SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

Two words...

Stephanie Morgan

Yes, she is from the east District and runs for Barnesville.....but D3 SE is stuck running vs the East.

She won by over 2 minutes over 2nd place and multiple state qualifier Emily Skidmore of Alexander.

Morgan ran a 17:58 and was finished before anyone else was out of the woods......I've never seen that at Rio.

Great performance by Circleville and Brad Liston destroying the 16:00 minute mark.

I think in one of the D3 races it took 17:45 to qualify for regionals....and the 2nd D2 race it took 17:51.

Rio ran silly fast.....I really couldn't believe the times that were coming in. Conditions were quite good I know....but was something slightly shorter about the course......or was it just the great weather and improving runners?

The course is like that when it is dry and cool. In 2005 we ran similar times with a similar team. When it is wet at all, the ground gets soft, and times go up 30 seconds. The course is exactly the same as last year so far as I can tell.

This is why times are USELESS in cross country. The times are never the same from day to day, much less from course to course.

The girl absolutely floated. Seemed effortless.
Great day for a race. Many seniors ran their last high school race today. May they continue to enjoy running beyond school. All the kids that ran beat me today. Good luck to all those who advanced, and to those beginning the next endever.

I don't think they are useless. Often they are.....but my team went to the same course for 3 separate meets (for budget reasons) this season.......late August, middle of Sept and middle of October......those 3 meets were the exact same course and it was 75 degrees and sunny on all 3 occasions.

My kids all used those times for how much they were improving. The placing wasn't very useful as a different variety of talent was there for each meet.

Times are fairly useless at districts......but are of importance.

I agree with uhs_coach, times are useless in cross. There are so many kids out there who run a pr on an course that is half a mile short and use that time as their pr. So, does that make them just as good as someone else who runs that time on a legit course? No. And courses are totally different. Look at college, the All-Ohio course averages like a minute slower than most courses. So, times are useless at that meet. So, my advice is to race for spots not time. The goal is to be as many people as you can, not to go a certain time, in my opinion.

Again...do I not have any point in my post?

Comparing times at districts and regionals are useless and it is all placing.....but if I have a kid who runs a 20:50 on a 75 degree sunny day at the Hillsboro Extravaganza and finishes 114th out of a tremendous pool or runners and then 5 weeks later at Hillsboro runs a 19:40 in the same weather/course conditions....that kid has to leave with a sense of productive practicing and a good feeling for he has improved his time a decent bit........thus helping him to continue to push to improve even more as his hard work is proving beneficial.....especially for those kids running individually and not on a full team.

uhs_coach wrote:The course is like that when it is dry and cool. In 2005 we ran similar times with a similar team. When it is wet at all, the ground gets soft, and times go up 30 seconds. The course is exactly the same as last year so far as I can tell.

This is why times are USELESS in cross country. The times are never the same from day to day, much less from course to course.

You just compared times with a past team on the same course with similar conditions.
Times aren't much good course to course, but do you really think they are useless?

I agree with Ironman92, times are not useless. I think that we all agree that times are relative and there are many variables in comparing times. However, they give runners a decent idea of what type of performance they had week to week and year to year. (taking into consideration all variables)
If they are useless, I am suprised that not one race we ran this year was without a timer.

Welp, maybe it should be. But in other States, times are important. For instance, I believe Michigan has qualifying times to make it to state.

Michigan is for idiots. I'm not sure, but I think that is printed on their plates.

Looks like the idiots are ranked in the top 10


This Week
Saturday, Oct. 18, 10 a.m. -- Pre-National Invitational (Terre Haute, Ind.)

The No. 9-ranked University of Michigan men's cross country team returns to the trail this week, traveling to Terre Haute, Ind., to run in the Pre-National Invitational on Saturday (Oct. 18) at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center. The Wolverines will compete against some of the top cross country teams in the nation on the course where the national championships will be run later this year. The event begins at 10 a.m. with six races during the day. Michigan will be sorted into one of the races later this week.

The Wolverines will do battle with 24 of the top 30 teams in the nation, including such highly ranked teams as No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 4 Portland, No. 6 Alabama, No. 7 Iona College and No. 10 Stanford

Times are useless in comparing close runners, however a guy running 20 is not going to beat a 17 guy on any course. You really can't compare times from different races on the same course. Weather, condition of the course and competion all effect times. 5K cross country Pr's shouldn’t mean anything either only track times.
It’s always irritating when D1 guys run 15:30 on a super fast course in Columbus then blames there poor track performances on high competion. Or when they say D2/D3 state placers or qualifiers couldn’t compete on the D1 level. That is completely ignorant great runners can compete in any division.

Thatotherguy wrote:Times are useless in comparing close runners, however a guy running 20 is not going to beat a 17 guy on any course. You really can't compare times from different races on the same course. Weather, condition of the course and competion all effect times. 5K cross country Pr's shouldn’t mean anything either only track times.
It’s always irritating when D1 guys run 15:30 on a super fast course in Columbus then blames there poor track performances on high competion. Or when they say D2/D3 state placers or qualifiers couldn’t compete on the D1 level. That is completely ignorant great runners can compete in any division.

Weather effects track times. The slightly different shapes of a track can affect the time. Does that me we are going to remove the clock from track races. NO. Competition greatly affects placement, does that mean 2nd place at a duel meet is equal to second place at State. NO

Times are for FUN. and are the only way to quantify if a runner is better than another runner if they aren't racing head-to-head.

Why do people have to complain about times if placement isn't an absolute justification of who is better? Let's not be silly, and hold on to a bais that isn't much better than its alternative.