The third seasonal set of the Zatlin Awards is here! It's always a lot of fun to write these and some readers have said that they enjoyed them as well. This one will be a little longer considering I have to look at individuals AND teams, but I'll make it work. With that, here are the awards...
Notes:
-Performances are based on the entire cross country season. Times from any track seasons do not count.
-Asterix indicate something involving the criteria
-The formatting is a little weird and I'm having trouble getting it fixed so sorry for that
Individuals
The “Who is that?” Award (Best Breakout Runner)*
Winner: Jacob Burcham (Oklahoma)
Other Nominees: Jonathan Green, Colin Bennie, Shaun Thompson, Hassan Omar, Kyle Eller
Why: I think it's pretty safe to say that Burcham takes the cake here. He was always a decent runner on the track and did what he could in cross, but this season he stepped it up big time by nearly beating Marc Scott at regionals and then grabbing 16th at nationals. He was also a huge part in getting his team to nationals. Then we have Shaun Thompson who grabbed his first big win over Thomas Curtin and continued to wreck havoc at the biggest meets in the nation. He would have an off-day at nationals, but he was the reason why the pace was so fast in every race he ran in. Others like Green and Bennie were better than Burcham, but there was some talent already there when you look back at some of their times and results before this season. They weren't known, but they already had a lot of potential. Eller and Omar had excellent seasons but were just outdone by Burcham. Some will also argue that Germano, Yorks, and Wynne should be on here, and although they really stepped up, they weren't better than the names above.
*Must've had already completed a season of cross country prior to the 2015 season. Freshmen are not eligible.
Can’t See The Haters Award (Fan Favorite)
Winner: Patrick Tiernan (Villanova)
Other Nominees: Thomas Awad, Justyn Knight, Grant Fisher
Why: All anyone wanted at NCAA's was for someone to make Cheserek earn his title. A sit and kick race would've been rather unexciting, but Tiernan pushed the pace and made the King drop a sub-29 to win. It was an entertaining race that couldn't have been done without going hard from the gun and I think it was appreciated by many. Awad is heavily liked around PA (at least based on the people I've talked to) and considering that he was able to rally from a down regular season and help bring his team to nationals makes him that much more likable. As for the other two, Fisher is all anyone on LetsRun could talk about and Knight is more of a personal pick.
The 24/7 Award (Most Consistent)
Winner: Justyn Knight (Syracuse)
Other Nominees: Edward Cheserek, Patrick Tiernan, Marc Scott
Why: Yes, Scott and Tiernan both were undefeated coming into NCAA's. However, I held off (mainly for Tiernan, less for Scott) because they had somewhat easier schedules compared to the other nominees. Justyn Knight was impressive all season and seemed to be consistent in the way he ended races. He was always being or getting out-kicked at the end of a race. Think of meets like...
-Beantown: Held off McClintock in final 100m to win by less than a second.
-Wisconsin: In position to win until blazing kick by Scott dropped him to second place.
-ACC's: Battle with Curtin resulted in being outkicked during the final 100m and settling for second place.
Although the result didn't always favor him, Knight was consistent in how he ran and executed his plans. Cheserek did win all but one, yet his race strategies were a bit sporadic and he did lose to Curtin at Pre-Nats (I know I'm being picky, but I think it's valid).
The Qdoba Award (Most Underrated Runner)
Winner: Erik Peterson (Butler)
Other Nominees: Trent Lusignan, Ben Rainero, Hayden Hawks
Why: Peterson definitely did not get enough love from sites other than this one. In Flotrack's prediction contest, it looked like I was the only one to pick Peterson to win the Panorama Farms Invite (which he did) while many others chose Kyle King (he wasn't even top-10 in that race). The Butler Bulldog was dominant throughout the season by getting 8th at Pre-Nats and 3rd at Mid-Atlantic regionals. He would end this with a 12th place finish at nationals so it's clear that the guy could hang with anyone. Aside from Peterson, guys like Lusignan made a big impact on the national scene with consistent top five finishes, and solid races like 20th at Wisconsin and 24th at nationals. Cornell's Ben Rainero pushed the pace in a lot of races like Beantown and Heps, and although they didn't always result in a win, he constantly finished well. Finally, Hawks was the glue for a SUU team that didn't have much to flaunt after Nate Jewkes left. Hawks really kept that team together all season and ended with a 35th place finish at nationals.
The Chipotle Award (Most Overrated Runner)
Winner: MJ Erb (Mississippi)
Other Nominees: Jake Leingang, Amos Bowen
Why: It's a tough one to give but I think I made the right decision with Erb. MJ was like the prized offseason free-agent. The All-American at Syracuse transferred to Mississippi where many expected him to be the star and complete a team that needed an edge. While he was solid at the Greater Louisville Classic (4th) and Southeast regionals (6th), the junior wasn't where the team needed him to be. He was 47th at Wisconsin, 114th at SEC's, and 187th at nationals which did not match the front runner role that they needed from him. I could definitely be missing out on an injury or illness (which is very possible), but he didn't perform up to the standards that many (or just me) had for him. Others like Leingang didn't necessarily have a bad season, but didn't perform up to the standards I thought he was capable of. He was 24th at Pre-Nats (arguably his best race), 23rd at Pac-12's, 39th at West regionals, and 50th at NCAA's. Again, not bad by any means, but for a team that would've really benefited on another true low-stick, Leingang didn't quite blow anyone away. Amos Bowen was originally ranked in the 30's in my preseason top 50 rankings. However, 52nd at Griak and 159th at Pre-Nats weren't impressive. Bowen eventually ended the season as the first man out of nationals at the Mountain region.
The Comeback Kid Award (Runner That Has Best Overcome Adversity)*
Winner: Lane Werley (UCLA)
Other Nominees: Thomas Awad, Jim Rosa, Ben Saarel
Why: I think this could go a lot of ways and is pretty open to debate. Yet, for me, I think it has to go to Lane Werely. The man was outstanding in his first year of cross country by dominating the regular season and grabbing 25th overall at nationals in 2012. However, after he redshirted in 2013 and started back up in 2014, he didn't have the same spark by placing far back in meets he had done quite well in before (like Wisconsin (71st), PAC-12's (52nd), and NCAA's (92nd)). Despite his poor performances, he bounced back in 2015 and crushed his races by placing 3rd at the Washington Invite, 14th at Wisconsin, 5th at PAC-12's and an outstanding 21st at nationals. It was a huge rebound of a season for Werley who wasn't showing any signs of that fitness in 2014. As for the other guys, Awad and Saarel were struggling in the beginning (Saarel was injured) but both bounced back to run amazing races in the post-season and earn All-American titles. We end with Jim Rosa who had the best post-season of anyone here even after redshirting for an injury last year. He was 6th at nationals and greatly helped in the Stanford scoring. Typically that would have him winning this award, but he barely ran the entire season and it's tough to go off of just three races.
*Adversity can be from previous season/year or during the 2015 season
No Guts No Glory Award (Gutsiest Runner)
Winner: Shaun Thompson (Duke)
Other Nominees: Patrick Tiernan, Thomas Curtin, Ben Rainero
Why: It's so tough not giving this award to Tiernan when you watch what he did at nationals. However, Thompson wins the award here. He constantly pushed the pace in every race he was in. He pulled away from Curtin at the Interregional meet and won by 31 seconds. He thrived off of a fast pace at Pre-Nats and made the pace incredibly quick at ACC's and regionals. It wasn't always the best move, but he made the field work for it. Curtin, however, was a big benefactor of Thompson's fast pace tendencies. He took advantage of the pace and drafted off of Thompson to grab the ACC and regional title (Curtin ran the fastest regional time of 2015). Let's not also forget that Curtin ran so fast from the gun at Pre-Nats that not even Cheserek could catch back up to him. Moving on, Tiernan gets a lot of credit for scorching the regionals course and pushing Cheserek to a quick time at nationals. However, there wasn't much competition in his region for him to outrun and that's why he doesn't win. It's not really anything he could control. Rainero is the last nominee. He took the lead at Beantown for a while even with a lethal Syracuse trio behind him. He also set up a fast race at Heps that had some of the best kickers and post-season runners on the Eastern border.
Pumped Up Kicks Award (Most Impressive Performance)
Winner: Edward Cheserek @ NCAA's (28:45 FTW)
Other Nominees: Marc Scott @ Wisconsin (Scorching kick over Knight and McGorty FTW), Thomas Curtin @ Pre-Nats (Hard from the gun effort to outrun Cheserek FTW)
Why: I could try to find an argument as to how Cheserek's title wasn't impressive, but I would only be lying to the readers and myself. Yes, Tiernan did set up a fast race, but the way Cheserek responded with such amazing ease and turn over seemed like it was nothing to him. He handled the pace so well and got his third straight XC title out of it. It was outstanding. A close second is Thomas Curtin at Pre-Nats who ran hard from the gun and surprising Cheserek (as well as the rest of the field) by his ability to maintain such a hard pace. Rarely does that ever happen and it was extremely refreshing to see that kind of win take place. Marc Scott's victory at Wisconsin also deserves some recognition. I have never seen anyone close a race as hard as he did. When you think that Knight has the win secured, Scott comes out of nowhere the last 50 meters and steals a win. It was an incredibly gutsy kick and I probably won't see that for a long time.
Batman and Robin Award (Best Racing Duo)
Winner: Anthony Rotich/Jonah Koech (UTEP)
Other Nominees: Jacob Burcham/Brandon Doughty (Oklahoma), Kyle Eller/Patrick Corona (Air Force), Abbey Jefferson/Jerrell Mock (Colorado State), Parsons/Simon (NC State)
Why: It's tough to argue whether or not UTEP has a racing trio or duo if you include Cosmas Boit into the mix. However, I think these two were too far ahead and in another league of their own. They dominated the Mountain region in terms of individual performance and ended the season with top-20 finishes (although some would argue that it wasn't their best day). Even with the top-20 finishes, a closer second than many people realize is the pair from CSU. They went 1-2 at Roy Griak and continued to breeze by their big invites. Mock won the Mountain West conference title while Jefferson finished ahead of him at Nats (13th to 19th). Moving on, the duo from Oklahoma were consistent all year but were mainly carried by Burcham who gave the team more life than Doughty did. Still they each played a heavy role in the success of their squad. The Air Force guys were strong but switched off front runner roles with Corona being the number one man to start the season, and Eller leading the team at the end of the season. Finally, Parsons and Simon of NC State were by far the most consistent runners this season and arguably the most underrated. They were huge at conferences and regionals made their team relevant all year with finishes towards the top of the results.
The Trifecta Award (Best Racing Trio)
Winner: Syracuse (Knight, Bennie, Hehir)
Other Nominees: Villanova (Tiernan, Willimsz, Denault), Iona (Miller, Kirui, Clements), Stanford (McGorty, Fisher, either Rosa)
Why: I don't really need to explain why Syracuse has the best trio. Just look at the top 10 results at NCAA's and know that they've been doing that all year. Villanova had a consistent and solid top three the entire season, but never really raced the competition to split them up. They were always towards the top, but that competition really only included Penn and Georgetown. Iona did extremely well throughout the season with Iona being led by Miller and strongly supported by Kirui and Clements (Kirui was 20th at NCAA's). They were a trio that went unnoticed for a large part of the fall. As for Stanford, it's tough to really say how concrete their top three was. McGorty and Fisher were always towards the top, but neither Rosa ran with the entire varsity often enough to really solidify a top three.
PA Don’t Play Award (Best Season by Pennsylvania Alumni)
Winner: Brenden Shearn (Penn)
Other Nominees: Ryan Gil, Connor Quinn, Dominic Deluca
Why: I think this a really tough one to decide and it could honestly go to anyone here. However, I'm going to give to give it to Shearn. Shearn was 8th at Princeton, 12th at Heps, and 12th at regionals (Mid-Atlantic). It's tough to say whether or not that's better than Gil's 32nd at Washington and 31st at PAC-12's but it's definitely close. Deluca is also very close in this argument when you consider that he was 20th at Beantown, 11th at Heps, and 18th at a deep Northeast regionals. Quinn gets in the nominations for being the first man out of nationals in an underrated Mid-Atlantic region and leading a team that was missing Burkhardt the entire season.
How Do You Spell That? Award (Coolest Name)
Winner: Jacob Pickle (Texas)
Other Nominees: Philo Germano, Tony Smoragiewicz, Tanner Hinkle, Sergey Sushchickh, Vibushan Sivakumaran, Hyluner Anderson, Cerake Geberkidane
Why: I kind of went overboard with the nominees, but if you got to choose wouldn't you? Here's some of the reasons...
-Pickle: His last name is Pickle and if he didn't win then I didn't know who would.
-Hinkle: It sounds kind of Christmas-y so it makes sense since it's the holidays.
-Smoragiewicz/Sushchickh/Sivakumaran: Do you know how many times I had to look at the other tab to type this down? The answer is too many. I don't really know how to say these names but I imagine they sound pretty cool.
-Philo Germano/Hyluner: They roll off the tongue so well. It's pretty fun to say.
-Geberkidane: It sounds intimidating so that must be why he's so good.
The Mike Ditka Award (Best Coach)
Winner: Chris Fox (Syracuse)
Other Nominees: Steve Dolan (Penn), Mark Wetmore (Colorado), Chris Bucknam (Arkansas), Brandon Bonsey (Georgetown)
Why: It's not that exciting to give the NCAA champions the Best Coach award, but it's definitely well deserved. Since 2005, Fox has slowly matured this team and was able to sign high quality recruits. The program started to become a national contender as of late and of course this season the hard work showed. Cuse didn't lose a single meet all season and easily had the best top three in the nation (all in the top 10 at nationals). Questions arose about the reliability of the fourth and fifth guys, but Fox was able to develop Philo Germano into an All-American while Joel Hubbard was only eight spots behind. They peaked at the right time and Fox was able to have every one of his runners embrace their roles. That's not always easy when you have such a big mix of younger and older guys. Other coaches like Bucknam and Bonsey deserve serious props when many thought that the departure of some stud athletes would leave the teams irrelevant. That was not the case as both coaches developed decent talent into high-caliber athletes. The results showed when both teams were top 10 at nationals. As for Steve Dolan you have to love what he has done. In three years, he completely turned around this Penn program that was suffering in (what was then) a weak Ivy league. Now they can say that they went on to make nationals for the first time in 40 years. That is truly outstanding coaching. Finally, we have Mark Wetmore who will always be mentioned when we talk about the Best Coach award. No, they didn't win the title, but Wetmore made all the right moves by running Saarel when he did, developing the frosh John Dressel into one of the best in the nation, and finally establishing a front-runner in Pierce Murphy. You don't become as good as they are without Wetmore.
You Da Real MVP Award (Most Valuable Runner in the NCAA)
Winner: Edward Cheserek (Oregon)
Other Nominees: Patrick Tiernan, Thomas Curtin, Anthony Rotich, Justyn Knight
Why: He's simply the best. Plain and simple. We could talk about the other nominees, but they obviously were just fighting for second place. Had Curtin not had an off day at nationals, there could be an argument about him being the winner. Yet, the fact remains that Cheserek's domination was no different than it had been in the past. He was not just winning, he was destroying. He's now put himself into the discussion of being the Greatest of All Time and it's hard to think of anyone that has won their races as easily and as convincingly as Cheserek has. They don't call him the King for nothing.
Teams
The Out Of The Blue Award (Best Breakout Team)
Winner: Oklahoma Sooners
Other Nominees: Penn Quakers, Louisville Cardinals
Why: All of these teams are more than worthy of this award. However, if you look at the Sooners, no one called them being as successful as they were. Penn wasn't expected by many to make nationals, but there was some preseason chatter about them battling for the Heps title and they weren't completely dismissed. Louisville certainly surprised many by winning the regional title, but they definitely had talent with their fifth man being the only issue. Oklahoma, however, were not considered by many. Although they did beat Furman at Panorama, they plummeted to 22nd at Wisconsin. Nonetheless, the team rallied and took 2nd at BIG 12's and then made it out of a surprisingly good region this year to make nationals. Once the Sooners got to NCAA's, instead of faltering under the pressure, they thrived and put up a fantastic 15th place team finish which was ahead of everyone in their region. The Sooners came out big this season and they deserve some love.
The Average Joe's Award (Most Underrated Team)
Winner: Boise State Broncos
Other Nominees: Arkansas Razorbacks, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Air Force Falcons
Why: There were definitely a lot of teams that could've taken this award. However, I feel like the Broncos didn't get enough credit. The Broncos started the season by taking a huge step back as their national qualifying leader, Andrew Rafla, was out of commission due to a season ending injury. The team was now insanely young, inexperienced, and without a front runner. That, however, did not stop them. They continued to run hard through races and finished a respectable 11th place at Wisconsin and would later just miss out on the Mountain West title by seven points. The team entered regionals and finished 5th overall to take down UCLA and California, both of which had a solid number of wins in their pocket. The Bronco's got a qualifier to nationals and finished 16th overall to cap off an outstanding season despite not having their best guy. Other teams like Arkansas had a different number one at every meet. They lost some big names to graduation so to place 6th is mind blowing. Minnesota is a team that struggled during the season, but surprised many by defeating Tulsa and getting the second auto-qualifying spot at regionals. The team next in line to get this award has to be Air Force who didn't even make NCAA's! They had a great season that included finishing 8th at Pre-Nats and won the Mountain West title over two very solid teams in CSU and Boise State. They got robbed out of nationals which is a shame because I think they were very deserving to make the trip.
The Dallas Cowboys Award (Most Overrated Team)
Winner: Mississippi Rebels
Other Nominees: Villanova Wildcats, Indiana Hoosiers
Why: I feel like the name of this award will be well liked by many of the readers from the Philadelphia area...Anyways, I think it's pretty clear that Mississippi is the front-runner for this award. They had such incredible athletes entering this season and got a huge transfer in MJ Erb who would fill out the final piece of their varsity squad and be a front-runner...except that didn't happen. Erb ran well at some meets, but failed to make an impact in the post-season when he was needed the most. Wes Gallagher and Trevor Gilley struggled tremendously while the rest of the guys like Tobin and Domanic didn't improve much on their 2014 performances. The once top five ranked Rebels fell apart after trying to be held together by milers like Craig Engels and Ryan Manahan. Mississippi would finish 30th at NCAA's. Another top-ranked team also failed to meet expectations. The Wildcats struggled to beat Penn and Georgetown this season and couldn't even make nationals. The team was actually quite good, but could not fix their fifth man situation. Indiana is a team that had a lot of expectations, but couldn't capitalize on their depth full of talent. It also didn't help that they lost their front-runner Matthew Schwartzer (to an injury maybe?).
The Philadelphia Phillies Award (Most Interesting Mascot at Nationals)*
Winner: UTEP Miners
Other Nominees: Syracuse Orange, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Southern Utah Thunderbirds
Why: I'm actually really curious to see what the mascot for this guy would look like. Would it just be a massive pick axe? Does he run out at games and hype up the crowd like any other mascot? These are the important we need to ask. The Syracuse Orange...didn't really think of a mascot. They just really like the color Orange. The Golden Gophers is an interesting one because you can imagine that they were worried that other schools would be the Gophers so they just put Golden in front of theirs. The Thunderbirds is just a really cool name and I think it needs to be appreciated.
*I make it "At Nationals" because then I could talk about any college mascot like UC Santa Cruz's 'Sammy the Slug' and I can't do that to you guys.
The Big Rings Award (Best Team in the NCAA)
Winner: Colorado Buffalos
Other Nominees: Syracuse Orange, Stanford Cardinals
Why: Has anyone heard Drake's new album with Future and their song 'Big Rings'? You can't understand anything Future is saying but it's still hype. Ironically, the team to win this award did not get a championship ring this season. I feel like Colorado had an overall better season than Syracuse and faced slightly harder competition. That's my opinion, but obviously the argument is there. If you want more detail then see my latest team rankings by clicking here.
That's all I've got! Get ready for some track coverage soon!
Run on,
Garrett
thanks for all the work you put in covering NCAA XC
ReplyDeleteNo prob, I enjoy it. Thanks for reading!
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