Possible Hot Take: OAC Underwhelming at USAs

Oh now we are blaming someone else for Andrews big bomb. If she had so much "potential" what happened? Why is Monson responsible for Andrews' fail? Monson has her own race to worry about. Its not her job to pace the field. And you actually think Andrews would be able to SIT on Cranny? Cranny was GONE with a couple of laps to go and Andrews was basically gone in the other direction. LoL!!! Were we watching the same race?

Stopped reading after Nuguse who won was somehow “underwhelming”

Sage Hurta-Klecker is in the wrong event. I’m sure everyone tells her the same thing but it pains me to see her line up as an extra in these 800m races.

i think ritz is really banking on monson medaling. shes clearly a little tired and trained through these champs.

Fair assessment.

Sages whole season has been a bit disappointing. I think Kaela Edwards has been under the radar but she’s ran between 2:00 and 2:01.3 seven times in 2023. None of that in particularly fast races. Losing to her might age OK if she runs a 1:58 later this season which is possible.

Andrews wasn’t terrible or anything but that early season 5k made it look like she was in 14:35 shape. But she ends up in between the 14:50 type shape women like Henes and the leading trio (Rogers in 14:40 shape).

Some good points about OAC and valid cause for concern. Nuguse should've buried the field well before 50m to go, Klecker should not have been so far back in the 5, Monson rlly should not have lost to Cranny twice, and Sage should have made the team. I will say, and most of the posters would agree, most of OAC went in as a lock to make the worlds team; some even were favorited to win. With that in mind, I can't imagine that they tapered incredibly hard for this meet. Wouldn't be surprised if the goal was to get as many athletes in the top three then worry about tapering later on. Not trying to meatride the group, but the only IMO who rlly was under a lot of pressure to win was Nuguse. And who knows, maybe he thought he had the race in the bag with 100 to go and didn't expect Waskom to pull up on him. Even so, Nuguse clearly outclassed him in his final sprint. OAC is having athletes represent ON in Budapest and thats all that rlly matters to them

I came in prepared to argue more, but I think you are right on some of these.

Nuguse was fine. when you are the best, you don't go until you absolutely have to, and that's what he did. when he decided to go, he made it look easy.

Joe Klecker is getting the most of his ability. There are other guys who are just better than him. I think a guy like Grant would be better off with Dathan, and we would see that it is just different levels of talent at play.

Sage was disappointing. No doubt the womens 800 trials field was incredibly weak compared to recent years, and she let a golden opportunity slip away.

Monson performed well, but clearly is not at her best in this moment. I think peaking is more complicated than most here give credit for, so i won't beat him up too much for that, but it's something to learn from.

Over the years, I have had sprinters and distance runners throw down their best performance of the year at the tail end of a monster training week where we had decided to "train through the meet" and I've had kids show up flat on a taper that worked to perfection for a teammate with similar ability. I don't know if it's impossible to figure out how to peak every athlete, but it is really, really difficult.

How many times have we seen some of the best athletes not show up with the goods at the most important race of their life? It even happens to Kipchoge once in awhile.

I'll give a pass for Monson. She wasn't at her best, but still really d@mn good. That is what an "off" day should look like for somebody who is one of the best.

Enormous stretch to criticize Nuguse at all. Controlled the race as a favorite, looked in control, knew his kick would take him there, won with a modest buffer. Ran one of the fastest times in USATF Championship meet history.

I think you have to be careful for 5k and 800 (for different reasons) to run fast indoors - like Monson and Tuohy did - and equally well outdoors. 1500/mile you might get away with a bit (as has Nuguse). Monson has looked a bit flat lately after that 8.25 indoors, then the AR 10000m. She didn't impress me in the DL 3000 (8.29). Yes she doesn't appear to have a kick vs fast women (Cranny now, not a few months ago) like the Ethiopians.

Some are better at it than others - Klecker and Kincaid fine for the 10000m, but less so in the 5000m. McGorty did both and well, but was absent indoors - maybe a blessing. Although he has yet to get standard or ranking (the downside of not racing).

Much of LetsRun thinks OAC, BTC, UAC, VNTC, ETC all stunk it up at USAs. Instead of all of that being true, maybe people are off the mark on what should realistically be expected from a club at Nats. It’s extremely difficult at this level to get an entire club across a range of distances to be firing on all cylinders over the same 4 days…and again in 6 weeks. And the U.S. has enough depth that On should never have been expected to qualify Monson/Klecker/Nuguse/Andrews/Hurta-Klecker in every event they contested—it was possible, but it would have meant a truly phenomenal showing for the club.

Grading the key On players’ USAs:

Yared Nuguse - A

Ran a controlled and businesslike 3:35.37 from the front in the heats to avoid any possible mishaps, and then proved he has the best kick in a 3:34.90 race in the final. He executed intelligent race plans and ran 12.65 for his last 100 while nobody else was under 13.

Alicia Monson - A-

A-, maybe B+, but the fact is she came in and took care of business. National titles are great but I’m sure the #1 priority was qualifying in both events, and she confidently executed race strategies that ensured she did that. She looked a little tired in the late stages of the 5k, but she still front-ran a 14:55 three days after closing a 10k with a 4:35.96 1600–and, importantly, there’s nothing she could do about Cranny looking surprisingly unbeatable.

Joe Klecker - B

Klecker is on the U.S. team for Budapest, which is more than a lot of good runners can say. Kincaid beat him by 1.5 seconds in the 10k, but Klecker split 2:57.35 for his last 3 laps, which ain’t too shabby, and beat two of the main contenders coming into the race in Chelimo and Fisher. In the 5k I think he may have blown it by shadowing Kincaid, but let’s give credit to McGorty for running shockingly well and splitting 2:23.00 for his last K. Klecker ultimately pipped Teare for 4th, it’s not a major disaster.

Josette Andrews - C+

Yeah of course she’ll be disappointed not to have made the team, so in that sense it was a failure, but 4th place in that field really isn’t that bad. She was 7 seconds ahead of Henes in 5th, 12 seconds ahead of Morgan in 6th, 13 seconds ahead of Kelati in 8th, 22 seconds ahead of Infeld in 9th, and keep in mind one of the biggest players couldn’t even make it to the starting line. U.S. teams are tough to make, and it took Natosha Rogers running the best race of her life to keep Andrews off this one.

Sage Hurta-Klecker - C-

She made the final and finished 4th, but it was worse than it sounds. Her form looked forced and unnatural compared with the athletes beside her, and she had to dig deep to make it out of her semi. I seriously question her tactics in the final, leading through 200 and splitting significantly faster from 100m-200m than anyone else in the field, despite 1500m stamina being her relative strength. She wound up with a 4+ second positive split, and 2:01.19 is just not good for a woman who ran 1:57.85 last year. She should look for a reset, to switch up her training and/or shift focus to the 1500.

Nuguse is fine. He was in control. He won. He made two Diamond League podiums this year. He's run 3:29. He's beaten everyone but Ingebrigtsen and Katir this year in big Diamond League fields. That means, Cheruiyot, Hoare, Kerr, Abel Kipsang, etc. etc.

Looking relaxed is good. He wasn't laying down a gauntlet with his time, but compared to say Grant Fisher, who ran well but was never able to assert himself on the world stage, Nuguse is looking good. He's unlikely to beat Ingebrigtsen any time soon, but neither is anyone else. Everyone else is fair game.

In Bislett, he had a lot of great runners trying to get on the podium, and he may have looked "relaxed," but somehow he managed to fend off Timothy Cheriyut, Garcia, Hoare, etc. to finish 3:29 flat.

I think one of the biggest mistakes that fans of the sport make is assuming that when an athlete runs a strong time - like Andrews' 14:43 - that it represents a new floor for that athlete, they have levelled up and that they are likely in shape to run even faster. More often than not, that strong time is an outlier, it's what they can do when things completely click for them. Much better to take a look at the average of 3-4 recent races. Looking at what Andrews was averaging for 1500 (she had only run one 5k), she was in around 4:02-4:03 shape. From the WA tables, that puts her around 14:48-14:49 for 5000. She might have been hoping for another killer performance, but you can't fake fitness.

That's the entire point, if she wasn't acting like a rabid dog, sitting on 200 lbpm trying to crush her own team mate, they'd both be on the team. If her basic coach understood how to train energy systems and muscle engagement, she'd be able to cultivate her kick. As I said, i agree with the original poster, it's all underwhelming, like your lack of understanding. Because of Luddite fans like yourself, a lot of skeletons get swept in this brand's closet, poor coaching amongst them.

This^

Were were truely spoiled a couple of years ago when BTC had like 12-15 athletes running incredibly for an extended period I'll call the "Houlihan era".

That was impossible to sustain and there is no reason to hold other clubs to that standard. OAC did fine.

I agree with mularky, you're the one who doesn't understand. No matter what pace andrews was running or who she was supposed to "stay with" there is no way she would have made it on that team and its not all coaching to blame. She just isn't as fast and can't switch gears when needed. Nothing new with her.

So you're going through life thinking the ability to close fast is a gift, and can't be coached. Oh my, you poor fool. You are underwhelming

Josette just didnt have it yesterday and it’s definitely not Alicia’s fault.

Alicia races the most international competition and has been throwing down crazy times, but got dusted the final lap of the 10k the past two years. She wants that title and her indoor races she would ratchet down the pace so no one can hang. However, she was probably tired leading a 15 flat 5k after a 10k two days before and that’s why the pace started to slow

So Alicia, rightfully, wanted to make it honest, and OAC probably thought that Josette could hang on and still have a kick off 14:55-15 min pace like Elise did.

Also just based on Ritz’ interviews and the comments from the Coffee Club, it seems like Alicia and Joe are the golden imo and Ritz wouldn’t jeopardize Alicia not being able to close off a slow pace for Andrew’s

Didn't Monson have covid recently? I think that explains why she isn't in the same form she was earlier in the year better than anything else.

Agee with some of the comments. Jerry's athletes don't race enough but most years peak pretty well. OAC travel too much, over race and risk not peaking properly. An approach somewhere in between would probably be right.

Monson seems a long way from the 30 minute shape she was in a few months ago. Could barely run that pace for half the distance. Something's not completely right with her at the moment. Still pretty solid though so hopefully she can turn it round before world's.

Monson and Klecker have not been at their best by the major champs the last two years. Hoare didn't peak right either the last two years. Beamish seems to run best off just base work. Only Mario ran well at world's last year and Ritz hadn't started coaching him. Hopefully Ritz has it figured out this year and they perform at their best when it counts.