Marielle Hall leaves BTC

I wonder where she will land next. Would love to see her back on the east coast.

More BTC departures to come?

Not a shock in the least.

Hall, Derrick, Quigley, Jorgensen, Hill, Houilihan all in a 12 month period. Look for infeld, Thompson, Fraser, Bartelsmeyer, and Johnson to follow Suite in the next 12 months- either by retirement or contract cuts.

Beaverton Township wrote:

Not a shock in the least.

Hall, Derrick, Quigley, Jorgensen, Hill, Houilihan all in a 12 month period. Look for infeld, Thompson, Fraser, Bartelsmeyer, and Johnson to follow Suite in the next 12 months- either by retirement or contract cuts.

Kate Grace, too.

Beaverton Township wrote:

Not a shock in the least.

Hall, Derrick, Quigley, Jorgensen, Hill, Houilihan all in a 12 month period. Look for infeld, Thompson, Fraser, Bartelsmeyer, and Johnson to follow Suite in the next 12 months- either by retirement or contract cuts.

Johnson is already gone. Joined Pete's group. Coaches frustrated at Johnson not buying into training, Johnson felt she wasn't going to adapt to the strength training. Seems mutual enough.

BTC already have lined up a replacement 2:00/4:02 800/1500m runner. Details being finalized.

Source? Cite this post when this is all confirmed in the next month or so.

;)

you can book it wrote:

Beaverton Township wrote:

Not a shock in the least.

Hall, Derrick, Quigley, Jorgensen, Hill, Houilihan all in a 12 month period. Look for infeld, Thompson, Fraser, Bartelsmeyer, and Johnson to follow Suite in the next 12 months- either by retirement or contract cuts.

Johnson is already gone. Joined Pete's group. Coaches frustrated at Johnson not buying into training, Johnson felt she wasn't going to adapt to the strength training. Seems mutual enough.

BTC already have lined up a replacement 2:00/4:02 800/1500m runner. Details being finalized.

Source? Cite this post when this is all confirmed in the next month or so.

;)

North of the border recruit.

Johnson not yet released as official.

Interesting list of names leaving the BTC. Coincidentally, nearly all of the named athletes have appeared in very friendly photos sharing meals or drinks with Quigley on her Instagram.

Did the Houlihan incident and how it was handled by Jerry and Shalane cause a huge rift within the team? Big budget cuts by Nike? Yes, there are some age and performance reasons why some would be let go but it also seems like nearly half of the team is heading for the door.

Do we think this was a contract cut? If so, who else can we expect to be cut by Nike BTC next ?

Dog Trainer Elite wrote:

Interesting list of names leaving the BTC. Coincidentally, nearly all of the named athletes have appeared in very friendly photos sharing meals or drinks with Quigley on her Instagram.

Did the Houlihan incident and how it was handled by Jerry and Shalane cause a huge rift within the team? Big budget cuts by Nike? Yes, there are some age and performance reasons why some would be let go but it also seems like nearly half of the team is heading for the door.

There is a real age divide. A lot of the people on the out (barring Johnson) are from an older cohort. Depending on what Infeld does, Frerichs could be the oldest woman on the team, followed by DeBues-Stafford.

The women's side of the team really seems to be a two tiered club right now, with a pretty sizeable gulf this past year in performance between Frerichs, Stafford, Cranny, and Schweizer, versus Hall, Johnson, Jorgensen, Fraser, Infeld. Maybe slightly unfair on Infeld given she rebounded okay post trials, but still.

I could definitely see Schumacher and Co being told by Nike to freshen up, lean out the roster numbers, and focus on youth. The team probably got a bit too big last year.

you can book it wrote:

Johnson is already gone. Joined Pete's group. Coaches frustrated at Johnson not buying into training, Johnson felt she wasn't going to adapt to the strength training. Seems mutual enough.

I know nothing of Johnson and her situation, but wouldn't she have been well aware of Jerry's training philosophy before joining? Isn't that the kind of thing a prospect would discuss with him in detail? Or maybe she wanted to give it a shot to see how she adapted but wasn't happy with the results.

Um, isn't this what always happens post-Olympics? Yeah, you reduce or cut the people who didn't make the team, who weren't close to making the team, or who certainly aren't ascending to that level. This should all be entirely expected and honestly Jager and Lomong should join the exodus, it's not like they're lining up for fall marathons.

Running Cult Member wrote:

Um, isn't this what always happens post-Olympics? Yeah, you reduce or cut the people who didn't make the team, who weren't close to making the team, or who certainly aren't ascending to that level. This should all be entirely expected and honestly Jager and Lomong should join the exodus, it's not like they're lining up for fall marathons.

this. and to the people suggesting a "rift" in the "team" ... wake up. they're all employees. the team is an illusion. it's marketing that you are falling for. if Nike wants them, it will keep them. If it doesn't, they're fired (or offered such measly pay as to be shown the door). If they can't agree, then they don't hire. And if someone wants to leave, whether because of the Houlihan situation or anything else, they probably won't, unless they can find themselves somewhere else to go, as it appears Johnson did.

+ Kate Grace is still with Nike.

Turnover is of course common at this level, but the BTC women in particular have tended to stay together historically. That no longer seems to be the case, with athletes leaving the team voluntarily for other brands (Quigley) or staying with Nike but ditching BTC’s coaching (Grace).

It’s not necessarily abnormal but it pulls against BTC’s reputation and is worthy of discussion. Infield has suggested that BTC’s coaches were distracted by Houlihan’s appeal and that caused some hurt feelings from athletes who felt they weren’t getting enough individualization.

Please Hansons reach out and help guide her to Road Race stardom.

you can book it wrote:

BTC already have lined up a replacement 2:00/4:02 800/1500m runner. Details being finalized.;)

Well, I guessed correctly last summer that GDS was going to be the new sub-4 Bowerman Babe, so . . . pretty clear you're referring to kid sis Lucia Stafford as the newest BB.

However, GDS was already a 14:44/5k runner from 2019 and wanted higher training volume than what she was getting from her Glasgow training group, so joining BTC was going to be a good fit.

Lucia, on the other hand, does not even have a 3k pr listed on worldathletics.org. She appears to be a pure mid-d 800/1500 type -- like Kate Grace and Sinclaire Johnson.

So, from what we know about Kate and what you've hinted re: Sinclaire, this move is a bit of a head-scratcher.

However, Lucia obviously knows what she will be getting into -- and possibly is looking forward to running some 3ks and 5ks -- so have to presume she has more of a distance runner's mindset.

Back to the OP's topic on Marielle Hall. After such a wonderful 2019 season -- then setting a 3k pr last summer at one of the intrasquad meets -- 2021 should have been her Olympic coronation but instead was a disaster. Biggest head-scratcher of all.

Regarding Infeld and Fraser, don't see any reason for them to leave or even want to leave.

Emily just set prs this year in 1500, mile, 5k and 10k and has admitted she should have screwed up the courage to tell Jerry and Shalane that going up to Park City in April was too soon for her given all the personal travails she was going through at the time. Fortunately, those problems are now in the rear view mirror so 2022 should be her best year ever.

Vanessa, on the other hand, just missed so much training time recovering first from her double Tenex procedures last year, then a stress reaction this past winter, that she just couldn't put it all back together by the Trials. However, as a 5k-10k runner, that's BTC's sweet spot along with the Steeple, so training with Emily, Elise, Karissa, and Courtney should relaunch her career next year.

And, here's to hoping that Nike will not pull the plug on Evan or Lopez. Rather doubt that will happen. Evan is a US t&f icon while Lopez is a cultural icon. They should be allowed to leave the sport on their own terms.

Nike pulled the plug on Bob Kennedy while the Kennedy spike was their best selling spike.

LOYALTY???????

What have you done lately is the Nike way.

Robert Zappa wrote:

Nike pulled the plug on Bob Kennedy while the Kennedy spike was their best selling spike.

LOYALTY???????

What have you done lately is the Nike way.

💯

Too many posters here think IG is reality. BTC is a workplace, not a low body fat Jersey Shore. Athletes who sign with Nike can be sent to Bowerman or any other group if that's what Nike wants, and Schumacher doesn't exactly have veto power over that and certainly nobody on the team does, either. It happened when Ritz was told to report to Eugene and then soon after was pulled from Hudson and sent to NOP. This is driven by the brand first and then the agents, coaches and other athletes are just along for the ride.

reer wrote:

you can book it wrote:

Johnson is already gone. Joined Pete's group. Coaches frustrated at Johnson not buying into training, Johnson felt she wasn't going to adapt to the strength training. Seems mutual enough.

I know nothing of Johnson and her situation, but wouldn't she have been well aware of Jerry's training philosophy before joining? Isn't that the kind of thing a prospect would discuss with him in detail? Or maybe she wanted to give it a shot to see how she adapted but wasn't happy with the results.

Of course. Dave Smith and Jerry have an amicable relationship dating back to german Fernandez. This would not have been a blind decision.

Beaverton township wrote:

reer wrote:

I know nothing of Johnson and her situation, but wouldn't she have been well aware of Jerry's training philosophy before joining? Isn't that the kind of thing a prospect would discuss with him in detail? Or maybe she wanted to give it a shot to see how she adapted but wasn't happy with the results.

Of course. Dave Smith and Jerry have an amicable relationship dating back to german Fernandez. This would not have been a blind decision.

Jerry and Dave have been buddies since their college days. Jerry at Wisconsin and Dave at MSU.

Except for Quigley, all the women leaving BTC posted something very similar when they left the team: very pro-Bowerman, I thought this was the ideal, must move on though, blah blah, thanks for everything. I bet their exit messages were controlled contractually.

I have three thoughts:

1. Club is too big (it is) and too old and Nike is pushing women out

2. Doping drama: either team doping is now hyper controlled and athletes think they're going to suffer, or they fear getting caught, or doping truly was news to them.

3. Girls don't like Shalane. She came on board and shortly thereafter there was a mass exodus.

Most likely a combination of #1 and some other factor, perhaps my #2 and #3, maybe something else.