Gee, maybe that record was soft? Or maybe different runners were affected by different injuries/training impacts.
Record was “soft”? Is anybody else reading this stuff? You NE putzes keep decrying the achievements of California runners, thinking their sheer numbers and caliber don’t measure up on ‘true’ cross-country courses. But the fact is, you are delusional. From Crystal Springs, to Woodward Park, to Mt. Sac, with some Balboa thrown in, those courses are tough. Interjecting pavement every now and then, particularly on a steep downhill can really beat a runner up, like Sadie found out.
heresy, I know. Lane had the record at 16:30 right? She never broke 17 at Balboa Park, winning in 2017 over Hart by 19 seconds (who finished 57 seconds back of Tuohy at NXN)
Record was “soft”? Is anybody else reading this stuff? You NE putzes keep decrying the achievements of California runners, thinking their sheer numbers and caliber don’t measure up on ‘true’ cross-country courses. But the fact is, you are delusional. From Crystal Springs, to Woodward Park, to Mt. Sac, with some Balboa thrown in, those courses are tough. Interjecting pavement every now and then, particularly on a steep downhill can really beat a runner up, like Sadie found out.
heresy, I know. Lane had the record at 16:30 right? She never broke 17 at Balboa Park, winning in 2017 over Hart by 19 seconds (who finished 57 seconds back of Tuohy at NXN)
Was Lane ever the same after setting her legendary Woodward Park record?
heresy, I know. Lane had the record at 16:30 right? She never broke 17 at Balboa Park, winning in 2017 over Hart by 19 seconds (who finished 57 seconds back of Tuohy at NXN)
Was Lane ever the same after setting her legendary Woodward Park record?
I cannot say - but she did win FL that year...a quick look at results shows most CA runners run faster at Woodward than at Balboa though so Lane's times do not seem out of line.....
you are delusional. As good as she is, if she was in the B race she would have gotten buried in the middle of the 200 B runners and stuck in the much worse course conditions and probably would have run 15-20 seconds slower.
You obviously don't know muchabout racing if you think those boys weren't trying. That us insulting. And if you watched, you woukd have seen that she looked relaxed. The middle.of the pack boys were dropping like flies at the finish while she was smiling. She would have run 20 seconds faster in the boys' race. Stop putting her down. It is a bad look.
better yet she would have beaten half of the Niwot boy's team
That fact that Mt SAC isn't the easiest course doesn't change the fact that the top runners who ran Mt SAC the week before the state meet weren't going all out.
CIF Finals is an all-out effort. You don't realize this but being SS champion is huge. It is like a state meet and they treat it as such.
I was actually there this year (and many other years in the past) and I talked to many of the runners. No, the top runners do NOT treat CIF Section finals like a state meet. Stop making things up.
Melody Fairchild is still the GOAT. She demolished the Footlocker field by a full minute and set a course record that has lasted for 34 years and counting. Temperatures that day were 80 degrees, the hottest it had ever been for the race up until that time. She beat Deena Kastor (3x Olympian, Olympic bronze, Amercian Record holder) by 1:14, Amy Rudolph (2x NCAA Champ, 2x Olympian) by 1:43, and Jen Rhines (5x NCAA champ, 3x Olympian) by 1:47.
A couple months later, she won the bronze medal at the World Junior Cross Country Championships. Among those she beat were Kastor by 0:56, Ethiopia's Gete Wami (World Championship gold and bronze, Olympic silver and two bronze), Romania's Gabby Szabo (Olympic gold, silver, and bronze, World Outdoor 3x gold, World Indoor 4x gold, 1 silver), and somebody named Paula Radcliffe from Great Britain.
I guess if you want to consider full careers, Fairchild also won Footlocker in 1989 and was runner-up in 1988. She beat Kastor and Carol Zajac (4x NCAA champ w/ 2 in XC) both of those years, Rudolph in 1989, and Cheri Goddard in '88. I'm pretty sure the only two races she lost in her sophomore through senior years were 2nd at Footlocker as a sophomore and the 3rd at World Cross as a senior.
GOAT
I can't believe people are still arguing this. I guess I'll continue.
Not only did Fairchild take the bronze at World Cross her senior year, but she also placed 12th as a junior. Again, she smashed Kastor by 1:12 (in a 4.4K race), and also defeated Portugal’s Carla Sacramento (World Indoor silver, World Outdoor gold and bronze, 4x Olympian) and Kenya's Tegla Loroupe (World outdoor bronze x2, Berlin Marathon 1st & 2nd, NYC 1st x2 & 3rd, London 1st, Rotterdam 1st x3, 2x World Record).
And you people are talking about the Great Edinburg race (with ZERO Africans) and Kelsey Chmiel? In four years of XC, indoor, and outdoor, Chmiel had exactly three top-5s at NCAAs with a best of 3rd. Yeah, that's the same as beating multiple world record holders and Olympic/World gold medalists. Take a look at some of those highlighted names above.
Melody Fairchild. GOAT. No debate is even possible. People can argue all they want about who was better among Hedengren, Tuohy, Trotter, etc., but there is only one GOAT, and her name is Melody.
I guess if you want to consider full careers, Fairchild also won Footlocker in 1989 and was runner-up in 1988. She beat Kastor and Carol Zajac (4x NCAA champ w/ 2 in XC) both of those years, Rudolph in 1989, and Cheri Goddard in '88. I'm pretty sure the only two races she lost in her sophomore through senior years were 2nd at Footlocker as a sophomore and the 3rd at World Cross as a senior.
GOAT
I can't believe people are still arguing this. I guess I'll continue.
Not only did Fairchild take the bronze at World Cross her senior year, but she also placed 12th as a junior. Again, she smashed Kastor by 1:12 (in a 4.4K race), and also defeated Portugal’s Carla Sacramento (World Indoor silver, World Outdoor gold and bronze, 4x Olympian) and Kenya's Tegla Loroupe (World outdoor bronze x2, Berlin Marathon 1st & 2nd, NYC 1st x2 & 3rd, London 1st, Rotterdam 1st x3, 2x World Record).
And you people are talking about the Great Edinburg race (with ZERO Africans) and Kelsey Chmiel? In four years of XC, indoor, and outdoor, Chmiel had exactly three top-5s at NCAAs with a best of 3rd. Yeah, that's the same as beating multiple world record holders and Olympic/World gold medalists. Take a look at some of those highlighted names above.
Melody Fairchild. GOAT. No debate is even possible. People can argue all they want about who was better among Hedengren, Tuohy, Trotter, etc., but there is only one GOAT, and her name is Melody.
I actually agree with you that Melody Fairchild is still the best US high school cross country athlete, but comparing her to the future accomplishments of athletes she beat makes no sense. The other athletes were not in world champion shape at the time, and we have no idea how well trained they were in these races. On the flip side, Jane Ekimat beat Fairchild for the silver medal by 8 seconds. Despite competing 17 years following this race, Ekimat never broke 32 minutes in the 10k, 70 minutes in the half, or 2:30 in the marathon.
She's won big national races - she still holds the Brooks PR record for the mile. For XC - this is the healthiest XC season she has had. She had a great race at Woodbridge last year and then missed most of her season with an injury.
Do you think Englehardt, the high school mile record holder, was at 100% after suffering an injury when she took down the all-time Woodward Park course record?
Tuohyites just keep hand-waving and excuse making. It’s pathetic.
Gee, maybe that record was soft? Or maybe different runners were affected by different injuries/training impacts.
Woodward park record was soft? She is the same runner with the same injury. It was Woodward park CR holder getting dropped by a minute(in bad conditions).
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