Daaaam..okay, I'm not a huge fan of redshirting true freshmen (18-year-olds, first year of university) who are on fire (aka, doing really well) their first year of university. they might only run 2-3 years of university anyway, and then go pro. why waste them? or waste their eligibility.
Wasn't there a guy at Wisconsin who was doing really well his frosh year, and Jerry Schaumacher decided to "save him"/redshirt him his freshmen year. But he really should've run at natty's. Can't remember his name offhand. IIRC, he then got injured his soph year.
Echohawk #23, also really good for a true freshman.
I added the unattached guys to Oregon. Not sure if all are Oregon must a number were. 2 Quincy NORMAN PRs: 5000m 13:48/10k XC 28:54 W Regional 20th Oregon 23:43.8 +2pts • Yr: JR 3 Simeon BIRNBAUM PRs 1:47.96/3:37.93 (18 years old) Unattached 23:44.1 Yr: FR Strong performance for a frosh, enough to not redshirt? We'll probably not know until after Pre-Nats or even Conference. 4 Josh EDWARDS PR 13:47 Unattached 23:45.2 Yr: SO 6 Estanis RUIZ PRs 1:50.04/5k 15:00/24 8k/32:20 10k xc Unattached 23:53.0 7 Elliott COOK Oregon 24:00.6 PRs 1:46.93/3:38.1 just 21 years old +4pts • Yr: JR 10 Archie NOAKES PRs 3:45/4:01/7:53/13:52 Unattached 24:06.2 Yr: FR 14 Giuliano SCASSO Unattached 24:10.8 Yr: JR 18 Izaiah STEURY Unattached 24:12.5 Yr: SO 20 Abdinasir HUSSEIN
Oregon 24:16.4 +14pts • Yr: JR 22 Benjamin BALAZS Oregon 24:18.8 +16pts • Yr: FR 23 Tayson ECHOHAWK Good result Unattached 24:19.0 Yr: FR 29 Kutoven STEVENS PR 4:13/14:24
Oregon 24:23.9 +22pts • Yr: FR 30 Josh SCHUMACHER PR 13:49 Oregon 24:26.0 Better than he looked, rising 11 spots from the last checkpoint +23pts • Yr: SR 33 Rheinhardt HARRISON PRs 1:48.05 HS/3:38.90 redshirt last year Oregon 24:27.0 +26pts • Yr: FR 48 Connor BURNS PRs 3:58/13:37 Looks likely to redshirt after this Unattached 24:45.0 Yr: FR 60 Dan WATCKE Looks likely to redshirt after this. Look out in track! The kid has 47s 400m speed. Unattached 24:53.6 Yr: FR 79 Luke AFFOLDER Oregon 25:17.8 Yr: SO 90 Vincent MESTLER Oregon 25:26.5 Yr: SO 92 Matthew ERICKSON Oregon 25:28.8 Yr: SO
Daaaam..okay, I'm not a huge fan of redshirting true freshmen (18-year-olds, first year of university) who are on fire (aka, doing really well) their first year of university. they might only run 2-3 years of university anyway, and then go pro. why waste them? or waste their eligibility.
Wasn't there a guy at Wisconsin who was doing really well his frosh year, and Jerry Schaumacher decided to "save him"/redshirt him his freshmen year. But he really should've run at natty's. Can't remember his name offhand. IIRC, he then got injured his soph year.
Echohawk #23, also really good for a true freshman.
Daaaam..okay, I'm not a huge fan of redshirting true freshmen (18-year-olds, first year of university) who are on fire (aka, doing really well) their first year of university. they might only run 2-3 years of university anyway, and then go pro. why waste them? or waste their eligibility.
Wasn't there a guy at Wisconsin who was doing really well his frosh year, and Jerry Schaumacher decided to "save him"/redshirt him his freshmen year. But he really should've run at natty's. Can't remember his name offhand. IIRC, he then got injured his soph year.
Echohawk #23, also really good for a true freshman.
That was the baller, Matt Withrow, who beat Shadrack Kiptoo and Galen Rupp for the footlocker xc title and went on to run 13:35 as a freshman before struggling a bit with injuries.
Right, how could I forget this race? Commentators "I wonder if he paid too high of a high of a price for that surge at 2 miles?" Matt Withrow: kicks to the front and wins.
Withrow absolutely hammered the last 200m and went over a bit longer from 4th to 1st, to beat Kiptoo (3:41 1500), Rupp (4:02/8:07?), Josh McDougall (home schooled, future NCAA xc champ over Rupp), and Ben True (probably the least trained for running at that point, but later ran 13:02).
Honestly it seems like Birnbaum performed how you’d expect, assuming a smooth transition to collegiate running. I mean, the kid was surely good for 7:50ish for 3k in June, and this wasn’t the deepest race. Great that it looks like things are going well for him though. Hopefully Schumacher doesn’t get cute and redshirt him.
The splits are all screwed up so it’s hard to tell for sure, but it looks like Burns was in front of Birnbaum 11 minutes into the race and just went backwards.
Especially for a true miler who can run a very decent 800.
Do you think Birnbaum is a true miler? I'm not sure what he's best at. Pretty versatile.
Just going off of last season’s track times, his 1500 is best, followed by his mile and 2 mile.
Even as a Birnbaum fan, I hadn’t expected him to do so well in the 8k. Had thought that the 5k in HS was about his distance limit. But on his Strava he has logged Burns-level miles this summer and clearly it has paid off.
