Dellinger Invitational

As you said Bill no real surprises other than Emilie Girard running unattached. She woulda likely been a key factor rounding out the scoring for the women's team if she were at her best. It will be interesting to see who ends up being the 5th runner now between Thompson, Berry, Clute, Miller and Nelson. I would imagine ITB, Elmore, Kazimierska, and McClain will be the top 4. But without a solid 5th it may be hard to beat BYU. It's going to interesting to see which men have stepped up from last season. But as I had been saying all summer it is unlikely this is an all in XC season for the men's team because of all the factors I previously stated.

First time attending a cross country meet. Any advice or tips? For this course, what are the few spots I should watch from ?

Since you ask lol!!! Maybe others were like me and just didn't really know what say and its taking us a while to process the results.

The men actually looked much better as a collective than I was expecting when you factor all runners as a whole and not just the ones that ran attached. Problem is the runners who ran unattached who would've made a difference in the scoring yesterday there is a good possibility they won't compete attached this fall again for all the reasons I have stated in several post for the last few months. It is clear what the goal is which is have everyone who can have an extra year of training under the system were possible. I guess the biggest example of the point I am making is Josh Edwards last year. At the Dellinger meet last year he finished great amongst the fellow ducks while running unattached and so he got entered into the lineup the rest of the season and never matched that performance. Doesn't mean that he got worse but the other duck runners who he beat at 2022 Dellinger could've gotten better as the season went on or their experience helped them in high pressure situations. The point is Josh Edwards XC eligibility was wasted last year as he didn't change the scoring capacity for the team. It's better to have someone be a factor for 3/4 years then 2/3 years which is how most of the top teams have now with runners in their early to mid 20s leading the charge and not teams made up of teenagers. It's unfortunate that Hussein is just coming back from injury, Stein and Slenning are missing, and Caleb Brown doesn't seem to be on the team anymore as he is no longer on the TFRRS roster. In order to redshirt the youngsters those 4 would have had to be supportive cast to Norman forming most of the top 7. Hussein and Schumacher can get better as the season goes on. Balasz ran great. Harrison went out too fast and blew up so with better pacing could net better results. Cook ran well but as Jerry stated in his pre meet interview he isn't trying kill him on the grass this year as his value is going to be on the track (Harrison is in the same boat I imagine) So I guess I am curious to what other think should the team try to go all in to make it to Nationals this year and jeopardize the track season? Would we be okay with seeing a watered down men's team running in the fall and have a great team competing on the track in the winter and spring?

The women's team is where I struggled the most trying to understand. But after hearing Shalane's post race interview I think they will be better as the season goes on. Girard and Patterson will be running attached when their compliance paperwork is finalized which she believes will happen by pre-nats. The women looked flat and not really prepared to race but seems like that's where they are in their training right now. The silver lining is that they don't have to be ready in September or October it's November where it counts. So if their training allows them to be at their best at Regionals and NC's then I would rather that be the case then the reverse. Anika Thompson ran really well by holding off the pack of BYU runners that were right on her tail. If she can keep that up and Girard and Patterson get back to their best form and hopefully get into the 3rd and 4th spots the team dynamics shift dramatically. For comparison ITB and Elmore didn't have their best performances last year at the Dellinger meet so even though I thought they would be amongst the top 5 finishers yesterday it doesn't indicate anything that they weren't. Katie Clute has been solid so far as a true freshman. Great to see Kate Peters back running after what Shalane described as a very serious injury that had her off running of almost a year. Glad she is redshirting and will have time to get back to form by next year hopefully.