Irene Riggs 16:02 5k @ WakeMed!!! Broke a Tuohy record by 20 seconds!

You are correct. That is even dumber than the decision to do it straight out of high school. she was already at Stanford. Reminds me of the stories about execs who are earning millions and then get caught embezzling. People who have everything seem to make silly decisions.

That is pretty presumtuous of you. Maybe she just was not happy at Stanford and would not have done well in either running or academics.

Perhaps, but if all options were available and given that she is not going to (probably) have a lucrative running career, staying at Stanford would strike most as the best long term decision. Even if it meant just staying as a student. And filling out the fin aid app and paying.

To be fair though, unless she was in a major where a Stanford degree was truly lucrative relative to NC State, it may not matter. ie CS or Engineering. And I know NCSU is also decent in those fields but it ain't no Stanford. If she wants to be a teacher or something, it won't matter much. And maybe she comes from money, I have no idea.

Nope. It is a fact based statement. Your statement is presumptious. The reason that she would have left would be based on emotion as you stated, that she was unhappy. She didn't leave for better academics or better job propects or higher pay. So by definition, it was not a smart decision but an emotional one. Yes she gets a title that nobody cares about on her first day in a real job.

Anyone know why Riggs chose NXN?

Last year she said she loved running at Eastbay and she wanted to go back to San Diego and run that course even faster her senior year. So has she ever said why she changed her mind and is running NXN instead?

Have you considered that if she was unhappy she may not have been able to graduate?

Yes. We are in agreement. She made an emotional statement. My kids don't like doing homework but I make them do it even though it makes them unhappy.

That interview is dated September 10, 2022, so the 17:02 with a stop and a ten second wrong turn that the interviewer mention is from some meet months ago. This 16:02 is legit. Her 3k of 9:14 and 2M of 9:54 both suggested she could potentially run a 16:02 for 5000m xc with some improvement from the spring.

Cook was faster in high school than Tuohy as a freshman. Tuohy is currently faster than Cook. To be fair to Tuohy, injuries hampered her for years after her best performances early on in high school as a frosh-soph. She is the best 5000m runner in the country right now. We'll see how good Cook and Valby are in outdoor track. I expect Valby to break 15, maybe even 14:50.

I disagree. I think Valby will beat her by 10 seconds on the track.

We are off topic. Let's get back to Riggs, the 2nd fastest high school cross couontry runner of all time.

Cool. That's an improvement from 30 seconds in cross country.

Anyone know why Riggs decided to run NXN over Footlocker/Champs?

For her team…..

morgantown HS finished 3rd and ended up not qualifying.

OK, that makes sense. I didn't realize that Riggs team was that good.

I was really hoping to see Riggs, Baloga and Shea in San Diego again. They are all running so well this year it would have been exciting to see the 3 of them run against each other.

They should have invitations to East Bay for stellar xc runners who skipped East Bay qualifying to help their teams get to NXN and didn't qualify. Or have one individual national championship a week after NXN with some sort of consolidated qualifying period. NCAAs is both individual and team. Why not one national hs championship that is both individual and team? And why not make that in San Diego so that we can have the historical comparisons with past champions?

this is an incredible performance don't get me wrong but you have to wonder, why would she bother going all out on a 16:02 the week before NXN when she could have easily ran 1 minute slower and recovered much quicker. Not criticizing the decision just wondering the reasoning behind it

This might sound crazy but I watched the race and it didn't look like she was going all out. She seemed very relaxed during the race and she didn't even look all that tired after she finished.

I understand your point but:

1. The San Diego course is very narrow and it wouldn't work for having 15 or 20 teams on it at the same time. They wouldn't fit.

2. These races are put on by sponsors primarily for the benefit of the sponsors, not primarily for the benefit of the runners or the fans. The races are part of their marketing department.

Nike doesn't want to help benefit Footlocker/Champs/New Balance and vice versa.