Cross Country Championships

CMJ · October 30, 2010

Story isn't up on MGSports yet, but NT finishes 6th in both the Men's and Women's. A bit disappointing to be honest. Hopefully we have acouple of folks who move on to the Regionals as individuals.

Welch · October 31, 2010

Story isn't up on MGSports yet, but NT finishes 6th in both the Men's and Women's. A bit disappointing to be honest. Hopefully we have acouple of folks who move on to the Regionals as individuals.

The whole team can go to regionals, its not a qualifying event. The question is, will the coaches take the whole team? Probably not, as they should not. The guys team consists of two New Zealanders and a handful of walk-ons. I blame this poor finish on the coaching change that occurred this fall. The new distance coach has not had any time to recruit as he came in during August. Also, it takes time to develop runners, so he has not had that time either. Give him a couple years and I think we will be at the top of the Sunbelt again. He is a very passionate young guy. Good recruits will love him. I think they will only take the top two guys to regionals as Patrick Strong might have a chance to move on, if he has an outstanding race at regionals.

The cross team has consistently finished in the top 4 in the past 5 or 6 years. This is not terrible though. We beat half of the conference. I think the team will be there once some recruits come in. Let's not be too disappointed. How many pointless years did Dodge have?

GrandGreen · October 31, 2010

The whole team can go to regionals, its not a qualifying event. The question is, will the coaches take the whole team? Probably not, as they should not. The guys team consists of two New Zealanders and a handful of walk-ons. I blame this poor finish on the coaching change that occurred this fall. The new distance coach has not had any time to recruit as he came in during August. Also, it takes time to develop runners, so he has not had that time either. Give him a couple years and I think we will be at the top of the Sunbelt again. He is a very passionate young guy. Good recruits will love him. I think they will only take the top two guys to regionals as Patrick Strong might have a chance to move on, if he has an outstanding race at regionals.

The cross team has consistently finished in the top 4 in the past 5 or 6 years. This is not terrible though. We beat half of the conference. I think the team will be there once some recruits come in. Let's not be too disappointed. How many pointless years did Dodge have?

Your read is the same as mine, obviously there was little or no recruiting done for this year in cross country. Look for a big turnaround next year.

On another note, has NT ever hired the other track coach? I noticed that Talley and a few others are no longer listed on the track roster, if he is no longer with the team it would be a big loss. Not many pay much attention to the track sports but if NT ever has a chance at winning the "all sports championship", they are going to have to improve. I took the termination of the two track coaches as a sign, that NT wanted to upgrade their program. Hopefully that will happen, there is no reason that NT should not dominate other than lack of interest and funding.

Mean Green Matt · November 1, 2010

Your read is the same as mine, obviously there was little or no recruiting done for this year in cross country. Look for a big turnaround next year.

On another note, has NT ever hired the other track coach? I noticed that Talley and a few others are no longer listed on the track roster, if he is no longer with the team it would be a big loss. Not many pay much attention to the track sports but if NT ever has a chance at winning the "all sports championship", they are going to have to improve. I took the termination of the two track coaches as a sign, that NT wanted to upgrade their program. Hopefully that will happen, there is no reason that NT should not dominate other than lack of interest and funding.

We are also going to need a baseball team, and men's tennis if we ever want to win the All-Sports Championship. Both WKU, and MTSU, who are the two schools that finish ahead of us every year have both of those sports. WKU even has men's swimming and diving. It really hurts to get 0 points in those sports every year.

In 2010, we finished 1 point behind WKU and 25.5 points behind MTSU. WKU scored 10 points from sports that North Texas does not have, and MTSU scored 13 points from sports North Texas does not have. MTSU does not have Women's swimming though, so the net advantage for MTSU was 8 points.

WKU is the only SBC team to field every sport the conference offers.

This poor CC performance sets us back a few points from where we were last year at this point.