WHAT THE HECK happened to BYU?

Go cougs? wrote:

What is going on here?? How does BYU come into this race with a Mormon handcart load of attention and hype, and they took the last three spots!! Rory Linkletter, who finished second last year, was still running when the winner was well into his victory interview.

Some theories: they all got food poisoning?

Linkletter and Murphy were taking it easy for the 5k on Friday. Not likely, as Mantz also ran a lot slower than his PB

Making some statement?

Yeah, that sucked. Mantz was off the back from the gun. Linkletter and Young looked like they got their legs blown out by the fast first few laps and then jogged it in. McMillan hung tough and looked like a lock for a top-8 finish until he blew up with 3 laps to go.

I sure it hope it was food poisoning because that was embarrassing. Hopefully the pair of steeplers can make up for that fail. Seems unlikely that Linkletter or Young will be coming back strong in the 5k.

Linkletter got rid off oats and hose 1. Don't support him at all, maybe the rest of the BYU guys are cooler

Young. That’s what I meant. For some reason I was thinking “Clayton Murphy”

Found a brief overview of the race from Mantz.

"Race-Warmed up, felt kinda sick to my stomache. Not sure if it was something I ate or not. The race was pretty terrible to say the least. I learned much. It was a real bitter end to the season. I had a lot of hope going into this to finish in the top 8, but it's sad to say that I wasn't even within 2 minutes of that. There is a lot to be learned though, and gratitude and humility are part of those."

From all I know about Mantz, he seems like a great guy. I’m sure he’ll be back and stronger for this experience. Still an impressive first year back from his mission.

Byu’s larger peaking issue has to be mental. A shame, really. But once you get it in your head that your team blows up at nationals...

Maybe let your legs do the talking next time instead of your keyboard warriors. Stop choking at nationals.

Sincerely,

-keyboard warrior

stop the hype train wrote:

Maybe let your legs do the talking next time instead of your keyboard warriors. Stop choking at nationals.

Sincerely,

-keyboard warrior

Agreed. Also, when you're flexing muscles at regionals and then come dfl when it REALLY counts, it's embarrassing.

PS- this has nothing to do with anyone's religion.

Yeah. I personally know Conner mantz, he is probably the toughest, gutsiest runner that I know. He’s not the type to purposely jog in a race.

I’m no lover of BYU, but I have to admit that they have a very competitive and ambitious team culture. They are never satisfied just to show up, and they aren’t afraid to dream big, hence the Conner quote about wanting to finish top 8.

I feel really bad if the three of them got some illness.

“Very competitive”... finishes DFL.... I don’t think you understand the meaning of competitive.

Ed's corvette engine overhaul wrote:

stop the hype train wrote:

Maybe let your legs do the talking next time instead of your keyboard warriors. Stop choking at nationals.

Sincerely,

-keyboard warrior

Agreed. Also, when you're flexing muscles at regionals and then come dfl when it REALLY counts, it's embarrassing.

PS- this has nothing to do with anyone's religion.

Maybe, like the Blues Brothers, they are "on a mission from God."

Dril wrote:

“Very competitive”... finishes DFL.... I don’t think you understand the meaning of competitive.

So you’re saying that one bad race automatically defines the nature of an athlete and the way they run? DFL BYU dudes running 31 minutes probably would’ve have lapped you multiple times, bud.

PrZ wrote:

Dril wrote:

“Very competitive”... finishes DFL.... I don’t think you understand the meaning of competitive.

So you’re saying that one bad race automatically defines the nature of an athlete and the way they run? DFL BYU dudes running 31 minutes probably would’ve have lapped you multiple times, bud.

Eh, you might be surprised who lurks here on this forum.

It's not simply any race. It's DFL in the NCAA championship. That is what we refer to as choking and/or phoning it in, not a sign of a competitiveness. Go away fanboy.

I know tons of guys who didn’t qualify would would have run faster than 31 mid. It seems a little bit unethical to take a spot from someone without the intent to give an honest effort.

Linkletter, Young and Mantz all ran the same time and finished over a minute after the fourth to last runner was off the track. I don't know as much about Mantz, but 31:37 - over 5:00 mile pace - has got to be a tempo level effort for Linkletter and Young! I think they must have been saving it for the 5k, and Mantz was either feeling terrible or decided to jog it in with the others. Unless those three were truly sick or something, it's incredibly disrespectful and immature to show up to a national championship jog it, making no effort to finish higher than DFL. Those three qualifying spots could have gone to three athletes who really wanted to RACE. I sincerely hope that they all had food poisoning because if not, it says a lot about them and their program if they are willing to tank a championship race and take spots from deserving athletes. They crushed the west prelims though, so it seemed to me that they were gonna rock the final.

They earned the right to run however they wanted. The athletes who didn't make it to nationals that really wanted to race should've run faster, they have no one to blame but themselves.

It was FOOD poisoning. How many times does it have to be said? The poor saps got food poisoning from some Eugene hippie food. Try running with that. It isn't good.

Go cougs? wrote:

I know tons of guys who didn’t qualify would would have run faster than 31 mid. It seems a little bit unethical to take a spot from someone without the intent to give an honest effort.

Did any of you actually watch the race?

They gave it an honest effort.

They had a bad day. Linkletter and Young were trying to hang on to the top pack through 4k-5k. Then once they started going backwards, they started running 82's.

Did they save themselves for the 5k? Yes, after they went for it, got dropped hard and they realized it didn't make a difference if they finished 17th or 24th.

Mantz looked dead from the beginning.

Clearly the boys were tanking it on purpose, and didn't have food poisoning. Theres no way all three got food poisoning. If they did however, please come on this forum and expose the restaurant. Half of Eugene is on here...