Wake Forest Coach John Hayes

How DARE John Hayes make a mockery of the sacrosanct ACC men’s 5k! Rockey only slowed PWolf down running like that. I’m worried for parker being BURNT OUT this season after such a stunt — you only get so many bullets! I hope WF gets FINED for this sort of behavior. At their home meet too!! Grand Slam is what it’s all about, REAL RACING!!! No pacing peonies

Lol imagine telling your AD you had your top athlete run a 3200m workout and drop out during ACCs because "we had to get stuff done" 😆

It was obvious that they were not working together. I honestly thought they were going for the world standard as the opportunity was missed earlier in the year at BU. VERY strange race.

Reading the WTW and saw Coach John Hayes of Wake Forest had Rocky Hansen do a workout during the ACC championship 5k. This is the embodiment of everything wrong with modern track and field.

If I was Rocky, I would have been so embarrassed to step off the track like that.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2025/05/wtw-ncaa-madness-a-brilliant-but-controversial-acc-5000-sophie-osullivan-impresses-shacarri-struggles-jakobs-injured/

there is nothing controversial about what they did... why would they bother to tell them? Besides if they tell them they are doing this and they just let him go maybe he ends up closing it out for the W.

I really like John, but this wasn't very sportsmanlike. Just have him do the workout an hour later or earlier in the morning. It is a 2-mile, for Pete's sake. We're talking about Rocky Hansen, too. It isn't like he is going to have trouble hammering a race simulation pace for 3200 meters.

I know this sounds cliche, but there should be something sacred about the conference championship. Would UNC "scrimmage" Duke in basketball during the ACC title game? I don't know... just seems like it is wrong.

This is all that matters, the coach and athlete have an obligation to one another and their own best interest.

“We had no obligation, nor desire to tell anyone in the field what we were doing. It was cool to have Parker go along. We had to get stuff done…We felt comfortable doing that. I’m going to do what’s best for my kids,” said Hayes.

OVER-COACHING.

100% agree

i would go as far as to say they SHOULDN'T have told anyone what their plan was

Yeah I wouldn’t do this but I’m also not a coach with 25 years under my belt. Wake can’t win the ACC so I guess it doesn’t matter to them but it is still a very bad look. They probably didn’t even care if he got DQ’d or not.

And they were the hosts! Seems like you could send the kid to a bike path for a hard effort and not create controversy

I’d say if Rocky places top 5 or so at nationals then it’d be justified. WF wasn’t in the team score, and maybe Hayes thought a fast race would be better for their other guys who maybe needed a regional mark. Obviously the race broke apart, but hindsight is 20/20

I don't blame Hayes for doing this at all, but I think it shows how college track is not set up with competition in mind. In effect, there is a practice happening within a race. It made the race interesting at first, but in hindsight, it also signals to the viewer that the meet isn't equally important to everyone, which kind of cheapens it.

Isn’t this also great for Wolfe. 13:13 is solid points, and with his BU mark (monstrous), he’d be likely to get in world ranking now you’d think even if he doesn’t get in a fast 5,000.

This is a championship race! Having an athlete line up with no intention of finishing is disgraceful. I think the Wake Forest coach should face disciplinary actions by the ACC.

Imagine a baseball coach in the ACC final forfeiting after 6 innings because he wanted to save his pitchers' arms for the more important games later in the season. It would never happen because championship competitions in other sports are revered, as they should be.

In the face of roster cuts, how can we continue to behave this way?

lol we had v different reactions I like my title better but I saw nothing wrong with it. Like he said, he was under no obligation to tell anyone, and they weren’t in the running for a team title. He’s just playing the long game, wearing out Wolfe for nationals while Hansen prepares.

Well if a coach forfeited because his team literally couldn’t win, I don’t think anyone would’ve been upset that he saved his pitcher’s arm.

I think he did this to tire Wolfe out for NCAAs. This is smart to give Rocky a better chance at winning.

TL;DR: It was a dick move. I'm concerned it could start an unsportsmanlike trend in other conference championship races. You won't convince me that Rocky wasn't actually trying to pull out the W. with that strategy. I hope Parker beats Rocky at NCAAs.

1. I call b.s. on John Hayes statement. If Parker didn't go with Rocky - and Rocky was well ahead at the 3200m mark - I believe Rocky would've continued on with the next 1,800m to win the ACC title. I surmise this b/c - it just makes no sense otherwise. Rocky could've done a 3,200m workout on a trail (or his Boost treadmill). There's no need to do it in a 5K championship race.

2. Let's call it what is it: it was a dick move. In my opinion, unsportsmanlike behavior. I'm concerned it could start a new trend, as this was on a national stage. Watch Oregon show up (I'm just using them as an example) at the Big 10s next year : "Guys! Guyyyysssss! We're just using this 5K to pace ourselves/as a training run. NO NEED TO STICK WITH US." Then when nobody sticks with them, they take off for the victory.

3. Maybe everyone needs a runner *from their own team* to pace them in the 5K. Those are the only people you can trust! Not sure if another team is going to do it.

the whole situation makes me more of a Parker Wolfe fan; he showed good judgement to go with Rocky - what else was the alternative? Rocky (+ his coach) say NOW that it was "just a workout" but who knows what would've happened if Parker didn't attach to the hot pace rocky was setting. Overall, I appreciate Parker b/c he was to put up with the hazing from other athletes/coaches who are inferior. If I were the UNC coaches, I would be pissed because Wake Forest says now that they weren't trying to win the ACC 5K - I don't look at people's words, I look at their actions though. They were trying to win the 5K, it makes no sense otherwise. (again, just do it on a Boost treadmill).

Even the announcers were confused, they were like, "WTH!?"