expected Etown to be as strong as they were last year, a dark-horse might step up.
Individual: Last year the Mideast region had 3 All-Americans, will that number be bested this year? Pitone was top 20 in the nation last year and looks to be a lock for All-American status and potentially a top 10 finish. His teammate McDermott also looks to be a strong contender after an excellent track season. Flank of Muhlenburg suprisingly beat Pitone to finish second in the region last year, but faded at nats. Will he be able to step up a snag an All-American finish? Ryan Archer looks to be another decent bet to finish All-American and lead Carnegie Mellon. Overall the region looks fairly strong on the individual side, hopefully we will see a greater number of All-Americans this year.
What do you guys think?