Syracuse's 13:55 transfer Iliass Aouani dominates 1st meet of year - Will the Cuse repeat?

Good God almighty. Penn State sucks. They've got sub 9 minute high schoolers who haven't run any faster than that.

Princeton's top 4 finishers all had the exact same time. Were they holding hands across the finish line?

Reserves for dinner wrote:

Syracuse did win the NCAA tittle last year with all 7 guys originating from 5 hours of campus. I

Yeah, what happened to the down-home, blue collar Chris Fox? I won't troll and say he's importing runners, as I know that isn't this case, but still...

That's a problem for you? A lot of high quality athletes come from the NE. Good to see them all not running at the same meat grinder schools where they never Improve.

Spaghettimonster wrote:

Consider this.... wrote:

I know it's early in the season, but those times are really slow. Tough course?

Spiked Shoe is 5.2 miles. The paces next to the times are correct. Winning time would be like 25 low if actually 5 miles. I believe it is a tough course as well. Never ran it though.

Yeah...even considering the course, these times are pretty slow. I never broke 15 in college and ran 26:40's on this course a few times.

It was pretty hot yesterday though, so guessing that slowed things a bit.

Tessa Barrett is BACK BABY!!

Kevin James had a pretty good race considering he's been working night shifts as a mall cop

No way this guy can is better than Colin "Butt-Stuff" Bennie

papajs wrote:

No way this guy can is better than Colin "Butt-Stuff" Bennie

I'm sure that he is not. He needs to replace Hehir. However, he's not as good as Hehir either.

Knight, Bennie, Germano and Hubbard will need to be better than last year. With the addition of Aouani, at least, it looks like they have a shot. Assuming that the other 4 do better than last year.

Gjbjhhjkhkjhjk wrote:

papajs wrote:

No way this guy can is better than Colin "Butt-Stuff" Bennie

I'm sure that he is not. He needs to replace Hehir. However, he's not as good as Hehir either.

Knight, Bennie, Germano and Hubbard will need to be better than last year. With the addition of Aouani, at least, it looks like they have a shot. Assuming that the other 4 do better than last year.

How old is Hubbard? 28?

Bekekelele wrote:

Yeah, what happened to the down-home, blue collar Chris Fox? I won't troll and say he's importing runners, as I know that isn't this case, but still...

Isn't Aouani a transfer from Lamar? I'm guessing Fox didn't go recruit hunting in Italy this past summer. With the success of a national title, comes the recognition of a national caliber team, comes the potential recruits from around the country.

And really. Look at that roster. Most of them are within a half day driving distance to Syracuse.

Gjbjhhjkhkjhjk wrote:

papajs wrote:

No way this guy can is better than Colin "Butt-Stuff" Bennie

I'm sure that he is not. He needs to replace Hehir. However, he's not as good as Hehir either.

Knight, Bennie, Germano and Hubbard will need to be better than last year. With the addition of Aouani, at least, it looks like they have a shot. Assuming that the other 4 do better than last year.

He only needs to replace Hehir performance if the other teams that are competing for the title are as good as Colorado (91 points) was last year.

Robert Cane wrote:

Gjbjhhjkhkjhjk wrote:

I'm sure that he is not. He needs to replace Hehir. However, he's not as good as Hehir either.

Knight, Bennie, Germano and Hubbard will need to be better than last year. With the addition of Aouani, at least, it looks like they have a shot. Assuming that the other 4 do better than last year.

He only needs to replace Hehir performance if the other teams that are competing for the title are as good as Colorado (91 points) was last year.

So he "only" needs to finish top 10? LOL, no pressure.

He is a great addition, but replacing Martin Hehir in his first year on the team- too much to ask. BTW, go to Hehir's twitter and there is a link to his daily training- wish more pros would do this.

Don't expect that to happen wrote:

[quote]Robert Cane wrote:

...

So he "only" needs to finish top 10? LOL, no pressure.

He is a great addition, but replacing Martin Hehir in his first year on the team- too much to ask. BTW, go to Hehir's twitter and there is a link to his daily training- wish more pros would do this.

No. He needs to finish top 20 (maybe top 25) and Knight, Bennie, Germano and Hubbard need to shave a combined 10 (or 15) points from where they finished last year.

Bekekelele wrote:

Reserves for dinner wrote:

Syracuse did win the NCAA tittle last year with all 7 guys originating from 5 hours of campus. I

Yeah, what happened to the down-home, blue collar Chris Fox? I won't troll and say he's importing runners, as I know that isn't this case, but still...

I don't understand why people care seem to care so much whether or not Cuse uses local talent or not. What's the difference? Are you that much of a narrow-minded bigot that you think they have to win nats with all Aryans from the northeast in order to be legitimate?

Besides, if you won a national championship and a stud approached you and wanted to transfer and come run for you, would you say no because he was foreign? Gimme a break

The point is that Fox was all uppity last year about using local kids and everybody is from a few hours away etc. He was tooting the Wetmore no internationals horn and doing it with blue collar local kids only. We all understand that he will sell out on what he said and take the Italian kid but he's being a hypocrite doing it. I have zero problem with internationals but if you are going to be acting like you don't and don't have to have them on your team but then the very next year have them, you paint yourself with a certain brush.

Yeah but when a 13:55 true freshman approaches any coach about transferring, the only thing that would turn them away from that talent is the runners attitude and if they fit in. I'm sure he still prides himself on the talent he gets locally, but he's not gonna pass up on getting a very talented runner in Aouani all because the year before he said he doesn't go for internationals.

if you the think the coach is uppity and tooting a horn, you don't know the sport very well- or at least you don't know the people very well. But I guess it's all good, fans can be opinionated and wrong and it's all about having people care. So carry on.

Gjbjhhjkhkjhjk wrote:

Don't expect that to happen wrote:

[quote]Robert Cane wrote:

...

So he "only" needs to finish top 10? LOL, no pressure.

He is a great addition, but replacing Martin Hehir in his first year on the team- too much to ask. BTW, go to Hehir's twitter and there is a link to his daily training- wish more pros would do this.

No. He needs to finish top 20 (maybe top 25) and Knight, Bennie, Germano and Hubbard need to shave a combined 10 (or 15) points from where they finished last year.

Ok, we are almost there.

Knight has been doing better than last year and he is expected to come top 3 (perhaps even win)

Bennie started the season slowly, but has been improving week after week. He came 2nd at Northeast regional yesterday (same as he did last year), but competition was not as strong as last year. I don't see him coming in the top 10 this year (perhaps top 15), but that is digging a hole for the team.

Aouani began the year very strong, but had problems later on. He was a strong 3rd for Syracuse at regionals yesterday, but I still have trouble seeing him finish in the top 25.

Both Germano and Hubbard finished higher than they did last year at regionals. However, competition was not as strong this year. Could they both be top 30?

NAU and Stanford would have to underperform and Syracuse would need to overperform to win.

That being said, yesterday's performance (by Bennie and Aouani) brings back Syracuse in the top 5 teams (in my opinion), with an outside shot for the win.