People in this thread make it seem like Parker Wolfe is a scrub. The dude was a close 2nd behind Nico indoors in the 3k/5k and ran 7:37 with the second half solo. He’s really, really good.
A few more thoughts about this race, now that I’ve slept on it and am feeling less emotional about it:
When Nico got third in this race two years ago behind two guys who were much older than him, I was one of the people thinking he would follow Galen Rupp’s footsteps and eventually win an outdoor title as a senior (in Rupp’s case, a fifth-year senior). It turns out Nico got denied victory as a senior by someone younger than him. Unexpected.
Credit to Parker Wolfe. He’s the real deal. Wolfe, Young, and Blanks give US distance running fans good reason to be excited about the future.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Nico does at the Olympic trials. When he lost in cross country last fall, he came back soon thereafter with that impressive 3K-5K double at BU followed by the 12:57. I hope he similarly comes back from this disappointment with a strong showing in a couple weeks.
I agree. Although Nico could come back and win an outdoor title as a 5th year senior next year (Rupp redshirted 2008 to make the Olympic 10k team, interesting parallel).
I imagine the Trials are a more important goal than NCAAs for Nico and Mike Smith right now, hence not running the 10k at NCAAs. I don't think Klecker will be running, which means there will only be 3 guys with the standard running it. I think I read that there aren't gonna be any 10k spots based on world rankings, so if he shows up, he'll probably make the team. Hopefully he's challenging for the win though.
The primary thing I disagree with is that Nico was experimenting or trying some new or different tactic
I think he thought if anything, I am not going out on some edge to win this race or run fast and will run the race presented me.
Not one( a race) I have to make.
Look, people will think what they want, but no guy like this anyway is sacrificing an NCAA title when it is a real possibility for a maybe” Make a team “trials race two weeks away.
there is zero guarantee of that (making a team) no matter what time he got pulled to at 10k this year
Guys do not turn the chance away to Win A title in this instance.
Not in my opinion anyway , to “work on something”??
Maybe he didn't taper for this, maybe him and his 'dumb mfer' coach thought it would be a good idea to run a tactical race and prepare for the Olympic trials 10,000m might be like. Maybe his kick suits him better in that race than it does in an NCAA 5000m finals vs some fast 1500m runners... Maybe Mike Smith and Nico Young aren't so dumb?
I don't think he was just training through this, but when I was watching it, my thought was that Nico probably wanted to try to win it with a kick, just to test out his speed and get used to racing differently if nothing else. He's run 1:47/3:34 and outkicked Sahlman this season, but he hasn't been able to really test his kick in a 5k in months.
My thought process was just that he and Smith must have known that he could drop a sub-4 last mile and drop everyone if he wanted to, so doing that again wouldn't really teach them anything new, or prepare him for any upcoming races. Leave it to a kick, and you get a new datapoint (ie slower than Parker Wolfe).
I like this analysis. He’s entered in the 5 and the 10 at the trials. Since he won 2 titles indoors, an outdoor title (already worth less than an olympic team) is probably worth even less to him now. If he needs to lose in order to shore up his strategy for the more important races in a few weeks then so be it.
But at the same time, I also think he could have controlled the race from the start and still made it trials practice. Last years 5000m championships was won in almost the same time that young won indoors with (30 seconds faster than today). Last trials was also around that fast. It seems like there was no point in letting it go that slow.
Interestingly his last 600m indoors (1:22.6) was probably similar to that of the top 3 at USAs last year on a similar pace. But it was also probably similar to what he ran yesterday. Maybe he can’t close much faster no matter the starting pace?
I also wonder if the trials will go a lot faster. The one year Fisher was both healthy and the top guy (2022), it went 13:03.
1-I think Nico believe he’d win in any kind of race, including a kicker’s race.
2-While it’s true that nobody could beat Nico in a time trial race, I think his race plan was to practice for trials and just read and react.
3-Part of the read a react is looking at who’s where and when. I think Nico simply underestimated Wolfe and was focused on Blanks, who stood no chance in a race that didn’t go hard from a least 2k out.
4-As long as Nico is feeling good, this race helps him for the trials. If this was more than just a poor judgment, he’s screwed for Trials as it means he’s over-ripe, which the NAU guys have been prone to be in the late stages of track seasons.
Watching this race, Nico Young threw it away by the third lap by allowing the pace to be so slow. 😞
I think his tactics were fine. He gave it his best, made reasonable decisions based on his capabilities, but it just wasn't his day to win, for whatever reason. I also think he'll be very competitive at the Trials, which is what he is obviously peaking for, as he said in the post-race interview.
Watching this race, Nico Young threw it away by the third lap by allowing the pace to be so slow. 😞
I think his tactics were fine. He gave it his best, made reasonable decisions based on his capabilities, but it just wasn't his day to win, for whatever reason. I also think he'll be very competitive at the Trials, which is what he is obviously peaking for, as he said in the post-race interview.
I second this. I feel like Wolfe was fitter than everyone thought. 1:52.1 last 800 is pretty good. With that close there are not many in the world who would have been much faster. Farah closed a 13:50 race in 2:19 in 2015 and there weren't many others too close. I guess 5th/6th place closed like Wolfe.
The question now is: is Wolfe a dark horse for the 5000 trials, if it gets a jog fest? I'd say in this shape.... yep!
I think his tactics were fine. He gave it his best, made reasonable decisions based on his capabilities, but it just wasn't his day to win, for whatever reason. I also think he'll be very competitive at the Trials, which is what he is obviously peaking for, as he said in the post-race interview.
I second this. I feel like Wolfe was fitter than everyone thought. 1:52.1 last 800 is pretty good. With that close there are not many in the world who would have been much faster. Farah closed a 13:50 race in 2:19 in 2015 and there weren't many others too close. I guess 5th/6th place closed like Wolfe.
The question now is: is Wolfe a dark horse for the 5000 trials, if it gets a jog fest? I'd say in this shape.... yep!
he's defintely a dark horse in the trials and I thought Wolfe would be there with Nico in the end. It's not like Nico lapped him in indoors. Wolfe was right there both times. he had an entire season to study those races, train, and figure out the best way to beat Nico.
the fact that it turned into a jogfest benefited Wolfe. If you watch the race again Wolfe stays on Nico's shoulder the entire time. where Nico goes, Parker goes. even when Blanks made that surge and Nico covered it, Wolfe stayed with him. smart tactical racing.
listened to the Coffee Club Podcast and they said the biggest threat to Nico winning was if the race was slow and turned into an 800. that's basically what happened. In an 800 anything's possible. you run an 800 between Nico, Wolfe, and Ky Robinson a dozen times you'd get different results. Wolfe got this one, good for him.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
Watching this race, Nico Young threw it away by the third lap by allowing the pace to be so slow. 😞
Nico thought he could win this race in any scenario and it's obvious he couldn't. He shouldn't be ashamed or devastated as some loser moron posters say on here though because Parker Wolfe was his #1 competitor coming in here and is also really good. This race should be a lesson to him moving forwards because he is still very fast.
Nico doesn’t have the best kick and there was lots of talent around late on and off a slow pace. It was a matter of who had the edge on the day and it was Parker Wolfe.
He will one day join grant “doesn’t know when to go” fisher and yared “doesn’t care if he wins or loses” nuguse to continue the pattern of the only 1500+ americans with the strength to medal having zero tactics.
....
💯% agree with the nicknames you posted, you leave it slow enough and it TRULY CAN BECOME ANYONE'S RACE TO WIN.. But for now we gonna leave 2024 Nico "had a mental lapse" Young one championship mistake alone.
Yared is in probably my top 3 favorite americans to root for so I am biased. But to give him that nickname for placing 5th/2nd in his first 2 years. He is already more accomplished than every american distance runner running currently not named paul chelimo/centro(rupp I guess lmao). His peers happen to be 7:54 / 8:00i guys
You guys must have some insane nicknames for teare,kincaid,hocker,etc
I think his tactics were fine. He gave it his best, made reasonable decisions based on his capabilities, but it just wasn't his day to win, for whatever reason. I also think he'll be very competitive at the Trials, which is what he is obviously peaking for, as he said in the post-race interview.
I second this. I feel like Wolfe was fitter than everyone thought. 1:52.1 last 800 is pretty good. With that close there are not many in the world who would have been much faster. Farah closed a 13:50 race in 2:19 in 2015 and there weren't many others too close. I guess 5th/6th place closed like Wolfe.
The question now is: is Wolfe a dark horse for the 5000 trials, if it gets a jog fest? I'd say in this shape.... yep!
Only problem for Wolfe is he doesn’t have the Oly Standard.
I don't think he was just training through this, but when I was watching it, my thought was that Nico probably wanted to try to win it with a kick, just to test out his speed and get used to racing differently if nothing else. He's run 1:47/3:34 and outkicked Sahlman this season, but he hasn't been able to really test his kick in a 5k in months.
My thought process was just that he and Smith must have known that he could drop a sub-4 last mile and drop everyone if he wanted to, so doing that again wouldn't really teach them anything new, or prepare him for any upcoming races. Leave it to a kick, and you get a new datapoint (ie slower than Parker Wolfe).
Something I read here years ago that stuck with me is once you've won an NCAA title, no one cares what you did in HS. Once you've made an Olympic team, no one cares how many NCAA titles you won. Once you've won a global medal, no one cares about how many teams you've made or how fast you are. If Nico makes the 10k team, everyone will forget about him coming 2nd here, and it'll only be brought up the next time someone wins the 3k/5k indoors and the LetsRun article previewing the outdoor 5k mentions Nico Young as an example of someone winning the 3k/5k and not winning the 5k outdoors.
Also, this was a great race for Parker Wolfe. Let's not discredit a great race from him. He was 2nd indoors, ran 13:13i back in December (probably ready to drop that by a decent bit), closed today in 1:52, and he's got another year of eligibility left.
Good take, not much to add here. Couldn't have said it better
He will one day join grant “doesn’t know when to go” fisher and yared “doesn’t care if he wins or loses” nuguse to continue the pattern of the only 1500+ americans with the strength to medal having zero tactics
hahhahaha yoooooo wait why is this so true tho lmao
Honestly, people are hyping up Parker for this win, but Nico just let him have it.
Absolutely no reason why a guy running 12:57 (although indoors) and 26:52 runs a 13:54. Probably saving some for Trials but definitely a race he should've won.
This is a horrible take. No one let anyone win. Did you not see his face that last 800m? That’s not someone saving anything. This is why they run races and don’t just hand out medals based on your seed time. Time trailers don’t always fair well in a non time trial type race. Note that this is exactly the style that world championships and Olympics used to be run.
First off, Salazar wasn't coached by Bowerman. He retired 5 years before Al Sal showed up on campus.
Second, McDonnell was all about team, not individual. So the John McDonnell trophy going to the team that does best in XC, Indoor and Outdoor in the same academic year makes much more sense. Arkansas, even thought they sh*t the bed in this meet, still won the McDonnell award for the year. Tough to be good in all 3.
💯% agree with the nicknames you posted, you leave it slow enough and it TRULY CAN BECOME ANYONE'S RACE TO WIN.. But for now we gonna leave 2024 Nico "had a mental lapse" Young one championship mistake alone.
Yared is in probably my top 3 favorite americans to root for so I am biased. But to give him that nickname for placing 5th/2nd in his first 2 years. He is already more accomplished than every american distance runner running currently not named paul chelimo/centro(rupp I guess lmao). His peers happen to be 7:54 / 8:00i guys
You guys must have some insane nicknames for teare,kincaid,hocker,etc
How woke of you. Centro is still running and is far more accomplished than Yared.
Don't have to be so negative. Just watch the interview, Nico said he had his plan and he followed it through. Parker Wolfe is an incredible athlete and almost got him in the 3K in indoor, so it's not sirprising that he would have been outkicked. That they both beat Ky Robinson is an achievement.