2024 OATCC Polls

CFeisel

New member
Does anyone have information about the OATCC polls? I can’t find a preseason poll or a place they’ll clearly post one this week. The website stops at 2023.
Thanks!
 
 
Does anyone have information about the OATCC polls? I can’t find a preseason poll or a place they’ll clearly post one this week. The website stops at 2023.
Thanks!
D2 boys should be
1. Fairfield Union
2. Lexington and Bay
4 Lakeside, Woodridge, CVCA
7. The rest

Has Woodridge ever lost a tie breaker to a D2 team?
 
Good question about the polls?? Should've been a pre season poll last week.

Also, D2 I would put Cincinnati CHCA and West Liberty-Salem in the top 5 or 6
 
DII Girls
Hathway Brown
Minerva
CVCA
O-Glendorf
Woodridge
Athens
Oakwood
Lexington
Tallmadge
Canfield

Others:
West Holmes
J. Alder
Salem
Marlington.
C. Falls
 
Forgive me for not knowing, but I cannot find more information about the OATCCC's Coaches' Poll. Who are the 12 coaches that are able to participate and does anyone know why they limit it to those 12?
 
I've been among the polling coaches in the past (pre-milesplit) era. The hard part is getting 12 people to participate; then finding 12 people that pay close enough attention to who has raced who in the past week, Etc. (as opposed to just looking at Milesplit rankings and voting).
 
Years ago, I was an assistant for a coach who was a pollster. I agreed to do the research, and he did the voting. It was extremely time-consuming to sift through all the results, try to learn something about the courses that were being raced, and determine if any important runners were missing from a team's lineup. I treated the poll as a snapshot of how the teams were running at the time the poll was being tabulated. I did not treat it as a prediction of how the top teams would finish at the state meet.

In the case of my boss, he was voting only in the D2 boys poll. Maybe it was possible that a coach in charge of both genders would be voting in both the boys' and girls' polls, but you were not going to have a D1 coach voting in the D3 poll. The point being, there are more than 12 and as many as 72 coaches around Ohio (12 voters x 2 genders x 3 divisions) voting in these polls.

Lastly, the person in charge of tabulating the polls attempted to have a collection of coaches from all corners of the state, but at the end of the day, the tabulator can only go with who's willing. If you're a coach wanting to be a pollster, the best way to start would be to let your OATCCC District Rep know that you are interested.
 
1. Fairfield Union
2. $oodridge and Bay
4. Lexington
5. All the rest far behind these 4
Fairfield Union clear #1 right now. Bay, Lexington and Woodridge 2A, 2B and 2C... Woodridge did not look real deep Week #1. That has changed. Top returner from last year is back racing, but not in scoring yet. . I'd be worried if I was Fairfield Union. Those 3 teams hunting you down would have to be nerve wracking.
 
Fairfield Union clear #1 right now. Bay, Lexington and Woodridge 2A, 2B and 2C... Woodridge did not look real deep Week #1. That has changed. Top returner from last year is back racing, but not in scoring yet. . I'd be worried if I was Fairfield Union. Those 3 teams hunting you down would have to be nerve wracking.
Maybe it was not noticed, but Bay's #1 did not score at Tiffin either
 
Maybe it was not noticed, but Bay's #1 did not score at Tiffin either
See where I have Bay #2A... Just pointing out that Woody is now deeper than they were a few weeks ago. I would pick them a tight 4th right now, but we know this is not typically the strong part of their season. It looks like it's 4 teams and then a big gap. When it comes to Bay and Woodridge, I'll take Woodridge 9 out of 10 times at the state meet. Is this Bay's year to beat Woody at the State?
 
See where I have Bay #2A... Just pointing out that Woody is now deeper than they were a few weeks ago. I would pick them a tight 4th right now, but we know this is not typically the strong part of their season. It looks like it's 4 teams and then a big gap. When it comes to Bay and Woodridge, I'll take Woodridge 9 out of 10 times at the state meet. Is this Bay's year to beat Woody at the State?
Bay has rarely done well when running vs $oodridge, especially at regionals, but not many have over the past two decades
We agree so far about the current state of Boy's D2, top 4 are well clear of the rest.
This Saturday could be a great midseason showdown if they all run the D2 race and everyone is healthy.
 
Bay has rarely done well when running vs $oodridge, especially at regionals, but not many have over the past two decades
We agree so far about the current state of Boy's D2, top 4 are well clear of the rest.
This Saturday could be a great midseason showdown if they all run the D2 race and everyone is healthy.
Clearly Bay is the favorite at this time at Boardman.
 
$oodridge is funny. Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but that's what makes it funny.

If you were a pollster, would you vote them lower than 4th at any time? In the last 20 seasons, they average 3rd place at the state meet. Going by numbers, 2024 might be an off year since in 2004 and 2014 they had their worst finishes at the state meet in the 20 year run. 8th and 14th. I think if I had a vote, they might get a benefit of the doubt. You would have go out of your way to vote them 7th.

Minster is the gold standard for girls. I'd say Woodridge is for boys and also for total program boys and girls combined.
 
$oodridge is funny. Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but that's what makes it funny.

If you were a pollster, would you vote them lower than 4th at any time? In the last 20 seasons, they average 3rd place at the state meet. Going by numbers, 2024 might be an off year since in 2004 and 2014 they had their worst finishes at the state meet in the 20 year run. 8th and 14th. I think if I had a vote, they might get a benefit of the doubt. You would have go out of your way to vote them 7th.

Minster is the gold standard for girls. I'd say Woodridge is for boys and also for total program boys and girls combined.

I cannot refute your findings on Minster and Woodridge. You love Woodridge and I like that you do love them. I would contest that the gold standard for programs is not as simple as one team. I would argue that multiple teams can be listed as a Tier 1 standard. Tier 2 standard. Tier 3 standard. And so forth.

If you look around the state for girls and boys programs, there are consistently strong programs for 20-30-40 years. I would rate all of those programs as Tier 1 programs. These are the programs that when they show up every coach, parent, AD, and runner knows that this program has arrived at the meet.

I would argue for college football the simple gold standard would be Alabama. But that is too easy. I would rather you rate a Tier 1 standard of continuous force teams: Ohio State, Notre Dame, USC, Michigan, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, etc.

Psycho- can you start another thread of other teams you see as Tier 1 programs for the past 20 years. And let's not use state meet results. There are plenty of programs that I would list as a Tier 1 program that have never been on the podium.
 
I cannot refute your findings on Minster and Woodridge. You love Woodridge and I like that you do love them. I would contest that the gold standard for programs is not as simple as one team. I would argue that multiple teams can be listed as a Tier 1 standard. Tier 2 standard. Tier 3 standard. And so forth.

If you look around the state for girls and boys programs, there are consistently strong programs for 20-30-40 years. I would rate all of those programs as Tier 1 programs. These are the programs that when they show up every coach, parent, AD, and runner knows that this program has arrived at the meet.

I would argue for college football the simple gold standard would be Alabama. But that is too easy. I would rather you rate a Tier 1 standard of continuous force teams: Ohio State, Notre Dame, USC, Michigan, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, etc.

Psycho- can you start another thread of other teams you see as Tier 1 programs for the past 20 years. And let's not use state meet results. There are plenty of programs that I would list as a Tier 1 program that have never been on the podium.
McDonald, Maplewood, East Canton. Minerva, Salem, Lexington, Medina, Hudson, Bay, Mason, St. X, (Perrysburg), (Field) (Granville)(Liberty Benton)(West Liberty Salem) (Versalles) (Davidson) Top of my head zero thought, just name recognition over the years and current.
 
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