Conference Call

As long-time readers know, I don't cover XC to the extent I do T&F.
But Collegiate Conference races do tell us some of what we need to know regarding the upcoming NCAA Championship, as well as who might be running fast distance races---especially 5000's---INdoors in December, as has happened in recent years!
Also, while overall times aren't really important in XC, margins of victories are!
(See the ACC Men's results to know why times are fairly meaningless over Hill & Dale!)
Onward!

The SEC was won by Alex George in 23:24, a 9 second margin over Sean Tobin, and 15 over MJ Erb!
The Women were led by Karissa Schweizer's 20:10.
She beat Devin Clark by 8 seconds!
Arkansas took both team battles!

The Big East races were won by Angel Piccirillo's 20:49 and Patrick Tiernan's 24:18.
Sarah Collins finished 4th, 21 seconds behind Piccirillo!
The Providence Women beat Villanova, while Georgetown's Men prevailed!

The Mountain West Women's race saw an upset of sorts, as Brenna Peloquin's 20:27 was 25 seconds behind winner Alice Wright's 20:02.
Peloquin, an early season projected NCAA Champ, faded at the end!
Yusuke Vahikoshi (sp?) took the Men's race in 23:48.
Jerrell Mock was 9 seconds back!

Bernard Keter's 25:28 led the Big 12 Men.
Sharon Lokedi's 20:18 won for the Women!
Oklahoma State and Iowa State took the respective team races!

Erin Finn won again!!
And by another HUGE margin!!
Her 20:37 controlled the Big 10 Women's field by 25 seconds!
Sarah Disanza was 24th, a full 1:12 behind Finn!
Morgan McDonald took the Men's race in 24:35.
Finn's Michigan team won, while Wisconsin took the Men's side!

Edward Cheserek---YAWN!!--took the PAC-12 Men's race by 15 seconds over Grant Fisher!!
Ches's time was 23:58.
Ben Saarel was 3rd, while John Dressel took 6th in 24:20, with Sean McGorty two seconds behind Dressel!
Amy Eloise-Neale's final kick prevailed for the Women in 20:22, with just a second's spread back to Erin Clark in 2nd, and Dani Jones in 3rd another second back!
Katie Rainsberger led the Oregon Ducks in 5th, with Charlotte Prouse in 6th, Fiona O'Keefe in 11th, and Christina Aragon in 14th!
Colorado won both team battles, beating Stanford's Men, 41 to 47, and beating the Women  UDubbers, 33 to 74!!

The ACC Men's course (the Women too??) must have been anywhere from 200 to 500 meters short!
Justyn Knight led the Men's "8K" with 22:50.
While not outrageously fast, it WAS about 30 seconds to a minute or more faster than all other Conference Men's times!
Knight is certainly worthy of such a time, but check out what followed!
Ed Kibichiy was just 2 seconds behind in 2nd, with a 3rd runner also dipping under 23:00!!
But 27 (!!!) running under 24:00---in one race on one course??
Doubtful!!
For the Women, Anna Rohrer's 19:26 for the 6000 meter course was much more believable, as she's also a strong favorite for the NCAA's!
Isabelle Kennedy's 19:51 took second.

Special note!
That ACC Women's race saw the startling return of Wesley Frazier!!
With just the occasional race (of any quality!) since her great final year of HS, she finished 10th, although her 20:21 was 55 seconds behind Rohrer!!
The "other" Frazier--Ryen--improved greatly over her far-back (around 100th or so) finish in an early season race.
She was 14th, seven seconds behiind Wesley!
They helped North Carolina State to the team victory!!
Syracuse took the Men's title!

Some Road Race news.

Tirunesh Dibaba won the Great South 10 Miler in a solid 51:49.
Chris Thompson won the Men's race in 47:23.

The Valencia Half-Marathon was taken by Stephen Kibet's 59:27 and Peres Jepchirchir's 67:09!

Today's Frankfort Marathon saw Mark Korir's 2:06:48 prevail.
Bobby Curtis moved from 16th to 4th as leading American, time of 2:11:20.
Mamitu Daska won the Women's race, but fading badly over the final 2K, moving from 2:21 pace to her final time of 2:25:27.
Fate Tola's 2:25:42 was 15 seconds behind, but she closed strongly, and with another 400 meters or so, might have won!!
A Flanagan Woman led the American charge--but it wasn't Shalane!!
Lindsay Flanagan--25 years old--ran a PR by well over 3 minutes, her 2:29:28 in 4th missing my DDD by 35 seconds!!

Mary Cain ran the Mayor's Cup XC race again, finishing 3rd behind Liz Westphal and Amy Van Alstine--times of 16:53, 16:57, and Cain's 17:08.
But a post on her website made Cain's "return" to racing more interesting than the result!
She announced her official SPLIT from the Nike Oregon Project!!!

She said she's a full-time student at Fordham University, is being coached by John Henwood, and plans to remain in New York for the indefinite future!!
She said her split from NOP---and from Alberto Salazar as her coach!!!--was amiable and friendly.
She said she intends to race more this fall on XC courses and a road race or two, before heading to INdoor tracks!!

My opinion?

While she said her decision was based mainly on the logistics of living on one coast, while training on the other, I think there's also a divide between Salazar's personality and demeanor and Cain's---a HUGE divide!!
She was just too nice to mention that!!

Does this mean a return to her form of 2011-INdoors 2014, when she rewrote the HS Record Book?
Her great forward movement of those years was due mostly to her youth, and the unfettered freedom she had BEFORE Dr Frankenstein got his draconian claws into her innocent psyche!!

It wasn't until early 2014 that we began to see the negative effects AlSal had on her!!
He must take ALL the blame for her failings of OUTdoor 2014, ALL of 2015 AND 2016!!
Let's hope her Exodus from Salazar and NOP will see a whole set of new PR's--and World Class times from this still-20 year old Woman!!

Australian Pole Vaulter Alana Boyd---her 15-9.25 PR ranking her 14th A-T World OUTdoors---has retired!

As for future posts, the 2016-2017 INdoor Track and Field season is just 20 days from kickstarting at the JDL All-Comers meet on November 19th!
My next post will cover the NYC Marathon.
I'll of course report on the big Championship XC races---NCAA, Footlocker & NXN--yet to come!
But November will also see posts PREVIEWING the INdoor T&F season!!

What it takes to make my INdoor Top 24 Performers lists!
My Age Records predictions.
A fairly complete schedule of meets.

And then the beginning of RESULTS!!

See you soon!