Friday Stat

So going with the theme that I mentioned yesterday I thought I'd throw down a little bit of a stat for you on some guys who ended up choosing the D3 route rather than the D1 for college athletics and show you what kind of strides they have made at their programs. Don't worry I'm going to do my best not to be biased towards D3 running rather than D1 running, D1 running is awesome, I just am not as familiar with the stats and such for a slew of fairly obvious reasons.

So I'll keep this fairly short and just mention some of the top guys at XC mideast regionals, XC Nationals, and some track performers.

I run for Muhlenberg College, a member of the Centennial Conference which (again my bias slightly coming into play) is the best distance conference for D3 in the at the very least the Pennsylvania area. Haverford and Dickinson finished 1st and 5th respectively at D3 nationals in XC this past fall and look strong again. Haverford also had the individual national champion. Dickinson had the national steeplechase champion on the track.

This season Haverford and Dickinson should both make the trip to Nationals in Osh Kosh, but also Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore are contenders for top 5 in the region and a possible nationals bid.

PA certainly has been tapped by these schools for recruits. Off the top of my head here are some local guys who now wear uniforms in the Centennial Conference:
Eric Arnold, Haverford, Holy Ghost Prep
Ivo Milic-Straklj, Haverford, Friend's Central
Omar Hyjek, Dickinson, Quaker Valley
Dave Klein, Dickinson, Strath Haven
Richard Scott, Swarthmore, Strath Haven
Ted MacDonald, Dickinson, Neshaminy
Hunter Smith, Dickinson, CR South
Pete Schartel, Muhlenberg, Upper Dublin
Austin Stecklair, John's Hopkins, Henderson
Bryan Andrews, Franklin and Marshall, Henderson
Sam Stortz, Ursinus, Upper Dublin

And there are plenty more but I don't want to harp on the subject.

Here are some of the big names in D3 track out of PA, and what they have accomplished:

Eric Arnold- He is one of the top guys on Haverford's XC squad this year, and last year was an All-American as part of Haverford's national championship squad. He finished 5th at the Mideast Regional championship last year. Arnold is also and All-American in the 1500 from this past spring running in the low 3:50s. His high school PRs were around 4:21 and 15:59.

Ivo- Ivo has run under 4:10 multiple times in the mile since making the leap to Haverford and has won the conference in the mile and earned top spots in the 800. He has run close to if not under 8:20 for 3000m and is an All American for the DMR indoors, the mile indoors and the 1500 outdoors. In high school he was PA indoor state champion in the mile. His PR was around 4:17 for the 1600m.

Omar Hyjek- #1 runner on Dickinson's 5th place squad at Nationals this past fall. He ran PRs in the 1500 and 5k in the spring and mixed it up with some of the top guys in the centennial conference including Tim Schoch who was 2nd at Nationals in the 15. Hyjek was AA state champion in the 1600m and 4x800m.

Steven Welsh, Elizabethtown- AA State Champion in XC, contributing member to XC squad with the potential to go to nationals yet again.

Pat McLaughlin, Allegheny- Sub 16 5k runner in high school, has made nationals multiple times as a member of Allegheny's historic XC program. Has dropped time in the 5k and 10k.

Matt Jacob, Carnegie Mellon- 9th place at XC states AAA, top regional finisher for solid XC program

Zac Ross, Allegheny- 20th place at XC states AAA, 9:18 2 miler, has been all region and made trips to nationals with the Allegheny XC team

Dan Addis, Carnegie Mellon- 15:50 high school 5k PR, has made trips to nationals and been all region for Carnegie Mellon

Eric Reichert, Elizabethtown- Top guy on Etown's squad that finished 4th in the region last year

Brett and Joe Kubiak, Gwenyd Mercy- Top 2 runners on GM's regionally ranked team this season, high school AA state medalists

Ian Quinlan, Susquehanna- National qualifier, a favorite to qualify again for nationals this fall

Bob Torphy, Muhlenberg- Individual national qualifier for XC and Indoor Track, 1:53 and 4:14 PRs, 1:59 high school PR

Donnie Noble, Moravian- Sub 32 minutes for 10k on the track Outdoors

Zach Hoagland, Messiah- Top runner on Messiah team that is regionally ranked, high school state champion with North Penn, 24th place at states

There are a bunch more names you would probably recogonize in the regional results as well if you are curious.

Also joining the D3 ranks this year state medalists Bryan Andrews and Dillon Farrell (Moravian). Nate Noll (DeSales) should also be a freshman to watch this season.

Hope this was at least a little helpful, hopefully I can get some D1 updates soon.

-train