Official 2017 D3 Cross Country Thread

It's ironic how teams (MIT, PP, wartburg) that usually blow at natties bring up these "studs" they got. You're just putting these dudes on blast when they get destroyed by bread and butter 4:30/9:45 HS recruits.

P.S. this is a strong LAX recruiting class. Our top 5 recruits beat eau claire's top 5 in the wiac summer case race.

LaxBro wrote:

It's ironic how teams (MIT, PP, wartburg) that usually blow at natties bring up these "studs" they got. You're just putting these dudes on blast when they get destroyed by bread and butter 4:30/9:45 HS recruits.

P.S. this is a strong LAX recruiting class. Our top 5 recruits beat eau claire's top 5 in the wiac summer case race.

Wartburg regularly gets studs? This is news to me and everybody else...

Also MIT and PP are a legitimate institutions of higher education, unlike the WIACs.

I agree. Having run for Wartburg, very seldom do we even get the "bread and butter" 9:45/4:30 types. Maybe 5 of those guys in the last 7-8 years. LAX should be good though, right? 10,000+ enrollment with nearly community college prices. It's not the runner's fault that the school is D3 and not D2 like it should be, but the LAX dudes sure tend to be douchey anyway. That said, I'll still root for them over NCC.

chipndale12 wrote:

I agree. Having run for Wartburg, very seldom do we even get the "bread and butter" 9:45/4:30 types. Maybe 5 of those guys in the last 7-8 years. LAX should be good though, right? 10,000+ enrollment with nearly community college prices. It's not the runner's fault that the school is D3 and not D2 like it should be, but the LAX dudes sure tend to be douchey anyway. That said, I'll still root for them over NCC.

Want some more salt on those chips?

Henyom wrote:

Any stud incoming freshman that anyone knows about?

While this promotes fun conversations where schools can brag about their incoming classes, it really is meaningless. It is so rare that a freshman comes in and contributes on a national level right away. Conference level, yes. Regional level, maybe. But very rarely at nationals.

Take this past fall as an example. There was 2 freshman in the entire top 100.

The year before there were 4 in the top 100. Albeit three of them were from North Central and that makes an impact, but none were higher than 65th.

I'm gonna be just a freshman but I'm just wondering, do the best schools typically do the most mileage? I'm assuming North Central does a lot of miles, do anyone know what a typical week for them looks like?

It's case-by-case with each athlete. Some are high mileage guys, others aren't. There really isn't a magical number. That said, there does seem to be a correlation with teams doing higher mileage doing better.

I would ask your coach. He or she should provide you with a summer plan.

Milesonmilesonmiles wrote:

I'm gonna be just a freshman but I'm just wondering, do the best schools typically do the most mileage? I'm assuming North Central does a lot of miles, do anyone know what a typical week for them looks like?

Some prefer high mileage, but the real champs go low mileage, high JPDs. Take North Central for example. Since they never interact with their girls team past insta-stalking their JPDs are through the roof. Some runners are known to actually have their weekly jerks exceed their weekly miles.

Unfortunately because of this North Central has a high attrition rate. The chafing cases that come out of that program are OUTRAGEOUS. Carpal tunnel syndrome and low-T are also common symptoms.

Hope this has been helpful and informative. Remember, friends don't let friends jerk dry.

Team Predictions

1. North Central

2. LAX

3. Hopkins

4. Loras

5. MIT

I was a midwest D3 guy and now live out east. I am shocked that Christopher Newport University has not produced anything. They get better talent than most of the schools in the midwest, but have not produced at all. Can think of one guy in particular that was killing it in hs, hasn't done anything yet at CNU. Will they ever be able to turn their great recruits into anything to compete with the midwest teams?

CNU is a national level team when healthy. Sadly, that is rarely the case. Combining wicked high mileage with insane workouts leads to most of the team getting injured. When they are healthy they are incredible, but that is rarely the case.

rvacoach12 wrote:

CNU is a national level team when healthy. Sadly, that is rarely the case. Combining wicked high mileage with insane workouts leads to most of the team getting injured. When they are healthy they are incredible, but that is rarely the case.

This is the case for every program. Injuries are a natural part of the sport. If you aren't having at least a handful of guys get injured, then you aren't training hard enough. The funny thing is, that statement will probably rub people the wrong way but prove me wrong. Name a great (Top 3 team) over the last 5 years that has managed to keep their entire core healthy for extended periods of time (ie: more than just one season).

Its always a knock on schools like North Central that their injury rate is high but when you have 40 guys on a team, having 5-8 guys injured isn't that crazy. Think of a normal team of about 12-15 guys, you're typically going to have 2-3 injured which is the exact same rate.

Well this just took a weird turn, http://va.milesplit.com/articles/214615-cnu-distance-coach-matthew-barreau-let-gowrongful-termination-or-not. Didn't know that until well after I posted this morning.

What do you mean has not produced haha?

Not 100% of recruits turn out.

CNU has some great returners. 4 sub 15 guys. An all american in the 5k and an all american in 1500.

CNU in the past 4 years. 2013- 4th in the "slow" south

2014- 4th in the "slow" south

2015- 2nd in region and 32nd at nationals

2016- region champs and 11th in the nation

They're going through the recent firing of their coach and that might just piss them off enough to contend for a trophy in 2017

Thoughts on the Mideast region teams? Obviously Hopkins and Dickinson are going to be big but who else? What do you think the status of Widener will be without their big 2?

my prediction is that the SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN BABY

2 all americans in the 1500 but only one returns. have another 1500 guy that had injuries last cross season that is all american caliber in the 15. they return a great team thats definitely fired up right now. Im thinking the same, how pissed off they are, they might just contend for top 5, maybe a trophy

Maybe 5 4:30/9:45 guys in the last 7-8 years? You're joking right? Wartburg had 4 guys on this years track team alone that ran either sub 4:30 or sub 9:30 or both.

DIVIII wrote:

What do you mean has not produced haha?

Not 100% of recruits turn out.

CNU has some great returners. 4 sub 15 guys. An all american in the 5k and an all american in 1500.

CNU in the past 4 years. 2013- 4th in the "slow" south

2014- 4th in the "slow" south

2015- 2nd in region and 32nd at nationals

2016- region champs and 11th in the nation

They're going through the recent firing of their coach and that might just piss them off enough to contend for a trophy in 2017

Wait...there's a South Region in DIII?