Mason the favorite to win DI Cross Country in 2019

Lancermania

Lancermania

Lancers lead the way!
SouthwestOhioGuy17 posted that Mason boys were aiming for their 13th straight trip to to the DI state cross country meet in 2019. I believe that they will not only get to the State meet in 2019 for the 13th straight time, but are the preseason favorite to win the DI title. Here are their top seven returnees with their best 5K times from last fall in cross country.

John Meyer - 15:57.5
Alex Deroussel - 15:58.7
Micah Champagne - 16:00.5
Austin Cooper - 16:16.5
Aiden Amwshoff - 16:30.6
Jamie Williams - 16:41.1
Rajan Singh - 16:42.8
 
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Just out of curiosity, what are their best times not run on VOA? Many of those southwest district teams tend to throw down outlier times on that course at either GMC or districts.

That being said, Tom Rapp knows his stuff and the comets are certainly worthy of state title talk. After the track season, I'd say St. Xavier is as well.
 
Lancermania said:
Johan Meyer - 15:57.5
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FIFY

Runningfast said:
Just out of curiosity, what are their best times not run on VOA? Many of those southwest district teams tend to throw down outlier times on that course at either GMC or districts.
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Three of the guys on the list, Meyer, Champagne, and Cooper, ran faster times at the Troy regional than they did at the VOA district. They did, though, run faster at the GMC championship meet, also held at VOA, but not by much. The time difference between VOA and Troy is not nearly as much as some, notably ccrunner609, claim it to be. VOA is also not nearly as fast as the pancakes in Central Ohio. (no offense intended toward the Central Ohio folks)
 
Lancermania said:
SouthwestOhioGuy17 posted that Mason boys were aiming for their 13th straight trip to to the DI state cross country meet in 2019. I believe that they will not only get to the State meet in 2019 for the 13th straight time, but are the preseason favorite to win the DI title. Here are their top seven returnees with their best 5K times from last fall in cross country.

Johan Meyer - 15:57.5- GMC (V)
Alex Deroussel - 15:58.7 GMC (V)
Micah Champagne - 16:00.5 - (V)
Austin Cooper - 16:16.5 - GMC (V)
Aiden Amwshoff - 16:30.6 - GMC (JV)
Jamie Williams - 16:41.1 - GMC (JV)
Rajan Singh - 16:42.8 - GMC (JV)
Click to expand...

All their fastest times were posted at the GMC meet at VOA, four in the varsity race and three in the JV race.

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Just out of curiosity, why wouldn't you use the times from the state meet? It's a common course that most of the teams projected to be at the top would share.
 
Runningfast said:
After the track season, I'd say St. Xavier is as well.
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I'd go as far as to say that St. X is the favorite based upon how strong they were in track this past season. Mason seemed to be chasing them all spring in the distance events! I doubt either team will show much at the Moller Invite but it will give a slight indication of what the season will look like.
 
CC and Track are very different sports. Looks like a lot of teams did better than X on the track. Why aren't those teams ahead of X in CC?
 
psycho_dad said: CC and Track are very different sports. Looks like a lot of teams did better than X on the track. Why aren't those teams ahead of X in CC?

As a coach I always thought XC took greater numbers since 5 score and that favored the larger teams in each division. It is rare to see the smallest schools in a division challenge every year. Mason and St. X are two of the largest schools in Ohio for boys. I also think you can get away with a lot of running in XC while track events take a lot more specific individualized coaching and preparation which do not seem as crucial in XC prep. The question you asked can also be reversed. "Why wasn't St. X ahead of those teams on the track?"
 
Yes, it is a numbers game but when you are talking about contending for a state championship it's also about quality. I see Track as a preseason for XC and lets you see how you are trending for the fall.
In the 3200m, St. X has two runners ahead of Mason's top returning runner. Include Tommy Walters (whose a proven XC runner) where as Mason didn't have anyone qualify for the TF regional in the 800 or the 1600m. I'm just saying that based upon the spring results that X is in better position with depth and quality than Mason.
 
Track and XC can be an apples and oranges comparison, but if you can run a sub 9:30 3200 in track (like St. X's top two), you're going to be good in XC. I also think looking at track times can be a good indicator of improvement curves.

If we are talking purely distance track events, who in the state had a better spring than St. X? (guys with a * are returning this fall).

Matthew Hoak (4:16, 9:32)
*Thomas Walters (1:53, 4:21, 9:40)
Nick Mills (4:21, 9:39)
*Nathan Mountain (4:28, 9:26)
*Conner Booher (4:30, 9:27)
Joe Doogan (4:32, 9:37)
*Andrew Gebhardt (4:35, 9:57)
*Jonathan Vonderharr (4:35)

All that being said, Mason returns a bunch of very strong runners, as well. (Four under 4:34, four under 10:00) and has a long tradition of taking 9:50-type guys and getting them to run 16:00-16:15ish. It should be a great battle!
 
No doubt that Mason returns a strong team and some of this is splitting hairs as who will be the top team but I think that X is being under appreciated. Many folks just looked at milesplit returning times and don't look at the big picture of trending athletes from T&F, potential sophomore slumps, etc. Plus there is always the team who comes out of nowhere and surprises everyone which I think that Mason did a few years ago when they weren't in the preseason top 20 and finished fourth?
I've also heard through the grapevine that one of Mason's top 7 returners has chosen to bike race than run XC.
 
Hudson did not show well in track and field coming off a great 2017 CC season, but they came back and had a great 2018 CC season too. CC was a much better indicator of what they could do in CC than their performance on the track. That very good CC team came back this past Spring and only scored 1 point.

How are you going to factor in "Sophomore Slumps"? No such thing.

Gahanna and Pickerington North bring back as good or better teams than Mason or X. My rankings to start the season would be Gahanna Lincoln #1, Mason #2, Pick N. #3 and X #4.

Pickerington is the best 1-2. Gahanna Lincoln is tops at 3. Mason starts to enter in the picture at 4. X does not bring back a better 1,2,3 or 4 than either Gahanna or Mason.
 
As usual psycho_dad is on the money. Let first look at these teams top four returnees from last year's state meet and you get these time totals: 1. GL 67:54, 2. PN 68:05, 3. M 68:08, 4. X has only three returnees.

Let's be fair to X and only look at the top 3 returnees from the state meet and we get these time totals: 1. PN 50:12, 2. M 50:53, 3. GL 50:54, 4. X 51:42
 
That's the course being run today for the preseason meet and it would make sense to keep it for the state meet. After all of the rain in the late fall last year, the field near the road that was part of the other course seems like it is prone to flooding or holding excess water. The OHSAA probably doesn't want to risk a repeat of what happened last year. This new layout also seems to be more spectator and coach friendly.
 
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It looks like X has enough depth for the season!
 
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