1. Letsrun already analyzed how the gap from first place to second place compared to previous years. But I doubt the gap from second to third place was as large in those years - is this the largest the gap from first to third has ever been?
2. How many years would Pat Tiernan have won with that effort? Probably wouldn't have beaten the Kenyans that have won recently, but maybe further back.
I think the best way to compare to past years would be comparing the times of 50th place and 100th place to see how much faster/slower this course ran. It'd be an interesting analysis for someone who has time.
3. Georgetown overperformed this year and seem to have taken the controversy over this summer as motivation. I'm sure they believe Pat Henner was unfairly fired (that's what a member of the team told me) and used that as motivation to train and race hard.
BUT, the ironic part: their performance today was better than in recent years, which actually reflects poorly on Henner.