Mantz is fun to watch. Here’s an American made star that takes an aggressive style of racing to the best in the NCAA - both American and foreign. He abides by every rule. We should be cheering this guy on.
My freshman year, I raced a 24 year old Bernard Legat in the NCAA 1500 final when I was 18, but I didn’t start a letsrun rant on anything being unfair. I would have been upset if somehow he had broken a rule or something outside the guidelines, but he didn’t.
Sure, it would be nice if there was one less guy ahead of me or it would be nice if the whole field was comprised of 18 year olds so it was totally fair FOR ME. People cry about age as if it’s some huge injustice to all competitors.
Nothing will be totally fair until every aspect of sport is equally controlled; age, school funding, nutrition/personal trainers, rehab equipment, how many foreigners you have on your team, and on and on and on. Show me a team that’s had some success and I’ll show you a team that had an advantage in some way. On the other side, there are teams every year that outperform other teams with those advantages and that’s why the race is run.
High school athletics, with varying ages and maturity is even more unfair when you consider us late summer born kids that had to compete against the autumn birthday kids, or some kid who’s parent held them back for reasons they determined. If you wined about this injustice, you already conceded defeat. If you put your head down and trained and controlled what you could control, the outcome was always better.
I competed against older kids all through high school and it only made me better. Self improvement is something all runners can appreciate and enjoy, no matter which side of the debate you are on.
After my mission and being a 24 year old senior, I got beat by a 19 year old Freshman Manzano. I never heard him complain - he went out and took care of business (and me). Ha!
Had I not gone on my mission, maybe I’m sprinting down the last 100 meters of the 1500 as a 22 yr old senior against Grant Robison or Don Sage and not a 19 year old future silver medalist. Maybe in all scenarios I still end up 2nd. Who knows (and who cares)! It was an NCAA final and the gun goes off and the race was on.
I’ve been on both sides of the age debate. At the end of the day you train hard, play by the rules and don’t cry about it. The NCAA doesn’t have age-graded competition. They set the criteria and if you meet it, you’re in - it’s an open field.
Mantz is legit, fit, tough, humble and yes, 24. If this upsets you, train harder so you can beat him. That’s what runners do. Don’t come up with an excuse.