the only reason the very best Americans aren't running The Ten this year is the lack of a global 10,000m championship race this year. Nothing more, nothing less.
The lack of 10k races (as an event) is mostly because of switching attention to the roads and WA allowing 10k roadrace-results for qualifying purpoeses.
It’s 99% a high school meet circus. No long a premier pro meet.
I watched much of the meet on Flotrack as a replay and just skipped through the lower-level high school events. That said, I did enjoy watching the HS runners at the top levels. There may be other factors contributing to the dilution of pro talent this year such as it not being a championship year and perhaps not fitting with the training cycles. Was there even any prize money? It was still enjoyable and other than too much crowd noise, the Flotrack presentation was very good. I was impressed by the knowledge of the presenters for both HS and pros.
It’s 99% a high school meet circus. No long a premier pro meet.
I watched much of the meet on Flotrack as a replay and just skipped through the lower-level high school events. That said, I did enjoy watching the HS runners at the top levels. There may be other factors contributing to the dilution of pro talent this year such as it not being a championship year and perhaps not fitting with the training cycles. Was there even any prize money? It was still enjoyable and other than too much crowd noise, the Flotrack presentation was very good. I was impressed by the knowledge of the presenters for both HS and pros.
Not sure that HS girls running 2:04 and 2:07 are "ruining" the event
I watched much of the meet on Flotrack as a replay and just skipped through the lower-level high school events. That said, I did enjoy watching the HS runners at the top levels. There may be other factors contributing to the dilution of pro talent this year such as it not being a championship year and perhaps not fitting with the training cycles. Was there even any prize money? It was still enjoyable and other than too much crowd noise, the Flotrack presentation was very good. I was impressed by the knowledge of the presenters for both HS and pros.
Not sure that HS girls running 2:04 and 2:07 are "ruining" the event
That was actually a highlight of the meet. The girl who ran 2:04 then came back and easily ran 4:40 in the 1600 was impressive.
It’s 99% a high school meet circus. No long a premier pro meet.
I remember back in the day when Mt. SAC Relays was the premier track meet that had incredible 5 and 10K's. It was a big deal when someone broke 13:30 and even bigger when there were a sub 28's recorded. Now, on a non-global championship year there are TWO national records (German and Aussie) set with TWO sub 27's and people barking about it being ruined? The Ten was an absolute success even in a down year and all the pros will come back next year just due to the great weather, the track and the date being about 90 days before US Champs qualifiers. There will be a lot more Euro's and Africans next year as well. This is an experimental year (ie Fisher trying the roads) for a lot of pros with little need of banging up their bodies for 25 laps. With global champs standards set at 27:00 and 30:20, athletes are always going to go to a reliable event that starts with weather and competition and somehow it's always been perfect in the evening at this place. You don't get that weather reliability in Eugene in March. The fact that there are high school events (98% of them done by 4:15pm) at this meet has little to do with the pros being disturbed or having the attention taken away from them as the facility is cleared before they even arrive. Last thing, this track meet started as a result of Covid and nobody else was willing to host a meet. Somehow, Sound Running pulled a rabbit out of their hat and put together a mini distance meet that attracted most of the US distance stars that simply grew and grew. Tip of the hat to those guys.
Not sure that HS girls running 2:04 and 2:07 are "ruining" the event
That was actually a highlight of the meet. The girl who ran 2:04 then came back and easily ran 4:40 in the 1600 was impressive.
That was a very impressive 2:04 by Combe. I know she's the the top miler in the state, but I didn't know she had that kind of 800 speed in her. Good stuff.
It's a lot to ask someone to double and qualify for finals in both at State... then go on to break records in both, but if she ran a 2:04 and a 4:38 in late March, I think she's got a very good shot to beat the state record of 2:02.04 in the 800 and Sadie's 4:31.72 in the 1600 to go along with the 4x800 record she anchored her team to last year.
I know she didn't win the National races last year, but now that she took down Paige Shepard, Dudek, Jaelyn Williams and Abbie Hennessey at New Balance Grand Prix, then beat Ellery Lincoln, Barada, Dailey and others to win NIN, she is definitely one of the top 3 track recruits in the Country for the Class of 2026.
With Combe and Dumas, Arkansas has struck gold, again.
You're confused. What made The TEN matter the past 5 years was that for the past 5 years there was a global championships that the runners needed to hit a certain standard time in order to qualify.
There is NO global championships this year. THAT is the reason why very few pros went to The TEN this year. The 10ks were still the enterprise of the meet, but Sound Running can't force pros to run a 10k if it's a non-global championship year. The lack of top pros this year has ZERO to do with the high school races.
The qualifying window already opened in February for the 2027 World Championships, so this isn’t some “off year” where performances don’t matter. For the 10,000m, races like The Ten absolutely count right now toward Worlds qualification. That’s exactly why the meet used to matter so much to pros. And that’s the issue you’re acting like pros should just be grateful to be there, when in reality this meet was built around them chasing global standards. When that focus gets diluted, it directly impacts their ability to perform, qualify, and make teams. There’s a reason you’re hearing more and more pros are over it. It’s not about disliking high school racing, it’s about the meet losing its identity as a serious, performance-driven pro event at the exact time when marks actually matter for Worlds. You can’t turn a precision environment into a mixed-format showcase and expect the highest level athletes to pretend nothing changed.
Yes, the window is open, but it is very much an off year for the 10k. Nobody even knows the World Standard yet. It would suck to run 26:5X and then realize you need to run it again. No Worlds this summer, its not being contested at "Ultimate Championships", and no DL Final 10k. These types of years have always been a transition year, as there is no real reason to try and peak for a 10k in march/april if you don't need to. A bunch of the big 10k names in the US just raced World Cross not too long ago. Go have some fun on the roads (Hi Grant), or go race more 1500m/3ks (Hi Nico).
Think about it this way: Ky and Mohamed Abdilaahi, the two people who broke 27 out of the top heat, both ran National Records. Mike Foppen broke the Dutch record. Gulveer set the Indian 10k record at this meet last year running 27:00, I bet he was going for it again. And thats just the men's race. At the end of the day, pro running is a job. All these people probably got some nice contract $$$ deliverables from setting NRs. The opportunity cost for building a season around being in good 10k shape is huge - moreso in an "off year". You can't race a bunch of 10ks in a season like you can shorter distances, plus you get much better appearance fees for big road races, and probably more $$$ for a podium there as well.
But can't upvote bc of the 2nd. We absolutely want to see a cheater fail. Repeatedly. For perpetuity.
It’s so bizarre Shelby has so many fans on these threads. We want bans for life and ban Kenya - but not our golden girl, she served her time “forgive and forget”. Doping apologists when they wear the american flag only. She was a laughing stock internationally for the burrito crap and undermines the integrity of everyone who was associated with her, should be trying to disown her rather than have her represent.