RILEY SMITH IS A PROBLEM

I like Riley hope he continues to flourish

Quite the climb, looking like he added some muscle, guessing there are some supplements.

He was running in the 17s sophomore and junior year.

Senior yr XC he was running in the 14s for 5k.

Massive junior-to-senior year jump

💉💉

Is he though? He's not coming to Arcadia.

Why does my post get removed when I just say I know a 4:04 high school miler who doped when I used no names?

Hi Riley!!!

And we wonder why NCAA times are so fast. He's obviously a super responder as he went from 17:50 to 14:50 in a year. Keep claiming it's the shoes

Massive improvements in high school do happen.

Take Christie Ruteledge of FM for example. She ended her freshman year with a 27 minute 5K PR. By her junior year she was second at NXN.

Steve Magness had a stand out senior year seemingly out of no where.

So maybe this is an example of one too? or...maybe...not.

kevinbeck.substack.com

High-school runners are obviously doping in significant numbers

Kevin Beck

Even assigning these kids a one-second-per lap penalty in the distance races to account for the advent of superspikes doesn't come close to explaining the glut of outrageous performances

Link:kevinbeck.substack.com/p/high-school-r...

I ran into this article and I had three thoughts.

1. The author is a get off my lawn right wing weirdo

2. He gets some of the times wrong in the first half

3. he makes a convincing argument for doping at the high school level.

No one is drug testing high school kids. NIL and scholarships are enticing as all get out. Rich parents are insane,look at the college admissions scandal! Is this kid doping? IDK. But are kids doping? probably.

Don't believe me that innocent kids would dope? When I was in school in Connecticut a rich town had a huge doping scandal and this was back in 2005. This was a privileged beach town full of rich white snobs. I always hated going to that town, everyone was so arrogant. And this is what their state championship winning football team was doing 20 years ago.

I'm not saying he's doping, but if I had to guess someone else who's doping it'd be Griffith. No leg speed (1:59 800 a year ago with a 8:48 3200) and isn't built like a runner.

I hate speculating about hsers doping.

it sucks because they lost any opportunity to find joy or magic in this sport because they squandered it from the get go. It makes me worry about them in the future. How will they know how to find authenticity?

I don’t want to name names but my goodness beck made a point. 70 under 9 in one invitational? When it’s typically 40 kids all year?

money corrupts.

Griffith is definitely built like a runner- have you ever seen the kid? Lanky and strong.

Couple of more Buchholz guys who made huge improvements from previous years

Gino Palazzolo
9 - 18:38
10 - 18:58
11 (this year) - 15:27

Bennett Sager
9 - 22:22
10 - 20:48
11 (this year) - 16:37

Evan Fleming went from 20:07 in 2021 to 16:24 in 2022 to 15:25 in 2023

Evan Fleming (Buchholz) went from 20:07 in 2021 to 16:24 in 2022 to 15:25 in 2023

Callum Watson -
19:30 (9)
17:38 (10)
16:27 (11)

It's just so absurd, I'm sorry. His argument is that parents are getting their kids stuff like epo and T so they can get a college scholarship running. That's laughable. Parents don't have the first flippin clue about how to dope their kids even if they want to. The types who you think are capable of such a thing think little Johnny or Ashley is so so talented that if their coach would just do a decent job, surely their kid would win a national championship.

So no, parents are not doping their kids. but many ARE being a pain in the @ss to their kid's poor high school coach and spending money on private coaches who they will inevitably give hell to as well.