MAC Championships

[Rohbino]

The Mid American Conference XC Championships were held this past Saturday at Bowling Green.

The women's race was pretty tight with Northern Illinois (84 points) narrowly beating Toledo (87), Bowling Green (90), and Miami (95). The women's results are here.

In the men's race, Eastern Michigan was more dominant wining with 39. The remainder of the top 5 was Miami (63), Buffalo (94), Ohio (116), and Toledo (123). It was weird not seeing Akron in the field. Hopefully they'll get a men's team back in the future.

I was particularly impressed with the race that Eastern Michigan's Andy Payne (Thomas Worthington) ran to finish as the second individual in a time of 24:00.3 over the 8K course. I was following the race online and he seemed to run a really nice race, moving up nicely and picking guys off. For awhile I thought that he would take first. Here are the men's results. Go to the "compiled" tab and you can see how Andy worked to position himself up throughout the race.

There were a lot of Ohioans running in both races.

 

[Newton's Third]

I was particularly impressed with the race that Eastern Michigan's Andy Payne (Thomas Worthington) ran to finish as the second individual in a time of 24:00.3 over the 8K course. I was following the race online and he seemed to run a really nice race, moving up nicely and picking guys off. For awhile I thought that he would take first.

I was not there but heard he took a fall early and was buried far back. I know a runner can recover from a fall but it can take the edge off and might be difference between first and second. I am not trying to downplay that staying on your feet is an advantage and the runner's responsibility.

 

[CC Track Fan]

I was not there but heard he took a fall early and was buried far back. I know a runner can recover from a fall but it can take the edge off and might be difference between first and second. I am not trying to downplay that staying on your feet is an advantage and the runner's responsibility.

A fall would explain the position at the first split makes his run even more impressive. The 8k does give more time to recover from a fall than you would have in a HS race.

 

[starcatcher8]

Alex Stamper of Kent State (Medina H. S.) ran a nice race in getting fifth. Some trivia about Alex. He only ran 13:36 in middle school but got down to a 15:53 in high school

 

[Rohbino]

Alex Stamper of Kent State (Medina H. S.) ran a nice race in getting fifth. Some trivia about Alex. He only ran 13:36 in middle school but got down to a 15:53 in high school

And now he's running a 4:55 pace for an 8K XC race. That is impressive. That just shows how everyone matures on a different timetable. He's not the best comparison but I always think of how much Mick Stanovsek improved from his high school days at NDCL to what he became at Oregon and Washington. He was still a top miler/1600 runner in high school at 4:10ish but he seemed to up his game a lot in college. Arjun Jha of TWHS looks to be doing the same.

I looked at the results and Stamper moved up nicely. Over the last 1332 meters (I know that's an odd distance but Finishtiming had times & places recorded at 6668 meters) he moved up 6 places which was more than anyone else in the field.

 

[Altor]

(I know that's an odd distance but Finishtiming had times & places recorded at 6668 meters)

Knowing the BGSU course, which is essentially a loop and a half for the women's 6K and a little over two loops for the men's 8K, my bet is that they had mats at each of the mile marks and just picked up the chips as they passed both times.

 

[EuclidandViren]

Northern Illinois women were impressive. First split they started out 7th. They moved up nicely as a team to take the narrow team title. Very patient and smart running by NIU.

It is good to see BGSU women in competitive nature again.

 

[Finishtiming]

We had split mats at the 1,2,3,4 mile marks and since they crossed those at other distances we just captured them there also. Might not be a standard mark but the announcer loved it as he was able to see placing at so many different locations around the course.