What's going on with UW Men?

Is Metcalfe the problem?

You telling me UW guys ran better inside than out this year? Son, you're spinning a yarn!

Yorks seems to be doing very well, but most of the rest have been very disappointing. It seems that Washington's pole vaulters do great, but not much else to show beyond that.

How dare you use the abbreviation UW for University of Washington. UW is reserved for University of Wisconsin. You should be ashamed of yourself.

UWHuskies wrote:

Whats happening up in Seattle with the men's distance runners?!

Colby Gilbert- 14:15-No NCAA regional mark-Indoor All-American (7:49 3k)

Aaron Nelson-Defending steeple Pac-12 champ, 10th this year, 14:18 5k-13:47 indoors

Derrick Diagre-No races outdoors, All-American in the 800 last year

Timothy Cummings-9:15 steeple this year, 8:57 last year

Nick Harris 3:44.91-67 on the West Qualifying list-Made it to Eugene last year

Tyler King, Meron Simon, Izaic Yorks, Aaron Nelson and Andrew Gardner (48th in Steeple) are the only distance guys qualified for UW, what is Metcalfe doing to these guys?!

Wait... the UW men are having huge fluctuations??? WE LANDED ON THE MOON!!

While I will always be a Huskies fan, I never expect more than 1 or 1.5 good years from a male distance runner. From Garner to Gardner, I can't remember anyone [dustin] duking it out at the true top of the PAC, let alone the NCAA, for a legitimate part of their career (despite the constant talent pool). Austin Abbott might have come close though. I'll continue to expect a rotation of 3:44's, 1:48's, and 13:50's, with many 4:10/9:05 HS recruits falling short of that.

After Simon dropped Pipot in the steeple, was there really any reason to continue the season. They're never going to get as much exposure and their recruiting for the year was done in about 9 minutes.

It's the same thing that happens every year at many different D1 schools. The runners get a big base during the summer and XC season, then the coaches go interval and race happy during the winter. The runners do well indoors, but by May they're toast. After regionals next week, they will take two weeks off and start the process over again.

Same thing that he did to Carl Moe, Kelly Spady, Max O'Donoghue Mcdonald,

Joey Bywater, Sean Krinik and James Cameron. What even happened to their other Portland transfer, Jacob Smith? And don't even get me started on the girls team...

UW is where good runners go to die.

ReallyDudeWtf wrote:

How dare you use the abbreviation UW for University of Washington. UW is reserved for University of Wisconsin.

Only true east of the Rockies!

jewbacca wrote:

UW is where good runners go to die.

And yet, year after year, good to great runners keep signing there. Kids aren't smart enough to figure it out. They love the brand name and think they will be the one that doesn't get thrashed.

Talk to the athletes on that team. Most aren't very happy in general. They aren't having fun with their experience. Most aren't improving more than a year, if that. They just have a butt load of talent flowing in.

You get what you deserve if you choose name over substance.

Unsettler wrote:

jewbacca wrote:

UW is where good runners go to die.

And yet, year after year, good to great runners keep signing there. Kids aren't smart enough to figure it out. They love the brand name and think they will be the one that doesn't get thrashed.

Talk to the athletes on that team. Most aren't very happy in general. They aren't having fun with their experience. Most aren't improving more than a year, if that. They just have a butt load of talent flowing in.

You get what you deserve if you choose name over substance.

Running is fun and all, but UW and Seattle are great. Easy to have a shift in priorities whether academic or otherwise. My experience was "otherwise."

Spot on.

Unsettler wrote:

jewbacca wrote:

UW is where good runners go to die.

And yet, year after year, good to great runners keep signing there. Kids aren't smart enough to figure it out. They love the brand name and think they will be the one that doesn't get thrashed.

Talk to the athletes on that team. Most aren't very happy in general. They aren't having fun with their experience. Most aren't improving more than a year, if that. They just have a butt load of talent flowing in.

You get what you deserve if you choose name over substance.

This is what was spot on... and most of the other comments

Very similar stuff going on with the women. Big time talents Liberty Miller and Katie Flood disappeared off the face of the planet this year, their last for outdoor eligibility.

Another big time talent who has been invisible this year after redshirting a year ago is Amy-Eloise Neale. I saw Liberty Miller do her only race of the season against WSU, she looked much bigger than last year and ran the steeple well over a minute slower than her PR. Really sad to see her UW career end like that. Much like Flood, who didn't race at all this year and you can't get a straight answer from UW insiders as to why.

The truth is there are actually separate reasons why the UW men and women don't seem to be able to finish off careers much of the time. For the most part, it is not the training. I have logs of UW runners and the training is very sane, albeit somewhat non traditional. The UW women's dynamic is very unhealthy, much like many high school and college programs. When you talk about someone who gained a lot of weight and started running much slower, that was the best thing for her. What was bad was the lifestyle that kept her stressed about everything, including weight, and was fostered by the team psychology. The men, on the other hand, are a bit the opposite. They are a fraternity with a running problem. While also an unhealthy lifetstyle, it is not restriction that gets the men, it is consumption. They handle it for a bit but sooner or later the lack of a quality lifestyle catches up to them. None of this is helped by the fact that there is no soft footing at UW. In and of itself, lots of miles on roads isn't terrible but when runners are fragile from too much drink or not enough food, the terrain can be the straw that gives the camel a stress fracture.

Both points are valid and have been floated for 10+ years on Letsrun (in the early Moe era). I think the deeper question is why do both of these issues continue in a high caliber school? Does the staff really care about the kids, let alone the program? Are they trying to change things?

Has anyone else noticted Metcalf looks a hell of a lot like Quagmire?