Honestly, people are hyping up Parker for this win, but Nico just let him have it.
Absolutely no reason why a guy running 12:57 (although indoors) and 26:52 runs a 13:54. Probably saving some for Trials but definitely a race he should've won.
I'm more dumbfounded by Graham Blanks stupidity. You go to Harvard: why would you think it's a good idea to drop into a dead sprint with 800 to go.
Why the sub 13 guys didn't just duke this out on fresh legs is beyond me. Good for Wolfe. Obviously Nico has the trials, but Blanks is destined to become, quite literally, the fastest loser in all of NCAA history at 5000m
I definitely don’t think Blanks is a sub-13 guy right now, having missed time with a serious injury. Actually I think he made a somewhat ballsy decision to do what he had to do to give himself any chance of making the podium in his current fitness/sharpness (though ultimately, he had no chance to beat any of the top 3 yesterday). Everyone was saying he went too early, but he would probably have been worse off letting it come down to a 400m sprint which would have opened up the possibility for his finishing further back, behind guys he had the strength to beat.
I think you are 100% accurate. It was a smart move on Grahams part and ended up disrupting the race. I think he is also still building strength and speed for the trials in 3 weeks. He’s a tough kid and excellent racer. Wolfe has a great race and benefited from the way this one played out over the last 800m. I could see him turning pro soon. Also, has Mike Smith ever won an outdoor title? I’m assuming this was Nico’s last race for NAU and will be wearing a pro kit for the trials.
A few more thoughts about this race, now that I’ve slept on it and am feeling less emotional about it:
When Nico got third in this race two years ago behind two guys who were much older than him, I was one of the people thinking he would follow Galen Rupp’s footsteps and eventually win an outdoor title as a senior (in Rupp’s case, a fifth-year senior). It turns out Nico got denied victory as a senior by someone younger than him. Unexpected.
Credit to Parker Wolfe. He’s the real deal. Wolfe, Young, and Blanks give US distance running fans good reason to be excited about the future.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Nico does at the Olympic trials. When he lost in cross country last fall, he came back soon thereafter with that impressive 3K-5K double at BU followed by the 12:57. I hope he similarly comes back from this disappointment with a strong showing in a couple weeks.
A few more thoughts about this race, now that I’ve slept on it and am feeling less emotional about it:
When Nico got third in this race two years ago behind two guys who were much older than him, I was one of the people thinking he would follow Galen Rupp’s footsteps and eventually win an outdoor title as a senior (in Rupp’s case, a fifth-year senior). It turns out Nico got denied victory as a senior by someone younger than him. Unexpected.
Credit to Parker Wolfe. He’s the real deal. Wolfe, Young, and Blanks give US distance running fans good reason to be excited about the future.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Nico does at the Olympic trials. When he lost in cross country last fall, he came back soon thereafter with that impressive 3K-5K double at BU followed by the 12:57. I hope he similarly comes back from this disappointment with a strong showing in a couple weeks.
Isn't Nico only a Junior? Says Junior in results, same as Wolfe
A few more thoughts about this race, now that I’ve slept on it and am feeling less emotional about it:
When Nico got third in this race two years ago behind two guys who were much older than him, I was one of the people thinking he would follow Galen Rupp’s footsteps and eventually win an outdoor title as a senior (in Rupp’s case, a fifth-year senior). It turns out Nico got denied victory as a senior by someone younger than him. Unexpected.
Credit to Parker Wolfe. He’s the real deal. Wolfe, Young, and Blanks give US distance running fans good reason to be excited about the future.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Nico does at the Olympic trials. When he lost in cross country last fall, he came back soon thereafter with that impressive 3K-5K double at BU followed by the 12:57. I hope he similarly comes back from this disappointment with a strong showing in a couple weeks.
Isn't Nico only a Junior? Says Junior in results, same as Wolfe
Technically yes, but no way he is returning to NAU next year. I expect Ky Robinson to turn pro as well. Maybe Parker Wolfe after last nights win.
Also noteworthy: Nico didn’t just lose this race: he lost his chance to win the Bowerman. He could have clinched the Bowerman had he won tonight. Instead it will probably go to Leo Neugebauer.
Win the Bowerman? A decrepit old man who peed on his athletes in the showers. Disgusting. Any wonder where Salazar got his values.
You have a sense I lack? looked to me like Nico ran according to a sensible plan and gave it his best up to the finish, where he gutted it out for second!?
Also noteworthy: Nico didn’t just lose this race: he lost his chance to win the Bowerman. He could have clinched the Bowerman had he won tonight. Instead it will probably go to Leo Neugebauer.
Win the Bowerman? A decrepit old man who peed on his athletes in the showers. Disgusting. Any wonder where Salazar got his values.
Gee, I wonder whose idea it was to create the Bowerman award.
Maybe they should rename it the McDonnell award. Didn’t he win ten times as many NCAA titles as Bowerman?
Honestly, people are hyping up Parker for this win, but Nico just let him have it.
Absolutely no reason why a guy running 12:57 (although indoors) and 26:52 runs a 13:54. Probably saving some for Trials but definitely a race he should've won.
This is a horrible take. No one let anyone win. Did you not see his face that last 800m? That’s not someone saving anything. This is why they run races and don’t just hand out medals based on your seed time. Time trailers don’t always fair well in a non time trial type race. Note that this is exactly the style that world championships and Olympics used to be run.
It's races like this that make me further appreciate what King Ches accomplished. I'm not making any sort of comment on either's pro careers (past/future, respectively), but just in awe of how Ches was able to get it done in fast/slow/tactical/relay races, and make it look so damn easy when it clearly isn't.
I definitely don’t think Blanks is a sub-13 guy right now, having missed time with a serious injury.
I think you are 100% accurate. It was a smart move on Grahams part and ended up disrupting the race.
Nico owes Blanks a thanks for starting to stretch it out with 800 to go. If he hadn't, nobody was going to and you were going to have even more guys in contention with a lap to go. I think that Nico could easily have finished worse in that scenario.
Maybe he didn't taper for this, maybe him and his 'dumb mfer' coach thought it would be a good idea to run a tactical race and prepare for the Olympic trials 10,000m might be like. Maybe his kick suits him better in that race than it does in an NCAA 5000m finals vs some fast 1500m runners... Maybe Mike Smith and Nico Young aren't so dumb?
I don't think he was just training through this, but when I was watching it, my thought was that Nico probably wanted to try to win it with a kick, just to test out his speed and get used to racing differently if nothing else. He's run 1:47/3:34 and outkicked Sahlman this season, but he hasn't been able to really test his kick in a 5k in months.
My thought process was just that he and Smith must have known that he could drop a sub-4 last mile and drop everyone if he wanted to, so doing that again wouldn't really teach them anything new, or prepare him for any upcoming races. Leave it to a kick, and you get a new datapoint (ie slower than Parker Wolfe).
Something I read here years ago that stuck with me is once you've won an NCAA title, no one cares what you did in HS. Once you've made an Olympic team, no one cares how many NCAA titles you won. Once you've won a global medal, no one cares about how many teams you've made or how fast you are. If Nico makes the 10k team, everyone will forget about him coming 2nd here, and it'll only be brought up the next time someone wins the 3k/5k indoors and the LetsRun article previewing the outdoor 5k mentions Nico Young as an example of someone winning the 3k/5k and not winning the 5k outdoors.
Also, this was a great race for Parker Wolfe. Let's not discredit a great race from him. He was 2nd indoors, ran 13:13i back in December (probably ready to drop that by a decent bit), closed today in 1:52, and he's got another year of eligibility left.
Dumb MFer lost the race because he didn’t make it a 13:10 when he is about the only guy in the field capable of doing that and instead let in be a race in the 13:50s that closed in 1:52 when he has a terrible kick. Guy just chokes in championship races and will never win squat.
Maybe he didn't taper for this, maybe him and his 'dumb mfer' coach thought it would be a good idea to run a tactical race and prepare for the Olympic trials 10,000m might be like. Maybe his kick suits him better in that race than it does in an NCAA 5000m finals vs some fast 1500m runners... Maybe Mike Smith and Nico Young aren't so dumb?
My first thought was being pretty annoyed by Nico’s loss because I really like the guy. But my second thought was that Nico (and Colin) didn’t quite rest up for this competition because they’ve got bigger fish to fry at the Trials. Hope I’m right about that.
As to the race, Wolfe was great in that final lap. And Blanks? If he’s still coming back from injury (not injured, but behind in prep), I can’t blame him, and actually commend him, for taking his shot from further out. Not sure what would have worked better for him in that situation, long drive or short blast, but he did what he thought was necessary, and came darn close.
A few more thoughts about this race, now that I’ve slept on it and am feeling less emotional about it:
When Nico got third in this race two years ago behind two guys who were much older than him, I was one of the people thinking he would follow Galen Rupp’s footsteps and eventually win an outdoor title as a senior (in Rupp’s case, a fifth-year senior). It turns out Nico got denied victory as a senior by someone younger than him. Unexpected.
Credit to Parker Wolfe. He’s the real deal. Wolfe, Young, and Blanks give US distance running fans good reason to be excited about the future.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Nico does at the Olympic trials. When he lost in cross country last fall, he came back soon thereafter with that impressive 3K-5K double at BU followed by the 12:57. I hope he similarly comes back from this disappointment with a strong showing in a couple weeks.
I agree. Although Nico could come back and win an outdoor title as a 5th year senior next year (Rupp redshirted 2008 to make the Olympic 10k team, interesting parallel).
I imagine the Trials are a more important goal than NCAAs for Nico and Mike Smith right now, hence not running the 10k at NCAAs. I don't think Klecker will be running, which means there will only be 3 guys with the standard running it. I think I read that there aren't gonna be any 10k spots based on world rankings, so if he shows up, he'll probably make the team. Hopefully he's challenging for the win though.