Cross-country started a couple weeks ago. Rocket women won the BG invitational, and came in 3rd in the Spartan Invitational. The men came in 4th at MSU.

Other news I saw recently is that the Rockets picked up two verbals for '22, both from Northwest Indiana. (Don't often see verbals for sports like XC on twitter.) The two:

Karina James from Lowell HS. Indiana state champion and Gatorade Indiana XC runner of the year. Rockets have another athlete from Lowell already on the roster in Jordyn Boyer.
https://www.nwitimes.com/sports/high-sch...582fb.html

Bailey Ranta from Chesterton HS. Reportedly she visited UT along with James.
https://www.nwitimes.com/sports/chestert...d237a.html

(09-25-2021 08:10 AM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  Cross-country started a couple weeks ago. Rocket women won the BG invitational, and came in 3rd in the Spartan Invitational. The men came in 4th at MSU.

Other news I saw recently is that the Rockets picked up two verbals for '22, both from Northwest Indiana. (Don't often see verbals for sports like XC on twitter.) The two:

Karina James from Lowell HS. Indiana state champion and Gatorade Indiana XC runner of the year. Rockets have another athlete from Lowell already on the roster in Jordyn Boyer.
https://www.nwitimes.com/sports/high-sch...582fb.html

Bailey Ranta from Chesterton HS. Reportedly she visited UT along with James.
https://www.nwitimes.com/sports/chestert...d237a.html

Cool!

UT recruiting seems to be on a roll, as they have gotten another verbal from Ella Kurto, out of Saratoga Springs, NY. According to this article:

https://www.timesunion.com/hssports/arti...367972.php

Her team won the national championship in 2019, and she finished 14th individually in the national championship race. Wow.

Reigning state champion Karina James chooses Toledo

https://www.nwitimes.com/sports/high-sch...13dbd.html

Picked Toledo over Furman, Illinois, Indiana and Penn.

The Toledo Women Are Making Waves In Recruiting, And Winning

https://www.milesplit.com/articles/30344...nd-winning

Sure would love to see more money balance towards the non-revenue so we can maybe keep a coach like this.

(09-29-2021 05:27 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  Sure would love to see more money balance towards the non-revenue so we can maybe keep a coach like this.

We don't need to pay a football coach over $500K. If a P5 school wants them, it doesn't matter what we pay.

She’s pretty much a dynamo. I see a return to power as a MAC champion and regional threat.

I have not seen a story yet on the UT website, but the cross-country teams ran today at Notre Dame's Joe Piane Invitational. This is a big time meet with lots of top 25 squads. Results seem to be here:

https://live.pttiming.com/XC-PTT.html?mid=2365

Looks like the women finished 9th, ahead of some ranked teams including Furman, Notre Dame, Illinois and Princeton. Rockets scored with a truly international lineup, led by Kenyan FR Joy Chirchir who came in 7th. (I do not remember hearing about her signing with UT.) The other scorers for UT were 50 Faith Linga (Kenyan transfer from Iowa Western), 56 Lou Trois (French transfer from Eastern Kentucky), 71 Semra Karaslan (Turkey) and 121 Julia Dames (US). The Vining twins did not run in this meet either.

The men ran in the Gold division race and came in 7th, led by Matthew Chesum (another Kenyan) who came in 7th. Jacob Harris finished 30th.

Rockets Women's XC team has moved up to #5 in the Great Lakes region in this week's coaches poll. They passed Indiana and OSU, but interestingly are still behind Notre Dame, who they beat last week.

http://www.ustfccca.org/2021/10/featured...ngs-week-4

Indiana was 21st in the national poll last week, so it will be interesting to see if Toledo gets any votes in that poll when it comes out tomorrow.

Rockets Tied for #28 in the nation in the latest D1 XC coaches poll!!
http://www.ustfccca.org/2021/10/featured...oll-week-4

Note they are tied with Furman and still trail Notre Dame, who both were beaten by UT last week.

Freshman Joy Chirchir MAC Runner of the Week
https://utrockets.com/news/2021/10/6/wom...-week.aspx

Her bio on the website is still blank. Would love to know more about her background and how she made her way to UT.

Saratoga star Kurto picks up-and-coming Toledo

https://dailygazette.com/2021/10/06/sara...ng-toledo/

Looks like the Rockets picked up another verbal from Indiana, Jaydon Cirincione, from Floyd County HS - which is not far from Jeffersonville, where Nan Garcia is from.

Haven't been able to find as much about her as the other verbals. Here's one story.
https://www.newsandtribune.com/sports/cr...dfafe.html

(09-29-2021 05:43 PM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 05:27 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  Sure would love to see more money balance towards the non-revenue so we can maybe keep a coach like this.

We don't need to pay a football coach over $500K. If a P5 school wants them, it doesn't matter what we pay.

Only two schools in the MAC pay their Head FB Coaches $500,000 or below. 21 G5 programs pay their HCs more than Candle's salary. Mac at CMU is now up to $840,000. Albin is making $535,000 at OU in his first season. Linguist $675,000 first year at Buffalo. Lester $709,000 at WMU. Fickell is making $3.4 mil at UC. The

(10-14-2021 11:20 PM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 05:43 PM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 05:27 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  Sure would love to see more money balance towards the non-revenue so we can maybe keep a coach like this.

We don't need to pay a football coach over $500K. If a P5 school wants them, it doesn't matter what we pay.

Only two schools in the MAC pay their Head FB Coaches $500,000 or below. 21 G5 programs pay their HCs more than Candle's salary. Mac at CMU is now up to $840,000. Albin is making $535,000 at OU in his first season. Linguist $675,000 first year at Buffalo. Lester $709,000 at WMU. Fickell is making $3.4 mil at UC. The

We don't need to pay a football coach over $500K. If a P5 school wants them, it doesn't matter what we pay.

(10-15-2021 05:10 AM)eastisbest Wrote:  

(10-14-2021 11:20 PM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 05:43 PM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 05:27 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  Sure would love to see more money balance towards the non-revenue so we can maybe keep a coach like this.

We don't need to pay a football coach over $500K. If a P5 school wants them, it doesn't matter what we pay.

Only two schools in the MAC pay their Head FB Coaches $500,000 or below. 21 G5 programs pay their HCs more than Candle's salary. Mac at CMU is now up to $840,000. Albin is making $535,000 at OU in his first season. Linguist $675,000 first year at Buffalo. Lester $709,000 at WMU. Fickell is making $3.4 mil at UC. The

We don't need to pay a football coach over $500K. If a P5 school wants them, it doesn't matter what we pay.

All but 4 G5 schools pay over $500,000. Exactly why UT needs to. It's not about protecting your hire from P5's until it gets into the $2-3 million range which some G5's pay.

Pre Nationals (Women)

Toledo 11th

Chirchir-20
Linga-32
Karaslan-47
Trois-108
Vining-128
E. Vining-156
Steigerwald-161

(10-15-2021 06:48 AM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  

(10-15-2021 05:10 AM)eastisbest Wrote:  

(10-14-2021 11:20 PM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 05:43 PM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 05:27 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  Sure would love to see more money balance towards the non-revenue so we can maybe keep a coach like this.

We don't need to pay a football coach over $500K. If a P5 school wants them, it doesn't matter what we pay.

Only two schools in the MAC pay their Head FB Coaches $500,000 or below. 21 G5 programs pay their HCs more than Candle's salary. Mac at CMU is now up to $840,000. Albin is making $535,000 at OU in his first season. Linguist $675,000 first year at Buffalo. Lester $709,000 at WMU. Fickell is making $3.4 mil at UC. The

We don't need to pay a football coach over $500K. If a P5 school wants them, it doesn't matter what we pay.

All but 4 G5 schools pay over $500,000. Exactly why UT needs to. It's not about protecting your hire from P5's until it gets into the $2-3 million range which some G5's pay.

We don't need to pay a football coach over $501K. If a P5 school wants them, it doesn't matter what we pay.

Anyway, back to cross-country...

Rockets ran in the Pre-Nationals this morning @ Florida State against numerous ranked teams. First 6K meet of the year for the Rockets I think.

UT finished 11th, out of 33 schools. Were in 9th after 5K but faded a bit at the end. FR Joy Chirchir led the Rockets, finishing 20th. Faith Linga 32nd, and Semra Karaslan 47th. The Vining sisters ran for the 1st time this year. Of the 10 teams that finished ahead of UT, 8 are currently ranked higher in the national poll. Only Illinois and Liberty are not, but they both get votes. UT did finish ahead of Kentucky, who was ranked ahead of UT coming in. Also, always nice to beat Ohio state, who finished 14th. Only other MAC school to compete was Miami, who came in 22nd.

Results: https://live.pttiming.com/xc-ptt.html?mid=2367