Smith's history of dropping out of (big) races is well known.
On Matt Gabelman's video you can see when and where Smith drops out; it's heartbreaking.
He's going D1 next year for a good program and I hope he can handle it. Best of luck to him.
It is so heart wrenching. 11:58 mark and maybe 300 to go. He just runs off to the side; it doesnt look like a medical issue at all. To me, that's a kid who is not happy where he is or what he's doing. Can he tell anyone? If it's an ongoing thing, who's making him race? I understand his mom is the coach. Is there pressure to win?
Last week at Pickerington he looked so depressed after. All by himself as all other runners came in, head down, frowning. Not cheering teammates or finding others. But at least he finished I guess.
It is so sad. I think he's a kid who needs serious support. If it were my kid, he'd being doing something else that makes him happy. Repeated quitting in the biggest moments are about as big a red flag as there can be. Get this kid some help.
Nah, he’s fine. Nobody runs that fast that doesn’t enjoy running. Probably wants to win TOO much. It can mess with your head.
You are a toxic individual. He’s a kid who is devastated at his result. You ppl should be banned from this site. You represent the cess pool of humanity, he is devastated but you know he just quit. Move your family outta your parents’ basement dude.
He needs mental health support. I run for a rival team and have raced against Kilbourne since 7th grade. I know guys on that team. He's dropped out or quit so many times I can't count. State this year and state last year, Eisenhart last year (when he couldn't keep up with Tommy Rice), Tiffin two years ago, district track 3200, OCC 3200, and that's just the top of my head. He's quit on his team, affecting overall finishes and team scores. And it's usally big meets. He's quit on relays, saying he doesn't want to run 2 races in a day. He practices alone and away from the team at times. It's stupid. What if his team had qualified for today? Would he have quit on them? The pity party for Ryan story is so old it hurts. The guys I know are sick of it too. If you think it's toxic to say the truth then I guess I'm toxic.
This makes the earlier predictions that Kilbourne would win state even funnier
So Mas Jackson ran an A+ day at the state meet which is very hard to do as a team. Nearly all their runners ran PR's or were near them. So let's talk about why/how they accomplished that feat. They also scored lower at the State meet than they did at Regionals which is pretty impressive as well.
Was it that they were senior lead and had a super sharp focus or determination to accomplish their going into the state meet (i.e. Lakota West of 2020)?
Did they figure out how to manage the post season gauntlet of conference, districts, regionals and state to be fresh and ready?
Did they do something different in their training and . It looks like most of the top guys ran 7 races and had a longer training cycle going into the post season.
In the 2020 D1 boys state championship meet, there were nine freshmen who participated. Here is a list of those nine runners with their 2020 place of finish as well as their 2023 state meet place of finish:
Sam Ricchiuti (Dublin Jerome). . . 9th (2020) -- 4th (2023): in 2020 the 8 runners ahead of him were all seniors
In the 2020 D1 boys state championship meet, there were nine freshmen who participated. Here is a list of those nine runners with their 2020 place of finish as well as their 2023 state meet place of finish:
Sam Ricchiuti (Dublin Jerome). . . 9th (2020) -- 4th (2023): in 2020 the 8 runners ahead of him were all seniors
Seems like some of Mason’s #2-4 guys did not do as well as they usually do. Their #6 guy was only 13 seconds behind their #2 guy. That gap was smaller than the gap between the 4th and 5th runner earlier in the season. Older Xu - 56th last year -> 53rd this year Roe - 48th last year -> 66th this year Anyways, great to see Mas Jackson win their state title. Mason probably had an off day but Mas. Jackson took advantage of that.
Here is a list of the rankings going into state and how they finished: 1 - 2 Mason 2 - 4 St Xaxier 3 - 1 Massillon Jackson 4 - 8 Dublin Coffman 5 - 18 Westervlle North
Here are the teams that weren't rank in the preseason: 5 - Rocky River - They did a tremendous job this year. 11 - Hoover 12 - Dub. Scioto 14 - Steel 15 - Centerville 16 - Hudson 19 - Beavercreek
I wonder how Mason and Mas Jackson will do next year. Mason loses 4 of their top 5. They haven’t lost that many scorers in a while. Mas. Jackson loses their #2,3,4,6
School sizes. Ever see the enrollment of Carmel or Naperville? Put Massillon J and Glen Oak together. Or the Dublins. Then we can talk. I think our individuals will fare very well. I think Ben G will compete for the win with Todd from Indiana. Proedel (spelling?) can maybe go top 5. Forsyth from MI will own the girls field.
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