I'm sure current NORTH AMERICAN RECORD HOLDER AND CANADIAN Cam Levins was watching that strong finish with approval, eh.
From getting dropped off the back of the lead pack to hawking down Young and taking the cheeky finish, Rory was the day's big surprise.
He was barely keeping up in their joint workouts in the past year.
But in all seriousness, Mantz had the biggest balls of the day to run for the win so hard that it even cost him a podium. That chase pack had Korir dead to rights with 750 more meters. Korir gambled and it barely paid off.
Don’t also forget that:
the North American 10,000 record holder was also born in Canada (like Rory)
the North American 5,000 record holder was also born in Canada (like Rory)
The North American 3,000 record holder was also born in Canada (like Rory)
the North American 2,000 record holder was also born in Canada (like Rory)
the North American 800m record holder is a Canadian
The North American 5km record holder was also born in Canada (like Rory)
I'm sure current NORTH AMERICAN RECORD HOLDER AND CANADIAN Cam Levins was watching that strong finish with approval, eh.
From getting dropped off the back of the lead pack to hawking down Young and taking the cheeky finish, Rory was the day's big surprise.
He was barely keeping up in their joint workouts in the past year.
But in all seriousness, Mantz had the biggest balls of the day to run for the win so hard that it even cost him a podium. That chase pack had Korir dead to rights with 750 more meters. Korir gambled and it barely paid off.
Glad he beat Clayton - can't stand that guy since he made this big show of letting Mantz win the trials. Fair enough if you're going to let someone win, but to make this big ostentatious show of it to make sure everyone KNEW he was letting Mantz win is a real dick move
I didn’t like the way Rory stuck his tongue out while beating Clayton. Bad sportsmanship. And he didn’t even win the race. You got 6th bro. Settle down.
You suckers are new to the sport. Nobody remembers Rory’s antics during college? Anyways him Conner and Clayton are all buddies, college teammates. Rory even trained with them recently.
Big performance for Rory. I used to dislike him in college severely.
I don't dislike Rory, I follow him on YT, but he's always had an endurance issue that has kept him from reaching his potential, because in a fast fast race he is faster than Clayton (he beat Clayton in almost every race in College except one).
I am really curious how much the new shoes helped him be able to sustain pace and not have his normal drop off at the end of this race. I was somewhat skeptical, sort of hedging bets about the new Puma shoes, but they might be legit, and maybe every shoe company will have their own version soon.
Or maybe he is finally figuring out the marathon. Back in 2020 he was full sending but couldn't quite hold on, then in the past couple years has started to pull it all together for a full marathon.
I'm sure current NORTH AMERICAN RECORD HOLDER AND CANADIAN Cam Levins was watching that strong finish with approval, eh.
From getting dropped off the back of the lead pack to hawking down Young and taking the cheeky finish, Rory was the day's big surprise.
He was barely keeping up in their joint workouts in the past year.
But in all seriousness, Mantz had the biggest balls of the day to run for the win so hard that it even cost him a podium. That chase pack had Korir dead to rights with 750 more meters. Korir gambled and it barely paid off.
Don’t also forget that:
the North American 10,000 record holder was also born in Canada (like Rory)
the North American 5,000 record holder was also born in Canada (like Rory)
The North American 3,000 record holder was also born in Canada (like Rory)
the North American 2,000 record holder was also born in Canada (like Rory)
the North American 800m record holder is a Canadian
The North American 5km record holder was also born in Canada (like Rory)
I didn’t like the way Rory stuck his tongue out while beating Clayton. Bad sportsmanship. And he didn’t even win the race. You got 6th bro. Settle down.
I saw that as well, but I don't think it was directed "at Clayton" or anything like that.
It was a natural reaction to finishing top-10 in a WMM and really running a breakthrough time. Regardless of all the 2:03s and 2:04s out there, 2:07 flat is still cooking.
Plus, I tend to stand up for athletes who want to show joy and who love what they are doing. This didn't look like bad sportsmanship at all, just exuberance!
Go back and find the interviews with him in 2017 when BYU was projected to beat NAU at nationals in XC. Rory was talking so much trash and then ended up finishing behind NAU 5th man.
I didn’t like the way Rory stuck his tongue out while beating Clayton. Bad sportsmanship. And he didn’t even win the race. You got 6th bro. Settle down.
Regardless of all the 2:03s and 2:04s out there, 2:07 flat is still cooking.
How does this compare to his 2:08:01 Sevilla marathon (2024) ,
You suckers are new to the sport. Nobody remembers Rory’s antics during college? Anyways him Conner and Clayton are all buddies, college teammates. Rory even trained with them recently.
Big performance for Rory. I used to dislike him in college severely.
So you’re saying he’s always been a bad sport?
No, in fact really good. He created drama, intensified a storyline between NAU and BYU in both XC and track. He brought more attention to the sport, made fans excited for the outcome of the team title race.
He would talk crap on his interviews, insta posts, Strava , oh…and he straight up flexed his arm at the finish after JV kicking on the NAU guys at the 2018 outdoor west regional 10k.
Dude pissed off so many including I, lowkey a legend.
NCAA XC actually had a villain. Amazing for the sport looking back on it.
Every sport needs a Conner Mantz and a Rory Linkletter. I could not imagine the BYU team dynamic during that time period when they were young and (more) immature.
Hall was his coach til the olympics last year. I forget the exact week. So Green hasn’t even been coaching him a full year yet. So clearly has made a jump with the changes in training.