LUKE PUSKEDRA is so talented, so what's the problem?

Ed Smallwood wrote:

I saw him run the Pac 10s and thought he had a great shot to win, but blew it badly in the last 2 laps. He had the three Stanford runnings leading him out with Derrick in the lead. If I'm Puskedra, sitting on Derrick making him do the work for as long as possible, leg speed or no leg speed. But Puskedra jumps into the lead at the gun, Derrick sits on him and gathers for 180 meters, then accelerates FTW with the other Stanford guys. Puskedra shot his wad too early, and once he got passed it was game over. End of story.

this is just silly. its a 10k. luke leading for 300 meters is not what gave chris & co superior kicks.

the only way luke is going to beat chris is if he drops him early

I just hope German and Luke can overcome whatever ailments that maybe hampering them at the current time. They are great talents and awesome to see when healthy and fit. German is scaring, didn't he run 7:47 for 3000m at age 19? Chris is doing great and I look forward to seeing him get in competitions against David McNeil and Sam Chelanga in NCAA and hopefully some overseas Gp meets.

VIPAM, it was a good question and hopefully the answer, as with fernandez, is one or more correctible health problems. puskedra was too good as a freshman, with the top ten xc and 28:34 10k, along with the world junior result, to be suffering from vin's system, but some sheltered souls from, say, Utah, may not adjust easily to the anything goes atmosphere of a big west coast college. by the way, Oregon's not great academically, only 119th or so in the national university rankings, but they've got a fine continental philosophy department.

Luke Puskedra "People at home right now, you can have your own opinion about me. But you don't know me, before you judge me first look at your situation and see where your at and clear your problems up before you worry about my problems because I'm okay.

Some poster trying to act like Luke Puskedra and get noticed like the Wejos did Renato. Surprisingly the MAJORITY of the posters here are just expressing or discussing the situation about Luke's decline in 2010. Many state he has great talent and don't understand why the decline and trying to shed some light on the situation.

So fake Luke, 1) noone is judging you 2) many have given praise to Puskedra talent 3) wondering why the decline 4) trying to find out whats the ordeal and hoping it gets corrected soon!

So if that offends you (fake Luke) then maybe you need to stop running.

Plenty of runners who get top 10 at NCAA XC fail to do as well the next year. He still ran well. I'll wait 'til the end of the season to judge his performance.

I kind of thought he'd be running the Steeple. Seems like he'd do well in that.

Call it the sophomore slump. It doesn't appear that this guy maxed out his training in high school, so it would seem he has potential left to fulfill. On the other hand, you really don't see too many tall, big distance runners that get much faster than 28:30, let alone 28:00. Sure, there are exceptions, and I'm sure someone will feel the need to point them out here, but it's the exception, not the rule. I don't know if it's because of greater injury risk or just less efficient aerobic respiration from having to maintain a longer stride, carry a bigger load around. Just an observation. Harder for a big/tall guy to push the envelope.

I can remember a decade or so ago when running a 28:30 10k and a 2:12 marathon would've been a lifelong goal for many an elite runner. And he has essentially done the 28:30 part already.

There just aren't really a lot of tall people, meaning 6'1' or taller in the U.S. Those much taller than that (if athletes) were likely pushed to basketball early, and if they weren't talented at it dropped sports out of embarrassment.

Society thinks it's a given that if you're tall you will be a great BB player.

Basically what I'm saying is there is a small pool of tall people to pick from to have a distance runner emerge, fast or slow. But one of the best 5K white runners we've ever seen (the best?) was over 6'2 i believe and he ran 27:3X as a debut victory.

Interestingly, both he (Mottram) and Nick Willis are amongst the tallest distance runners at the international level in recent history, and I think they've probably enjoyed the most success/accolades of any non E. African runners in recent history as well. However both have also struggled a lot with injuries.

You are undeniably correct about the lack of a sample size to lend credibility to my musings. However, I just personally, intuitively feel that the dearth of world class distance runners 6'4" and taller or weighing close to 170 lbs is rooted in something beyond owing to a mere lack of able-bodies representing a genuine "N." There's likely a lower ceiling of progression for a bigger guy, not that the big guys can't make an impact every now and again or reach a level of personal fulfillment.

just made it to nc's by the skin of his teeth in 12th. looked great towards the end of the race. must have died that last 400

Event 8 Men 10000 Meter Run

================================================================

One round. 1 heat. Advance top 12 to Eugene

Double waterfall start.Randon lanes.Top 18 in front row on main

Next 9 in front on staggered. Next 18 in 2nd row of main

Remainder on second stagger

American: A 26:59.60 5/1/2010 Chris Solinsky, Nike

College Best: C 27:08.49 5/1/2010 Sam Chelanga, Liberty

NCAA Meet: 28:01.30 6/1/1979 Suleiman Nyambui, Texas-El

Name Year School Prelims

================================================================

Preliminaries

1 John Kosgei SR Oklahoma State 29:36.55Q

2 Ahmed Osman SO Northern Arizona 29:37.42Q

3 Jake Riley JR Stanford 29:38.64Q

4 Mohammed Ahmed FR Wisconsin 29:38.85Q

5 Kiel Uhl SR Iowa State 29:39.00Q

6 Samuel Kosgei SR Lamar 29:39.11Q

7 Joe Bosshard FR Colorado 29:40.29Q

8 Chris Barnicle SR New Mexico 29:40.45Q

9 John Beattie SR Tulsa 29:41.67Q

10 Alfred Kipchumba SO Portland 29:45.30Q

11 Kevin Schwab FR Oklahoma 29:46.15Q

12 Luke Puskedra SO Oregon 29:47.54Q

13 Eric Fernandez FR Arkansas 29:47.74

14 Elliot Krause FR Wisconsin 29:50.26

15 Andy Wacker SO Colorado 29:57.20

16 Mohamed Mohamed SR Southern Illinois 29:59.90

17 Diego Estrada SO Northern Arizona 30:02.94

18 Landon Peacock JR Wisconsin 30:03.77

19 Brendan Gregg SO Stanford 30:08.54

20 Jake Schmitt SR Washington 30:12.06

21 Aldo Vega SR Colorado 30:19.73

22 Colin Mickow SO Illinois 30:20.13

23 Scott Krapf JR Illinois State 30:23.91

24 Hunter Mickow SO Illinois 30:24.37

25 Scott Smith SR Santa Barbara 30:31.90

26 Kent Morikawa JR UCLA 30:32.19

27 Jonathan Kotter JR Brigham Young 30:35.93

28 Kari Karlsson JR California 30:39.35

29 Keith Gerrard JR New Mexico 30:41.74

30 Matt Barrett SR Minnesota 30:43.05

31 Jeremy Sudbury JR Oklahoma 31:00.98

32 Jordan Kyle SR Colorado 31:03.98

33 Pieter Gagnon FR Minnesota 31:21.43

34 Paul Limpf SR Eastern Washington 31:23.97

35 Alec Bromka SR Washington 31:34.08

36 Phillip King JR Missouri 31:39.75

37 Brian McKenna JR Utah State 31:40.24

38 Jordan Swarthout JR Washington 31:55.13

39 Dan Geib JR Washington State 32:02.22

40 Brock Hagerman JR New Mexico 32:27.99

41 Kyle King SO Eastern Washington 32:43.24

-- Lane Boyer SO Arkansas DNF

-- Solomon Haile FR Arkansas DNF

-- Marco Anzures SR UCLA DNF

-- Ben Ashkettle JR Northern Arizona DNF

-- Erick Garcia JR Fresno State DNF

-- Kenyon Neuman SR Colorado DNS

Updated results show that Fernandez DNF'ed (maybe stopped a lap early?) and he actually qualified by 2.72 seconds over Krause.

That was a courageous attempt by Luke Puskedra in the NCAA Men's 10000m run tonight. In looking at him right before the 6km it appeared he was laboring and not fully fit; however, that didn't stop him from trying to follow Sam Chelanga.

CONGRATULATIONS to Sam Chelanga and Kudos for the bravery of Luke Puskedra even in defeat!

VIPAM wrote:

That was a courageous attempt by Luke Puskedra in the NCAA Men's 10000m run tonight. In looking at him right before the 6km it appeared he was laboring and not fully fit; however, that didn't stop him from trying to follow Sam Chelanga.

CONGRATULATIONS to Sam Chelanga and Kudos for the bravery of Luke Puskedra even in defeat!

LOL that wasn't bravery, that was stupidity.