Stop mentioning Henry Rono as the best NCAA runner ever

In comes the pervading fictitious age related statements related to BYU athletes purported as fact.

Queue the spurious outrage and mocking.

Rinse, Repeat, and the making of fools.

With hindsight why do you think Rono improved and progressed so much while your career plateaued and stagnated?

The simple fix is for the NCAA to start the clock for D1 athletes on August 1 of the year that they graduate high school. Five years to complete four years of eligibility. No waivers for military service, religious missions, or finding yourself. One redshirt year only.

Older? Did a stint in the Army? Went on a mission? Then the rules in D2 and D3 can be more relaxed and accommodating for such athletes.

Collegiate running is not an age group competition.

Why is that concept so hard to understand?

Feel free to ask who the best collegiate runner was for each of U-19, U-20, U-21, etc. and make that their own fan fiction lists.

OP, you mad? I've never read anything about age limitations on the NCAA level.

Exactly. Even this guy was a legitimate college runner:

https://vault.si.com/vault/1961/01/23/the-oldest-freshman

4 WR's in 81 days while in college. Who else did anything close?

I never knew I stagnated. Henry's first year at WSU he peaked at 8:30, while I ran 8:22. Then the next year (1978) well Rono became Henry Rono the legend.

Nyambui was a different situation than Rono. Rono was fairly inexperienced and likely significantly undertrained when he showed up to run for WSU. Nyambui was 8th in the great 1974 Commonwealth Games 1500m which Bayi broke Ryun's WR.

Beyond cherry picking a short time frame, what did Rono do better than you?

Obviously he had a proper real elite level career while you didn’t. For younger runners what advice could you give to avoid your mistakes and follow Rono’s trajectory instead?

You're a little bit crazy dont you think. Rono was a legend. A legend among legends. I was nowhere near his level..

The only mistake(s) i made was to step in a frozen rut while training for WXC causing a plantar fascia tear.

"Follow Ronos trajectory". Lol Everybody funny. Now you funny too.

Why are you deleting my replies?

I’m simply noting that from similar starting points, a point you raised, that Rono improved drastically and you couldn’t keep up. Surely there are lessons to be learned for younger aspiring runners.

There really needs to be an age cap on NCAA eligibility. Under 24 only is reasonable. Must include a legitimate way to verify the ages of foreign students.

Genuine question.

Do the NCAA confirm the age of student-athletes and if so how?

Why are Americans so obsessed with age in a scholastic environment?

HS - oh no someone is a few months older than another - how unfair!! I graduated at 16yo, they were 19. Then stay longer if you fit into the criteria to remain in school, or STFU about it. As long as you are legitimately a student afforded the same rights and privileges as other students I don't see the problem. Anything else is just being petty - which appears to be the real problem here - a society of petty people. Life isn't fair people, get over it.

College is little different it seems. People in the interest of so-called fairness want to limit others experience in College - because they are petty. Just as it isn't fair that Jakob Ingebrigtsen had the training background afforded by his father and brothers to be a "wunderkind" if he had chosen to go to an American College (thankfully for his sake he didn't). Whereas most prospective recruits have the disadvantage of poor HS coaching and development compared to him. Is that fair? No, but it is reality.

Really, America has become a society of whinners. Social media (like this site) just reinforces this malaise, and it will only get worse.

Rono improved drastically and almost no one else could keep up.

Rooks is 23 and totally within the rules of the NCAA. These automatic reactions when someone accomplishes something great from BYU, like run an American Collegiate record, win an NCAA title or anything else most people would be excited about is a "let's run favorite." This excuse is older than the BYU athletes themselves :-)

It's not a stretch to see that BYU recruits top runners out of high school, has a great team culture and coach. Whether they go on missions or not, they would still be a top tier program with occasional national champions.

I am amazed that if it is a true advantage, more teams don't encourage their athletes to go off for two years, within NCAA rules (and not train), so they can come back older. I would guess most people wouldn't take that risk. Until other teams try this and we see a pattern, I don't think there's an argument. I have never seen proof that BYU's success is tied to the age of their athletes. How many NCAA XC titles have the men's team won? Just 1?! So this big advantage must not be that big of an advantage...

If BYU's recruits weren't already top-tier high school guys (two of their current XC top 5 were NXN individual champions), I'd also say you were on to something. If anything, their success is either delayed or put at risk - like many who don't return to form after their time off.

If they have had national champion high school kids or World Championship team U18 guys come on board and win a natty, it's not a stretch they would be champions at some point whether they were 22 or 24 when they graduate. Making an excuse to nullify their accomplishments is just not fair.

I also think that if the NCAA saw this as an advantage, they would change the rule. The truth is that the limited success that BYU has, is not statistically significant and the times where people make excuses for great performances are more likely tied to the athlete's dedication and talent. Their accomplishments should be celebrated.

At one point you and Kipchoge were both toddlers wobbling around. Why did you fail to keep up? Any lessons to learn?