Natalie Cook - 15:25

That is the most encouraging thing I have heard. Several posters predicted her downfall when she reaches college but you now pointed out that she is college age already and still faster than the best college runners. That indicates that she will dominate next year.

Mr potato Head! Mr potato head! The fastest college runner ran 1513... She just barely beat a college runner who didn't even qualify for indoors....

Here is her race in case you haven't seen it ...

Maybe you didn't read his post very closely. She is 18. Nearly 1/2 of high school students turn 19 in the calendar year that they graduate so your proposal to use birth year would only work if it was the year that they turn 19 which would cause even more kids to be held back way to fall birthdays. I could go for the actual age of 19 excluding high school kids from records but she is 18. Kelati was ineligible her last 2 years of high school but it doesn't seem to have hurt her.

Exactly how many college runners beat her? None. She beat the best college runners. Not every single one of the top college runners were in the race. Next you will claim that Tuohy's 2nd place in the 3k wasn't really 2nd best of NCAA runners because a faster sophomore than her wasn't on the starting line.

so first we try to slander her as an underdeveloped kid who is peaking in high school but will "completely disappear" in college because thats what "90% of high school phenoms" do. now suddenly she is way too old and mature and that gives her an unfair advantage. you guys really want to undermine this kids performance any way you can dont you? now it shouldnt even count because shes 18? get serious. she didnt even start running distance races until she was in 8th grade and she spent much of her sophomore and junior years injured so its not like shes had more races or more time to train than any other kid. probably less in fact. And whats with the notion that this record is suddenly a yawner because she was "college freshman" age when she ran it? You realize that if she had run this same time as a freshman at Oklahoma State she would have broken the school record there by 35 seconds? No college runner has run this fast this year of ANY age and only four ran faster than this last year including at the NCAA Championship (and want to hazard a guess how old those runners were? Two of them were from BYU if that helps...). You would have to go back to Weini Kelati to find someone who ran faster than this as a college freshman (and she was 21 years old at the time). Yeah, nothing exceptional about this performance at all... what pathetic nonsense...

The age thing does matter. It matters in both directions of the argument.

either way, it was a great run, and her future is bright.

I don't like when people claim that I stated something that I did not. That is an offense that can get you banned on this site. I didn't say that she ran a faster time than the fastest time in the NCAA. Did you realize that Tuohy is only the 7th best 3k runner in the NCAA? Did you know that there is sophomore who is better than her? Those are facts but Tuohy still beat all but one of the best runners in the NCAA. Those are facts also. Stanford is loaded with elite college runners and some professionals. She beat the best of the college runners. She beat all of the college runners.

Honestly it's good to be cautious. I mean what am I going to do now with all my Sydney massarelli posters? You guys got me all hyped that she was going to be the best college runner and I bought a ton of merch... So I too will remain cautious!

Yeah they're going to start banning people left and right because you don't know what you're writing!

Why be cautious as a fan? Should the UNC fans not hype their team before the championship game even though they are underdogs? In Cook's case, it is more like hyping Kansas who's favored. Seems like a logical and fun thing to do. I guess we should all be downers regarding American girls.

Interesting take - not sure how Tuohy was only the 7th best as they had a race and she finished 2nd. Put in the injured athlete and she was no worse than 3rd. Tuohy may have had only the 7th fastest time this past season - but I would not say that means 7th best. She beat the "best" if by best you mean fastest.

I can't find her birthday. It doesn't really change anything but I am curious.

You know how. Some posters are downplaying Cook's performance because it wasn't faster than every NCAA runner. But Tuoy's wasn't either. Maybe Cook would have won the race or maybe she would have been 16th. But if going by time, she is better than Tuohy. And since she is faster, maybe she would have won the NCAA meet.

Please point directly to all the posts you are referencing where people are guaranteeing she will be a national champion. You wont because there arent any. This thread was created to note her accomplishment of breaking a record and running a very fast time. Creating a strawman that its about declaring her the greatest runner ever and a lock for an Olympic gold medal is a lie you made up so you have an excuse to trash her. And now you are just arguing for the sake of arguing, trying to play both sides of the argument (shes an immature flash in the pan who will never amount to anything in college but shes also too old and mature for this record to be taken seriously because shes running college level times). That shows you have no argument at all. It also shows you are a miserable troll and a coward who derives pleasure from anonymously trying to undermine a fantastic accomplishment by a teenage girl and insisting she will amount to nothing despite it.