The Drew Hunter Dilemma

Time to try the steeple?

I think his best chance to place the highest is the 10k again. 3:33 speed may benefit him in the 10k finishing speed. And from what ive seen he has been training for the longer distances so i think this 3:33 is a great sign for him.

He finished 4th at the trials 10k behind Nico so he needs to stay in that event, hope it goes tactical and use his mile speed to kick down to the top 3. I hope he does it!

Drew is in a tough spot. He’s a very solid runner but just off what is required to make the team. He ran 3:35/13:20 a while ago. When you account for bicarb and super shoes, his PRs of 3:33 and 13:08 don’t show a ton of improvement since then. Again, great runner, but to be in the conversation for making the team he needs to be sub-3:30/13:300/27:00, as we already have at least three guys under those marks in each event.

If he finishes in the top three he doesn’t have the world standard and a tactical race would not be close to sub 27.

Wouldn’t you rather him hope it goes fast (or make it fast himself) so he could get the standard? A tactical race kills his chances of going to worlds. Isn’t getting to worlds the point here??? Who cares about a 3rd place when it doesn’t get him to world’s?

case in point- Parker Wolfe’s 3rd place last year.

Him and Cooper Teare should both do Steeple

Good idea but probably not in the cards for this year.

Drew is just pack filler. He should just be happy to be in the meet. Not everyone can be top 3.

Why just be happy to be there when you can go for glory? He might as well full send it to try to get the standard

When you put it like this…

there was a decently long stretch where our third guy was a collegian or B/C tier athlete (relative to the global stage, Diamond League competitiveness). It wasn’t an IMPOSSIBLE dream for an athlete to not just make a US final but the team as well.

Now? Our distance teams are just as hard to make as our sprint and hurdle teams, and are up there with ETH/KEN teams in terms of ability

If it goes out fast he won’t make the team in this heat and humidity. He would need the standard before in a controlled European diamond league race where he just jumps in the middle and rides the wave to a PR. Since he doesn’t have it, best he can hope for is a slow tactical race to try to win the 10k and get a berth based on points for worlds. That’s it.

Just run the 5k and 10k standard and make worlds. That's what I'd do. Zatopek was able to do it.

All he's gotta do is unearth some Germanic birthright and become Drewrik Hunstrom. He might even be more German than Sam Parsons.

Does he have enough ranking points to qualify? I saw he’s top 60 in the world in 10k rankings right now. Would a 3rd place finish at trials get him there?

If his goal is to run a 5k or 10k standard, why would he run the 1500m last night instead?

#2 and #3 rarely work and there’s no way he’s going to place in the top three by running from the front.

In a past post-race interview, he said he doesn't care about times. So, it's kind of hard to root for the guy to make teams if he's going to be that dense.

If he doesn't care about times and just wants to kill a race, he has the best chance of top 3 in the 10k.

Is there really no way though? Let’s say there’s a 2% chance front running would work and he would get the standard and make worlds.

that’s better than the 0% chance of making worlds that a tactical top 3 finish would get him.