I asked Jay Johson this question on my podcast (FYI, I'm not trying to promote my podcast; rather, I'm simply interested in your feedback).
Would they even make NCAAs? If they did, how would they place and how would Adam Goucher do individually?
https://youtu.be/8erPl9KTUkg (he talks about it at 49:45mark)
How would the Running With The Buffaloes Team Do Today At NCAAs?
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Now this is CRINGE
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Crazy that he said they may not make top 10. They would finish 3rd or 4th.
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They're all way past their prime, and the one guy would get arrested if he reentered the US. I don't think they'd make a strong showing.
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So,
does he mean those actual guys right now? There are certainly some who might have to walk during 10k. The best among them might be a decent middle-aged runner. That can't be the question. It's like asking if I could beat Shorter and Rodgers now. I easily could. You readers of this thread could too.
Or,
does he me if you had a time machine. You know, like transporting Shorter and Rodgers in their primes to easily beat me now. This is a good question. Are many of the courses where Goucher held the Course Record still in use? The Buffalo home course must be, and I think only Torres has run faster since then. Also, track times are a reasonably objective metric for comparison. Don't you all think they'd be in the mix? Well within the top 10? Wouldn't Adam be on the podium for sure? He easily beat Meb and Abdi back then. -
Top 3 team and Goucher contends for gold individually.
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Good Team wrote:
Top 3 team and Goucher contends for gold individually.
I wouldn't bet against Goucher but top 3 team seems unlikely. Go look at the track PRs of teams like NAU, BYU, stanford, or Arkansas and I think it is a stretch. The depth just isn't there. Back in the day the 5th and 6th man on those teams could be like a 14:20 runner. Now a days it is like a 14:00 runner and the real killer is how much further back it pushes that 14:20 guy. -
As a guy who ran against Goucher and those teams in the late 90's, remember there were no mega Stanford track meets for these guys to drop from altitude and drop nasty PRs over 5000 and 10,000m... I raced Friedburg and the guys at the Penn Relays! Can you imagine Colorado going to the Penn Relays for a fast 5000/10,000m in today's world?
I don't think the team would win, but I do think Adam Goucher would contend for the title. I haven't seen many guys with his ability. He ran 7:40s and 13:30s indoors. If you think Grijalva from NAU can contend for the title, then Goucher is right there. -
You may be right but I like to think they would contend. The team went through a lot of adversity and they all had the hearts of champions and great coaching.
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Good Team wrote:
You may be right but I like to think they would contend. The team went through a lot of adversity and they all had the hearts of champions and great coaching.
Definitely but it doesn't change the fact that they are going to struggle. To be fair that is true for a lot of teams if you pull out one of their top 2 or 3 runners. Replacing a guy who could be top 20 with someone back in like 60th place hurts a lots a lot. Now there is also a big randomness factor out there. There are a ton of 4-6th guys who are 13:55-14:10 5000m guys. Have a good day an finish 40th and your team outperforms. Have a bad day and finish 100th and your team is in trouble. My impression was that on that day CO did about as well as you could expect.
I do think it is a stretch to think they would not be a top 10 team though. -
I'd guess somewhere in the 6-10 range as a team.
I think Goucher would contend for the win. Against this year's field, he'd probably be the favorite (unless Kiptoo turns out to be an absolute monster). The track season following his NCAA victory, Goucher ran 3:54/7:43/13:11, won USAs in the 5k, and made the World Championship final. -
Jonathan Gault wrote:
I'd guess somewhere in the 6-10 range as a team.
I think Goucher would contend for the win. Against this year's field, he'd probably be the favorite (unless Kiptoo turns out to be an absolute monster). The track season following his NCAA victory, Goucher ran 3:54/7:43/13:11, won USAs in the 5k, and made the World Championship final.
I came here to post this. Outkicked Bob Kennedy to win USAs.
Teams certainly weren't as deep back then, as the level of runners coming out of high school was not the same. I actually had been thinking about a similar question earlier in the week: "Has Colorado / Whetmore lost their advantage now that the majority of teams in the country have dropped the lower mileage, higher intensity training that predominated during the 90's? -
People are overthinking this question. If the RWTB team ran the NCAA championship race today, they would definitely win because they would be the only team in the race.
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Goucher would win individually. Klecker was 2nd last year - probably should have won but erred tactically. Goucher was a lot better than Klecker as a senior in college.
Team would be 5th-10th due to increased depth in the NCAA as mentioned previously a few times. -
The Hogs won it that year and their 5th guy was Adam Dailey, a 28:40 10K guy. They were pretty good.
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But they would also be last
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free shipping with purchase wrote:
Goucher would win individually. Klecker was 2nd last year - probably should have won but erred tactically. Goucher was a lot better than Klecker as a senior in college.
Team would be 5th-10th due to increased depth in the NCAA as mentioned previously a few times.
I'm not as up to date on today's NCAA favorites. But assuming a normal year Goucher would be the favorite or one of the top two if there was a stud like a Cheseret.
I would assume in the 11-15 range as a team. Those guys who were all American then would be much further back today and their 4, 5 would kill any shot at a top 5. -
free shipping with purchase wrote:
Goucher would win individually. Klecker was 2nd last year - probably should have won but erred tactically. Goucher was a lot better than Klecker as a senior in college.
Team would be 5th-10th due to increased depth in the NCAA as mentioned previously a few times.
agree-more team depth now, but on watching that '98 race Goucher was on fire-some real studs in the top 5 -Abdi, Sean Kaley etc...that was an honest course to run under 29:30 also... -
Jonathan Gault wrote:
I'd guess somewhere in the 6-10 range as a team.
I think Goucher would contend for the win. Against this year's field, he'd probably be the favorite (unless Kiptoo turns out to be an absolute monster). The track season following his NCAA victory, Goucher ran 3:54/7:43/13:11, won USAs in the 5k, and made the World Championship final.
Goucher would compete in any era. The rest of team was over trained and were injury riddled coming into NCAAs. Maybe with Wetmore's adapted training knowledge since 1998 that team would have won in a theoretical 2020. Who knows.
