Well, Marlee did sort of miss the boat now that PA high school athletes can go to work with their NIL. She was the most well-known PA high school distance runner in her time and could have been doing promo's for physical therapists, running stores, sports physicians, and what have you. I don't think there is a current PA athlete who has her name recognition, but it will be interesting to see how much future PA high school athletes earn through NIL and how that sits with their average high school teammates.
I don’t disagree with you about the NAU mileage. It is that coach Smith would have gradually worked up her mileage over the years and not jumped her from 45 miles a week to 60-65. The key word is Wisdom! NAU’s top runner said her jump this year was her and Coach Smith figuring out the right mileage for her. We are 3 years in and NC State can’t figure it out?!?!
Marlee was not injury prone in HS. She never missed a season and improved every single season under her HS coach. What was weird is that she got her stress reaction after coming off a break (10 days off) she took after indoor Nationals got canceled due to Covid.
Also Marlee was a lower mileage runner than all the elite HS girls she competed against. I’m not bashing NC State but Marlee did pick the wrong program to go too. It is not a good fit for her at all. It is for Tuohy and Chmiel because they were high mileage athletes in HS. They are doing the same mileage in college that they did in HS. Marlee needed a program that had some wisdom and that did not have a survival of the fittest mentality. She should have gone with her second pick that she said was her dream school in an interview which was NAU!!!! Coach Smith is a much better coach than Henes. He would have progressed her properly and not thrown her into NC State’s philosophy on training.
Starliper needs to transfer and find a coach and program that fits her better. NC State obviously works great for many, but not Marlee.
please transfer Marlee!!!!!!!
Garbage post, that twists the facts to try to bash NC State. The fact of the matter is that Marlee did first have these sorts of injuries in high school. You try to whitewash that fact, and insinuate as if NC State has caused these injuries.
If you actually looked into Marlee's story/journey at NC State, you would know that Marlee has stated that they have actually tailored her training at NC State to limit her mileage and include a lot of cross-training. She explicitly states this, and how her training is very different from that of her teammates, in this article here from her website:
Amazing what Smith and Solinsky did with women who were much more injury prone. Henes is lost. She just puts everyone through a similar program and doesn't care that she ruins so many of the young women. Starliper would be as good as Tuohy under a different coach.
Amazing what Smith and Solinsky did with women who were much more injury prone. Henes is lost. She just puts everyone through a similar program and doesn't care that she ruins so many of the young women. Starliper would be as good as Tuohy under a different coach.
Amazing what Smith and Solinsky did with women who were much more injury prone. Henes is lost. She just puts everyone through a similar program and doesn't care that she ruins so many of the young women. Starliper would be as good as Tuohy under a different coach.
Smith sure did a great job with Cotter and O'Neill, who both regressed under his tutelage. Yesterday you were selling 'academic', today it's NAU.
Selling? Starliper chose an average school with an average coach. She could be excelling at a much better school like Florida. Smith is the best coach in the NCAA as evidenced by his 2 teams. NAU sucks as a school.
I forgot about Florida and Solinsky's team of one. What happened to Imogen Barett? Where is Angelina Perez? Seems program only working for Valby until her next injury. Florida and Valby ducked the competition at bu, so now she'll be under pressure just to qualify for indoor.
Amazing what Smith and Solinsky did with women who were much more injury prone. Henes is lost. She just puts everyone through a similar program and doesn't care that she ruins so many of the young women. Starliper would be as good as Tuohy under a different coach.
Smith sure did a great job with Cotter and O'Neill, who both regressed under his tutelage. Yesterday you were selling 'academic', today it's NAU.
You are cherry picking here. Cotter went there for 1 year and came in hurt. O’Neill has had a great 4 years and progressed with the exception of this season where she admits in an Instagram post she didn’t even expect to compete due to not running all summer but still was able to come in and make the top 7 off no base. look at what Smith has done with the other girls. Watch his recent interview on You Tube - he clearly states he can count on one hand the number of bone injuries his teams have experienced under him. They ramp up slowly over the years, freshman women doing much less distance (probably why it took until now to see Stearns huge jump in performance) and focus on soft surfaces and trails. I’ll try and link the interview.
I have no opinion where Marlee should go but your above statements are wrong.
Marlee was not injury prone in HS. She never missed a season and improved every single season under her HS coach. What was weird is that she got her stress reaction after coming off a break (10 days off) she took after indoor Nationals got canceled due to Covid.
Also Marlee was a lower mileage runner than all the elite HS girls she competed against. I’m not bashing NC State but Marlee did pick the wrong program to go too. It is not a good fit for her at all. It is for Tuohy and Chmiel because they were high mileage athletes in HS. They are doing the same mileage in college that they did in HS. Marlee needed a program that had some wisdom and that did not have a survival of the fittest mentality. She should have gone with her second pick that she said was her dream school in an interview which was NAU!!!! Coach Smith is a much better coach than Henes. He would have progressed her properly and not thrown her into NC State’s philosophy on training.
Starliper needs to transfer and find a coach and program that fits her better. NC State obviously works great for many, but not Marlee.
please transfer Marlee!!!!!!!
NAU is not high mileage? 💀 pretty sure i saw a tiktok of an injured NAU runner saying she was doing 60 miles per week, lets not even start with the mileage of their mens team haha
Semi why don’t you stick w being creepily obsessed with your team and don’t start stalking the NAU girls Tik Toks. And if your going to base your argument on “pretty sure I saw” un named runners “injured” tik tok… that’s great reliable evidence of an entire teams high mileage lol. Sorry your opinion hold no weight. Also 60- is not even very high for 6-10k tuners.
Cotter arriving injured is not the coach’s fault but Starliper arriving injured is.
Curious.
Who was O’Neill’s coach as she went from top 10 to 106th in 20 months?
I always forget the poor reading comprehension on this site. I have never weighed any opinion on Marlee or who is to blame for her injury. Not will I because I know little about her or the NCST program. also if you read what I did say - O’Neill didn’t run all summer and stated she didn’t expect to make the team. Also btw. Her not running all summer was her choice for her mental health and not because she was hurt. Good for Smith for supporting that above all else. Sometimes athletes need to recognize when they need a break. Good for O’Neill.
Obviously, I'm being a little facetious here, wrestling with the trolls. My point is that every program has injuries, kids who don't develop and transfers out (and in). Coaching for a championship involves managing all these issues, just trying to get a full team to the start line on the exact 1 day you need it.
NAU was held up as the gold standard by the bashers (until they decide in their next post to belittle NAU academics), but they didn't heal Cotter, she was unhappy and transferred out. Now she is again performing at a high level. I assume O'Neill didn't just decide not to run in the summer, but was injured.
So the gold standard program blew a possible national title by having 2 of their best possible 5 underperform due to transfer and injury. Meanwhile, the criticized coach got 4 of her best 5 to the start and won the race.
Amazing what Smith and Solinsky did with women who were much more injury prone. Henes is lost. She just puts everyone through a similar program and doesn't care that she ruins so many of the young women. Starliper would be as good as Tuohy under a different coach.
Blatantly false. Now, the question is whether you are just uniformed or outright lying.
As I referenced in the article above from Marlee's website, she explicitly describes how her training at NC State was/is different from most of her teammates, and tailored to her due to her injury -- including reduced mileage and more cross-training (or zero mileage, and all cross-training, at times).
Obviously, I'm being a little facetious here, wrestling with the trolls. My point is that every program has injuries, kids who don't develop and transfers out (and in). Coaching for a championship involves managing all these issues, just trying to get a full team to the start line on the exact 1 day you need it.
NAU was held up as the gold standard by the bashers (until they decide in their next post to belittle NAU academics), but they didn't heal Cotter, she was unhappy and transferred out. Now she is again performing at a high level. I assume O'Neill didn't just decide not to run in the summer, but was injured.
So the gold standard program blew a possible national title by having 2 of their best possible 5 underperform due to transfer and injury. Meanwhile, the criticized coach got 4 of her best 5 to the start and won the race.
I actually agree w 99% of what you said here. Trolls are fun to mess with sometimes as well. My only thing I would say is I did actually read on some post O’Neill wrote - can’t remember if it was hers or a comment on a teammates post- that not running was her decision to focus on mental health. She wasn’t injured. Burn out happens - there was also a nicely done documentary done on her where she admits to struggling w body image and eating. So healing those is more important to everyone at NAU it seems over placing higher at the NCAA.
After battling mental health, 20 year old Taryn O'Neill over comes her depression to become one of the best runners in the country. This is a humble comeback...
I read all five pages of this thread and I have a few comments. Running is different to a lot of sports because the athlete entering college is likely either still growing, or in any case, their body is still developing. They build muscular strength that can exceed the capacity of their joints and integuments to keep up. Unpredictable stuff happens. To get to the elite level of D1 programs they are psychologically driven to excel, and may be their own worst enemy. Henes has talked about how hard it is for young people to be patient, especially with injuries that seemingly come and go. Coaching is hard because each young person in the program is a bundle of attitudes, strengths, weaknesses, reasonable and unreasonable expectations, etc. Every coach would love to hire a fortune teller and a priest-exorcist if they could.
Another thing about running that has a parallel in gymnastics, which partly explains why many HS phenoms plateau early in college, has to do with how the body matures. Most people put on a few pounds, or more than a few pounds between age 17 and age 21. For a runner or gymnast, particularly women, that in itself can be a deal breaker. One dirty truth about a lot of programs is that there is a lot of pressure that can result in eating disorders, poor nutrition, and ultimately injury. It's much more complicated than many commenters here seem to be willing to acknowledge.
I’ll start with this: obviously, things didn’t go at all how I hoped they would this cross country season…but I’m still smiling! However, for most of this fall, this was definitely NOT the case. I was not okay for several wee...