Connor Mantz Ran 14:24 Indoors SEVEN Years Ago

Almost all of them go on their missions before college...

BYU should start sending their distance guys out to east Africa for "missions".

If you don't benefit from taking two years off at that age, then why doesn't BYU challenge for the title with younger people? It makes a huge advantage. How many 18-20 year olds have run sub 29 on the track? How many 22-25 year olds?

Mantz disagrees that there's no benefit from a two year mission:

"I think it will help out with the running, especially focus-wise," he said. "It's hard to focus on getting better at running when you know you're going to take two years off. It discourages you in training, but being able to go after high school helps you separate the two levels. It makes the transition easier."

https://www.milesplit.com/articles/154240/mantzs-mission-before-his-mission?page=3

Here's what he said he'd do:

"Long days on his feet sharing the gospel and his church's beliefs with those who will listen in a foreign land will be his primary purpose each day starting at summer's end, so Mantz realizes that his love of running will be taking a back seat for a while. "I'll try to run if I can get my companion to come with me, but if not, I'll survive. You get 30 minutes every day to exercise, so hopefully I'll be able to run 30 minutes everyday. If not, I'll do core, jump rope, or something else".

Recall that Roger Bannister trained 30 minutes a day prior to breaking the four minute mile, 5-6 miles of intervals and brisk jogs in 30 minutes. And no one can police Mantz on a missionary, I'd expect if he chose to run more early or late.

https://greatruns.com/location/accra-ghana/#:~:text=The%20best%20spot%20for%20a,Kusum%20Beach%2C%20and%20Bojo%20Beach.%20

Best places to run in Accra, Ghana, the beach, university, botanical gardens. But there is also a track at the national stadium, near Black Star square.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Accra+Sports+Stadium/@5.5503398,-0.1936435,1052m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m8!1m2!2m1!1sAccra,+Ghana+stadium!3m4!1s0xfdf9085f7383c39:0x7c72cdef39372119!8m2!3d5.5515251!4d-0.191943

Just to be thorough, this is the more recent report on what he did on his mission:

"Mantz signed with BYU, and then two months after graduating from high school he put his running career on hold to serve a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ghana. He ran a few miles each morning to maintain some degree of fitness, but three miles turned to two miles and two miles turned to zero miles.

“I was just too busy or my companions didn’t want to run,” he says. “And missionary work is difficult and exhausting. There comes a point when you’re willing to submit to whatever God wants. Whatever he has in store for me will be best.”

Ironically, Mantz gained 30 pounds during the first eight to nine months of his mission while he was running, and then lost most of it after he stopped running. A year after returning from Ghana, he returned to form and produced that 10th-place finish in the NCAA Cross-Country Championships. His improvement has continued since then, but his faith drives him to continue to draw the line at what he is willing to do for training.

“I was just too busy or my companions didn’t want to run. And missionary work is difficult and exhausting. There comes a point when you’re willing to submit to whatever God wants. Whatever he has in store for me will be best.” — Conner Mantz on not running while serving mission

“I’ve always wished I could justify training on Sunday,” he says. “I can’t. I never run on Sunday.” Notwithstanding, he notes there is almost a spiritual dimension to some of his long training runs on the road. “It’s a good time to ponder what’s important and think things through about life,” he says."

STEVE THE ADDICT^^^^^^ wrote:

Was he in college then? BYU always seems to be able to find age and eligibility loopholes. An extra year or two of high level training can be huge.

Lol everybody knows the "loophole" and it is available to every school

xczvzxcv wrote:

Mantz disagrees that there's no benefit from a two year mission:

"I think it will help out with the running, especially focus-wise," he said. "It's hard to focus on getting better at running when you know you're going to take two years off. It discourages you in training, but being able to go after high school helps you separate the two levels. It makes the transition easier."

Man, you're all over the map. The quote above is in the context of doing the mission at 18 instead of 19. The benefit obviously being you return and have all of your eligibility instead of wasting a year knowing you're about to not run for 2.

Here come all the people who are salty and butt hurt that they didn’t have the same opportunity. Become mormon go to BYU and stop complaining. Or just get over it

.............. becuase they're on missions... this guy eh?

youseemlowinGMA wrote:

The guy didn't run for 2 years... if any of you trolls think the byu guys are actually benefitting from taking two years off from running...

im still calling cap on them actually taking two years off

You complainers about Connor Mantz are big babies. These aren't loopholes, they are the rules.

In the first BYU inters-quad race after Mantz got home off of his mission, he placed way back in the pack. He lost a lot of fitness. He also redshirted when he got back which also shows he needed time to get ready. One article I read said he ran an all out 400m shortly after he got back and could only manage 74-sec. He also did a 3-miler in about 18-min which was better.

I went on a mission (1981-1982). I was in about 4:2x mile shape when I went (after going to BYU for 3 semesters - I graduated high school at 17 and had to wait tell I was 19). On my mission we actually had a mission track meet with a mile race and a 100-m race as a team buillding thing. I came in second for both and could only manage about 6:27 I think it was. The guy who beat me ran 4:2x in high school and also didn't break 6:00. We didn't run on our mission or even get exercise time like they do now. I walked probably 4 or so miles most days (a lot of it up and down 4-story apartment buildings where people lived), rode a bike average 3-4 mile/day and actually got up at 5:30 most of my mission (an hour earlier than required, bed time was 10:30) and did pushups, up-side down push ups, frog jumps, situps (couldn't leave apartment because companion was asleep) to try to stay in a little bit of shape. From 6:30 in the morning we were busy getting ready to go out (individual scripture study, companion scripture study, language study) we were out by 9:00 am and didn't stop tell between 9 - 9:30 pm with a short lunch and dinner break. It was a ton of work. That was 6-days/week with getting Mondays off tell about 5:00pm and then work tell 9:00pm on that day also (we shopped, wrote letters, washed clothes, and did a little exploring on those days). I studied the language while we rode the bike to our work area and in-between knocking on doors (Mandarin Chinese). After my mission I tried to train for the 800-m at BYU, I had a hard time getting back into endurance shape but my speed was better than when I left (probably the stairs, being older, and jumping drills I did). I never really accomplished much and was sick and injured a lot. For those that get back and finally get in shape there might be an advantage their last year or two but there is a disadvantage the first couple of years as you are trying to get back into shape. Many don't get back into shape and just move on.

Flagpole wrote:

You complainers about Connor Mantz are big babies. These aren't loopholes, they are the rules.

You need to calm down. The thread is about Mantz having been a good runner for a long time. Maybe some have hijacked it but you need to calm down Flaggy.

xeroxx wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

You complainers about Connor Mantz are big babies. These aren't loopholes, they are the rules.

You need to calm down. The thread is about Mantz having been a good runner for a long time. Maybe some have hijacked it but you need to calm down Flaggy.

Um...my comment was CLEARLY aimed at the "complainers", and they ARE being big babies, and there is nothing not calm about saying that.

I am with you. Next, people will say that schools at elevation should be handicapped or get fewer scholarships because they have an unfair advantage.

So Mantz, who graduated high school quite a bit older than the average senior then took two years off for a "religious" mission, then has a redshirt year and a medical redshirt year and now gets an extra year for the trump virus. Dude is essentially a 24 year old sophomore. He won't finish byu til he is out of high school (where he was already way old) for NINE years. This is ridiculous - NOBODY should get eight years of eligibility, PERIOD.

The day you turn 18, whether you have graduated high school or not, your eligibility should start tolling. You get 5 years to finish college eligibility with 4 years of competition. This allows for one redshirt year of medical or transfer or whatever. PERIOD.

Why don't these byuers do their little "missions" after they have finished their eligibility? They use the excuse that they don't want to do it after college because they want to get on with their lives. What a crock of S. They certainly aren't worried about getting on with their lives when they are hanging around byu for 10 years. At the very least, have the athletes do their little missions after they are done with competition. What would be the harm in that?

Also this nonsense about him being a serious engineering student is bull. First of all, byu engineering is a joke. Second, why is he taking six years to complete a very easy four year program?

You byu apologists can come up with all sorts of little excuses, but the fact is that EVERYBODY knows that the extra two years, plus the extra redshirt year plus the extra medical redshirt year is a tremendous and tremendously unfair advantage. The flimsy excuse about "everybody else" could do it too is laughable. Real students at real colleges really want to get on with their lives, and aren't gullible enough to be brainwashed into serving the cult.

It is an advantage. No apologies for following the rules. Why not just run 5 guys who are 18 instead of your best 7 if you want to not take advantage of the rules?

nau smartypants wrote:

It is an advantage. No apologies for following the rules. Why not just run 5 guys who are 18 instead of your best 7 if you want to not take advantage of the rules?

Or 5 guys who are under 23 instead of the dudes who have been there for a decade?

Why do that? The rules allow for them to run guys who are older than 23. You would be a terrible coach. You make no sense. Those are the rules. Stop watching the sport if you don't like the rules. BYU is probably the team that I worry least about breaking any rules.