10/15/2025 - This thread started well before anything was confirmed by Iowa State.
A volunteer moderator deleted several threads on this topic. That's not the way this should work. We believe in free expression and have reinstated them and merged them into this one thread.
As we wrote at the time, "If there is no truth to these rumors, please contact us at letsrun@letsrun.com or give us a call at 844-538-7786 and we will be happy to delete them and issue a statement."
It ends up appearing that the rumors had some teeth to them. Earlier today LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson emailed head coach Jeremy Sudbury to let him know about this thread and asked if there was any truth to it.
At 3:31 pm ET, coach Sudbury emailed me the following:
Hello Robert, Thank you for reaching out directly. There were team rule violations. I have worked with our administration, and the involved athletes have been suspended and will not compete the remainder of this season. Have a nice rest of your weekend. Jeremy
I'm also hearing he gave up 4-5 guys' names on the team also on a substance. Sounds like he got caught by Sudz and decided to bring down the whole ship. Doesn't sound like it was program sponsored but the guys on the team were definitely working together without the staff knowing. Not sure who the other names are but I'm sure we'll know soon.
That's not true at all. You dorks always blame the coach and every family member and friend within 3000 miles when an athlete is busted. Athletes are never able to keep secrets from this coaches. This doesn't pass the sniff test.
There needs to be an age limit. No one competes beyond 24. That is 6 years beyond HS.
Jesus Christ. Do any of you idiots realize an age limit is not going to change or fix anything?
Putting an age limit on NCAA is like putting an age limit on attending college. Next thing you know, if they were to actually follow through with that, NCAA would get sued for age discrimination and that is a multi million dollar lawsuit they will lose effectively ending college sports.
You also can’t just put this “age limit” on XC specifically unless you want to put it on every other sport.
The issue is not age. It’s too much leniency on drug tests. Remember that Indian dude from Florida a year ago? Only reason he was caught was because he was tested by the anti doping agency in India. NCAA didn’t even have anything to do with it. All they do is turn a blind eye. Every single time.
I am yet to see a single reliable source for doping. Also the one people say it is was out last season and had similar prs to the #6 runner. The school sponsored random tests also look for alcohol and substance abuse, since many runners are still underage. We had a teammate suspended for a season because of smoking weed and having it pop up on the test.
Reminds me of the OSU/Shea Foster case from a few years back when he was pulled out of NCAA XC nationals the day before there home meet where they lost to NAU. It was cited as 'violating team rules'.
Some of the athletes on the team had found needles in his bag (he'd been taking EPO hence his massive jump in performance- one of the biggest I've seen). When they reported it to coach Smith he threatened to kick them all off the team if they said anything to anyone about it. He didn't want to report it so pulled Shea from the race the day before. Shae went and ripped a 10k time trial on the course on race morning. Time would've put him 45th in the race had he run.
Then last year he qualified for the Paralympics. Was making a huge song and dance about it on Instagram, received all the gear, did all the media shoots and then suddenly went quiet and didn't complete, never mentioned anything. I'm guessing they found out about his doping, (although that is a complete guess).
Oh sh*t, this explains why his series on New Gen's youtube channel suddenly stopped after four episodes.
Maybe this message board. Every damn thread seems to be accusing this person or that person of using drugs, from Olympic champions to high school kids. "Every elite dopes" is a common phrase. Any improvement is the result of drugs, every victory is questioned. Entire teams are accused because one person tests positive. All runners with particular coaches are doping. Your parent was busted for drugs 25 years ago? Yep, that makes you a doper. Break a high school record? Doper. Run faster than a certain time? Doper. Live in a certain country? Doper. Attend a particular university? Doper.
When a young runner comes to this board and sees all the top HS runners being accused of doping, most collegiates being accused, and ALL of the professionals, what does this tell the young runner? You must use drugs to succeed because every successful runner is using them.
The owners try to say that all of the drug talk here somehow makes the sport cleaner. It does not. If anything, it reinforces the idea that the only way to win is to cheat. I understand some drug talk is good and some even necessary, but it has completely overwhelmed this board.
"What environment suggests that a SA needs to dope?" you ask. The very one you are reading right now.
As someone who ran for the program I can tell you for sure that they could give a crap about what people are writing online.
Some things that the coaches do that would influence someone to take things and fall into the win at all cost and any measure philosophy is this.
Coaches going into SA houses to check for junk food.
Weighing athletes and giving them specific targets to hit
Paying for altitude tents for athletes to have at home and encouraging as much time in there as you can get.
Playing mind games and making athletes do things only to test their commitment (4am practice)
Punishing the entire team for the mistakes of one athlete. (Someone forgot their workout flats and practice was canceled)
Telling athletes you better get the F-ing job done or I’ll fine someone who can.
Nothing listed is specifically illegal to do but for student athletes it creates a do or die situation where maybe your best isn’t good enough. And if your best isn’t good enough and failure isn’t an option what else is there to do?
Separate from whoever may have been doping (or not), this is classic Martin Smith BS. Oregon was this way when he was there. Creates a terrible culture.
Reminds me of the OSU/Shea Foster case from a few years back when he was pulled out of NCAA XC nationals the day before there home meet where they lost to NAU. It was cited as 'violating team rules'.
Some of the athletes on the team had found needles in his bag (he'd been taking EPO hence his massive jump in performance- one of the biggest I've seen). When they reported it to coach Smith he threatened to kick them all off the team if they said anything to anyone about it. He didn't want to report it so pulled Shea from the race the day before. Shae went and ripped a 10k time trial on the course on race morning. Time would've put him 45th in the race had he run.
I’ve been coming to this website for a while, and don’t recall ever hearing this story. 😮
So the Americans are doping to keep up with the Kenyans in the long run, then racist dimwits ignore that and blame it on the Africans? You can only get this from weak white distance boys! Manly sprinters don’t have time to hate on foreigners.