Will Palmer BLOWS IT for Florida, Hands Team Title to Arkansas

People never seem to realize that Arkansas can only ever underperform at outdoor meets.

Wow I am SHOCKED that Florida has no 4x4.

It was really Thorner losing to Arkansas in the steeplechase that ruined their chances.

Yes, we may have underscored in some of the distances, but that's also with Arkansas vastly underscoring in two events. It was the distance runners who even gave us a chance. The real surprise, as I stated earlier, was that Florida had no entry in EITHER of the relays. Honestly, women's 4x400 have been less than Florida-esque the last couple years. The only difference is we had Talitha Diggs to make up for it. And if we're being completely honest, the women's sprints haven't been exceptional at all the last couple years. It's been the combo of great field production, good distance production, and a few sprinters here and there. I'm really curious to see what this team looks like next. But the look on Coach Mouse's face tells me he's not gonna settle and will be back to work. Still an amazing season and I'm proud of the team!

It's hard when half of your team's scholarships are in distance and they aren't scoring.

You can't give Palmer credit for Valby when she was a beast before he even got there. Asekol and Thorner and Mazza-Downie SEVERELY UNDERPERFORMED. He has a lot of other scholarship athletes and they weren't even close to qualifying.

They won on the men's side without any distance points.

I get what you're saying, especially if you're evaluating the payout value of scholarships. I guess my point is that their underperforming would not be so crucial had we had a few more sprinters. The sprinters have been banged up a lot this year, I believe. I believe Jasmine has struggled with injuries, not sure about Laila, Jayla and Vanessa (who made nationals). What's the outlook next year with distance runners? I admittedly don't know much about the incoming class.

That's the point though. They graduated Jasmine Moore, Talitha Diggs, and others. But they only brought in distance transfers and there was very little payout from that.

One has to be physically and mentally tough to train for distance in Florida conditions. I can see the possibility of a transfer coming down from altitude having some trouble making the adjustment in their first year.

They got lucky with the FL men not needing their 1500m guy. He blew it and didn’t make the final. The truth is Will Palmer sucks as a coach.

So that said, I think it was a good show for Florida to make a run at the athletes that became available when the New Mexico situation blew up. They at least tried to put a distance team around Valby, who had been playing the Lone Ranger at Natty’s.

Next year without Valby, Asekol, Thorner, and Mazza-Downie they will be worse than D3 teams.