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
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. 😮
I have several credible sources that back up this story. Just go on his tfrrs and compare pre and post 2020. Absolutely disgusting this behavior is allowed and goes unpunished. The truth of the matter is that there’s no way the NCAA will ever drug test XC/TF, I ran for 5 years running at several large meets and qualified for regionals in outdoor several times. I was never tested once in my career and I have doubts that no athletes are taking advantage of this oversight.
would you deem it fair for a 6th grader to race a 12 grader in XC? Hell no.
Development doesn’t really stop until 25 so unless biology has changed it’s not fair. Not just the drugs. Human biology and especially for men 23-27 is peak age for most distance events according to many studies. (MD skewing younger)
but there could also be ageism suits and that gets messy. No solution.
It isn't fair that 18 year olds have to compete against 20 year olds. It isn't fair that 20 year olds have to compete against 22 year olds. Maybe they should make 1 year age groups in the NCAA.
would you deem it fair for a 6th grader to race a 12 grader in XC? Hell no.
Development doesn’t really stop until 25 so unless biology has changed it’s not fair. Not just the drugs. Human biology and especially for men 23-27 is peak age for most distance events according to many studies. (MD skewing younger)
but there could also be ageism suits and that gets messy. No solution.
Name a 25+ year old who is dominating the NCAA right now. You never see Gary Martin or Rocky Hansen crying about overraged athletes. You either focus on what you can control (yourself) and be a competitor, or cry online in a LetsRun thread.
4 Kenyans. 1 South African. 3 Americans. Just cause they are black doesn’t make them Kenyans. People grow up in their environment and they are still people. They are someone’s children and your racism doesn’t help because maybe not all of them, but some see these posts. Half this half that is just bullsh*t
And guess what- they aren't the only ones. The NCAA cannot afford for times to go 'backwards'. If championships are won in consistently slower times than, say, the 70s and 80s, the sport loses its luster.
My guess is nothing will come from this. Suspensions will be served, the athletes may be sent away, scholarships could be taken etc but there will be zero official mention of EPO from the NCAA, the AIU, USADA or WADA
Who cares about times in the NCAA? Have you watched the 1500m?
I watched the 2024 Olympics.
The one three past NCAA 1500 champions Gold, Silver and Bronze and beat the mighty Jakob Ingebrigston and Hobbs Kessler...two athletes that didn't run in the NCAA.
And Sebastian Sawe has shown us the way forward. If you take 25 drug tests before your big race, I’m assuming your are clean. The WMM can easily clean up the very top by doing that for every race.
You're such a joke. Sebastian Sawe is obviously cheating, in a sport where EPO makes you exponentially better, everyone at the highest level is using it. How have you been reporting on this sport for decades and you still know absolutely nothing about how ineffective drug testing is?
I do find it baffling when coaches claim they had no idea. Coaching running is your livelihood, you're supposed to have an intricate knowledge of training and your athletes. If someone has an incredible jump beyond reasonable expectations, do you just pat yourself on the back and say that you're doing a helluva job with coaching and not question it?
I used to think the same as you. I remember talking to Steve Magness before the NOP stuff was public. Early in 2012. He had photos of Rupp being on testosterone medication in HS and lots of doubts but no proof it was violations. But I was like, "Don't you know? Wouldn't it be obvious? How do they look in practice"
And I remember saying, "You know how this ends if you don't prove it? With 2 Olympic medals around their neck."
But the thing I hadn't thought about is this. What if they've always been on drugs? If some Iowa State kids shows up on drugs, there is no jump in performance. If Rupp has always been getting testosterone from Salazar somehow - via massage - or the legal supplement they claim it was etc. There would be no big jump in performance.
While we don't know what happened at Iowa State, but I'll say thig I'm not willing to criticize the coaching staff yet. It's possible they should be praised for turning in rules violations.
I will say this - I think they need to be way more transparent moving forward. If this is doping and they called it a violation of team rules, that's a joke.
If they have reason to believe doping is going on the team, they need to contact WADA immediately. I believe the WADA code requires that. But then again, with the two other EPO NCAA cases I'm aware of, I don't think that ever happened.
But I think fans in the year 2025 have had enough. If there is a doping violation or suspected doping violation, I think they are obligated to call WADA.
What does any of that have to do with my post, which was purely factual? Here are where the guys in the top eight at Gans Creek are from, plus Clevenger. Masondo is South African, not Kenyan. Kipyego has a Kenyan parent. I am not commenting on whether any of these guys other than Clevenger were doping.
Joash Ruto, Nakuru, Kenya
Robin Kwemoi Bera, Kitale, Kenya
Sanele Masondo, Utrecht, SAMeshack Kimutai, Baringo, Kenya
I’ve been coming to this website for a while, and don’t recall ever hearing this story. 😮
I have several credible sources that back up this story. Just go on his tfrrs and compare pre and post 2020. Absolutely disgusting this behavior is allowed and goes unpunished. The truth of the matter is that there’s no way the NCAA will ever drug test XC/TF, I ran for 5 years running at several large meets and qualified for regionals in outdoor several times. I was never tested once in my career and I have doubts that no athletes are taking advantage of this oversight.
Ok. Let's assume this story is true.
Is it fair to rip the coaching staff?
In a day and age where employers won't confirm anything other than employment dates for a reference as they are fearful of a lawsuit, is it that surprising that they wouldn't go public with their doping suspicions?
Quietly suspending them and costing the team an NCAA title is kind of admirable, is it not? I mean he clearly didn't test positive for anything so they could have run a doped runner and won the title.
Everyone is too quick to criticize the coaches. It's possibley they deserve some praise. As long as they don't let the runner ever run anywhere else, I don't have too big of a problem with it.
If they have reason to believe doping is going on the team, they need to contact WADA immediately. I believe the WADA code requires that. But then again, with the two other EPO NCAA cases I'm aware of, I don't think that ever happened.
But I think fans in the year 2025 have had enough. If there is a doping violation or suspected doping violation, I think they are obligated to call WADA.
The reason that the coaches are not reporting this to WADA is that the NCAA refuses to join WADA and is not a signatory to it. The NCAA doesn't even recognize WADA bans on athletes unless it feels like it. The NCAA is as dirty as American football:
The NCAA too doesn’t adhere strictly to WADA’s rules, instead implementing its own anti-doping system. The NCAA has more than 480,000 athletes at any given time, making it one of the broadest sporting governing bodies in the world. While some of those athletes, like elite swimmers, overlap in USA Swimming or FINA competition where they are tested, the results of NCAA-issued doping tests are not necessarily reported to FINA. Further, suspensions issued on the basis of World Anti-Doping Code tests are not necessarily recognized by the NCAA. For example, Rutgers swimmer Liza Ryndych was suspended by the Russian Anti-Doping Association (RUSADA) for two years, dating back to June 2011, but that suspension does not impact her NCAA results.