Men's Cross Cross Country 2014

[goshox74]

The Shocker men had their first full meet yesterday at the RAFT in Augusta, KS. They were very impressive although Kansas St and Oral Roberts didn't provide much competition. WSU beat both teams in the DI dual meets by perfect scores of 15-50.

WSU put 9 runners in front of Kansas St's FIRST runner. Add into things that Brady Johnson (who finished 2nd overall) ran unattached and will probably compete in a Shocker uniform for the next meet. In track/cc you can redshirt different seasons in each sport and Johnson redshirted track his freshman year but not cross country so Coach Hunter was thinking he might even up the seasons this year. Although it looks like Brady will be the #1 guy now and that makes it tough to redshirt.

Even though there wasn't much competition yesterday, it appears the pre-season ranking of #6 in the MVC may be a little low. Good start for the Shocks!

JK Gold article and results - http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...DB_OEM_ID=7500

[1972Shocker]

@goshox74: thanks for the report and the info on Brady. Did the K-State bring their top men to this meet?

[goshox74]

Yes Kansas State did bring their team. Unfortunately, they don't focus much on men's distance running.

[WuDrWu]

Maybe XCountry is going to be a strength this season. The Shocks won the Woody Greeno in Nebraska today.

WSU runners finished 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 23, 29, 40, 61, 64 (only the first 7 count towards team). This was no light weight meet either. Nebraska was ranked 22 in the country at the start of the season. Air Force was 29th in the latest poll.

I sensed a "cat eating the canary" tone from @goshox74: earlier and it would seem, as usual, he knows something the rest of us will learn.

[1972Shocker]

Definitely showing some promise. The men's XC teams have been somewhat mediocre in recent years. Maybe they are tired of seeing the great majority of the other Shocker programs finishing 1st or 2nd.

Very nice work in Lincoln today men. I like it.

:cowbell:

[1972Shocker]

According to Coach Kirk Hunter the Shocker men's performance in Lincoln was made even more impressive by the fact that 3 of his top runners did not participate in this meet.

"In effect, we ran on the men's side without three of our top guys, and still won," Hunter said. "They really packed together and helped each other through the race."

[goshox74]

Yes this was a good step forward for the men's team at Nebraska. Once again Brady Johnson (and Gage Garcia) ran unattached so we will have to wait two more weeks to see if Coach Hunter will pull off the redshirt on either of them at Arkansas where there will be a major step up in competition. They would've been the #1 and #3 runners today for WSU. Ryan Hocker was the other guy who didn't run (actually he dropped out of the race) but he finished in the top-10 at last year's MVC race. I would say these guys appear to be on a mission to have an upper division finish at the end of the year but it's still very early.

The Valley is very good in distance running so it will be interesting to see if this group can step up to that level November 1st at SIU. Good job guys!

[RoyalShock]

The men debuted in the regional rankings at #11 this week.

[Shocker-maniac]

The men debuted in the regional rankings at #11 this week.

Please pardon my ignorance, but what is the geographic area that comprises this region?

[RoyalShock]

I have no idea, but it's a good question.

[goshox74]

This is the top-15 so it'll give you an idea of the region ...
1 Oklahoma State Big 12 1 0
2 Tulsa American 2 0
3 Oklahoma Big 12 4 ▲ 1
4 Iowa State Big 12 3 ▼ 1
5 Illinois Big Ten 5 0
6 Kansas Big 12 6 0
7 Missouri SEC 7 0
8 Minnesota Big Ten 8 0
9 Bradley Mo. Valley 11 ▲ 2
10 Iowa Big Ten 12 ▲ 2
11 Wichita State Mo. Valley NR
12 Southern Illinois Mo. Valley 10 ▼ 2
13 Nebraska Big Ten 9 ▼ 4
14 Illinois State Mo. Valley 13 ▼ 1
15 Loyola-Chicago Mo. Valley 14 ▼ 1

[WuDrWu]

Wow, half the Valley in the top 15.

[1972Shocker]

Shocker men finish 5th at the Chili Pepper Festival hosted by the highly ranked University of Arkansas.

Good competition with the MVC Championships not all that far away. Scheduled for November 1st in Carbondale.

Two more races between now and then. The Ollie Isom Invitation in El Dorado on October 10th and the Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute on October 18th.

[goshox74]

Even though the Shocker women placed higher than the men (4th compared to 5th), I was very impressed with the guys team. Brady Johnson did not run this weekend and looks like redshirting is likely. Every week it's a different guy leading the way, this week it was sophomore Ugis Jocis followed closely by classmate Killian Schreiner. The top-6 guys all finished between 20th and 40th, very impressive in a large meet like that. If they are going to have a shot at a high placing at MVC they will probably need one or two of those guys to finish towards the front. Their depth appears to be the best in the MVC although the Pre-National meet in 2 weeks with most of the other MVC schools will tell more. This week's meet at El Dorado is just for the B squad runners.

[1972Shocker]

Shocker Senior Chris Burnett on fire at the Prairie Fire. Qualifies for the Olympic Trials. That's good isn't it?

I don't think Chris is running XC this fall but will participate in the Indoor and Outdoor T&F seasons this winter and next spring.