17:08? Sam Wharton? Get yourselves together, Nike

Sam Wharton wasn't a no name. He got 21st last year, got 2nd at Nike and Footlocker Midwest regionals, D1 State Champ here in Ohio, and has a 14:56 XC pr.

Total disaster. Everyone wore themselves out fighting the course in the first mile.

It wouldn't be quite so annoying if the interviewers weren't pressing the kids to say how fun the course was, how great it all was.

Face it, Nike, the course stunk this year. We found out what the best mudding team in the nation is this year. We didn't find the best cross country team this year.

Stop acting like this was great. It wasn't.

this is sad wrote:

It wouldn't be quite so annoying if the interviewers weren't pressing the kids to say how fun the course was, how great it all was.

Face it, Nike, the course stunk this year. We found out what the best mudding team in the nation is this year. We didn't find the best cross country team this year.

Stop acting like this was great. It wasn't.

Bwhahahahaha

So a muddy course suddenly negates the ability of teams? Everyone runs on the same course. If you're good, you're going to beat the other guy in mud, in snow, in rain, in sun, on flat, on hills....Just because you didn't get to see fast times and the guy you wanted to win didn't doesn't make this a disaster.

WHARTON IS THE LORD OF THE MUD!!

I didn't realize they televised the Tough Mudder events. Didn't realize they had one for HS kids.

It's The Truth wrote:

Bwhahahahaha

So a muddy course suddenly negates the ability of teams? Everyone runs on the same course. If you're good, you're going to beat the other guy in mud, in snow, in rain, in sun, on flat, on hills....Just because you didn't get to see fast times and the guy you wanted to win didn't doesn't make this a disaster.

It is well known by people who know about running that different conditions greatly affect results. Yes, everyone runs the same course, but it affects runners differently. Why would you have a championship race that is in greatly different conditions than most teams are used to? If it was just one year, it wouldn't be a big deal, but it's very muddy every year.

this is sad wrote:

It wouldn't be quite so annoying if the interviewers weren't pressing the kids to say how fun the course was, how great it all was.

Face it, Nike, the course stunk this year. We found out what the best mudding team in the nation is this year. We didn't find the best cross country team this year.

Stop acting like this was great. It wasn't.

^This^

The pre-race big 4

Montoya - 22

Leingang - 59

Ryan - 15

Burcham - 84

??????? wrote:

The pre-race big 4

Montoya - 22

Leingang - 59

Ryan - 15

Burcham - 84

Leingang purposefully shut it down early today to save it for Footlocker. The real National Championship.

I believe Wharton is running Footlocker. It will be interesting to see if he places in the top 5 there.

Sunny San Diego wrote:

Leingang purposefully shut it down early today to save it for Footlocker. The real National Championship.

Well if this isn't the biggest bunch of bullshit I've ever heard, I don't know what is

break it up wrote:

I believe Wharton is running Footlocker. It will be interesting to see if he places in the top 5 there.

That was a pretty good effort today, and he's been racing a lot lately. Seems unlikely.

So, OP...you went Nike to CONTROL the weather, is that it? What are you, 11 years old?

No, I think he wants Nike to choose a location that isn't in the midst of a f*cking monsoon in December. For instance, oh, I don't know, San Diego?

They should just most the race to a hard flat surface that everyone has access to train on. Oh wait...that's called track.

It is called Cross Country, not Track. What is everybody's obsession with running flat, fast courses in XC? Cross Country is not meant to see who can run the fastest time on the easiest course possible. It is meant to show who is the toughest runner out there and can withstand any and all conditions. Sam Wharton proved today that he is much tougher than anybody else in that race.

Or, we can just skip the bullsh!t and just have Track year round and run Cross Country on the Track if all of you complainers want it that way. Learn the difference between the two sports. We're all becoming too obsessed with fast times rather than toughness.

got to say I think that course was over the top - I am a believer in XC being XC, but nobody trains or races in that slop - why not run them up the side of mount ranier and call that xc?

It just isn't a good test of normal xc running - it was a test of something else.

Have you guys ever run on the NXN course? It was really awful when I was there. I don't mind a tough course, but cross country isn't a tough mudder. It doesn't make much sense to deliberately make it into one, does it?

Combine Footlocker and NXN, and hold the race at Balboa park. There, 2 problems solved.