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The Week That Was October 13 - October 19, 2008 Our weekly recap known as "The Week That Was" is back. To read last week's weekly recap, please click here. This week's action was dominated domestically by the NCAA cross-country collegiate action heating up. But we save that until near the end and start with a few more interesting but less publicized things from last week. The Nike Women's Marathon: Bill Bowerman Rolls Over In His Grave Trust us, we know. LetsRun.com co-founder Weldon "Wejo" Johnson competed at a very elite level for a number of years and LetsRun.com coaching guru John Kellogg only watched a handful of his races and practices combined. Rojo's guys at Cornell like to have Rojo at the meets because they see how nervous he gets standing there trying to say something inspirational and it calms them down as they realize, "Hey at least we aren't as nervous as coach." *Click to read Dick Patrick's USA Today article *Doug Logan's Blog on USATF Panel Team XO Goes Under Team XO, the successful West Coast development club, announced it was closing down. One of the founders of the club, Runnerspace.com founder Ross Krempley, announced the shutdown of the club on his blog and in a Eugene Register Guard article. Team XO had 10 athletes at the Olympic Trials, and was most known in our book for steeplechaser and Cornell alum Max King, who made the US World Cross-Country team as a member of Team XO. Krempley said he was shutting down the club because they couldn't even raise $15,000 a year. Hard to believe a club with that much success couldn't get that little money. Ross had this to say in the Eugene Register Guard, "The longer I'm in this business, the more I realize it's all about who you know. Teams are created by people who already have the connections. They get the money first and then the athletes. We did the opposite. ... It's discouraging when you can't even get $15,000. That's not an extraordinary amount of money. ... At our peak, we had over 10 people at the Trials. We put on the coolest high school meet in the Northwest, our cross-country teams always finished in the top five at nationals, we had people going to the World Championships, running indoors and competing in road races. How does that not add up to $15,000?" Hey Ross, if we come up with $15,000, can we call it Team LetsRun.com? *Eugene Register Guard article *Announcement/Blog on Runnerspace.com
2008 ING NYC Is Fast Approaching
The 2008 ING New York City marathon is next Sunday, November 2nd. Next
week, we'll be counting down our top 5 contenders on the men's and
women's side and doing extensive race previews as well as on-site
coverage. But we thought you might want to start getting ready for one
of best weekends of the year in NYC by reading a few race pre-race
interviews of the top American contenders Abdi Abdirahman and Josh Rohatinsky.
*Josh Rohatinsky Thinks He's Ready To Run 2:11 A
2:11 in NYC isn't something to sneeze about, but Rohatinsky recently
completed a 20-miler at 4:59 pace, so he has reason to believe he can
run 26.2 at 5 minute pace. He also thinks he can run in the 27:30s this
spring*Abdi Abdirahman Talks About Leading the Charge at the ING NYC Marathon He says more of his focus here on out will be on the marathon. Oh yeah, speaking of NYC, there was a ridiculous article that came out this week saying 312 million people watch the marathon every year. Don't believe the hype unless you think it's three times bigger than the Super Bowl (95 million) was in 2004.
Last Week's Corrections/Update:
News We Didn't Mention In Last Week's Week That Was: 19-Year-Old Julius Keter Runs 2:11:56 Maryland Record At Under Armour Baltimore Marathon It may not be a NY or a Chicago, but Julius Keter, only 19, ran 2:11:56 to win the Baltimore Marathon last weekend. We forgot to mention it, and a viewer emailed us, pointing out our oversight, and we decided to save it for this week to give it the praise it deserves. 2:11:56 is just a tad over 5 minute pace and Keter's run was largely a solo effort. Pretty impressive for a 19-year-old, and a well-deserved $20,500 payday. *Baltimore Sun Article on Keter's Run Update from Last Week: Wesley Korir Last week, we talked about Wesley Korir running 2:13:53 from the second starting group to have the fourth-fastest time of the day at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon (but he finished out of the top 5 because he did not start in the professional start). We reported that it appeared race director Carey Pinkowski was going to pay Korir the $15,000 he would have earned for fourth place. Race Results Weekly editor and ING NYC Marathon professional field coordinator David Monti has an update in this week's Race Results Weekly. He wrote, "Also, internet postings have said that the race paid Wesley Korir, the man who had the 4th best time on the day despite starting in the 8h00 open start, the fourth place prize money instead of Martin Lauret, who finished fourth off of the 7h55 start. That's not true, according to race spokesperson, Marianne Caponi. 'Carey (Pinkowski, the race director) has been in touch with Korir and has offered him a bonus for his performance in the Top 100,' Caponi wrote in an e-mail message. 'It is an undisclosed amount and has no bearing on the elite prize money. He is also working with the athlete on returning to Chicago to compete in our elite field in 2009.'" It seems like the information being reported by Monti is not inconsistent with what we reported last week. It was our assumption that Korir would get his money as a bonus and the athletes in the official top 5 would get their money as well.
Big Weekend In XC - Pre-Nats, Chile Pepper and Penn State
The biggest news of the week in the US came on the collegiate front as the NCAA collegiate cross-country scene got into full swing with the Pre-Nationals at Indiana State University. Considering that one of the biggest draws to track and field and cross-country is the simplicity, you'd think there would be a logical and straightforward qualifying system for Nationals (i.e., Super Regionals) but there is not, so the Pre-Nats ends up being a ridiculously big meet. We won't reinvent the wheel and redo our Pre-Nats coverage here, but the story of the day on the men's side was Sam Chelanga of Liberty via Kenya. On a day when the course was running close to 20 seconds slower per spot than the year before, he went out in 4:18 at the mile and destroyed the field and got the course record in the process. The picture to the right says it all.
If you're not a visual guy, then the following quote from Indiana St. coach College XC John McNichols about Chelanga sums up his domination perfectly: "To
see somebody go out in a field like this and make it look like a high
school senior running against a junior high team, that's just
unbelievable."
Teams that were the biggest surprises on the men's side were Stanford (won the Blue race and vaulted from #10 to #2 in the rankings), NAU (2nd in the Blue race, moved from #16 to #8), BYU (3rd Blue, #18 to #11 ) and UCLA (5th White, #23 to #13) whereas the big disappointments were Colorado (9th in White, #3 to #17), Iowa St. (10th White, #11 to #22) and and NC State (#10 Blue, #15 to #29).
One individual story that was missed by many was the re-emergence of 2007 Footlocker national champion Chad Hall (who also happens to be Ryan Hall's brother). Hall struggled for the most part as a freshman at Oregon last year and transferred to UC Riverside. Apparently happy in California closer to home, Hall is running pretty well again as he was 20th in the Blue race. It's good to see him out there competing.
On the women's side, the big story was the #1-ranked Washington women.
They were incredible as they scored 36 points and completely dominated
the Blue race. Their team average of 20:21 was 19 seconds better than
that of Florida St., which tied Princeton for the win in the women's White race. If the Washington women run like that at NCAAs, trust us they will win. We know Oregon
wasn't there but that doesn't matter. And the Washington women have
little to worry about. They even have room for injury as their 6th
runner, Lauren Saylor, ran 20:56, which is better than FSU's #4 and Princeton's #3.
FSU's Susan Kuijken had a great day as she ran 19:49 to get the course record. Could she possibly challenge Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego at NCAAs? We doubt it.
Kipyego herself was in action last weekend at the Chile Pepper meet in Arkansas where she won by 16 seconds to lead her 29th-ranked team to an upset win of #10 Arkansas for the team title. As a result, the Red Raiders made the largest jump in the women's poll this week as they vaulted to #12.
In the men's race, the first home meet of the post- John McDonnell
era wasn't a good one for Arkansas as they lost to Texas A&M.
Arkansas is probably only the third-best team in the SEC, as #5 Alabama
and #11 Auburn are way better than the #26 Hogs. #28 Florida
might also be better. So after 34 straight conference titles, it looks
like they surely will lose. The question is will they even be top 3?
Just as Arkansas has never lost an SEC's men's race, Colorado likewise has never lost a Big 12 men's race. That streak also is in serious jeopardy as the #3 Oklahoma State Cowboys look like they will trounce the Buffs in two weeks. We guess it just proves that all streaks are meant to come to an end.
Penn St. hosted a meet this weekend, which was won by then #8 Georgetown
on the men's side (the Hoyas are now ranked #10) and then #7 WVU (now
ranked #5) on the women's side. We only mentioned this meet because it
gives us a chance to give our only thumbs up of the week to the Cortland State men. The #1-ranked team in Division 3, they ran fantastically well at PSU and nearly upended #28 Villanova, losing to the Wildcats by a single point.
LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson's Cornell team
is only located 15 miles from Cortland. All he can say is thank god
they didn't race as the Big Red might not have even been the best team
in a 15-mile radius (although we should point out they did beat
Cortland two weeks ago).
NCAA XC Heats Up With Pre-Nats Leading The Way: *MeetRecap/Results from Indiana State site.
LRC Coverage: Chelanga Puts On A Show For The Ages As FSU's Kuijken Also Breaks Course Record; Washington Women Impress LRC breaks down all four races. Photos and more. Terre Haute Newspaper: Chelanga Emerges As NCAA Favorite *Message Board Info On Pre-NCAAs *Washington Women@ Prenats *CHELANGA DOES IT AGAIN!!! *Pre-Nats Combined Results - Men *German Fernandez is a Serious Threat to Win NCAA Cross Country Nationals *Pre-Nats Predictions Not Everyone Goes to Pre-Nats *How The Mighty Have Fallen: Arkansas Loses To Texas A&M At Chile Pepper Meet In Front Of Home Crowd Sally Kipyego Leads Texas Tech To Chile Pepper Title Kipyego must have been going easy as she only won by 16 seconds. *GTown Men Roll at Penn State National as D3 #1 Cortland State Comes 1 Point Shy of #28 Villanova West Virginia put 4 in the top 9 to dominate the women's race.*LRC: Message Board Thread on 2008 PSU National *#1 Oregon (#2 on Women's Side) Racing Mike Hodges Invitational *Latest Men's National Poll *Latest Women's National Poll *Chad Hall has transferred to UC Riverside
Thread Of The Week/Who Is Better At Hyping Their Teenage Phenoms - America or Australia?
While we are on the topic of NCAA cross country, we will point out that the much-hyped next great American distance star, German Fernandez of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, did run this weekend. He ran very fast, but he ran in the Open (think JV) race at Pre-Nationals, which he won in 23:34 - the 5th fastest time of the day overall. We didn't mention it above as the decision by OSU to run Fernandez and several of their top runners in the Open race wasn't a popular one in the fans or our minds. From a coaching standpoint, it was a very smart move for Dave Smith, the OSU coach. No pressure; let Fernandez roll and also make sure that no one racing your team in the Varsity race gets any points for beating your less-than-full squad. But when are we ever going to worry about the presentation of the sport for the fans? Apparently never. Anyway, Fernandez has a big-time fan following as most people (including us) recognize him as a special, special runner. As a result,
people have been pumping him up all over the place, including on our
message board. Recently there has been a big thread predicting he will pull a Bob Kennedy (i.e., win NCAA XC as a frosh). But Australia apparently has a special teen of their own in Ryan Gregson.
The 18-year-old Gregson has good PBs (1:51, 3:43, 14:01) and the Aussies
are quite proud of him as someone is mouthing off on the message board
about him: *Fernandez couldn't hold a torch to Ryan Gregson. It's a great thread and it garners praise as our Message Board Thread of The Week.
*German Fernandez is a serious threat to win NCAA Cross Country Nationals
*Fernandez couldn't hold a torch to Ryan Gregson Update on HS (Teen?) Phenom Solomon Haile Last week we briefly mentioned the fact that the new HS 2.5 mile Van Cortlandt Park record holder Solomon Haile might be 20 years old. A thread on our message board has garnered a ton of attention. Well, finally an article has been written about the controversy on dyestat.com. Apparently, Maryland is satisfied with the documentation Haile provided, as the birth certificate he produced matched school records he provided from Ethiopia. It doesn't sound like there will be any more investigating on that front.
The article in dyestat.com seems
more concerned with whether Haile should have his amateur status as
it's a fact that he received $350 from the Hartford Half Marathon last
October. We sure hope that if they don't let him run, it's not because
of this $350 check. Under NCAA rules, you can maintain your amateur
status if you accept payments in road races prior to your freshman year
as long as it's only covering expenses. The same should be true in HS.
And considering that Hartford is 700 miles round trip from Haile's
home and the going rate per mile for reimbursements is over 50 cents
per mile, the $350 didn't even cover his legally-allowable expenses, as
there would be also be food and hotel, etc.
*Dyestat Looks At Solomon Haile Controversy MB Thread: *Is The New Van Cortlandt Park HS Record Holder Solomon Haile Really A 20-Year-Old Professional Runner? And In Case You Aren't Tired Of Reading, We'll Leave You With An Article We Found Interesting:
*Toyo University's (Japan) Top 6 Runners Break 1:02 In Road 20k And they didn't even win the Izumo Ekiden last week.
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