Heidesch was leading, and he was in lane 1. The contact was started by the other kid. Heidesch stumbled at the beginning toward lane 2 because he was pushed, and then he moved back in, and that is when he leaned into the other kid. And it was a lean; it's not like he was shoving the kid off the track. If he hit the rail, it's because he was running too close to it to begin with.
If you and I sprint at 17 MPH right next to a cliff and I start to push you, I think you are warranted to do anything possible to protect yourself.
🤦🏻♂️
This is getting ridiculous now—the attempt to justify punching someone in the back of the neck over a little jostling for position. The entire stadium knew that Smith had f’d up and done something not just unsportsmanlike but malicious, and the IAHSAA obviously agreed. Sorry that’s irreconcilable with your allegiance to City High and your sworn hatred for Dowling.
Also, this happened 8 months ago between 16-17 kids, and has already been discussed at some length on these boards. No need to rehash it ad nauseam when Heidesch is making a name for himself through his race results.
Yes, you can. It's clear he's a half step ahead or so. And then when it goes into the head on view, it's clear he's slightly ahead, and the initial contact was when he was still on the outside of lane 1. The shoulder check came after he got pushed out toward lane 1 and tried to correct his posture and maintain his position. There really was nothing abnormal going on until the punches. When you have 12 guys in an open 800 and they have a waterfall/two to a lane start, that kind of stuff is going to happen.
Nobody is justifying the 2nd action, people are merely discussing the first. These are the very types of topics that should be discussed on this site rather than the 90% of topis that are not running related. Nobody is making any negative statements about Heidesch, just discussin the topic. But yo and a few others seem to be making the discussion personal. I doubt that most posters had ever heard of either runner before nor do they care one way or another about them as people, just as runners.
Dude, read the short post I quoted. Yes, someone IS justifying it. And no, I don’t think I’m making it personal; I’m just arguing my opinion the same as anyone else.
No. You made it personal calling people out for hatred of a program merely for discussing a running race. Somebody could be a fan of the program and see the event that way. Those attacks are just unnecessary. I enjoy discussing running but veer away from the site when people make attacks and that is why the site has rules against it.
If you and I sprint at 17 MPH right next to a cliff and I start to push you, I think you are warranted to do anything possible to protect yourself.
🤦🏻♂️
This is getting ridiculous now—the attempt to justify punching someone in the back of the neck over a little jostling for position. The entire stadium knew that Smith had f’d up and done something not just unsportsmanlike but malicious, and the IAHSAA obviously agreed. Sorry that’s irreconcilable with your allegiance to City High and your sworn hatred for Dowling.
Also, this happened 8 months ago between 16-17 kids, and has already been discussed at some length on these boards. No need to rehash it ad nauseam when Heidesch is making a name for himself through his race results.
if he's so fast then why does he need to shove people off the track?
I don’t think I would say it is minor. Dowling pretty much has a pick of any kid in Des Moines. Meanwhile, in a town like Iowa City which is roughly 1/3 the size of Des Moines runners have to go to any 3 separate schools.
Boys and girls programs are separate. That is like referencing Shelby Houlihan because she is also from Iowa. Carmody made tremendous improvement but there are 20 other great HS runners from Dowling who flamed out.
Cole Decker, Jason Thomas, Ryan Schweizer off the top of my head. Decker ran sub-9 in HS and “only” 14:11/29:31 running D3 - not a great improvement, but it’s unfair to claim he “flamed out,” since he may have prioritized school, and he never had close to the speed Heidesch has. Thomas quit or was cut from the ISU squads but continues to be a solid road runner, showing that at least if he’s “flamed out” it doesn’t mean he’s become an overweight alcoholic or something. Ryan Schweizer ran fairly comparable times in college as high school, just slightly faster - 1:50.1/3:46/4:08. And then the most recent stud graduate is Carmody, the 13:27 guy.
That’s a pretty small sample size of truly fast high school kids, and Heidesch is on another level entirely. Beyond that, you can’t expect 9:15-9:40 type kids to excel in collegiate running - many do, but the great majority don’t. I don’t know what you think the expectation for Heidesch’s future should be, but I see absolutely no reason why he has any less chance of becoming a 3:55/13:20 guy than the next high school standout.
Didn’t Jason Thomas compete in a running club in college? (Nirca)
That is more of the most idiotic comments on this board of fools. You want to negate his performance because he trained a lot. Look at the conditions with which he ran it. The shoes, track, way less science and knowledge about training back then but since he ran a lot it’s not impressive. Is that all a runner has to do to be amazing? Log a lot of miles. If so there would be tons of faster times and lots of high school kids should be running 8:30 for two miles.
That is more of the most idiotic comments on this board of fools. You want to negate his performance because he trained a lot. Look at the conditions with which he ran it. The shoes, track, way less science and knowledge about training back then but since he ran a lot it’s not impressive. Is that all a runner has to do to be amazing? Log a lot of miles. If so there would be tons of faster times and lots of high school kids should be running 8:30 for two miles.
Don’t think anyone is trying to negate Gerry’s accomplishments, more just saying that he got his 8:40 through his work ethic rather than a ton of natural talent. He certainly trained harder than any other high schooler in history. If anything makes his time more impressive!