The NCAA Northeast Regional meet (check out this AWESOME video shared by team captain Mark Valentino) always brings with it an
intense range of emotions. It’s a unique meet, and our region is perhaps the
most difficult in the country to navigate because of its sheer size. Are we the
most competitive region in the country? That is subject to debate. In the
neighborhood where we reside – more or less the middle of the pack -- I would
argue that it is. Most other regions have in the area of 30 teams. We have more
than 40 teams. The middle third of those teams represents a swath of solid,
mid-major (for lack of a better term) programs – of which I would consider us
one.
When you have key athletes sitting out for a variety of very
valid and unfortunate reasons (as we did on the women’s side) or one of your
key cogs has a rare off race (as was the case on the men’s side), it’s so easy
to play the what-if game and surmise a higher or lower place based on
hypotheticals. Because of that swath of teams in the middle, such vagaries can
sometimes make for potential big swings of team placement. However, the “law of unintended consequences” teaches us the fallacy of playing the what-if game. The
“if/then’’ logic might seem to make sense, but that aforementioned social
science theory tells us it’s not as tidy as we think.
So, rather than go through that mind-numbing exercise, I’d
rather reflect on the many positives we can take out of this meet, and realize
that strong teams have athletes pick up for other athletes and forge on in the
most positive manner possible. Much like the MAAC meet, the efforts were great
and the results were an improvement over 2013. We look forward to one more shot
at Vanny to close out what has been, by and large, a positive fall XC season
for the program.
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