Curtis Beach running the 800 at regionals!

The "A" standard for the 2012 Olympics is 8200. It isn't enough for him to have an outside shot at top 3. Curtis needs to put together an amazing meet to go 8200 AND finish top 3. Unlikely, but he certainly has a chance.

Right, here's a somewhat realistic way he could score 8200.

Event Mark Score

100m-10.83

899

Long Jump-7.45

922

Shot Put-12.15

616

High Jump-2.03

831

400m-46.85

966

110m Hurdles-14.55

905

Discus Throw-38.70

638

Pole Vault-4.85

865

Javelin Throw-49.00

574

1500m-3:55.90

984

Total Score:

8200

He would not beat Gonzalo at nats, beach is not going to be an elite level dec, talking Olympics here, because his throws sucks and jumps are decent. There's clay, hardee, eaton, Morrison, detmer, I'd even throw miller moss in the mix before beach. Distance runners, there's more to the dec than a great 1500, please realize that.

Detmer's throwing pr's aren't significantly better than Beach's. If Beach throws near pr's and is on in the other seven events, Detmer won't beat him. And I haven't seen anything on Morrison, so I don't know how you can say he'll definitely beat Beach unless you have some inside scoop on Morrison's training.

rojo:

I couldn't agree with you more. College track & field is slowly, but continually sliding into the depths of not having any meaning. And these decisions, while not easy, help push it further and further into oblivion. The highest honor I believe for a college athlete is competing for alma mater. Beach could have been NCAA Champion (maybe). That honor is something special but with the methodology of collegiate coaches these days they continue to lessen that honor. Being and Olympian IS a special circumstance, but earning and NCAA Championship for Duke would be something unique.

I couldn't agree more wrote:

rojo:

I couldn't agree with you more. College track & field is slowly, but continually sliding into the depths of not having any meaning. And these decisions, while not easy, help push it further and further into oblivion. The highest honor I believe for a college athlete is competing for alma mater. Beach could have been NCAA Champion (maybe). That honor is something special but with the methodology of collegiate coaches these days they continue to lessen that honor. Being and Olympian IS a special circumstance, but earning and NCAA Championship for Duke would be something unique.

Something so unbelievably unique that it's been a full 2 months since Beach did it last.

I couldn't agree more wrote:

rojo:

I couldn't agree with you more. College track & field is slowly, but continually sliding into the depths of not having any meaning. And these decisions, while not easy, help push it further and further into oblivion. The highest honor I believe for a college athlete is competing for alma mater. Beach could have been NCAA Champion (maybe). That honor is something special but with the methodology of collegiate coaches these days they continue to lessen that honor. Being and Olympian IS a special circumstance, but earning and NCAA Championship for Duke would be something unique.

I understand that Beach probably won't score any points in the 800 or long jump at NCAAs, but it's not as if he's redshirting, a la Rupp, to focus on the Olympics. He's still trying to qualify for NCAAs in two events. Give him a break.

Also, not that I think this is indicative of how he would finish at NCAAs in the decathlon, but he's only ranked 11th on the NCAA performance list, which obviously wouldn't garner him any points.

Are you serious??? Rupp preserved his eligibility when he focused on the Olympics in 2008. He took the whole season off. Beach competed outdoors and opted out of the NCAA Championships. That is nowhere near the same thing. Redshirting outdoors would have been far better for Duke. Can you imagine Pat Henry or Vin Lananna allowing this? No way.

And BTW, Beach scored 8084 last year at the 2011 NCAA Championships. Your "but he's only ranked 11th on the NCAA performance list" is a ridiculous statement.

sygdgd wrote:

And BTW, Beach scored 8084 last year at the 2011 NCAA Championships. Your "but he's only ranked 11th on the NCAA performance list" is a ridiculous statement.

Ok, his second best score is 7764. I'm not saying he shouldn't score much higher, but who knows in the dec. He can't have any bad events if he wants to score 8000+. Also, remember that he got to come back on the third day and run the 1500 in his 8084 performance.

sygdgd wrote:

Are you serious??? Rupp preserved his eligibility when he focused on the Olympics in 2008. He took the whole season off. Beach competed outdoors and opted out of the NCAA Championships. That is nowhere near the same thing. Redshirting outdoors would have been far better for Duke. Can you imagine Pat Henry or Vin Lananna allowing this? No way.

I see what you're saying, but Rupp not running the 5k/10k affected Oregon's placing at NCAAs in 2008 much more than I expect Beach not doing the dec will have on Duke's placing. Duke only has one male athlete ranked in the top 10 in his event this season, and that's not Beach. I doubt Duke cares too much whether it finishes 25th or 30th.

I'm, not sure what position you are taking on any of this. First you said you liked his decision because he has an outside shot of finishing top three at the Trials. Then you said he is ranked 11th in the NCAA and has little chance of scoring. Then you showed on paper how he can reach the Olympic A standard of 8200 pts. Then you said his 3:55 1500m pr was run on a 3rd day and unlikely to be replicated. Then you gave him a 3:55 1500m at the trials.

It looks like you think he has a better shot at finishing top 3 at the trials with an 8200+ score than you do in winning (or even scoring!) at the NCAA's. But that couldn't be... You don't think that, right?

sygdgd wrote:

I'm, not sure what position you are taking on any of this. First you said you liked his decision because he has an outside shot of finishing top three at the Trials. Then you said he is ranked 11th in the NCAA and has little chance of scoring. Then you showed on paper how he can reach the Olympic A standard of 8200 pts. Then you said his 3:55 1500m pr was run on a 3rd day and unlikely to be replicated. Then you gave him a 3:55 1500m at the trials.

It looks like you think he has a better shot at finishing top 3 at the trials with an 8200+ score than you do in winning (or even scoring!) at the NCAA's. But that couldn't be... You don't think that, right?

I know I'm seeming like I'm not making any sense, but by showing that Duke only has one realistic scoring chance at NCAAs, I was trying to show how Beach not competing wouldn't cause them to lose a national title or even a top 10 team finish.

The decathlon is unique from almost all the other track and field events, with the exception of maybe the 10k, in that athletes have competed multiple times all season long in their respective events so one can get a pretty good idea of how they'll compete at nationals. But with the decathlon and 10k, most athletes have competed once and some twice in those events, so it's harder to project how they might perform at nationals when they last competed in the event a month or more ago.

Decathlon scores can really fluctuate greatly even in just a short period of time. Though Beach was undoubtedly trying to peak for NCAAs in 2011 and not US Nationals, he competed at US Nats two weeks after his 8084 score at NCAAs and scored 7573.

Hope you can decipher my rambling comments.

26mi235 wrote:

rojo wrote:

Any multi experts out there? Does he really have any shot at the Olympics in the mutli unless one of the big 3 is hurt or no heights?

Clay has been spotty enough for the last several years that "unless" has a non-trivial probability in my mind. His advantage in the Hept (now that he hit 3 PRs in the PV) lies in the 1000; his relative gain from the 1500 will be smaller, I think, and his disadvantage in the throws will be tripled (DT/Jav).

Clay has no qualifying mark to the Olympic Trials. I feel certain he will petition but he has not completed a Decathlon within the qualifying window. He did compete in, I believe, 7 events at Drake Relays?

Decathlon has an extended qualifying window already because of the infrequency at which competitors do the full event, but I don't see any reason that he should be able to appeal his way into the trials.

How do you spell Defending Olympic Champion? Does that have one capital letter or two or three? Is that good for one free pass or two? It is not even a question if he will be at the trials, not a single question has been raised all year on that score.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Clay has no qualifying mark to the Olympic Trials. I feel certain he will petition but he has not completed a Decathlon within the qualifying window. He did compete in, I believe, 7 events at Drake Relays?

Decathlon has an extended qualifying window already because of the infrequency at which competitors do the full event, but I don't see any reason that he should be able to appeal his way into the trials.

Here is the official list, and now R. Obvious can admit he does not know what he is talking about and so you can ignore him if he does not recognize some of his many errors:

http://decathlonusa.typepad.com/files/volumexxxviinumber29may42012.pdf

If the US Olympic Trials started tomorrow this would be the 18 man field. Auto standard is 7900. Qualifying period began 1/1/11. Deadline is Sunday, June 17, 2012. ------ Bryan Clay unat as defending Olympic champ 8729 Ashton Eaton Ore e TC USA, Eugene, 6/23-24/11 8689 Trey Hardee Nike Hypo-Bank, Götzis 5/28-29/11 8118 Mike Morrison California NCAA I, Des Moines 6/8-9-10/11 8083 Curtis Beach Duke NCAA I, Des Moines 6/8-9-10/11 8067 Isaac Murphy Texas Texas R, Austin 3/28-29/12 8011 Ryan Harlan unat USA, Eugene 6/23-24/11 7996 Miller Moss Clemson NCAA I, Des Moines 6/8-9-10/11 7932 Wesley Bray unat Texas R, Austin 3/28-29/12 7914 Gray Horn Florida NCAA I, Des Moines 6/8-9-10/11 7910 Joe Detmer unat Walton, Columbia 5/17-18 7903 Michael Ayers Georgia NCAA I, Des Moines 6/8-9-10 /11 7862 Jack Szmanda Minnesota Big 10, Madison 5/11-12/12 7840 Chris Randolph Sketchers Sam Adams, S Barbara 4/2-3/12 7832 Dave Grzesiak Wisconsin Big 10, Madison 5/11-12/12 7802 Kevin Lazas Arkansas NCAA I, Des Moines 6/8-9-10/11 7793 Dakotah Keys Oregon Pac 12, Eugene 5/5-6/12 7750 Eric Broadbent HPC-e Mt Sac R, Azusa, 4/18-19/12

rojo wrote:

The world is focused on the Olympics. I'm just saying it kind of sucks.

To begin with, I don't think that track and field is in a position to complain about any attention it gets.

Also-- think of it this way:

-Mr. Beach is a winner if he makes the Olympic team.

-Duke is a winner if he makes the Olympic team.

-The U.S. of motha-f__in' A is a winner if he makes the Olympic team. We get to send the strongest team to the Olympics.

Even the NCAA-- who arguably gets hurt because one of their favorites doesn't get to compete at a media-invisible meet that will have a fewer attendees over four days than most individual Big 10 football games-- benefits when one their "scholar athletes" makes the Olympic team.

Yes-- this all depends on him making the dang team. It is not a guaranteed win, but kudos to Mr. Beach and Duke for putting the meat on the table and taking that chance.

This is the equivalent of running up front.

Beach just qualified for NCAAs in the LJ. 9th place-7.60m-24'11 1/4".

The 800 starts in 3.5 hours.