We changed the title to make it more descriptive. Initially it was titled, "Parker Wolfe is pathetic". There is no reason to a) not be informative and b) be mean.
This may be the greatest story of 2023. So many thoughts.
1) Congrats to the race winner. Paul O'donnell of Syracuse. Can you imagine running 13:54 in December right after NCAA xcs and that doesn't een get you into the fast heat at conference? Rather than wallow in misery. As a senior, he goes out and runs a facility record of 13:50 and wins it.
2) Since he ran 13:50, the guys in the first heat couldn't screw around too long. They hit 1600 in 4:44. By 2k (5:56), it was all but over as they'd have to run 7:53 at that point.
3) Why the focus on Wolfe? He didn't even win the slow heat. He was beaten by 2+ seconds by 13:26 5k guy Carter Solomon.
It’s actually not that rare something like this happens at ACCs. In 2014 the second heat of the 3K won because the fast heat went out too slow. The winner of the 5K second heat was less than a second away from winning in 2013 too.
In that 2014 race it sounds like you are saying the fast heat was run first. If so, that means they didn't know how fast they had to run and made a bad choice that the second heat could exploit. That's different from this case, where the fast heat was run second and they should have known exactly what they had to do.
Why is everyone on here trashing the ACC guys. They ran faster than the big 10, Big 12 or SEC
because those conferences didn't run a slow heat that had already posted a time to beat. They could go as slow as they wanted with no repercussions. The ACC runners are idiots.
Unfortunately someone opened a window right before the race started... Causing strong winds and even some snow to hit the runners
Also someone took out a fire hose and started spraying the runners down, claiming he thought a runners was on fire. But it was just someone from section 1 trying to slow them down
So between the strong winds and getting blasted with the fire hose you can't blame them for being slow
It’s actually not that rare something like this happens at ACCs. In 2014 the second heat of the 3K won because the fast heat went out too slow. The winner of the 5K second heat was less than a second away from winning in 2013 too.
In that 2014 race it sounds like you are saying the fast heat was run first. If so, that means they didn't know how fast they had to run and made a bad choice that the second heat could exploit. That's different from this case, where the fast heat was run second and they should have known exactly what they had to do.
I realize now that was confusing. I meant the second heat in that they were the slower heat. They ran first. In that case many people in the fast heat weren’t aware of the other heat’s time since they had been in the warmup area. UNC must have known one of their guys won, though, because after a few slow laps they went to the front and made sure it stayed slow
There should not be a slow heat at conference meet. Can any coach here explain why they (and other conferences) do this? It is a championship race, not a time trial
I'm so confused by this. Slow heat had 24 guys, fast heat. Had 16. When I was in school, we ran indoor final onlu races with nearly or actually 40 people all the time.
If they did split them, they could have gone 20 each. Two of the top 3 guys from the slow heat would have been bumped to the fast heat.
Noah Carey from Syracuse didn't have a season time, while Paul O'Donnell had the next fastest season time. How do you pick who is on which heat? Does each coach pick? Could I theoretically put my two fastest guys in the slow heat to avoid the crowded front?
I’m the ACC there is a 3k to 5k conversion calculator (vice versa). As for race fields, “seeded” heat is 16, “unseeded” is everyone else. Coaches also have “wild cards” to enter athletes in non- season competed or non-qualified events.
I take the other side. This is exactly why there SHOULD be a slow heat. The top guys were not the most deserving. They knew what they had to do time wise and place wise and weren’t able to get it done. Kudos to the Syracuse guy. Clearly he was the best prepared, mentally and physically, for the task at hand.