Is OAC Boulder rolled?

they should start that beer drinking habit they are always alluding to on the coffee club

That’s because there’s no one to talk about except Beamish and Nuguse. Honestly no one else has pulled their weight in recent memory. Of course there’s Obiri but as others have mentioned she’s basically on her own. I don’t feel confident that the new NCAA teammates made the right decision joining Ritz’s dismal group.

come on now. I know she was hurt last year but are we writing off Monson already? Is 2023 when she set multiple american records not considered "recent memory"?

Have you checked her Strava lately? It’s pathetic

Don’t you think it’s a little too convenient to say “this team is ROLLED…minus the two world/olympic medalists from last year” ?

it’s probably a bit early to make any broad conclusions about the group. I have questions on how focused athletes like hoare are, but it’s also fair to acknowledge these are pretty good athletes who happen to be competing in an age where the mile and 5000 have honestly never been better. If you put nuguse and beamish back into consideration, all of a sudden they become among the most competitive groups in the world over 1500/mile

They’ve come out maybe too hot at Millrose before. Farken just joined but ran well at BU. Olli Hoare’s race seemed OK. But yes the rest (minus Morgan who was decent) who’ve competed you’d hope for better.

EDIT: Sinta Vissa also very strong last year, worth pointing out.

This has got to be a troll job.

Hoare - season opener at NB (3:34, 3rd), tough 2024 with injury but won a DL 1st + made Paris OLY (even if it didnt go well)

Vissa - season opener at NB (8:54), ran 3:58(NR) & 8:40 (PR) last year

Hurta-Klecker - season opener at NB (4:32 Mile), 2024: ran 400 (54.78 PR), 800 (1:57.5 PR) and Mile (4:19 PR)

Klecker - just raced Houston (61:06, PR) as his first race back from a long injury which put him out of the OLY, but did run 27:09 last year

McDonald - just raced Houston (60:58, PR). Last year 8:12(PR, NB), 13:00(PR), i13:07(PR), i7:39(PR),

Garcia Romo - not racing yet due to injury setback. 2024: bad season but still made the OLY's, National Bronze, National Indoor Bronze, World Indoors Final and ran a 3:50 Mile

Monson - not racing yet due to injury setback. 2024: i9:09(AB,NB,PR)

Beamish - not racing yet due to injury comeback. 2024: i8:05(PR, NB, AB), i13:04(NR, AR), i7:34(PR, NR), 8:09 SC (AR, NR, PR), 3:49.0(PR), i3:36(PR), 3:34(PR), World Indoor Champ

Farken - season opener at the weekend (3:49.45 Mile; PR,NB), last year i3:34(PR), i1:47.0(PR), 1:45.6(PR),

Ramsden - season opener at NB (4:31 Mile), last year: 4:02 (NR), i4:06(NR), i4:24.83(PR), 4:24.79(PR), 15:29(PR),

Norris - racing Millrose 3000m after a year of injuries but a 5000m 14:46 (PR) last year

Obiri - racing Boston Marathon 2025. Last year OLY Bronze, NYC 2nd, Boston 1st, Houston HM 2nd

Nuguse - not raced yet. 2024: 3:27.8(PR), i13:02(PR), i3:33.2(AR,NR,PR), Road 3:51(PR), OLY 1500 Bronze, World Indoor 3000 Silver, DL 1st, National Champ i3000

(no idea about Jacobs or Markezich race plans for early 2025)

Everyone seems so quick to **** on OAC on these message boards. Monson, Hoare, Norris and Klecker have been heavily effected by injuries but athletes are putting out PR's and NR's whilst navigating injuries and prior to 2024 this was one of (if not the) most dominant track team around. Compare that to so many other teams who are either struggling or folded completely and it's a joke how much abuse OAC gets. Looking at the above results it's a no brainer why On chose to renew the team.

Assuming it is trolling, but even in your nice write-up you can see many athletes either racing below their typical level or not showing up due to injuries . Millrose sees a few more openers and potential redemptive second races, so I agree the post is premature

Ritz joins the thread.

Probably an OAC person. Anyone who had to look up all that information on each runner and write a dissertation can only be part of OAC. They get absolutely triggered when anything is posted negative about them. Immediately saying it’s a troll. Yet BTC, and runners like Valby, Tuohy, Coburn get trashed all day everyday and that’s not considered a troll. OAC thinks too highly of themselves.

That’s the problem. Constant injuries. We’ve all said that Ritz is a bad coach with so many major injuries constantly hampering so many of his athletes. That, among other factors (like just peaking and no longer progressing in their career) is contributing to poor performance. And ultimately this also why they’re not as a great a team as they think they are.

I think they're under-performing relative to talent, but mainly due to injuries. And that's the knock on the group: almost every one of them has had a major, season-ending injury in the last 4 years. Nuguse is the same xception, so far. That should lead to some reflection on the training and set-up. I've said it before when discussing OAC, but several other top pros that have jumped in on workouts with the group have mentioned how hard the OAC training is in terms of volume at high intensity. They notably don't do double-T which so many other pros use to keep them training consistently without stressing the body too much. I hope they sort it out as a lot of the group are likable

All teams have up and down cycles. OAC just got over their skis a bit and started believing their own hype, and believing they can fly to close to the sun. Well we know how that goes. This sport demands humility. The moment it started to go badly was when the NYT ran the story about the OAC being the best team (including countries) at the World Champs in Budapest. They of course bombed out, but the OAC was solidified as more hype than substance.

The other thing contributing to their demise is the Coffee Club. It just came off as arrogant, mysogynistic, and sometimes cruel to the other teams and athletes. The bro scape loved it, of course, but it made the team fall out of favor with most other athletes and coaches. The Coffee Club has since cleaned up their act a little, and especially after Hoare had a taste of his own medicine.

Nevertheless, they’ve just became hard to root for. And the athletes on the team weren’t able to contend with the new found criticism when they started to fail badly in the public spotlight. It just made matters worse.

That all being said, Ritz is an excellent coach, they have some great athletes, and ON has buckets of money to spend and they seem to be in this for the right reasons. They’ll sort it out and be better for it.

I think the team that’s probably up next for a reckoning is Diljeet Taylor’s team. That’s just a cult that runs. Some weird vibes coming out of Provo. And you can see the same pattern emerging and taking shape. Starting to believe their **** don’t stink. We’ll just have to see.

Calling Coffee Club "arrogant, mysogynistic, and sometimes cruel" is not close to being accurate. You'd have to be a non-listener or have extremely thin skin to believe that.

When literally every other line includes "injury setback," you really have to start considering how sound the coaching is (or isn't)...

Wow, so PRs all around.

/thread

Assuming thats sarcasm.

We all have PR's....

The comment was : “The other thing contributing to their demise is the Coffee Club. It just came off as arrogant, mysogynistic, and sometimes cruel to the other teams and athletes.
Nevertheless, they’ve just became hard to root for. And the athletes on the team weren’t able to contend with the new found criticism when they started to fail badly in the public spotlight. It just made matters worse.”

——

and I agree completely. He nailed the coffee club description. They’re full of themselves. Just like most OAC members. Hard to root for is right