Random fact of day - Lee Emanuel was 25 when he won his 2nd NCAA title in 2010 - List of Oldest/Youngest NCAA Champs

LetsRun.com · 2014-02-12T15:41:33-05:00

We are working on tomorrow's homepage (which once again will be delivered for the amazing price of zero) and came across on Lee Emanuel's preparations for World Indoors. In it, it referred to him being 29 and we were like, "Is that possible? Didn't he just win a NCAA track and field title a few years ago?" We've looked it up. His DOB is 24 January 85 so when he won NCAAs in 2010 he was 25. We know many like to rip on BYU for having old guys, but how about we start a list of oldest and youngest NCAA champions? It seems BYU may deserve more sympathy than many thought. We'll start with Emanuel. Actually, we just realized today is Henry Rono's birthday and in realizing that we looked up how old he was in his prime. Rono was 26 when he set 4 world records in 1978 in the span of 81 days as a collegian: Oldest NCAA Champs we can think of off the top of our head (add in yours) 1. Henry Rono (UTEP) - 26 and 3 months. 1978 NCAA steeple. 2. Lee Emanuel (NM) 25 and 1 month. 2010 NCAA mile. 3. Josh Rohatinsky (BYU) 24 and 8 months. 2006 NCAA XC. Youngest NCAA champs off the top of our head 1. German Fernandez (Ok state) - German was just 18 and 7 months when he won the 1500 in 2009. Please help us out.

jimjamesrunner wrote:
Why do we not have even more fast runners? Because our culture tells us that if we haven't run a certain time by a certain age, we'll never break 4 minutes for the mile etc... If people would stop putting so much emphasis on age, I think you would see a transformation in the running culture of the U.S. .

Dude, please do yourself a favor and go out and by Sports Gene by David Epstein.

deja vu wrote:
NCAA age limits were discussed here:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1000899
If I understand correctly, the final word there appears to be the post of compliance chick, which essentially says that as long as you don't compete between your 21st birthday and when you enroll in college, you are not limited by your age. This rule effectively puts 26 as the oldest age you will tend to see, but in principle someone could only start competitively running at age 25 and be competing in D1 at the age of 30 (or ages 75 and 80, respectively, for that matter!).

The NCAA has changed the rule since then.

If at the HS gradudation, you don't go to college, your clock starts ticking one year after HS graduation. So pretty much the oldest anyone could be is six years out of college unless they are Mormon/Military as explained here on page 147:

http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/D114.pdf

rojo wrote:
jimjamesrunner wrote:
Why do we not have even more fast runners? Because our culture tells us that if we haven't run a certain time by a certain age, we'll never break 4 minutes for the mile etc... If people would stop putting so much emphasis on age, I think you would see a transformation in the running culture of the U.S. .
Dude, please do yourself a favor and go out and by Sports Gene by David Epstein.
I can see why this was misconstrued. I was referencing those runners that had showed talent but had not had time to fully develop it. There are many life factors that determine whether or not an athlete reaches the pinnacle of their sport. I'm simply saying that there are several 4:10 or better milers (or relative to whatever event) coming out of college that could surely break 4 if the pieces fell over those next few years. I feel like this opportunity is hardly ever taken because people feel that their career is done once they're out of college if they have not at least run a certain time (usually 4:05 or better). I thought as the brother of Weldon (a person who is an example of exactly what I'm advocating) you would understand.
deja vu wrote:
NCAA age limits were discussed here:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1000899
If I understand correctly, the final word there appears to be the post of compliance chick, which essentially says that as long as you don't compete between your 21st birthday and when you enroll in college, you are not limited by your age. This rule effectively puts 26 as the oldest age you will tend to see, but in principle someone could only start competitively running at age 25 and be competing in D1 at the age of 30 (or ages 75 and 80, respectively, for that matter!).
The NCAA has changed the rule since then.
If at the HS gradudation, you don't go to college, your clock starts ticking one year after HS graduation. So pretty much the oldest anyone could be is six years out of college unless they are Mormon/Military as explained here on page 147:
http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/D114.pdf

The oldest anyone could be according to documents. Documents can (and are many times) fabricated. The NCAA is basically run on the honor system. Look at what happened at programs like Miami (football). There's no way that a governing body the size of the NCAA could truly keep up with what is going on at each university. And if you think that Africans don't fabricate documents, then you are truly mistaken. It IS a different culture. They're trying to gain an education and a better life. They could care less about those limitations such as age that we impose on our own culture. I am in complete support of Africans or whoever doing this, but I'm growing tired of people believing that 24 or older Africans claiming to be "17 or 18" are some sort of prodigies.

Random fact of day - Lee Emanuel was 25 when he won his 2nd NCAA title in 2010 - List of Oldest/Youngest NCAA Champs

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