MIAC Track 2017

I know that it is still early in the season and that everything is a bit thrown off due to the conference meet being moved up, but i cannot help but feel that the conference is so weak this year.

Excluding the 1k, which is looking to be pretty good, Coffey's mile, and Fredrickson's 800m, there is nothing noteworthy about the MIAC at all this year so far... it kind of pains me to see.

Get back to me after the St Thomas Showcase

Probably nothing too noteworthy will happen there. It was a great meet last year... for Olaf and non-MIAC schools. The same will probably happen again.

Any word from Collegeville about the much anticipated (on this thread and among other followers of Minnesota D3 distance running which probably number in the low hundreds if I'm being generous) debut of Ryan Bugler?

800 in 1:58.3. He has some speed apparently but has not been seriously training since cross country nationals.

Byan rugler wrote:

... but has not been seriously training since cross country nationals.

Well, that's his fault, isn't it?

Let's not blow this out of proportion. 1:58 is good, but I think we can all agree that it doesn't mean that Bugler has footspeed. I mean, Thomas Knobbe's PR is 1:58 and I think it goes without saying that he isn't a speedster.

You would expect someone who should be aiming to qualify for nationals to have a bit more, wouldn't you?

WOAH! Let us not forget the ever epic Hart Horner vs. Thomas Knobbe dual in the 1500m last year!! I'm pretty sure that Thomas took Hart to the line with a 65 second last lap!

Jokes aside, let's put his time in perspective. Sure, 1:58 isn't that impressive. But, when comparing it to his previous indoor openers (which are always 800m), it is rather decent.

Last year he opened his indoor season with a 1:59.17 on February 13th. Equally not as impressive. But, he ended up looking rather good at conference regardless that indoor season. This year, he opened up with a 1:58.35 on January 28th. Two weeks earlier and still a second faster. Infer what you will.

Also, he will probably be running the 3k at conference. Looking at who he has to run with, he doesn't need a ton of speed to get the job done. Bellow are some of the top 3k returners, regardless if they ran the event at MIACs, and their 800m PR. Judging from this alone he would only have to worry about Knobbe and Coffey if he decided to run the event.

Ryan Bugler - 1:58.35 (8:35)

Thomas Knobbe - 1:58.67 (8:37)

Paul Timm - 2:02.98 - (8:42)

Coffey - 1:54.67 - (8:42)

James Logan - 2:02.75 - (8:45)

Daniel Mahota - 2:05.24 - (8:45)

Tayler Aarness - 2:00.61 - (8:44)

Jovan Newsum - 1:59.97 - (8:45 -this year)

I'm not saying he has great footspeed, rather I doubt his kicking ability in general, but what I am saying is that he doesn't need a ton of speed to take the win.

Byan rugler wrote:

800 in 1:58.3. He has some speed apparently but has not been seriously training since cross country nationals.

Why tho

He had a vague tweet about his 800 being his first race or workout since cross country. He took a big fall at nationals and dropped out so it's possible he had a concussion and had to take time off? Not sure what's the deal.

Hmmmmmmm wrote:

He had a vague tweet about his 800 being his first race or workout since cross country. He took a big fall at nationals and dropped out so it's possible he had a concussion and had to take time off? Not sure what's the deal.

There is no "deal." St John's doesn't do any track work during the indoor season, aside from the races. That's the way it's always been. I'm sure Bugler has been logging plenty of miles in the cold as preparation for defending his steeplechase title. Qualifying for indoor nationals would be a nice bonus but I doubt he's too worried about whether he does or not.

bverber wrote:

Hmmmmmmm wrote:

He had a vague tweet about his 800 being his first race or workout since cross country. He took a big fall at nationals and dropped out so it's possible he had a concussion and had to take time off? Not sure what's the deal.

There is no "deal." St John's doesn't do any track work during the indoor season, aside from the races. That's the way it's always been. I'm sure Bugler has been logging plenty of miles in the cold as preparation for defending his steeplechase title. Qualifying for indoor nationals would be a nice bonus but I doubt he's too worried about whether he does or not.

Thanks for the update, Ryan!

Am I the only one who doesn't understand the SJU logic in dismissing an entire season of competition?

It seems like it's just the distance team. I bet the head coach loves that.

Ujs wrote:

It seems like it's just the distance team. I bet the head coach loves that.

Can you imagine any other event group getting away with that? They sacrifice the team's indoor season for the possibility of getting maybe one national qualifier outdoors. They're less-talented guys (see: everyone besides Bugler) have no business training through and half-a$$ing indoors for the times they end up running outdoors.

bub johnnies lol

runmn wrote:

bub johnnies lol

Great post.

So we have injured/burnt Gusties, sick/training Olafs, a concussed Johnnie, and a conference meet in 4 weeks.

Middle distances are also in a weird spot. Krause hasn't really nailed an 800 yet. The Bethel guys, Lillehaugen, and DCG haven't even ran one yet, and a dark horse Gustavus kid has the top time by 3 seconds.

Who do you think will be faster after this weekend?

Why no fast freshmen (yet)?

I don't think this will be a fast weekend, unfortunately.

Mostly smaller meets and all of the fast individuals just raced at the U or other out of state meets. I think next week will, at least it has historically, been the week where most people start running their faster times in preparation for qualifying for conference.

That said, we need at least someone to nail a good 800m. I saw that Bjork ran a 1:56 last weekend, that helps a lot with the depth of the event. We also need a good front runner for the 3k, someone mind doing that real quick this weekend? Thanks.

There should really be 1 team point up for grabs halfway into the 3k so an also-ran performs sacrificial lamb duty.