David McNeil - making a statement

Too bad fernandez will outkick him.

First let me get a few things out of the way. 1) I believe that McNeil is a great runner and is doing some pretty impressive stuff. 2) He definitely comes across as a great guy and not at all full of himself in the interviews that I have seen. 3) I wish McNeil all the luck in the world. and 4) I have nothing negative whatsoever to say about McNeil.That said, let us look at your recent post:

making a statement in flagstaf wrote:" ...Its funny you simple (sic) try to give a runner some credit for running great, being a good person and there is someone that always wants to take away from that person... Shoot maybe it was better that nobody posted about Mr. McNeil if some people only want to find ways to talk bad about him..."

Take a look back at the comments on this thread. Folks are not talking bad about McNeil. Indeed, the "negative" comments that you see are simply trying to answer YOUR question:

making a statement in flagstaf wrote:

...It seems that he is undervalued a little... What gives?...

With the exception of the ever present trolls, nobody is saying McNeil sucks... People are simply trying to answer your question "What gives?" And what gives is that Derrick gets more attention here for the two reasons already stated:

1) He is significantly younger. Most people probably believe that in four years (when he is the same age as McNeil is now) Derrick will be running times considerably faster than the ones McNeil is posting.

2) Derrick is an American. McNeil is not. This site being primarily followed by Americans it is fairly natural that an American kid will generate more excitement than a non-American.

So, please do not give us this nonsense about people talking bad about him. And if you don't want people to answer your question, "What gives?" then don't ask it.

Thank you.

I appreciate your thoughts.... I agree with what some of what you are saying.... What I said is not nonsense as the posts about his age had negative cogitations to it. I used a question to make a statement, wasn't really looking for an answer.. So I will correct myself, David McNeil is runner great, he should not be undervalued, its time we give this guy more POSITIVE attention... All the negative stuff on this site I thought it appropriate to high light a runner that is performing great and is a good guy...

The comments about his age are for the purpose of putting is marks in context, which is relevant and not negative in itself. The negativity can arise from the manner that it brought up and the inferences made because of them.

As for Derrick, a number of people are familiar with/have followed him for a number of years with more interest than for McNeil.

As for Derrick being better than McNeil when he attains David's current age, that is speculation that might or might not turn out to be correct, and until he does catch up, McNeil's marks are facts which trump speculation.

McNeil will be 24 yo at NCAA outdoors, absurdly old for a college senior.Perhaps the same age as seniors at NAU and BYU, but o/w laughable.

[quote]wtf. wrote:

McNeil will be 24 yo at NCAA outdoors, absurdly old for a college senior.

Perhaps the same age as seniors at NAU and BYU, but o/w laughable.

http://www.nauathletics.com/sports/xc/2009-10/bios/mcneill

Date of Birth October 6, 1986 (23 years old)

Normal age for a fifth year senior anywhere, and will still be 23 and NCAA outdoors.

wtf. wrote:

McNeil will be 24 yo at NCAA outdoors, absurdly old for a college senior.

No, absurdly old would be like 80. 24 is just a little old.

I think he had a teammmate, Marten Bostrom, who was 27...so by NAU terms he is a little on the young side.

if you enter your freshman year at 18 with an early birthday youll be 19 your freshman year, 20 as a soph, 21 as a junior and 22 as a senior. with 1 year for red shirting that would put you at 23 for a 5th year senior...thats not so uncommon. he is just as old as he should be. he would only be about 6 months older than anyone else thats 23 not a whole year older. he is a strong runner with tons of talent, its a shame people cant climb off of the german band wagon for a bit and agree that someone else has talent....

what is 14:17 5k... AT 7000 ft equal to at sea level???

It's his name. That name, David McNeil sounds like a 14:20 guy from the midwest DII school you would never pay attention to. He should change his name.

Is this statement going to be like Tiger's statement? Or can we ask questions after?

kamrun wrote:

what is 14:17 5k... AT 7000 ft equal to at sea level???

NCAA says 13:39, so "fastest" college time so far this year.

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props to David wrote:

This guy is doing incredible things and flying under the radar, but that's ok, I think David is the kind of person that would rather do without all the hype and attention.

Go David, we appreciate your talent and hard work.

With that said, nothing more needs to be said.

90% of the posts on this site are negative. I used to love the running community due to the fact that we runners were a rare breed, who understood the fact that we did something special that mainstream America did not understand. This is still true today. But many posters on Let's Run don't get it. I'm "old school," so perhaps I'm the one who doesn't get it.

In the meantime, GO DAVID!

Rolo Tony wrote:

Stevie Wonder wrote:

It's because we're all racists on this board. If he was a white guy, we'd be hoisting him onto our--...wait, he IS white? So we're not ignoring him because he's black? What's Uncle Black or Nat going to say about this?

That was a stretch, Stevie.

They MAY possibly say "how do you manage to bring race into a thread about David McNeil?"

old school is good then, because you get it.... I'm glad that there are still a bunch of people that appreciate good runners.... Shoot I wish I could go to NCAA indoors to see Mr. McNeil compete against Chris Derrick, Sam Chelanga, Lee Emanue, any of the great runners from orgeon or any other of the great runners in the NCAA right now... I was looking at how many folks have run under 4 min it is simply amazing. In the race McNeil went 7:47 there were so many others under 8:00 minutes it was crazy.... It has been a great time in distance running....

if he runs a world class time as an elite after graduation, you will see a lot more about him. who here even knows his story? we all knew about derrick and fernandez when they were in hs.

Well, that guy keeps doing it big time.... 2nd outdoor 5k, 2nd cross, and now he is the national champion indoors 5k.... He made that run look easy... Oh and back to my original point about being under appreciated... The announcer keep calling McNeil the wrong name during the first portion of the race. At the national championships and the announcer didn't know who he was for the first few laps.... Dude keeps on rolling though...

speaking of great runners.... shoot I would love to know what Andrew Wheating's split was on that mile he just ran on the DMR... the NCAA has some incredible runners....