The Greatest Arkansas Razorback Distance Runner Ever

I guess Joe Falcon and Rueben Reina were not American born.

itsTRU wrote:

SCOTTY MAC...2nd best American distance runner in the program. Only to Lincoln

Joe Falcon, Reuben Reina, Sennica Lasiter, Brian Baker are other americans "slightly" better than S. McPherson. No offense to him he is a great runner, but 2nd best american is a stretch. And I'm sure you could make an arguement for numerous others

Falcon

I'd say Falcon now that everyone has put forward their best bets.

The Bear

Frank O'Mara

Cragg was a fantastic college runner. His duel with Torres in the NCAA XC final (both were far ahead of the field) was one of the better XC races ever. And his dominance on the track was impressive.

But Falcon had simply had terrific leg speed - unusual in a distance runner. I go with the posters above - it just made him so difficult to beat.

Soda Bread wrote:

Frank O'Mara

Agreed. Falcon 2nd. Niall O'Shaughnessy 3rd.

I didn't include Alistair Cragg (fine times but DNF's way too much for my liking).

How say u?

Joe Falcon.

jason bunston

Joe Falcon, hands down. I saw him race time and time again in Fayetteville. I think it was a 3.35 over 1500m (?)on a cold and windy day there at U of A (go Hogs!). I once was walking the track at Missouri State in Springfield on an evening in late May 1990 with my wife. Falcon was out at the track doing sets of 200's, 300's, and 400's with what looked to be Abdi Bile (and another young Somalian looking fellow). I'm not sure why Bile would be in Springfield, but it sure lloked like the guy I had seen in Track and Field News! I literally will never forget what I saw. I thought I would time some of their intervals just because they looked like they were FLYING. I had the 200 in right at 22, the 300 at 37, and the 400 at 49. They took 200m jog between each of them. Then, after a lap jog, I had Falcon in 1.49 for 800m. The younger man lead them through the first lap, and Bile (?) stopped at around 600m. I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes. I'm pretty sure Falcon lived there in Springfield for a time because we used to see him every weekend on our longer runs (i.e. jogs) at Wilson's Creek Battlefield.

That was Joe. After he left Fayetteville he teamed up with his H.S. coach. They basically took that HUGE base that John had put in him over a 5-6 year period and honed and sharpened it with ridiculous amounts of speed work like the workout you mentioned. It is THE reason that Joe's career was later cut short with various lower leg injures, including a very bad achilles problem that just never went away. Now you know. Speed does kill...

Alistair never dropped out of a race while donning an Arkansas singlet.

Joe Falcon was mucho hot.

Was about to post the exact same thing.

Craggs DNFs as a professional have pretty much all had to do with serious injuries and while its frustrating to watch at times he has always bounced back and I think we have yet to see his best results.

Great post. May 1990? Right before he won the Bislett mile, and PR'd in July.

Maybe not the best, but worth being entered in the conversation - Paul Donovan

Phil Yoder

Eric Henry..end of discussion