10/15/2025 - This thread started well before anything was confirmed by Iowa State.
A volunteer moderator deleted several threads on this topic. That's not the way this should work. We believe in free expression and have reinstated them and merged them into this one thread.
As we wrote at the time, "If there is no truth to these rumors, please contact us at letsrun@letsrun.com or give us a call at 844-538-7786 and we will be happy to delete them and issue a statement."
It ends up appearing that the rumors had some teeth to them. Earlier today LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson emailed head coach Jeremy Sudbury to let him know about this thread and asked if there was any truth to it.
At 3:31 pm ET, coach Sudbury emailed me the following:
Hello Robert, Thank you for reaching out directly. There were team rule violations. I have worked with our administration, and the involved athletes have been suspended and will not compete the remainder of this season. Have a nice rest of your weekend. Jeremy
Sh** on your throws coach this summer (Dan O’Mara), who is a well respected, honorable human…. and God said, hold my beer! LOL Anyone recruiting internationally should know the dangers of bringing in a freak. Exhibit A. Jeremy should go down with the ship like a good captain. See you in a decade when you revive from this mess.. Willy P next. Martin Smith disciples who will ki**, steal, and destroy their way to the top.
It’s my understanding that the NCAA does not test for EPO, they do simple piss tests. so how did he get caught?
Can someone with more knowledge than myself explain NCAA testing protocols? I remember Nico telling Chavez that he had never been tested(?) as of sometime last year
Please see the statement that I have added to the top of this thread.
Volunteer mods, please use this as an educational example of how not to moderate in the future. We always say "the more specific allegation, the more proof" we want to see. This was a very easy thing to confirm or deny. We wrote to the coach and they confirmed the team has been hit with suspensions.
But just because something hasn't been confirmed doesn't mean it should be deleted. If you are unsure of whether to delete something, keep it up and email or text us. "Hey someone keeps stating some very specific things - can you look into it?"
I'm now opening this thread up to eveyone. You no longer have to be registered to post.
Oh stop it rojo. This thread's only staying up because it's not about one of your buddies. Bring back the great Vivien Henz Gibby-takedown thread.
uhh henz specifically asked for that thread to be taken down
How is taking EPO breaking team rules. Either this thread is BS or the coach is being dishonest.
it's against athletic department policy to take illegal drugs
Sure, but it isn’t like this is simply up to the teams if this is a rule. You think teams get to decide if they are ok with ped use or not? No, this is an ncaa rule. Coach saying this is a team rule issue if it is ped use is just being dishonest.
I’m a P4 distance runner and still don’t fully understand the testing protocol. What I can tell you is you can take whatever you want and it’s very unlikely you would ever get caught. Sad reality of our sport. Last year in the fall there was only 1 NCAA drug test for PEDs and only 3 of our guys got tested and out of the 3 only one guy was top 7. We were and are still a highly ranked team. In the spring 1 distance runner was tested another guy that wouldn’t have been top 7 in cross. I was naive a few years ago but you learn pretty quickly who’s dirty around the NCAA as well as in your own locker room. Simple fix- test everyone.
Henz spoke super candidly about his experience with Gibby and how awful it was. The rojos silenced it because Gibby's their buddy and he didn't like it. (Henz also regretted being so candid about it)
it's against athletic department policy to take illegal drugs
Sure, but it isn’t like this is simply up to the teams if this is a rule. You think teams get to decide if they are ok with ped use or not? No, this is an ncaa rule. Coach saying this is a team rule issue if it is ped use is just being dishonest.
The Coach/athletic dept of the school issuing a suspension was likely the quickest and strongest action they could take within the limits of their authority,
The NCAA may/may not launch a full investigation that may or may not result in a suspension under NCAA authority. Who knows if that would occur and how long any of that might take.
I’m a P4 distance runner and still don’t fully understand the testing protocol. What I can tell you is you can take whatever you want and it’s very unlikely you would ever get caught. Sad reality of our sport. Last year in the fall there was only 1 NCAA drug test for PEDs and only 3 of our guys got tested and out of the 3 only one guy was top 7. We were and are still a highly ranked team. In the spring 1 distance runner was tested another guy that wouldn’t have been top 7 in cross. I was naive a few years ago but you learn pretty quickly who’s dirty around the NCAA as well as in your own locker room. Simple fix- test everyone.
Well I think you gotta appreciate that the NCAA has no interest in catching anyone. Who would be clamoring to see any of the revenue sports’ big stars getting caught? The NBA and NFL certainly wouldn’t. MLB not so much either unless it’s absolutely blatant. Track is a unique sport where the athletes and fans actually care, so until it’s at the AIU/pro level I’d consider it basically the honors system. That excludes athletes in Category A countries who at least are surveilled and getting tested on a semi-frequent basis. Granted that is balanced out by all the drugs around/being pushed on them.
This post was edited 52 seconds after it was posted.
"There were team rule violations. I have worked with our administration, and the involved athletes have been suspended and will not compete the remainder of this season."
What exactly the last phrase means is important. If it means "the rest of the cross country season" then that is only about a month suspension and could easily be the result of something fairly minor. If it means "the rest of the 2025/2026 season" then it is certainly something more.
According to the NCAA website, it seems like each school establishes its own penalties for drug offences, but these established penalties must be enforced or the NCAA can step in.
"What is the penalty for failing a school-administered drug test? Each NCAA member school has the discretion to establish an institutional drug-testing program and determine related penalties. If a testing program is established by a member school, the school is obligated to enforce related penalties and failure to do so can lead to NCAA sanctions."
Nobody should be jumping to conclusions based on a suspension. Anything could have happened. College students make poor decisions sometimes. Remember the Duke lacrosse team? Regardless of what happened, the school handled it. Better than sweeping it under the rug.
The NCAA testing protocol is a joke. I'm a P4 runner and I've only been drug tested once in my 3 years. The test was conducted by the university, which the test of urine sample can only detect party drugs like weed. NCAA/University testing isn't sophisticated enough to catch people taking EPO because it can't be detected via urine (depending on how you take it) and it's so expensive to test for sophisticated stuff like EPO/BPC. Thats why the blood testing/WADA passport is the reason people on the pro scene are getting popped and NCAA isn't. Parvej Khan got popped ONLY because he got tested during Indian Nationals, he would have never got caught by the NCAA. This is about to open up a huge can of worms in the NCAA
Sure, the statement in and of itself is not especially damning. But the statement in light of being asked about doping allegations? If its over something "minor" like academics or street drugs, why even mention that at all or not dispel that it in no way had anything to do with PEDs?