Friday, September 23, 2011

Pick Ten: Roy Griak Invitational Races

The Roy Griak Invitational is set to be run all day on Saturday. The University of Minnesota hosts the 26th annual event featuring races with high-schoolers through all three divisions of collegiate running. With all of this racing, we felt this would be the perfect event to bring back the Pick Ten contest.

Pick Ten has a simple concept: predict the finish place for each of 10 Minnesota athletes or teams at the Griak Invitational. 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 Division I 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 9:00 A.M. CST on Saturday, September 24th 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 ... Roy Griak Invitational:

Hassan Mead - University of Minnesota, Men's Division I Gold:
Stephanie Price - University of Minnesota, Women's Division I Gold:
University of Minnesota Gophers Team, Men's Division I Gold:
University of Minnesota Gophers Team, Women's Division I Gold:
Morgan Place - University of Minnesota-Duluth, Women's Division II Maroon:
University of Minnesota-Duluth Team, Women's Division II Maroon:
Simone Childs-Walker - Carleton, Women's Division III Maroon:
Carleton Team, Women's Division III Maroon:
Devin Monson - Hamline, Men's Division III Maroon:
Hamline Team, Men's Division III Maroon:

To Help You Make Your Picks ...

The University of Minnesota has a great deal of information about the meet HERE.

Hassan Mead is back to fight for the Griak individual championship that he won in 2009. Mead sat out last year's race due to injury but appears to be back to full strength. Stephanie Price finished second at the Griak Invitational last year. The senior All-American will battle last year's champ Laura Hoer from North Carolina State.

The Gopher men finished fifth at Griak last year and are currently ranked #24 in the nation. The two other ranked teams at the meet are Portland (#10) and North Carolina State (#11). On the women's side, the Gophers face an extremely strong field. Minnesota is ranked #30 in the nation, behind Iowa State, Arizona, Washington, Penn State, North Carolina State, BYU and Michigan State.

Morgan Place and UMD both won titles at Griak last year. Place is coming off a victory at St. Olaf while the UMD team placed third. The squad comes into the weekend ranked #10 in Division II in the nation.

Simone Childs-Walker and her Carleton team are coming off double second place finishes at St. Olaf last week. In 2010 at the Griak meet, Carleton finished eighth and Childs-Walker was second individually. Carleton will enter the Griak meet ranked #22 in the nation.

Hamline men started the season with a team victory at the Luther All-American Invite. They finished sixth in the 2010 edition of Griak and are currently ranked #19 among Division III schools. Devin Monson finished third at Luther, he was ninth at Griak in 2010 and is a returning All-American and defending MIAC champ.

Good luck!

Last week's question was: Will St. Olaf women win the team title at their home invitational on Saturday? The correct answer was yes. St. Olaf won with a low score of 46 points to beat cross-town rival and second place team Carleton by 24 points.

Mike Henderson increased his lead with a correct answer this week. He now has twenty-three points to lead by two over Patrick Eastman, Lori Anne Peterson and Rachel Karel. Eighteen players answered correctly this week.

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

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