LV on the Sauce? wrote:
Does anyone know where and when Lukas V would have been tested in high school... I always though he was on the sauce... Eastern European runner parents, outkicking seniors with 1:50 800m speed, etc... Just wondering...
I would suspect that he may have been tested at some of the National Meets or the Dream Mile since those events are heavily associated with specific sponsors, and was more likely than not tested at the Prefontaine Classic.
The fact that he has eastern european parents is not a valid reason to accuse him of doping. Moreover, I'm fairly sure Verzbicas never actually outkicked anyone to any substantial degree. His strategy every time was to basically use his superior endurance (probably from his triathlon training) to run everyone else into the ground. I mean, he led from start to finish in the NBIN 2-mile, and effectively ran the kick straight out of Cheserek, who was a low 1:50s runner at the time. This worked for almost every competition from XC to track, minus the instance in which he tried to go for the 2-mile record and couldn't maintain his pace.
That being said, the fact that he's fast does not mean that he was doping either. I could name a huge host of HS runners who were extremely fast in HS, many of whom have feats or times equal to or superior to those of Verzbicas. Webb's 3:53, Ryun's 3:55, Lindgren's 8:40i, Craig Virgin's IL XC record, Fernandez's 8:36/4:00 double, etc.