A little high school trash talk: Connor Burns on the Youngs "they've been dodging (competition) all year"

They aren’t entirely wrong, they have barely raced this year compared to Burns or Birnbaum. They have had other goals like World XC but still haven’t exactly faced a ton of competition. They have raced like pros basically, only a few times a year.

It's just a joke. Simeon Birnbaum and Connor Burns are having some fun with the situation.

Yes, they are probably a little annoyed that some people have said they can't be considered the best until they beat Lex and Leo, but there's actually no bad blood between them and the Youngs. Birnbaum and Burns are just hyping up the race, that's all.

"They have forgotten their place - I will remind them!"

Birnbaum’s comment is fine. Burns seems mean spirited.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist because where they are going is public info. Why would it take a rocket scientist to figure out where athletes commit to college?

As usual, Burns running his mouth. The kid is a real punk.

They decided that their competitors that spends $1000s of dollars and flew across the country out to Arcadia 3200 (Burns, birnbaum, Hansen, Simmons), were not worth racing even though they were a 15 minute drive away. They chose to race a collegiate runners, as if they were on another level. I don’t blame their competitors for being slightly frustrated with them.

Lex and Leo had already lost their high school eligibility by the time Arcadia happened. So Lex and Leo were banned from Arcadia. A lot of people don't seem to know that.

And you think they'll do well there? They'll probably get like a 2.5 in some BS major for athletes. Obviously Oregon is far worse, but someone like Ramsden (3.96 - she's actually intelligent) will do far better in life

Oh I thought they were still eligible. In the Arcadia 3200 video on runnerspace, the commentators said they were still eligible to run but were choosing to race collegiates.

That just means that the Arcadia commentator was one of the many people who didn't know what they were talking about.

Ramsen actually got an award at indoor nationals for having the highest GPA of any competitor at the meet. She's talented enough to be a professional runner, but my guess is that she has too many other career options and probably won't go pro.

I'd also be shocked if she went pro. While it's not unheard of (as someone else posted, a similar runner who went to a similar college (Princeton) ran professionally for 2-3 years and is now a partner at a VC firm), it's very unlikely

I think people know that. They could have easily signed up for their high school team and stayed with it long enough to run at Arcadia. I’m not sure, maybe they would have missed a pro meet in the meantime, but not taking steps to run Arcadia as a premier HS track distance event in their backyard seems bizarre.

If they were there, it would have been the greatest high school race for years to come. 5 to 6 guys in the 8:30s plus the plethora of other under 8:50 and 9:00. Even better than the 4 under 4 at hoka i think.

absolutely huge fan of the youngs and it would of been a site to see and remember.

Love this! As if we needed any more incentive to watch the race this afternoon. Getting my popcorn ready! 🍿

But that would have meant not training with Sean Brosnan, which started in December 2022. The Youngs wanted to stay with Sean Brosnan and the only way to do that was to not run with their high school team.

So that decision was already made in December 2022 immediately after NXN, not in April 2023.