Shaft wrote:
The defending champ in the men's 1500, Ty Griffin, totally got the shaft. He's not on the start list, so I'm assuming he didn't run a fast enough time...although I'm pretty sure he came very close. That really sucks. I'd hate to say it...but a regional system (similar to that in DI) would've actually helped someone out here. Or at least, if they're going to run prelims, they could take more than 15 entrants.
I definitely agree that they should take more than 15 guys, but I don't see how Griffin got the shaft. He was the first guy out, but he had every opportunity to run faster than the next guy on the list. Two weeks ago, he ran against Mack Chaffee and put up a high 3:51-- had he beaten Chaffee (3:50.9), he would have been in for sure. Then he ran at North Central (which has turned into a de facto regional) and got 6th in 3:53.
I'm not an expert on Griffin, but I do like to look at the links to the meets where guys ran their qualifiers. You may be surprised to see how often the top guys run against each other, and how much it really does come down to beating your competition-- i.e., if you win at North Central, you're almost certainly getting into nationals, because you just beat everyone else on the bubble.