Top S/SE Region DIII XC Individuals/ Early Team Preview?

Well I mentioned Riggs earlier a very good 8k guy.. I expect if he's healthy will be up there in the lead pack at the regional level.. He finished a half of a second in front of Hiegel at Nationals but both finished 10 secs or so behind Reid. A lot has been said about Hiegel but I think he's a bit fragil.. Reid is more durable and I see no reason to think he won't win at the regional level.. Again, Sullivan out of Emory could be the only true threat..I m going to be rash and state that all these guys mentioned above including Fields could finish top 25 at Nats.

I would argue that Hiegel has the least chance at success out of these three given Flynn and Bridgewater's utter inability to develop higher end talent. Reid has the aerobic capacity to continue improving, considering what he did in the 10k this year, however. Hiegel seems to be the inconsistent one because he didn't come anywhere near 14:46 at any other point this past season. It would be far more ludicrous to extrapolate Hiegel out to sub 14 than Reid and I would be more cautious and informed with predictions like that.

Flynn is a great coach and has done a tremendous job at Bridgewater. To get on here and make a claim like that, is uncalled for. Have you ever read his bio? The guy can flat coach and put runners in a place to be successful.

Reid, Hiegel, Sullivan, Riggs, and Fields are all fantastic runners and it is great for the Region to have such a pool of talent right now.

I'm not going to get into the sub 14 question but I will say that I think Flynn has done a great job at Bridgewater. I know that Hiegel had serious health problems last year but despite that Flynn got him into good enough shape to get 2nd in the 10.000m at the ODAC championship and then basically pull an upset victory in the 5000m against Mac Strehler not an easy feat..Bridgewater is loaded with talent in track and field and will dominate the conference for the next several years..They have less depth in the distance arena but Hiegel is a top notch distance guy, just not a very consistant one yet...I think where Flynn and Bridgewater have struggled is recruiting top XC guys to their team.. I have mentioned before the S/SE will have CNU stepping onto the national scene again this year...and possibly 4 and maybe even 5 All Americans on the individual scene.

I think this year will be very telling in the sense that it will reveal whether Flynn can coach Jamie to continued improvement, lest ye not forget the legend of Luke Sohl. A 14:34 as a sophomore would have seemed unstoppable yet he didn't touch that time as a junior or senior. The victory over Strehler says little, Jamie didn't win an embattled race, rather he ran a somewhat respectable time as the Washington and Lee runners sat back with a clinched victory. And past Weidman, the depth just isn't there so for you to be saying that Bridgewater will be dominating the conference for the next several years is placing a lot of faith in the sprints, jumps, and throws.

I too have noticed that about Leroy. I think he has a lot of potential, but he looks like a bit of a head case for W&L. Or maybe he's just "soft."

I'm with you about Leroy. I checked out his TFFRS. he has more DNFs than finishes.

I think the real sleeper in the region is Baird from W&L. he was second-team all-odac in XC last year. the potential that kid has is unreal.

This kind of pisses me off ..Im actually a big S/SE Region fan.. We are lucky to have the talent we do now emerging into the light..CNU's program has been great.. emerging up in the rankings and challenging the old guard.. Flynn's track program is impressive as well especially on the girls side..they were nationally ranked..I don't understand how this became a thread on Flynn but since we are on the subject he has produced the top female sprinter in all of DIII, and a female discus thrower who I think finished 4th in the nation last year..they've been strong in the sprints and jumps for the last several years..and their throwing program took a huge leap forward last year .I cant see how you deny that Flynn and his program are not talented...Didn't their girls win their conference?? and placed at the Outdoor Nats? Pretty sure they did..Whether he can develop his distance guys into a strong xc program is yet to be seen..but I wouldn't bet against Flynn .. we have some good guys and girls and teams to talk about in this region.. and it's going to be fun to watch

All I see here is a bunch of BC and WL shitposts. Will everyone simply ignore the threat from Roanoke College? Returning senior Justin Ginnings is an obvious favorite for the regional individual title, with a belt in the ODAC 1500m and an impressive victory in the Roanoke-Emory & Henry Relay Challenge in 2015. Not to mention upstart Howard Daniels, who made Strehler and Hiegel bleed in the ODAC 10K, and would certainly have won if he'd only made his move a little later. Sure, a team title is unlikely, given that Bridgewater will likely place 5 in the top 10. But with WL's frontrunners MIA, you have to expect a show from the Maroons this year.

My predictions for team title:

1. Bridgewater (BC) - I happen to know they were holding back last year. You'd be surprised what you here from just outside the team's locker room, with a stethoscope pressed to the door

2. CNU - Grayson Reid is returning champion, and the team demolished the competition last year. But given that Lapointe's graduation and Reid's faltering in the NCAA 10K, I can't say a repeat looks likely

3. Roanoke (RC) - strong 1-2 punch, 3-5 needs to come out of the woodwork

4. Washington & Lee (WL) / Lynchburg (LC) - unlikely to show up. Baird of Smith could scrape their way into the top 10 on a good day

Top 10 Scoring:

1. RC

2. CNU

3. RC

4. BC

5. BC

6. BC

7. BC

8. BC

9. CNU

10. CNU

Reading all your top teams prediction:

Did Lynchburg College drop Cross Country ???

I like your spirit BW69...

This was copied from another thread: S/SE ; #18,#25,#27,#28 Possible All American Preview based on LY finish at Nationals!!

datadude wrote:

In case anybody was curious I went back to last years nats race and went ahead and removed anybody that has SR next to their name. Not saying this is a prediction, just a thought experiment.

1 Garcia-Cassani, Isaac JR SUNY Geneseo

2 Lau, Darin JR Wis.-Eau Claire

3 Maloney, Dennis SO MIT

4 Baldonado, Al SO North Central (Ill.)

5 Patel, Dhruvil SO North Central (Ill.)

6 Merriman, Sam JR Case Western

7 Woods, Henry JR Haverford

8 Hird, Zach SO North Central (Ill.)

9 O'Connor, Grant SO RPI

10 Bailey, James JR RIT

11 O'gara, David JR Washington U.

12 Bass, Alec JR Dubuque

13 Harms, Brett JR Wis.-Whitewater

14 Tope, Mason JR Loras

15 Treacy, Patrick SO Wis.-Eau Claire

16 Hodkinson, Brad SO Pacific Lutheran

17 McVey, Ian SO Ohio Northern

18 Reid, Grayson JR Christopher Newport

19 Reischling, Andy SO Pomona-Pitzer

20 Decker, Ben JR Williams

21 Kaczinski, Eli JR Wartburg

22 O'Keefe, Dan JR North Central (Ill.)

23 Sandoval, Julian SO Whittier

24 Patacsil, Dominic SO Wabash

25 LaPointe, John JR Christopher Newport

26 Myers, Preston FR Mount Union

27 Riggs, Nathan JR Centre

28 Hiegel, Robert JR Bridgewater (Va.)

29 Huang, Kevin JR Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

30 Fairley, Mark JR Central College

31 Burguete, Polo JR DePauw

32 Schultz, Thomas SO Wis.-La Crosse

33 Hussein, Mohamed JR Amherst

34 Mitchell, William SO Carnegie Mellon

35 Matteucci, Nick FR Washington U.

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8230589&page=5#ixzz4nJPmC55w

Buy your shoes from LetsRun and save 20% everday

http://www.letsrun.com/save

It is not unreasonable to think that there will be 3 SSE Region teams inside of the top 25 all season.

LaPointe is returning at CNU, did not graduate and Reid had a bad race at nationals, so what. 1 bad race isn't a death sentence. He's a very consistent guy. He was an Indoor All American. CNU will repeat as team champs. Too much talent and depth returning

Who will be their coach?

no announcement yet but I've heard some really good candidates were interviewed and athletes were excited

Its my opinion that CNU has a very real chance of finishing as a top 5 team at nationals..Of course, they have the depth to compensate even if they loose one of their top 5 guys with a highly talented bench. This is a team that will be the most talented team to come out of the S/SE Region in years!! The question turns to who will be number 2?

Great hire by CNU

To be honest I thought they had a very good coach to start with..I dont know the whole situation but if this was purely a political move than shame on CNU..I'm glad the runners there will have a good coach it sounds like Sarah is going to beable to keep the process moving on the positive direction that Barreau started but if what I think happened at CNU where a very successful coach was outed because he upset someone else's ego than I will never look at CNU the same way..I welcome Sarah Lagasse to the S/SE Region Family and she is certainly well qualified I hope she can heal the wounds of some very upset athletes and families of the CNU community. I wish Coach Barreau only the best and hope a good program recognizes his talent and picks him up soon. Ive watched him coach for the past 4 years and have been amazed at what he has accomplished. Taking basically an unknown program and developing it to a national level program...Best of Luck Matt!!!