Why Does LetsRun Protect Saarel

Yeah I don't really get this either. The guy has had three good races (albeit very good ones) in finishing top 10 twice in xc and all-american indoors in the 3k. Outside of that he's done nothing. His track times are pretty average for an elite runner and today's performance was his worst finish in xc so far.

He has shown zero improvement since freshman year and although is very talented seems to have stagnated under colorado's system. I also really question how interested in the sport he really is, seems like he only does it because he's fast but doesn't enjoy it all that much.

he was sick this season, but was all-American at 31st, and prior to that, he had two top ten finishes in two NCAA xc. what more could he really have done in xc?

RTFBs

They didn't call him out because no reasonable person expected him to do much better than he did today. In one of the threads about him, a lot of people were saying, "Oh, he's clutch, he'll be top 10 or 15 for sure." But within the context of how his season had been so far, that was simply unrealistic. Ben actually did better than I expected; I had him pegged for 40th.

Naysayer wrote:

They didn't call him out because no reasonable person expected him to do much better than he did today. In one of the threads about him, a lot of people were saying, "Oh, he's clutch, he'll be top 10 or 15 for sure." But within the context of how his season had been so far, that was simply unrealistic. Ben actually did better than I expected; I had him pegged for 40th.

I'm a huge Ben fan, but let's be realistic- Wetmore himself thought Ben would run better and said so at the presser yesterday.

He did have a hell of a finish though with a +19.

MD Phan wrote:

Naysayer wrote:

They didn't call him out because no reasonable person expected him to do much better than he did today. In one of the threads about him, a lot of people were saying, "Oh, he's clutch, he'll be top 10 or 15 for sure." But within the context of how his season had been so far, that was simply unrealistic. Ben actually did better than I expected; I had him pegged for 40th.

I'm a huge Ben fan, but let's be realistic- Wetmore himself thought Ben would run better and said so at the presser yesterday.

He did have a hell of a finish though with a +19.

Wetmore said yesterday, "I'd like to see him in the top 30 for sure. We need him to be." He was 31st. Afterwards when we talked to Wetmore, he said he didn't think any of his guys had a bad day. (Zach Perrin was 195th, but no one expected him to be much of a factor today).

I thought a good over/under for Saarel would be 35 and he was right around there. I don't claim to be the world's greatest running expert, but I think I qualify as what "Naysayer" would refer to as a "reasonable person." Saarel ran an average-to-good race for what he had done this fall heading into the meet.