Pre Nats 2009

This Saturday in Terre Haute. Looks like we get BYU again, but Standford and CU are also in our race. Go Pilots!

Hmm.... I see you went to the Mesa school of spelling young grasshopper .......

Better not let Rev see you spell his Alma-Mater like that again or you will really need your scrawny distance running talents if you make it to a Pilot mens game .

Don't get all B@tthurt now, you have to be able to take it if you want to dish it out young man....


Black Bart 1

No dishing out here......?
I will now use the proper spelling, Stanfurd.

I do believe that we have a member who lives in the great state of Indiana. I doubt he is doing anything this Saturday (especially around 3:30 EST, I believe) maybe he can make the trip down to Terre Haute and do some advanced scouting for us.

Looks like the men finished fourth in their race, led by Kipchumba's 8th place individual finish. They had two freshman and a sophomore finish in the top 31.

http://www.portlandpilots.com/news/2009/10/17/MXC_1017094345.aspx

I took a closer look at the final results, it looks like our first four ran great. In fact they were better than any other top four, except for Stanford and maybe Oregon in the other race.

Looks like the rankings mirror the results. So will this result put the Pilots in line for an at-large berth?

Yeah, getting a DNF for your #5 runner definitely does NOT help, 100 places between your 4 and 5 isn't exactly ideal...

White Race Team Results (8K)

1. Stanford 47
2. Colorado 130
3. BYU 163
4. Portland 211
5. Iona 218
6. Arizona State 232
7. New Mexico 278
8. Florida State 288
9. Louisville 289
10. Iowa State 301

UP Men’s Individuals
8. Alfred Kipchumba, 23:53.3
15. Joash Osoro, 24:06.0
25. Tommy Bettered, 24:11.6
31. Trevor Dunbar, 24:15.0
132. Jared Bassett, 25:30.1
158. Matt Frerker, 25:46.7

Even with Cosby not finishing... 4th place in that race is LEGIT. And just think... a true sophomore, a senior, two true freshman, a redshirt freshman, and a junior were our finishers. This team is really young and really talented. The future is very bright.

Nice work Pilots. I agree with the comments, the drop off between 4th and 5th was huge and killed us. If we have a guy finish in 60th, we knock off BYU.

up7587 wrote:Looks like the rankings mirror the results. So will this result put the Pilots in line for an at-large berth?

The west regional is going to be stacked, so I'm guessing a lot of teams including us will make it out of there.

Just following up on the preview article from the Oregonian... looks like the team accomplished what Conner wanted in terms of beating the teams they needed to beat in order to get an at-large bid:

Eighth-ranked Portland, on the other hand, hopes to build its case for an NCAA berth by defeating teams that are likely to earn automatic berths by placing in the top two of their respective regional meets.

"I think that if we go out and beat the teams we need to beat, like Florida State, Iona, Lamar, Iowa State, then we'll be in good shape," Pilots coach Rob Conner said.

http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2009/10/oregon_up_will_mix_it_up_at_pr.html

Everyone who's posted has identified the key issue with the team this year. We don't have reliable finishers after our top four. And, by the way, another interesting meet was held this weekend at the University of Arkansas. Loyola Marymount finished 6th in a fairly good 29-squad race and defeated some teams like Missouri, Mississippi State, and Baylor. Unfortunately, we might not have the luxury of resting all or most of our top-flight runners at the WCC meet in two weeks as LMU is a little too strong this year for us to do that. But ultimately the improving competition is a good thing for WCC and Pilot cross country.

Here is a paragraph from the O-live report on local X-country teams:

Portland's men were brilliant through four but have got to locate a fifth guy capable of maintaining some contact in order to crash the trophy stand this season. Rob Conner said last week that he has a "1-3-1" offense. That is, Alfred Kipchumba out front, Trevor Dunbar, Joash Osoro and Tommy Betterbed working together as a pack, and then one guy to step up and give the team a solid fifth score.

LINK