What's to see in D3 - Nationals Recap

November 23, 2008

So Nationals came and went, and while I was unable to attend, there is some pretty good footage that was put up by a flotrack user...you may need to search for it, although as of press time it is on the front page under user videos.

As for the results, surprises were kept to a minimum for the most part for both genders individually and for the team scores.

Here are your results

http://finishtiming.com/2008/11-22/index.htm

The Men's Podium featured first time Champion SUNY Cortland, followed by North Central, Williams and Steven's Point leaving Calvin off the podium for the first time since 1997. The Men's Champion was of little surprise, as Peter Kosgei of Hamilton continued his undefeated season.

The Women's side saw Middlebury win their 5th title followed by Calvin, Williams and Wartburg. The individual title again not much of a surprise as it went to one of the "contenders" - Bethel's Marie Borner.

The season was an interesting one with a fair amount of surprises throughout the season, even though Nationals went close to as predicted (Williams Men being the only exception). Coming into the season it looked as though the women's defending champion Amherst would be heading back to hanover to defend their title, but after a tough season, they had to pull out a tough race at Regionals just to make it to nationals...Kudos to Elise Tropiano for her individual runner up performance. On the Men's side after losing 4 of its top 5 and 6 of its top 7, defending champion NYU looked like it would struggle just to return to the national championships....and then...they pull out all the stops, they win the UAA conference meet for the third consecutive year, finish runner up to Cortland in the Atlantic regional and finish 12th overall at nationals. Hat's off to Nick Mcdonough for getting it done...seems like this guy has some tricks up his sleaves (or a bunch of sub 9.20 2milers from Jersey, either one).

The men of Haverford faced a number of challenges this season (for more info please read the NYTimes Article) and lost the Centenial Conference for the first time EVER, however they still pulled it together to make it to nationals finishing 16th overall, a disspointing finish compared to their second place in 2007 however given everything the Fords went through this season, it should be considered a success and a testiment to the strength of their program.

Williams climbed the ladder all season, culminating in a third place finish at Nationals. This came as little surprise to many, especially those who saw the Ephs earn their 17th trip to nationals in Dominating fashion at their home course. The Williams Women were not to upstaged by their male counterparts as they also finished third in their 17th championship appearance. Congrats to Peter Farwell on the best overall program in the country.

Alleghany did what the always seem to do. They were ranked high preseason based on their finish at nationals in the previous year, dropped in the rankings as the season went on and they struggled/trained (depending on how you look at it) and then peaked appropriately with a runner up finish in the mid east region and a 10th place finish at nationals.

On the Women's side the most surprising finish (although perhaps not to those in the know/from the south) was Trinity (TX) 6th place finish. The highest finish for a women's team from the South EVER. The big surprise on the men's side was Trinity as well...however this time it was Trinity (CT). The Bantams, who finished 3rd at the New England regional, finished 7th at Nationals (2nd NE team) on the backs of All America performances from Sam Moorhead and Hunter Norte.

Congrats to all 64 of the teams and the 112 individuals who ran at Nationals, and to all other D3 runners on a great season. Over the next few weeks I will be trying to catch up on Interviews so that you still have something to read on Mondays (or other days if you do not catch the articles when they are first published). Then it will be back to updating you all during the Indoor track season. I may need some suggestions from you all, on how you would like me to cover indoor and outdoor track, as it clearly has much less of a team aspect to it than does cross country.

Thank you all for making my first season of writing so rewarding, best of luck to everyone as you transition to the track.

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#2	Dan Suher November 25, 2008 at 9:06pm I am aware of this, just like the baseball team is the black squirrels but the school's mascot is the fords so I stuck with that. reply
#1	Anonymous Coward November 25, 2008 at 6:09pm The Haverford men's xc and track teams aren't the Fords, they're the Goats. reply