Atantic Region XC - D3

RFXCrunner wrote:

I am glad to see that Kolb seems to be coming back, I was worried that after last year he would be out of it this year. I know missing most of two seasons of running would have messed me up, glad to see he is back on track.

Yeah, he is just pushing his way right to the top.

You could also add that he seems to be just "Chucking" his back problems aside

He had a back problem? That's Terryble!

Yup, that's what happens when he spends his time carrying your mom around. Oh Snap!

RFXCrunner wrote:

Wow, how come everybody is so down on TCNJ right now? They had one bad race, I really doubt that Paul Short was the best they could manage.

OK, seriously now Nateypants, think this one through. That wasn't just a bad race. The results look as if they sent their B squad by accident, except that they didnt. Those guys either imploded after a few miles, or never were in the race, either way that was a pathetic appearance. I almost thought they ran it as a workout, or ran a workout on Friday, but that doesnt make any sense. It was a big invite, and there is no reason to not perform well there.

A team like CNJ can only choke so badly, to say that abomination of a performance was just choking? No I don't believe that.

New poll is up for this week. http://www.brockport.edu/~athletics/Atlantic_CC/wkpoll.htm And as expected or unexpected (depending who you are), Cortland takes over the #1 spot pushing Geneseo to 2nd in the region. Cortland's A team held their own in the D1 meet and their B team won Lemoyne, quite a statement. It looks liek their top 4 guys can run with Geneseo's top 4 and Sunyacs and regionals are starting to look closer and more exiciting each week. RIT made some noise too giving Geneseo quite a scare at pre-regionals. Gotta give props to Jesse for a solid race. Kolb looks like he's on the way back and they will give Brockport a huge boost. Excitement....

What really sucks is teams like Brockport and St. Lawrence have made significant strides and are much better teams this year and it will for the most part go unnoticed because of how strong and top heavy the Atlantic Region is with Cortland, Geneseo, RIT, NYU and TCNJ. Those 5 teams could all very well be going to Nationals this year and Brockport and St. Lawrence will be two of the best 6 and 7 teams that will have to be staying home. Put them in any other region besides the Midwest and they'd have a legimitate shot at making it to Nationals.

Guys like Kolb, Berringer, Gaudette, and Donahoe will be left competing for an individual spot.

"one 'bad race'"? wrote:

OK, seriously now Nateypants, think this one through. That wasn't just a bad race. The results look as if they sent their B squad by accident, except that they didnt. Those guys either imploded after a few miles, or never were in the race, either way that was a pathetic appearance. I almost thought they ran it as a workout, or ran a workout on Friday, but that doesnt make any sense. It was a big invite, and there is no reason to not perform well there.

A team like CNJ can only choke so badly, to say that abomination of a performance was just choking? No I don't believe that.

Did you read my first post about them? Thats pretty much exactly what I said. Yes, it was a very very bad performance, no it makes no sense to run a big invite as a workout, nor does it make sense to train through it, but earlier results this season lead me to believe that is exactly what did happen. Either that or they are just really bad racers. Which they aren't. I just don't believe that they're that bad.

I dont understand why people think SLU is that good.

26:06 26:28 26:46 27:20 27:22 two weeks ago at Hoffman Invite which is ok but not exactly natty contenders no matter what year they run and 26:25 26:40 27:30 27:36 and 27:57 last week at Hamilton? I dont know they are a good team and deserve their ranking as of right now but I dont know if you can make a case for them going to nattys any other year or in any other region.

Why does it not make sense to train through Lehigh. I thought the goal was to run well at regionals/nationals. NOT lehigh.

St. Lawrence and Hamilton are two of the toughest courses in the region. (Yes that's still not that tough since almost all atlantic region courses are fairly flat) but still.

Gaudette and Donahoe are one of the best 1-2 punches in the region. They are right up there with RIT's Williamson/Lowe, NYU's Williams/Abdallah, Cortland's Nally/Cloke, etc...

The Saints are also very young for the most part. They have one of the best freshmen classes in the region this year if not the best. I fully expect them to mature more and more as the season goes and make a solid showing at States and Regionals.

Try telling that to Mr. RIT. Peaking for early season meets and fizzling out by November is the MO on that team.

I encourage you to actually visit St. Lawrence and Hamilton sometime and to take a jog on their courses.

You'd be quite surprised to find that, in fact, St. Lawrence is probably one of the fastest courses in the region. That's what happens when you only run 800 total meters on grass and the rest on cinder paths. Oh, also there's only one very short uphill that you run twice, so nothing of consequence. Not breaking 26 on that course is fairly unimpressive when you're talking about top regional/national qualifying runners.

Hamilton is more difficult than St. Lawrence, being on grass for the whole thing and having some longer, gradual uphills. But I still wouldn't call it very hard - assuming it's dry, of course, as anyone who ran States there last year will tell you. If wet and muddy, then yes, Hamilton is much slower.

I totally agree I've run both courses and they are both fast, I'm sorry but those kinds of times on those kinds of courses doesn't impress me enough where I'd think they'd be a national championship qualifying team in any other region.

Region breaks down like this right now:

1.NYU

2.Geneseo

3.Cortland

4/5.TCNJ/RIT

Then everyone else

NYU isn't putting themselves out there until Nov., Geneseo is running tired and will peak big just like in all the years past and cortland will stay in the shape they are in right now through the rest of the season as they always do because they stay in shape year round and never can put forth a strong peak. (I'd say add 30/35 seconds to their times from this weekend if you're gonna compare them to the rest of the region)

Jersey is too experienced and has two proven runners upfront to deny their strength and RIT will stay ranked behind everyone since they have never been this good before either as a team or even with their top individuals. They do look dangerous though with jesse and burdick as darkhorses.

All five go to nationals in my opinion, assuming that no one gets blown out by the other four at regionals

ok so now you have me curious... how do you reason adding "30/35 seconds to their (Cortland's) times this weekend if you're gonna compare them to the rest of the region?" now this isn't a criticism of your prediction or anything, it's just that you didn't really back-up the information about adding 30/35 seconds. so, can you please explain for me?

SUNYAC Fan wrote:

St. Lawrence and Hamilton are two of the toughest courses in the region. (Yes that's still not that tough since almost all atlantic region courses are fairly flat) but still.

Gaudette and Donahoe are one of the best 1-2 punches in the region. They are right up there with RIT's Williamson/Lowe, NYU's Williams/Abdallah, Cortland's Nally/Cloke, etc...

The Saints are also very young for the most part. They have one of the best freshmen classes in the region this year if not the best. I fully expect them to mature more and more as the season goes and make a solid showing at States and Regionals.

Sure Guadette and Donohue are one of the top two in the region, they match up well with the other 1-2 punches.

The problem with ranking SLU so high as a team is that their 1-5 spread is about 1:30 while NYU and Cortland both match up at the 1-2 spot and have a 1-5 spread of about 30-40 secs. who is going to dominate that? Sure SLU is young, but their freshman arent gonig to suddenly be within 20-30 secs of their top guys at the end of the year, it just doesnt happen like that, they have a strong team and will improve, but 6th or 7th is as high as they;ll finish guaranteed, because they dont have a tight pack finish that is extremely important in such a top heavy region as the Atlantic

add 30-35 seconds because paul's short

maybe more when comparing it to geneseo's course, which was muddy and sloppy.

RFXCrunner wrote:

Did you read my first post about them? Thats pretty much exactly what I said. Yes, it was a very very bad performance, no it makes no sense to run a big invite as a workout, nor does it make sense to train through it, but earlier results this season lead me to believe that is exactly what did happen. Either that or they are just really bad racers. Which they aren't. I just don't believe that they're that bad.

OK anyone here from NJ, or know anyone from there? Im sure they all have lives and dont visit the boards, but it would be nice to know what the hell happened at that race.