What ever happened to German Fernandez? On this day he set the high school two mile record at 8:34.40.

lol that a triathlete smashed the american record by 4.94 s. how are these runners supposed to feel? damn

I was referring to Verzbicas as the triathlete

khorrps wrote:

I was referring to Verzbicas as the triathlete

He seemed disappear too! I haven’t heard much at all about Verzbicas.

That video is from the CA state meet where an hour and a half prior, he had run 4:00 for 1600

Over the next year, He went on to run a u20 world record for the indoor mile, win the NCAA 1500 title and set the American U20 record for 5000 while placing 5th in the seniors race at USA nationals.

After that, it was a long stretch of interruptions and injuries. The last time I saw him race, he dropped out of the 10k at the 2016 Olympic Trials.

Verzbicas was older when he set the HSR. I think he stayed back a year after moving from Lithuania. A bad bike accident on a training ride ended his career

man's had a bad bicycle crash, broke his spine. had a comeback, but not the same person anymore

He went to Oklahoma State and ran under Dave Smith.

CoachB wrote:

Verzbicas was older when he set the HSR. I think he stayed back a year after moving from Lithuania. A bad bike accident on a training ride ended his career

He graduated a year early and was 18 as a senior.

Going to ok state did not work for him. He ran very well for a year but that training seemed to destroy him. If he kept a nice progression like high school, he would have been running sub 13 by now. You really have to look at the training before you choose a college coach.

What happened to German Fernandez is hardly a mystery, since every development in his HS, collegiate, and professional career has discussed ad-nauseum here on letsrun.

Ditto for LV. Can't help but wonder what might have been.

And according to Wikipedia, LV was born Jan 6, 1993, so he was 18 when he graduated in June 2011.

This belief that he was an age-cheat has been repeated a million times and has no basis in reality.

romper room wrote:

Going to ok state did not work for him. He ran very well for a year but that training seemed to destroy him. If he kept a nice progression like high school, he would have been running sub 13 by now. You really have to look at the training before you choose a college coach.

Are you suggesting he didn't look at that? Dude has multiple XC All-American awards and an NCAA title along with the junior records he ran, he did well in college and who knows how somewhere else would have gone. Running is a total crapshoot, he got a lot out of it when he could and I think it is unfair to suggest he didn't.

Multiple all Americans as well as multiple national titles would be somewhat expected from someone of his caliber. He wasn’t just the fastest that year. He was so dominant.

I’m not saying ok state is necessarily bad. I don’t think his rampant injury problems happened in high school. He ran at his best when he still had residual fitness from high school and less than a year at ok state. He was never that dominant again. He ran 3:55 indoors by himself. He was an unreal talent but the time training at ok state certainly did not see progression in German as an athlete. Was it Dave Smiths fault? Hard to tell. Did German not take care of himself? I cannot answer that either.

Maybe more patience would have allowed German to continue development. No doubt that he did not have to do anything special to be great. Just an easy progression.

Although his career didn't pan out like we wish it did, he did have one of the coolest flotrack Workout Wednesdays ever. I was about to watch it again when I saw this thread, but I'm sad to see it's behind the flotrack paywall now.

LV is 27. GF is 29. It feels these guys ran a generation ago but Rupp is 34 and Lopez 35. So these guys were pros while the other 2 were still in high school and they are not done yet.

German was fragile and injured a lot. What raw talent though.

I don't know much about Dave Smith, but I do know about hundreds of CA h.s. stars who did nothing after college, and only a few who improved (Drossin) or even maintained a high performance level (M. Davis).

So by my calculations the odds were overwhelmingly against Smith/Fernandez, and it's unfair to blame a coach for easily predictable regression.

I would say that if he didn’t seem motivated to win when he got there. The regression happened after he got through freshman year. It didn’t happen in the usual fashion that California kids do. So often they get to the next stage and it’s not easy - the weather, the competition, etc.. German showed the ability to handle everything as can be seen by a national junior record and NCAA title. They seemed to come at a cost. Again, was it DS fault or was German not taking care of himself. There is no indicator that he lost motivation to compete as he even attempted a pro career. By that time he was very damaged goods unlike when he arrived on campus in Stillwater.

Why the focus on where he worked in high school? Most people, at least in my day, worked in high school.

German Fernandez already had injury problems in high school, which is why he didn't win the xc title after running a record 14:24, I think, at Mt. Sac. His coach really had to hold him back and limit his speedwork to keep him healthy in high school. He said that prior to the 4 flat 1600/8:34(?) 3200m double, the fastest work he was doing was at 60s pace, 200s or 400s. He was just 17 when he graduated.

Then when he went to Ok St, he was having a great xc season as a freshman, eventually running in 8th place at NCAA champs around 8k until he had an achilles issue and dropped out. Later that winter, to show how much he developed with the better team competition and higher mileage (and presumably much harder workouts), he ran 3:56 solo, then 3:55 for the mile and 7:47 junior 3k record while quite sick. At this point, he was just 18 years old. He went on to go wire to wire in the NCAA 1500m final for the title, again as a freshman, and run 13:25 for the 3k junior record.

Over the summer, he became a vegetarian or a vegan without understanding how to handle the nutrition and without telling Coach Smith, which led to him developing anemia and that also led to injury problems, which continued almost until the end of his senior year. Arguably, Coach Smith should have put him on a very slow progression in mileage and workouts, but the anemia was his fault. However, still with Coach Smith, he had a few healthy months after graduation and ran 3:34. I don't think he ever stayed healthy enough with BTC after that to run any fast times, by his standards.