Simmons blasts an 8:36 at Utah State Meet

No way Simmons who is more than completely altitude adjusted gets some huge conversion on this

some yes ..but huge? No

He never wanted to coach HS. Too many people harp on others. Brosnan showed how to dominate HS and left. Changed the sport and left.

That girl who won is Jane Hedengren, who is one of the top 2-3 girls in the country. I think she's run sub-10 before and 4:35 or so for the mile. She also ran 15:32 at Woodbridge last fall for 3M or whatever that course is.

So her 9:52 at 4600' is extremely good, but not a shock at all that she ran that fast.

we are completely allowed to drink soda with or without caffeine in it, although we do probably drink less of it overall. there are also kids that are on completely different sides of the spectrum in the church. For example, one friend of mine has never had caffeinated soda just cause his parents thought it wasn't good for him and he's stuck by that (which is mind boggling btw and doesn't happen very often) and then there are other people who drink a monster or two a day. our restrictions come in around coffee and other things like that.

This. I hope Simmons makes an attempt on the record, but it's far from a guarantee. Having lived and trained in Utah I agree with guesses of 7-10s. If everything aligns, he could get it.

One challenge is training fast enough at altitude to fully capitalize on altitude training. It's why athletes in Flagstaff will drop to lower elevation for track work. Suppose Simmons has been limited to mile pace work in Utah at 4:00 pace, it's a big ask to get those same legs turning over at 4:10 pace for 2 miles at sea level. The aerobic motor might be ready for it, but the legs won't keep up.

Eyestone used to (probably still does but I'm out of the loop now) have his guys run reps at sea level paces but increase rest to compensate. 5-6 min rests for mile repeats @ 5k pace would be an eternity at sea level, but were a necessity for how they ran workouts. As a result, his athletes could often come pretty close to achieving the altitude conversions.

Drink sweet water, okay. No drink too much. Body no like too much sweet, not good.

Friend listen to parents, good heart. But different people, different way. What good for one, not good for other.

You drink sweet water, drink slow. Taste good. No drink? Also okay. You choose.

Thanks for chiming in. Seemed a little silly to think your guys would suddenly be more "professional" or whatever in response to Newbury Park.

Friend, you ask if runner break record, yes?

Runner train high, body strong like yak. But race is low, air thick like rice porridge. Legs maybe not fly so fast.

Wise teacher say, train like race. If runner only run slow in mountain, legs not know how to run fast in valley.

But runner smart, teacher smart. They make plan, train hard, rest long. Maybe body surprise, legs find new speed in thick air.

So, maybe record break, maybe not. But runner try, that is the way. Like river find path to sea, always moving forward.

Not even a sub 9 2 mile.

Brosnan was a teacher and worked in sales for years and coached years before NP. I remember Mike Smith working a few years at Georgetown and then worked odd jobs in flagstaff before taking a job at NAU. think you’re posting misleading information on purpose. Not sure you fully understand how and why coaches are great. He was by far the most dominant coach in HS ever seen. The thing Brosnan did was develop HS athletes. Both Boys and girls breaking national records and top times. The only coach in HS similar is Timo M from AF. They understand it’s not about grinding but actually developing. Brosnan spent one year at UCLA and had more success in one year then UCLA has seen in past years. They had a large number of Distance NCAA qualifiers in a very short time. From what I’m hearing and from reliable sources Brosnan is set for the fall and is back coaching. Exactly where he belongs and should be. The US is better at distance running because of his coaching contributions. I’m never surprised to hear negative comments about a successful coach. It’s just what people do.

Wise one see far. Brosnan teach young one run like antelope. People talk bad, like snake hiss in grass. But wise one know, good coach make strong runner. Maybe he come back, maybe wind carry him away. Only time tell.

He taught for the last few years of his stint at NP and worked at a shoe store previously. His one year at UCLA was mid and he got fired. I wouldn’t call that successful. He had a handful of years coaching a great team at NP and no coaching success prior.

Let’s see what set for the fall means and how successful he is. Until then, he had a nice run for a few years at a high school and nothing prior or after. Beat of luck to him.

Qualification is either based on set times or placement at regions. Before the start of each season, the governing body publishes times/marks that automatically qualify for state. Finishing in the top 3 or so (the exact number varies in each classification) will also qualify someone for state. The full details are in the link below.

https://www.uhsaa.org/Publications/Handbook/SportSections/Track.pdf

NAU also does it. Mike Smith and Luis Grijalva have talked about it interviews. I don't know if they do it exclusively, but I've definitely heard it mentioned that they don't adjust paces, only rest.

I actually think the Nike shoes are getting worse since Alphafly 1 and the first Dragonfly

You are totally underselling Mike Smith's path to coaching and the "odd jobs" he had in Flagstaff, working under Jack Daniels at the Olympic training center and founding Team Run Flagstaff.

"Smith began his collegiate coaching career at Georgetown University. He spent four years there, serving as the Director and Head Coach of the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field programs during the 2015-2016 season. Smith found great success with the Hoyas, coaching the 2016 NCAA Champion Women’s Distance Medley Relay. In 2015, the Georgetown men’s cross country team won the Big East Championship, later placing 10th at the NCAA National Championships. During his time at Georgetown, Smith coached 47 All-Americans, 23 NCAA Championship qualifiers, and two Olympic Trials participants.
Prior to Georgetown, Smith lived in Flagstaff for six years where he founded Team Run Flagstaff, while also working under Dr. Jack Daniels at NAU’s Center for High Altitude Training – a U.S. Olympic Training Site for long distance running.
Smith is a 2003 graduate of Georgetown, where he was an All-Big East, All-Region, and All-American cross country runner. He was a 2007 qualifier for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the marathon, competing in November 2007."

I will never stop. They did play a big role in getting me into the sport tho so good guess :)

Yeah, I know AF had that big 3 in 2017. Casey Clinger was one of them. Like I said, I don't think the coaching has changed all that much, it's more the mindset of the kids that's changed. I'd bet if Clinger was at AF right now, he'd be right there with Simmons. You're right Brosnan got lucky to have 4 guys within 2 years of each other, but I promise you it's not very lucky to have 1 set of twins and 1 set of brothers 1 year apart on a HS XC team. My HS had a set of twins (one of which was the #1 guy on the team btw) and at least half a dozen sets of siblings running when I was there. And even if you just take the best guy from each family, it proves my point that NP wasn't all that special, and can definitely be regularly replicated.

To be clear, I'm not saying it's easy, and I do want to celebrate the great Utah state times. I also want to set the expectation that every state meet could be like that. I want to be clear that if schools of that size don't have a kid that can break 9, it's not a talent issue, it's an issue with training/coaching/culture/something that could be changed. The kids who ran those times did it through very hard work, not because there's it's an astronomically lucky year with a ton of talent.

I dont think so. They were mormons before NP, and they were mormons after. The fact that Utah does better than average can probably be chocked up to them being mormons and living at altitude, but it can't explain why Herriman immediately became one of the best programs in the country right as Soles moved in.