It's official: Ben Thomas goes back to Blacksburg, re-hired at Virginia Tech

Is it confirmed he’s sticking around?

No, I think OP is talking about how Cole Hocker qualified for a US team, despite injury, while BTC men had a historic meltdown, aside from McGorty, with their part-time coach.

Hocker wasn't beating Nuguse anyways, so 2nd or 3rd was his ceiling this meet.

I think most assumed Cianelli was retiring and Ben Thomas was going to be the Director. Apparently Cianelli is sticking around so maybe Eric is out? He really struggled on his own.

It looks as though Ben Thomas is Head Coach for all track and field. Eric J presumably still head coach for distance

Ben Thomas will likely be cianellis replacement, but it’s unclear if he will be a mostly hands-off coaching role like Cianelli or if he would be more of a Robert Johnson type who also coached an event group (distance in this case). Eric has established himself as a legitimate D1 distance coach the last few years, so it makes you think he wouldn’t want to go back to an assistant role if that’s what is actually happening here.

I never said it would be a good fit, I just said I had heard he wanted to continue to train with Cooper.

You mean Sinclaire was .01 from making the top 3 despite running far more extra distance than Cory McGee (who Mu let inside) and starting the last lap furthest back of the top 4. The past 2 years are way better than her BTC results, objectively. That’s even with an injury this outdoor season. Bartlesmeyer has also PBed.

Julian had 2 athletes who were bright spots and left amicably in Hull/Koko. Hill wanted to go home, Koko got a better offer from Puma and now is struggling. I don’t consider that some massive negative for PJ. Nor would I consider Rogers making back to back teams such a negative.

His biggest trouble has been getting Brazier healthy. And Donaghu have stayed at same level, Keegan has gotten better, though Hunter/Meyer are worse same as Kibet (who briefly improved).

I think the fit with BTC is bad, like Johnson or Engels before her, Hocker has great natural endurance. He doesn’t need to be logging 90 mile weeks with 10-mile threshold sessions. I’d much rather see him maximizing his prime vs wasting a year or two to see if he can hang with Jerry and then being pushed to the 5k.

He would train with Bartlesmeyer (3:34.2/3:50i). Not seeing a problem there at all.

Nearly ncaa XC qualifiers in 2019 and ACC indoor 800 champion and ACC indoor champs… Steeple outdoor champion… ACC XC 2019 champion… Yeah a big struggle!

You're fudging facts here. Koko was struggling long before Puma. Sinclaire Johnson, however you want to slice the race, didn't make the team after looking dominant last year. You also forgot Mu ran just as much distance as Sinclaire.

Rodgers was a medal threat until last year. Now she's an also-ran at the world level.

Jerry doesn't have his 1500 people blindly do 90 miles per week. That's just plain false. The UAC group is a complete mess.

Where's Shannon Osika?? She was consistently in the top 5 in the US 1500 and suddenly she's vanished??

I bet he could move to Flag and work under Mike Smith. He is talented enough for Mike to take him under. No other 1500m in his crew.

What about Van Hoy in SLO? Seems like he's done well w/ middle distance guys, is young and invested and may be the type of guy Nike would build around.

Smith's had some solid 1500 success this year, though idk if he has before. Hiltz with a national title and Sahlman was the top freshman in the 1500 and ran 1:46 in the 800. Only thing is there's not anyone near his level, so he'd kinda be on his own. I think OAC would be way better. It's already the best miler group in the world and he'd be living at altitude. I'd also love it because OAC races way more than seemingly anyone else.

OAC isn't an option for Hocker. He would have to get out of a Nike contract that cannot possibly expire before the 2024 Olympics. Hocker either needs to join a Nike group or work out individually and pay for his own coach. He's either going to follow Thomas to VT, join BTC or UAC, or find an independent situation that Nike supports. The Mike Smith collective might be a good match combining his strength and speed. He'd have some cross over with the 5k guys and could do some work with Sahlman on shorter things. Presumably this is the type of set up Nikki Hiltz has. He could also work with Cooper and Nike to form a new training group around them specifically. There are plenty of options.

Well, BTC is a very high quality group with his friend and former training partner, Cooper Teare, and both guys are roughly 1:46-47 800m runners and low 13 5000m runners who would be likely to break 12:50 at BTC with several years of health, always a question there. It is not as if BTC only does long strength workouts; it turns out that they do a lot more speedwork than Ingebrigtsen. I'd favor Powell's group for the 1500m/mile alone right now, as BTC produces plenty of 3:34-36 guys who are 5000m runners.