Cole Hocker has a gravitas beyond his years

You know they had a national championship last year, right?

Cole Hocker fanboys never put in their heads that its Nuguse that cooked the whole 3:30 race. It's his race. Hocker was an opportunist.

It's a ManBun.

Actually, everyone else should grow their hair.

He’s on a new level this year. Healthy and stronger than ever. I see a medal in Paris

What has he produced since then?

I've been watching US track and field for decades and that was easily the best US only men's 1500m race I've ever seen. Gusty! Out fast. No tactical bs that we had to deal with for nearly 20 friggin years!! So happy to see actual racing and a kick at the end!! Absolutely awesome.

This is probably the only time that a U.S. Olympic trials distance race (1500m+) had similar depth to a Diamond League race. Super pumped about the 1500m team we are sending to Paris!

He's 34. It's he's needed to produce.

Remember when the pinheads were all in outrage when Hocker didn't get vaxxed, they predicted he would be hospitalized and would either die or never compete again. HA!

Also remember when people said Hocker had no kick in a fast race? That he was a 3:35 guy, that he wouldn't win an NCAA title, wouldn't get out of the rounds at the Oly's??? Hocker is absolutely undefeated against the LOOOOOSERS.

Him winning didn't make him less annoying. He's still wearing the unitard and still got the ponytail/man bun. I'm still not sure he even has the brain power to understand that he won. Someone needs to explain it to him with small words. I'll bet he's afraid of girls too.

Ew

Yep, still a tool, still not a sub 3:30 guy.

Nobody said that. Remember when you morons said he'd go 3:28 - that was 2 years ago. It still hasn't happened. He hasn't improved a second since 2021.

I don’t think there is enough acknowledgement of the fact that Nuguse pulled him to this win. Yared could have sat and let this race play out tactically, which would have meant risking a top three place. Taking it out fast meant likely getting out kicked by Hocker at the end, but that seems like a reasonable sacrifice for an Olympic spot.

I’ll be curious to see if Hocker can hold onto an even hotter pace at the Olympics, which is distinctly possible given how Jakob runs. We know Nuguse can.

And yes, he needs to chop off that nasty ponytail.

I dunno if the Olympics pace will be even hotter, but there'll be more people up front. Nuguse did take this race conservatively in a way by front running most of the race, risking that Hocker could beat him, but knowing that there weren't gonna be three competitors at 3:30. It's likely that Nuguse will not be front running at the Olympics because there are REAL front-runners there.

Yes, exactly this

Makes sense to me, but Nuguse did say that his tactics were designed to win, not necessarily advance. Can't always assume that they're being 100% transparent, but I don't know if a slower race would've necessarily played into his hands. In retrospect, if he knew that a couple of the other guys would notch monster times, he could've waited til 800/600 left and SQUEEZED and not done all that work in the front with wind. Still don't know if that would've been enough to beat hocker today, that man is on fire.

That's a lot of exaggeration, but if you get off on phony outrage, you do you.

The fair criticism of Hocker's kick in fast races isn't that it can't work. It was that it hadn't occurred to the manbun genius that he needed to be in a better position to win with the kick in a fast race. Yesterday he put himself in the right position to win with a kick in a fast race.