MIAC Track 2017

Ended at the UW-Lax Last Chance Meet. Didn't race in track until late April after missing all of indoor. Was 17th in Cross that year and he would have been dirty had he been healthy.

With a whimper.

You don't think Donson running 25:30 while beating (an albeit injured) Jonah, Gerhartz, Peterson, Knobbe and then right behind Paul and Feichtinger at conference his freshman year proves that he has more upside? This year in XC could also be characterized as uncharacteristically weak in comparison to last year.

Benjamins wrote:

Donson went 3:49 off of interval speed based training and only like 30 miles a week. It isn't out of the question that if he bumped up his mileage and did some more strength based running that he would at least run a sub 3:46.

Plus, his natural running strength is pretty solid. He is decent at cross when healthy (25:30 at conference freshman year).

Think about it this way. Joe Coffey ran a 3:46 1500m last spring. Would you say that Coffey is head and shoulders above Donson? I wouldn't. Both are good at different things, but are very close to each other in terms of talent.

All of that said, runners like Wintheiser, Escher, Campbell, Saska all spoiled us all.

At 1500m and above I would say Coffey is head and shoulders above DCG until proven otherwise. Coffey has an AA in both the 1500m and now XC, and is clearly a much stronger aerobic runner than DCG. Oh btw his 1500m PR is 3 seconds faster. So unless Coffey (who just went from being extremely mediocre in XC to 21st at nationals this fall) isn't going to improve, I would say there is very little chance of DCG beating him at 1500m or above. Those saying DCG ran 3:49 off of nothing, did you guys forget he ran 3:53 as a freshman? It's not like that 3:49 was unexpected.[/quote]

Man, I really messed up the quotes.

But actually. People forget how impressive his freshman xc season was. He was a bit burnt out and injured his sophomore cross season from racing over the summer at USATF Juniors. I know it probably sounds like a broken record on this thread, and a lot of people aren't the biggest fans of him as a person (he raced like an a**hole at MIAC indoors his freshman year), but he is very talented.

Even if he doesn't run the 3:45 or the 3:43 some people here are saying that he will run, I am sure he will still qualify for nationals in the 1500m. And he will be very dangerous there because of his speed. I mean, good lord, he went 1:50 last year and can easily (okay, maybe not so easily) run a sub 49.xx 400m. That is very useful in a sit and kick race. He proved he is good at that during NCAA's indoors in the 800m.

Joe Coffee is a great time trialist 1500m runner. He has the mixture of strength and speed to go with a fast pace laid before him and finish with a fast time. And he is decent at a sit-and-kick race, but not great. He couldn't beat Escher or Campbell in a last 400m of a very, very slow 1500m MIAC final. So why do we expect him to fair off any better against an even faster finisher in Donson? So unless at conference he goes from the gun and tries to run the legs off of Donson, I don't think he will win the mile or 1500m conference titles.

Coffee runs the DMR the first day and the 3k the second day at indoor conference.

Sidebar: Love how you can tell when a poster is from Northfield by how they refer to Carleton/Olaf guys by first name, and everyone else by last name.

I'm in agreement with all that, I think DCG may very well end up the better miler, probably better overall if he wants to be. I just don't believe he will pass Coffey this season. Coffey has made another jump since last spring, which is indicated by his AA this fall. I believe him to be a 4:07/8:25 guy indoors, I just don't see DCG coming back from abroad making a jump from 3:49 to 4:07i/3:45. Not impossible, but not likely.

I HATE when people throw out that a kid is hitting a time off __ mileage and __ workouts. Fitness is dependent on more than just what a guy has been doing over the last few weeks of training. Each new season isn't a blank slate. Donson ran 3:49 off of a full indoor season, a xc season where he ran every race even if he was banged up, and a full first year xc/indoor/outdoor + usatf. Even if his mileage was down at that point and he was only doing intervals I'm guessing he had built a pretty solid aerobic base and had gotten in good running given he wasn't missing any races. It's like Jake placing third indoor even though he was aqua jogging all of February. Certainly he would have been in the running for a natty title had he been healthy and running on the track, but it doesn't mean that he would necessarily could run 8:00 because he ran 8:18 on little work.

Doesn't he go by Jerry, though? Or am I wrong?

What is the speculation that DCG is going to focus on the mile/1500 instead of the 800 based on? After being abroad for the fall the 8 likely makes more sense. I'd certainly bet on him at least running the 8 at indoor conference (where he's the two time defending champ) instead of the mile.

On another note, DCG may have been capable of a 3:46-3:47 last year. He got shafted and put in the second heat at Phil Esten. I think a lot of us would have liked to see what he could do in the fast heat.

At outdoor nationals he told me and other MIAC guys that he and his coach decided that he would begin to start focusing on the 1500m the next season.

You think Dave will remember telling him that? I bet he runs the 8.

Bridesmaids from Indoor last year:

David Supinski 400 CON

Alex Fredrickson 600 GUS

Brandon Krogman 800 SMU

Joe Coffey 1000 STO

Casey Halbmaier Mile UST

Daniel Mahota 3000 UST

Abdullahi Salan 5000 AUG

All of them were Freshmen-Juniors. Any names jump out at you besides Coffey and Salan? Who's making the big leap? Who's not returning?

Someone already said Mahota is a dark horse. I'll say Fredrickson too. He runs 4x400s (speedy) and beat Mahota at conference in cross.

Who actually are these people?

wouldn't they be groomsmen?

If you were a real MIAC fan you'd know.

Or maybe I'm just that big of a track nerd.

Don't flatter yourself.

TBH I had to look up every one of these guys because the only result I knew off the top of head was Salan in the 5k.

The names are all familiar but I don't actually know much (anything) about any of them except Coffey and Salan.