Penn soph Thomas Awad - 3:58.34

He was discussed in the thread entitled "Ford Palmer 4:00.00".

Great racing. Minor correction: he was 13:48 at Raleigh not 13:42.

Thanks for the info and the correction.

Made NCAAs in the 5k as a frosh - not an easy thing to do. In addition to winning this race he also won that Raleigh 5k. Kid knows how to win races. I don't think he has lost this season. He also won a 1500 in 3:42 over the strong Dartmouth/Columbia milers earlier this season.

Dolan quickly has found his next 1500/5k ace. If he goes for the 1500/5k double at Heps I think he has a very very strong chance of winning both.

Always impresses me when a guy is sub-4:00, yet looks like he needs to ask a girl to open a jar of pickles for him.

"Always impresses me when a guy is sub-4:00, yet looks like he needs to ask a girl to open a jar of pickles for him."

QFE

I'm a former D1 runner that was over at Penn on Saturday. I still casually follow D1 running, but not as closely as I used to. Before Saturday I had never heard of Thomas Awad. I visit Letsrun a few days a week and checked it on Sunday to see if they covered the O/D mile. I was honestly shocked when there was no mention of the race, considering my buddy and I thought it was one of the most impressive efforts of the day. Must be the Cornell effect. Full disclosure - I ran for an ACC school.

As far as the race, that kid ran with guts. Lined up, he also looked like the least athletic and slowest guy in the race. We were even joking early on about the "token" Penn kid that they threw in the race. Anyway, I'm definitely a fan and will follow his progress. Would love to hear more about his background and his current training. The new Penn coach is obviously doing something right.

thisguy wrote:

Dolan quickly has found his next 1500/5k ace. If he goes for the 1500/5k double at Heps I think he has a very very strong chance of winning both.

I asked him on Saturday if he's a miler now, and he said he still prefers the 5k for Heps but it would be up to the Coach on what he would run.

The real question here is how long will it take for Dolan to break up the Cornell/Princeton stranglehold on the Heps? With high profile individual success in the distance and field events to point to, and a Princeton squad slowly receding from the glory days of the late-Dolan era, Penn should pick up more and more of the incoming Ivy League talent each recruiting cycle.

Is a Penn Heps title only a question of when?

@Penn wrote:

I'm a former D1 runner that was over at Penn on Saturday. I still casually follow D1 running, but not as closely as I used to. Before Saturday I had never heard of Thomas Awad. I visit Letsrun a few days a week and checked it on Sunday to see if they covered the O/D mile. I was honestly shocked when there was no mention of the race, considering my buddy and I thought it was one of the most impressive efforts of the day. Must be the Cornell effect. Full disclosure - I ran for an ACC school.

So now we are responsible for covering every race in the country? That's what the Mboard is for. Come on guys and girls, if something of note, happens, post on it the mboard as is the case here. You people have gotten lazy with twitter.

I can only create so many forum topics under fake handles in a given weekend. ;)

We didn't cover it because the OD mile hasn't in recent years been a big event in recent years. When the race was run, we were watching Drake at that point.

There have been about 3 threads on it:

Awad is a STUD. No doubt about it. He 'won' the 3k indoors except for the slow heat guys.

Our lack of covering it has nothing to do with the 'cornell' effect. Awad actually is great for cornell. Even when I was coaching at Cornell, I would have been thrilled by Awad as that would mean less distance points are left for princeton.

There were 14 3:58 collegiate miles indoors. How many of them did we mention? 2?

We didn't even mention Matt Hillenbrand's 3:57.00.

1 Lalang, Lawi SR-4 Arizona 3:52.88 Millrose Games 02/15/14 02/18/14

2 Rotich, Anthony JR-3 UTEP 3:55.86 @ UNM Cherry and Silver Invitational 01/24/14 01/24/14

3 Williamsz, Jordan SO-2 Villanova 3:56.84 Iowa State Classic 02/14/14 02/16/14

4 Hillenbrand, Matt SR-4 Kentucky 3:57.00 Iowa State Classic 02/14/14 02/16/14

5 Rae, Jeremy SR-4 Notre Dame 3:57.25 Meyo Invitational 2014 02/07/14 02/09/14

6 Peters, Rich JR-3 Boston U. 3:57.27 Boston University David Hemery Valentine 02/07/14 02/09/14

7 Geoghegan, Will JR-3 Dartmouth 3:58.04 Boston University John Thomas Terrier 01/24/14 01/26/14

8 Penzenstadler, Sam JR-3 Loyola (Ill.) 3:58.21 Meyo Invitational 2014 02/07/14 02/09/14

9 Fleet, Mac SR-4 Oregon 3:58.25 UW Husky Classic 02/14/14 02/15/14

10 Gillespie, Matthew SR-4 Iona 3:58.48 Boston University David Hemery Valentine 02/07/14 02/09/14

11 Kidder, Brannon SO-2 Penn State 3:58.49 UW Husky Classic 02/14/14 02/15/14

12 Mangan, Steve FR-1 Dartmouth 3:58.65 # Ivy League Indoor Track & Field Championships 03/01/14 03/02/14

13 Engholm, Elmar FR-1 New Mexico 3:58.90 @ Don Kirby Elite 02/14/14 02/15/14

14 Gregorek, John SR-4 Columbia 3:58.95 # Ivy League Indoor Track & Field Championships 03/01/14 03/02/14

When Geoghegan won his heat at BU in 3:58, not only did you mention it on the homepage, you conducted a followup interview story with him and featured that on the homepage as well.

When Awad dusts all of Gags's guys and outkicks a 1:46 guy...not a peep.

Admit you made a mistake.

rojo wrote:

So now we are responsible for covering every race in the country? That's what the Mboard is for. Come on guys and girls, if something of note, happens, post on it the mboard as is the case here. You people have gotten lazy with twitter.

I wish we could all get off our lazy butts, quit our jobs, sign up for a trust fund and W our way through life like rojo. Come on people, get with the program!

Isn't all the Cornell coverage enough? Why should the Brojos waste time on yet another public school runner instead of the Ivy's... much less the Penn State Philadelphia satellite campus!

strength inversion wrote:

Always impresses me when a guy is sub-4:00, yet looks like he needs to ask a girl to open a jar of pickles for him.

dude definitely needs to do some curls or something

I don't how they've changed the training since my college days, but the collegians today make it look easy.

Gags's full-time "professional" runners got taken out to the wood shed by a little-known Penn sophomore.

Big flipping deal, these guys are a dime a dozen. A guy just ran 4:57 for the Beer Mile!

How is no one else shocked that this isn't getting more coverage?

awad is the truth. wrote:

How is no one else shocked that this isn't getting more coverage?

When Chad Noelle won the Mt Sac elite 1500m in a nation-leading 3:40.06 over a stronger field than Penn, it got zero coverage on the homepage and zero discussion on the message board.

That should give you a clue that the lack of coverage of Awad wasn't an unusual "mistake". It has nothing to do with him personally and is nothing to be shocked about.

It is true that the lack of coverage is not simply about the time of 3:58. If Nick Willis or Ben Saarel or Will Geoghegan or Eric Jenkins (to name a few) had won Penn in 3:58, that would have gotten coverage. The people who run the website happen to be interested in these guys for one reason or another.

It's also true that if Awad's name were Awadniki or Awadkele and he ran 3:58 with the same improvement curve, that would get coverage because of fascination with his "great genetics". The people who run the website happen to have their point of view.

For future reference, nothing to complain or be shocked about.

checking the list wrote:

[quote]awad is the truth. wrote:

How is no one else shocked that this isn't getting more coverage?

To add to the previous post, when Geoghegan ran that 3:58, it was indoors...in January. That was the big thing of the weekend; nothing else particularly exciting was happening. This weekend saw way more action in Penn Relays, let alone Drake Relays.