Off to Regionals!

Tomorrow the team will depart for our NCAA regional meet in Gorham, ME. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning so as to preview the course before Saturday morning's race. The race itself (Saturday at 11) will be quite an event.

The regional meets are the qualifying meets for the National Championships the following weekend. There are 8 regionals around the country but ours, The New England Region, is the largest in the country, with nearly 50 teams expected to compete. That means as many as 350 runners in the race! Additionally, our region is likely the most competitive in the country. The most recent national rankings show MIT ranked #4, Middlebury (the defending national champs) #5, Williams #7, Amherst #10, Wesleyan #19, and Colby #28. That's 3 teams in the top 7 (and 6 in the top 28) from just 1 of the 8 regions!

Only the top two teams from Saturday's will advance to nationals automatically but as many as 5 can go with at-large bids granted by the NCAA committee. Individuals may qualify for the national meet as well. After the qualifying teams have been determined, the top seven finishers who are not on one of those teams will advance.

The regional meet also gives the Smith women another crack at their Newmac opponents. Springfield and Coast Guard beat Smith by less than 20 points at the conference meet 2 weeks ago and they (along with Wellesley College, the #2 team at Newmacs) will certainly be on the runners' minds during the race on Saturday.

Go Pioneers!