In my best Troy McClure voice, you might remember me from the 2014 threads where I promoted Olin Hacker.
- Meanwhile, the Hacker legacy lives on
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6089466
- Basic NXN/FL predictions
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6107029
Others who rummage the interwebs for insider running info may remember when I snapped at you not only suggesting but guaranteeing that Molly Seidel would win Footlocker Nationals in 2011 well before the outcome. Probably almost two months beforehand. I just know when I see it.
You see, it's tough being in Wisconsin some years. Our state 3200 becomes tactical or our 3200 comes just a short 19 hours from loaded 1600s and add to the fact athletic.net and milesplit do a piss poor job of gathering our data and this is where we get stuck. Also, Wisconsin tends to measure honest 5ks over all our cross country terrains unlike some of the garbage times and courses I see in other states. Here sub-16 is "good" while sub-15 is considered immortal.
Finn Gessner ran 9:01 last spring after the race was stopped 2 laps in. Finn was frustrated at the end of the season and stopping the 3200 two laps in really got to him as he was trying to hold off a group of milers. He lost to an elite group of conference foes in the 1600 after going 4:16 solo in early may. He then decided to forego the 1600 at state after that. Last fall he was 11th and 8th at Footlocker and NXN respectively.
The Flo50 has this kid ranked at 14th. I am sorry but this is plainly very wrong.
Finn could have EASILY broken 15 at Stoughton at the beginning of the month but he held back. The kid knows he has bigger fish to fry (zing!) and that a 14:45 at Stoughton would have meant nothing. But lets talk about what he has done. Let me invite you to the Randy Marks cross country course in Verona, WI (not far from Zimmerman) where the Big Eight conference meet was held. It is a true measure of cross country both in distance and in difficulty.
http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=122753
Verona CC coach and legend, Randy Marks himself, has suggested no one will touch that 15:04 mark until the next glacier comes through Verona. This Randy Marks guy has coached for nearly 50 years, seen all the studs past and present. He's not afraid to tell it like it is. He's seen them all -- Olin Hacker, Jennings, Downs... none of these guys came close to what Finn did on this course. There's not a 14 at the beginning but I promise you it is worth more than these pretty 14:40s and 14:50s you see coming from the other grass tracks around the country. There are maybe 1-3 high school guys in the USA who could accomplish this same time.
Let's just be sure you flosplits take away that Finn Gessner ain't no 14th bro. Finn has "it" and he's going to be ready.
The WI state meet is this weekend. The forecast is 52 and cloudy for the day of and only light rain will sweep through on Wednesday. Expecting dry conditions but we wont know until then. Course record is 14:54 by Solinsky while Hacker ran 14:59 on a slighlty modified version of it. The Ridges is a brutal state meet course by comparison.
I'll check back after and thank you for reading. On Wisconsin!