Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational XC Races

[Nevada Hoya]

Today the Hoyas are in Wisconsin for the Nuttycombe (retired Wisco track coach) Wisconsin Invitational. This have been rated as the top XC race of the year besides the NCAAs. Chance to pick up points to at-large invitations, plus a chance for the Hoyas to move up in the polls.

[Nevada Hoya]

The Hoyas had two women in the open women's race:

21. Margie Cullen 22:00.4
68. Aleta Looker 22:35.1

[Nevada Hoya]

The men had three runners in the open division:

58. Spencer Brown 26:29.7
61. Connor Sheryak 26:37.2
75. Reilly Bloomer 27:09.9

[Nevada Hoya]

The women had a pretty awful run today as they came in 22nd. At least two of our regional opponents, Nova and Penn, finished 12th and 14th, respectively. As of this time, it seems that the women might not qualify for nationals. To go to nationals a team has to finish in the top 2 at the regionals or have enough points to make an at-large team. The Hoyas hurt their chances to pick up points here. So they will be ranked at best 4th in next week's regional polls after Penn State, Nova, and Penn.

89. Josette Norris 21:18
101. Kennedy Weisner 21:26.1
105. Piper Donaghu 21:29.3
112. Autumn Eastman21:33.3
118. Maddy Perez 21:37.5
152. Sarah Cotton 21:58.2 for 525 points.

Audrey Belf, Haley Pierce, and Paige Hofstad did not run. I would assume that they would be our top three runners.

[Nevada Hoya]

The men did okay, considering at 2k they were 27th. The came in 14th with 399 points. Northern Arizona U. won the race (Coach Mike Smith's new team). Three key runners did not run, and we only ran five runners (six if you count Brandon Bonsey's 25:34.8 in 157th place; this is crazy since he is the coach). Jon Green and Darren Fahy, our top two from last year did not run, in addition to Mike Lederhouse. The best take away today was Scott Carpenter's 13th place finish. Another good item is that the Hoyas were the first Big East team.

13. Scott Carpenter 24:07.0 Just 14 s from the lead time
51. Christian Alvarado 24:37.2 Christian continues his good running this year
84. Amos Bartelsmeyer 24:53.4 After all, Amos is a middle distance runner, so this was a good effort for him
106.Michael Clevenger 25:05.1 I expect Mike to improve as the year goes on
145.Matt Bouthillette 25:25.2 True freshman
157. Brandon Bonsey 25:34.8 Need I say more

EDIT: they have cleared up the confusion; 157th is Michael Crozier and not Brandon Bonsey, as the early results had.

[Nevada Hoya]

Actually, Mike Lederhouse ran today, but he did not complete the course:

(2K splits)
201 535 Michael Lederhouse SR Georgetown 6:13 12:30 19:27

[reformation]

Seemed like a conscious strategy to hold out top runners, though agree that the women at least will have to place top 2 at regionals to get a bid--not sure a top tier finish at NCAA's is within reach anyway--at least expectations are low so we have room for a positive surprise.

[birdman]

Oct 14, 2016 17:26:20 GMT -5 reformation said:

Seemed like a conscious strategy to hold out top runners, though agree that the women at least will have to place top 2 at regionals to get a bid--not sure a top tier finish at NCAA's is within reach anyway--at least expectations are low so we have room for a positive surprise.

Disclaimer: I am not arguing with you, so please don't take it that way.

It looks that there was a conscious decision by the coaching staff to hold out top runners on both sides in this meet. My question: why go to (maybe) *THE* premier invitational of the cross country season - where the entire point of competing is to pick up at-large points - and then hold out the top 2-3 members of each team? I know I'm a TTS adherant on the recruiting page haha, but I guess I don't see the point of going to this meet if you're not going to compete at least a 85-90% squad.

If folks are injured/at risk, obviously that tosses much of what I wrote out the window, but I haven't seen any such reports.

[reformation]

Agree-hard to say. Don't know much about the new coach/her approach. Obviously she was an accomplished runner, but beyond that don't have much of a read.

[Nevada Hoya]

I am thinking that some of our runners were sick or have been injured. Paige ran well early, so she might have been sick. Audrey ran in the first XC race of the season, but has not raced since. Haley has not been seen this year. Of course Sam Nadel is running for Oregon. Maybe they will magically show up at Regionals. I know the men have been training pretty hard. Jon Green has been hurt, so I hope he did not re-injure himself after running two weeks ago. Darren Fahy has not shown up this year. His last race was the OT SC, where he fell at the penultimate hurdle. But this year the men are better positioned than the women to make the NCAA.

[Nevada Hoya]

I don't think either men or women move up this week and probably lose a spot or two for the men, and the women will be lucky to be in the top 31.

[Nevada Hoya]

Speaking of Sam Nadel, we could have used her yesterday, as she ran for Oregon in the Pre-nats, the #2 rated XC race (outside of the NCAAs):

13 Nadel, Samantha SR 1063 Oregon 13 20:28.7

[Nevada Hoya]

The men will probably fall five places from 17 to 22. They lost to five teams at Wisconsin, whom they were ahead of, and beat one team that was ahead of GU. At Pre-Nats Michigan, which was #20, came in 4th, so they will most likely be rated ahead of the Hoyas too.

[Nevada Hoya]

Whereas the men went from 27th (2K) to 17th (4K) to 16th (6K) to finish at 14th, the women went in the opposite direction: 6th (2K) to 20th (4K) to finish at 22nd. The men were told to go out slowly, but overdid this and had to play catch up. Obviouslyr, the women went out way too fast.

At Wisconsin the women were beaten by 13 teams with lower placings than the Hoyas, so 31st or RV seems to be likely.