Pre Regionals

UPDATE


Instead of Saturday the pre-regional race will occur at 12:30 and 1 on Friday afternoon. Cold weather is a factor in moving the meet.


Wayne America

For me the weekend will be highlighted by our trip two hours south to Wayne America. If you've ever been to this town in Nebraska you know exactly what I'm talking about. Of course after googling Wayne America I had to spend about two minutes wading through pictures of Little Wayne and The Duke (John Wayne.) I love the pride in America that Wayne displays on their water tower. Any way this weekend is the pre regional. Which means we get to run on the regional course at the full 10k length for me and 6k for women. We will get a chance to run against most of our regional competition and get a great look at the course. It's been a few years since we had a regional meet at Wayne but its great to have the regional competition so close to home. I called and checked with Wayne State head Coach Marlin Brink and as soon as they have the regional web site up and running I'll post the information. The forecast for this weekend looks like a chilly 35 degrees for the high and is also calling for some AM snow showers. Should make for an interesting race. 

Regional and National Polls

I hopped on the ustfccca.com web site last night to check on the latest national polls for both the men and the women. A quick look on the mens side shows a small shuffle at the top as Chico moved up from 4th to the 3rd spot. Both Adams and Western continue to hold the top spot. The most anticipated race to come in the next few weeks is going to be the RMAC championships. A thread over on Letsrun.com discusses the national poll and the upcoming RMAC race. Below is one posters analysis of the pre-season polls.

1. Adams State --Enough said. 2. Western State --With the arrival of new Foreigners and their solid returners they are going to be tough. 3. Chico State --They lose their front runner but always have a strong pack. 4. Colorado Mines --After a dismal performance last season they return their top 4, with the growing age of Mclain it could get interesting. 5. Grand Valley --Again they always field outstanding teams with outstanding Coaching 6. Alaska Ancourage --With the rumors of arriving foreigners and their leader Cheseto they will be a strong team this year. 7. Harding --Kirwa is their lead man and I predict him for the individual title, not too familiar with rest of team. 8. Queens --Crouch is an amazing front runner and will pull this team to a top ten finish. 9. Abilene Christian --This is the kicker. With their program in shambles from violations and the recent departure of Charles White they have 4 great runners, but it takes 5 to win. I predict them at 9 but they could be anywhere up to third. 10. Drury --Expect some surprises from this team. Zapatero was All American last season and their young team is maturing. 11. Edinboro --This team is always in the hunt but I don't think they will crack the top 10 this year. 12. U Mass Lowell --If I remember right they lose Sanca to graduation so they may be lacking a front runner. 13. Metro State --Since Julian has jumped ship and their loss of Tolentino, there have been rumors of many of the team members transferring to be with Julian. With the team splitting, its tough to see them doing much better than this, despite their excellent track season.

My biggest question is what is going on up in Mankato. At Griak Denise didn't look too great and other than Krasja the group as a whole looked very beatable. This past weekend they were beaten by Region #5 Nebraska Kearney at the SDSU classic. The Viking men were off this weekend but have the pre-regional this weekend and then the conference meet in Bemidji, MN two weeks after that. We'll know soon enough!


Women

After a great race out in Oregon the women moved back up the national polls. After the same race Chico State jumped clear into the first position. The Viking women ran in front of Chico for almost the entire race and just had a pack slip through our 2-6 runners right at the end which pushed us quite a way back in the scoring. In a larger much deeper field the results should be different. The question is where each team will be come nationals. All in all  there are five teams from the Central region in the top 14. The region looks very deep as both Western and Duluth, who are currently ranked lower in the national poll, should show up at the regional with very good teams.