Definitely agree on Wisconsin. They should have been I think 6th at worst with at least 2 all Americans.
Virginia already looked weak the race before and barely qualified as is. They were basically a 5 deep team that needed Gary Martin to place >50 to do any damage and justify their ranking. Him placing 219th and 6th for the team easily sunk them
Wisconsin was not good this year and nationals was not a surprise if you paid attention.
They sat out their home meet to not get exposed. The times they ran at Big 10s at home were not that impressive when compared to historical data (the whole big ten is kinda doo doo). They did not win their regional.
Why were they expected to do well when basically they only beat Michigan who was not ranked that high?
Wisconsin was not good this year and nationals was not a surprise if you paid attention.
They sat out their home meet to not get exposed. The times they ran at Big 10s at home were not that impressive when compared to historical data (the whole big ten is kinda doo doo). They did not win their regional.
Why were they expected to do well when basically they only beat Michigan who was not ranked that high?
Mick Byrne and Vin Lananna are past their primes and not the coaches they used to be. Or maybe yet they never evolved to were the current coaches today. Mick is old school and will never change and with out change you’ll never keep getting better. Don’t get me wrong Mick is a great guy, Just not the top choice for top HS athletes. He will continue to struggle with his team. Vin Lananna was out of the game too long and let be honest he’s the opposite of nice guy. He’s selfish and not well liked. I also agree with the assessment that UVA didn’t choke. That were just not any good to start with.
Wisconsin was not good this year and nationals was not a surprise if you paid attention.
They sat out their home meet to not get exposed. The times they ran at Big 10s at home were not that impressive when compared to historical data (the whole big ten is kinda doo doo). They did not win their regional.
Why were they expected to do well when basically they only beat Michigan who was not ranked that high?
Mick Byrne and Vin Lananna are past their primes and not the coaches they used to be. Or maybe yet they never evolved to were the current coaches today. Mick is old school and will never change and with out change you’ll never keep getting better. Don’t get me wrong Mick is a great guy, Just not the top choice for top HS athletes. He will continue to struggle with his team. Vin Lananna was out of the game too long and let be honest he’s the opposite of nice guy. He’s selfish and not well liked. I also agree with the assessment that UVA didn’t choke. That were just not any good to start with.
I don’t think either of these two are bad coaches. I think they are great.
Let’s face it, hard to be at a state school and finish top ten anymore without dumping all of your resources into distance running or having a lot of internationals (which means more scholarship).
Wisco and Virginia both try to have track teams and it leaves little room for error. One bad performance is hard to overcome. The depth that some of these schools like BYU, NAU, OSU, etc have is crazy.
Arkansas is squeaking by doing just enough with their front Kenyans while still having a great track team
Mick Byrne and Vin Lananna are past their primes and not the coaches they used to be. Or maybe yet they never evolved to were the current coaches today. Mick is old school and will never change and with out change you’ll never keep getting better. Don’t get me wrong Mick is a great guy, Just not the top choice for top HS athletes. He will continue to struggle with his team. Vin Lananna was out of the game too long and let be honest he’s the opposite of nice guy. He’s selfish and not well liked. I also agree with the assessment that UVA didn’t choke. That were just not any good to start with.
UVA was always bad
Wisconsin choked
Iona choked
Butler choked
BYU Women choked
Vin Lananna promise my athlete he was recruiting UVA would be on the podium in two years time. That was 4 years ago.
To be fair you’re correct UVA didn’t choke. They were never a top team and won’t be anytime soon.
Not like he coached Morgan McDonald and Ollie Hoare or anything.
And a team with those two plus another future NCAA Champ (Hacker, then a senior, who the only guy who beat him in HS finished 2nd overall at NCAAs), at a home Nationals, came in ranked 3rd & finished 8th.
Wisconsin was actually picked to possibly win and they definitely didn’t show up at NCAA’s and choked on the big stage. No one is saying Mick is a bad coach, just the team choked at NCAA’s. It happens to the best of them. UVA was just lucky to be at NCAA’s. They are not a top team and are not on their way anytime soon.
The Wisconsin team didn't choke. They were not ready. Mick rested several top runners at Nutteycombe. This was their only competitive meet of the season. They were not ready for real racing at NCAAs.
Hmmm... I don't know if I would quite say that they choked. They did take in the full length of that initial straight, not wasting any time to get to the front. They packed together tightly and kept in going for as long as they could before giving one last ditch effort to gulp down the rest of the course. But, they just couldn't keep up the required pace. This isn't "choking"; it was simply over-exuberance.
I bet they learn to not bite off more than they can chew, and since they clearly were not afraid to try to take it, I bet they'll do well in the future.
Average place finish at NCAA XCs for Wisconsin men the last 10 years (including 2 years not qualifying counted as being 32nd): 15th
Number of times Badgers finished worth than 14th at NCAAs in 30 years before Mick Byrne: 1
They pit all their money into Distance. Wisconsin can’t slam the door. They get close , but Mick can’t finish the job. He makes dumb decisions with great athletes. He too busy doing hill sprints then trying to understand training and getting athletes ready for NCAA’s
Hmmm... I don't know if I would quite say that they choked. They did take in the full length of that initial straight, not wasting any time to get to the front. They packed together tightly and kept in going for as long as they could before giving one last ditch effort to gulp down the rest of the course. But, they just couldn't keep up the required pace. This isn't "choking"; it was simply over-exuberance.
I bet they learn to not bite off more than they can chew, and since they clearly were not afraid to try to take it, I bet they'll do well in the future.
This was kind of the opposite of 2021 where all but Orton I believe got buried back in the pack and tho Camp moved up a lot I'm thinking this year their goal was to avoid that and it was a very fast 1K.
Good point. Perhaps it was a little bit of an over-correction from 2021. I felt for them because who doesn't like to see a team go for it, but it just happened to be the case that the pace from the start was just too hot (and for an extended time). I thought it was interesting that Siona Chisholm, who finished 114th (and was ND's #4), probably impacted the race more than anyone by taking it out so quickly. It's like the entire field (with Valby and everyone being 5+ yards back) were collectively saying, "Uh... isn't this pace kinda fast?" But, Chisholm just kept pulling the field along.