Etrain Team Power Rankings: #25 Eastern Michigan Eagles

By: Garrett Zatlin

Reminder of the list so far...

#25 Eastern Michigan Eagles

#24 Penn State Nittany Lions

#23 Minnesota Gophers

#22 Cornell Bears
#21 Furman Paladins
#20 Florida State Seminoles

#19 Colorado State Rams

#18 Tulsa Golden Hurricanes

#17 NC State Wolfpack

#16 Penn Quakers

#15 Virginia Tech Hokies

#14 UCLA Bruins

#13 BYU Cougars

#12 Louisville Cardinals

#11 Michigan Wolverines

#10 Virginia Cavaliers

#09 Oregon Ducks

#08 Oklahoma State Cowboys

#07 Iona Gaels

#06 Mississippi Rebels

#05 Villanova Wildcats

#04 Wisconsin Badgers

#03 Syracuse Orange 

#02 Stanford Cardinals
#01 Colorado Buffalos

25. Eastern Michigan Eagles

Flotrack’s #25: Florida State Seminoles 

Coach: John Goodridge

Notable Departures: Witchell Warren

Notable Additions: N/A

Projected Scoring Five: Willy Fink (SR), Hylnur Andresson (SO), Nick Raymond (JR), Lahsene Bouchikhi (SO), John Knox (JR)

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Out of every place on this list, the 25^th through 20^th spots were by far the hardest. Multiple teams in the ‘just missed’ section were on and off the list multiple times. Eastern Michigan eventually came down with the final spot. The other teams simply lost too many men, or performed too poorly when crunch time came last season. The underdog that is Eastern Michigan deserved to get some love.

Eastern Michigan took an interesting approach to their schedule last season. The team opened up at small meets like the Detroit Titan and Spartan Invites where they earned runner-up finishes at both meets. They would even beat D2 powerhouse, Grand Valley State in the process and allow the freshmen to gain some great experience. That experience would be crucial when Coach Goodridge entered the Eagles in the Notre Dame and Pre-Nationals Invites. Notre Dame would be the first big test for a young and unproven squad…and what a test it was. Front-man, Willy Fink, struggled to contend for a top 20 spot and finished just outside of that mark in 25^th. His next closest teammate was Lahsene in 39^th. EMU finished 17^th out of 24 teams at Notre Dame by racking up a discouraging 425 points. It wasn’t necessarily the best result against the big stage talent. Nonetheless, EMU kept their heads high as they went into Terre Haute looking to make up for their poor Notre Dame performance. Eventually, they went back home having done just that. The gang of green and white had a huge showing by placing 12^th overall and defeating teams like NC State, Yale, and Louisville. The top 10 spot was only 11 points out of reach. The Eagles rode that momentum into MAC championships where they cruised and took five of the top eight spots. Great Lakes would be the real challenge. With powerhouse squads crawling all over the region, EMU was easily overlooked despite their more impressive performances. But by the end of the meet, they weren’t overlooked anymore. Fink did what he had to do and secured the 19^th spot for the Eagles. The rest of the scorers held their own placing 28^th, 30^th, 43^rd, and 44^th. The time-spread turned out to be an excellent 34 seconds. Not even Indiana nor Notre Dame came close to achieving that kind of time-spread. While the outstanding pack running and gutsy efforts were commendable, it wasn’t enough to have a true impact. Eastern Michigan would end up 5^th overall. Any hope of an auto-bid was lost and the Eagles would head home with their 2014 fall season over.

There is a lot of hope for Eastern Michigan this year. For starters, they only lose one of their top seven from regionals. The lack of graduates indicates solid depth, which could be useful in the unfortunate scenario of an injury. It also doesn’t hurt to have multiple guys competing for a varsity spot. The team is filled with rising sophomores and juniors that crowded the 28^th through 47^th spots at regionals, proving that they are quick learners and work well together. With Willy Fink entering his senior year as an accomplished team leader, it’s hard not to like the potential and future improvement this team has. Yet, just like any team, there are some problems. The biggest one I have right now is the fact that EMU’s roster does not list any incoming freshman. Is it safe to assume that the Eagles couldn’t recruit a single guy on their team? It also worries me that the guys in green will still be facing an extremely competitive region. With no one on that team having experience at NCAA’s and running in a guaranteed-title MAC conference, Eastern Michigan will need to prove that they can not only run with the big boys, but beat them too.