Oregons Trujillo Wins Pac-10 10K!!!

Blind Man wrote:

How about a water color illustration?

And this one's called "As close as you can get to Bailey's without your eyes getting wet"

1 Alcorn, Kyle SR Arizona State 14:12.76 10

2 Mercado, Diego FR Oregon 14:17.82 8

3 Ghebray, Yosef JR California 14:19.85 6

4 Trujillo, Carlos SR Oregon 14:21.78 5

5 Acosta, A.J. SO Oregon 14:25.35 4

6 Klotz, Kenny SO Oregon 14:26.15 3

7 Heath, Garrett SR Stanford 14:30.23 2

8 Wall, Scott JR Oregon 14:30.62 1

9 Engelhardt, Ben FR Arizona State 14:31.55

10 Sullivan, John FR Stanford 14:33.10

11 Gregg, Brendan FR Stanford 14:33.50

12 Ramos, Austin SR UCLA 14:35.16

13 Riley, Jake FR Stanford 14:35.75

14 Kiptoo-Biwott, Shadrack JR Oregon 14:35.93

15 Smargiassi, Dominic SO Wash. St. 14:38.57

16 Mercado, Danny FR Oregon 14:39.24

17 Shackleton, Kyle SR UCLA 14:40.92

18 Araia, Neftalem SR Stanford 14:42.21

19 Heath, Elliott FR Stanford 14:43.04

20 Matusak, Mark JR California 14:43.31

21 Helmer, Jeff FR Arizona State 14:44.13

22 Milloy, Patrick FR Arizona State 14:46.22

23 Spady, Kelly SO Washington 14:54.91

24 Chavez, Chris SR California 14:55.84

25 Swarthout, Jordan FR Washington 14:58.33

26 Hall, Chad FR Oregon 14:59.29

27 Contreras, Alonso JR Arizona State 15:13.58

-- Gelagle, Mikias FR Arizona State DNF

-- Heller, Joey JR Arizona State DNF

-- Williams, Chris SR Wash. St. DNS

-- Booker, Riley SO Washington DNS

-- Geib, Daniel SO Wash. St. DNS

-- Grant, Alex SR Wash. St. DNS

-- Wilson, James JR Washington DNS

-- Schmitt, Jake JR Washington DNS

-- Devries, Hakon SR Stanford DNS

-- Torrence, David SR California DNS

-- Mix, Hari SR Stanford DNS

-- Mehlhorn, David JR Arizona State DNS

-- Karlsson, Kari FR California DNS

-- Knight, Dylan FR UCLA DNS

-- Hagenbuch, Henry SO UCLA DNS

-- Knight, Spencer FR UCLA DNS

-- Barnes, Laef JR UCLA DNS

-- Crabill, Alex SO UCLA DNS

Way to represent Idaho...yay Trujillo!!!

Yes, Oregon thanks Idaho for lending us this remarkable young man, as well as his twin brother, Estaban, who is a good runner on his own merits. Neither of these young men are on track scholarship.

Thank you also to the State of Illinois for loaning us their own outstanding young men in twins, Eric and Matt Dettman.

And finally, thank you State of California for Danny and Diego Mercado, great young men with outstanding attitude and work ethic.

With all due respect, Danny Mercado has not had a very good season.

This is a great story. Yes, never give up on a guy, Dan Nelson being a great example. Idaho traditionally has had slow state meet times, Oregon obviously being faster in the preps.

But the state of Oregon has been the recipient of some good Idaho runners over the years, including Nick Symmonds (Willamette), the Trujillo brothers at Oregon, Rick Bergesen from Boise (a sub-4:00 guy at UO).

A lot of under-developed guys in Idaho. My guess is some other small population states have a similar situation with the preps.

I remember seeing a race between the Trujillo's and Nick Symmonds held at boise state university in their high school years, i think it was called the Outback meet. nick was a senior and the twins were juniors i believe, but i did not imagine that they would become such great athletes.

As for Danny not having a good season...29:04 is pretty respectable

I'm not quite sure where you are coming from because Danny had a terrific year. He was competing as a Redshirt Freshman and finished 6th in the 10K at the Pac 10 championships. During the Cross Country season, Danny was typically the #4 runner on the National Championship team. His season was excellent for a first year collegiate competitor.

Good story here:

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/sportslink/archive.asp?postID=7751

First off, so I can maybe limit the amount I get attacked for this statement, the kid is a good story, and has had an excellent season. 13:55 or so is much more than anyone would have expected from him coming out of high school. And, the Oregon guys really got the job done at conference, ...... BUT

Anyone else notice how absolutely terrible the Pac 10 is this year as far as individual athletes on the distance side goes. The 5k and 10k were the softest such fields I've ever seen, (in my admitted limited history). But wasn't it just a few years ago where the top four or five guys at the Pac 10 meet all went on to place top 8 at the NCAA meet? There is no way that will be the case this year. There are only two legitimate stars outside of the mile are Alcorn and Nef, and Nef is hurt.

So, congrats on a great title, but it's not like you beat Robert Cheseret, Louie Luchini, John Riley, Ian Dobson, Ryan Hall, Galen Rupp, a Hauser brother, or any of the other NCAA champs and runner ups that have dominated the conference over the last few years.

letsbehonest wrote:

Anyone else notice how absolutely terrible the Pac 10 is this year as far as individual athletes on the distance side goes. The 5k and 10k were the softest such fields I've ever seen, (in my admitted limited history). But wasn't it just a few years ago where the top four or five guys at the Pac 10 meet all went on to place top 8 at the NCAA meet? There is no way that will be the case this year.

Maybe we could ... I don't know ... wait until after the NCAA meet to decree how these kids will do at the NCAA meet?

Yes, and Cheseret, Luchini, Riley, Dobson, Hall, Rupp, and others would've gotten nearly lapped by Henry Rono, Chapa, McChesney, etc. It's all relative. Let's see if your boys Dobson, Luchini and Co. could even run a lap with Rono and the Kenyans or Chapa, McChesney, and the Oregon boys from the 80's.

The answer is no, but that doesn't make their accomplishments any less.

Northwest Run wrote:

Yes, and Cheseret, Luchini, Riley, Dobson, Hall, Rupp, and others would've gotten nearly lapped by Henry Rono, Chapa, McChesney, etc. It's all relative. Let's see if your boys Dobson, Luchini and Co. could even run a lap with Rono and the Kenyans or Chapa, McChesney, and the Oregon boys from the 80's.

The answer is no, but that doesn't make their accomplishments any less.

I don't know about all that. McChesney ran 13:14, Dobson and Hall ran 13:15 and 13:16, i'd say they could have run with him, and I'm pretty sure Cheseret ran 13:12 or so. Rono is the only runner you listed who was clearly better than any of the guys I listed, nearly lapped? Didn't Rupp set the national collegiate 10k record? You're an idiot have been banned from this discussion.

If anything all you did was add to my argument and show that the pac 10 is weaker than it's been since at least the 80's, probably the 70's. Trujillo couldn't have scored in the 5k 5 years ago. That's all I'm saying, guys who can't run under 29:00 don't have any place in the top five of the conference meet, let alone being champ.

So what your saying is, don't even bother hosting a pac-10 championship race unless rono or salazar or prefontaine (or someone who can run international class times) is in the race. In the case of the Hausers from Stanford, they went on to be part of a 1-2-3 sweep at the NCAA 10k. But since none of them were running world class times, they probably shouldn't have hosted pac-10's or ncaa's for the 10K that year right?

Come on, the truth is that it is an exception when your conference champ is already world class and most years they are not. Trujillo was one of the top runners at the oregon cross country invite last year where he mopped up handfulls of all americans. He layed the hammer down on some more in the 10K at pac-10's. It's obvious he's no Rono, but who else has been?

Pac-10's usually slow, throw in Arizona heat and it turns into a race of who can hold on best. He did. Maybe you got 5th in a year that was tougher and you feel you could have won if it was this year. But being able to run faster and being able to win in a championship are not the same thing. He put it together and won, and that is huge.

I would wait until the season is over before you try to say how weak the fields are.

Carlos must be thrilled to be conference champion. Nobody is saying he is the next Prefontaine or Rono or Rupp. He is a kid that has worked hard over the years and has earned something that is very meaningful to him and meaningful to his school. The Eugene community is very proud of him. That is the beauty of racing---on any given day, you could be the one that comes out on top.

Can't we all just be supportive for once. He is an incredibly humble kid. He doesn\'t claim to be the next Prefontaine. Like the above poster says, lets just let the season speak for itself.

I never said they shouldn't run, I even congratulated him and the oregon runners on a good performance. I'm just also saying that it's a really down year in the pac 10, that's all.

I knew no one would notice the first part of my statement, but I wrote it anyway, just so I could reference it later. And we won't have to wait for the NCAA meet to see how Trujillo does, he isn't getting in. What's his 10k pr? I suppose he's got a shot in the 5k through the regional format, but 13:55 wouldn't get in on it's own merits, he'll have to run well again at regionals. Anyway, go ahead and keep attacking things I never said.

Did Dobson or Hall run their sub-13:20's while at Stanford? WSU also had 10K WR holder Samson Kimwoumbwa.

Dobson did run his 13:15 at Stanford, impressive. Winning the Pac-10 is tough, no matter what year. I think it's a good story that he won the conference meet.