Pick Ten: Regional Cross Country Meets

As the Cross Country season winds down, the fantasy contests at Down the Backstretch are also nearing their 2011 finales. This week will mark the final Pick Ten contest and next week will end the Yes/No contest with a three-point triple-header.

The Pick Ten contest will take a look at the NCAA Division I and Division III Regional Cross Country Meets. The Gophers will travel to Northern Illinois to try to earn NCAA Championship berths Saturday. The state's small schools are also claiming NCAA slots this weekend. The D3 schools in Minnesota will head down to Waverly, Iowa for a meet on Saturday.

Pick Ten has a simple concept: predict the finish place for each of 10 Minnesota athletes or teams at the Division I and Division III Regional Meets. You will score points for each athlete/team that scores at or above the finish place you predict for them, following the 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system.

For example: If you pick Hassan Mead to place first in the DI Regional men's race, and he places first, you get 10 points. If you pick Mead to place first and he finishes second, you get zero points. If you pick Mead to finish third in the race and he places first, second or third, you get 8 points, since you that's the place you picked him for.

To play Pick Ten, cut and paste the list of names/events below into an e-mail and add your place predictions -- 1st or 2nd or 3rd...10th. Send your predictions by 11:00 A.M. CST on Saturday, November 12th to DtBFantasy [AT] gmail [DOT] com. Make sure your full name is in the e-mail. As with our Yes/No contests, we don't offer any prizes, so no one needs to fear running afoul of NCAA or other anti-gambling regulations.

We'll announce the winner of this week's contest and compile results of all of the year's Pick Ten contests to name a grand champion for 2011.

Pick 10 ... D1 and D3 Regional Meets:

Hassan Mead - University of Minnesota:
Stephanie Price - University of Minnesota:
University of Minnesota Men's Team:
University of Minnesota Women's Team:
Dani Stack, Iowa State:
St. Olaf Women:
St. Thomas Women:
Rachael Klehm - Carleton:
St. Johns Men, MIAC Meet:
Tom Sederquist - Concordia:


To Help You Make Your Picks ...

Hassan Mead did not compete in cross country last year, but won the Midwest Regional title the last time he ran the race in 2009. Mead is a six-time All American and has finished in the top five in all the meets this year. Stephanie Price won the 2010 Midwest Regional race on her way to finishing the year as an All-American. She has been named the Big Ten Runner of the Week three times in 2011. Dani Stack finished fourteenth in the Midwest Regional in 2010. She had a breakthrough track campaign in 2011 finishing fourth in the NCAA 10k and then twelfth in the USA Championships.

The Gophers finished third last year at the Midwest Regional for both the men and the women. The Gopher men are currently ranked third in the region. The top two teams (Oklahoma State and Oklahoma) are ranked in the top five in the nation. On the women's side, the Gophers are ranked third in the region behind Iowa State and Oklahoma State.

The Division III Regional rankings show St. Olaf women second and St. Thomas women seventh. The St. John's squad is ranked sixth in the region.

Rachael Klehm is coming off a third place finish in the MIAC meet two weeks ago. She finished thirty-ninth in 2010 at the Central Region meet. Tom Sederquist was awarded fifth place at the 2011 MIAC meet and was sixth at the 2010 Regional meet.

Good luck!

Last week's Yes/No question was: Yes/No: Will five or more individuals and teams currently ranked #1 win State in 2011? The answer was yes. This was not a good year for the underdog. Seven of the eight #1 rankers won at the State Meet. Twenty-five contestants answered correctly this week. Mike Henderson and Rachel Karel are tied for first with twenty-six points. The Y/N season will conclude with a triple-question finale next week. There are five players tied for third with twenty-four points hoping for a slip-up by the leaders.

For full standings of both contests, please visit DtB Fantasy Corner.