On The Road ... Again (From The Atlantic Regionals)

Continuing the trend of writing from the road, I'm currently in a hotel in Canton, New York, a few miles from St. Lawrence University. Tomorrow is the Atlantic Regional Championship, which will serve as the conclusion of the season for most of the teams in attendance. In order to qualify for the NCAA Division III National Championships, a team must either finish first or second at one of the eight regional championships being run tomorrow, or receive an "at-large" bid based on their performance at Regionals and throughout the season.

Thirty teams in all will run next weekend, and no more than five can come from each region. On both the men's and women's side, the Atlantic Region has a good chance of sending five teams, as the men have five teams ranked in the top 25 nationally (#1 Cortland, #7 NYU, #10 Geneseo, #19 St. Lawrence, and #25 TCNJ) and the women have five in the top 22 (#10 Geneseo, #13 Cortland, #15 St. Lawrence, #19 TCNJ, #22 Ithaca). The Atlantic regional race will also feature last year's national runner-up, Peter Kosgei of Hamilton. In order to qualify for Nationals as an individual, a runner has to be one of the top seven runners on a team that didn't qualify based on their team performance.

I personally think a few of our runners have a shot at qualifying for Nationals, given their performances this season, but obviously, anything can happen on the course. We've been on this course once before this season, for the Liberty League Championship, and it ran fairly fast. The course is a little more wet than it was in early October, and it's supposed to rain tomorrow, but it's supposed to be fairly warm tomorrow, a blessing considering our proximity to the Canadian border.

Both the men and women are coming off strong performances at ECAC's, and I think everyone's confidence is pretty high right now. I think both the men and women will be disappointed if they don't place ahead of last year's finishes of 18th and 12th, respectively.

Canton is a small town, and right now the restaurants and hotels are overrun with runners; I've seen a number of people I recognize from races in our hotel lobby. Excitement is definitely in the air, alums and some of my other teammates are making the long drive north for the race, and all in all, we're going to have a good time.