MIAC Track 2017

OKAY FINE I'LL START, jeez...

Predictions for indoor!

400m

1. Carleton Freshman (Jerry's brother)

2. Saint John's Freshman

3. Bethel Freshman

This will be my favorite event (other than Jovan's 5k) for the indoor meet. This isn't a joke. All three have freshman coming in who have run sub-49.xx their JUNIOR year of high school. That's nuts.

600m

1. Carl Klamm

2. Isaac Krause

3. David Supinski

This event is very determinant upon whether Dongson (sorry, Jerry

Whoops...

400m

1. Carleton Freshman (Jerry's brother)

2. Saint John's Freshman

3. Bethel Freshman

This will be my favorite event (other than Jovan's 5k) for the indoor meet. This isn't a joke. All three have freshman coming in who have run sub-49.xx their JUNIOR year of high school. That's nuts.

600m

1. Carl Klamm

2. Isaac Krause

3. David Supinski

This event is very determinant upon whether Dongson (sorry, Jerry

OKAY FINE I'LL START, jeez...

Predictions for indoor!

400m

1. Carleton Freshman (Jerry's brother)

2. Saint John's Freshman

3. Bethel Freshman

This will be my favorite event (other than Jovan's 5k) for the indoor meet. This isn't a joke. All three have freshman coming in who have run sub-49.xx their JUNIOR year of high school. That's nuts.

600m

1. Carl Klamm

2. Isaac Krause

3. David Supinski

This event is very determinant upon whether Dongson (sorry, Jerry) decides to focus more on the 1500m for outdoor as he indicated after nationals. If he does, he will more than likely run events 800m and up indoors.

*also, yes, I literally just put the next top 3 on Raceberry as the 3 favorites..THIS IS A STRESSFUL JOB

800m

1. Evan Hatton

2. Little Jerry

3. Nolan Ebner

Evan Hatton will benefit from another strong base from cross, add it to his already impressive footspeed, and develop a concoction that will have me trying to get him to hang out with me after meet. Answer your phone Evan. pls.

1000m

1. Sean Bjork

2. Matthew Lillehaugen

3. Allen-Michael Burback

Upset city!! Sean Bjork will bounce back from a cross season to forget (literally, did he even run?) and win the coveted indoor MIAC 1000m title! *NOTE* Will be weakest event indoors

Mile

1. Joe Coffey

2. Donson Cook-Gallardo

3. Jacob Eggers

Jerry will try and win what will be set up as a dress rehearsal before nationals, but he will throw up the Carleton "C" at the line and get beat by .0001 of a second. Jacob Eggers continues his impressive feat of being rather bad at racing. Great at running fast times! Not great at racing.

3k

1. Ryan Bugler

2. Thomas Knobbe

3. James Logan

Saint John's is notorious for training through indoor, so I wanted to have someone beating Bugler here...but WTF! Who am I supposed to pick?? Knobbe is the closest, but he'll be tired from winning the 5k (see next event) and Bugler has never lost to him at MIAC (pronounced MEE-acks). James Logan is somehow both the favorite and the dark horse for 3rd place here. He has been improving in the 3k by a lot every year..

5k

1. Thomas Knobbe

2. Jovan Newsum

3. Paul Timm

Paul Timm is back!..kind of.. hampered by injury from what I can only assume is due to running sub 5 min. miles all summer, he will be back to run a PR in the 5k at MIAC. Unfortunately, too much ground to make up on both Knobbe and Newsum who have had stellar-ish cross seasons.

10k

..just kidding...

DMR

1. Carleton stacks it

2. Bethel stacks it

3. Saint Olaf semi stacks it (still better than anyone else's team)

This will be THE event to watch this indoor season. Carleton, Bethel, and Olaf will be national qualifiers in this event. Carleton is loaded, Bethel's achilles heel is a lack of an elite miler (Connor Haugen is a 4:23 miler, still good), and Olaf's achilles heel is lack of a 400m leg...if that is even a real problem...

That was a rough start...

400m

1. Manni Egbujor

2. Donson's little brother (has there ever been so much hype behind a frosh?)

3. Morris Dennis

600m

1.Carl Klamm

2. Isaac Krause

3. David Supinski

1000m

1. Donson Cook-Gallardo

2. Sean Bjork

3. Allen-Michael Burback

mile

1. Joe Coffey

2. Donson Cook-Gallardo

3. Connor Haugen

3k

1. Joe Coffey

2. Ryan Bugler

3. Thomas Knobbe

5k.

1. Jovan Newsum

2. Thomas Knobbe

3. Paul Timm

I think with the 4x400, DMR, 400, 600, 800, and 1000, it's impossible to know who's doing what yet. Some might move up to the mile (Bjork, Eggers, Hatton, Cook, Burback) while others might just do 400, 4x400, or DMRs trying to get to nationals (Klamm, Wahlstedt).

Claster Fack wrote:

I think with the 4x400, DMR, 400, 600, 800, and 1000, it's impossible to know who's doing what yet. Some might move up to the mile (Bjork, Eggers, Hatton, Cook, Burback) while others might just do 400, 4x400, or DMRs trying to get to nationals (Klamm, Wahlstedt).

I agree with this^^

That said, there is some predictability. I mean, you have to assume that the seniors will stay in the events they have been doing. How often do we see them changing to new events during their last year?

That said, Hatton, Burback, Cook, etc., they could make the change up in distance.

Who is going to take home the team title this year???

St. Thomas...that's who...

Tommies are quite likely to take home the team title. SJU, Hamline, Carleton, and Olaf have their strengths but if we have learned anything over the last 31 years, it's that its pretty hard to beat the Tommies' depth at conference.

Short Sprints:

Augsburg should find a way to sweep the top spot in the 60/200 with a combination of Egbujor and Undre. Wouldn't be surprised if Eckholm of UST makes the "leap" and wins one or the other. Johnnies have strong depth here. Points: Augsburg: 25, UST: 15, SJU: 15

Long Springs:

I'm prepared to believe the Cook hype. However, the conference returns some strong performers in the 400--Egbujor, Dennis, Kordah, & Klamm.

Points: Bethel 20 (Klamm and Hatton), Augsburg 15, Carleton 8, SMU 8, CC 8

Mid-Distance:

Let's face it, xc sucked, and things aren't magically going to be the same on the track 800m and up. Jake and Paul are gone. I'm sad too. We'll know by Snowshoe whether Jerry has a bit of study abroad hangover. But, a little r&r was probably good for the kid after a bumb knee last year in xc and a stress fracture outdoor. Things seem like they'll be pretty wide open in the 800 after Jerry, but Hatton, Burback, and Withbro seem like they'll put up points. Don't think we'll see Ebner out in full-force early--didn't run xc (study abroad? or injury?) and has been booted up outdoor the last 2 seasons. Coffey, Eggers, and Bjork are the next men up in the 1k/Mile. I bet we will see at least one in the 8.

Points: STO 30, Carleton 25, UST 15, Bethel 15

Distance:

Gusties, Oles, Johnnies, and Newsum battle it out in the 3 and 5. I like Bugler in the 3000. Interested to see whether he runs the 5, but a Friday DMR would also make sense as a double.

Points: GAC 20, STO 15, SMU 15, SJU 15

I like the method of team points rather than picking individuals.

The glory years are behind the MIAC in terms of distance domination, unfortunately. This will be a hangover year where all of us have to come to terms with that.

Now, we're just an average conference who will only come back with 2 All-American perfromances (Jerry and an Olaf DMR).

Throws:

Many of you won't have noticed, but the MIAC was LIT last year in the shot. Hamline had 3 All-Americans Outdoor, and they all are back. UST also had a qualifier who was 9th. Though not to same degree, the Weight Throw was also solid and dominated by UST and Hamline. Bethel and SJU should snag some of the leftover points.

Points: Hamline 35, UST 20, SJU 5, Bethel 5

Jumps:

LJ--UST scored 27 points in the Long Jump last year and they're all back. Dwight Alexander of Carleton and Kordah should snag the remaining points.

Points: UST 25, AUG 5, Carleton 5

TJ--Hamline should pick up 10 points from Bakari (Indoor and Outdoor champ as a FR). Johnnies continue to pump out points in this event, as does UST.

Points: Hamline 10, UST 10, SJU 10

HJ--O'Neill should score a few coming off multi. Carleton, Concordia, and UST battle it out for the team points.

Points: Carleton 10, UST 10, Concordia 10

Vault:

Tommies and Johnnies should dominate. Connor O'Neill will win.

Points: UST 15, SJU 10, Conc 5,

Multi:

UST, Concordia, and Carleton are the only teams that care about this event. O'Neill v Buckner should be good. Buckner overcame a couple hundred point deficit in the 15 outdoor for a 4 point win.

Points: 15 UST, 15 Concordia, 10 Carleton

Relays:

Rich get richer. Johnnies and Tommies. Don't sleep on Hamline. Could this be the year Olaf runs a good DMR?

Team Standings based on these predictions, no relays included:

--Tier 1--

1. UST 125

--Tier 2--

2. Carleton 58

3. SJU 55

4. Hamline 45

5. STO 45

--Tier 3--

6. AUG 45

7. Bethel 40

--Tier 4--

8. Conc 30

9. SMU 23

10. GAC 20

--Just Tears--

11. MAC 0, if Hindwood isn't fit, Ebner isn't ready, and they drop a baton, they could go home with 0 points. IMO they'll find a few points, but they graduated their sure-fire points.

Why is AUG is tier 3 instead of 2? They rely on a few athletes to score all their points and are, in my mind, unlikely to pick up a few surprise points the way Hamline and St. Olaf might, and are less likely to score well in the relays as a result of their studs being spread out among a number of individual events. I could see Bethel in tier 2 as well.

I'm interested to see how coaches approach the indoor season with Conference moved 2 weeks ahead of nationals. Will teams go harder early? Or, will they de-emphasize the indoor season?

Death, Taxes, and UST wrote:

I'm interested to see how coaches approach the indoor season with Conference moved 2 weeks ahead of nationals. Will teams go harder early? Or, will they de-emphasize the indoor season?

I doubt teams will "go harder early" and de-emphasize the indoor season, as a 1 week shift of the conference meet doesn't really make a significant difference. I allows national caliber guys to run multiple events at MIACs without the risk of being tired for the following week, so you won't have situations like the Olaf guys only running 1 event each or Hart Hornor running a hard 3K the day after getting his 5K qualifier and then having the national 5K six days later. The team the change affects the most is St John's, as they usually don't start racing until February and the only big meet they went to before MIACs was The Qualifier at Olaf, which doesn't exist anymore. For the other teams I'd expect this season will be business as usual, just with the conference taper one week early.

I'm interested to see what teams/coaches choose to do with the weekend in between MIACs and nationals. There's going to be a last chance meet at Olaf - will full squads compete there or will schools choose to only bring national level guys?

That last chance meet is going to be lit.

I bet a ton of schools from around the midwest, not just D3 schools, will be showing up.

I wonder if this means that the distance runners who don't typically peak for indoor now will? I mean, with a longer break between seasons (unless they qualify for nationals), that could be beneficial.

track is all one deal. indoor fitness leads right into outdoor. there's just a one month split between competition is all. also, every other conference has been doing it this way the whole time, it's about time the miac switched to this format.

Speaking of peaking. Did any MIAC athletes pull off impressive turkey day runs?

I haven't heard of anything.

Anyone else?

LOL no one runs over Thanksgiving break

27 flat at 5000 ft seems legit