2015 Cross Country

[Buffalo.Rider]

Got some good athletes this year, both men and women. Will be fun to see how they do. Looking forward to resumption of the season this coming weekend.

I was pretty impressed with the freshman from Bismarck - from a small school - who was the top Bison in the home meet a couple weeks ago. Potentially a lot of upside potential with him - assuming he will have better coaching, training regimens, etc.. Curt Bacon came from a small school too, Minot Ryan, so some parallels.

On the women's side, Teschuk for me is a question mark. Not her ability to do well. I wonder if she is getting burned out a little after a very long (about 8-month) track season. Little to no downtime, then cross-country started up.

[Buffalo.Rider]

Saw that Erin Teschuk won the Stanford Invitation X-Country meet. VERY impressive.

Competition was quite good, though not great for a Division I meet - Stanford was there, but the only PAC-12 team, and the other schools were from conferences like the Big Sky.
I am anxious to see how she will do in a meet with a number of upper Div I schools.

Nevertheless, it was a great run. Congrats Erin. You make us proud.

[bruinbison]

For those who don't get the Forum,
there was a nice article by Kolpack on
Brittany Brownotter of NDSU's cross-country team.
She is a transfer from the U of Mary and a Bismarck High grad.

http://www.inforum.com/sports/387206...orth-following

[JackJD]

Erin Teschuk is a dominating runner and if you haven't watched her run, take the next opportunity to do so. I watched her win the Summit League individual title yesterday -- very impressive.

As a practical matter, there are only four competitive teams in Cross Country...the four bottom schools in the women's division and the three bottom schools in the men's division are not in contention (see the huge fall-off in scores following fourth place).

Results:
Women: NDSU's Erin Teschuk individual champ. Team results: USD 38; SDSU 46; NDSU 51; IUPUI 85; Omaha 155; Fort Wayne 159; WIU 219; and ORU 228. NDSU'S Brownotter ran well, finishing third.
Men: SDSU's Trent Lusignana individual champ. IUPUI 35; SDSU 39; NDSU 80; USD 87; Fort Wayne 158; ORU 190; WIU 191.

Story with links to complete results: http://www.thesummitleague.org/sport...20151031n6o400

[Buffalo.Rider]

For those who don't get the Forum,
there was a nice article by Kolpack on
Brittany Brownotter of NDSU's cross-country team.
She is a transfer from the U of Mary and a Bismarck High grad.

http://www.inforum.com/sports/387206...orth-following

This is touching and I hope Brownotter does well. I would love to see her make All-American. The Sioux Indian part of it makes me think of Billy Mills - the 1964 Olympic champion (10,000 meters) from South Dakota. (Good movie about him, by the way) The article also made me reminisce about the Fort Yates basketball team that won the Class A state title in something like 1975.

Glad we don't have NDSU fans running around yelling 'sioux suck' anymore (or not much anymore) and wearing T-shirts that have similar racial slurs. I know these chants were part of the old rivalry with UND, but there are more Sioux in the state than just on the UND campus.

Go get 'em Brittany !

[natstar1]

don't follow XC, but where is Erin Teschuk ranked nationally?

[Buffalo.Rider]

don't follow XC, but where is Erin Teschuk ranked nationally?

Easy answer: high.

Specifics: I have not seen cross country individual rankings, though the NCAA has on its website some team or school rankings. Cross country differs from track and field - while the distances they run are probably pretty close to 'officially the same', the terrain they run on - golf courses, parks, other - can vary so much with hills, length of the grass, wet or dry, muddy or not, and so on - that it is difficult to make apples to apples comparisons. A time of 17:30 for one course, might be 18:05 for the same difference on another course, yet the 18:05 is a better time because of the difficulty of the course. So even if rankings exist, I don't think they would be very meaningful.

Teschuk has run only two meets, won both, and one included Stanford which has very good distance runners. I would predict she will be All-American if she runs well (does not get, food poisoning, etc.). I think she has a shot at winning the national meet. (All American is top 25, I think - others can correct me on this, I might be wrong).

[tony]

Erin Teschuk won the NCAA Regional! (the ! is for happiness, not surprise.)

http://www.gobison.com/news/2015/11/...113151053.aspx

I didn't check all the regionals because a) there are a lot of them and b) different courses=different times but Erin's time is FAST.

[natstar1]

some poll had her ranked #7 in the nation

[tcbison]

some poll had her ranked #7 in the nation

Adding to this: Teschuk is one of only two unbeaten Division I runners this cross country season, capturing first place in all three races she has entered. She won the Stanford Invitational on Sept. 26, the Summit League Championships on Oct. 31, and the NCAA Midwest Regional on Nov. 13.

Temple's Blanca Fernandez is the only other undefeated Division I runner.