AUSTIN TAMAGNO will be upset by CASEY CLINGER

Its a privilege for those of us who ran against Craig Virgin in the 70's to have him post! Although Craig, N. Rose and guys like D. Merrick and Stemmer could have shown a little mercy at 75 NCAA X/C. That was brutal! I did not know Jon Davis was running NXN. I coach some and always check Illinois first hoping no one is breaking 14 at Detweiller. Whoever is in the lead tomorrow better be aware, there are some guys good at positioning and exploding by like some kind of ghost. Illinois guys always run well when they come west. Was wondering what guys like Craig Virgin and Derrick might be thinking on Jon Davis. Good luck to all and hope everyone feels great before and after the race. Thanks again Craig for the post. Its great to hear from a man who defeated the world, more than once, on our boards. Take care of yourself!

Ben Petrella

Thank you, Armored. There were some very good names that went on to accomplish great things in that '75 NCAA X-C Champs at Penn State. Just go back and look at the Top 10. Maybe even more so a year later when I tried to defend my title and "freshmen" Rono/Kimobwa from Washington State took me out at North Texas State in 4:17, 8:47, and 13:27 to put me in oxygen debt and then Rono finished in 28:06.6. still the fastest 10K X-C in NCAA history! Try that one on for size "King Chez" and see how well you can kick off that! Check out the "names" behind us... to even include future Irish World Champion John Treacy! I learned more from my defeats than my victories most of the time. Just like these young men and women will today at Portland and again next week at San Diego.

I am always proud and partial to Illinois distance runners because of our fine history. California gets more press but we get good results. Chris Derrick is a great example and a super human being as well. This year Illinois has a special opportunity because we have both a boy (John Davis) and a girl (Judy Pendergast) who will challenge for the individual titles at NXN. Even if they don't win... just to be in that position is special. Good luck to all the fine young runners this next weekend. I will be rooting for them all but partial to a few. Wish I had had this great post state meet opportunity when I was young.

Thanks Craig for the reply. I remember that first mile split at NTS very well. When you guys hit that I just remember curling up in my chair and thinking oh my God what are they doing. Ya know Craig I ran in a race CC with you in HS. I will not even post what you took the first mile split out in that HS race. People will not believe it. It was funny though as my coach wanted me to just try to stay with the leaders as long as possible. I lasted 800 yds. After the race my coach shows me his stop watch, he had stopped it at your first mile split. Great to hear your thoughts and agree with you 100%. It was a joy watching you run in those days and following your career. Won't even mention 1980. Its so great to know your ok now and see you here. Thanks so much for your posts!

Buy the OP a frosty! Good call, Clinger knew the whole race he was winning that one.

Awesome prediction. I don't think anyone predicted Tamagno to be so far back though. He looked tired the whole way.

Great call OP! Remind me never to play poker against you! :)

Great race by Clinger, and he has another year. Tamagno obviously had "one of those days". Clinger has another year to show how good he really is again next year. Tamagno is off to Oregon, where he will have better days, for sure. I lost track of Davis. Where did he finish up?

Tamagno, WTF, that was a crapper dude.

True milers hate cross. AT has PRs of 50/1:52/4:06full. He has no business trying to mix it up with the guys who can throw down the mud. Fisher was a freak of a generation, and is really a distance guy with great wheels.

I should say true milers ESPECIALLY hate MUD!

Everyone is equating fast track times with cross country success. While they are correlated, some excellent cross country runners are not national class on the track and vice versa. That extra mile of running, often over tough terrain does make a difference so making predictions based solely on track performances is inaccurate.

Go Clinger!!!! Nice prediction... I thought for sure it would be Tamagno

Craig--Perhaps if you're still following this thread you'd be kind enough to answer two questions.1. What were you doing right in your training that you now realize was of the greatest importance?2. What would you do different were you in your prime now compared to your heyday?Thanks

Craig, were you the legend of the 1970s that was famous for doing "hard ten milers" pretty much every day? Or am I confusing you with one of the other greats? That workout would build toughness, that is for sure.

CLINGER FOR THE WIN!!! Atta boy...

What the flip happened to Tamagno?

MILLION DOLLAR BABE wrote:

Fear the Fork wrote:

Everyone is saying this dude and that dude are blah blah af... But Clinger goes to AF! It's a sign.

Good solid coach who is a great motivator + a tough squad of young men who have been pointing to this race and actually think the crappy conditions work in their favor. Strong team bonding look for strong races from all.

Stats dudes what is the poorest placement for the fifth person on a winning team in the history of NXCNats ?

Only three teams had two runners across before the 6th Manlius girl. Talk about having a deep team! !

Great call on Davis, 22nd place ,AND he beat Tamagno!

I think Austin tamagno was thinking that this race would be easy. Check out this article, Austin could have done this...http://running.competitor.com/2015/10/training/how-perception-of-effort-can-make-or-break-a-race_137729