By: Garrett Zatlin
The 'I Love College' series? Done. The Etrain Top 50 rankings? Done. The Top 15 PA Alumni rankings? Yep, that's done too.
The final series of articles is the Etrain Top 25 Team Power Rankings. Just like the top 50, the team rankings did quite well last year and generated plenty of buzz. Now, just as Flotrack is releasing their team rankings, we will be releasing ours! Be prepared for the release within the next few days...
So who were the teams that were 'Just Misses'?
Just Missed (no order):
- UTEP Miners
- Virginia Tech Hokies
- Michigan Wolverines
- Southern Utah Thunderbirds
- Mississippi Rebels
- Penn Quakers
- Portland Pilots
- Oklahoma Sooners
- San Francisco Dons
You can probably already see that our Etrain and Flotrack rankings are going to differ quite a bit. Flotrack had some pretty generous rankings for squads like Oklahoma (Flo #18), Portland (Flo #20), and UTEP (Flo #21). I don't quite agree...
One of the major themes among all of these programs is that they lose a major ace/low-stick. Doughty (Oklahoma), Rotich (UTEP), Ferlic (Michigan), Awad (Penn), Curtin (Virginia Tech), and Hawkes (Southern Utah) were all top 50 runners during the 2015 season. I'm not sure that these programs, especially UTEP and Oklahoma, can be ranked in the top 25 when losing that much fire power.
Don't get me wrong, UTEP and Oklahoma will still be very good. However, UTEP only has FIVE men listed on their roster. What is their score going to look like if one person has an off day? What about if someone gets injured? There's way too much liability on that team.
Oklahoma, on the other hand, is a bit of a safer pick and is probably the 26th team on the list. However, I'm not sure how reliable Blankenbaker is going to be as their number two man. Even if he turns out to be a solid compliment to Burcham, I haven't seen enough from that supporting group to say that they should be ranked 18th in the nation...but hey, that's just me.
Mississippi is definitely the biggest wildcard out of all these teams. They certainly did not meet expectations last year and eventually dropped out of the team rankings. Injuries, illness, and reliance on milers to lead a cross country team didn't work out for them and they struggled. It's tough to really pin-point what went wrong last season, so I'm keeping them out of the Top 25 until they prove to me that they have any issues figured out.
But let's focus on the positives! It's the programs with strong returners that impress me the most. Last year, Portland was a very young squad that kept their heads above water thanks to some solid pack running. Their inexperience certainly played a role in a couple of meets, but the fact that they return 5 of their top 7 from 2015 (losing only one scorer)* makes them a team to watch. The only concern I have is that they lack fire-power up front and would still need to make a lot of improvements across the board to beat out some top-tier teams.
*It is unclear whether or not Timo Goehler will be returning. TFRRS and Portland's roster both indicate that he was a senior in 2015. He may be returning as a graduate student.
Finally, the San Francisco Dons deserve some love. It's not often that you hear about teams like them, but this is a squad that has a lot of upside and plenty of potential. The Dons return 6 of 7 from 2015 and have a great leader in Alex Short who has the ability to be a great low-stick. The rest of the squad was super young and still needed some experience. If they can figure out a way to tighten up their pack and improve their time-spread, then they could theoretically be right with Portland. It's certainly a stretch and a lot of things need to go their way, but I'm rooting for the little guys.
So with all of those 'Just Miss' teams out of the way, here are some quick facts about our top 25 without giving too much away...
-Of the top 25 in our 2016 team rankings, EIGHT of them did not make NCAA's last year (same number as last year).
-Of the 31 teams that ran at NCAA's at last year, FOURTEEN of them did not rank in our top 25 (same number as last year).
-In the Top 25 of Fltotrack's preseason team rankings in 2015, 17 of those teams qualified for nationals.
-In the Top 25 of Etrain's preseason team rankings in 2015, 18 of those teams qualified for nationals.
So who do you have in your top 10? Are there any 'Just Miss' teams your would've ranked? The rankings are coming, so get your popcorn ready.
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