Nuguse is a championship runner and has proven it numerous times before. He also ran 7:38 CR this season. But something was off in that ACC race and here too he went out really fast and couldn't hold it. Maybe he's overtrained or maybe he's suffering after-effects of COVID. He'll be back.
I wonder if he's moved on mentally from the NCAA; maybe ready to go pro. He just doesn't look engaged or interested. And these NCAA guys are too good for him to have that attitude.
It seems like Nuguse is phenomenally talented, but is just not that great of a racer
2 years ago everyone thought he was a great racer. He looked flat. Not enough (or too much) speed work? That 3k showed the engine is there.
If you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, he did start a decent bit back and burned a bit trying to catch up. But I would be surprised if he ran well tomorrow
For whatever reason his fitness just isn't there like it has been in the past. Could be indirectly related to the injury he had that caused him to miss the Olympics.
For whatever reason his fitness just isn't there like it has been in the past. Could be indirectly related to the injury he had that caused him to miss the Olympics.
Didn’t he run a collegiate record in the 3k within the last two weeks
For whatever reason his fitness just isn't there like it has been in the past. Could be indirectly related to the injury he had that caused him to miss the Olympics.
Didn’t he run a collegiate record in the 3k within the last two weeks
Yeah I don't think it's fitness. Seems more mental to me.
Didn’t he run a collegiate record in the 3k within the last two weeks
Yeah I don't think it's fitness. Seems more mental to me.
He took like 5 shoves in that race. It was a really rough run with guys getting jostled into him. Not going to overreact, though I do think he could learn a little bit from Cole Hocker in the tactics department. There was really no reason to put himself in such contested position the entire time. You can either go to the front and control it or hang back a bit and stay out of trouble. Trying to run in 3rd/4th on the outside of lane 1 the entire time was a recipe for disaster .
He took like 5 shoves in that race. It was a really rough run with guys getting jostled into him. Not going to overreact, though I do think he could learn a little bit from Cole Hocker in the tactics department. There was really no reason to put himself in such contested position the entire time. You can either go to the front and control it or hang back a bit and stay out of trouble. Trying to run in 3rd/4th on the outside of lane 1 the entire time was a recipe for disaster .
Yeah especially that last shove by the Texas anchor. It was so rough that if Nuguse had gone down Texas would have been DQed. And it was just as Nuguse had started winding up and started moving hard. There him off. No Nuguse fan boy here. I agree he didn’t look totally mentally engaged compared to other races. And he made up too much ground too early. But that shove was BS.
I also suspect he has had some minor injury or hiccups in training. For people we know personally we know all the small things they go through like injuries, sickness, etc., and it is easy to forget these things affect top athletes just as much.
He still ran 3:55 so not like he's in terrible shape, just not at the same level he was last year or during the 3K earlier this year.
When I was looking at attending Notre Dame the team was absolute trash. Got waxed at their own home meet, wouldn’t make nationals, etc. like him or not Carlson has turned the men’s program around pretty significantly