navalbum wrote:
Army looks unstoppable and they will qualify for NCAA’s.
They looked pretty crappy at Paul Short last weekend...
navalbum wrote:
Army looks unstoppable and they will qualify for NCAA’s.
They looked pretty crappy at Paul Short last weekend...
Colgate2019champs wrote:
navalbum wrote:
Army looks unstoppable and they will qualify for NCAA’s.
They looked pretty crappy at Paul Short last weekend...
Defending champion Bucknell women might not be top 5 and could be down as far as 7th. Bucknell men are looking at 5th place right now, possibly 6th because Lafayette actually looks decent.
Sad times for the Bison. Donner usually peaks his team at the right time, but they will need some teams to implode for the Bison to be even 5th.
Brophy and Murray look unstoppable right now, but hopefully they're not peaking too early. New Navy coach seems to be getting it done at the top, at least for flat and fast courses. Army must be in a big training block or got boxed in at Paul Short to have such an off showing. Either way they still win PL's as there won't be nearly as many runners to spike the scoring and they still beat Navy. Bucknell men seemed way off in the Brown race. American (almost all freshmen) is running without a few scorers so could be in a tight battle with Lafayette for 4th if they get back in time for PL's.
One key observation from Paul Short. The Gold race leaders hit the mile in 4:38, the Brown race in 4:50. The pace of the Gold race throughout was insane and pulled guys to big PRs for everyone, notably Lehigh. PLs at Colgate will be a completely different kind of race with the hills and likely no real racing for the first 2 miles. It will be fun to see. My money's on a healthy Brophy on a flat course as I don't think anyone can outkick him, but at Colgate, it will be a 3 or 4 man race with 800 to go.
Not sure what to expect on the women's side, but a lot of talent at the top seems to have graduated, so it's wide open.
The American women and men both won today at Lafayette’s invite. The women beat Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh and the men beat Bucknell and Lafayette. 5/7 of the men, including 4 of their scorers, are freshman so things are really looking up for them in the coming years.
Go Birds wrote:
The American women and men both won today at Lafayette’s invite. The women beat Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh and the men beat Bucknell and Lafayette. 5/7 of the men, including 4 of their scorers, are freshman so things are really looking up for them in the coming years.
Bucknell and Lehigh ran their best runners at Penn State. They would probably go 1-5 against American.
American is young but it has been sad times since the Centro days. They used to qualify for the NCAA XC Championships.
Lafayette kicked their asses at Paul Short, and they tempoed their home meet today.
American is a poor excuse for a scholarship team.
Centro spent his last 10 years running that program into the ground though. He wouldn’t give out all of his scholarships, he would give athletes just a singlet and warmups then donate the rest of the funds back to the school, and he’d pocket most of the athletes meal money at races. I didn’t go to AU solely because on my visit, he made our (multiple sub 4:15 recruits) hosts tell us that he couldn’t meet with us because he was out of town, and then we ran into him on campus by accident. I later heard that he just thought meeting with recruits was beneath him. That’s something you can get away with at a massive school like Oregon but not an expensive private school like AU. I also remember seeing him sound asleep and hungover on a high jump mat at indoor PL’s a few years back and his team look mortified. They had like a 10% retention rate by the time he was done and then he was forced out. Graham is at least recruiting some good kids and building a strong program for the future. Top 2 guys led from 2 miles on and this is only their 3rd or 4th 8k ever. Still a lot to look forward to.
Last race is in the books going into PL’s. Who’s your top 5 teams?
1. Navy
2.Army
3.Boston
4.Lehigh
5.Bucknell
Brophy will go out and dominate the field until 2k to go and then out of nowhere will come Paul Luevano to reclaim what is rightfully his and banish the souls of the non-believers to the netherworld.
Scholarship team? Like 2 total maybe. The Centro days are gone. Give this program 2 years and they'll be back in the mix.
Mens top 7 prediction for PLs:
Navy
Army
BU
Lehigh
American
Lafayette
Bucknell
PL predictions
1. Navy
2. Army
3. Boston
4 - 8 is a crapshoot. Bucknell hasn't shown much but they're always a threat. Lehigh can't finish a season strong. Lafayette and American could sneak in and cause some trouble. Same with Holy Cross.
Jake Brophy will destroy everyone.
Men:
1. Army
2. Navy
3. Boston
4. Lehigh
5. Bucknell
Women:
1. Boston
2. Army
3. Navy
4. Bucknell
5. Lehigh
Pasqual Rodriguez wrote:
PL predictions
1. Navy
2. Army
3. Boston
4 - 8 is a crapshoot. Bucknell hasn't shown much but they're always a threat. Lehigh can't finish a season strong. Lafayette and American could sneak in and cause some trouble. Same with Holy Cross.
Jake Brophy will destroy everyone.
paul short results:
navy 2323 2328 2410 2421 2456
army 2357 2408 2411 2430 2434
boston 2357 2408 2453 2502 2512
Lehigh 2424 2425 2449 2454 2517
american 2509 2518 2525 2602 2611
Lafayette 2511 2527 2531 2534 2545
holy cross 2528 2545 2548 2556 2556
bucknell (looks like they took their top group to UVA) 2525 2534 2543 2605 2611
calling 4-8 a crapshoot is laughable. american, lafayette and holy cross all have improving young teams, which is awesome to see! Lehigh averaged 12 secs faster per man at penn state than bucknell. Let's be realistic here, american, lafayette and holy cross are not on the same level as lehigh (and by extension bucknell). Bucknell brought its top 12 runners to penn state, and still managed to have two guys break up american's top 5. Navy and Army are in a dogfight for the win (Navy's low sticks won't help as much in a smaller PL race and I'd pick army's depth to win it for them), Boston is likely third with a stronger top two and similar depth to Lehigh, with lehigh 4th and bucknell a bit back of them in fifth. Lafayette has a solid group but they won't be close to bucknell.
You underestimate the classic underperformance of Lehigh at Leagues.
Also, “navy’s low sticks won’t help as much in a smaller PL race”, Navy just beat Army in a dual meet...
Comparing times between Paul Short Gold and Brown races may not be fair given the ridiculous times run this year, but doubt it makes much of a difference. Looking forward to an exciting meet at Colgate!
Breaking News: Sources have confirmed that Jake Brophy has been preparing for this years Patriot League Championships by doing workouts underwater: 10x1minute underwater with 5 seconds rest. He then shotguns Red Bull to give him the energy to power up the Ski Slopes at Colgate. He calls this workout the Knight Slayer. A source tells Letsrun.com.
Rumor is Army will have to road march back to West Point in ACU’s and full gear if they lose to Navy.
we need a head count for the post-Patriots mixer; please forward all RSVP's by Wednesday s'il vous plait. cover is $5 unless you're from a service academy, in which case we'll let you in for free and attempt to get a tax deduction out of it. looking forward to fostering community and camaraderie throughout this esteemed league, direct any inquiries to the Birch Guy
Uncle Sammy wrote:
Rumor is Army will have to road march back to West Point in ACU’s and full gear if they lose to Navy.
In return, how did they celebrate? Drive tanks back or something.
Fascinating stuff. Navy wins Army-Navy by 2 but loses Patriot League by 3.
The question I have is which season would they prefer to have? Win conference but lose Army-Navy or win Army-Navy but lose conference, particularly when the conference includes both academies.
https://www.tfrrs.org/results/xc/16263/Patriot_League_Cross_Country_ChampionshipsSpot on for men, Uncle Sammy.