Graham Blanks listed for the Izumo Ekiden...

Ivy League team looks like if my poor Japanese is correct

Yep.

Full Ivy team lineup with stats can be found here: https://www.ivyekiden.com/

Acer and Tyler were on the 2024 team that finished 5th.

Very nice. I was speculating about this back earlier in the year, glad the prediction came true

he said in a tempo YouTube video that he has around 3 years of College Ekiden eligibility left and wants to win it or podium. I think it’s possible

Ekiden update?

If I'm following the main event website correctly, the IL team finished 4th overall, just over a minute behind the winning team from Kokugakuin University (they were the leaders starting from the end of the 4th leg with a good cushion, and held on through the end)

Also, the Ivyekiden.com website now has a race recap on their home page.

https://www.ivyekiden.com/

A few things. What's wild about the race is these teams are full of studs and yet they average less than marathon WR pace. The race is 6 legs and little longer than a marathon (45.1 km) and the winning team averaged 2:00:53 marathon pace.

Here are the college PBs of the Ivy League team (including any 5th year they ran).

Ben Rosa - 13:35/28:35 (Harvard)
Ace Iveson - 13:26/28:23 (Harvard)
Graham Blanks - 12:59/28:15 (Harvard)
Tyler Berg - 13:33/28:21 (Columbia)
Derik Amicon - 3:41/13:45 (Cornell)
James Lawrence - 13:34/27:54 (Dartmouth)

That team averaged 2:01:49 marathon pace. It just shows how good the world's top marathoners are .

While I went on the trip, I can't remember how hilly the course was. Anyone have details?

And in pulling up those stats, can I hand out the "Weldon Johnson" award to James Lawrence? My God. Has the Ivy League ever had a guy that talented do that little while in college? He was a 14:13 guy at Darmouth but ran 13:34/27:54 at Loyola Chicago the next year but never made NCAAs. Wow.

Wejo was never top 20 in XC in the Ivy League but was 5th-6th a lot in the 10k on the track and maybe 3rd or 4th indoors in the 5k senior year when he was kind of close to winning it. Lawrence best XC finish was 19th and he never scored on the track. I'm assuming he was just injured all the time.

I should get Jonathan to profile the guy. He went to HS in Ethiopia?

I bet he was one of Sean McNulty's athletes during this short tenure with Dartmouth, considering how many Dartmouth athletes he "coached" to injury.

Here's a good article about James during his time at Loyola where he talked about this high school years.

Some of the Izumo ekiden legs are hilly with long hills going on freeway overpasses. Also, it was 78F and 70% humidity for the race.

Does he get paid for this

Some visuals from 2024.

He has indoor and outdoor eligibility at Loyola left.

I don’t think this event is about money. It’s something that all the Ivy guys want to do post grad. He’s probably using this to begin his build toward XC.