Dropping the Hammer
The build-up to Regionals
First of all, all apologies for my radio silence last week. I have no excuse, nor any story to tell. The truth? I forgot! I was at work on Saturday, having spent 36 hours unable to shake the feeling I was forgetting something, when I realized that I had, in fact, forgotten something. Mea culpa1. Even without my rambling, however, club runners dropped the hammer on courses across the country (see what I did there?) last Saturday.
Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out a few big results from 2 weeks ago. One, the UTK women took home a win in Knoxville, scoring only sixteen points. Georgia eeked out a win in the men’s race, scoring a scant 28 points and barely edging out Tennessee (who scored 29).
Meanwhile, in Michigan, the MRun ladies won in another sweep, led this time by Ashley Heidenrich in first. Running’s such a fickle sport, I hesitate to call any team “unstoppable,” but if ever a team looked unstoppable, it would be the MRun women. At this point, I don’t really see anyone posing a major threat to them taking another national title, except maybe Virginia Tech, but even the Hokies are going to need a perfect day at Nats to pose a threat to Michigan. MRun also won the men’s race, scoring 26 points and handily taking down second-placers Purdue, who scored 66. 4 schools, however, had guys run under 26 minutes: Michigan, MSU, Ohio State, and Purdue (and Grand Valley State had 2 under 26:05!).
Last weekend, UVA took home double-Ws at the Dashing Dukes invitational, hosted by JMU. The famously-fast course lived up to its reputation, with both of the men vying for a win running 25:45. It was Washington & Lee’s Austin Molitor, however, who just edged out Virginia’s Casey Evans — running 25:45.30 to Evans’ 25:45.452. In the women’s race, Maryland’s Lucia Larrea took the win in 21:49 over 6k, followed closely by UVA’s Jenny Schilling. When the dust settled, Virginia had taken the women’s race in 22 points and the men’s race in 41 points.
Meanwhile, at App State’s Mountaineer Invitational, South Carolina swept the meet. Their men’s team won in 35 points with 4 runners in the top 10. USC’s women’s team was the only full scoring team on the field, but they were by no means the only fast runners on the field. They still had 4 runners finish in the top 10, and (by my math, at least), still would have won handily if everybody else’s scores had counted.
Now, on to this weekend!
The End of the Regular Season
Hard as it is to believe it, we’re already ramping up into championship season! This weekend we’ll see the last set of regular season races before regionals begin. I’ll have a more in-depth assessment of where things are at heading into Regionals next week, but this will be the last chance a number of teams have to prove they’re a threat heading into championship season.
Hokie Invitational
The Hokies are tasked with defending their reputation on home turf tomorrow, facing down a number of solid teams on their infamously brutal Blacksburg course. I’ve never run the Hokie Invitational, but I’ve spent every Christmas of my life in Blacksburg, and let me tell you — it’s hilly as hell. The Hokie Invitational may well be NIRCA XC’s most vert-heavy course3. Mid-Atlantic powerhouses like JMU and UNC will both be in attendance, not to mention ECU, W&L, and Liberty. It'll be a tight race over a tough course, but nobody knows how to suffer through Blacksburg climbs like the Hokies. After the season they've had, it'd be silly to bet against them on their home turf.
BRC Open
Binghamton Run Club is hosting the BRC Open, and as of right now it’s set to be a dual meet between the BRC and Cornell for the men’s race, and a BRC-Cornell-SUNY Geneseo showdown on the women’s side. Binghamton and Cornell have both proven themselves really strong in the past, but ultimately I’m calling it Cornell (men’s) and Binghamton (women’s).
MC5 XC Invitational
Back in the Midwest, the MC5 Invitational will see a number of Ohio & Indiana’s most consistently solid teams duking it out on the grass. Ball State, Indiana, Grand Valley State, and Miami of Ohio are all sure to bring their A-game, per usual. Ball State will finally field a full women’s team, led by their consistent crusher Sara Barnhizer, and Miami of Ohio’s men’s roster is notably missing all of their road 5k medalists. This one’s anyone’s race, but since I’m in the business of making predictions, I’ll call it Miami men & Ball State women.
Scarlet Tiger Invitational
Boasting perhaps the bad-assedest meet name of the season, the Scarlet Tiger Invitational — hosted by Rutgers and Princeton — will see a number of the Northern Midatlantic’s top clubs. We’re talking Princeton, Rutgers, UPenn, Villanova, Quinnipiac, and Stony Brook. Villanova and Princeton, especially, have proven themselves very strong in the past, and Stony Brook’s no slouch either. All told, I think I have to put my money on the Villanova women and the Princeton men taking the wins, though the Princeton women (even sans-Savanna Carnahan) can never be counted out.
Harvard RC XC Invitational
Finally, up in New England, the Harvard Running Club will be hosting what’s sure to be an absolute slugfest of a meet. Clubs like Northeastern, Boston College, and UConn will be there trying to prove that, at least on the grass, New England’s still the best in the biz. Northeastern have historically been pretty tough to take down in XC — they are, after all, the reigning national champs. However Boston College is also, historically speaking, tough to take down in XC. This is where things get interesting.
The biggest factor in my predictions for this one are the Codfish Bowl a few weeks ago, where we saw decisive victories from the Northeastern Men and BC women in a very similar field. For that reason, I’m calling for a repeat performance — Northeastern Men, BC women. Keep your eye on UConn and Yale, though.
That’s Latin for “whoopsie daisy”
If somebody has a video of this finish, then please — and I mean please — send it my way
Somebody check on that for me, but I think 350+ feet of climbing over an 8k course must at least put it in the top 5