Well now that the Atlantic Region was a rather large disappointment at the 2019 outdoor track nationals, lets see how they can do this year. I can't wait to see how they will mess up having some of the best teams in the country this year.
Top 20 teams: Short, sweet and to the point.
1. RPI - Falasco[SR], Domanico[SR], J. Davis[JR], Jaques[JR], Kloman[SR], Putrino[SR], Napora[SR], Capobianco[SR]
2. Geneseo - McAneny[SR], Farnham[JR], Holtzman[SR], Sayre[JR], Grossman[SO], Hoelzl[SR], C. Davis[SO], Viscosi[JR]
3. SLU - Ogetti[SR], Vielhauer[SR], Mortensen[SR], Remillard[SR], Bingham[SO], Benkard[JR], Elmour[JR], Feeney[JR]
4. Ithaca - Singer[JR], Stewart[SR], Bampos[SR], Tinti[SR], Jagoe[SO], Endy[SO], Wilson[SR]
5. RIT - Kovacs[SR], Beaudry[JR], Lino[JR], Chabot[SR], Luba[JR], Kolhathar[JR], Brewer[JR]
6. Oneonta - McDonald[SR], Palmer[SR], Dellabough[SR], Ryan[SR], Farrell[JR], O'Rourke[JR], Ahearn[SO]
7. Brockport - Kuehn[SR], Wallace[JR], Jarvis[SR], Sidlauskas[JR], Boyzok[SR], O'Brien[SR], Carey[JR]
8. Rowan - Russo[SR], Harvey[SO], Caruso[SR], Muermann[SR], Onu[JR], Tyrrell[SR], D'Augusta[JR]
9. NYU - Karam[SR], Spector[JR], Klein[JR], Heintz[SR], Sussman[JR], Cusick[SR], Mayo[SO]
10. TCNJ - Mayhew[SO], Nogueria[JR], Abrams[JR], Falk[SO], Kole[JR], Carideo[JR], Milligan[SO]
11. Rochester - Allara[JR], Frantz[SR], Robinson[SR], Orsini[SO], Glazier[SO], Gwilt[SR], N. Davis[SR]
12. New Paltz - Wilson[SR], Van Riper[SO], Whitworth[SR], D'Antonio[SO], Tso[JR], Sutta[SR], Rubin[JR]
13. Vassar - Ferreter[JR], Dolan[JR], Millard[SR], Casalino[SO], Dwyer[SR], Gann[JR], Edington[JR]
14. Ramapo - Anderson[SO], Zisa[JR], DeLaCruz[SR], Stephenson[SR], Rodriguez[JR], Campbell[SO], Petropoulos[JR]
15. Hamilton - Wright[JR], Murdick[SR], Lyon[SO], Steffey[SO], Ross[SR], Skeldon[SR], Zuroski[SR]
16. Utica - Marlow[SR], Rodgers[SR], Engelhart[JR], Reed[SO], Cangialosi[SR], Howard[SR], Howe[SO]
17. Cortland - McCandless[SR], Konotopskyj[SR], Braun[SO], Verde[SO], Santiago[SO], Thurston[JR], Laettner[SO]
18. Stockton - Do[JR], Knorr[JR], Fellin[JR], Cohen[SR], Conte[JR], Toth[JR], Mansfield[SR]
19. Clarkson - Cronin[SO], Byrnes[SO], Richardson[SR], George[JR], Zehr[SO], Strempel[JR], Valckenaere[SO]
20. St. John Fisher - Daoust[SR], Ford[SO], Stokoe[SO], Guzman[SO], Karr[SO], Trivison[SO], Yeager[SO]
Other Individuals: Dillon VanDemortel[SO] (Cobleskill), Tyler Deuschle[SR] (Houghton), Noah Valvo[JR] (SUNY Poly), Dylan Peters[JR] (Stevens), Merlin Padilla Jr.[SR] (CCNY), Jake Catalano[SR] (Stevens), Andrew Horan[JR] (Plattsburgh), Josh Wasserman[SR] (Hobart), Luke Groves[JR] (Plattsburgh), Chris Kipp[JR] (Stevens).
1. RPI - Still the best team in the region, although Geneseo has closed the gap somewhat. Regionals will not be a blowout like last year but they should still win. Led by All-American Noah Falasco who along with Joe Domanico will challenge Sean McAneny for the individual title. Junior Jacob Davis will also help lead this team to their second team title in a row.
2. Geneseo - As unfortunate it is to hear that Jackson Tate has suffered a career-ending hip injury, this team will still be as tough as ever as they look to beat RPI and re-gain their title. Sean McAneny disappointed at Outdoor Nationals but he's the favorite coming into Regionals this year.
3. SLU - A team on a big comeback, SLU had three strong individual performances coming from Dadley Ogetti, Nick Vielhauer, and Patrick Mortensen. They only need one more strong individual to mix it up with the top two teams.
4. Ithaca - One of the best distance programs during indoor and outdoor track, Ithaca and Chris Singer return with a lot more depth than they have in the past and they will be in good contention for a Nationals berth this year I believe. The Liberty League is much stronger than the SUNYAC at this point.
5. RIT - RIT will still be strong despite having a weak Outdoor track season. They always seem to bring it to Regionals even if it means they are out of gas come Nationals, but this year I think they will come up just short of Nationals as they lack the depth the teams above them have.
6. Oneonta - Ethan McDonald is a runner from Oneonta who sort of hides under the rader in my opinion. He can keep up with the big guys in XC and expect him to be a top 5 individual, his team however seems to slide a bit from their performances the past couple of years.
7. Brockport - The big surprise at Regionals last year returns a lot of their runners. They did pretty good in Outdoor Track so why not get top 7 at Regionals?
8. Rowan - Rowan is another team on a bit of a slide lately, but they will be back at some point I believe it. Just not this year.
9. NYU - NYU struggled at Regionals last year and are in a down period along with the other teams mentioned. They have good depth mid-range but no top end runner to compete for a top 15 spot at Regionals.
10. TCNJ - TCNJ surprisingly won the NJAC conference last year and will remain in close contention with Rowan this year for a top 10 spot at Regionals.
It's going to be a good year, let's hope for some good weather in Cross Country this year, we all need a break after the weather last year I'd like to think.