First Thoughts: MAC & SoCon Recap

Our TSR crew is hard at work preparing content for this week and crafting a few other projects. However, in the mean time, we felt that it was best to not let a day go to waste and instead offer some analysis on a few recent races.

Here is some quick analysis on what we saw from the Mid-American Conference and Southern Conference Championships.

The Furman women, unsurprisingly, took home the conference title at the Southern Conference Championships this past weekend, tallying just 28 points by placing all five of their scorers in the top-10 and all seven of their runners in the top-12.

One major takeaway is that the Paladins are incredibly young, although that is truthfully something that we already knew. Their top five consisted of just one sophomore and four freshmen while one senior and an additional sophomore closed out the top seven. We should also note that veteran Emma Kuntz didn't toe the line this past weekend while Bethany Graham, arguably the Paladin's top recruit from the Class of 2020, was listed as a DNF in the results.

The Furman women had an outstanding race at the 2019 NCAA XC Championships last fall, finishing 9th as a team. However, their entire top five from that lineup is now gone or out of cross country eligibility, leaving a very young and inexperienced group of women responsible for nearly all of the scoring duties.

Admittedly, heavily relying on youth isn't exactly preferable in my eyes, especially when it comes to major championship stages that pose far greater challenges than what the Southern Conference has to offer.

That said, I like what we have seen out of Abigail Robertson as of late and I thought her 2nd place finish this past weekend was encouraging (kudos to Lindsey Stallworth of East Tennessee State on a convincing 19-second win).

I'm also very high on Bethany Graham and what she can bring to the table as well as the countless number of lineup options that the Furman women could experiment with. Tack on a few veterans with national meet experience (i.e. Emma Kuntz and Emily Lane) and you'll find that this squad still has a few pieces that could put together something respectable.

It would be misleading to think that last year's Furman team is anything like the one that we'll see this year, next season and beyond. However, given their youth, they'll only get better with time.

It's hard to really take away much from just one race, even if the Furman men did steamroll their competition with a score of just 20 points.

Daniel Bernal took home the win and looks like someone who could eventually be that key low-stick that the Paladins will need now that Ryan Adams is out of cross country eligibility. The good news is that both Aaron Wier and Noah Dolhare seem to be translating their indoor track success to the grass relatively well, although one race against relatively light competition doesn't leave us with a lot to analyze.

We should also mention that a handful of key names weren't found in the results this past weekend. Runners such as Ares Reading, Jake Ogden, David Ahlmeyer and a few others were sidelined for Saturday's race, although their scoring services were hardly necessary given the dominating win that the Paladins secured.

Be sure to keep an eye on this group as we move into the winter months. Unlike the Furman women, this is a much older and much more experienced squad which has numerous scorers listed as either juniors or seniors.

We listed them at TSR #25 in our "If Everything Was Normal" preseason rankings, but as we saw last year with their 14th place finish at the NCAA Championships -- as well as their performances during previous seasons -- this team knows how to peak when it comes to the postseason, regardless of how their lineup is structured.

Coming into this weekend, most of the Mid-American team title talk was about Toledo and Miami (Ohio). The women of Northern Illinois were mentioned as a team to watch, but losing a couple of scoring pieces from last year and finishing an underwhelming 4th place at the Falcon XC Invite at the beginning of the month made it a bit tricky to see the Huskies as a true title contender (or so we thought).

However, the Huskies made the most of their opportunity on Saturday, taking down a strong Toledo team by just three points thanks to the wicked 1-2 punch of Ashley Tutt (2nd) and Mackenzie Callahan (3rd). There was relatively large gap between those two and their bottom three scorers, but Toledo didn't have the same kind of firepower that NIU did and that is ultimately what gave the Huskies the win.

In fact, the race was fairly close with a handful of other teams. Bowling Green was just six points behind Northern Illinois while Miami (Ohio) was just 11 points behind. Even so, no team had the combination of top low-sticks and a "good enough" backend that the Huskies showed.

We also need to talk about Kailee Perry. The redshirt freshman from Bowling Green is your new Mid-American XC Champion after taking down a top talent in Ashley Tutt (TSR #49) by a convincing 11 seconds.

Her win at the Falcon XC Invite from earlier in the season was encouraging, but that was a rust-buster for many of the teams competing in that race. Of course, Perry proved that her first win was legit as she took home the victory on her home course for the second time in two weeks.

It's tough to take a lot away from just two races, but seeing Perry pull away from someone like Tutt on two separate occasions is pretty impressive for a redshirt freshman. We'll be eager to see how she handles stronger competition in a larger field as we attempt to get a greater gauge of her true talent.

Despite long-time coach John Goodridge stepping away this past offseason to retire, the Eastern Michigan men showed that they are still as good as ever. Their dominating win, scoring a total of just 39 points, was impressive and it made Sue Parks the first female coach in Mid-American Conference history to bring home a men's cross country conference title.

The lethal scoring trio of Andy Payne, Baldvin Magnusson and Chris Devaney finished 2-3-4 to give the Eagles firepower that was simply unmatched. Despite Miami (Ohio) putting five men across the line before EMU, the RedHawks just didn't have the necessary low-sticks to challenge for the win.

We'll be interested to see how Eastern Michigan performs during the winter months if a cross country season actually happens. They secured a convincing conference win (which is important in the eyes of the selection committee) and they seem to have a promising lineup which could do well in larger invitationals.

As for Josh Park, the Ohio ace is still a stud. He took home the win by three seconds over Payne this past weekend, running 23:57 in the process. It's his second MAC XC title, but it shouldn't be surprising to see him still winning. He's been so good for so long and has been someone who boasts an underrated resume.

Don't be surprised if he snags a national qualifying spot individually come March.