Unrelated, but at The Masters University Cross Country Invite on 9/23 a Terry Hearst smoked everyone with a 23:06. No year was given for him. Small school meet. Does anyone know who this guy is?
Honestly it seems like Birnbaum performed how you’d expect, assuming a smooth transition to collegiate running. I mean, the kid was surely good for 7:50ish for 3k in June, and this wasn’t the deepest race. Great that it looks like things are going well for him though. Hopefully Schumacher doesn’t get cute and redshirt him.
The splits are all screwed up so it’s hard to tell for sure, but it looks like Burns was in front of Birnbaum 11 minutes into the race and just went backwards.
It's a nice opener by Birnbaum. Seems to be a special kid. The transition from high school xc and college is not an easy one as Burns probably can attest to. So we will we see as the season goes.
Cal Poly junior Davis Cove steals the show at the 2023 Oregon Bill Dellinger Invitational winning the men's 8 km race in 23:40.1 over Oregon junior Quincy No...
Oregon State senior Kaylee Mitchell dominated the women's 6 km race at the 2023 Oregon Bill Dellinger Invitational winning with a time of 19:37.2.UC Davis we...
Unrelated, but at The Masters University Cross Country Invite on 9/23 a Terry Hearst smoked everyone with a 23:06. No year was given for him. Small school meet. Does anyone know who this guy is?
That was a mistake. The winner was Zola Sokhela from Westmont College in 24:08.
Great and highly encouraging start for Birnbaum going sub 24 in his opener, very likely a future All American, however....
The Dellinger result took place in a "B" race on what is essentially a flat compact grass track with zero elevation change. Compare that to a couple of his classmates at Panarama Farms with a field composed of half or more of the teams that will be racing in Nationals competing in the rain and wind on rolling hills.
Hansen - 5th overall absolutely unbelievable, far exceeding any realistic expectations; All American level result in 1st ever college race Gorze - 34th overall at 23:50, definitely a more impressive performance Leo - 46th at 23:58 more impressive result given the course, conditions, and competition Lex - 75th at 24:12 not too surprising for first college effort; would expect Birnbaum's result to translate a little better than this but below Leo's
TBD if Birnbaum redshirts this year and if he doesn't how he will handle back to back 10ks in Regionals and Nationals. If he does race Nationals, cracking the top 100 would be a major accomplishment.
Aidan McCarthy is an interesting runner. He is a 1:46.26 runner who finished in 24:10 so he has some decent range.
Coached by a guy from my town. I like McCarthy as well. Now in his 4th year at Cal Poly. Will have a 5th. Maybe under 1:45.00 before he leaves college. Might be a better 1500 prospect.
Impressive range for all 3 and Birnbaum is younger.
Simeon is an EXTREMELY gifted kid. Phenomenal talent. Very few would compare favorably with him. As for his ideal distance, I'd say his sweet spot would be the Mile/3k, with range from 800 thru 5000. Not many like that.
His range apparently goes to 8k, possibly 10k. Although agree it's not as impressive as uva, I would join the group that thinks he'll run Nats this year.
No worries for Youngs as they clearly executed a conservative race plan.
Shows you the point of cutting middle school students from the track team - namely, there is no point. a) everyone develops at a different speed. b) a "slow" 6th grader turned out to be the fastest XC runner in the country by 12th grade.
I'm bookmarking this blog for reference since there's so much discussion re: cutting people from the track team/XC team.
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