Re: Men's XC places #2 at Nationals!!! Highest finish ever

by pilotram Sat Nov 18, 2017 4:55 pm

Stonehouse wrote:
SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:There have been some sour grapes in the Track/XC community about us “tanking” the WCC meet in favor of the NCAAs.

The "sour grapes" have all come from two guys at LetsRun... here they are interviewing Rob after the race today, and I think RC does a pretty good job of shutting down their BS:

As if finishing 2nd at the WCC meet to the #2 team in the country (while beating another nationally ranked team) is "tanking."

Not only has Portland XC had a long tradition of giving other guys an opportunity at the WCC meet, this year was a unique situation in which BYU was practically unbeatable in a dual-meet situation and UP had a few guys who were on a restricted training regiment (in order to help optimize their performance at regionals and nationals).

Those LetsRun guys are just being complete jerks. Just read their Nationals recap from today and see how many times they mention that BYU beat Portland at WCCs. It's ridiculous: http://www.letsrun.com/news/2017/11/favorites-justyn-knight-northern-arizona-deliver-win-2017-ncaa-cross-country-titles/

Yea. I mean, they should have been apologizing to Conner as his strategy of focusing on nationals paid off. LRC devoted more ink to ripping UP for not running a full squad at WCCs than they ever would have covering the meet if they did use a full squad. They've been Portland fans in the past, but now getting second is somehow an afterthought to this manufactured controversy.

by Dean Murdoch Sat Nov 18, 2017 8:17 pm

Amazing.

Happy for Coach Conner, I think he's pretty much everyone's all-time favourite on the Bluff!

by Geezaldinho Sat Nov 18, 2017 8:51 pm

Stonehouse wrote:
Geezaldinho wrote:It's ok to change the thread title now, Stoney

Done!

Better.

But maybe you should have gone for:

"Portland Ruins Sport - Gets Second in NCAA Championship"

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8543558

by ExpatPilot Sun Nov 19, 2017 4:50 am

Did anyone else get an email with the subject line “National Champions?” Seems like a misfire. The body of the email literally said 2nd place in it.

by Dean Murdoch Sun Nov 19, 2017 6:30 am

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:Did anyone else get an email with the subject line “National Champions?” Seems like a misfire. The body of the email literally said 2nd place in it.

Yeah, I was scratching my head at that. I thought they finished first, then opened the email and realized it was "only" a second-place finish.

by Geezaldinho Sun Nov 19, 2017 2:07 pm

Meanwhile, I took a peak in the Sunday Sports section of the O to see what they had to say about the vaunted Ducks runners coming in 8 th in the NCAA's while the Pilots got on the podium for the second time in three years....

Nothing. Never happened

by DoubleDipper Sun Nov 19, 2017 10:03 pm

Geezaldinho wrote:Meanwhile, I took a peak in the Sunday Sports section of the O to see what they had to say about the vaunted Ducks runners coming in 8 th in the NCAA's while the Pilots got on the podium for the second time in three years....

Our Vancouver paper, The Columbian, had the story and a large headline: Portland second at NCAA cross country championship

To be fair to the O, they did make mention of the NCAA Championship and UP online at http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2017/11/university_of_portland_pilots.html but it was about 25% the size of the Columbian hard copy article. Evil or Very Mad

by pilotram Wed Nov 22, 2017 8:13 am

Still a little bit of love around LRC.
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8548922

by Guest Wed Nov 22, 2017 8:35 am

The secret is out:

Lol. Not a lot of money. Funny.

P.S. Back in the day I went on one of their massive recruiting trips that they bring guys on. They had a lot of money then. They still got it now.

I guess the Pilots outspent BYU and UO. Suspect

by pilotram Sun Nov 26, 2017 3:19 pm

Good video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t967Gj4Q_QA&feature=share

by DoubleDipper Mon Nov 27, 2017 9:53 pm

It is an excellent video!

RC and his guys are without a doubt the best ambassadors for UP sports (and they're good in the classroom too, btw), and should make us all stand a little taller with pride when we say, GO PILOTS! Cool

by ExpatPilot Sat Dec 02, 2017 6:41 pm

Interesting article from the Tribune. Apparently, we are not fully funded scholarship-wise. Also, it gives some good insight into how RC recruits. I guess the expectations are high for next year after this finish with the people we have coming back. After looking up NAU’s runners at nationals, they seem primed to repeat again (I don’t really know much about it but they return most of their top finishers too).

http://portlandtribune.com/pt/12-sports/379761-265927-pilots-climb-closer-to-the-top

by Geezaldinho Sun Dec 03, 2017 12:38 am

Cross country and track, conbined, allow 12.6scholarships.

Since UP doesn’t really fund a whole track program, that 70% may not represent the relative effort for CC compared to say, U of O.

by DoubleDipper Fri Feb 09, 2018 1:23 pm

NEW ORLEANS, La. --- The Portland Pilots men's cross country team has been named the men's D1 Scholar Team of the year, announced the USTFCCCA on Friday morning. The Pilots earn the honor after a historic 2017 season which ended with a runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships, marking their highest ever finish in program history.

Portland was the top finishing team from their gender with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

http://portlandpilots.com/news/2018/2/9/mens-cross-country-named-the-2017-d1-scholar-team-of-the-year.aspx

by **PilotNut** Fri Feb 09, 2018 1:45 pm

WOW! That is impressive! Congrats, Pilots! cheers