Atlantic: Edinboro or Lock Haven?

It's hard to go against Edinboro -- they've got the tradition and have had the performances this year.

Led by Ben Hahn (17th in Slippery Rock last year), the Fightin' Scots (and Hahn) should recover from a muddy loss at the Pennsylvania State champs with a win at the Atlantic Regional at Mansfield (Pa.).

But it might be a mistake to pick Lock Haven to finish second. Led by Nick Hilton and Brandon Pomerantz (1-2 at PSAC), Lock Haven has had a nice season, counting wins over D1 Penn State and the aforementioned win at the PSAC, which they managed at Edinboro. The gap to Lock Haven's fifth man will determine whether they win...or even stay home.

Only two teams go to Evansville, but Shippensburg might step up. They finished ahead of Lock Haven at the enormous Paul Short invite in mid-October.

Don't ignore Western Washington, Edinboro and Stonehill

The United States Track & Field and Cross County Coaches Association (whew!) released their pre-season poll.

The ranking is by region, with no real surprises, although apparently I'll have to pay more attention to Western Washington, which the association (which doesn't really say who votes) placed ahead of Alaska-Anchorage. I've been pretty bullish on the Seawolves.

Western Washington has high hopes to improve its finish last year in Slippery Rock -- and they have a coach named "Pee Wee" to boot.

It's worth paying attention to Edinboro (yep, that's where Greg Beardsley ran) and Stonehill, who are picked to win the Atlantic and East regionals, respectively. It's about time some East Coast squads made some noise at nats.