Official 2021 D3 XC Thread

CMS is looking really interesting. The men could make some noise at nationals. Nice individual performances from their 1-3: a 24:33 at prenats from one, winning conference (24:24 on a slower course than Louisville) from another, and winning West regionals from another. Seems like they need some consistency and for big days from the 4 + 5, but the top speed could be there. Kinda makes you wonder why they haven't been able to put it together yet

The women could be favorites if the Hopkins #1 isn't running (she didn't at conference or regionals). Athena top 3 have been good all year, and their 4 had a nice regionals.

Wartburg wins going away! Pinkowski will rebound and finish in the top 15 no doubt.

They might even score under 70 points!

It’s over

Zzzz zzzzz zzzzz, at least this gives me more time to focus on the women's team so I can finally defeat BVA

Your boys got robbed:

Dickinson got third in their region, and beat region #2 at the time and some at the regional meet, Rochester, TCNJ, Ramapo, Ithica, region #3-6 CNU, W&L, Rochester, TCNJ, Ramapo, Ithica. Dickinson’s only losses were to teams who qualified for nationals.

Dickinson put 3 guys in the top 20 (1,7,18) (the one is also a dark horse to win nationals, steeplechase all American, won region by 35sec, was cooling down the last 1k)

WPI: got 10th at conn college, got 5th in their region, lost to teams who did not qualify for the national meet, put zero runners in the top 20 of their region, only beat tufts in September when it doesn’t matter much. Lost to George Fox which is embarrassing for any team who is “national caliber”.

UC Santa Cruz also got robbed, 3rd west, and getting penalized cause covid regulations prevented them from going to races and having competition. But the committee let Loras in? Loras and WPI are not national caliber and will get beat down at nationals.

Teams that should have gotten in well before WPI...

UC -Santa Cruz, Conn College, and Dickinson.

UC-Santa Cruz has been fairly competitive all year and ran well at regionals. They did underperform at Pre-Nats, but their better performance at regionals should have bumped then in. Conn College has actually beaten many teams in the nationals field (Bates, Vassar, Tufts, Amherst, and crushed WPI). A tough race at their conference meet hurt them, but their competitive regional performance should have pulled them in. Dickinson is a good team with two good low sticks and would have fared well at NCAAs. Problem was no real quality wins against NCAA field.

Morris of Colby College continued his dominant season this past week-end

I defy anyone to give me a justified reason to have given the bid to WPI over Conn. In WPI and Conns only matchup this season, WPI got demolished 170-246. Not to mention Conn has beaten Tufts, bates, vassar, and Amherst, all who qualified. They only lost to Amherst by 3 points at their regional beat yet they took Amherst and not Conn. You can’t look anyone dead in the eye and say that’s not messed up.

Lmaoo poor Dickinson Conn College and UC Santa Cruz, they lost their chances to go to nationals and compete for last place and who can get the most guys in the bottom 40! Also looking at these regions it seems like the only teams who have the right to be upset are those in the Mid-east region, that region is so deep that 8 teams legitimately deserved to make nationals

you do realize conn college is in the mideast right?

They lost to the 22nd ranked team by over 50 points but sure let them in...

A lot of you guys seems to be forgetting that the committee cannot select a team over a team that beat them at Regionals. So the comment about Amherst is not on point: Amherst beat them and had to be chosen over (or with) Conn College, plus btw Amherst beat them 3 out of 4 including at NESCACs so of course Amherst got the spot. I don't have a strong view about WPI vs Conn College. Seems like a toss-up to me. Yeah, Conn College ran well at their home invite but that was about it. WPI had wins over Tufts and Amherst, and maybe the committee decided that taking 5 from each of the Mideast and East (two of the strongest regions) made more sense than 6 and 4.

wpi??? wrote:

I defy anyone to give me a justified reason to have given the bid to WPI over Conn. In WPI and Conns only matchup this season, WPI got demolished 170-246. Not to mention Conn has beaten Tufts, bates, vassar, and Amherst, all who qualified. They only lost to Amherst by 3 points at their regional beat yet they took Amherst and not Conn. You can’t look anyone dead in the eye and say that’s not messed up.

Good thing the nationals field is 32 ;)

Besides, 50 points isn’t an awful loss when WPI lost to tufts by over a hundred and still made it, not to mention a loss to George fox who isn’t even ranked, that’s tough

This just shows how bad the new regions are. Mid-east is incredibly deep and any of the top 8 would have placed second in Niagra or Metro.

yeah obviously I meant conn should have been chosen WITH amherst, not over amherst. It was only a three point gap for crying out loud. It is clear that conn is better than WPI (by a lot) based on their matchup, and conn has had multiple relevant wins, so the decision makes absolutely no sense.

Don't you dare disrespect my boys, you must be from Etown

Almost a 3 minute spread from 1-5, doesn't sound like a national caliber team to me, especially with their number 1 "jogging it in" at regionals

You hold your tongue, you'll see next week when we have a national champion and additional all americans

Dickinson with a National champion and additional all americans? Come on. Christopher ran great but the Carnegie Mellon men were just jogging their way to the team title. Not to say he wouldn't have won if the other guys pushed harder, but there is no use putting forward much effort at all 1 week before nats. Maybe that's why Dickinson always implodes in the meets that matter.

Might also want to temper expectations from a couple of all-region performances in a fairly weak region.

Dickinson's top 3 might be legit, but Dickinson's 5 at the regional meet had a 27:28 8k PR. You can't send that to the national meet.