Pre-NCAAs XC Meet

[Nevada Hoya]

The biggest XC meet of the season until the nationals will be held at Indiana State this Saturday. Many of the top teams in the nation will be there. However, since so many teams will be there, they divide the meet into two major races - the blue and the white - with an open division too. Georgetown men and women will both be in the blue races. The GU men will have their complete team, as Rod Koborsi is listed as an entry. He has been held out of the first two races of the season. The women, however, are still missing two of their top runners, Jodee Adams-Moore and Elizabeth Maloy. They were both on the XC roster for this year, but have not run in any races and were not listed on the roster for this race. Without those two runners, the GU women have fallen to 28th in the national poll, the lowest rating in a generation. The men have maintained their 7th place rating.

[Nevada Hoya]

Georgetown did pretty well at the pre-NCAA meet today in Indiana. The men finished 3rd after Colorado and Cal Poly SLO, not usually a big power in XC circles, but this year making noise. Coloroda dominated with 65 pts, SLO with 165, and GU with 172. The Hoya runners were as follows:
6. Rod Koborsi, a very good yearly debut in 24:11.2 for the 8K run.
20. Chris Lukezic, 24:30.7
30. Steve (who is this guy) Meinelt, 24:37.2 -off my radar, so he came out of nowhere.
46. Chris Esselborn, 24:45.2
70. James (also called Fleet) Hower, 24:57.6, a bit of an off race for him.
164. Tommy Manning, 25:52.2
203. Justin Scheid, 26:24.9.

Also, running, but in the open race were
30. Mike Banks, 25:36.7
42. Rasheed Thompson, 25:53.7
79. Shane Young, 26:21.5

Not running was Dan Nunn, who has been running very well as a frosh this year in getting top 5 Hoya finishes in the earlier races. Soph Brian Dalpiaz also did not run.

The women did not do as well, but I will report later on them.

[Nevada Hoya]

The women finished 17th in the Blue race. The field was equally divided between the blue and white races. Since the Hoyas finished 17th, that makes the placing in the race lower than their 28th in the nation rating.

The team:
9. Nicole Lee, 20:50.4 (good showing for Nicole)
42. Maggie Infeld, 21.35.6, good showing for the freshman.
124. Erin Henry, 22:25.1
157. Sabine Knothe, 22:42.3
162. Melissa Grelli, 22:45.4
183. Kelley Otstott, 22:58.1
196. Meghan O'Neil, 23:06.5

Also, running the open race, however, not completing it was Nana Hanson-Hall, who had a 3K split (of the 6K race) of 11:43.

A way of looking at the race comparing the men's and women's results is to look at the spread. A good XC team tries to keep the spread in time from the first runner to the fifth (five score for the team) as low as possible. The spread for the first five men was 46.4 seconds over 8K, while for the women, the spread was a whopping 1 min 55 sec over 6K.

[reformation]

Nevada,

Do you think that the women will make the NCAA's? Looks difficult if the injured runners do not return.

[Nevada Hoya]

Reformation, I have been having my doubts about whether the women will make it this year. Thirty-one teams make it, and the middle Atlantic region probably has at least two teams ahead of the Hoyas. Since, only two per region and then some at-large teams go, the Hoyas have not been beating the teams they should to be picked up as an at-large team. So unless Elizabeth Maloy and Jodee Adams-Moore make a recovery, I think the Hoyas might miss the NCAAs for the first time in a long time (ever?). Their string of top-10 performances ended last year (ending something like 15 straight), now their participation in the race is in doubt.

The men, on the other hand, look good for a 2nd straight (at least) top 10 performance. Some guys did not have a good day, but others like Steve Meinelt came out of the woodwork, and he looks like he is more than an able replacement for Matt Debole.

[Bardo Rodeo]

How come Sarah Isbitz from Cambridge R&L (MA) isn't running. She didn't run at all last year and from what I can tell from the results so far, has not run this year. Is she still with the team?

[Nevada Hoya]

That is another mystery. Also, Colleen Kelly is a grad student, but is listed on the XC roster. She could definitely help the team. Kim Malcolm has not been heard from also.

There is about a month until the NCAA regional qualifier meet. Let's hope the sick and the injured get better in that time.

[Nevada Hoya]

Since the Pre-NCAA XC race had two division, each pretty much equally rated, somebody did a compilation that scored everybody as in one race. The results show the Hoyas (men) in 5th place. Considering Wisconsin and Arkansas, two of the nation's top team were not there, GU's #7 national ranking seems just about right. The scores:

1) Colorada 136
2) Stanford 141
3) Cal Poly 329
4) Notre Dame 335
5) Georgetown 339
6) Arizona State 349
7) BYU 384
8) Michigan 408
9) Air Force 420
10) Florida St. 434
11) Indiana 456
12) Butler 490
13) Iona 495
14) NC St. 530
15) Colorado St. 556
16) Villanova 563
17) Florida 632
18) New Mexico 660
19) Central Michigan 693
20) Michigan St. 704
21) Northern Arizona 716
22) Miami(OH) 730
23) Washington 738
24) Clemson 740
25) Columbia 741
26) Dartmouth 761
27) Iowa 778
28) Utah St. 783
29) UCLA 788
30) Ohio St. 796
31) William & Mary 797
32) LaSalle 804
33) Arizona 824
34) Duke 833
35) Oregon 835
36) Washington St. 896
37) Yale 922
38) Brown 927
39) Kansas 935
40) Georgia 957
41) Princeton 982
42) Montana St. 988

[reformation]

Nevada,

Is it possible that the injured rwomen are being redshirted? Would seem that unless the women are being redshirted, that next year will look even tougher for them as well. Obviously it is probably imperative that they have a really good recruiting class.

M. Infeld seems to be a real bright spot however, since I think that she is aslo really a better 800/1500 runnner than XC.

[Nevada Hoya]

Reformation,

They may be redshirted, voluntarily or involuntarily, but they were listed on the roster for this year. Agree with you on (1) Maggie has been the bright spot this year - a very good recruit, and (2) definitely have to recruit well for next year. The men did a fairly good job as far as quality and quantity this year.

The Big East is less than two weeks away. On the men's side it should be a battle between the Hoyas and Notre Dame with Villanova and Providence in the hunt. On the women's side Providence and Notre Dame have the strongest teams with Villanova challenging. I can see the Hoyas no higher than 4th.